Shader Compilation Stutter

[Makaveli]

Does the developer have anything to say about the horrendous shader compilation stutters plaguing this game? It's unbearable.

[Johann Hirsch]

Haven't noticed this and no one has written about it from testers on any PC hardware.

[Unseen Unit]

Not sure if it is related to shader compilation but I do experience some massives frame drops when big explosions happens (like the gas station on Hilly Valley for exemple).

No matters what settings I use. I tested:

-With DX 11 or DX12.
-Differents resolutions (lower than my native resolution or higher via Nvidia DLDSR)
-Differents ingame settings (from low to ultra).
-With and without Ray Tracing.

I always have massive frame drops when a massive explosion happens (or a huge pile-up between vehicule. I'm between 55-80 fps most of the time with my usual settings), my framerate can drop to 30 fps or even lower for a few seconds).

If I restart a race. When the car spawn to the starting grid, my framerate drop to 1 fps and goes back to my normal framerate (can take up to 4 or 10 seconds depending of the settings used), also textures struggles to load immediately when the race is resetted.

For sure this game have issues about framerate. And I don't see majors improvements in that regard even after this new Anniversary Update.

My PC just in case it can help:
I9 9700K (Not OC)
2080 RTX (8Go) (Not OC). Drivers up to date.
16 Go of DDR4
Game on SSD (Enough free space).

I noticed the framerate can vary a lot when you're in the most demanding areas of the biggest tracks.
I don't know if a GPU with more VRAM like 10-12 or even 16 Go will solve this problem, perhaps I hit my maximum VRAM limit during the most demanding "events".
While driveing normally on Hilly Valley I'm around 55-70 fps and I can reach 100 fps in the tunnels.

Even if you stop adding content after this Anniversary Update, I hope you can still fix issues / improves what we already have. Thanks in advance.

[Makaveli]

Just about all Unreal Engine 4 games on PC suffer from shader compilation issues. I suspect it's shader compilation stutter because any time I play a track for a 2nd time, most of the stutter is gone. That's usually a tell-tale sign of shader compilation issues.

[Unseen Unit]

I tried to play 1 lap on Hilly Valley and whenever I use the restart feature, my game always struggle to load textures as you can see down below everything is blurry and i've got a very bad framerate for few seconds (up to 10 seconds depending of the settings used and in the worst case scenario I experienced).


Textures Loading: (Look at the black flag and the road texture).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032786007

Textures Loaded (after few seconds everything is fine again):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032786109

I also tried to play 1 lap and continue to reach the main menu again, and launch the same track with the same vehicule, doesn't seems to change anything, I still experience frame drop (and a massive one when the gas station explode near me).

For me it's hard to tell if my problem with the game is due to shader compilation issues. Maybe we don't have the same issue here. I would really like to know if someone have the same issue with explosions while playing with a better GPU (like a 3080 RTX or above, at least something with 10-12 Go of Vram).

But I'm agree with you Makaveli, if the game have no issue for you on the 2nd time, this is probably a shader compilation issue.

[pjedilord]

Try turning of RT AO of? dont think its needed?boasts fps.

[Unseen Unit]

Originally posted by pjedilord:

Try turning of RT AO of? dont think its needed?boasts fps.

Already turned that off months ago, same for RT Shadows.
I only use RT Reflections but even if off, it doesn't help at all.

The framerate drop seems to happens when I destroy the gas station myself or if i'm near the explosion (triggered by another AI opponent). If I'm like at 100 meters behind (like last position in the race), I can see the explosion in the distance but my framerate doesn't seems to drop.

So I guess, explosions should be optimized somehow. Big crashes with a lot of vehicles involved and flying props/debris can also affects my framerate quite heavily but not as much as a big explosions because it is so sudden.

[pjedilord]

I use quality render 88 percent what use? try post process or effects low?

[Unseen Unit]

Originally posted by pjedilord:

I use quality render 88 percent what use? try post process or effects low?

As I said in my first post, I've tested so many differents settings combinations.
And even with the lowest settings possible (I tried 1024x768, FSR2 Perf Mode, low settings, DX11, no RT features, render quality at 50).

I stil! experience huge frame drops when big crashes or massive explosions happens and still see textures loading for few seconds when I load any track for the first time or restart the race with theses parameters.

One of my steam friend tested the demo yesterday with a better PC than mine.

His config:
-Ryzen 9 5900X
-3080 RTX 10Go
-32 Go DDR4
-SSD NVMe
-1440p

My config:
-i7 9700k
-2080 RTX 8 Go
-16 GO DDR4
-SSD SATA
-1440p

He tolds me that his framerate is divided by 2, when huge collisions happens, he saw his GPU usage collapsing in these moments, he thinks about he's CPU limited here.

Something is definitively wrong about optimisation with this game.

[Makaveli]

"Something is definitively wrong about optimisation with this game."

I agree, sir. I feel like I've tried everything too. I noticed the developer gave up on this conversation. I guess that means were screwed forever. It's disappointing because there is a great game beneath that apparent lack of technical polish.

[Makaveli]

I reinstalled the game to my solid state drive and now it works just fine. Not sure if it was the random reinstall or the SSD but the stutters no longer persist.