Improving the Frame Rate and Smoothness for a better experience!

[BlackLionPT]

Hello everyone! It has come to my attention that a lot of our fellow not-so-tech-savvy players are running this amazing game with God Awful frame rates / Stuttering / Lag or even BELLOW REAL-TIME SPEED, and this can be a MAJOR setback in becoming good and having fun in this game!

I have worked with KJ3400, who owns a very simple laptop with an Intel HD4000 graphics card (The Intel HD3000 tested was mine), to see if I could work out a way to improve his horrible frame rate without sacrificing the resolution / graphics too much, and especially, make the game run butter smooth on this type of systems that cannot handle constant 60FPS.

# Why should I bother with this guide anyway?

Do you know that Fish_Goes_Something guy that always DNF’s you on Dream Valley? Or any other track for the Mather? Do you find your game super sluggish, super jumpy, super non-responsive or very slow? Are you going way slower than the other players?
Well then, if any of those above is true, that’s why you should follow this quick guide!

# BONUS!

You can also use this guide to ANY OTHER game you have! Cool huh? Worth the reading isn’t it?! :D

# What will this Topic cover?

This topic will help you archive the best quality / performance settings really quick, as well as getting a not before achievable butter smooth console-like frame rate experience on your mid-low range laptop / desktop!

We will learn how every quality setting impacts the game, as well as a brand new way to get your game butter smooth after finishing tweaking it! It will be just like playing in the PS3/Xbox 360, only better!

# Additional Software required for this guide

We will be using one other program to help our beautiful game run better. The program’s name is Bandicam. I know this program is usually used to record video, but that’s not only what it can do! We can also use it to do other things, like make our Frame Rate constant and check your current Frame rate!

Bandicam is the best and easiest option to keep our frame rate locked and constant. However, if you own an Nvidia or AMD/ATI card, you can also use other software like Nvidia Inspector (For Nvidia Cards) or RadeonPro (For AMD/ATI Cards), but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll be showing just the Bandicam method, because not only it’s easier, it can also run on Intel Graphic Cards.

You can also use other software to measure your Frame Rate if you don’t like Bandicam’s own FPS meter. You can use Fraps for example!

If your computer can’t handle the 1280x720 (720p), we will need to use another tool to test it properly. This tool is “ResizeEnable”, this tool allows you to reside any window you want. This will be needed to test your game further.

I’ll providing the download links below:

Bandicam (Required to cap and smooth the game’s Frame Rate)[www.bandicam.com]
Fraps (used to see the Frame Rate, not required)[www.fraps.com]
{LINK REMOVED}ResideEnabler (Only if necessary for further testing)

# Settings you should change before starting tweaking the game!

There is one setting you should change in Windows’s Power Options, especially if you own a laptop.

First off, Laptop users: PLUG IN YOU LAPTOP TO THE CHARGER. Very important!

Now, both Desktop and Laptop users: Find the Power Options Menu in your system (click on the battery icon or go to the Control Panel), and select the mode “High Performance Mode”.
Doing this will prevent the computer from downclocking your CPU during your game section, which will give you a much better stutter free experience!

# Picking the right Target Framerate

WARNING: Your screen’s refresh rate should be set to 60Hz to obtain good results!

Before we start tweaking the quality settings, let me make this clear: You will NOT achieve constant 60FPS by tweaking this settings in a slow laptop. At least not without leaving the game looking like dog vomit :( So, our target frame rates will be different in this guide, more console-like ones!

The target you should be aiming for in a low and mid-range computer is 30 FPS. If your computer can render 30 FPS 95% of the time during a race you’ll have a very cool, great, awesome, outstanding, AMAZING! Experience!

There are 3 target frame rates you can be aiming for:

60FPS
The one everyone wants, but you won’t achieve this in a mid-range computer properly, especially due to CPU Limitations. There are a lot of tracks that will slow down to the 40’s FPS, giving you a bad experience. Just let it go. Consoles play at 30FPS too, so, it won’t be that bad, promised!

30FPS
This is the target you’re aiming for. 30FPS will give you a very smooth gaming experience. This is the number you should be looking to stay above during our test session next topic! If you can have 95% of the time during a race 30FPS+ (40 is even better), you’re going to have an amazing experience after the tweaking!

