Framepacing/stutter issue?

[Sad Pug]

I love the game so far, it plays as good as it looks, but I noticed that sometimes the game gets one-two second stutter while moving, but FPS stays at consistent 60fps. It is little jarring.
Specs gpu gtx980, cpu i7-4790, 16GB RAM, so it's hard for me to believe it's hardware related.
Anyone else got this problem? I guess it could be because the game loads the art or something like that. Or maybe I'm just too sensitive and there is no issue ;)

[Sad Pug]

İlk olarak Sun Streaker tarafından gönderildi:

I thought something bad was going to happen, especially with the PC version being delayed for two months.

I'm planning to buy a 144hz monitor in a few days, so I'm already screwed on this game and I'd rather not buy a brand new game, a late port at that on PC that requires me to fiddle around with my monitor or modding the game to make it work. I already decided not to buy Nier Automata for those reasons and I'm honestly thinking of doing the same for this game.

It's a shame, because I was originally hyped to play this game, but now it seems I won't be able to play it properly on the new monitor, let alone making use of it.

I wonder if all future games from Lizardcube will be locked at 60fps and those that want to play on higher refresh rate monitors to be screwed over. We were never going to stay at 60fps forever, so the thought of trying to prolong fps locks is becoming more of a joke.

I don't get what is your problem. I have 144hz monitor, the only thing I had to do for 60hz was one button press. If that's what you consider fiddling (and turning off frame limiter in the options of the game, which fixes this issue - also I think some patch might have adressed it already), you should reconsider the purchase and get something else for this money.

After turning off frame limiter the game worked fine through the end, actually.

[ThreeSon]

I've also had this stutter issue, although I wouldn't describe it as a stutter so much as the scrolling in the game is not smooth most of the time.

I'm using a 120 Hz monitor so I can't disable the in-game frame limiter or everything runs too fast. The only change I've made that improves it is to disable the in-game frame limiter, and use Nvidia Inspector to limit the FPS to 60 instead.

That change (while still having the in-game v-sync option enabled), makes almost all of the scrolling smooth as it should be, except when changing direction where there is still a brief stutter until the character gets up to speed.

So, I think the problem is in the in-game frame limiter somehow.

Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64
core i7 6700K
GTX 980 Ti
16 GB RAM
1920x1080 120 Hz monitor

[Omar]

The effect when _changing direction_ that some perceive isn't really a video card issue but a problem with the fact that the game scrolling had to be rounded/aligned on the retro pixel (which is 6 pixels in 1920x1080). When you run your speed is about 4 retro pixels per frame so it's not a problem but when you drift and change directions it looks less smooth.

We tried to align the scrolling on the modern pixel back before release and it caused too many issues:
- Rendering troubles to the engine (bleeding filtering some on textures and misalignment).
- In some instances the character physics uses to "vibrate" in a sub-pixel manner which is not visible with that rounding but without you would see that vibration in the scrolling.

It's possible what the fixes we made for the PC version to adjust to different resolution make it fixable. I might give it another go but I can't really promise it'll work.

[ThreeSon]

It's no big deal. I wouldn't worry too much about it. After playing it for a while more I started to get used to it, and since the rest of the scrolling is smooth when using an external frame limiter I'm satisfied.

[Omar]

I'm actually experimenting with it now and will push a build with a debug option to enable the change. I think we fixed some wall collision bug in the game (before release) and it might be ok now. It would be nice to get it tested :)

[Omar]

So I looked at it and we still have the collision issue when running into walls.

I pushed a build now to look at if you are curious, but the option is hidden.
(PS: When a build is pushed live if you have Steam running it doesn't always see it immediately, quit and relaunch Steam to make sure you get it)

(Method 1)
If you have the debug tools enabled, go to OPTIONS->ENABLE HACK: OTHER-> NEW NON-RETRO ALIGN SCROLLING

(Method 2)
Run the update game once, then quit.
Find the game folder and go to bin_pc/config/, edit the Settings.cfg file with a text editor. In the "GAME" section around line 140 you will find this option:
NewNonRetroAlignedScroll = false,
Change it to:
NewNonRetroAlignedScroll = true,
And run the game.

This should make the scrolling much smoother when changing direction HOWEVER there are other subtle scrolling glitches. I managed to remove the issue when running into a block (not at the edge of a level) from the left side, but still seeing minor issues e.g. when running into a block from the right side and jumping, there's a glitch there

[ThreeSon]

I applied the new update, and gave a quick test with the new non retro align scrolling set to true. I didn't have much time because I need to get to sleep soon, but right away I noticed that the stuttering is much worse than before with the setting toggled to true:

When using in-game v-sync and the external frame limiter (Nvidia Inspector), the stuttering behavior is inverted - Now the screen scrolling during normal movement is stuttery, but when changing directions it briefly becomes smooth.

I then tried disabling the external frame limiter and enabling the in-game limiter, which did not seem to improve anything - still frequent stutter when the screen is scrolling.

The last step I tried was to change my monitor's refresh rate from 120 to 60 Hz. No external frame limiter and no in-game frame limiter, but with v-sync enabled. *That* resulted in perfectly smooth gameplay, both when running and changing directions. So for people who have 60 Hz monitors, that new option should serve well.

It's not worth it to me to change the refresh rate of my monitor each time I want to play the game, so I'm just going to stick with the previous method I was using for now, but I will gladly test further updates if you make any.

Let me know if you want me to check anything else; I should have time tomorrow when I first wake up.

