Hard freezing?

[Tiebarious]

Dont know whats going on but I just started playing. Only up to the supermarket with Ellie and Dina.
I am getting these random HARD freezes in game. It also happens sometimes in menu changing settings trying to figure out whats going on.
I do see my CPU usage staying at about 30-45% on HW Monitor during normal game play and during the freeze but my GPU usage on afterburner goes from 80-99% during normal gameplay to 1-7% during the hard freeze. Tried watching Task manager for any usage spikes in nothing happens thats obvious.
So no CPU changes but a hard GPU drop? Happens on ALL SETTINGS even low.

I have an i7 14700KF
RTX 4070 TI Super
32GB 4000Mhz DDR4
game is installed on SSD

[halbermensch999]

Had a freeze in No Return earlier today
The built is still not solid

[ViktorReznovTR]

Has anyone noticed freezing and excessive blur when mirror mode is encountered in no return mode? It is simply unplayable in that mode.

[SomeSillyGoosy™]

Originally posted by sinephase:

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Hey personally I never had anything like this ever in other games even in The Last Of Us Part 1 on pc at launch and now but on this game it just hard freezes so frequently where the game completely stops for a few seconds then comes back like every 2 minutes more or less it depends but yeah it makes the experience pretty much unplayable which is why I pretty much only played the No Return mode so far to test things out and I tried a lot of things but nothing worked for me.

I have tried everything he recommended, I also contacted Nixxes support which they didn't help so far, I have re installed the latest drivers multiple times clean with DDU and all and now I have the latest one that came out yesterday version 576.02 and also the latest version of the game patch 1.2 but yeah still get frequent freezes which is so damn annoying.

if it's driver related system latency it'd show up in LatencyMon and tell you what program is causing it

Well I don't know about that but I can try this software LatencyMon but the thing is I'm certain it's related to this game specifically because I never had anything like it ever in any other games even Iron Galaxy and Nixxes ports so I really don't know wtf they did to mess up this port fr.

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by ViktorReznovTR:

Has anyone noticed freezing and excessive blur when mirror mode is encountered in no return mode? It is simply unplayable in that mode.

Only got the mirror mode joker twice and the performance was no better or worse than normal.

Admittedly not played much “No Return” cause I generally don’t like souls-like games, but maybe I’ll try and get more into it more.

[SomeSillyGoosy™]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by ViktorReznovTR:

Has anyone noticed freezing and excessive blur when mirror mode is encountered in no return mode? It is simply unplayable in that mode.

Only got the mirror mode joker twice and the performance was no better or worse than normal.

Admittedly not played much “No Return” cause I generally don’t like souls-like games, but maybe I’ll try and get more into it more.

Yeah same I for the mirror mode in No Return.
Although personally for now it's pretty much all I played the No Return mode because well first I really enjoy it and also it allows me to test the game especially to try to find a fix for those very frequent freezes which are extremely annoying and so far I did not found a fix for it even though I've tried a ton of different things but I think ultimately it will come down to the Nixxes patching the game.
I think what could fix this issue is making as an option to have a full shader cache compilation process in the main menu like it is in Uncharted Legacy Of Thieves and The Last Of Us Part 1 on pc and personally I did not had any issues whatsoever with those games especially now so yeah.

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Yeah same I for the mirror mode in No Return.
Although personally for now it's pretty much all I played the No Return mode because well first I really enjoy it and also it allows me to test the game especially to try to find a fix for those very frequent freezes which are extremely annoying and so far I did not found a fix for it even though I've tried a ton of different things but I think ultimately it will come down to the Nixxes patching the game.

Glad you’re enjoying No Return. I just got to the final boss for the first time, which was the Arcade Bloater. I thought I had nearly killed it, but another Bloater came out of seemingly nowhere. Long story short, Dina got killed by some puss fumes? So I ragequit again.

This is why I don’t like souls-like games, they’re ridiculously hard. If you screw up, it’s over, you can’t try again. Skill issue or whatever, harr-harr. I’m not having a good time with No Return, so I’m going back to singleplayer.

