ROM Hack The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - 60FPS limit mod

[Graber]

Trails of Cold Steel 3 for the Nintendo Switch has a hardcoded frame limit of 30FPS, despite the PC release having arbitrary framerate support of up to 480FPS. Although it's obvious that the Switch won't be hitting those frames, by upping the limit up to 60FPS there's some places the game will actually hit 60FPS despite the previously imposed limit. For some, even a framerate a little bit more than 30FPS, like 45FPS or so, might be enough of an improvement to make the game more enjoyable. If you're into overclocking, that will help the game to reach 60FPS in more places as well.

@Kirby567fan went ahead and improved the patch with additional graphical tweaks that should help the game reach 60FPS on more areas and other improvements:

For those trying to get a bit more performance out of the game in intensive areas, I made some changes to this mod that include the following:

• Changed shadow resolution to 1536 instead of 4096 which was too overkill for 720p.
• Changed shadow casting distance from 0.8 to 1.0(has pretty much no effect on performance but does improve visuals).
• The game is always forced to run in the docked profile since it has some added AA that doesnt hurt performance at all.
• Added 16xAF to the game wich greatly improve texture quality.

Note: This patch will only work on the 1.0.1 western version of the game.

Installation:
Download the zip file attached to this post and extract it in the root of your sd card, and done. The zip is made for Atmosphere users, if you're using other CFW then you'll need to see how ips patches can be used on your CFW, if supported, and use the ips file that is inside the folders.

Known issues:
- Frame pacing might be bad if the framerate is not stable.
- Scrolling through menus might be faster than normal.

Enjoy!

 

[tombly]

nice!!

 

[masagrator]

Thanks.

Couldn't find it on my first try and never got back to it.
Nice to see new people making those patches.

You will be trying to find where it's stored speed of menu layer?

 

[Kirby567fan]

For those trying to get a bit more performance out of the game in intensive areas, I made some changes to this mod that include the following:

• Changed shadow resolution to 1536 instead of 4096 which was too overkill for 720p.
• Changed shadow casting distance from 0.8 to 1.0(has pretty much no effect on performance but does improve visuals).
• The game is always forced to run in the docked profile since it has some added AA that doesnt hurt performance at all.
• Added 16xAF to the game wich greatly improve texture quality.

All of the above is applied to docked mode.

This was tested at 844mhz on GPU, and in the worst performing areas, Heimdallr Vainqueur Street and Ordis, it got me to 45FPS lowest in the worst camera angles, so the rest of the game should be in the high 50s or a locked 60FPS.
Also bear in mind that I was using the grass restoration mod when doing the tests so if youre not using it performance should be better.

 

[Graber]

Thanks.

Couldn't find it on my first try and never got back to it.
Nice to see new people making those patches.

You will be trying to find where it's stored speed of menu layer?

Yeah, it took me a while to find the 2nd limit (the one done by the game itself instead of just nvn present interval stuff). I used the PC version as a reference since that one has arbitrary framerate, although it was still hard to find due to heavy compiler optimizations on the switch build, lot's of inlined functions and stuff. Not sure if I'll do the menu stuff, I couldn't find it on my first try.

For those trying to get a bit more performance out of the game in intensive areas, I made some changes to this mod that include the following:

• Changed shadow resolution to 1536 instead of 4096 which was too overkill for 720p.
• Changed shadow casting distance from 0.8 to 1.0(has pretty much no effect on performance but does improve visuals).
• The game is always forced to run in the docked profile since it has some added AA that doesnt hurt performance at all.
• Added 16xAF to the game wich greatly improve texture quality.

All of the above is applied to docked mode.

This was tested at 844mhz on GPU, and in the worst performing areas, Heimdallr Vainqueur Street and Ordis, it got me to 45FPS lowest in the worst camera angles, so the rest of the game should be in the high 50s or a locked 60FPS.
Also bear in mind that I was using the grass restoration mod when doing the tests so if youre not using it performance should be better.

That's awesome! I'll add it to the main post, thanks!

 

[Kirby567fan]

Since I got the resolution stuff figured out, I made a bunch of resolution mods for those trying to get more or less performance out of the game.
The resolution included are:

• 360p, 480p and 540p for those trying to get good performance with only handheld GPU clocks.
• 630p for a perfect 60FPS in docked mode most of the time.
• 864p, 972p and 1080p for those that prefer better visual along with an unlocked framerate.

Note: For the resolutions lower than 720p, the HUD resolution has not been changed so HUD will still be clear. For resolution higher than 720p the HUD resolution will match the rendering resolution.

Also even at 1080p the game can get to 60FPS in the highways and overworlds along with some cities or specific districts in those cities.