20FPS
This is the Bottom line, minimum acceptable Frame Rate you can run the game with. Anything below, even 1 FPS and you’ll be running below Real-Time Speed. You’ll be in a tremendous disadvantage because your PC will be rendering the game Below Real Time Speed, and this is what causes you to go MUCH slower than the other players. Make sure your system rarely touches the 20’s during our next testing phase, and if it can’t keep up 30FPS’s even in the lowest quality settings, you should target at all costs 20FPS’s. If you can’t handle 20 with everything in the lowest possible settings, well then, time for a new PC, that one belong in a museum!

Now then, let’s get ready to and see how to find the proper game settings!

# Installing / Configuring the FPS measurement Software

Now, to be able to find what frame rate your computer can output, we need a software to measure your FPS.

Bandicam, the one we will be using after we tweak our settings, comes with a built-in FPS meter. But should you not want to use it, just download, install and open FRAPS, as easy as that!

If you want to use only Bandicam then, for now, just download it and open it. Do not change any settings.

# Find the best and Impact of Quality Settings and Screen Resolutions

Ok then, we’re all set to start understanding, testing and finding the best quality settings for our beloved game!

Before we start, let me copy/paste this once again to make it even clearer: You will NOT achieve constant 60FPS by tweaking this settings. At least not without leaving the game looking like dog vomit :(

Ok then, let’s start by opening the Game’s Configuration tool! Go to your Steam Library, right click on the game and select “Configure”. A white window with the game’s logo should pop up in the center of your screen.

This guide will only teach you how to configure the “Graphics” part of the configuration tool, so, click on it.

When this new window pops up, we are presented with 5 different lines. Let’s see what each one of them has to offer us:

Device
This part shows what graphics card you have in your system. Do not change this setting.

Display Options
This changes how the game is supposed to be opened in your computer. Make sure that you have the mode “FullScreen” activated. Do not pick the “Windowed/Fullscreen” one, because this will render your game at your screen max resolution, making it run too slow.

Screen Resolution
This is the setting that has the most impact on your game’s performance. This game only supports 16:9 resolutions, any others will have black bars around it. Fraps / Bandicam can’t show the FPS meter properly using non 16:9 resolutions. Assuming you have an Intel HD3000/4000 or equivalent card, set this to “1280x720”, commonly known as “720p” for now.

Graphics Quality
Here you have basic click-to-go quality settings changers. You can select Low, Normal or High Quality. For now, since we need to first figure out if your computer can handle the game, set this option to “Low”.

Advanced Graphics
Before we go into this deeper, just open this menu and make sure that “VSYNC” is OFF for testing. After this, open the game with Bandicam or Fraps and do a race in Samba Studios and Sactuary Falls, the most demanding tracks this game has. Check if your game can keep above 30FPS.

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If your game can’t reach 30FPS, it’s time to lower the resolution. Before rushing in the configuration tool to get the resolution down, don’t. Fraps/Bandicam cannot show their fps meter properly in any other of the lower resolutions, because they are not 16:9. What you need to do now is use the software “ResideEnable”. Just open it to be able to reside any window you want, and change the setting “Display Options” from “Fullscreen” to “Windowed”. In the game’s configuration tool
After doing so, launch the game. It will launch in a 1280x720 Window. Reside this window so it’s roughly half the size. See how much FPS you get with this. If it can now run properly, you will need to play with 640x480 or a very slightly higher resolution from the “Screen Resolution” menu. Try a few after we’re done with the tweaking!
We did this so we can still see the FPS counter, and to be faster to test resolution sizes on slower GPU’s.
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Now, let’s see what we can tweak more! Open the Advanced Graphics menu. After doing so, your “Graphics Quality” setting in the previous window will have changed its name from “Low” to “Custom Settings”. This is normal, don’t worry.

Let’s see what each option in this window does, and how they impact your game’s performance.

The following Recommended Settings are for the Intel HD3000/4000. This settings where tested extensively. The settings that are worth tweaking for other more capable GPU’s will have a note saying so. The game resolution this settings are supposed to be used in is 1280x720 (720p).

