SEVERE STUTTERING, PLEASE HELP!

[the_moon_wolfy]

GTX 1060, 16GB RAM, 3GB VRAM, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU 3.60GHz
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What gives? I uninstalled the game back in early 2022, & reinstalled it in early 2023.
I decided to make an editor battle with the semi-new *MACE* mod, and now the game stutters like crazy anytime more than 16 guns are being fired within a few milliseconds of each other.
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This wasn't an issue in the past, and I have 2 cinematic videos to prove it:

https://youtu.be/sHAkXFQU8Kw

https://youtu.be/R-XeFvaj01w

This is the Modlist I used in those videos:

• Valour
• Realistic Damage for Valour
• MoW2 Mod
• Contact mod GOH
• Realistic Graphics Mod
• TI’s Uncensored Patch

No problems other than minor frame drop in especially bad situations, but even then it was nothing like the problem I'm having now
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Now, here a video of the current project I'm working on and the stuttering I'm encountering:
https://youtu.be/Yi0wp1A396g

This is the Modlist I use now:
• MACE
• Simple Damage Increase
• MoW2 Mod
• Contact mod GOH
• bolt action rifle animation Fix
• TI’s Uncensored Patch
• Yet another TI’s Uncensored Patch Mod
• vTexture environment GOH
• WHU=WSS/Heer/Usa-Units

The captions that pop-up throughout the video will explain the finer details of the problem, but one ironic note i'll reiterate is the fact that the Graphics settings being used in this video is actually LOWER than what they were set to in those 2 older videos. Something doesn't add up. I really hope MACE isn't secretly an unoptimized mess. I'd hate to have to re-make everything around Valor's assets after I've spent so much time using MACE assets already. Any ideas? Lowering graphics doesn't seem to change it

[Saxhorn]

If you disable mods does the stuttering go away?

If that fixes the problem then ask for help under the mods section.

[SolidSpaceDisk]

Originally posted by the_moon_wolfy:

I really hope MACE isn't secretly an unoptimized mess

It is, really surprise you haven't noticed when playing first game in conquest lol. The stutter come from running out of ram, you only have 3 GB vram, plus only 16 GB system ram, it is just enough.

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by SolidFantasyDisk:

Originally posted by the_moon_wolfy:

I really hope MACE isn't secretly an unoptimized mess

It is, really surprise you haven't noticed when playing first game in conquest lol. The stutter come from running out of ram, you only have 3 GB vram, plus only 16 GB system ram, it is just enough.

See you say that, but MACE's framework is almost identical to Valor's(In fact i'm pretty sure MACE was supposed to be an Improvement submod for Valor once upon a time), but Valor runs buttery smooth. Only difference with MACE is the higher-quality models and reformed stats/mechanics, but it's very clear that the models aren't the issue, otherwise there'd be perf. drops from the U.S. tank and infantry models I'm using, but there's no such problem regarding that, so it doesn't make any sense.

Like I stated, it's mainly when the fighting starts. Only thing I can think of is MACE might have changed the shaders on the muzzle flashes & dust/smoke plumes, but I don't know for certain

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by Saxhorn:

If you disable mods does the stuttering go away?

If that fixes the problem then ask for help under the mods section.

The problem with that is that the project is heavily dependent on those mods. If I disable it, I likely won't be able to load the scenario OR try to replicate the issue via vanilla.
(Example: Vanilla doesn't have the U.S. faction.)

[Saxhorn]

You need to determine if it is the base game causing the stuttering or the mods.

I understand that this isn't possible with the mission you want to play so I'm not sure how anyone can help.

[SolidSpaceDisk]

Originally posted by the_moon_wolfy:

Only difference with MACE is the higher-quality models and reformed stats/mechanics, but it's very clear that the models aren't the issue, otherwise there'd be perf. drops from the U.S. tank and infantry models I'm using, but there's no such problem regarding that, so it doesn't make any sense.

Just loading MACE conquest already on the edge of running out of ram for me, and I personally edited the conquest file so that I can spawn a lot of units, and when I spawn in around 8 vehicles + 6 national guard + 2 usa 105 at once the game crawl to slow speed/stutter similar to your video, but still "playable". However after playing for 2-3 mins after spawning them, the game returns to normal fps (mostly).

and hey I get system crash time to time like every 10 rounds due to running out of ram lol

[Mahd78]

Mace is pretty heavy on vram. I have a rtx 3060 with 12gb vram and with mace it was almost filled.

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by Mahd78:

Mace is pretty heavy on vram. I have a rtx 3060 with 12gb vram and with mace it was almost filled.

