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Insight into studdering issues https://www.runestorm.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=78614	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Waccoon_NC [ Mon Jan 04, 2016 12:32 am ]
Post subject:	Insight into studdering issues
I really love this game, but since I started playing it (version 1.03) I've had a lot of studdering and framerate problems, as well as what appears to be a buffer swapping issue (double images and shaking). After some digging on forums, other people seem to have the issue as well. At first I thought it was graphics related and followed various tips on the Steam forum and other places to tune the graphical effects, but to no avail. The update to 1.05 seems to have caused more studdering problems than 1.04, but not by much. After I started hosting online games, I noticed right away that when I get the warning message, "Warning: Server reaching net actor saturation", my framerates turn butter smooth and everything works perfectly. If I clean up some blood and the warning message disappears, my framerates turn horrible again. On my system, at least, there's a direct correlation between the actor saturation warning and the studdering problem. Is there any chance that the studdering issues I read so much about are related to the network stack, a change in how the physics work when the game has too many actors, or stuff like that? I'm pretty sure it's not related to graphics. Are there any console commands or command-line flags I can use to help diagnose this problem? My system is a custom-built rig with an Intel i5 3570K CPU, nVidia GTX 660, 16GB RAM, SoundBlaster X-Fi sound, and Windows 7 64bit. My nVidia drivers are v359.06 WHQL. I always launch the game via Steam in 64-bit mode, but 32-bit mode has the same behavior.

Author:	Black Eagle [ Mon Jan 04, 2016 1:37 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Insight into studdering issues
Hmm, that's very odd. The only thing that happens when the net actor warning appears is that the game prevents the creation of more decals or debris(physics objects). If that is the case, then your game shouldn't be consistently slow unless the game is creating something every few moments. Are there a lot of footprints? The game does a count of all net actors whenever a new object(decal/debris) is created or removed, which "could" slow it down. However, if you're not actually manipulating anything at the time, there should be no problem. Also, it should be noted that there will be no slowdown from this behaviour in a solo game. You can try opening the console(~ key) and typing "Stat Game". Then wander around the level as normal and check which of the readouts have the highest "IncAvg" It should tell us a little about what area is making it so slow. Also try "Stat Unit" to see which processing thread is the slowest.

Author:	Waccoon_NC [ Wed Jan 06, 2016 4:22 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Insight into studdering issues
Sorry I didn't get a change to test this yesterday, but I did find out something interesting today. As soon as I do anything that brings up an overlay, the problem goes away and the game runs perfectly at 60FPS without a hiccup. By overlay, I mean hitting the tilde key to show the debug console, the Say message box via the "T" key, the "Stat FPS", "Stat unit", and "Stat game" outputs, and so forth. Apparently it's not the actor saturation that's making the game work properly, but the fact that any kind of debug/message/text overlay is being displayed. This has to be some kind of graphics/driver issue. I tried disabling the Steam overlay when launching VCD, but it made no difference (I've noticed that the Steam overlay causes studdering issues with DOSBox and games that utilize 3DFX Glide emulation). Also running the UDK.exe file directly without Steam makes no difference. Apparently, the Steam overlay isn't part of the problem. Just for kicks, I also disabled Windows Aero desktop composition, which also made no difference. For now, I just show the FPS counter while in-game to fix the issue. The game runs great now, and the counter is unobtrusive. I'm not sure how much more help I can offer, as the presence of any debug info makes the studdering go away, so looking at the numbers doesn't reveal much. I'd be willing to mess around with some config files if you're interested. I'm a web developer and I'm not afraid to do some digging. I should also try to find another game based on the Unreal engine to test. I've taken a screenshot of my stats, if that helps. This screenshot is hosted on my own personal webserver: http://www.ninechime.com/waccoon_nc-2016-01-06.jpg Thanks for the prompt replay and all the hard work on this great game!

Author:	Black Eagle [ Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:01 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Insight into studdering issues
Great, thanks. Yeah this is certainly strange, but that's good that you found a workaround. All the numbers look acceptable. Clearly some sort of driver/graphics issue, though without a doubt a weird one! I'm not sure what else to even try next, you've been pretty thorough. I guess we'll have to leave it at that for now. Strange, very strange. Anyway, enjoy.

Author:	Waccoon_NC [ Tue May 17, 2016 9:16 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Insight into studdering issues
Good news... I have an update on this issue. I just updated to recent nVidia drivers for Win7 64-bit, driver version 365.10, and now the game (VCD v1.06) is working just fine. It's taken quite a while, but whatever issue there was between nVidia's drivers and UKD seem to have been resolved. Note that I never tested nVidia drivers 364.72, because they were known to have serious problems, especially with high-end cards. Drivers 365.10 are working very well for me on my GTX 660. Thanks again to RuneStorm for all their hard work!

Author:	Black Eagle [ Thu May 19, 2016 2:34 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Insight into studdering issues
Ah, great to hear it! Weird drivers... Oh well, enjoy!

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