Vanquish Damage Fix

What is this?

This experimental fix attempts to mitigate the frame rate dependent problems of Vanquish.

Overview

Description

Although the PC version of Vanquish is overall pretty good, some aspects of the game play are tied to the frame rate the game is played on. Most notably, the player effectively receives more damage than usual.

The reason for this is that some enemy weapon types trigger invincibility frames, which prevent the player from taking any more damage for a certain amount of time. They seem to only occur with rapid-fire weapons, which leads to the assumption that they are probably there to prevent the player from dying too quickly, when being hit by a barrage of shots. Because this mechanic is frame-based, this means that on high FPS the player is vulnerable again way more quickly, which may lead to the character sometimes being killed almost instantly by a barrage of incoming fire.

Additionally, this does not seem to be the only mechanic that is tied to the frame rate. For example, the time it takes you to regenerate your health does also directly scale with the frame rate, which means that you regenerate over four times more quickly when playing at 144 FPS compared to 30 FPS. So although playing the game at high FPS may be harder in certain situations when facing many enemies at once, it can also be easier in other situations.

Note: In a previous version it was stated that the boost recharge is also in some way coupled to the frame rate. Although this is true, it is actually the other way around. On higher frame rates, the game uses the correct value of six seconds for a full recharge. However, with very low FPS (< 35) recharging takes slightly longer. So unless you are playing on a very weak system, the boost should work as intended, even without the fix.

Important: This is an experimental fix. I only did some rudimentary testing. There might be unexpected issues that require further updates. Additionally, this fix should be no replacement for a proper patch and should only be seen as a band-aid until the game is updated.

Features

• Scales the number of invulnerability frames and the regeneration time according to the frame rate
  

Instructions

Supported Versions

Important: This fix relies on the latest, fully patched executable of the game on Steam. Older versions or ones that otherwise have been tempered with probably will not. If the game is updated, it is likely that it will break the fix.

Install

Note: The fix does not make any permanent changes to the game or the system and can easily be removed (see below).

1. Extract the file dinput8.dll to your main game folder. For example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Vanquish\"
   
2. Start the game like you would normally, for example directly through Steam
   

Uninstall

1. Remove or rename the dinput8.dll from the folder of the game.
   

How To Use

After the installation the fix does not require any additional treatment. Just launch and configure the game as usual.

Additional Information

What You Should Know

This fix is essentially a hack and relies on the layout of the specific executable. There may be crashes or unexpected issues. Feel free to provide feedback so that the problems can get fixed.

Since the fix consists of an executable DLL-File, I could have put any harmful shenanigans in there. You just have to trust me that the file is clean.

If you don't -- and why should you -- feel free to use a meta online virus scanner like VirusTotal to verify the file. Be aware however, that because the fix uses "hacking techniques" such as injection and hooking, it could trigger anti-virus software without being harmful.

Known Issues

There are currently no known issues with the fix.

Contact And Support

If you like this fix and want to support the development or show your appreciation, you can find more information on my website. There you can also find out more about other fixes that I have done and means to contact me if you have a question, want to provide feedback, bug reports or suggestions.