 

[Dinhcongtrang]

Since I got the resolution stuff figured out, I made a bunch of resolution mods for those trying to get more or less performance out of the game.
The resolution included are:

• 360p, 480p and 540p for those trying to get good performance with only handheld GPU clocks.
• 630p for a perfect 60FPS in docked mode most of the time.
• 864p, 972p and 1080p for those that prefer better visual along with an unlocked framerate.

Note: For the resolutions lower than 720p, the HUD resolution has not been changed so HUD will still be clear. For resolution higher than 720p the HUD resolution will match the rendering resolution.

Also even at 1080p the game can get to 60FPS in the highways and overworlds along with some cities or specific districts in those cities.

I know it's late but thank you for making the patch. Despite completed this game, I will definitely play it again.

Since Trails of Cold Steel 4 is coming for Switch next week, I wonder if you are going to make the 60FPS patch of it?

The graphics on Switch is ok for me since I had played Cold Steel III on Switch without overclocking or resolution mod, the only thing I hope Falcom can fix is the stable framerate.

 

[MadDoom03]

Since I got the resolution stuff figured out, I made a bunch of resolution mods for those trying to get more or less performance out of the game.
The resolution included are:

• 360p, 480p and 540p for those trying to get good performance with only handheld GPU clocks.
• 630p for a perfect 60FPS in docked mode most of the time.
• 864p, 972p and 1080p for those that prefer better visual along with an unlocked framerate.

Note: For the resolutions lower than 720p, the HUD resolution has not been changed so HUD will still be clear. For resolution higher than 720p the HUD resolution will match the rendering resolution.

Also even at 1080p the game can get to 60FPS in the highways and overworlds along with some cities or specific districts in those cities.

Hi. I am just wondering if you still have your spare time and can do another mod like this for the newly released TOCSIV? That would be appreciated if something like that happens. )

 

[unraveled_toast]

Since I got the resolution stuff figured out, I made a bunch of resolution mods for those trying to get more or less performance out of the game.
The resolution included are:

• 360p, 480p and 540p for those trying to get good performance with only handheld GPU clocks.
• 630p for a perfect 60FPS in docked mode most of the time.
• 864p, 972p and 1080p for those that prefer better visual along with an unlocked framerate.

Note: For the resolutions lower than 720p, the HUD resolution has not been changed so HUD will still be clear. For resolution higher than 720p the HUD resolution will match the rendering resolution.

Also even at 1080p the game can get to 60FPS in the highways and overworlds along with some cities or specific districts in those cities.

hey I used the 1080p mod from this post and noticed a few bugs
only at the beginning of chapter 3 so some issues I've noticed while playing (trying not to spoil myself)

• the in-game timer seems to run twice as fast as usual
• fish seem to reel in twice as fast compared to 30fps so you can just hold A to reel every fish in without any issues (too easy)
• projectiles randomly don't load in from arts like golden sphere + the orbs from emma's weapon. doesn't affect the damage but it looks strange
• in chapter 2
  Spoiler: chapter 2

  in the times department store and the central square, the game occasionally freezes mid-dialogue. for some reason very common when trying to speak to patiry, the receptionist
• mouth animations seem to stop around halfway through any spoken dialogue in Japanese
• at the end of chapter 2,
  Spoiler: at the end of chapter 2

  during the third phase of the fight on stargazer tower, celine is supposed to have voice lines at the beginning of the fight plus at specific phases of the fight. problem is she covers the whole screen and the model is a bit weird (no eyes?). big graphical issue but not game-breaking
• also at the beginning of chapter 3,
  Spoiler: chapter 3

  there's a scene where juna picks up celine. problem is that juna is actually holding nothing (idk if celine was on the ground because the camera didn't go there) until around the last frame when celine warps to juna's hands and then the game cuts away from her

Overall the mod is good at fixing the graphical issues I had with the game but there seem to be a few strange issues with the game when changing the FPS. I'm not 100% sure if anything listed here happens in the unpatched version but just want to see if these can be fixed.

 

[masagrator]

hey I used the 1080p mod from this post and noticed a few bugs
only at the beginning of chapter 3 so some issues I've noticed while playing (trying not to spoil myself)

• the in-game timer seems to run twice as fast as usual
• fish seem to reel in twice as fast compared to 30fps so you can just hold A to reel every fish in without any issues (too easy)
• projectiles randomly don't load in from arts like golden sphere + the orbs from emma's weapon. doesn't affect the damage but it looks strange
• in chapter 2
  Spoiler: chapter 2

  in the times department store and the central square, the game occasionally freezes mid-dialogue. for some reason very common when trying to speak to patiry, the receptionist
• mouth animations seem to stop around halfway through any spoken dialogue in Japanese
• at the end of chapter 2,
  Spoiler: at the end of chapter 2

  during the third phase of the fight on stargazer tower, celine is supposed to have voice lines at the beginning of the fight plus at specific phases of the fight. problem is she covers the whole screen and the model is a bit weird (no eyes?). big graphical issue but not game-breaking
• also at the beginning of chapter 3,
  Spoiler: chapter 3

  there's a scene where juna picks up celine. problem is that juna is actually holding nothing (idk if celine was on the ground because the camera didn't go there) until around the last frame when celine warps to juna's hands and then the game cuts away from her

Overall the mod is good at fixing the graphical issues I had with the game but there seem to be a few strange issues with the game when changing the FPS. I'm not 100% sure if anything listed here happens in the unpatched version but just want to see if these can be fixed.

