Performance Overlay

Overview

# Performance Overlay A customizable, always-on-top hardware + FPS overlay for **any** game (Steam, Epic, non-Steam, anything) — like the Steam overlay's perf counter, but fully configurable. Shows live readouts such as: ``` FPS 164 GPU 37% 58° CPU 22% 46° RAM 61% ``` with optional live mini-graphs, in any combination of metrics you choose. ## Features - **FPS + frame stats** — current, average, **lowest**, **highest**, **1% low**, **0.1% low**, and **frametime (ms)**. Read from frame-present events (the same data source PresentMon uses) — **no injection, no anti-cheat risk**. With DLSS / FSR **Frame Generation** on, the FPS shown includes the generated frames (the "DLSS FPS"). - **Every hardware sensor** your PC exposes — GPU/CPU/RAM/motherboard/disk/fan temperatures, load %, clocks, power, voltages, fan RPM, etc. (via LibreHardwareMonitor). - **Works over any game** running **Borderless / Windowed** (the vast majority of modern games, even ones that look fullscreen). See the caveats below. - **Modern dashboard** with tabs (Sensors / FPS / Style / General): - Tick sensors to add them; **drag ≡ to reorder**; **rename** each with a custom label; toggle a graph per item. - Live **preview** of the overlay, **color pickers**, font + size, °C/°F, opacity, horizontal/vertical layout, update speed, graph length. - **Optional injection mode** (FPS tab, **no-anti-cheat games only**): injects a small hook DLL into the foreground game to read frame-present times directly — adds **Vulkan & OpenGL** FPS (which the ETW path can't see) and more precise frametimes. Works with **32-bit and 64-bit** games, fails soft (falls back to ETW), and never inline-patches game code. For safety it **automatically turns itself off** the moment the injected game closes, so it can't carry over into a different (possibly anti-cheat) game. - **1:1 WYSIWYG preview** — the dashboard preview is the *actual* overlay control, so what you tweak is exactly what you get in-game (graphs, grouping, colors, fonts and all). - **Click-through** so the overlay never steals mouse input from your game. - **Drag to move** (uncheck "Lock position"), then lock it for play. - **Global hotkey** `Ctrl + Shift + O` to show/hide instantly. - **System tray** icon — double-click for the dashboard, right-click for quick actions. - **Portable by default** — settings save to a `config\` folder next to the app. You can point them anywhere from General → Config location. ## Requirements - Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) - **Nothing else** — the shipped `PerformanceOverlay.exe` is self-contained (the .NET runtime is bundled inside it). Copy that one file to any Win10/11 x64 PC and run it. - **Run as Administrator** — hardware temperatures and FPS capture need it. The app's manifest requests elevation automatically (Windows shows a UAC prompt). ## Standalone distribution `PerformanceOverlay.exe` in the project root is the **standalone build** — a single ~75 MB file with the .NET runtime and all native helpers embedded. To share it, just copy that one file; no install, no runtime, no extra DLLs. Settings are written to a `config\` folder next to the exe (or `%LocalAppData%\PerformanceOverlay` if the exe sits in a read-only location). Rebuild it any time with `publish.bat`. ## Build & Run ```powershell dotnet build PerformanceOverlay.csproj -c Release ``` Run it from the **Start Menu** ("Performance Overlay"), double-click `bin\Release\net10.0-windows\PerformanceOverlay.exe`, or use `Launch Overlay.bat`. On first run it auto-selects FPS + GPU/CPU/RAM load & temperature. Open the dashboard (tray icon → Open Dashboard) to customize everything. ### Using it over a game 1. Set the game's display mode to **Borderless** (or Windowed). 2. In the dashboard, add the metrics you want and style them. 3. Position the overlay (uncheck **Lock position**, drag it), then re-check it and leave **Click-through** on. 4. Launch the game. Toggle the overlay any time with **Ctrl + Shift + O**. ## Caveats (the honest limits of a no-injection overlay) - **Exclusive-fullscreen games**: a floating window can't draw over a game that bypasses the desktop compositor. Switch the game to **Borderless** and it works. (Drawing inside true fullscreen needs render-pipeline injection — the RivaTuner/Afterburner technique — which can trip anti-cheat; intentionally not done here.) - **FPS coverage**: frame stats work for **DirectX 9/10/11/12** games (the overwhelming majority). Pure **Vulkan/OpenGL** titles present outside DXGI and don't report FPS in this version. ## Project layout | File | Purpose | |------|---------| | `HardwareMonitor.cs` | Enumerates & polls all hardware sensors. | | `FpsMonitor.cs` | ETW present-event capture → FPS / lows / frametime stats. | | `Settings.cs` | Config model, JSON load/save, portable config location. | | `OverlayView.xaml(.cs)` | The shared overlay visual (grouping, graphs) used by both the overlay window and the dashboard preview, so they're 1:1. | | `OverlayWindow.xaml(.cs)` | Transparent, click-through, topmost window that hosts the OverlayView. | | `DashboardWindow.xaml(.cs)` | Tabbed dashboard: sensor picker, reorder, style, FPS, general. | | `Theme.xaml` | Dark UI theme (colors + control styles). | | `IconFactory.cs` | Draws the speedometer tray icon. | | `NativeMethods.cs` | Win32 interop for click-through + global hotkey. | | `Injection.cs` | DLL injector (CreateRemoteThread+LoadLibrary) + shared-memory reader. | | `native\PerfOverlayHook.cpp` | The injected hook DLL (DXGI/OpenGL/Vulkan present capture). Build with `native\build.bat`. | | `App.xaml.cs` | Startup, polling timer, tray icon, hotkey, metric registry. | | `app.ico` | App / taskbar / Start-menu icon. |

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