Running Google Chrome Browser in Background Solves Perfomance Issues

[PerfectCr]

I was skeptical about the Registry fixes, and I heard about the "Chrome fix", so I decided to do a small experiement. I reversed the registry changes, and lauched the game. Instant 20 FPS (as measured by Fraps) on the first level again. This is with a GTX 770 (latest 331.58 Drivers) and a Core i5-3550.

Closed the game. Opened the Google Chrome broswer and minimized the window, reloaded DX:HRDC and it's BACK TO a smooth 60 FPS (w/V-Sync on)

Try it. This explains why performance was so good the first time I ran the game, but horrendous the second time. I had Chrome open in the background the first time I ran the game! Otherwise, how possibly could performance change that dramtically? I've never seen that before.

I am not techical enough to know why this is the case, but I just tested and verified that simply having Chrome open in the background fixes the performance issues WITHOUT having the edit your Registry. Would love your feedback, thanks!

[Shifroval]

I still think the issue is in the timer resolution. You can lower it with this simple tool (just use 1.0, it works just as fine as 2.0)
http://www.lucashale.com/timer-resolution/
and check if it makes any difference. Also there is a system service that lowers it, it's more convenient to use (and I also use it btw)
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=376458

[blackguard]

Cheers mate, the timer resolution helped with the streaming/stuttering, but I still get better performance in conjunction with jobstealing and fetch4 at 0 than with just timer + js/f4 1

[Smokey]

this is just as stupid as the one yesterday there was saying,
open and run a video player and make it reapeat all the time that should be a fix!

serious wtf have you people smoked crack?
(open and run other programs in the background can never be a fix or solution and will never be)

[Hatman]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ⇜SleepySanta⇝:

this is just as stupid as the one yesterday there was saying,
open and run a video player and make it reapeat all the time that should be a fix!

serious wtf have you people smoked crack?
(open and run other programs in the background can never be a fix or solution and will never be)

A viable longterm solution? No.
A workaround? Yes.

You may wanna start upgrading that 486 Win95 box of yours, its outdated..

[PerfectCr]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ⇜SleepySanta⇝:

this is just as stupid as the one yesterday there was saying,
open and run a video player and make it reapeat all the time that should be a fix!

serious wtf have you people smoked crack?
(open and run other programs in the background can never be a fix or solution and will never be)

I agree! I am not advocating this the RIGHT thing to do, it's a workaround as Hatman noted in the post above me. It is unaccetable and the game should be patched ASAP. For now however, this is a fix that works to get the game running as it should.

[Bilateralrope]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ⇜SleepySanta⇝:

this is just as stupid as the one yesterday there was saying,
open and run a video player and make it reapeat all the time that should be a fix!

serious wtf have you people smoked crack?
(open and run other programs in the background can never be a fix or solution and will never be)

The only problem with what you are saying is that this fix works. Somehow.

[ackrueger]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bilateralrope:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ⇜SleepySanta⇝:

this is just as stupid as the one yesterday there was saying,
open and run a video player and make it reapeat all the time that should be a fix!

serious wtf have you people smoked crack?
(open and run other programs in the background can never be a fix or solution and will never be)

The only problem with what you are saying is that this fix works. Somehow.

Works indeed, just gave it a try. Now how would be the best way to let Eidos be aware of this? Support ticket or via related forums?

[PerfectCr]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ackrueger:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bilateralrope:

The only problem with what you are saying is that this fix works. Somehow.

Works indeed, just gave it a try. Now how would be the best way to let Eidos be aware of this? Support ticket or via related forums?

I heard it was posted on their forums (not verfied by me) and I sent them numerous tweets. Not sure if they read their Twitter mentions like other companies. I can't imagine they don't know about it. There was also a new Nvidia driver released at the same time as this game so who knows.

[DrZann]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από ackrueger:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Bilateralrope:

The only problem with what you are saying is that this fix works. Somehow.

Works indeed, just gave it a try. Now how would be the best way to let Eidos be aware of this? Support ticket or via related forums?

It would probably be a good idea to post it on the official forums. The devs are looking for feedback but it seems not a lot of folks are posting their issues over there.

[phittte]

Works with Opera as well. Nice! But it's quite embarassing that you have to use such a workaround for an AAA title that worked fine before the DC edition came out.

[Quietman]

Erm, wow. I have to say I have just run the game for the first time without Chrome running in the background and sure enough, low FPS for me too. Bizzare.

[crossroach]

I'll try to shed some light on this as it reminds me of a similar story. Back in the day AOC, WOW and some other games were reported to gain a FPS increase when you had windows media player running (minimized) while playing.

If i remember correctly it was due to the fact that when you loaded the WMP dlls, a function that modified cpu cycle distribution was executed. Apparently it was originally meant to help with playing high res videos with hq sound in real time and the side effect was fps increase in certain games. (note that this isnt my own research, i've read this explanation somewhere when i was googling the original story couple of years ago).

Nowadays most browsers have webgl support built in (html5 canvas feature) so it might execute similar "optimalization" function as WMP.

Anyway, thats just my theory, take it with a grain of salt :)

[Sugoi]

Crossroach, that is precisely it. Windows uses different (more precise) memory timings during media playback, so you'll likely see an improvement if you have those enabled. GW2 had the exact same problem for a few weeks after it came out.

I'm relatively certain that selecting "maximize performance" in the nvidia control panel does this too, though.

[liquidken420]

I, like crossroach, recall this happening with AoC, WoW and Windows Media Player. (Of course, back then, AoC was so foooked up that you'd get higher fps with HIGH settings than with LOW settings.) With WMP, as I recall, some background processes weren't available until WMP was opened, and the availability of these background processes (certain .dll's like crossroach said) helped some games run better. I'm sure a similar situation is happening here. Browsers nowadays need to access a lot of the same media related functions that WMP does, perhaps even moreso, and since Opera & Chrome deal with video hardware accelleration differently than Internet Explorer & Firefox, perhaps that's why the performance increase seems to happen with Opera & Chrome, but not (to my knowledge) IE & Firefox.

[PerfectCr]

Good info, so I assume the patch would conceiveably add some kind of "flag" to enable these functions?