Stutter/FPS Fix - Guide

[Penumbra1979]

@@@@ Problem @@@@

If you are experiencing what feels like stuttering in your mouse/character movement. Like the game doesn't feel smooth or fluid. Even though you may not be seeing any fluctuation in your FPS, or even if you are. Hopefully, this will help you as it did for me.

@@@@ Important @@@@

This guide also applies to other games and I will post in their respective forums. Amnesia, Penumbra, and Soma have slight differences. So reference the correct guide by searching their forums for my post. Please read what I have written so you have an understanding of the issue and the fix.
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Games List:

Amnesia: Dark Descent
Amnesia: Custom Stories
Amnesia: Machine For Pigs
Penumbra: Overture - @This Guide Covers!@
Penumbra: Black Plague - @This Guide Covers!@
Penumbra: Requiem - @This Guide Covers!@
Penumbra: Necrologue "Amnesia Mod"
Penumbra: Twilight Of The Archaic "Amnesia Mod"
Soma
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@@@@ Applying Fix @@@@

Now in my situation. I am trying to get 60 FPS solid in-game with no screen tearing at 1920X1080.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing

Since I don't have a G-Sync monitor which is supposed to have V-Sync built-in. I need to make sure it is on to limit the FPS to 60 and prevent the screen tearing. You can either turn V-Sync on in the game or you can force it on through your graphics card. I chose to force it on through my graphics card with Nvidia Control Panel. This way I can also force on Triple Buffering. This setting can help with input lag "mouse/keyboard" when playing an OpenGL game, which all the games on this list are. Pick a V-Sync method just don't use both together.

So good right?.. almost. So for me, I get into the game. FPS counter I am using shows 60.0. I move the mouse around and no screen tearing. Sweet! When playing the game I would find at random times and random locations it felt like I was lagging. The FPS was 59.9 or 60.0 though. This has plagued me for years with Amnesia and Penumbra mainly. Even as I run these games on a brand new computer with an RTX 2070.

So what I tested and found is that my FPS is not completely being locked to 60. I went into Penumbra and just moved the mouse around really fast. Making Philip freak out on the screen and I watched my FPS. I noticed it would go to 60.1 and 60.2. So then I thought I will force an FPS Limiter on through Nvidia Inspector, another program I have. I looked back into Penumbra's settings file, located here...

@@@@ Settings File Location @@@@

Overture:

\Users\YOUR USER NAME\Documents\Penumbra Overture\Episode1

Black Plague:

\Users\YOUR USER NAME\Documents\Penumbra\Black Plague

Requiem:

\Users\YOUR USER NAME\Documents\Penumbra\Requiem
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settings.cfg
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I found a setting in there called... Engine LimitFPS="true". Nice, the game provides the function. Make sure it is on. You can also enable or disable V-Sync directly in here if you want based on the method of V-Sync you want to use above. Just look for... Vsync="false"

So back in the game, you should not see your FPS go above that 60.0. You should also not be having that laggy/jittery mouse movement. At least not as much. I noticed a 100% improvement in the fluidity of the movement.

So in conclusion... I think V-Sync is broken, even forcing it outside of the game. I think the game engine just doesn't care... lol. That .1 or .2 for me in FPS spiking was enough to cause gameplay issues. As stated, please take the time to read through the guide completely. This will have varying levels of success for people. I will try and help you further if you have issues. Just comment on here. Hope it helps these games stay running well for the future.

@Note: If you are having audio configuration issues, please see my guide for that here...@

https://steamcommunity.com/app/22120/discussions/0/2790495976027611812/

@@@@ Update @@@@

I would also recommend that after trying all this stuff in the guide. If you are still having the problem with the game.

-Try and run the game outside of Steam. Close Steam if it is open and/or running. Then just go into the games installation folder and look for it's ".exe".

"\Steam\steamapps\common"

-You can even right-click the ".exe" and choose "Run As Administrator".

@@@@ Recommended Mods @@@@

There is really no reason to not try these...

-Penumbra: Overture Texture Upscale Mod - All textures upscaled
-Penumbra: Black Plague Texture Upscale Mod - All textures upscaled
-Penumbra: Requiem Texture Upscale Mod - All textures upscaled

All three games Texture Mods can be downloaded from here...

https://www.moddb.com/mods/penumbra-black-plague-texture-upscale-mod/downloads/penumbra-requiem-texture-upscale-mod

Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Remaster - This upscales all textures and applies better shaders, etc. Totally recommend!!!

https://www.moddb.com/mods/amnesia-the-dark-descent-remastered

The Mods listed at the end of the guide are not mine. Only this written guide is. Please give proper thanks to the Texture modders if you like their work.

-END

[Pluto]

ok but when i do the limitfps setting my mouse cursor goes willy nilly at the slightest nudge so whats the ultimate solution to every problem

[Penumbra1979]

There is no "Ultimate Solution" just experimentation, and trial & error.
This is an old game and everyone's setup is different.
If your mouse sensitivity is too high, lower your mouse DPI in your mouse software.
You can also lower it through Windows in "Mouse Settings".

[Pluto]

it does it no matter how low the dpi is

[Penumbra1979]

You may need to try different combinations of a few things.
- Try Enabling/Disabling the "Engine LimitFPS" setting.
- Try Enabling/Disabling the "Vsync" setting... in the game and/or in your GPU settings.
- Combinations of the above together.
- Try a different mouse.
- Worth mentioning, that this game is meant to run at 60FPS and not higher.
- Since this game runs under OpenGL, try forcing "Triple Buffering" on through your GPU.

If you have isolated the issue to just being when the "Engine LimitFPS" setting is on.
You may just not be able to utilize that setting.
I found, for my setup that enabling the "Engine LimitFPS" smoothed out the framerate, eliminating micro-stutters.
I had my FPS V-Synced at 60 through my GPU, and not in the game.
With "Engine LimitFPS" set to True in the game setting file.

If your FPS is hitting 60 and the gameplay is smooth,
then you may not need "Engine LimitFPS" on at all.
Thus fixing your mouse sensitivity problem.

I don't mind helping further it's just difficult to troubleshoot stuff without seeing it.
Since writing this guide, I have a complete Penumbra: Overture playlist on my YouTube channel you might get some additional help there.

Look for the " Config & Tech" video in the playlist linked below.
Penumbra 1: Overture NO_DASHES--https://tinyurl.com/22nsxdow--NO_DASHES
The Steam forums don't like links being posted, that's why I had to make it weird.

[Havoc]

There is some serious issue with lightning. I have RTX 4070 ti super, ryzen 5600x, windows 10, latest drivers. I have solid 60 fps until there is just "too much" light in scene. Even when i set every graphic setting on lowest value, i see drop to 50-40 fps (and non-linear view movement) when i look where light should be (when everything is at highest value, i got like 13-14 fps when looking at same place). I don't know how to solve this, looks like one final puzzle from developers....maybe some OpenGL wrapper? dgVoodoo2 does nothing.

[Havoc]

Edit: for anyone having same issue, try setting "Threaded Optimization" to OFF in nVidia manage 3D settings for penumbra, it seriously kills performance in OpenGL games.