I deliberately kept the frame rate lock active by default since the built-in one doesn't really work as intended. Since the game is unplayable at higher frame rates anyway, I don't really see a problem, and if you go out of your way to install mods that fix this you can probably also create your own dxvk.conf to disable the FPS limiter.
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the built-in one doesn't really work as intended.
Both PCGamingWiki and Special K say that the built-in limiter caps the framerate at 57-58 FPS, which is less than 60. That's why I'm assuming that DXVK's frame limiter doesn't do anything (since it's set to cap it at 60 FPS).
I repeat:
So: is the vanilla experience (with the game FPS limiter) improved by DXVK's frame limiter?
That's why I'm assuming that DXVK's frame limiter doesn't do anything (since it's set to cap it at 60 FPS).
Yes, but it can be disabled via the configuration file that the game provides. No mods required, and in that situation we provide the same experience that people would have had before the game patch.
I can see that this is a bit awkward but the vanilla behaviour of this game used to be to be unplayable on non-60Hz displays out of the box, and we already broke that by adding the limiter in the first place. "Hindering mod users" is just not a good argument here, if you're tinkering enough to throw both Special-K and DXVK at the same game for whatever reason then I'm assuming you can tinker enough to bypass the FPS limit.
The problem in my opinion isn't about capping the framerate by default, the problem is that this behavior is hidden.
I know about the configuration file, but if someone is looking to cap the framerate to 60 stable FPS, they are going to read a guide that says: "Unlock the game's framerate (by either using the configuration file or downgrading it), then add your own framerate limiter. It's very important that you put framerate limiter, otherwise the game will not run properly!". No one is going to skip the second step, because they don't know that DXVK is already putting one.
To recap, if DXVK's limits the framerate "invisibly", it:
So, if I didn't make it clear, that's the problem I have about it.
(And having documentation being different between Linux and Windows isn't worth it in this case.)
Agreed, this is very problematic.
I know -of- the existence of forced framerate limits in various games, but I do not know how to disable it. It's not clearly documented anywhere, it's just a bit of random trivia that I know about as the developer of mods for NieR: Automata and Replicant, that DXVK is a major obstacle for no reason.
The cap was removed in 2.4 https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/pull/3942
Edit: In regards to uncapping any builtins then the environment variable can be used or a config file .
I will preface this by saying that I do not own the game.
Commit 12c51f1c3df70e220dd02754650a3226fe02c602 limited NieR Replicant's framerate to 60 fps, due to the fact that the initial version of the game didn't have a framerate lock despite not being meant to run at high refresh rates.
After an update, the game added a native (and terrible) framerate lock. So, in theory, DXVK's frame limiter has no purpose anymore. In fact, it is harmful to those who want to mod the game, since there are mods that allow to make the game properly work at high refresh rates.
In short (in theory):
Still, I don't know whether these mods are actually usable on Linux, and my assumption that DXVK's frame limiter has no use might be wrong. In the latter case, the best solution would then be to document the need of overriding DXVK's settings on places like PCGamingWiki, Special K's wiki, or the (obsolete) Nexus mod.