MFG Unlocker GUI

A Windows front end for MFG Unlocker, the mod that unlocks DLSS Multi Frame Generation in games and adds controls the game itself never exposes.

The mod is a proxy DLL: you rename it, copy it beside the game executable and edit a JSON file to change a preset. This app does that part. It scans Steam, decides which of your games the mod can hook, installs and updates the DLL for you, edits the mod's settings while the game is closed, and shows what happened the last time a game ran. The mod itself is not bundled; the app downloads it from the mod's releases and checks the published SHA-256 before copying anything into a game folder.

What it does

• Finds Steam through the registry, reads every library folder Steam knows about, and lists the games that are actually installed, not the ones that are only in your account.
• Picks the executable the mod should sit next to. This matters: the mod's files live beside the game binary, so an Unreal game ends up in Binaries\Win64, not in the game root.
• Checks whether a game can take the mod by looking for the DLLs the mod hooks, and cross checks NVIDIA's published per-title list on top of that.
• Installs the mod DLL under a proxy name that is free in that folder, takes care of the Bink route when a game links Bink video, and refuses to overwrite anything the game ships.
• Undoes an install completely: removes the DLL, gives the game's own Bink DLL its name back, and restores the mod build that was replaced.
• Checks the mod's releases on startup, downloads a new build, and moves every installed game to it.
• Updates itself the same way: the app asks GitHub for its own newest release on startup and on Refresh, downloads the exe, swaps it in place and restarts. One prompt, no installer, no trip to the releases page.
• One Refresh button in the top bar pulls everything again in one go: the mod release, the app itself, NVIDIA's per-title list, cover art and the game list.
• Edits all of the mod's settings from outside the game: mode, multiplier, dynamic target, the three preset families, V-Sync, the Reflex FPS cap, menu language and key, and the two compatibility switches.
• Reads the mod's live status file and runtime logs, which is how you find out whether the mod actually attached inside a game.
• Keeps everything in one folder next to its own exe: no installer, no AppData, no registry writes.
• Remembers its window position and size, and has a UI zoom control for small monitors.

Why a front end exists

The mod's own README explains the manual route: close the game, rename MFGUnlocker.dll to a DLL name the game loads early, place it beside the actual game executable, launch the game, press Backspace for the in-game menu, then edit RTXMFG-Universal.json or RTX40MFG-UI.ini by hand for anything the menu does not expose. Every step has a trap: the wrong proxy name means the mod is never loaded, the wrong folder means it is loaded from a launcher nobody reads, and a stray version.dll in the game folder is exactly how players break games.

This app keeps the record of what it changed (data\store.json) so installing, updating and undoing are all reversible, and it only writes files it can name.

First run

1. Take the executable from the latest release (or build it yourself) and put it in a folder you can write to. A Program Files folder needs administrator rights, which the app does not ask for.
2. Run it. The first scan reads your Steam libraries and takes a few seconds on a 600 game library.
3. The app checks the mod's releases and downloads the current build into data\release before you install anything.
4. Pick a game on the left, then press Install and choose a proxy name.

The game list

Many games at once

Ctrl click adds a game to the selection, shift click takes the range from the game on screen, and a right click on the list opens the menu for whatever is selected: Install mod, Uninstall mod, Clear selection. The same two actions sit above the list once more than one game is picked.

The bulk install walks each game's folder for a free proxy name, shows the one it picked per row, and installs them one after another with a status per game, so a folder that is locked or missing a free name fails on its own row instead of stopping the rest. Bulk uninstall works the same way, and an undo that finds a build kept aside puts that build back rather than leaving the game without one.

How Steam is found

No paths are hardcoded. The app tries, in order:

1. HKCU\Software\Valve\Steam, value SteamPath
2. HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Valve\Steam, value InstallPath
3. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam, value InstallPath, including the 32-bit registry view
4. %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam, and the literal C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam as a last resort

A candidate is only accepted if the folder exists. Libraries come from steamapps\libraryfolders.vdf, both the modern layout ("0" { "path" "D:\SteamLibrary" }) and the old one where the number maps straight to a path. Installed games come from steamapps\appmanifest_<appid>.acf: the app needs StateFlags bit 4 (fully installed) and an existing steamapps\common\<installdir> folder, and it skips the Steamworks redistributables.

