[Performance] Micro Stutter

[Revelene]

I keep getting micro stutter while cornering or by moving the camera. It seems that smaller movements are not affected, but large and fast movements. Going fast in one direction is not affected. FPS is not affected by the micro stutter.

Been doing a lot of troubleshooting and have narrowed down the issue to be with fullscreen. It only occurs in fullscreen, while windowed mode is completely free of stutter. This is the first time that I have ever ran into an issue like this... it kind of baffles me as this is normally an issue with multi-gpu setups. I don't have a multi-gpu setup.

I have been trying to find a fix for this and now I'm exhausted. Anyone know a fix? I was thinking about forcing windowed borderless... but I'd rather find a way to get fullscreen to work properly.

Specs are on my profile.

Thanks in advance!

[Revelene]

Anyone?

[Manwith Noname]

You may or may not find playing with the jitter tweak setting helps.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

You may or may not find playing with the jitter tweak setting helps.

I've tried that and it only seems to make input latency go up with no change to the movement stutter.

I'm starting to think that it may have something to do with the way that full screen is handled. It just seems odd that it works just fine in windowed mode.

And this dev doesn't have proper support... this kinda makes be a bit upset because you can only reach them here or their own forum... and I shouldn't have to create yet another account... I have way too many accounts for things at this point.

[Leviathan]

Might be the camera reaching the edge somehow, can you shows us the settings you have on Options > Camera (both tabs)

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

Might be the camera reaching the edge somehow, can you shows us the settings you have on Options > Camera (both tabs)

All left untouched at whatever they are normally.

FOV

Bumper - 80
Hood - 80
Roof - 80
Chase - 80
Cockpit - 80
Helmet - 80
Rear Passenger - 96
FOV Speed Sensitivity - OFF
*the rest under this tab are greyed out because above is off

MOVEMENT

High Speed Shake - OFF
World Movement - 50
G-Force Effect - 50
Show Helmet - YES
Helmet DOF - YES
Helmet Look To Apex - 50
Helmet Leaning - 75
Camera Leaning - 75

[Leviathan]

Try to set World Movement and G-Force Effect to 0 and see if it is more noticeable.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

Try to set World Movement and G-Force Effect to 0 and see if it is more noticeable.

It is the same.

[Manwith Noname]

So, is it possible this is vsync / frame limiter related?

I can't remember if it was pCars or another sim racer but my usual setup is to enable a 58 fps limit in the driver through nVidia Inspector and enable vsync. This is partly to prevent the card from rendering endless amounts of frames I don't need but also to eliminate tearing while minimising input lag.

Normally this works quite well but I now recall that I had an issue where there would be very noticable stutters. I'm fairly sure I just bumped the frame limit up to 60 so it matched the refresh rate and it fixed the problem.

If you are doing anything such as this, it might be worth tinkering because mostly, windowed mode disables vsync, so this would perhaps explain why the problem goes away.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

So, is it possible this is vsync / frame limiter related?

I can't remember if it was pCars or another sim racer but my usual setup is to enable a 58 fps limit in the driver through nVidia Inspector and enable vsync. This is partly to prevent the card from rendering endless amounts of frames I don't need but also to eliminate tearing while minimising input lag.

Normally this works quite well but I now recall that I had an issue where there would be very noticable stutters. I'm fairly sure I just bumped the frame limit up to 60 so it matched the refresh rate and it fixed the problem.

If you are doing anything such as this, it might be worth tinkering because mostly, windowed mode disables vsync, so this would perhaps explain why the problem goes away.

Vsync off or on, same micro stutter. I refuse to play without vsync. I do not like uneven frame delivery.

This seems to be a more complex issue... only having the issue in fullscreen, and not in windowed. Leads me to believe that it has something to do with the way that it renders in fullscreen.

I'm very sensitive to frame rate and image quality. I cannot stand playing it in fullscreen with all that micro stutter. I have a friend that says he cannot see the stutter... until I show him how smooth windowed mode looks and then he notices it.. and that leads me to wonder if many others are having this same issue, but just don't notice.

