FPS / STUTTERING FIX

[felps]

This is a old tip but its worth to check it out to see if it helps any1 who has FPS problems:

Go to where you instaled the game; common/no mans sky/binaries/settings and edit with notepad the TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.

Search for NumHighThreads and NumLowThreads and change their values: Since I have i5-8400 and it has 6 cores I put:
NumHighThreads = 4 and NumLowThreads = 2

So if your CPU has 4 cores I guess you should try:
NumHighThreads = 3 and NumLowThreads = 1

I was stuttering A LOT everytime I ran or used the jetpack and now its a solid 60fps with no drops.

[Bloodrider]

Publicado originalmente por MaIheX:

IMPORTANT TLDR:
NumLowThreads = "0" is the only setting you need.
It will pretty much nullify all stutters / freeze ups / rubberbanding you might have.
NumHighThreads, try anything starting with 0 and as much as you like to see what works best for you (very likely will have no noticeable difference though when having NumLowThreads at 0).

The FPS will still drop if some delayed generation occurs of a lot of things, but the game will not freeze or stutter at all and will be smooth, sometimes even unnoticeable.
Please update OP with this so more would see.

No matter what settings, the game still always used AT LEAST 2 cores at almost 100%, then other 2 usually at up to 50%.


TESTING DONE:
I did some testing on 3600 (6 core / 12 thread), and it appears what causes stutters/rubberbanding seems to be only the NumLowThreads setting.

Any setting besides NumLowThreads = "0" will cause stutters.

Even NumHighThreads 1 and NumLowThreads 0 is better than NumHighThreads 0 and NumLowThreads 6.

The more NumLowThreads, the more stutters/micro freezes/rubberbanding you'll have.

NumHighThreads 4, NumLowThreads 0, perfectly smooth.
NumHighThreads 4, NumLowThreads 2, causes minor stutters.

NumHighThreads 0, NumLowThreads 0, perfectly smooth.
NumHighThreads 0, NumLowThreads 6, a lot of stutters.

NumHighThreads 48, NumLowThreads 0, smooth and no stutters, even though there's 4x more threads than CPU has.
NumHighThreads 24, NumLowThreads 24, a lot of freezups/stutters.


You can set NumHighThreads to pretty much anything you like, it doesn't matter much in the end. Had pretty much same FPS at various setting from 0 up to 48.

I think it makes some kind of a difference (it felt so), maybe things generate a wee bit faster, but wasn't able to 100% distinguish between NumHighThreads of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48.
I notice that with more of them, more of my cores/threads had higher usage %, so it does something.
I think maybe generation just gets split into more smaller chunks, so instead of lets say a forest of 20 trees being generated at once after a while, it generates them 1 by 1, or in chunks of 4 in 5 instances with less delay until the first ones start appearing.
This is just my speculation for now for what NumHighThreads might help with.


Performance wise, High threads maybe makes a difference, but no noticeable one on my end.
NumLowThreads, the more you have, the more frequent and significant freezes/stutters.

did this and it gave me my first crash. as of now i have 24 hours of game time, never had one before

[+VLFBERHT+]

Publicado originalmente por Bloodrider:

Publicado originalmente por MaIheX:

IMPORTANT TLDR:
NumLowThreads = "0" is the only setting you need.
It will pretty much nullify all stutters / freeze ups / rubberbanding you might have.
NumHighThreads, try anything starting with 0 and as much as you like to see what works best for you (very likely will have no noticeable difference though when having NumLowThreads at 0).

The FPS will still drop if some delayed generation occurs of a lot of things, but the game will not freeze or stutter at all and will be smooth, sometimes even unnoticeable.
Please update OP with this so more would see.

No matter what settings, the game still always used AT LEAST 2 cores at almost 100%, then other 2 usually at up to 50%.


TESTING DONE:
I did some testing on 3600 (6 core / 12 thread), and it appears what causes stutters/rubberbanding seems to be only the NumLowThreads setting.