Choosing the executable

The scan walks up to four levels deep, stops after 4000 directories, skips content, movie, audio, redist, EasyAntiCheat and BattlEye folders, and keeps .exe files of at least 512 KB. It then scores the survivors: a name matching the game or folder wins, -Shipping and Win64 get a bonus, anything called launcher gets pushed down, and file size only breaks ties. Up to 24 candidates are kept and you can pick another one in the app, which moves the install target with it.

Games outside Steam

Add game takes any folder. The same probe runs, the folder is remembered, and the entry disappears if the folder is renamed or removed.

Compatibility

Two independent checks are shown side by side. Neither is a guarantee, and both are one glance away from the real answer, which is the status file after a launch.

The files the mod hooks

The scan looks in the folder of the chosen executable, its parent and its grandparent, and in the Plugins\<name>\Binaries\ThirdParty\Win64 folders Unreal games keep DLSS and Streamline in:

Found	Meaning
nvngx_dlssg.dll or sl.dlss_g.dll	the game ships DLSS Frame Generation
sl.interposer.dll or sl.common.dll	the game ships NVIDIA Streamline
nvngx_dlss.dll	DLSS Super Resolution only, no frame generation
vulkan-1.dll	a Vulkan runtime, where DirectX proxy names may not be loaded
OptiScaler.ini or OptiScaler.dll	OptiScaler is installed here, which changes the install route

Frame generation plus Streamline reads as supported. Frame generation alone reads as likely, because the mod can often attach to a statically linked integration too. Streamline without frame generation, or DLSS Super Resolution on its own, reads as no frame gen, and nothing found at all reads as unknown.

NVIDIA's list

NVIDIA publishes a per-title table of DLSS overrides, including the Multi Frame Generation multiplier they allow. The app downloads it once a week into data\nvidia-overrides.json and matches your game names against it, with a tolerance for edition suffixes. The Refresh button in the top bar pulls everything again on the spot: the mod release and any pending updates, NVIDIA's list, cover art and the game list.

Tier	Meaning
6X MFG	NVIDIA publishes a 6x ceiling for the title
4X MFG	NVIDIA publishes a 4x ceiling
Frame Generation, no MFG override	frame generation is listed, but no MFG multiplier
not listed	no entry, so the multiplier comes from the game's own integration

When the probe finds no frame generation files but NVIDIA does list the title, the state becomes likely and a note says so: the plug-in probably comes from the NVIDIA app rather than the game folder. That case is common and it is why the list is worth having.

Installing the mod

Proxy names

A DLL only gets loaded if something imports it by name, so the mod masquerades as a DLL the game already loads and forwards the real calls. The mod supports 19 names (version.dll, winmm.dll, dinput8.dll, dxgi.dll, wininet.dll, winhttp.dll, dsound.dll, the d3d9/d3d10/d3d11/ d3d12 family, the xinput family, and the two Bink DLLs).

The picker only offers names that can work in that folder:

• free names, where nothing exists at that path, listed as plain filenames
• the name this app already installed, marked (installed) and selected first
• Bink names, marked (bink route), and only when the game ships that DLL

Names the game already occupies are not offered at all, and the app refuses to write over a file it did not put there.

The Bink route

Games that play Bink video import binkw64.dll or bink2w64.dll from their own folder, early in startup, which makes it a reliable hook point when nothing else is free. Since only one file can hold that name, the app moves the game's copy to binkw64Hooked.dll, puts the mod under the original name, and the mod loads the renamed DLL back so video keeps working. Undo reverses both steps.

There is nothing to back up for a free name, because nothing was there.

Update and undo

Every install records what it wrote and what it replaced. Update installs the newest downloaded build over the current one, keeping the replaced build in data\backups\<hash>\. Undo install removes the proxy DLL, restores the game's Bink DLL, and puts the replaced mod build back if there was one, then refreshes the card. Settings files and logs are never deleted by an undo: they are the mod's own data, and losing a tuned config to an uninstall would be rude.

A confirmation dialog spells out exactly which files are removed and which are restored before anything touches the folder.

Automatic updates

On startup, after the first scan settles, the app checks the mod's GitHub releases, downloads the newest MFGUnlocker.dll when it is not cached, verifies the zip against the asset digest GitHub publishes, and replaces the DLL in every game that is behind. A game that is running holds its DLL open, so it is skipped with a warning and picked up on the next launch. Every update keeps the replaced build, so undo still works per game. A rescan also rechecks the cached release.

