Critical framerate issues

[The Grim Heaper]

I'm not sure what I did, but when I entered the courthouse in the beginning of the game, the framerate sharply dropped for no reason and gameplay became unbearably slow. Every single moment prior ran perfectly fine, and all the cutscenes work fine regardless. But when it comes to actually controlling Batman, the framerate again drops and it feels like time is running at half-speed.

I used the ingame benchmark test and it showed a maximum framerate of 60 fps, down to a minimum of TWELVE. I don't understand what is causing this, nor why it chose to start happening in the courthouse of all places. I've tried restarting the game and restarting my entire computer, to no avail.

Can someone help me with this issue?

[Ganadara]

play with dx9 maybe?? i heard dx11 in this game is broken

[-SambaL-]

Is the PhysX setting turned on?

[The Grim Heaper]

Originally posted by Ganadara:

play with dx9 maybe?? i heard dx11 in this game is broken

That's currently what I'm doing, because if I were to run DX11, I wouldn't even be able to play the game at all. At least with DX9, the game is somewhat functionable.

[The Grim Heaper]

Originally posted by -SambaL-:

Is the PhysX setting turned on?

I'm not sure. I had to make a flurry of changes to the game's settings just to get it operational.

[-SambaL-]

When you go in to your Steam Library and click on play it will give you the option to start playing or Configure PC settings. When you choose Settings in the next window you'll see an option to enable 'Hardware accelerated PhysX' on Normal or High or to disable it. If you do not have a high-end card it's best to disable this setting. If you do have a high-end card you could set it on Normal. And if you have an extra graphics card you could set it to High to let the extra card handle all the PhysX stuff.

PhysX is basically a neat little feature from Nvidia that some (read: just a few) games offer to create realistic acting objects in the game . Think steam or smoke that moves aside when someone walks through it or papers and leaves lying on the street that fly up when you run over them. That sort of stuff. And the scene that you entered in the Courthouse is supposed to have a lot of that stuff going on. When PhysX is turned off all that extra stuff will simple not be there to stress the graphics card.

[The Grim Heaper]

Originally posted by -SambaL-:

When you go in to your Steam Library and click on play it will give you the option to start playing or Configure PC settings. When you choose Settings in the next window you'll see an option to enable 'Hardware accelerated PhysX' on Normal or High or to disable it. If you do not have a high-end card it's best to disable this setting. If you do have a high-end card you could set it on Normal. And if you have an extra graphics card you could set it to High to let the extra card handle all the PhysX stuff.

PhysX is basically a neat little feature from Nvidia that some (read: just a few) games offer to create realistic acting objects in the game . Think steam or smoke that moves aside when someone walks through it or papers and leaves lying on the street that fly up when you run over them. That sort of stuff. And the scene that you entered in the Courthouse is supposed to have a lot of that stuff going on. When PhysX is turned off all that extra stuff will simple not be there to stress the graphics card.

So I looked at the option you mentioned, and it was set set to normal with a message saying "NVIDIA (TM) GEFORCE GTX 560 or better recommended". The trouble is, a conveniently placed sticker on my laptop clearly says that within is a GEFORCE GTX 660M, which I'm almost certain qualifies as "560 or better". When I try to switch to normal or high, the launcher gives me a warning that says "Your hardware does not support NVIDIA (TM) Hardware Accelerated PhysX (TM). Performance will be reduced without dedicated software."

So now I know what to do to get the game up to speed again, but I'm puzzled as to why the game doesn't recognize that my NVIDIA card is well above the minimal requirement.

[-SambaL-]

The M after 660 stands for Mobile which is a whole different range of cards made especially for laptops and they can not be directly compared to their bigger desktop brothers. Don't get me wrong, they can be powerfull and focussed on gaming, like yours, but you can only put so much power in such a small space and not letting it get too hot at the same time. So even though it is a pretty decent card i suggest to turn some high demanding features down or off. Physx would be one and perhaps lower the anti-anilising as well.

The build in Benchmark which you can access in the game's menu will give you a pretty good idea of where and when the game will work better or worse depending on your settings.
For me being outside in the city gave me an average of 28 frames and that is with everything maxed out, but as soon as the action got up close and personal it dropped. The hallway scene where the walls are being shot up with sparks flying around brought it down to about 13 frames for me. So i will need to lower my settings a bit i think. Game does look amazing though.

I use an older GTX 260 together with an 8800GT for the PhysX. Arkham Asylum was mostly smooth sailing with everything maxed out, but that was only thanks to the extra card. Without i would've had to turn PhysX off because it was unplayable once a fight broke out.

[The Grim Heaper]

Originally posted by -SambaL-:

The M after 660 stands for Mobile which is a whole different range of cards made especially for laptops and they can not be directly compared to their bigger desktop brothers. Don't get me wrong, they can be powerfull and focussed on gaming, like yours, but you can only put so much power in such a small space and not letting it get too hot at the same time. So even though it is a pretty decent card i suggest to turn some high demanding features down or off. Physx would be one and perhaps lower the anti-anilising as well.

The build in Benchmark which you can access in the game's menu will give you a pretty good idea of where and when the game will work better or worse depending on your settings.
For me being outside in the city gave me an average of 28 frames and that is with everything maxed out, but as soon as the action got up close and personal it dropped. The hallway scene where the walls are being shot up with sparks flying around brought it down to about 13 frames for me. So i will need to lower my settings a bit i think. Game does look amazing though.

I use an older GTX 260 together with an 8800GT for the PhysX. Arkham Asylum was mostly smooth sailing with everything maxed out, but that was only thanks to the extra card. Without i would've had to turn PhysX off because it was unplayable once a fight broke out.

Okay, that makes sense. Game works fine now, thanks to you.