Win 10 Game mode, how to map AH3 w/o Windows key?

[DaddyAce]

I just read in an earlier topic about how Windows game mode can help smooth out gaming performance.  It seems for AH3 I need to have game mode turned on in Windows, easy.  Now the tough part for me is since apparently Windows 10 does not automatically recognize AH as a game for game mode purposes.  The step 2 becomes press the Windows key + G.  My keyboard does not have a "Windows" key.  Anyone know how to map AH3 to Game mode lacking a Windows key?   Thanks in advance for any help!

[1stpar3]

On my Windows 10...I go to Start>settings>gaming: and can pick a "new shortcut key press" for  opening gamebar, screenshots, record start stop ect. I dont know if it would change much for AH, but again I never tried

[DaddyAce]

That did it, thank you 1stpar!  I have this keyboard, older than perhaps some of the players in this game.....it's an early 90's vintage mechanical keyboard, pre PS-2 even, and I love it.   

I was reading one of Pudgie's posts where he wrote about Game Mode causing Windows to devote more of the computer's resources to focus on running the game smoothly, and I'm in process of putting together a new build for myself while I put together a build for my wife....so want to see if Game Mode seems to improve my VR frame rates in my existing build.  Thanks again for your help!

[1stpar3]

No problem Brother I have been running with it on, was default. I turned it off today and never noticed a change. Not sure AH is a "game" that would be for this? I understood it to be games from the "play store"? Eh, I dont know...but didnt notice a loss of FRs with it off

[DaddyAce]

..... Not sure AH is a "game" that would be for this? I understood it to be games from the "play store"? Eh, I dont know...but didnt notice a loss of FRs with it off

On my system, having gaming mode does seem to reduce frame rate drops....at least that is my impression running it some.  But my impressions is that Windows does not automatically recognize AH# as a game and I need to manually turn on game mode once I have AH3 up.

[Pudgie]

Start up AHIII (or any Direct3D coded game) to the 1st screen (this initially executes the game's .exe) then open up Win 10 Game Mode (after enabling it in Windows 1st, should be the Win 10 Game Bar that is opened up...this control bar can also be opened up while in game operation as well), go to Settings. Once in there you should find a checkbox w\ the words "Remember this .exe as a game" beside it, put check in the box then exit out & close Game Mode. Or while in there you can enable other settings to instruct Game Mode to stream, use the microphone, etc while Game Mode is active within the selected game while it is running if desired (do this only if you're also gonna be using any of the embedded Win 10 control apps like Xbox Broadcast for streaming while in game, Xbox Game DVR for recording while in game, etc). Then proceed to the game & run as usual as Game Mode is now active within the game.


Going forward when you start AHIII Win 10 will automatically start Game Mode (if Game Mode is enabled in Win 10) & will apply any extra CPU/mem resources deemed needed according to how the game is operating on the current Direct3D GPU hardware installed & any other settings you select in Game Mode to use while running the game. As long as the checkbox is selected this process is now fully automated. To disable Game Mode for any reason from AHIII (or any Direct3D game associated to it) just go back into Settings on the Game Bar & uncheck the checkbox.

This is the manual procedure to set up Win 10's Game Mode to run w\ any DirectX game that isn't using Win 10's Win Store coding (which will auto recognize a game to Game Mode) as other apps than just games use the DirectX API's.

Hope this helps.

 

[DaddyAce]

Hi Pudgie,

Yes, finally got that figured out.  I was also wondering whether Win10 would continue to recognize AH3 as a game for purposes of Game Mode without having to remember to load it every time.  That seems to be the case now, and I confirmed based on your guidance, thanks for your help!   

[Pudgie]

Hi Pudgie,

Yes, finally got that figured out.  I was also wondering whether Win10 would continue to recognize AH3 as a game for purposes of Game Mode without having to remember to load it every time.  That seems to be the case now, and I confirmed based on your guidance, thanks for your help!   

No problem, DaddyAce.

Just to put this out for anyone else,

Win 10's Game Mode features working or not will depend on several factors concerning the particular system configuration\setup it's being used on to determine if it will be useful or not. The main thing to know is that it WON'T DEGRADE any current performance levels but also depending on the performance level of a particular system configuration it won't provide any benefit if the system is already optimized (especially the CPU\mem side). As far as a GPU is concerned, there's not much the OS can do as most of a GPU's operation is determined onboard the vid card thru it's drivers\control software in which you the user sets up so if your game performance issues are coming from GPU-bound issues then don't expect much if any improvement from Game Mode.

Where Game Mode will give any noticeable benefit that it can give is if the game performance issues are coming from CPU\mem-bound issues but even then the range of improvement is limited or negated, again depending on several factors according to your particular system setup that really only you the user would\could know.

The best way I've found to know if Game Mode is actually working or not is to use a monitoring software such as MSI Afterburner & graph GPU frametime before\after enabling Game Mode. If it is doing anything this will show up in a GPU frametime graph as lower overall ms w\ spiking becoming less frequent & lower ms peaks vs a before Game Mode enabled GPU frametime graph.

Hope this helps.