Settings

Settings are written to RTXMFG-Universal.json (the mod's authoritative control file) and RTX40MFG-UI.ini (menu preferences). Keys the app does not own, such as xessModel and optiScalerUi, are preserved. Saves are atomic, with an in-place fallback when the game holds the file open.

For a first install there is Guided setup: one setting per screen, with what it does, what most people want and a one click way to take the recommended values. It opens on its own after installing and lives behind the Guided setup button in the Settings tab. The table below is the same set of settings, for reference.

Setting	Values	What it changes
Mode	Follow game, Fixed, Dynamic	Follow keeps the game's own requested multiplier, Fixed holds one value, Dynamic chases a target frame rate
Multiplier	2x to 6x	Generated frames per real frame, clamped at runtime by the provider and NVIDIA's per-title ceiling
Dynamic target	lock to refresh rate, or 30 to 1000 FPS	Only used in Dynamic mode; the lock option writes 0 to the control file
DLSS-G preset	Game / driver, A, B, C	C needs DLSS-G 310.9.16 or newer; applies live in DirectX 12 games, a Vulkan game needs a restart
V-Sync	Game / driver, Off, On	Off presents the game's frames without V-Sync; NVIDIA Control Panel settings still win
Reflex FPS limit	0 to 1000	0 leaves the game's own limiter alone; unavailable while Dynamic is selected
Super Resolution preset	Game / driver, J, K, L, M	Switches live in DirectX 12 games without OptiScaler. K is the transformer model with the best image quality, J is the same model with a little less ghosting and more flicker, L and M are the newer presets meant for Ultra Performance and Performance
Ray Reconstruction preset	Game / driver, D, E, F	D is the first transformer model, E the newer one that games with a depth of field guide need, F is the second generation model (RR2) and needs NVIDIA driver 580 or newer
Language	Auto, English, Chinese, Ukrainian, Italian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese	Menu language only, diagnostics stay in English
Menu key	any single key	Stored as a Windows virtual key code; empty keeps the mod's default, Backspace
Pinned FPS	on, off	Small real and generated FPS readout in the corner while the menu is closed
Layout scale	number	Menu scale override, empty means the default
RTX 30 flip metering	Inherit, On, Off	Inherit removes the key so the mod's default applies (on); Off returns to the older pacing
GPU name override	on, off	RTX 30 only: the game is told it runs on an RTX 4090 and offers its DLSS Frame Generation option. Same switch as "Game FG option: Unlock" in the mod's menu; off by default
Interval logging	on, off	Extra per-frame timing lines in the runtime log
Generated-only debug	on, off	Mod debugging switch, leave off

Saved settings apply the next time the game starts. The presets are the exception: the mod can swap them while a DirectX 12 game runs.

Diagnostics

The Live status block reads RTXMFG-Universal.status.json, which the mod rewrites while a game runs, and refreshes every two seconds while the tab is open:

Field	Meaning
Applied multiplier	what the running Frame Generation pipeline ended up with, and whether it matches the saved request
Dynamic	whether the mod is chasing a target frame rate right now
Safe maximum	the smallest of the provider's compiled capacity and NVIDIA's per-title ceiling
Protocol	the status file version the mod writes
Real FPS, generated FPS	measured rates; a wide gap is the point of MFG
Patch route	dx12 or vulkan, whichever pipeline the mod hooked
NVIDIA profile	the profile NVAPI resolved for the running executable

The Runtime block is the "did it actually attach" answer: hook bridge loaded, the game's frame generation state, whether the mod applied its request, the graphics API, GPU family, NVIDIA tier and the Streamline setOptions result code (0 is accepted).

The Logs block lists every RTXMFG-*.log in the mod folder, newest first. Each launch keeps the previous runtime log as .previous.log, so a crash can be compared against the run before it. Logs land beside the game executable, or in %TEMP% when the game folder is read only.