Ambient Occlusion – Recommended: OFF
Ambient Occlusion enhances lightning by creating dark highlights on the edges of objects in order to make lightning appear more realistic. This setting has low impact on your game’s performance, but will show graphic issues in shadows when Motion Blur is Disabled. This will mainly improve a little bit shadows in objects, but only when used together with Motion Blur. Since this setting cannot be used properly without Motion Blur ON, we will be leaving this OFF. (We are disabling it and Motion Blur because Motion Blur Looks HORRIBLE with frame rates below 60 FPS, just try for yourself after finishing the guide).

Motion Blur – Recommended: OFF
Motion blur in this game gives you the sensation of going a bit faster. However, below 60 FPS, all it does is make your image so blurry that you have a hard time seeing the map. So, disable it. If you don’t believe me, try Samba Studios with it on and off and see for yourself!

Anti-Aliasing – Recommended: ON
Anti-Aliasing will smooth out the rough edges on 3D objects on the screen. This game uses a very simply blur-like method called “FXAA”. Not as good as True MSAA, but still very, very good! This will have a quite measurable performance hit. However, for Intel HD3000/4000 it should be no big deal for the card. If you are still testing, and find the game slow, turn this setting OFF. Intel HD3000 users: If you find the game jumpy, please turn this option OFF and try again.

ScreenSplash – Recommended: OFF:
This will allow the camera to have water splashes during the races in water. This can have a pretty bad impact on some GPU’s, so it’s recommended to leave it off.

VSync – Recommended: ON
VSync synchronizes the images your GPU renders with your screen. This prevents the phenom called Tearing.[zoneitastuces.com] Tearing is a break in the image on-screen, because the graphics card sent to the screen a new image while the screen was showing the previous one, making it look like the image was cut in half. Tearing manifests itself by horizontal “break” lines on screen, it’s very annoying, but while we’re testing the game you must leave VSYNC »»OFF«« so your GPU can render all the FPS it can.

After finishing testing and finding the best settings, turn this back ON.

Water Quality – Recommended: LOW
This will change the quality the water will render. Set this to LOW, since water can be quite heavy on your FPS’s! Try changing this higher after doing the initial tests IF your computer still renders above 30FPS in the water part of SAMBA STUDIOS.

Texture Quality – Recommended: LOW
Most laptops with integrated Graphics cards like the Intel ones, have very low dedicated RAM memory. So, leave the textures at a low resolution, so you can get a big boost in FPS! You can also play with this setting later on if your computer still renders well above 30FPS, and you have a discrete, but slower AMD/Nvidia GPU.

Model Quality – Recommended: NORMAL
I remind you this settings are optimized for an Intel HD3000/4000. Use Samba Studios to properly test the impact of this setting on your computer after doing the initial “everything in low” run. Normal will show most objects in Samba Studios (including the super cool Dancing Tity Cactus). However, if your computer cannot handle above 30FPS in most parts, set this to LOW. Intel HD3000 users: If you find the game jumpy, please turn this option OFF and try again.

Shadow Quality – Recommended: NORMAL
This will affect the quality of shadows in your game. If you cannot run properly above 30FPS with this settings, try running it on LOW to check again.

Now then, play around with the settings until you can satisfy the “Above 30FPS” target! Remember, it doesn’t need to stay above 30 100% of the time, but make sure it rarely drops below 30! If you couldn’t hit stable 30’s, but you stay above 20’s, then your target frame rate for our next part is 20FPS. Play around with the settings (and Screen Resolution) for a while until you have a good quality / performance that’s to your liking!

# Making the game Butter Smooth with Bandicam, just like consoles!

Now let’s go to the most epic part of this guide! Using Bandicam to make your GPU and Screen properly sync at 30 or 20FPS, so you have a constant, smooth frame rate to give you a console-like experience.

First off, you need to already know if your GPU can handle 30FPS, or 20FPS. Also, remember: Your screen refresh rate should be set to 60hz.

