MSI AB / RTSS development news thread

I'm preparing new RTSS beta to uploading. I'm still working on documentation so changes list may be incomplete yet and I probably missed something. Current changes list contains the following:

- Improved hypertext format:
o Improved image embedding <I> tag syntax. Added optional tag parameter defining embedded image rotation angle.
o Improved bar embedding <B> tag syntax. Added optional tag parameter allowing drawing variable width bar border instead of filling the bar with the solid color.
o Added new <V> tag support for defining general purpose variables. Up to 256 general purpose integer variables can be defined in hypertext then referenced later as subsequent tag parameters. Additional "L" or "H" postfixes cam be added to variables to extract low or high 16-bit integers from 32-bit integer variables.
o Added integrated functions support to hypertext syntax. The following integrated functions are currently supported by hypertext parser:
+ $MAP function is intended for mapping the value ranges, e.g. for mapping [0;60] FPS range to [-90;90] degree rotation angle range in animated gauge indicator
+ $SPR function is intended for calculating animated sprite coordinates from specified sprite matrix and value range. Function result is packed in single 32-bit integer value, it can be stored to variable and independent coordinate components can be unpacked with previously mentioned "L" and "H" prefixes
o Improved covering extent calculation for overlays containing some specific sequences of embedded bars and backspace symbols
- Improved OverlayEditor plugin:
o Added settings for specifying fixed rotation angle in static image properties window
o Added settings for specifying dynamic rotation anlge in animated image properties window. This way you may easily implement animated gauge-styled indicators, e.g. define gauge arrow sprite and make it rotate in desired range depending on input range. Sample overlay layout included in distributive demontrstes this technique with animated framerate gauge indicator
o Added settings for displaying layer border in layer properties window
o Added SMART attributes montioring and hard drive temperature monitoring support to internal HAL. The implementation is based on original MSI Afterburner's SMART plugin, but unlike original implementaion which supports SMART attributes readback on IDE/SATA drives only, internal HAL's implementaiton also provides support for SMART attributes reading on NVMe devices (including dual-channel memory/controller temeprature monitoring on new Samsung NVMe drives). Please take a note that SMART monitoring is disabled by default due to performance reasons, you may enable it in new internal HAL properties window
o Added data provider properties accessible via "..." button next to selected provider in "Add data sources" window. Currently configurable properties are avaiable for internal HAL only, you can enable SMART monitoring or disable low-level IO driver there if necessary
- Improved DesktopOverlayHost plugin:
o Added optional Direct3D11 and OpenGL renderers, which can be used to bypass known architectural limitations of Direct3D9 desktop overlay renderer. You may select desired renderer in application properties
- Bumped version inside Vulkan layer manifest to improve compatibility with some Vulkan 1.2+ applicaitons (e.g. Ryujinx)
- Fixed issue causing language icons to be displayed in wrong palette for some languages (German, Portuguese and Ukrainian) in "User Interface" tab

 

Noticed interesting problem report related to RTSS and Playstation controllers in Ubisoft games:

Stuttering/Framerate drops when using Playstation Controllers (Dualsense and Dualshock 4) On PC Version | Ubisoft Discussion Forums

I tried to attach PS4 controller and reproduce the problem in AC : Valhalla and I can confirm that framerate limiter start limiting the framerate with huge inaccuracy in this game as soon as PS4 gamepad is attached. The reason is that Ubisoft's PS4 controller polling implementation overrides waitable timer resolution, reducing timer accuracy and making it impossible to use it to perform accurate passive waiting. So you may get rid of the problem by disabling passive waiting option for framerate limiter in RTSS if you experience that in Ubisoft games with PS4 controller attached.

 

I can add unary (single operand) functions to formula parser rather fast, but I cannot promise to do the same for any additional functions having variable and more that 1 operand. I've addded unary format conversion functions int(x), flt(x) and rounding functions ceil(x), floor(x) and round(x) to the parser.

I've added signed integer output formats support (%d), but I see no sense in providing unsigned formats support (%u) for overlay. The same apply to hexadecimal formats (%x and %X).

 

Decided to get rid of this limitation in formula translator in favor of future extensibility. Formula parser can provide support for functions with multiple operands now. Added dual operand max(x,y) and min(x,y) functions support to correction formulas now, not sure if anything else is really useful for it.

 

And btw, to give better understanding of forumula syntax, quote marks in the formulas you provided in your example are redundant:

((x - ("SystemUpTimeH" * 3600)) - (x % 60)) / 60

Quote marks are only necessary if referenced data source name contains any other symbols besides letters and digits (e.g. spaces)

 

New RTSS beta is slightly delayed due to adding recenly requested improvements to correction formula parser. I'll launch it as soon as I finish validating the changes internally.