However throughout that entire No Return run, I didn’t experience these render stalls. They only seem to happen in singleplayer mode. I don’t think they’re due to shader compiling, it’s a separate issue. Likely due to MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

I think what could fix this issue is making as an option to have a full shader cache compilation process in the main menu like it is in Uncharted Legacy Of Thieves and The Last Of Us Part 1 on pc and personally I did not had any issues whatsoever with those games especially now so yeah.

I’ve been saying this from the start. Part 1 and Uncharted 4 both have a mandatory shader pre-compile requirement. Sure, it’s long, but I never had stutter in these games.

I’ve mentioned many times about the possibility of Nixxes Software adding implementing pre-compile OPTION in the main menu, but instead everyone attacked me for having outdated hardware. Gotta love the PCMR elitists. Supposedly you’re not allowed to play this game unless you’ve got 2024 hardware or newer.

[SomeSillyGoosy™]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Yeah same I for the mirror mode in No Return.
Although personally for now it's pretty much all I played the No Return mode because well first I really enjoy it and also it allows me to test the game especially to try to find a fix for those very frequent freezes which are extremely annoying and so far I did not found a fix for it even though I've tried a ton of different things but I think ultimately it will come down to the Nixxes patching the game.

Glad you’re enjoying No Return. I just got to the final boss for the first time, which was the Arcade Bloater. Just as I thought I had nearly killed it, another Bloater came out of seemingly nowhere. Got killed by some puss fumes? So I ragequit again.

This is why I don’t like souls-like games, they’re ridiculously hard. If screw up, it’s over. you can’t try again. Skill issue or whatever, harr-harr. I’m not having a good time with No Return. So I go back to story mode.

However throughout that entire No Return run, I didn’t experience these render stalls. They only seem to happen in singleplayer mode. I don’t think they’re due to shader compiling.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

I think what could fix this issue is making as an option to have a full shader cache compilation process in the main menu like it is in Uncharted Legacy Of Thieves and The Last Of Us Part 1 on pc and personally I did not had any issues whatsoever with those games especially now so yeah.

I’ve been saying this from the start. Part 1 and Uncharted 4, both have a mandatory shader pre-compile requirement. Sure, it’s long, but I never had stutter in these games. Mentioned many times about the possibility of Nixxes adding a shader pre-compile OPTION, but everyone just attacked me for having outdated hardware instead. Gotta love the PCMR elitists, they don’t want you to play the game unless you’ve got 2024 hardware or newer.

Well here's the thing I have a Ryzen 9 5950X and an RTX 4090 which is even above the max system requirements and I have issues in this game so it's definitely an issue with this game in particular since I never had any freezing issue ever in other games even in Uncharted and Tlou part 1 on pc so yeah.
Also with those games we can upgrade all the dll's especially the one responsible for the shader cache pre compilation and it makes the process quite a bit faster depending on the hardware especially the cpu but in any case I think there should be an option as a compromise at least.

Also to talk about the No Return mode personally I don't mind rogue like games which is what this mode is btw not a "souls like" especially when you can change the difficulty which is not an option in Fromsoftware games btw unlike here plus all the accessibility options so yeah not the same thing.

Anyway personally I'm just gonna wait for an update that actually fixes this issue because I just can't play like this and it's also happening in the Story and in cutscenes for me so yikes.

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Well here's the thing I have a Ryzen 9 5950X and an RTX 4090 which is even above the max system requirements and I have issues in this game so it's definitely an issue with this game in particular since I never had any freezing issue ever in other games even in Uncharted and Tlou part 1 on pc so yeah.
Also with those games we can upgrade all the dll's especially the one responsible for the shader cache pre compilation and it makes the process quite a bit faster depending on the hardware especially the cpu but in any case I think there should be an option as a compromise at least.

Hah, my PC is 3 generations below the “minimum” requirements. It shouldn’t run as well as it does, in fact, it shouldn’t run at all! Most areas actually run better than Part 1 does (when it’s not compiling shaders). Nixxes Software are notable for their PC ports, the work they did on the Tomb Raider series was phenomenal.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Also to talk about the No Return mode personally I don't mind rogue like games which is what this mode is btw not a "souls like" especially when you can change the difficulty which is not an option in Fromsoftware games btw unlike here plus all the accessibility options so yeah not the same thing.