[Revelene]

Patch 4.0 has been released... still having the same issue.

[Leviathan]

Can you record a video with full screen and using an OSD that displays the FPS/GPU Temps/GPU Clock you're having and write down the areas where you notice the micro stuttering?

If you can record it this way: Boot the game > Go into Options/Visuals (show the 3 tabs) > Start the race and show us the stuttering.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

Can you record a video with full screen and using an OSD that displays the FPS/GPU Temps/GPU Clock you're having and write down the areas where you notice the micro stuttering?

If you can record it this way: Boot the game > Go into Options/Visuals (show the 3 tabs) > Start the race and show us the stuttering.

I would rather not bother myself with the time it takes to record, process, and upload a video.

Simply put... the game runs like a micro stuttering mess in full screen but runs perfectly smooth in windowed. The frame rate is not affected. The issue happens with vsync on and off.

My temps are just fine and well below the thermal throttle limiter and cut off limits. I use the factory clocks for everything... never felt the need to overclock my 980 Ti, i7-4790K is at stock clocks, and Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2X8GB 1866 CL9) is on a stock XMP profile. This a brand new PC so if you were going to suggest "malware" or "virus" I'll go ahead and stop you in advance. This is not my first rodeo.

I'll go ahead and say that it appears to be an issue with the way the engine is rendering the full screen image. With how perfectly consistant the micro stutter is... it isn't actually stutter. It is a flaw with the full screen rendering process. Windowed mode working flawlessly shows that it is an issue with how the game renders in full screen... now, it could be a setting or engine issue.

The settings you want to see? The first page you request is all stock. I didn't touch them at all. The second page has as the visual effects set to their highest. Resolution 1920x1080p 59hz, render frames ahead set to 1 (the higher this setting resulted in more visual input latency with no change to the stutter), AA set to DSX4 or whatever it is called, FXAA on the highest setting, and SMAA set to off. The third page is all stock. I didn't touch them at all.

Right now, I force the game into windowed borderless. Zero technical issues. My only complain is how the AI randomly decides to play death race and pin me into a retaining wall.

[Demerzel]

I have the same problem. (amd gpu 7790 2gb).
Had to force the game in borderless window mode no problem at all. I have 60fps with current settings and in fullscreen the problem just won't go away.

[Leviathan]

If you're willing to do a few more tests on this using fullscreen, could you try the following:

1- Turn down the Detailed Grass to Low and check in-game if it persists
2- Turn Detailed Grass to OFF and repeat check
3- Try the command line -skipcrowds to disable the crowds
4- Lower the detail levels and see if it persists

Just like Manwith Noname said, when you go windowed or borderless, there's no vsync active so that might explain it. Whenever you change v-sync you have to restart the game for it to take effect.

[Revelene]

Originally posted by Leviathan:

If you're willing to do a few more tests on this using fullscreen, could you try the following:

1- Turn down the Detailed Grass to Low and check in-game if it persists
2- Turn Detailed Grass to OFF and repeat check
3- Try the command line -skipcrowds to disable the crowds
4- Lower the detail levels and see if it persists

Just like Manwith Noname said, when you go windowed or borderless, there's no vsync active so that might explain it. Whenever you change v-sync you have to restart the game for it to take effect.

1. Done it, no change.
2. Done it, no change.
3. Done it, no change.
4. Done it, no change.

I shouldn't have no lower graphical settings anyways... especially on a high end system. V-Sync is active in windowed... where did you get that false information about vsync not working in windowed?? It works wonderful with a solid 60 FPS Vertical Sync in windowed mode. Full screen... not so much.

I know I have to restart the game for graphical settings to take effect... I'm not blind to the message that pops up that requires a button press for it to be acknowledged.

And again, in full screen, vsync on or off produces the same micro stutter-like results. Windowed mode works flawlessly.