Any setting besides NumLowThreads = "0" will cause stutters.

Even NumHighThreads 1 and NumLowThreads 0 is better than NumHighThreads 0 and NumLowThreads 6.

The more NumLowThreads, the more stutters/micro freezes/rubberbanding you'll have.

NumHighThreads 4, NumLowThreads 0, perfectly smooth.
NumHighThreads 4, NumLowThreads 2, causes minor stutters.

NumHighThreads 0, NumLowThreads 0, perfectly smooth.
NumHighThreads 0, NumLowThreads 6, a lot of stutters.

NumHighThreads 48, NumLowThreads 0, smooth and no stutters, even though there's 4x more threads than CPU has.
NumHighThreads 24, NumLowThreads 24, a lot of freezups/stutters.


You can set NumHighThreads to pretty much anything you like, it doesn't matter much in the end. Had pretty much same FPS at various setting from 0 up to 48.

I think it makes some kind of a difference (it felt so), maybe things generate a wee bit faster, but wasn't able to 100% distinguish between NumHighThreads of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48.
I notice that with more of them, more of my cores/threads had higher usage %, so it does something.
I think maybe generation just gets split into more smaller chunks, so instead of lets say a forest of 20 trees being generated at once after a while, it generates them 1 by 1, or in chunks of 4 in 5 instances with less delay until the first ones start appearing.
This is just my speculation for now for what NumHighThreads might help with.


Performance wise, High threads maybe makes a difference, but no noticeable one on my end.
NumLowThreads, the more you have, the more frequent and significant freezes/stutters.

did this and it gave me my first crash. as of now i have 24 hours of game time, never had one before

Hello my fellow Traveler...

No Man's Sky has changed dramatically (LOTS of update and patches + change from openGL to Vulkan) since this thread full of misguided "tip-and-tricks" was started.

There is nothing in TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS you need to mod, unless you simply like to tinker in a way that has the potential to perhaps corrupt game saves ?

Best thing to do now would be to "delete" only the TKGRAPHICS file and restart the game (it could have become corrupted)... the game engine will detect your system and rewrite it to defaults based upon your systems capabilities.

If you are trying to squeeze the last few MHZ of use out of an old PC or worse, trying to run it on a lackluster_laptop, well that a personal choice for the tinker'ers.

If you are having specific issues, post on the technical help forum and/or submit to Hello Games "Zendesk" for help.

Good Luck and have fun

[bigbadbedwetter]

I posted in this thread (#38) that it worked for me back in late 2019. More recently, editing NumHigh/LowThreads hasn't worked for me since the first Expedition. Now the only thing that helps is the below guide which reduces stutters for me about 90%. However prompted by this thread...
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/3430075523247103249/
I finally tried GOG's NMS version a week ago and found it has no stutters at all with all the same settings. I don't know why this is. Taskmanager shows lower CPU and GPU usage for NMS GOG as opposed to NMS Steam (CPU 85%, GPU 50%: 98% CPU, 60-80% GPU respectively). I'm still trying to maybe figure it out to see if NMS Steam can be tweaked to run the same as NMS GOG. My system specs are in the guide below.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2674593677

[I Am Groot]

I have 16 cores, 4 of them are E-cores, so I put 16 on High and 4 on Low. The performance is much improved but still bad in some ways, but better in MS Store version.

[DEDloc_©]

This tweak does nothing. Hasn't for about 2 years. The values are hard coded. You could delete both entries, set read only for the entire folder, and the game will still run.

That being said, if you feel you are getting something out of it, feel free to change whatever you like.

You're the one who knows your PC best.

[Isthatyoudave?]

The game sets these settings on what it detects and gets it wrong constantly. My two threads settings are different every install or config delete. Some times the highs are higher than the lows sometimes its the other way around. The engine just doesnt work most people will have stutters when flying around and when going up the ramps in the stations for the first time.

Ive just started a new game and the starting planet had invisible mountains that stopped the ship dead way about the ground and then had dissapearing eggs that rolled under the ground. It laughable how bad the game is.

