Bannerlator · LSFG Native
LSFG Native makes up extra frames between the real ones your game draws, so motion looks smoother. Whether that feels buttery or broken comes down to one rule.
48 × 3 = 144 on a 144 Hz screen is a perfect fit. Get as close to your screen's number as you can without going over, using a Max FPS your game can hold even in its busiest moments.
Try it
Each box below is one refresh of your screen. See what happens when you go over your screen's number, or stay well under it.
This starts on a common mistake. Tap one of the suggested combos below to fix it.
Your screen runs at 144 Hz.
Below 30 real frames, controls feel floaty and the made-up frames smear more. Frame generation can't make a slow game respond faster, so lower the game's graphics or resolution first.
This is a simplified model of what your screen does. Real games wobble a little, but the pattern is the same.
How your screen works
Your screen redraws itself a fixed number of times every second. That's its refresh rate, measured in Hz. A 144 Hz screen has 144 slots a second, and each slot shows exactly one picture.
With LSFG Native on, each real frame from the game arrives with its made-up frames attached. Bannerlator puts them on screen one per refresh, back-to-back, then waits for the game's next real frame. That leaves three ways it can go:
Every refresh gets a new picture, and they're evenly spaced. This is the goal.
That's 36 more frames a second than the screen has slots for. They queue up, so what you see falls behind what you press, and real frames get skipped to catch up (the red ✕). It stutters, the controls feel late, and your device runs hotter to give you a worse picture.
Two frames go out back-to-back, then the screen repeats the last one until the next real frame arrives (the stripes). Motion goes smooth, stop, smooth. Nothing's broken, but most of your screen is wasted. Two ways out: a bigger multiplier fills the gaps (36 × 4 = 144), or the screen drops to 60 Hz so 30 × 2 fits exactly. Bannerlator does the second one for you while frame generation runs (Auto (match FPS), below).
Steady beats high
Both of these average about 48 real frames a second. The only difference is that the one on the right wobbles between 36 and 60.
Setup
LSFG Native uses the frame generator from Lossless Scaling, which you need to own. Import its Lossless.dll at the bottom of Bannerlator's Settings. If you installed Lossless Scaling through Bannerlator's Steam store, Settings can find the file for you.
In the container's settings (or the game's own settings), set the Renderer to Vulkan and Frame Generation to LSFG Native (Lossless Scaling). LSFG Native also needs a Renderer Driver with Vulkan 1.3; on older Adreno GPUs, pick a Turnip driver there. The first launch afterwards may show "Preparing frame-generation shaders…". Let it finish. If anything is missing, the side menu tells you what and how to fix it. Used lsfg-vk before? Here's what changed.
You don't need to set the refresh rate yourself. When frame generation starts, Auto (match FPS) switches on and moves your screen to exactly Max FPS × multiplier if it has that speed, otherwise to the closest speed above. Just make sure your device isn't holding the screen at 60 Hz: turn off battery saver's 60 Hz mode, and on handhelds with their own refresh control, set it to Auto.
Start the game with frame generation off. In the side menu, turn on Show HUD, then play the busiest part (a fight, a big open area) for a minute. Note the lowest FPS it keeps dipping to.
In the side menu, open Frame rate & refresh, turn on Limit FPS, and set Max FPS at that number or a little under it.
Choose the multiplier where Max FPS × multiplier lands on one of your screen's speeds, or just under the top one. The cheat sheet below has the numbers. If you go over, the side menu shows a red warning with a one-tap fix; if the numbers don't fit a screen speed exactly, it suggests the Max FPS that does.
In the side menu, go to Frame Generation and tap 2×, 3× or 4×. The picture can freeze for a couple of seconds while LSFG gets ready. That's normal. You can change the multiplier while you play.
Under Frame Generation you'll see a line like 48 real → 144 shown (3x) 3.6 ms/frame GPU. If "real" is lower than your Max FPS, the game can't keep up with frame generation running. Lower Flow Scale first, then Max FPS a step. While LSFG runs, your HUD's FPS counter shows the "shown" number.
Two settings change while LSFG Native or Win-FG Native runs. Limit FPS stays on, because frame generation needs a steady cap; you can still move Max FPS, and if you never set one it uses 30. Auto (match FPS) switches on to fit your screen to your numbers. You can turn Auto off in the side menu, and that game remembers your choice (games started without a shortcut remember it for that session only). Both go back to your normal settings when you turn frame generation off.
The other dial, Flow Scale (0.20 to 1.00), controls how closely LSFG studies the motion between frames. Higher gives cleaner made-up frames but costs more power. If "real" drops after you turn frame generation on, lower it.
