Why does lens flare cause so much lag and stutter?

[Andreas444]

There had to be a update sometime ago cause last time I played,everything ran smoothly.But now when you go into rooms with lights the framerate goes choppy,almost unplayable,disabling lens flare removed it altogether.

[Supersniper98]

Yes disable lens flare plz, it's an ugly, stupid, outdated effect which never ran well, you were just used to playing at crap performance like the rest of us back in the day and didn't even notice. All I know is that the impact is much bigger on Direct3D API than on OpenGL, so it isn't as easy to notice on the latter, while on the former you would get <30 fps.

[vlad[54rus]]

Doesn't seem to run like crap on Nvidia+OpenGL.
For Direct3D - using dgVoodoo2 with "Fast video memory access" option helps.

[Supersniper98]

Originally posted by vlad54rus:

Doesn't seem to run like crap on Nvidia+OpenGL.

It's true that it isn't that bad, but still a very noticeable drop if you run on larger framerate caps especially in hallways full of torches.

[PsyWarVeteran]

Originally posted by Supersniper98:

Yes disable lens flare plz, it's an ugly, stupid, outdated effect which never ran well, you were just used to playing at crap performance like the rest of us back in the day and didn't even notice. All I know is that the impact is much bigger on Direct3D API than on OpenGL, so it isn't as easy to notice on the latter, while on the former you would get <30 fps.

I'm having the exact same issue and I don't know why. I would play using OpenGL but for whatever reason it always lowers my refresh rate and gap_iRefreshRate command doesn't help either.

[Supersniper98]

Originally posted by PsyWarVeteran:

I'm having the exact same issue and I don't know why. I would play using OpenGL but for whatever reason it always lowers my refresh rate and gap_iRefreshRate command doesn't help either.

This happens because OpenGL fullscreen has a problem and always picks the lowest refresh rate from the list of available ones. You either remove every other refresh rate from your driver except your main one, or do the following:
Install this[github.com] patch.
After you run the game from the new executable you will have an option to select Borderless in the Video settings, which will not lower your refresh rate. Hope it helps

[PsyWarVeteran]

Actually I just went with Direct3D, just simply disabled the lens flare effect.

[Supersniper98]

That's fine, it just may run quite worse sometimes

[Χάρης]

Kinda late reply but I realized that running this game on windowed mode is the best way to get rid of stutter.

[Supersniper98]

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Kinda late reply but I realized that running this game on windowed mode is the best way to get rid of stutter.

Running it in windowed may resolve a refresh rate problem, not stutter... OpenGL fullscreen chooses always the lowest frequency for your monitor

[Χάρης]

Originally posted by Supersniper98:

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Kinda late reply but I realized that running this game on windowed mode is the best way to get rid of stutter.

Running it in windowed may resolve a refresh rate problem, not stutter... OpenGL fullscreen chooses always the lowest frequency for your monitor

Yeah it also fixes input delay.

[Supersniper98]

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Originally posted by Supersniper98:

Running it in windowed may resolve a refresh rate problem, not stutter... OpenGL fullscreen chooses always the lowest frequency for your monitor

Yeah it also fixes input delay.

No, input delay is better in fullscreen, but you may feel otherwise because of the lower Hz.