Stuttering?

[Mister Shan]

Is the game stuttering for anyone? My system should be able to run this. 5950x and a 3090. Windows 11 latest updates and drivers.

[Camo Glow]

No

[BadMonkey]

Originally posted by Ashley:

the game stutters "by design", and there is absolutely nothing you (the user) can do about it. it happens when new shaders are being generated, and it happens when it has to load in new assets.

all of these can be reliably reproduced (you can walk back and forth between certain lines to get the game to cycle between two different areas and it will always stutter.

unless the devs sit their butts down and do something about it, this is going to be our experience with evil west. what a crying shame.

I do not have one ounce of stuttering. NONE. I am running a set 60 FPS on EPIC. I have no problem.

[BadMonkey]

Originally posted by Flappy Pannus:

Originally posted by BadMonkey:

I do not have one ounce of stuttering. NONE. I am running a set 60 FPS on EPIC. I have no problem.

Every single time when you have a thread about an UE4 game with shader stutter, you'll see these responses. And from your perspective, that's your experience, and you're likely being honest - I don't believe you're 'lying' by any means.

But...what this really just means is you've either played enough of the game where the majority of shaders have been cached by now so they're exceedingly rare, or they just didn't bother you in the first place. But you definitely reliably get them, the same spots as everyone else. The time taken to compile a shader is simply too long for any CPU on the market to perform them quickly enough where there isn't a small hitch.

The problem of shader compiling is a very complex issue, and as such there have been countless graphics engineer man hours dedicated to resolving this. It obviously didn't work out as intended, but most would be surprised reducing shader stuttering was actually one of the design goals of DX12 (!), and more explicit API's in general. Vulkan's latest attempt is with the Graphics Pipeline Library extension:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1cdo3d2FQk

It's a longstanding problem since shaders were first introduced. It's especially prominent with UE4 and how it generates so many shaders due to the materials system it has, and the fact its method of gathering up the data for precompiling is not as robust as it could be (and many don't even use that flawed mechanism at all). You might be surprised to learn just how many DX9/11 games precompile their shaders to minimize these hitches, they would just hide them in loading screens or startup videos. Without this step, a *lot* of games would have stuttering like so many UE4 games have.

These hitches can be reliably reproduced, absolutely no question. If you don't notice them or just brush them off when they first occurred, more power to you - I don't think the shader stuttering in this game (there are far worse examples) is a reason to write it off at all, in general performance in this game is very good. But they do happen.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said none, but I get that random occasional stutter with loading shaders but it is not a big enough deal to complain about. I mean, I have them maybe 2 times a level. Maybe it's my card. I don't know but I see no problem that isn't anywhere else and can quite often be attributed to old graphics drivers, new drivers with issues, to little ram. poor pc hw configurations, graphics card in general, being overclocked, bios issues, who knows what software someone has running. Yes I agree with you there is stuttering but, from what you are saying, then this is a common issue with UE4 games, so why complain? They obviously know about it, and again, I barely see it. I know poorly optimized graphics when I see it. It is not this. It could easily come down to an issue with the graphics engine and the developers have no control over that unless they write something to manage it outside of the core and they you impact performance.

[RunForRest]

Very interesting read , thank you, its the first time in many years that someone can explain whast goin on with UE games - on my old system i noticed those stutters very reliably and the answer was always - get a new pc - while i knew, yes my pc was old, but i also knew it was capable of good grafics and performance when the games were coded right. And all UE games had that stutter while also having quite decent fps, my guess was it had to do with streaming data and memory managment. Im glad that mystery is finally solved, although it doesnt seem to effect me anymore (BF5 seem to have that stuttering with DX12 - general recommendation there is to disable it)

[Ywap]

I tried Evil West when my cousin was visiting.

Shame about the technical problems with this game since the gameplay is great. The UE stuttering and "white flash texture pop-in" is such a turn off, otherwise i would have bought it 🥺

[Peter]

On the first level, with the giant vistas and bridge in the background, my 10900k and 3090 is eating this game for breakfast. Absolutely no problems getting over 100 fps in dlss quality on epic settings. Even without dlss I'd say I'm averaging around 90 fps. The initial loading of textures, while noticeable at times, is so rapid on my system that it's inconsequential and trivial. I keep my rig clean and lean from bloat.

[Flappy Pannus]

Originally posted by Peter:

On the first level, with the giant vistas and bridge in the background, my 10900k and 3090 is eating this game for breakfast. Absolutely no problems getting over 100 fps in dlss quality on epic settings. Even without dlss I'd say I'm averaging around 90 fps. The initial loading of textures, while noticeable at times, is so rapid on my system that it's inconsequential and trivial. I keep my rig clean and lean from bloat.

It's nothing to do with loading textures, and it's nothing to do with keeping a system 'clean from bloat". Your GPU power plays little part in this issue as well, it's a CPU/software issue.

The first level is far less taxing in terms of shader compilation than other parts of the game. I'm sure you're 'averaging' 90fps, shader stutters aren't about averages - they're about missed frames.

[dementedlullaby]

5900x 3090 32gb ddr4 at 3200hz. Stuttering like hell on Gamepass at 3440x1440p. It's okay the game kinda sucks anyway. The gameplay loop isn't that fun imo. Unisntall.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Flappy Pannus:

Originally posted by Peter:

On the first level, with the giant vistas and bridge in the background, my 10900k and 3090 is eating this game for breakfast. Absolutely no problems getting over 100 fps in dlss quality on epic settings. Even without dlss I'd say I'm averaging around 90 fps. The initial loading of textures, while noticeable at times, is so rapid on my system that it's inconsequential and trivial. I keep my rig clean and lean from bloat.

