Another Unity game I can't get to stop stuttering...

[Josh Has Worms]

I don't know what it is, but I can't get recent Unity games to behave. This one stutters every 3-4 seconds. It's VERY subtle but I can notice it. Older Unity games like Dusk are flawless. Another newer title, The Pony Factory, has a stutter issue almost identical to this game. That game is made by the same dev as Dusk, but is far newer.

Anyone know what's going on?

7950X3D + 3080 Ti...

[fug4life]

Are you playing fullscreen?

[Finley]

Unity games seem to play better for me on Windows 10 if I run them in borderless fullscreen
(ie fullscreen windowed) mode - Turbo Overkill and CULTIC in particular seem way smoother and more responsive than in exclusive fullscreen.

If you're still having problems, try using RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) to limit the game fps to 60 (or whatever your monitor supports).

[Josh Has Worms]

Originally posted by fug4life:

Are you playing fullscreen?

I've tried full and borderless.

I am running a 175 Hz monitor with G-Sync, v-sync forced on, and 172 FPS cap.

[Josh Has Worms]

It seems to vary by level. Teratek Factory stutters a ton. Outskirts didn't stutter at all. Really hope the devs do something about this...

[Finley]

Try going into the game's profile in your video card drivers and setting the power profile to "prefer maximum performance" - this has sometimes helped me with Unity games that stutter.

[Josh Has Worms]

Originally posted by Finley:

Try going into the game's profile in your video card drivers and setting the power profile to "prefer maximum performance" - this has sometimes helped me with Unity games that stutter.

Thanks, but I have also tried this. I have set this, set core affinity, set power plans, etc. The problem is something in this game itself and not something I can fix with settings changes.

[Josh Has Worms]

Hope the devs can take a look at this...

Prodeus is another Unity game that I have with zero issues. I am playing that now and it doesn't stutter or hitch ever... Turbo Overkill still has micro stutters. Ascension is a good level to showcase it. Varies level to level. I'd really like to revisit this game but I can't stand the stuttering.

[wadaholic]

Hey there, have you tried capping your frame rate? The most recent version of the game has a custom framerate limiter. Also try toggling your V-Sync in the game settings. Haven't come across this issue myself personally so I'm not 100% sure what it could be

[Josh Has Worms]

Originally posted by wadaholic:

Hey there, have you tried capping your frame rate? The most recent version of the game has a custom framerate limiter. Also try toggling your V-Sync in the game settings. Haven't come across this issue myself personally so I'm not 100% sure what it could be

Thanks for replying!

I have tried capping the FPS to different values in-game. I usually have g-sync enabled with a 172 FPS cap from the Nvidia control panel and v-sync forced on. I have tried every combination of these settings enabled and disabled, as well as every setting in-game. Prefer maximum performance is enabled as well, as a lot of Unity games tend not to play nice with default power settings.

I have a 7950X3D and 3080 Ti. I have tried fresh video drivers with a clean install. I have tried disabling the frequency CCD on the 7950X3D to force it to use the cache, as well as disabling SMT. All other drivers are current, including BIOS. 96 GB RAM running at 6000 MT/s. Windows was fresh installed a few months ago. I have tried disabling every running application and service not required to run Windows before launching the game. I tried different peripherals to see if there was a USB device causing issues. I even tried installing to different drives.

In short, I've tried basically everything possible and nothing has helped. I really like this game lol...

I tried a different PC entirely and seemed to have the same issue, but it's hard to compare because that PC is much lower spec and only has a 60 Hz monitor. It's possible my computer is the problem, but I think it's entirely possible other people just aren't noticing the problem. It is VERY subtle, but if you uncap your framerate and run frame time monitoring software, it's much easier to see the spikes.

I may try doing a fresh Windows install again this weekend to see if that makes a difference, but that is a major time investment. If I do, I will try playing the game with the bare minimum of applications and drivers installed to see if it behaves any different before I go installing my usual apps.

[Josh Has Worms]

Fresh install of Windows with nothing but graphics and chipset drivers, Steam, and the game, and the problem is still happening. Different levels show different results, but Ascension is a good one to see it happen. I strafe along the fences because they provide a good visual of the stutter. Definitely the game, unfortunately.

[Deznia]

same problem here, with a rtx 3080 a ryzen 5800x onn a ssd . it ´s unfixable as josh has worms says. Also pretty sure its the game , other games i have like helldivers 2 run smooth. hope it can be fixed , also realy like this game it sucks that it stutters.

[Danim]

Same issue here on a 7800X3D and 4090 setup, regular stutter every couple of seconds (as Josh has Worms says it definitely seems to occur more frequently on the Ascension level for some reason). Tried changing every setting, makes no difference. Also don't have this issue in any other games (even Unity based ones) so it seems to be an issue specific to TO. Its hardly game breaking or anything but it is pretty distracting once you've noticed it.

[Bobasaurus]

What seemed to fix mine is removing the fps cap in game, then using nvidia control panel to set the following under "manage 3d settings":

global settings:
shader cache size = unlimited
program settings:
max frame rate = 140 fps

Edit: stuttering is back on a different level, even after all this sadly.

[Josh Has Worms]

Can anyone with an AMD video card confirm the same behavior?

Given the devs don't seem to be able to see the problem, I wouldn't hold my breath on a fix. I'd love to replay the game if it does get fixed, because it's the only thing bad I can say about what was otherwise a REALLY good game.

[Pretentieux]

Try disabling or enabling both "Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling" and "Variable Refresh Rate" options within your windows operating system. Then completely restart your computer and try the game again. I would be surprised if one of these options doesn't fix this issue for you.

Try them one at a time. If it's on, turn it off. If it's off, turn it on. After each change, restart and try the game. This has fixed stuttering in games for me multiple times.

https://i.ibb.co/4N8dCxt/Application-Frame-Host-So-Rmwe-Nk-K3.png