winget install --id SpecialK.SpecialKAbout Special K
Lovingly referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of PC gaming, Special K does a bit of everything. It is best known for fixing and enhancing graphics, its many detailed performance analysis and correction mods, and a constantly growing palette of tools that solve a wide variety of issues affecting PC games.
What's new in 26.6.13.7
+ Improved support for mods that ship as XInput1_3.dll (i.e. FFVIIHook). + Improved VRR status detection in D3D12 games. + Fixed potential deadlock during startup in Gothic 1 Remake. + Removed "Show VRR Status" option from SK's Display menu; it still exists, but if you absolutely need to turn this off, do it from SK's INI. + Added warning if Steam Input is enabled in games using Windows.Gaming.Input, because SK implements more advanced parts of the API than Steam does, and Steam Input will gimp SK's ability to use Adaptive Triggers, etc.
Version history
| Version | Updated | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 26.6.13.7 | Unknown | + Improved support for mods that ship as XInput1_3.dll (i.e. FFVIIHook). + Improved VRR status detection in D3D12 games. + Fixed potential deadlock during startup in Gothic 1 Remake. + Removed "Show VRR Status" option fr... |
| 26.6.13.2 | Unknown | + Disable Game Bar functionality on systems where Game Bar does not exist. |
| 26.6.13 | Unknown | + Added automatic 'Remember this is a Game' so that users never have to open game bar and do this manually. + Default Forza games to 'Continue Rendering' to prevent crashes in Steam version. + Default Mina The Hollower t... |
| 26.5.15 | Unknown | + Added support for Forza Horizon 6 + Impulse Triggers -> DualSense Adaptive Triggers |
| 26.4.31 | Unknown | + HOTFIX for recent PC Gaming Wiki URL changes. |
| 26.4.30.2 | Unknown | + Improved VRR range detection and reporting. + Overhauled Unity Engine "Pace Game Thread" feature. + Added support for DLSS-D (Ray Reconstruction) functionality. + Added support for NVIDIA Smooth Motion. + Added Smooth... |
| 26.4.3.1 | Unknown | + HOTFIX for anti-virus false positive on installer. + Add render thread check to framerate limiter in D3D11 Reflex-native games. |
| 26.4.3 | Unknown | + HOTFIX for Steam game running status in SKIF. + Handle GOG games that use both EOS and Galaxy APIs together, allowing achievement management to show up in the control panel (provided Galaxy API 1.120+). |
| 26.4.2 | Unknown | + The SK_FPS_LIMIT environment variable now takes precedence over Sunshine/Apollo; if set to 0.0 it will allow software streamed using Sunshine/Apollo to ignore SUNSHINE_CLIENT_FPS and use an INI-defined framerate limit... |
| 26.4.1 | Unknown | + Optimized SKIF gamepad input and eliminate spurious input while SKIF is inactive. + DLSS Frame Generation "Native Pacing" is now on by default, and has Smooth, Low-Latency and Ultra Low-Latency Modes. + DLSS Frame Gene... |
| 26.3.26.2 | Unknown | + Improved Low-Latency framerate limiter mode in Reflex-native games. + Changed VRR target FPS from Reflex-0.5% to Reflex-1.0% to reduce stutter. + Added support for SDR RenoDX mods. + Workaround permanently visible game... |
| 26.3.21.1 | Unknown | + Decoupled foreground and background framerate limiters. + Renamed BackBufferCount to BufferCount in Special K INI. + Workaround deadlock in D3D12 HDR games when ReShade is used with Streamline. |
| 26.3.20.1 | Unknown | + Only show Nixxes instability warnings one time, and do not display errors if attempting to use local injection with crs-video.exe. (Death Stranding 2) |
| 26.3.18 | Unknown | + Improved ReShade (6.6.0+) compatibility with FarCry Primal and other games. + Added new tab to SKIF (1.3.6) for hardware-related features (i.e. MPOs). + Added configurable auto-save for screenshots captured using SKIV... |
| 26.3.17.4 | Unknown | + Massively improved compatibility with RenoDX and ReShade 6.7.x + Removed most warnings about RenoDX incompatibility + Added warning if MPOs are disabled, but would otherwise be supported + Added DWM restart option and... |
| 26.3.15 | Unknown | + Fixed several compatibility issues introduced by ReShade 6.6.0+. + Improved detection of DLSS overrides, version, and multi-graphics API usage. + Disable D3D11 texture caching in EverQuest now that it is no longer D3D9... |
| 25.12.2.5 | Unknown | + Disable il2cpp hook support in 32-bit Unity to prevent crashes in Sektori. + Fixed missing keyboard scancodes in WM_KEYUP and WM_SYSKEYUP in Unity games. + Update audio widget in real-time if audio device changes, and... |
| 25.12.1 | Unknown | + Fixed issues in many games with Alt+Tab and stuck keys when using 'Continue Rendering' window management mode. + Automatically upgrade all low-resolution Windows timers created by games to high-resolution on Windows 10... |
| 25.11.17.1 | Unknown | + Finished achievement tracker support for EGS, Galaxy and Steam. + Added Unity Engine tuning knobs and input overrides. + Fixed missing rumble in many Unity engine games on PlayStation controllers. + Allow arbitrary but... |
| 25.10.4.3 | Unknown | + Added Adaptive Tearing options and enabled Latent Sync 2x.. modes + Added GOG Galaxy integration for achievements (64-bit only right now) + Added achievement tracker for Steam/Epic/GOG + Fixed "Block HID" option in gam... |