My mistake, I thought rogue-like = souls-like. Guess they’re not the same thing, but I definitely didn’t enjoy FromSoftware games. I still think this is ridiculously hard though. I know all the gameplay mechanics, but I’m still not pro enough. The concept definitely has replay potential though, I’m sure I’ll come back to it. Gonna stick to singleplayer for now.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Anyway personally I'm just gonna wait for an update that actually fixes this issue because I just can't play like this and it's also happening in the Story and in cutscenes for me so yikes.

To get around background shader compiling, you can do “Restart checkpoint/encounter” when you get stuttering and it will immediately compile all pending shaders for the current area. If it’s a cutscene, you can do “Replay cinematic” which works too. Should be smooth after this.

But yeah, I still think an option to pre-compile all shaders in the menu would help reduce stuttering on all kinds of hardware. Unlikely that Nixxes Software will change it at this point unfortunately.

[SomeSillyGoosy™]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Well here's the thing I have a Ryzen 9 5950X and an RTX 4090 which is even above the max system requirements and I have issues in this game so it's definitely an issue with this game in particular since I never had any freezing issue ever in other games even in Uncharted and Tlou part 1 on pc so yeah.
Also with those games we can upgrade all the dll's especially the one responsible for the shader cache pre compilation and it makes the process quite a bit faster depending on the hardware especially the cpu but in any case I think there should be an option as a compromise at least.

Hah, my PC is 3 generations below the “minimum” requirements. It shouldn’t run as well as it does, in fact, it shouldn’t run at all! Most areas actually run better than Part 1 does (when it’s not compiling shaders). Nixxes Software are notable for their PC ports, the work they did on the Tomb Raider series was phenomenal.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Also to talk about the No Return mode personally I don't mind rogue like games which is what this mode is btw not a "souls like" especially when you can change the difficulty which is not an option in Fromsoftware games btw unlike here plus all the accessibility options so yeah not the same thing.

My mistake, I thought rogue-like = souls-like. Guess they’re not the same thing, but I definitely didn’t enjoy FromSoftware games. I still think this is ridiculously hard though. I know all the gameplay mechanics, but I’m still not pro enough. The concept definitely has replay potential though, I’m sure I’ll come back to it. Gonna stick to singleplayer for now.

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Anyway personally I'm just gonna wait for an update that actually fixes this issue because I just can't play like this and it's also happening in the Story and in cutscenes for me so yikes.

To get around background shader compiling, you can do “Restart checkpoint/encounter” when you get stuttering and it will immediately compile all pending shaders for the current area. If it’s a cutscene, you can do “Replay cinematic” which works too. Should be smooth after this.

But yeah, I still think an option to pre-compile all shaders in the menu would help reduce stuttering on all kinds of hardware. Unlikely that Nixxes Software will change it at this point unfortunately.

Well restarting to a previous checkpoint isn't an option in the No Return mode which is what I've primarily played because you have to finish the encounter before returning to the hideout otherwise it will cancel the whole run.
I mean Nixxes support just responded to me asking me to move the installation to my C drive which I already did yesterday because before that it was installed to a secondary drive but it changed nothing I still get very frequent freezes which is so annoying and I'm certain is because of how the shaders are compiled on this game specially because like I said before multiple times I never had an issue like that ever in any other game so yeah.
I mean right after testing this game I went on replaying for a while The Last Of Us Part 1 and no issues whatsoever not even 1 stutter and same thing with Red Dead Redemption 2 which should be even more intensive being a big open world and all but no same thing no issues whatsoever so yeah.

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by SomeSillyGoosy™:

Well restarting to a previous checkpoint isn't an option in the No Return mode which is what I've primarily played because you have to finish the encounter before returning to the hideout otherwise it will cancel the whole run.
I mean Nixxes support just responded to me asking me to move the installation to my C drive which I already did yesterday because before that it was installed to a secondary drive but it changed nothing I still get very frequent freezes which is so annoying and I'm certain is because of how the shaders are compiled on this game specially because like I said before multiple times I never had an issue like that ever in any other game so yeah.
I mean right after testing this game I went on replaying for a while The Last Of Us Part 1 and no issues whatsoever not even 1 stutter and same thing with Red Dead Redemption 2 which should be even more intensive being a big open world and all but no same thing no issues whatsoever so yeah.

