[roandegraaf]

What and why

Problem. DM_UPSCALER=metalfx replaced no dispatch on 0400486024DEC000 in play (GPU 15.35 against 15.39 ms a frame). Two reasons:

• In play the title anti-aliases and upscales with four dispatches of agl_ndsr_vr.pck and agl_ndsr_vr_light.pck, which the shader map's agl_ndsr.pck pattern does not name. Only the last (in the scene measured fa3033d05c0a41d6, texture slot 0 at 1536x864 to image slot 1 at 2048x1152) is the upscale and has the shape up_mfx_encode takes.
• Its colour has no sRGB curve for up_mfx_color to find: the dispatch before it stores each channel's square root (packed as RGB9E5), and the step writes v * |v|, linear. Read from the translated source.

Change, first commit.

• Profile key upscaler_sqrt (comma-separated shader keys): the named shaders join DM_GAME_UPSCALER_KEYS and are listed in DM_GAME_UPSCALER_SQRT_KEYS.
• A third colour shape, UP_COLOR_SQRT: the draw of the input rectangle into the scaler's RGBA16F texture squares the colour, MetalFX runs in HDR mode, the result is drawn into the game's image.
• DM_NVN_SKIP_CS=<compute key>[,…] (diagnostic): drops those shaders' dispatches, to measure one inside an encoder that holds several.

Change, second commit.

• Game's upscaler sharpness (DM_UPSCALER_SHARPNESS, 0.0–1.0; in the launcher under Game's upscaler while it is MetalFX; profile key upscaler_sharpness, 1.0 without one). MetalFX's spatial scaler has no strength setting (its descriptor takes sizes, formats and a colour mode only) and is crisper than agl's networks. The draw of its result into the game's image blends in the scaler's own input, sampled bilinearly, by 1 − sharpness. Not for sRGB-encoded input. At 1.0, every other game's value, the picture is as before.
• 0400486024DEC000: upscaler_sharpness 0.7, and all eight variants of agl_ndsr_vr_light.pck whose translated code ends in v * |v| are named. The pack's seven others multiply by 12.92 after the square (an sRGB encode) and keep their shader, as do agl_ndsr_vr.pck's fifteen.
• A per-game key for the shape because it was read by a person; nothing in the code marks it. DM_UPSCALER still defaults to game.

Reference entries: An upscaler with square-root colour, MetalFX's picture is crisper than a game's own upscaler; the numbers are in the game note's Frame rate section.

Checked

• Tests: make -C dm/gfx/tests GAME=0400486024DEC000 check_t_upscaler_mfx and GAME=040074A01BF12000 (97 checks each: a square-root case and a blended one, encode thread off and on); test_game_profile.py, test_settings.py, test_docs.py, test_env_switches.py, test_nsp_chain.py; host build.

• Games run: 0400486024DEC000 v131072, a GPU-bound village scene from a save, DM_FPS_HOLD=off, 100 s runs.

• Devices and OS: Apple M4 Pro (20-core GPU), macOS 27.2.

• Measurements, two runs a side in turn (sharpness 1.0):

  	compute per frame	GPU per frame
  headless, game's upscaler	3.91, 3.95 ms	14.84, 15.61 ms
  headless, MetalFX	2.80, 2.77 ms	13.64, 13.48 ms
  windowed, game's upscaler	3.90, 3.89 ms	15.59, 15.13 ms
  windowed, MetalFX	2.76, 2.79 ms	14.63, 14.46 ms

  With the dispatch dropped altogether (DM_NVN_SKIP_CS) compute is 2.78–2.80 ms, so the step is 1.12 ms and MetalFX with its two copies about 0.0–0.1 ms. With the final build at the profile's 0.7: compute 2.77 ms (one run), the same.

• Which variants the game uses (pass dumps, the game's own upscaler): four areas docked and handheld mode fa3033d05c0a41d6; render scale 0.5 d99fbeeb53d38847; with the dynamic resolution on four more on the way to its floor. No encoding variant, none of agl_ndsr_vr.pck and none of agl_ndsr.pck in any of eight situations; the title uses none. Each of the six was then drawn by MetalFX with no red line (nine input sizes, 1536x864 down to 763x429, in the dynamic-resolution run), the end shots' mean colours within 1 of 255 of the game's upscaler in the same mode. Compute per frame, one run a side: 4.01 → 2.58 ms at render scale 0.5, 3.25 → 2.27 ms handheld.

• Picture: the end shots' mean colours agree with the game's upscaler within 1 of 255. Sharpness was chosen by eye in 2x crops of the same spot against the game's network, among seven variants, one run each: a 30 % blend closest, 60 % softer than the network; the input blurred before the scaler close at half strength and too soft at full; MetalFX's perceptual mode on the square roots hardly different from HDR mode on the squared input.

Not checked / open.

• The game runs were made on a working tree with this change on a slightly older main (chain b8856126d238), not on this branch's build; on this branch only the tests and the host build ran.
• Two of the eight named variants (8df148d58b7cbe8e, c8b20adc9d4978e0) were read from their translated code only; no run dispatched them.
• No regress.py run: only this profile has a build on this Mac. Other games reach the new code through copy_t2t_draw (its pipeline key is now format × 4, its parameter block 48 bytes, one more function in the copy library) and take the new blend only below sharpness 1.0.
• Stills of one night scene; not judged in motion, nor with a render scale, the dynamic resolution or in a cutscene. No iOS run.

Front ends

Front-ends: new: the settings list has DM_UPSCALER_SHARPNESS (range 0.0–1.0, shown while DM_UPSCALER is metalfx, default from the game profile).

Docs

• The findings are in the game note and docs/reference/rendering.md, docs/settings.md has the setting, and python3 dm/tools/docs_symptoms.py was run
• A chain tool changed: no
• No game files, keys or data extracted from a game in the change or the attachments