So i am currently playing this game and doing a patch for my FPSLocker. Currently I have tied game timer calculation (which was using fixed 1/30 float) with frame loop timer which resulted in fixing issues with lipsync ending too fast and active voices disappearing too fast at any framerate. It's possible that other things are also fixed, but I need to go further to confirm this. For now button polling is still not fixed.

Edit: nah, fishing is still not fixed.

 

[Graber]

So i am currently playing this game and doing a patch for my FPSLocker. Currently I have tied game timer calculation (which was using fixed 1/30 float) with frame loop timer which resulted in fixing issues with lipsync ending too fast and active voices disappearing too fast at any framerate. It's possible that other things are also fixed, but I need to go further to confirm this. For now button polling is still not fixed.

Edit: nah, fishing is still not fixed.

Nice, if you do finish it I'll update the main post with it

 

[masagrator]

So have finished the game with my patch for FPSLocker.

https://github.com/masagrator/FPSLo...atches/01005420101DA000/134EC3D8BE75126F.yaml

So what is fixed with it:
- Lipsync is now timed properly at any FPS
- Action Voices are now properly timed at any FPS

What is still not fixed (higher FPS = is far more visible):
- Fishing timer (making fishing much easier)
- Horse and bike are changing side to left/right faster than originally, bike maintains speed without pressing gas longer than originally.
- Button polling is 2x more sensitive

Nothing from those are game breaking.
I found one issue though that I'm not sure if it's related to my patch because it's semi-random:

In certain places important for story (like Karel Imperial Villa) game can randomly have an issue with loading some asset in the middle of cutscene or gameplay, causing game to move itself into infinite loading state (it results in gameplay/cutscene being stuck, FPS locking itself to 10 FPS and showing Loading animation). In this case you can only restart game.

This happens randomly, so I couldn't replicate it to try if it happens at 30 FPS. This happened to me 4 times through entire game, 2 times at the exactly the same place in cutscene (when I have tried to look at it without patch enabled, it worked fine. Tried again with 60 FPS patch and nothing happened, so I have moved on). My guess is that some places are prone to memory leaking and that's an issue with game itself.

Since CS4 seems to use the same logic, when I will start playing it I will fix my FPSLocker patch to include lipsync/active voice patch too.

 

[heobaccuc911]

So have finished the game with my patch for FPSLocker.

https://github.com/masagrator/FPSLo...atches/01005420101DA000/134EC3D8BE75126F.yaml

So what is fixed with it:
- Lipsync is now timed properly at any FPS
- Action Voices are now properly timed at any FPS

What is still not fixed (higher FPS = is far more visible):
- Fishing timer (making fishing much easier)
- Horse and bike are changing side to left/right faster than originally, bike maintains speed without pressing gas longer than originally.
- Button polling is 2x more sensitive

Nothing from those are game breaking.
I found one issue though that I'm not sure if it's related to my patch because it's semi-random:

In certain places important for story (like Karel Imperial Villa) game can randomly have an issue with loading some asset in the middle of cutscene or gameplay, causing game to move itself into infinite loading state (it results in gameplay/cutscene being stuck, FPS locking itself to 10 FPS and showing Loading animation). In this case you can only restart game.

This happens randomly, so I couldn't replicate it to try if it happens at 30 FPS. This happened to me 4 times through entire game, 2 times at the exactly the same place in cutscene (when I have tried to look at it without patch enabled, it worked fine. Tried again with 60 FPS patch and nothing happened, so I have moved on). My guess is that some places are prone to memory leaking and that's an issue with game itself.

Since CS4 seems to use the same logic, when I will start playing it I will fix my FPSLocker patch to include lipsync/active voice patch too.

hi so i just start playing this game so where do i put this file of your in?

 

[masagrator]

hi so i just start playing this game so where do i put this file of your in?

If you have working FPSLocker setup, just use "Check/Download config file" in Advanced Settings

 

[heobaccuc911]

If you have working FPSLocker setup, just use "Check/Download config file" in Advanced Settings

i dont... is it easy to set that up?

 

[masagrator]

Long version:
https://rentry.co/NSwitch60FPSLockerGuide

Short version: