HOLY [REDACTED]! I FIXED THE JITTERY MOVEMENT STUTTER! [...here's how!]

[Project KV-31]

For a long time, I've been getting angry at the stuttering in this game. Been seeing all sorts of others complaining about it as well so I decided to try and have a go at fixing it. I have been getting this annoying stuttering when moving and looking around while walking on land (especially in the alien buildings) and been experimenting with ways to get rid of it and I found a very easy solution to it! I literally just did this and am so happy my game runs butter-smooth now.
Just perform these steps...

Step 1: Go to your steam library, right click on subnautica from your list of games and click "properties" and enable betas (this will install the latest experimental beta update)

Step 2: Disable steam overlay for Subnautica by unchecking the box.

Step 3: Navigate to "browse local files" and click on it to open up your game installation location.

Step 4: Right-click on "Subnautica.exe" and select "properties" then click the "compatibility" tab.

Step 5: Disable "full-screen optimizations" by putting a checkmark in the box, also check the box for "run as administrator."

After I performed these steps and launched the game, I was pleased to find no more movement jitter/stutter while playing. I was also able to crank the game to max settings in 4K and am getting a solid 60fps with no more stuttering! Granted, I'm using a 2080Ti + i7 8700 but I am sure lower end cards will also be able to gain some fps and reduce stuttering with the above fix.

[PrimeSonic]

Thank you for sharing these tips.

Looks like they make a noticeable improvement for some players even on the stable branch.

[Project KV-31]

Originally posted by PrimeSonic:

Thank you for sharing these tips.

Looks like they make a noticeable improvement for some players even on the stable branch.

You're welcome. I'm enjoying this game so much more now. I think what did it was disabling the full screen optimizations via the exe properties. Gameplay is so much smoother. Damn windows 10 and their forced full screen optimization crap. So many people have requested an option to just turn it off globally but of course... microsoft doesn't listen.

[miklkit]

Every system is different. This made my prawn worse, but everywhere else seems to be slightly better.

[sedman]

You've suggested two changes:
1. Run the beta branch
2. Disable Microsoft's "Fullscreen Optimisations"


The beta branch is noticeably better optimised than the stable branch, its that simple, you will experience better performance.

How about "Fullscreen Optimisation"? What does this actually do?

Classically, when you start a game, it runs fullscreen exclusive, so it runs with the highest priority when accessing screen and video resources - game options like anti-aliasing work as the game designed it.
When Microsoft's "Fullscreen Optimisation" is enabled, it takes your full-screen game, and forces it into a borderless window'd mode, allowing alt-tab, overlays, multi-monitor configurations, to work 'better', but abstracting options like anti-aliasing.

If you have a single monitor, are not fussed about overlays and alt-tab'ing, then you are better off disabling this 'feature', for all your games or globally, it forces Microsoft to take a step back and not insert itself so much between your game and your hardware, which will improve performance for the game you are playing. The only issues you will possibly have, is with older games which never liked alt-tab anyway.

Also, if you're running NVIDIA with G-SYNC, by default, it wont be active in games run with 'Fullscreen Optimisation', you need to change the NVIDIA settings to enable for windowed and full screen mode - another reason to disable Microsoft's Fullscreen Optimisation.

[L.Mao]

Lol, it's because the experimental branch doesn't have the stutter problem

[Project KV-31]

Originally posted by L. Mao:

Lol, it's because the experimental branch doesn't have the stutter problem

Nope, untrue. I went and reverted back to the stable version after my gamepad controls got bugged (LT and RT switched) with the full screen optimization disabled and no longer had the stuttering. I even uninstalled the game completely and deleted the left over files and started fresh and tested this. Windows full screen optimization was the fault here.

[piddlefoot]

Originally posted by Reedus with a Fetus:

For a long time, I've been getting angry at the stuttering in this game. Been seeing all sorts of others complaining about it as well so I decided to try and have a go at fixing it. I have been getting this annoying stuttering when moving and looking around while walking on land (especially in the alien buildings) and been experimenting with ways to get rid of it and I found a very easy solution to it! I literally just did this and am so happy my game runs butter-smooth now.
Just perform these steps...

Step 1: Go to your steam library, right click on subnautica from your list of games and click "properties" and enable betas (this will install the latest experimental beta update)

Step 2: Disable steam overlay for Subnautica by unchecking the box.

Step 3: Navigate to "browse local files" and click on it to open up your game installation location.

Step 4: Right-click on "Subnautica.exe" and select "properties" then click the "compatibility" tab.

Step 5: Disable "full-screen optimizations" by putting a checkmark in the box, also check the box for "run as administrator."

After I performed these steps and launched the game, I was pleased to find no more movement jitter/stutter while playing. I was also able to crank the game to max settings in 4K and am getting a solid 60fps with no more stuttering! Granted, I'm using a 2080Ti + i7 8700 but I am sure lower end cards will also be able to gain some fps and reduce stuttering with the above fix.

ABSOLUTE LEGEND !

Game forums, need more people like you champ, outstanding effort !

[miklkit]

Uhh no. I tried it and got crashes galore and no more screenies. Do that at your own risk.

[piddlefoot]

I have to admit it would have been handy if the guy that first posted that had left his PC specs so people would have a better comparison.

[Project KV-31]

Originally posted by piddlefoot:

I have to admit it would have been handy if the guy that first posted that had left his PC specs so people would have a better comparison.

Glad it helped you! ...and as far as specs I kinda did post them... roughly haha (see bottom of post)

[Jolariz]

Thank you so much omfg, the difference is night and day. I have the exact same setup except with a 8700K, and it was like I was running on a 1650ti. Now it's wayyyyy more smooth

[water]

Sadly, the frametime physics stutter is not fixed in the stable version, doesn't matter if you installed beta branch before and set it back to stable or not. The jittery movement on surfaces was fixed in the beta for almost a year now... But changing back to stable won't keep it fixed obviously (tested it right now)

Disabling fullscreen optimizations might help with other type of stutters and performance, but has nothing to do with the jittery movement. I've been disabling fullscreen optimization by default at games for years now, and obviously it never helped with the physics stutter. (Otherwise I wouldn't "spam" topics about it, also would be a little too "simple" solution for all these people to not notice...)

So if you feel the stutter caused by the "Use frame time for physics step" command is fixed in your stable build, the options are:
- you accidentally are still on the experimental branch, you just haven't noticed
- you did something else that fixed it and you didn't mention
- applying "disable fullscreen optimizations" helped your performance but the jittery movement fix is just placebo
- the "jittery movement when walking" you are talking about is actually not the same stutter as the other topics are about

The only solutions seems to be the ‘Use frame time for physics step’ command that can be changed only by the developers right now, Windows settings has no effect on it.

Disabling fullscreen optimizations is almost always a good idea by the way.

[leflur]

This fixed the issue for me! I have waited years to play this game because I could never figure out this problem. Thank you :)