Now that you know which frame rate your GPU can handle, open up Bandicam.
Here is a picture of all Bandicam Settings so you can copy them over. If you don’t want the picture, below I have the settings you need to change in written text:

Under the FPS TAB, disable the “F9” hotkey in the “Overlay” part (Left side) by taking away the checkmark in the square box. Then, uncheck also the setting “Only When Capturing”, and change the FOS Limit from 60 to 30 or 20 according to the results you got before.

Under the Video TAB, uncheck the F12 Hotkey for recording (Record/Stop checkbox).

And finally, under the Image TAB, uncheck the F11 Hotkey checkbox.

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STUPIDITY WARNING (About the Menu’s LOW Framerate):

(READ THIS BEFORE JUMPING TO SILLY CONCLUSIONS)
(I’M SERIOUS, READ THIS)

Before you fire up the game, here is something you NEED to know before jumping to conclusions: The menu of the game WILL LOOK SLOWER because you are accustomed to it rendering at over 30FPS. However, try to run a race and you’ll see just how much better your game now is! If you want your game to run at 60FPS in the menus and 30FPS in the game, you can create a Hotkey to Enable / Disable Bandicam’s Frame Limiting on-demand under the FPS Tab, the “Limit” Hotkey (default disabled, F10 key). You will have to press it to enable it/disable it every time, it is not automatic.

To be humble, just ignore the fact that the menu is running at 30FPS. You get used to it after running one race, and saves you the hassle of switching frame rates like a nutjob. Seriously, just ignore it.

20FPS TARGET GUYS:

The game cannot render the initial Sumo Digital and SEGA videos properly at 20FPS. This is normal. You will have sound crackling. The menus will also look sluggish, but they will be rendered in real-time. If you want, use the Frame Limiter Hotkey in Bandicam to toggle it OFF during the game’s boot up process, and after that, press it again to activate it in-game!

Now remember! This is what you should do before playing the game:

- Make sure your Desktop/Laptop is on High Performance mode in the Power Options;
- Laptop Users, Plug the laptop to the charger!
- Open up Bandicam;
- Open the game and enjoy!

All right, all set up! Fire up the game and have fun with your super butter smooth Samba Studios Tity Cruzade Race!

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FINAL NOTES: I will be trying to make a small tool to make it easier to open up Bandicam / Set the CPU to High-performance / Open the game with 2 clicks only. When and if I can do it, I’ll post it here so you guys can use!

Also, if you guys can, please post your GPU / CPU configuration with the settings you found to work best for you! It will surely help others figure out their best settings!

Thank you for reading, hope this is helpful!

[kj3400 [Dankineer Prime]]

I fully endorse this guide. My game was slow as crap on Carrier Zone, Sanctuary Falls and Shibuya Downtown. With this fix, it now runs a hell of a lot smoother. I give this (3 hedgehogs, 1 echidna and 1 fox)/(3 hedgehogs, 1 echidna and 1 fox.)

[Mondo]

Fox ;3

[?]

...

[JaredX7]

Originally posted by kj3400:

My game was slow as crap on Carrier Zone, Sanctuary Falls and Shibuya Downtown

I'm suprised you didn't mention Samba Studios. Carrier Zone, Sanctuary Falls and Shibuya Downtown are no where near as demanding as Samba Studios. Though I have to admit that I've had some strange stuttering in Sanctuary Falls.


Also, I actually don't fully endorse this guide.
Reasons: FXAA is bad because you loose detail with it. I also think it makes it look like the game has been upscaled from a lower resolution with low-quality bilinear filtering.

Butter smooth "Console-like experience" with Bandicam. Really now? If you really wanted the smoothness found on Consoles, use Frame Interleaving like TV's have (this is how 23.976FPS Movies turn out to be a lot smoother when watched on a TV Screen but looks stuttery on your PC Monitor!).

[BlackLionPT]

@Nova:

You clearly are missing the point of this guide. What you said is correct, but not at all applicable to this guide. You are only spooking people away from the guide with your somewhat misleading points. As if the size of the guide wasn't a spook factor all by itself!