[+VLFBERHT+]

Publicado originalmente por bigbadbedwetter:

I posted in this thread (#38) that it worked for me back in late 2019. More recently, editing NumHigh/LowThreads hasn't worked for me since the first Expedition. Now the only thing that helps is the below guide which reduces stutters for me about 90%. However prompted by this thread...
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/3430075523247103249/
I finally tried GOG's NMS version a week ago and found it has no stutters at all with all the same settings. I don't know why this is. Taskmanager shows lower CPU and GPU usage for NMS GOG as opposed to NMS Steam (CPU 85%, GPU 50%: 98% CPU, 60-80% GPU respectively). I'm still trying to maybe figure it out to see if NMS Steam can be tweaked to run the same as NMS GOG. My system specs are in the guide below.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2674593677

A couple THings i found affected NMS gameplay and SAVES integrity for me...

- Turned off Cloud backup/saves... instead, simply backup the NMS save folder after each session (or however many you see fit)

- I tried turning "On" Steam cache scheme settings, "Enable Shader Pre-Caching" and "Allow background processing of Vulkan shaders" ... With these settings On, NMS loads after launch much faster and also "seemingly" many areas streamed in faster, slightly less pop-in of objects/assets on terrain BUT, after awhile of playing with these features enabled, began experiencing a "stick-slip" like stutter as i move about or turn my view while standing in place, disabling these features eliminated the issue.

[Hawara]

I don't know why people here say this doesn't do anything anymore but i just fixed my stutter issues nearly completely with it by setting NumLowThreads=0 and NumHighThreads=6.
The only thing i also had to do, is setting the TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS to "read only" in properties because otherwise it get's overwritten every time when the game is started.

Edit: Deleting these files also did the job, i just tested it

[Isthatyoudave?]

Publicado originalmente por Hawara:

I don't know why people here say this doesn't do anything anymore but i just fixed my stutter issues nearly completely with it by setting NumLowThreads=0 and NumHighThreads=6.
The only thing i also had to do, is setting the TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS to "read only" in properties because otherwise it get's overwritten every time when the game is started.

Edit: Deleting these files also did the job, i just tested it

Because changing those breaks the LOD system, you will notice trees, formations render above the ground and then drop down either onto or through the planets surface when you fly over them.

The issue is when you first run the game it does not identify your hardware so puts incorrect numbers in there. You will get stutter and the LOD system is broken. Textures will render slow or not at all. The planet textures from space dont render properly.

You may get better fps or reduced stutter but your breaking the game more. I know the stutter sucks, I have it still every build I have all on different hardware. You can tell right way its going to be bad due to how stuttery the animated starfield loading screen is or when you take off there is a stutter right away.

The game breaks HDR in windows 11. It constantly turns HDR off or goes fully washed out and it stays like that when exiting the game. Everything about this game is broken and it all seems due to how it works with hardware.

This latest patch has made it twice as bad.

Hello games need to fix this you should not have to open config files and fiddle blindly with settings in order to play any game. This should not be on sale as It has been like this for years. People are still buying this and having issue right away with more than capable hardware.

Many people find no stutter on the COG version of the game. Something is just not right with the steam version of NMS. Update always muck up things every time and i dont think the shader system works with the steam system either.

[Hawara]

Publicado originalmente por Isthatyoudave?:

Publicado originalmente por Hawara:

I don't know why people here say this doesn't do anything anymore but i just fixed my stutter issues nearly completely with it by setting NumLowThreads=0 and NumHighThreads=6.
The only thing i also had to do, is setting the TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS to "read only" in properties because otherwise it get's overwritten every time when the game is started.

Edit: Deleting these files also did the job, i just tested it

Because changing those breaks the LOD system, you will notice trees, formations render above the ground and then drop down either onto or through the planets surface when you fly over them.

The issue is when you first run the game it does not identify your hardware so puts incorrect numbers in there. You will get stutter and the LOD system is broken. Textures will render slow or not at all. The planet textures from space dont render properly.