Ah forgot about No Return. Although I have not played it that much, I didn’t get shader compile freezes in No Return, it seems to pre-compile shaders for the entire area at the loading screen.

My last No Return run yesterday did have a couple of long freezes (render stall), but I don’t think it’s due to shaders. Probably it is due to MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware like the OP’s issue.

The Last of Us - Part 1 runs smoothly for me, although the performance is not as good as Part 2. And it crashes the GPU driver occasionally, but it always has done. Same with Uncharted 4.

[Tiebarious]

So just played another hour and a half of the game. Started with the anti-ransome ware on and again it would freeze. Turned it off and played some more, no freeze. Turned it on, freeze. Decided to relaunch the game with it already turned off play and it did NOT freeze one time.
I am 100% convinced, at least for me, it was the anti-ransomware. No way it wasnt when i couldnt play 30 minutes with it on without a hard freeze and then just launching it with ransomware off i played 94 minutes with no freezes

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So just played another hour and a half of the game. Started with the anti-ransome ware on and again it would freeze. Turned it off and played some more, no freeze. Turned it on, freeze. Decided to relaunch the game with it already turned off play and it did NOT freeze one time.
I am 100% convinced, at least for me, it was the anti-ransomware. No way it wasnt when i couldnt play 30 minutes with it on without a hard freeze and then just launching it with ransomware off i played 94 minutes with no freezes

Did you try turning it back on, but adding an exclusion for the game install folder? If not, please can you try this? Open MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware settings from the toolbar, there should be an option to add file or folder exclusions. Set it to exclude the path to wherever you’ve installed the game. That would be better than completely disabling it.

[SomeSillyGoosy™]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So just played another hour and a half of the game. Started with the anti-ransome ware on and again it would freeze. Turned it off and played some more, no freeze. Turned it on, freeze. Decided to relaunch the game with it already turned off play and it did NOT freeze one time.
I am 100% convinced, at least for me, it was the anti-ransomware. No way it wasnt when i couldnt play 30 minutes with it on without a hard freeze and then just launching it with ransomware off i played 94 minutes with no freezes

Well at least you managed to find what causing the issue but me I still wasn't able to figured it out unfortunately, I'm only using Windows Defender as an Anti Virus and I did put an exclusion of the game folder inside Windows Defender and I even tried totally disabling the Anti Virus and then playing but I still get freezes.
So I really don't know what is causing this for me when literally no other game ever in my life has ever done that and still don't so I really don't know.

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So just played another hour and a half of the game. Started with the anti-ransome ware on and again it would freeze. Turned it off and played some more, no freeze. Turned it on, freeze. Decided to relaunch the game with it already turned off play and it did NOT freeze one time.
I am 100% convinced, at least for me, it was the anti-ransomware. No way it wasnt when i couldnt play 30 minutes with it on without a hard freeze and then just launching it with ransomware off i played 94 minutes with no freezes

Did you try turning it back on, but adding an exclusion for the game install folder? If not, please can you try this? Open MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware settings from the toolbar, there should be an option to add file or folder exclusions. Set it to exclude the path to wherever you’ve installed the game. That would be better than completely disabling it.

Yeah ill try it later

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So just played another hour and a half of the game. Started with the anti-ransome ware on and again it would freeze. Turned it off and played some more, no freeze. Turned it on, freeze. Decided to relaunch the game with it already turned off play and it did NOT freeze one time.
I am 100% convinced, at least for me, it was the anti-ransomware. No way it wasnt when i couldnt play 30 minutes with it on without a hard freeze and then just launching it with ransomware off i played 94 minutes with no freezes

Did you try turning it back on, but adding an exclusion for the game install folder? If not, please can you try this? Open MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware settings from the toolbar, there should be an option to add file or folder exclusions. Set it to exclude the path to wherever you’ve installed the game. That would be better than completely disabling it.

So i have played again. This time before launching I added the entire TLOU2 folder AND the launch .exes as exclusions all to malwarebytes anti-ransomware. I got to about 24 minutes and it started freezing multiple times.
minimized the game, turned off anti-ransomware, loaded the game back up and it played for 113 minutes with not one slutter or freeze.

Again looks like for me its 100% the anti-ransomware and the only solution I have is to disable it entirely while playing.