Files and folders

Next to the game executable that you selected:

File	Who owns it
the proxy DLL you picked	this app copies and removes it
<name>Hooked.dll	only on the Bink route: the game's own DLL, renamed, restored on undo
RTXMFG-Universal.json	the mod reads it at startup; this app edits it
RTX40MFG-UI.ini	menu preferences; this app edits the keys it exposes
RTXMFG-Universal.status.json	written by the mod while a game runs; this app only reads it
RTXMFG-*.log	written by the mod; this app only reads it

Next to this app's own executable:

File	Contents
data\store.json	the game list, chosen executables, install and undo metadata
data\window.json	last window position, size and maximized state
data\release\	downloaded mod builds and the release check cache
data\backups\	mod builds kept aside so an update or reinstall can be undone
data\nvidia-overrides.json	NVIDIA's per-title list, refreshed weekly
data\steam-covers.json	cover art URLs resolved from Steam's store API, refreshed monthly
data\update\	a downloaded app update, staged there before it is swapped in
data\webview\	the WebView2 profile, which also holds the UI zoom level

While an update replaces the app, the previous build briefly sits beside it as mfg-unlocker-gui.exe.old. The new build deletes it on its first start.

Portable

Everything the app keeps lives in that data folder, so copying the .exe together with the folder moves the whole state. Nothing is written to AppData, nothing is written to the registry: Steam and the graphics card are only read from there. There is no installer on purpose. Uninstalling the app means deleting the exe and its data folder, after undoing the mod from each game.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 with the WebView2 runtime, which current Windows already has
• For DLSS MFG: an RTX 20, 30, 40 or 50 card. RTX 20 and RTX 30 are experimental in the mod itself
• The game needs a Streamline Frame Generation integration, or one supplied by the NVIDIA app. The mod's README has the per-game caveats
• XeSS MFG through OptiScaler works on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel cards, but that route is set up in OptiScaler, not here

Build from source

Node 20 or newer with pnpm, Rust 1.82 or newer with the x86_64-pc-windows-msvc target, and the Visual Studio C++ build tools for the linker.

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev      # development, opens the app window
pnpm tauri build    # release build, the exe lands in src-tauri/target/release

Bundling is off so the output is a single portable executable rather than an installer that writes to Program Files and the registry. pnpm dev on its own runs the interface in a browser against fixture data, which is useful for design work and does nothing to your games.

The Rust side lives in src-tauri/src: steam.rs reads Steam, gamedir.rs walks game folders, compat.rs and nvidia.rs judge compatibility, release.rs handles GitHub, install.rs and store.rs own install state and undo, settings.rs, status.rs and winstate.rs handle the files, and commands.rs is the IPC layer. The UI is React and Tailwind in src.

Troubleshooting

The in-game menu never appears. The chosen proxy name was not loaded by that game. Try another free name, winmm.dll and dinput8.dll are the usual fallbacks. Vulkan games may not load DirectX proxy names at all, and a launcher selected as the executable will not load anything the real game does. If no RTXMFG-*.log shows up in the mod folder, the DLL never got loaded.

The Frame Generation option is greyed out on an RTX 20 or 30 card. The game may hide it on those cards. Turn on GPU name override and restart the game: it reports the card as an RTX 4090, which makes the option appear. It is off by default, it only does anything on RTX 30 cards, and the game may then recommend settings for a 4090.

An update was skipped. The game was running and holding the DLL open. Close it and rescan; the next scan updates it.

Install or undo says the DLL is still in use. A running game keeps the mod DLL mapped, and Windows will not let anything replace or delete a mapped file. Close the game, then press the button again. Nothing was changed by the failed attempt.

Install says the folder needs administrator rights. The game folder is not writable by your user, so the app will not pretend the copy succeeded. Start the game folder from a writable library, or run the app as administrator deliberately.

The NVIDIA column is empty. The list is fetched from NVIDIA's site once a week and cached. Without a network connection and without a cached copy the column reads unavailable, and everything else keeps working.

Offline. Scanning, uninstalling, editing settings, reading logs and installing from an already cached build all work without a network. The release check and the NVIDIA list need one the first time.

Anti-cheat. A proxy DLL in a game folder can look like a cheat to kernel anti-cheat. That risk exists with the mod alone, and online games are the wrong place to test any of this.

Credits and licence

CC0 1.0 Universal. To the extent possible under law, lashman has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this work, so it is public domain: use it, change it, ship it, no attribution needed. The full text is in LICENSE.

• MFG Unlocker is the mod itself, MIT licensed. It is not included here. Its DLL embeds Intel XeSS program data under Intel's terms, which is why the app downloads it at run time instead of shipping it.
• NVIDIA's per-title DLSS override data is fetched from NVIDIA's own site.
• Built with Tauri 2, React and Tailwind. Dependencies keep their own licences (MIT and Apache-2.0).

Not affiliated with the mod's author, NVIDIA or Intel.