You may get better fps or reduced stutter but your breaking the game more. I know the stutter sucks, I have it still every build I have all on different hardware. You can tell right way its going to be bad due to how stuttery the animated starfield loading screen is or when you take off there is a stutter right away.

The game breaks HDR in windows 11. It constantly turns HDR off or goes fully washed out and it stays like that when exiting the game. Everything about this game is broken and it all seems due to how it works with hardware.

This latest patch has made it twice as bad.

Hello games need to fix this you should not have to open config files and fiddle blindly with settings in order to play any game. This should not be on sale as It has been like this for years. People are still buying this and having issue right away with more than capable hardware.

Many people find no stutter on the COG version of the game. Something is just not right with the steam version of NMS. Update always muck up things every time and i dont think the shader system works with the steam system either.

I have to make another edit to above comment because after i had deleted the files it worked when i first started the game, it ran smooth. Now i started it again and the stuttering is back.
Maybe i edit these files again now but if it breaks certain graphical aspects as you say, i think i will just delete them every time i end it.
Pretty annoying though.

[bigbadbedwetter]

Publicado originalmente por bigbadbedwetter:

I posted in this thread (#38) that it worked for me back in late 2019. More recently, editing NumHigh/LowThreads hasn't worked for me since the first Expedition. Now the only thing that helps is the below guide which reduces stutters for me about 90%. However prompted by this thread...
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/3430075523247103249/
I finally tried GOG's NMS version a week ago and found it has no stutters at all with all the same settings. I don't know why this is. Taskmanager shows lower CPU and GPU usage for NMS GOG as opposed to NMS Steam (CPU 85%, GPU 50%: 98% CPU, 60-80% GPU respectively). I'm still trying to maybe figure it out to see if NMS Steam can be tweaked to run the same as NMS GOG. My system specs are in the guide below.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2674593677

I have to update my testing of GOG version of NMS running on my old i5-2400. At one point, there was a GOG Galaxy overlay error that cause the overlay to stop working. Then, I noticed that GOG NMS started behaving like Steam NMS with the same stutter issues and needing the background services fix to reduce those stutters.

It seems that Galaxy overlay fps counter slowed the framerate of GOG NMS (I estimate ~1/3 to 1/2 slower fps), but at the same time it reported similar fps to what I had gotten with Steam NMS. This slowed fps with GOG Galaxy fps counter working would explain why GOG NMS was less demanding on cpu/gpu usage (as reported above) than Steam version, and I think the lower system demand was what stopped stutters.

I tried running MSI Afterburner at the same time as Galaxy overlay fps counter to see what the fps was /actually/ at, but Galaxy overlay is incompatible with Afterburner and won't start with Afterburner running.

So, mixed results with GOG NMS in that it seems to "fix" stutters by running NMS at visibly noticeable slower frame rates (when overlay fps counter is on). I think I also noticed increased motion blur as the planet scape rushed by while doing tight turns flying my starship even though I had motion blur turned off.

That being said, I finally upgraded from my 12 year old i5-2400 to a i5-11400, and now neither NMS version stutters. I kept all my same NMS setting unchanged (even still running the same 7 month old Nvidia drivers), but stutters are gone with the new cpu, motherboard and memory. I just realized I haven't tested Galaxy overlay fps counter with the i5-11400 to see if fps are slowed with the new system as well.

Edit: kept same GTX 1060 6 GB too.

[Mammoli]

Publicado originalmente por Story of the World:

It keeps reverting to default for me after i change it. Switching to read only prevents me for messing with the graphics settings too.

Did you fix?

[momopovich]

Publicado originalmente por Crank:

Publicado originalmente por Story of the World:

It keeps reverting to default for me after i change it. Switching to read only prevents me for messing with the graphics settings too.

Did you fix?