Well if that's the case then I'm screwed. I would bring up the issue to the MACE devs, but I'm afraid they'll just blow it off with the "ghur hurr get a better PC". Don't meant to be presumptuous but that's what I've experienced in the past with other Mod devs

[Preternaturalicious]

Yeah MACE is a VRAM harlot. I've got a 3090 with 8GB of VRAM and anytime more than 50 entities start firing, the game gets choppy. Worse yet, you can cut that number down to 15 entities triggering the stutter if there's artillery firing away from the frontline, it is god awful. My guess is that they added their own particle effects and they just so happened to be unoptimized as all hell.

It's no wonder it hasn't been addressed though, because they disabled the comments and discussions on the Mod's page. You're forced to use their forum Thread system in their Discord server, which they can easily hide away and censor at their leisure if they don't want to be bothered to fix something. There's also the fact that a lot of people won't want to join a Discord server just to ask a question, so you can assume that there's all kinds of issues that go under the radar and are left to fester.

I'll give the MACE team credit though, it's a great Mod, and they at least have some sort of reporting system for bugs, whereas the WHU=WSS/Heer/Usa-Units Mod team disabled their comments and discussions section as well, but didn't even have the courtesy if linking a Discord server, assuming they even have one to report bugs. So yeah, this kind of issue seems pretty standard for the GOH modding community. It's a gamble at this point

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by Preternaturalicious:

Yeah MACE is a VRAM harlot. I've got a 3090 with 8GB of VRAM and anytime more than 50 entities start firing, the game gets choppy. Worse yet, you can cut that number down to 15 entities triggering the stutter if there's artillery firing away from the frontline, it is god awful. My guess is that they added their own particle effects and they just so happened to be unoptimized as all hell.

It's no wonder it hasn't been addressed though, because they disabled the comments and discussions on the Mod's page. You're forced to use their forum Thread system in their Discord server, which they can easily hide away and censor at their leisure if they don't want to be bothered to fix something. There's also the fact that a lot of people won't want to join a Discord server just to ask a question, so you can assume that there's all kinds of issues that go under the radar and are left to fester.

I'll give the MACE team credit though, it's a great Mod, and they at least have some sort of reporting system for bugs, whereas the WHU=WSS/Heer/Usa-Units Mod team disabled their comments and discussions section as well, but didn't even have the courtesy if linking a Discord server, assuming they even have one to report bugs. So yeah, this kind of issue seems pretty standard for the GOH modding community. It's a gamble at this point

What I'm getting from this is that there's really no real solution beyond getting a ridiculously expensive GPU is there?

[Ch53dVet]

According to PcGamer this card will be available, tomorrow, May 24th for $399 dollars.
NVIDIA - GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card.

BB is already listing it as coming soon, however, do to high demand you have to register for availability in your area. It Sounds like a deal to me if you can afford it and get your hands on one.

[Agent]

Guys todays GPU's are poor step ups in generations compared to what they used to be. Honestly don't buy any 4000 series if you can and wait for RDNA 4 and 5000 series GPU's.

This goes for CPU's although they are super fast. Zen 5 and Intel 15th gen is closely approaching for 2024.

[m1x3d_up_g4m3r]

If you have installed your game in different locations rather than where it is installed now. So say your game is installed in c or d even then making sure no game parts is left behind from prior installations say on an external drive which can cause a conflict.

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by tAnK_SkULL:

If you have installed your game in different locations rather than where it is installed now. So say your game is installed in c or d even then making sure no game parts is left behind from prior installations say on an external drive which can cause a conflict.

Nope. It's been on the same drive from the first time I installed it.

[the_moon_wolfy]

Originally posted by Stacked:

Guys todays GPU's are poor step ups in generations compared to what they used to be. Honestly don't buy any 4000 series if you can and wait for RDNA 4 and 5000 series GPU's.

This goes for CPU's although they are super fast. Zen 5 and Intel 15th gen is closely approaching for 2024.

Truth be told I'm having a similar issue on Total War Rome 2's DEI mod for a few months now, an issue that wasn't present a year ago. With every update, the Moddevs for DEI keep unintentionally adding things that make the game run like a slideshow, with the trade-off being insane unit diversity.

Thankfully i'm not the only person experiencing these issues, but there seems to be a severe lack of perspective, as the Moddevs aren't considering the average Rome 2 player's casual gaming PC they purchased with 4 paychecks, isn't the same as their roided-up supercomputers they brought 3 days ago with their expendable income lol

It's literally SQUAD's optimization debate all over again, but with Moddevs instead of Gamedevs. They just can't wrap their head around this specific problem, and brush it off if it doesn't effect them directly (With all do respect, the Moddevs are talented people, but gaaaawddayyumit bruh...)

All in all I admit defeat, so I'm caving and digging into some of my savings to spend on a new PC relatively soon. I'm not waiting for the 5000 series though, I don't have that much time in the financial window. Might as well buy something better than my current dust-bucket from 2017, than have nothing at all in 2 years because it's probs reached the end of it's shelf-life anyway