The point of this guide is to help people that are using systems that are not capable of running this game in all its glory. As such, I will answer to your two only complaints on this guide:~

About FXAA:

It's true that FXAA WILL make some textures lose a little bit of detail. Barely noticeable, but they will. It will ALSO make your game a LOT more jaggier-free, which is awesome. If you read the guide on it's entirely, you'd realize that I’m recommending running the Screen Resolution BELLOW its original one. Not using any type of Anti-Aliasing would be A LOT worse than using FXAA, because the image would be simply horrible.

To be truthful, not using any AA on any screen resolution, unless it's a 4K one, it's a complete bad move, because you'll have very noticeable edge jagging all over the place. That's why I’m recommending to leave FXAA ON on this guide: The ones who follow this guide will be running a lower-than-native resolution, and as such, they need any type of aliasing they can get to get a better experience. And since FXAA is VERY light on resources, and it's provided natively by the game itself, I’m recommending it.

About the use of Bandicam:

Again, clearly you are missing the point. You WILL get a completely butter-smooth experience when you lock your game to 30FPS ***IF*** you have your screen set to 60Hz. I even mention the necessity of it a lot of times during the guide.

Your point about the 23.976FPS movies having stutter on the computer is true. But notice how that number is not a clean 60 divider, unlike the 30FPS I recommend using in this guide. That's why it's stutters on PC screens, because unlike TV's we do not have that frame interveling mechanism.

But In this case I’m recommending a correct 60 divider number. This will make the image not stutter at all. What you'll have is a lower number of frames, making the image not look so smooth.

The two main reasons the people who follow this guide will feel the game is a lot more smooth, and completely stutter-free are simple:

1 - They never ran the game with a stable frame rate. Having a stable, constant frame rate provides a much better experience. Even if they ran it at some extremely unstable 40FPS before, they WILL like it way more when running at constant 30, especially because of not having any stutter to annoy them.

2 - Using a proper 60 divider will prevent stuttering. You probably already know this very well, but I’m going to say it so our not-so-techy friends can understand:

I recommend running the game at either 30FPS (60/2) or 20FPS(60/3). This are clean 60 divider numbers. What will happen is that in our 60Hz (Or 60FPS) screen cycle, if we set the game to run at 30FPS, the same frame will be shown on-screen twice. When we set the game to 20FPS, the same frame will be shown 3 times before the next frame shows up.

Because we are getting a stable, and consistent number of frames to the screen, the game will be completely stutter free.

The reason 23.976 makes your PC show the movie stuttering is because your PC will skip frames to show be able to send the others to the screen in sync with its refresh rate. This is because 23.976 it's not a clean result, and your screen cannot correctly show 23.976 frames in one second because of this, so, it will skip one or more frames, giving you that bad experience.

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Now, I know you that of all people, are the person who loves quality the most. Common we just gotta look at your videos from this game, they all have that perfect quality! But this is because you have a system that handles this epicness of quality.

This guide is targeted at those people who only need too run the game properly, regardless of not running it at 60FPS (since they can't), or losing a little bit of detail by using FXAA (as if they didn't lose detail at all just by using the textures in LOW), this guide is more than perfect.

Btw, KJ probably forgot to tell about Samba, because we kinda tested that track over and over and over until the game ran flawless :) Besides, Samba Studios only has issues in HIGH quality mode, in Normal all computers can run it 99% of the time at 60FPS!

Sorry for the huge wall of text NoVa, but i felt i needed to say this so all our Laptopy / old Desktop friends could understand. You are not wrong on the info you gave, but on the stuttering part you where a bit missleading, since my guide clearly takes care of the stutter. And yes, i know using 30FPS without interveling is not 100% butter smooth, but it is more than enough to be able to play this game and beat that Fish_Goes_Something guy! ;)

[BlackLionPT]

For our friends, if you are looking for quick Quality Settings to use, i got 4 video cards here with ready-to-copy-paste ones.

Remember to follow the Bandicam tutorial part of this guide, or else YOU WILL GET A LOT OF STUTTERING due to unstable framerate!