Cheat sheet
Find your screen's row. Go along it and pick the biggest number your game can hold without dipping under. For example, on a 144 Hz screen: if the game never drops below 50, use 48 with 3×. If it never drops below 40, use 36 with 4×. With Auto (match FPS) on, the rows for lower speeds work on your screen too: on a 144 Hz screen, 30 × 2 runs it at 60 Hz, and 45 × 2 runs it at 90 Hz, both perfect fits (as long as your screen offers those speeds).
| Screen | 2× | 3× | 4× |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Hz | 30× 2 = 60 | 20too low, laggy | 15too low, laggy |
| 90 Hz | 45× 2 = 90 | 30× 3 = 90 | 22too low, laggy |
| 120 Hz | 60× 2 = 120 | 40× 3 = 120 | 30× 4 = 120 |
| 144 Hz | 72× 2 = 144 | 48× 3 = 144 | 36× 4 = 144 |
| 165 Hz | 82× 2 = 164 | 55× 3 = 165 | 41× 4 = 164 |
Real situations
144 Hz handheld · game holds 60 · 4×
60 × 4 = 240 frames a second for a screen that shows 144, so 96 a second have nowhere to go. It stutters every time you turn the camera, and the controls feel a beat late. The side menu flags this in red.
Fix: tap Set Max FPS to 36 in the warning and keep 4× (36 × 4 = 144), or set 48 and use 3×.
60 Hz phone · game holds 45 · 2×
45 × 2 = 90, but the screen only shows 60. Instead of 90 FPS you get the stutter and lag of an overloaded screen. Also check your phone's display setting: a 120 Hz phone in battery-saver mode may be running at 60.
Fix: set Max FPS to 30 with 2× (30 × 2 = 60). Every refresh gets a new picture.
120 Hz tablet · open world swings 38 to 60 · Max FPS 60 · 2×
In quiet spots the game hits 60, and 60 × 2 = 120 fits perfectly. Every time it dips, the gaps between bursts change size, so the smoothness comes and goes.
Fix: set Max FPS to 40 with 3× (40 × 3 = 120). The game can always hold 40, so the beat never changes.
144 Hz handheld · ran 50 with frame generation off · Max FPS 48 · 3×
Making frames takes power, and the game lost some speed when frame generation turned on. Now it's 39 × 3 = 117: gaps everywhere, and the game never reaches its cap.
Fix: lower Flow Scale first and see if the game gets back to 48. If it doesn't, set Max FPS to 36 with 4× (36 × 4 = 144).
144 Hz handheld · game manages 20 · 4×
Frame generation smooths what you see, but it can't make the game respond faster. With only 20 real frames, each one is 50 ms apart, so the controls feel floaty. The made-up frames also have to guess across big jumps, so edges smear.
Fix: lower the game's resolution or graphics until it holds 30 or more, then multiply. For example, 36 × 4 = 144.
Quick fixes
Old engine vs new
Before 3.0.6, Bannerlator ran Lossless Scaling's frame generation through lsfg-vk. LSFG Native replaced it. Both use the frame generator from your Lossless.dll. What changed is where the made-up frames are made, and that decides whether you actually get to see them.
Every picture takes the same road: from the game, through Bannerlator's virtual display, to the compositor, which hands one picture to your screen each refresh.
Frame counters could say 60 while your screen showed about 30.
Measured on an Adreno 750: a game held at 30 shows about 120 on screen at 4×.
| lsfg-vk (before 3.0.6) | LSFG Native (3.0.6 and later) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the made-up frames are made | Inside the game. Wine loads lsfg-vk into it as a Vulkan layer. | In Bannerlator's compositor, the last stop before your screen. |
| Do they reach your screen? | Often not. Many were thrown away on the way. | Yes. Each one gets its own screen refresh. |
| What the counters show | Could count frames that never reached the screen. | The side-menu readout shows real → shown, and "shown" is what actually reaches your screen. |
| Max FPS | Switched off while it ran, so nothing kept the game's beat steady. | Stays on while it runs (30 if you never set one), so real frames arrive on a steady beat. |
| What it needs | A game that draws with Vulkan (most do here, through DXVK or VKD3D). It ran on the game's Graphics Driver. | The Vulkan renderer, and a Renderer Driver with Vulkan 1.3 (on older Adreno GPUs, pick a Turnip driver there). |
| Where to find it | Gone from the menu since 3.0.6. Containers and games still set to it run LSFG Native instead. | Frame Generation → LSFG Native (Lossless Scaling). |
We did get lsfg-vk's made-up frames to the screen in testing, but only by adding workarounds all along the road. LSFG Native avoids the problem by making its frames at the last stop, so it replaced lsfg-vk in 3.0.6. lsfg-vk's code is parked, not deleted.
Win-FG Native, the built-in engine, also makes its frames in the compositor, so everything on this page applies to it too.