Due to the complexity of the situation at hand, this is going to be a long post.
I understand not everyone here has Borderlands 2/TPS but something needs to be done about the performance of PhysX in Borderlands 2/TPS and that’s what my goal is. I have spent the last 5 weeks doing a ton of research into the way Physx works and the CPU/GPU utilization aspect. Ideally I would like to hire someone to work on the Physx aspect of the game since i am not proficient in coding, and in the meantime, I am learning how to do this myself.
Specifically, I want someone(or me) to decode and edit the .dll, .bin, and any other physx files in the game directory and change any calls or strings and maybe some float lines to make fluid and particle effects work better on multi threaded hardware. The end goal is for me and everyone else to finally have a fix for the low fps when Physx is being heavily utilised in game. I will be updating this thread as I come across more info.
I believe some of the .dll and .bin and particle files in the game directory hold the code that is overriding any important .INI tweaks that are made to the game. I want to change the lifetime of particles AND SPH fluid effects since no physx ini tweaks work besides “MaxParticleResize”. Eventually If we come up with a tweak that fixes Physx for me, I would like to release it to everyone else so eveyone elses FPS can stop being held down.
Background
Back in 2013, I had a GTX 680 classified and a I7 920 @ 4.4GHz. I was able to run Borderlands 2 with no problem 60 + fps on the highest settings while on 1920 X 1080. There were absolutely no slowdowns from physx with that hardware. Fast forward to now, I have a GTX 1080 Classified oc’d with a I7 5930k oc’d to 4.6ghz and I am unable to maintain that same 60fps @1920 x 1080 with better hardware while fluid and particle effects are being used. It’s most evident in, but not limited to Bloodshot Stronghold when I am using any weapon but especially a Unkempt Harold(weapon that creates a lot of particles upon impact) and fighting enemies while fluid effects are around while the weapon is kicking up particles. My FPS is capped at but 120 but when it is uncapped, it sits around 200 when there is no liquid or particles and drops to 20 during combat. I have used a lot of ini tweaks but none of the important ones work besides maxparticleresize but that does not affect the lifetime of the particles or the fluid effects.
I find it unacceptable to lower or disable Physx as IMO it adds a lot to the game in terms of fun. I’m seeing posts all over the Web on how people with triple sli 980s, and dual titan setups are having the same problem. Neither Gearbox or Nvidia are working on fixing this issue so I feel it’s time to do something about this and I am going to try my best to get physx working as it should because this is my favorite game. If this works for Borderlands 2, I will try to optimize The Pre-Sequel as well.
Here is a very interesting article about physx in Borderlands 2. It’s from PhysxInfo.com and apparently the person (Zogrim) who made the article spoke to the devs that worked on Physx and this is what he had to say.
“First thing I did after the release – I have asked the PhysX content team, who has worked with Borderlands, if game using APEX – it is not. Just default PhysX Cloth and PhysX Particle System implementations.”
A user knowname as “V” on the Nvidia forums has this to say in a thread (link below) about physx slowdowns on high end hardware.**
>“I actually had a dialogue with Gearbox, the developer of this game, and Nvidia regarding PhysX issues years ago when Borderlands 2 just came out. We even made a specific tool to find issues with PhysX in the game and sent it to Nvidia for further testing. What ultimately happened was that Nvidia didn’t care enough, and Gearbox couldn’t fix it. Our short conclusion was pretty much this: This game is not well optimized for modern hardware. We had some technical reasons of course, but it’s been years and I don’t remember the specifics. I vaguely recall it being something about the cores and threads and not actually the GPU.”
PhysX info/benchmark for Borderlands 2
So my question is, is it possible to change the fluid and particle physics in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands TPS to have a lower max lifetime and increase multi threading performance of the whole physics system?
What do I need to do this myself and is anyone willing to help me?