Metro Exodus, the UWP variant.

[whatthewumbo 0]

Hello. I noticed that the Nvidia profile for Metro Exodus does not apply to the UWP variant. I saw this thread on Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/319872/driver-profile-for-metro-exodus-does-not-apply-for/

Anyone know what to do about this? The profile includes some much needed stability and performance improvements. I checked on nvidia inspector on my system and there was no listing of the UWP executable on that profile, like the thread.

[Aemony 141]

17 minutes ago, whatthewumbo said:

Hello. I noticed that the Nvidia profile for Metro Exodus does not apply to the UWP variant. I saw this thread on Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/319872/driver-profile-for-metro-exodus-does-not-apply-for/

 Anyone know what to do about this? The profile includes some much needed stability and performance improvements. I checked on nvidia inspector on my system and there was no listing of the UWP executable on that profile, like the thread.

Is Nvidia's drivers even capable of overriding settings in DirectX 12 games? The whole point of that API, you see, was to circumvent the drivers and more directly run code on the hardware itself.

Metro Exodus on UWP/Microsoft Store was, last I checked, limited to DirectX 12 mode only.

[whatthewumbo 0]

Considering that there are profiles for DX12-only titles like Gears 4/5, Forza 4, etc I would definitely assume that the driver still handles some low level functionality and that there are limitations of DX12 that requires work to be done by the driver.

[Mars icecream 57]

It looks like that the game recreates the configuration files (the path isn't entirely correct, only indicative). In %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\DeepSilver.ProjectWindfall_hmv7qcest37me\SystemAppData\wgs\<user-id>\ there are now multiple folders with cryptic names, each containing a "container."* file (seemingly encrypted) and a randomized filename without an extension which is the game's actual config file. Notepad++ has reported that the file doesn't exist anymore with some after closing the game.

Can others confirm?

[Mars icecream 57]

And does the game itself really install to \Program Files\WindowsApps\MSIXVC? The file A23B7721-871B-4AD0-805D-C50F8EAA5363 is 61 GB and there isn't any as large folder on my system drive.

I'm using the Xbox beta app, if that changes anything.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Mars icecream
added the last two sentences

[drbob 0]

On 11/4/2019 at 4:06 PM, Mars icecream said:

And does the game itself really install to \Program Files\WindowsApps\MSIXVC? The file A23B7721-871B-4AD0-805D-C50F8EAA5363 is 61 GB and there isn't any as large folder on my system drive.

Yes, I believe it does. The apparent install location of "\Program Files\WindowsApps\DeepSilver.ProjectWindfall_1.0.19.0_x64__hmv7qcest37me" is actually an NTFS reparse point that points to the big file in MSIXVC. It's a mounted virtual drive, like when you mount an ISO file under a drive letter. Many win32 games packaged into a UWP container use the same technique for distribution on the MS store/gamepass (e.g Gears V)

I think it's intended as a way of ensuring the integrity of the game files (the contents of the virtual drive can't be changed, probably enforced by a cryptographic signature on the whole file), preventing mods (makes DLC more profitable) and enforcing DRM (all access to the actual game files are via the reparse point filesystem driver, blocking casual piracy.

[Aemony 141]

Here's the official note on that folder regarding Gears 5's use of it:

Quote

Note: PC players examining disk space may notice a folder named "MSIXVC" which will appear similar in size to the Gears 5 install folder. This is a side effect of how the installation uses a file system feature called junctions - it is not a second full copy of the game. If needed, you can verify the actual space consumed by the game on your hard drive under “Add or remove programs”.

https://support.gearsofwar.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033421451-Required-Disk-Space

Edited December 16, 2019 by Aemony
didn't read, lol