The settings don't change anything, whether you set the file in read only or not. Maybe it was doing something at some point but it's no longer the case

[john]

I've had stutter on NMS and other games and have tried many different fixes down the years but nothing worked until now

My specs:
MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI
Ryzen 5 3600
MSI RX 6600 XT gaming X
16Gb DDR4 3200
1Tb Nvme

The following Reg edit fixed all my stuttering issues so I thought I would share it here.
I take no credit for this fix but am eternally grateful for it.




The AMD Optimized shader cache that got introduced a while ago has always caused stuttering issues for me on multiple cards (RX570, RX580, 6600 XT, and my current 6700 XT), in both D2 and other games.

Swapping to full blown shader cache enablement has solved the issue for me, albeit at the cost of some slowness when first launching things the first time the cache gets built (after a driver update, or after manually clearing it), but runs smoothly after that.

This can be accomplished with the following process:

Open regedit

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\UMD

If you have more than just the 0000 (ex: an 0000, 0001, etc), you can verify which is the entry for the correct video card by looking within each one at the top level (the 0000, 0001, etc folder), and look at the DriverDesc entry, which will list the name of the card.

Change the "ShaderCache" value from whatever it's set to (likely 31 00, for AMD Optimized) to 32 00 for Shader Cache on

Save your edit, and reboot

Go into Adrenalin and go to Settings > Graphics > Advanced, and click the Perform Reset next to Reset Shader Cache

The next time you launch your game, and the first time loading into various areas, you'll notice low frames, but after a few minutes of play time, as the cache generates, this should go away and you'll (hopefully) have a much smoother experience.

EDIT: After doing some reading recently, I came across the fact that at some point, the Adrenalin drivers started creating secondary keys for most of its registry values.The ShaderCache value described above is a Binary value, and a secondary ShaderCache_DEF string value would be what gets paired with it.In addition to the above, folks should create this secondary String value and set it to 2, as I can't find any rhyme or reason as to which value gets read.

Additionally, you can copy and paste the following into a .reg file for easy importing/restoring after a driver upgrade:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000\UMD]
"ShaderCache"=hex:32,00
"ShaderCache_DEF"="2"





Let me know how you get on with this fix

[Sloptok]

Publicado originalmente por Delu:

Best would be if they would clearly communicate what those settings/ parameters are doing exactly because the user obviously only interprets what seems likely without actually knowing.

On my System I observed that with low Threads at only 1 terrain loading often seems to be delayed.

Publicado originalmente por MaIheX:

try this following setting:
1.Click on Windows Start and Search for Exploit Protection, open it
2.Click On the Program Settings Tab
3.Click On The + Add Programs To Customize
4.Click On Choose Exact File Path
5.Find Game .exe File Which You would Like To Try To Remove Stutter Click Open
6.On Programs Settings For Game Opened ,Scroll Down To Control Flow Guard (NOTE: Never Use This From Global Setting, Use Only For Single Game Files)
7.Put Check Mark In Override System Settings And Turn From On To Off And Apply (NOTE AGAIN: DO NOT turn this off under Global Settings)
8.Restart computer

This also helped a lot.

A bit more on disabling Windows 10 Control Flow Guard for individual Games (warning: only do this as mentioned in the above quote for individual programs/ games and not system wide/ globally as it is a useful security feature in general):

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/277220/disabling-windows-control-flow-guard-fixes-bad-per/

I can't thank you enough!

I've been having performance issues since 2019! tried every troubleshooting method that mentioned "low GPU" usage. almost went insane about it because a 5800 x3d + 4080 shouldn't only get 15-30 FPS with constant stuttering regardless of graphics settings.

sometimes the FPS went up to my limit of 161. but everytime I went to another freighter, planet, base or space station the frame rate started lagging again for a couple of seconds. space fights and ground fights were almost unbearable.

now my GPU usage went form 1 - 2 % to 20 - 40 %.
graphics settings are maxed at ultra.
FPS are almost always capped at my limit of 161 and occasionally dropping to 100.
everything is buttery smooth, no lags, no stuttering.

I can finally enjoy the game again!