 

Dear forum visitors,

I've got a few development related news for you. Our MSI digital signature, which I use to build MSI AB and RTSS, will expire in the nearest couple days so we'll need to renew it. Digital signature renewal is rather slow process, so it will take a few weeks break when I won't be able to compile any new betas for you. So we decided to compile both RTSS and MSI AB betas today while I still can do it with currently existing digital signature.

On RTSS side, new beta will include all changes listed a few posts above plus improved formula parser mentioned in subsequent few posts (1 and 2).

On MSI AB side, there won't be any major changes in this build. As all of you know, new 40x0 NVIDIA series are around the corner. I've not tried MSI AB with upcoming GPUs myself yet, but accoring to internal MSI testing previous public beta already works fine with it (which means that new cards are NVAPI compatible with 30x0 series). So we'll just add DeviceIDs for upcoming NVIDIA hardware to mark it as supported into hardware database. If there will be any other features I'll need to support on 40x0 series, I'll work on it in future betas. Also, considering that we didn't test all new RTSS features publicly yet, MSI AB will contain the previous tested RTSS beta included in distributive.

So stay tuned, links to MSI AB 4.6.5 Beta 2 Build 16293 and RTSS 7.3.4 Beta 5 Build 27325 will be published shortly!

 

RTSS 7.3.4 Beta 5 Build 27325

https://download-eu2.guru3d.com/rtss/[Guru3D.com]-RTSSSetup734Beta5Build27325.rar

MSI AB 4.6.5 Beta 2 Build 16293 (does NOT include new RTSS)

https://download-eu2.guru3d.com/afterburner/[Guru3D.com]-MSIAfterburnerSetup465Beta2Build16293.rar

 

That's not intended usage scenario for sure. Just checked the installer we uploaded, it seem to be corrupted due to some reason and it lacks some required files including whole .\Skins and .\Vulkan folders. I'll recompile and reupload it shortly. In meanwhile I'll temporarily remove RTSS download link in the previous post. I'll return it back when fixed distributive is uploaded.

 

RTSS 7.3.4 Beta 5 Build 27325 distributive is online again, we uploaded fixed installer instead of the previous one which missed some files (.\Skins and .\Vulkan folders). Just redownload and reinstall it if you grabbed it yesterday and cannot launch it due to missing skin.

 

Beta 5 is released and I started working on newer version. A few changes have been implemented yesterday:

- Added Ryzen 6800H support in internal HAL of OverlayEditor
- A firend of mine asked about the possibility of using RTSS as a functional replacement for AIDA's SensorPanel with external display devices, so we brainstomed it a bit. Technically you can already do that with DesktopOverlayHost, just create anything you want in OverlayEditor then put DesktopOverlayHost on your secodnary small display. That's all you need to see an overlay clone there.
However considering that such external displays are normally way too small (3-7"), you may wish to autoscale overlay to fit whole external display space instead of tuning the size manually. So I added new application profile property (ScaleToFit in [OSD] section), which can be used to scale overlay to whole 3D window area. So you may add such profile setting to DesktopOverlayHost and overlay displayed there will be scaled to whole DesktopOverlayHost window area. Currently I'm not sure if there will be dedicated GUI setting for it, probably I'll leave it as is in current power user oriented form.

 

New ScaleToFit profile property can be controlled directly from DesktopOverlayHost's settings GUI now. New GUI option is using RTSS profile control API and toggles this property directly inside DesktopOverlayHost.exe profile. So now you may either render overlay inside DesktopOverlayHost as is, in its' natural size, or enable this new option to scale overlay to fit entire DesktopOverlayHost window area (which can be useful for manual overlay size finetuning if you plan to display DesktopOverlayHost window on small external display). Also I've changed scaling logic a bit, now it scales the overlay to keep original overlay proportions instead of just resizing it to whole window and possibly distoring it.

Note: new option is currently only supported by D3D overlay rendering codepaths. So it will be ignored if you switch renderer to OGL mode. Also, only stretching is supported, overlay will be rendered in original size if you try to shrink it.
I remind you that DekstopOverlayHost is overlay agnostic solution, which means that you're not restricted to use it with RTSS only and can use it with third party overlays too. But of course stretch to fit option is only working with RTSS overlay, so if you use DesktopOverlayHost with some other 3D overlay application (e.g. FRAPS, EVGA Precision or CAM) it will be ignored too.

 

You cannot. And with things having place in Russia now I have zero ideas if I'll be able to continue development in the nearest future.