Intel HD3000 / 4000:

Main Page:

Display Options: Fullscreen
Screen Resolution: 1280x720

Advanced Graphics Page:

Ambient Occlusion: OFF
Anti-Aliasing: ON
Screen Splash: OFF
V-SYNC: ON
Water Quality: LOW
Texture Quality: LOW
Model Quality: NORMAL [HD3000 users: If you find your game stuttery, place this on LOW]
Shadow Quality: NORMAL

BANDICAM FRAME CAP: 30FPS

Nvidia GForce 9300MGS / 9200M:

Main Page:

Display Options: Fullscreen
Screen Resolution: 640x480

Advanced Graphics Page:

Ambient Occlusion: OFF
Anti-Aliasing: ON
Screen Splash: OFF
V-SYNC: ON
Water Quality: LOW
Texture Quality: LOW
Model Quality: LOW
Shadow Quality: LOW

BANDICAM FRAME CAP: 20FPS (30 if you have a better CPU, try to see what's best).

[kj3400 [Dankineer Prime]]

Originally posted by BlackLionPT:

@Nova:
Btw, KJ probably forgot to tell about Samba, because we kinda tested that track over and over and over until the game ran flawless :)

SO MANY TITY CACTUSES. NEVER AGAIN. O.O

nah. jk :P
Oddly enough my computer never really had a problem with that track, or maybe I never really noticed. My laptop is an odd one.

[Mega.]

Thanks for the help! :)

[Haruspex]

Very comprehensive guide, thanks!

[Sonic63587]

Why would I want to use screen capture software to bog down my game?

[JaredX7]

Capping your framerate using Screen Capture Software does not make the game run any slower, it just caps your max framerate...

Capping doesn't mean you loose the performance...the performance is still there it's just on standby..

[Sonic63587]

Originally posted by NoVa LXIX:

Capping your framerate using Screen Capture Software does not make the game run any slower, it just caps your max framerate...

I'm too tired to see why but this seems horribly backwards.

[JaredX7]

Originally posted by Smashbro29 - Comfy:

I'm too tired to see why but this seems horribly backwards.

Go to sleep then.

Not my fault I'm horrible at explaining things, besides, I shouldn't even have to explain something that everyone knows already...

[BlackLionPT]

Originally posted by Smashbro29 - Comfy:

Why would I want to use screen capture software to bog down my game?

I will be reforming this tutorial for a more complete and easy to read full-on guide for both low and high end computers. When it's done i'll let you guys know! But it will be mostly the same as above for the low-end computers so, do read and follow it!

NOW, onto your question:

To help you understand why it's best to use Bandicam to cap your frame rate, it's simple: Your screen can only show 3 types of frame rate without having those horrible jumps: 60FPS, 30FPS or 20FPS. When you use Bandicam to cap the frame rate to 30FPS on a Low-End Computer, you are making the screen show a constant, STABLE frame rate, just like the consoles output. And our eyes LOVE stable stuff, meaning, you'll have a much better experience.

Not only that: You will not have those "breaks" and "jumps" that most of the time will make you fail a stunt or nail a wall because the game will seem to be "speeding up" and "Slowing down" all the time.

When you make your game run at 30FPS, you will have a much smoother experience because you will not have that jumping around that you have by having vSync Enabled while your PC cannot render constant 60FPS.

The only setback in using bandicam to cap the frame rate to 30FPS, is that the menus will look slower, because you are used to see them at 60FPS. But just try it in-game: You WILL love the difference it makes to use bandicam VS not using it, but only if you follow the guide properly!

Just like nova said, the game won't run slower by capping the frame rate: It will only render less images per second, but since it will be rendering constant 30 images per second, it will look MUCH smoother and easy to play!

"But, why not just disable vsync?! No more problems with jumping frames / stuttering!"

Well, yeah, but you have tearing. Lots of tearing. Horrible tearing. And contrary to popular believe, tearing WILL HAPPEN even when the frame rate is below 60 FPS. So, capping the frame rate on low-end computers = Win/Win!

Just give it a try, see how much better the game works when caped to 30FPS if your PC cannot render constant 60FPS most of the time!

[JaredX7]

Did you know that changing the "Maximum pre-rendered frames" can help as well?

Possible improvements of changing it: Less stuttering. Less input lag. More performance. More stable framerate.

I've always had it set to 1 because I like input lag to be extra low and responsive >.<