Input lag with controller

[Joe Biden from Cars 2]

So I'm using a Nacon GC-100XF to play the game and I'm noticing a split second input lag. It's extremely frustrating and makes dodging attacks needlessly difficult. I'm not sure what I can do to fix this - anyone here have a suggestion?

[fractal9091]

Do you have the same lag if you use a keyboard instead? I had lag with my old computer until I made a bunch of settings changes, but it was shortcomings of my processor/gpu, not anything to do with my controller.

[Joe Biden from Cars 2]

I've not tried playing with my keyboard as it's not something I'm comfortable with generally when it comes to metroidvania-type games, but I can try? I'm pretty sure my PC can handle hollow knight tho, I've had no problem with any other game in the same range.

[fractal9091]

That's what I would have thought too, but apparently Hollow Knight is very demanding. Anyway, if it does turn out to be a general problem and not directly related to your controller, my recollection is that turning off V-Sync was most important, and lowering the resolution also helped (without really looking any different to me).

[Boksha]

Make sure VSync is off. Hollow Knight doesn't do tripple buffering, so VSync introduces a very noticeable delay as the game has to wait for your screen's vertical refresh, holding the previously rendered frame before it can display it.

[sekai]

Firstly, turn the vsync off.

.........

On to the meat:

I read there is an innate input lag in the Unity itself (the engine of Hollow Knight); it shouldn't matter between controller or keyboard (I play the game on keyboard myself and I experience input lag too).The devs apparently attempted to solve it by arbitrarily jacking up the frame rate so as to make the input lag not noticeable. Doing so may or may not have made the game a lot more demanding than it really needs to be, but don't quote me on this one.

So basically, if you don't have a massive frame rate like 200 to 300 fps when playing, and instead you're playing on "normal" frame rate like 60 fps or even 120 fps, then your input is lagging.

My fps is typically around 60 to 100 during play. Now imagine the amount of rage I've had regarding ghosted/voided inputs and input lags when it comes to this game.

To be fair, it's not that noticeable in most circumstances barring that you would run into enemies and get contact damage more often than intended and occasional stuff like your dude doing questionable moves when you press multiple keys in quick succession such as during platforming, but you will REALLY feel it in intense moments such as boss fights.

Nowadays I just cheese bosses whenever I can. Sure I'm missing out some of the experience, but the input lag is the one killing it, not me (especially since the game is not bulletproof and has its share of design problems in the first place, made worse by the input lag).

[Fusa]

I constantly have around 100-300 milliseconds of input lag... Very very frustrating!
I'm playing with an xbox one controller, on an i5 processor and a GTX 960. Should really not experience input lag, right!?

This has sadly made the gaming experience in an otherwise great game less enjoyable (it's all about tight controls in platforming if you ask me!).

[danchr4]

Try a different usb port,i had similar problems and changing to rear usb ports on seemed to help weirdly and stop the delay.

[Rogue]

Slightly different issue, but I had problems with certain buttons not registering, usually jumps, at the worst possible moment. Hollow Knight and the Mega Drive Classics seem to be the only games where it happens. I suspect Unity might have some different way of talking to controllers to most other games, and there are some inherent issues that can occur occasionally.

Try enabling or disabling Configuration Support in your Steam Options -> Controllers. That seemed to mitigate it in Hollow Knight for me. Also if it's a wireless controller, try connecting via cable and see if the problem persists.