It's nothing to do with loading textures, and it's nothing to do with keeping a system 'clean from bloat". Your GPU power plays little part in this issue as well, it's a CPU/software issue.

The first level is far less taxing in terms of shader compilation than other parts of the game. I'm sure you're 'averaging' 90fps, shader stutters aren't about averages - they're about missed frames.

Could you state which levels are causing missed frames.? It'll be interesting to see if I experience the same thing on the same level. I predict I won't experience any such thing....but we'll see.

[Flappy Pannus]

Originally posted by Peter:

Could you state which levels are causing missed frames.? It'll be interesting to see if I experience the same thing on the same level. I predict I won't experience any such thing....but we'll see.

Every level you will get some. You absolutely get them on a first run - whether they bother you is another matter. Every new boss encounter gives you many in particular. You get a stutter from the very first scene opening up the game on a new cache.

Delete all your compiled caches in AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache (or downgrade/upgrade your drivers). Then play any level. You will get a stutter (or several) for every new effect you encounter on screen, and sometimes the same effects will require a recompile if they're against a different environment. Only by playing the game fully back to front, and then *re*playing it on the same drivers will get rid of these.

This hasn't been an industry problem muddled over extensively by developers/API engineers for a decade+ to solve it and you just figured it how to fix it by removing 'bloatware'. The hashtag #stuttergate largely exists due to Unreal Engine 4 games like this. You're just less sensitive to them. But they can be measured and repeated across every system. The fastest CPU's alive will reduce their severity yes, and I'm sure some of what I'm seeing would be less noticeable with a top-tier CPU on a VRR display sure, but they occur.

Read the interview Nixxes just gave to Digital Foundry about the PC port of Horizon Forbidden West, and just how much development time and effort went into a system to deal with compiling shader caches.

[rdfetghioask]

Yeah. Just bought a new GPU - 4070 ti super and I was wondering if it is my drivers fault or something else. But as I've read online, the game has some sort of a real time shader compilation issue (and any other UE4 game without proper shader caching). I'm running xbox gamepass version on ryzen 7 7800x3d and 4070 ti super as i said. So it is high end PC and im getting 200+ fps on 1440p. Nothing seems to work. The game ofc runs well if you already played the level before. Devs pls FIX. I really like the game ;)

[Peter]

Originally posted by Flappy Pannus:

Originally posted by Peter:

Could you state which levels are causing missed frames.? It'll be interesting to see if I experience the same thing on the same level. I predict I won't experience any such thing....but we'll see.

Every level you will get some. You absolutely get them on a first run - whether they bother you is another matter. Every new boss encounter gives you many in particular. You get a stutter from the very first scene opening up the game on a new cache.

Delete all your compiled caches in AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache (or downgrade/upgrade your drivers). Then play any level. You will get a stutter (or several) for every new effect you encounter on screen, and sometimes the same effects will require a recompile if they're against a different environment. Only by playing the game fully back to front, and then *re*playing it on the same drivers will get rid of these.

This hasn't been an industry problem muddled over extensively by developers/API engineers for a decade+ to solve it and you just figured it how to fix it by removing 'bloatware'. The hashtag #stuttergate largely exists due to Unreal Engine 4 games like this. You're just less sensitive to them. But they can be measured and repeated across every system. The fastest CPU's alive will reduce their severity yes, and I'm sure some of what I'm seeing would be less noticeable with a top-tier CPU on a VRR display sure, but they occur.

Read the interview Nixxes just gave to Digital Foundry about the PC port of Horizon Forbidden West, and just how much development time and effort went into a system to deal with compiling shader caches.

I paid close attention to the loading of the second level. FOR THE FIRST TIME, and was disappointed to experience NO missed frames and stutter.

I think your system must be a crappy potato and you don't know much about optimising a pc for gaming.

"and you just figured it how to fix it by removing 'bloatware'"

lol, I never asserted any such thing,

When Control was first released on pc, it stuttered badly. Which setting was found to eliminate it? Answer this question correctly and I'll take you a little more seriously.

[Flappy Pannus]

Originally posted by Peter:

"and you just figured it how to fix it by removing 'bloatware'"

lol, I never asserted any such thing,

Hmmm

Originally posted by Peter:

I keep my rig clean and lean from bloat.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Flappy Pannus:

Originally posted by Peter:

"and you just figured it how to fix it by removing 'bloatware'"

lol, I never asserted any such thing,

Hmmm

Originally posted by Peter:

I keep my rig clean and lean from bloat.

oh come on, how can i implement a fix for a problem I don't have?

Where does it say keeping a pc clean is fixing missed frames and stutters, or anything else for that matter?

[BearPajamaGod!]

Originally posted by rdfetghioask:

Yeah. Just bought a new GPU - 4070 ti super and I was wondering if it is my drivers fault or something else. But as I've read online, the game has some sort of a real time shader compilation issue (and any other UE4 game without proper shader caching). I'm running xbox gamepass version on ryzen 7 7800x3d and 4070 ti super as i said. So it is high end PC and im getting 200+ fps on 1440p. Nothing seems to work. The game ofc runs well if you already played the level before. Devs pls FIX. I really like the game ;) :luv:

Same issue. Its a shame it seems like a lot of fun but more and more it seems like UE games are just garbage in general when not shader cached.