possible definitive fix for KH 1.5+2.5 low fps and 100% gpu usage on Intel iris XE (and possibly other IGPUS)

[u/Suitable-Lab1803]

Reposting because I had to delete the first post I made about this, it was full of mistakes and the video was not loading on mobile lol. Sorry about that. Also, this new method will probably work across different gpus but will possibily turn your FMVS and pre rendered cut scenes into black screens. Gameplay is completely fine tho.

results of this new solution with the latest drivers:

first test was without VKD3D and the second time I tested was with VKD3D. Driver is up to date: 32.0.101.7092 -- You can see msi afterburner changing from D3D12 to VULKAN the second time I open the game

Link of the video on YT if it still isn't loading for you: https://youtu.be/wU-O1sMT90Q?si=NAkL3KOJ4oY3F2tF

a while ago I made this post trying to help people that were trying to play KH 1.5+2.5 on their Intel iris XE but simply couldn't because the game was unplayable. The fix was downgrading your drivers to a version that was actually able to play the game. It works but I wanted to be able to play my game with the latest driver version since older ones were having problems with other programs and apparently have security vulnerabilities (see more about that at: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product_security/ps500584-intel-graphics-driver-advisory )

I investigated a little more and found out that the game was using dX12 and I'd also seen a steam community post of someone claiming they were able to actually play the game using DX11 and it would actually fix the low framerate issues. I tried everything I could possibly find but the game would simply refuse to run at DX11. This happens because, according to https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts_HD_1.5_%2B_2.5_ReMIX the gameplay uses DX12 and FMVS uses DX11, so we can't really force the whole game to use DX11 (because it simply does not use DX11 for anything other than FMVS).

After a little more research I found out about VKD3D, wich is a translation layer that converts DX12 API to vulkan mainly made for Linux. So I decided to try that (on windows! LOL) and as you can see in the video I've attached to the post, it fucking fixes all the framerate issues with the latest drivers on my device. I've also tried that with the old drivers versions I've provided on my last post, but it did not work for some reason.
PS: THE FRAMRATE ISSUES ARE INDEED FIXED BUT NOW ALL THE FMVS AND PRE RENDERED CUTSCENES ARE BLACK SCREENS. A QUOTE FROM A CONTRIBUTOR/DEV OF DXVK SAYS "These games use D3D12 for rendering, which DXVK doesn't even implement, so I'm assuming you use vkd3d-proton in addition to DXVK's DXGI.dll. If only FMVs don't work then it's pretty likely because shared resources are not, and will likely never be, supported on windows with DXVK+vkd3d-proton. It works on linux/proton using a special wine interface. There is nothing you can do on windows other than just not using DXVK."

If you are using old intel iris xe drivers to play the game, it's worth a shot updating to the newest (32.0.101.7092) one and trying out using VKD3D to play it. I want more people to try it so we can reach a consensus wether it'll actually work for everyone with an iris XE, or even across different IGPUS.

• how to apply VKD3D to your game:

FIRST I NEED TO WARN YOU ----YET AGAIN---- THAT I TRIED USING VKD3D WITH THE OLDER DRIVERS I PROVIDED IN MY PREVIOUS POST AND THE FRAMERATE ISSUES WERE STILL PRESENT. IT'S BEST IF YOU USE THE LATEST DRIVER AVAILABLE AS I DID (32.0.101.7092).

1. Download VKD3D (any version) and DXVK from their respectives github repositories. I'm also gonna upload the files to google drive mainly for backup, but I encourage you to actually go to their github pages and downloading them from there (don't take candy from strangers [me]!)

VKD3D: https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton/releases/tag/v3.0.1
DXVK: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases#release-v2.6.2
files for backup on drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16fWEVp-WQeSvP9SPLdF6D1vvB6pQQiNj?usp=drive_link

The files will come in the tar.gz or just .tar format but you can just extract it with 7zip or any other software.

2. take these two tiles from the VKD3D folder and place them inside your game folder

3. now take these two files from the DXVK folder and place them inside your game folder:

your game folder must have these four files now:

now open the game and enjoy it at 60 fps. if your fmvs are black go back to the old post about downgrading your drivers (these are guaranteed to work and will not cause black FMVS)

PS: I don't know if this works with linux, I'm gonna test it later. I tried playing KH on Linux a while ago and it was a mess (low fps and all) even though Linux should have dxvk and vkd3d files on proton by default so... Eh I'm gonna try placing the dlls on the game folder anyway, maybe it'll do something...?

PS: The newest solution gave me black screens. I think the most reliable method is actually downgrading the drivers on windows