[CrunchyBiscuit]

İlk olarak ThreeSon tarafından gönderildi:

That change (while still having the in-game v-sync option enabled), makes almost all of the scrolling smooth as it should be, except when changing direction where there is still a brief stutter until the character gets up to speed.

İlk olarak Omar tarafından gönderildi:

The effect when _changing direction_ that some perceive isn't really a video card issue but a problem with the fact that the game scrolling had to be rounded/aligned on the retro pixel (which is 6 pixels in 1920x1080). When you run your speed is about 4 retro pixels per frame so it's not a problem but when you drift and change directions it looks less smooth.

This is the sole reason I refunded the game. I need 100% silky smooth performance and scrolling in my 2D platform games, just like in Rayman Origins and Legends.

Too bad, the game looks absolutely gorgeous otherwise. What a waste of artwork and effort.

Has this issue been fixed now? Reliably and without any side effects? If so, I'll rebuy this title immediately :)

[ThreeSon]

İlk olarak CrunchyBiscuit tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak ThreeSon tarafından gönderildi:

That change (while still having the in-game v-sync option enabled), makes almost all of the scrolling smooth as it should be, except when changing direction where there is still a brief stutter until the character gets up to speed.

İlk olarak Omar tarafından gönderildi:

The effect when _changing direction_ that some perceive isn't really a video card issue but a problem with the fact that the game scrolling had to be rounded/aligned on the retro pixel (which is 6 pixels in 1920x1080). When you run your speed is about 4 retro pixels per frame so it's not a problem but when you drift and change directions it looks less smooth.

This is the sole reason I refunded the game. I need 100% silky smooth performance and scrolling in my 2D platform games, just like in Rayman Origins and Legends.

Too bad, the game looks absolutely gorgeous otherwise. What a waste of artwork and effort.

Has this issue been fixed now? Reliably and without any side effects? If so, I'll rebuy this title immediately :)

There is still some light stutter in the game for me, with a 60 FPS frame limit on a 144 Hz G-sync monitor. It's not the worst I've seen but it's definitely noticeable.

I tried using RTSS to limit the frame rate instead of the game's built-in limiter. That improved it a little bit but not completely.

[CrunchyBiscuit]

Thanks for you reply, ThreeSon!

İlk olarak ThreeSon tarafından gönderildi:

There is still some light stutter in the game for me, with a 60 FPS frame limit on a 144 Hz G-sync monitor. It's not the worst I've seen but it's definitely noticeable.

I tried using RTSS to limit the frame rate instead of the game's built-in limiter. That improved it a little bit but not completely.

Unfortunately, not good enough.

[lackaname]

İlk olarak Omar tarafından gönderildi:

Hello,

Hmm..

Your hardware seems fine. Is your screen refreshing at 60 Hz or something else?
In Options>Video you might try disabling FRAME LIMITER and see if it improves it?

The game loads the art as you approach a new location (or a door) so it could be related to some decompression or disk access stalling indeed. During our test on regular non-SSD hard drives it was ok. Does it keep happening in the same location or only happens once per spot? That would be a way to tell if it is related to that. The WB.LOG file is logging the stalls (when a texture wasn't fully loaded by the time it is needed), so maybe that will give us a hint.

Thank you for your report, hope to get it solved.
Omar

A bit late to the party but would having an almost full hard drive cause issues, I'm playing it now, with back buffer resolution at it's lowest setting and am still experiencing stutter.

[Omar]

İlk olarak lackaname tarafından gönderildi:

A bit late to the party but would having an almost full hard drive cause issues, I'm playing it now, with back buffer resolution at it's lowest setting and am still experiencing stutter.

I don't think full hard drive would affect the game directly but other components on your OS might be disturbed...

Alternative, there's now an OPENGL build in the Beta Branch OpenGL (you need to run it manually via right-click on the game name) and maybbbbbe maybbbbe this will run more smoothly on your setup?

[ThreeSon]

İlk olarak Omar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak lackaname tarafından gönderildi:

A bit late to the party but would having an almost full hard drive cause issues, I'm playing it now, with back buffer resolution at it's lowest setting and am still experiencing stutter.

I don't think full hard drive would affect the game directly but other components on your OS might be disturbed...

Alternative, there's now an OPENGL build in the Beta Branch OpenGL (you need to run it manually via right-click on the game name) and maybbbbbe maybbbbe this will run more smoothly on your setup?

I will try that. Also I recently watched a video that featured this game: https://youtu.be/DSZjBsDggg4

After watching that video, I think that some of the "stutter" I'm noticing isn't really stutter at all... It's just the way the new art was animated so that it would fit seamlessly with the timing of the old art.

So there may not be as much of a problem as I thought.

[lackaname]

İlk olarak Omar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak lackaname tarafından gönderildi:

A bit late to the party but would having an almost full hard drive cause issues, I'm playing it now, with back buffer resolution at it's lowest setting and am still experiencing stutter.

I don't think full hard drive would affect the game directly but other components on your OS might be disturbed...

Alternative, there's now an OPENGL build in the Beta Branch OpenGL (you need to run it manually via right-click on the game name) and maybbbbbe maybbbbe this will run more smoothly on your setup?

Sorry, it seemed to be fixed when I restarted my computer for a windows update, I forgot to mention it here...

Fun game btw! Beat it last night!

[~Boomstick~]

I'm another that's been having this stutter issue and i've turned off the frame rate limiter in the game options and gone to the Nvidia control panel and turned on vsync for the game that way

even tried Method 2 from the developer, Still occurs.