GFE and G-Sync is activated by a regular application

Gaming and Visualization Technologies General Topics and Other SDKs Drivers - Linux, Windows, MacOS
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Not sure if this is the right place for this kind of request but I develop an D3D11 ImGui based desktop application called the Special K Injection Frontend (https://special-k.info/) whose executable is named SKIF.exe (source code: https://github.com/SpecialKO/SKIF).

Our users have reported two main issues related to G-Sync and GeForce Experience:

  • G-Sync/VRR is activated by the app for users with MPOs active.

  • The GeForce Experience in-game overlay notification appears when launching our app or switching to it.

These issues seems to be related to our use of D3D11 and DXGI flip swap effects, and the Nvidia display drivers mistaking the app for a game. Since our app also does conditional rendering (it pauses rendering entirely when no input is received), it can result in display flickering as G-Sync is constantly engaged and disengaged whenever the app renders or pauses.

We have partially worked around these issues through the combination of two methods:

  • Our installer, when run as admin, registers SKIF.exe through NVAPI and sets some flags so GeForce Experience does not assume it is a game nor does the display drivers engage VRR engage for the app (e.g. G-Sync Application State set to Forced Off).

  • Our app is also configured to use SyncInterval 2 by default as part of its IDXGISwapChain::Present() call, which also prevents VRR from engaging for the app, as a partial fix for those who do not run the installer as an administrator.

As I see it the only proper fix for these would be for Nvidia to add SKIF.exe in the internal database of the display drivers and do not recognize it as a game nor engage VRR for it either, as we do when our installer is run as an admin.

Hopefully this is the proper forum to raise this. If not, please direct me to a more appropriate channel.

1 Like
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Hello and welcome to the NVIDIA Developer forums.

Not sure you will get much attention in this forum for GFE, I suggest posting to the GeForce Experience forum found here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-experience/14/

Good luck,
Tom

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Thanks, I’ll do so!

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No dice in the consumer facing forum – probably because it’s not actually directly GFE related but more of GFE adjecent.

This forum is probably arguably the most accurate place for it, I think, since it actually concerns adding a custom application profile to the Windows display drivers that disables VRR and ShadowPlay for SKIF.exe executables.