Ashlands is stuttering?

[The Spice]

Just landed on the Ashlands but the stutter is almost unbearable.
I read that people had issues but its worse than I thought, while my Laptop is running very silent.
4080 is at 40-50% at 80 fps capped
i9 13900HX at 20-25%
and Ram 8 /32GB
So whats going on here? Is it just going to be like that?

[MaCarBre]

Originally posted by The Spice:

Yeah, it's the biome that stutters the most due to having most locations with high instance count, which you can't really mitigate. Stuttering occurs when you cross a 60m+60m zones, so as long you are in a zone it shouldn't stutter. When you realize the line where the stutter occurs, don't fight there.

The things you can control is to ensure you don't have additional stuttering due to thermal issues (very common on laptops, so install HWINFO tool and check which MAX temps (not AVG) your components hit when stuttering occurs). Second cause for stuttering is not pickup up items from ground. Due to an oversight by making certain locations acting like spawn suppressors the stones never despawn.

The latter will be addressed, but not sure how Devs will solve the former mentioned stuttering issues. Generally how locations are getting loaded should be reworked, and it might not be worth it considering time is would require.

[The Spice]

Im aware of the traversal stutter in other biomes aswell, but its not remotley as bad as Ashlands.
In Ashlands I fight the stutter more than the enemies, its a little frustrating.

My laptop is completely undervolted and stable, but I also tried with factory voltage, didnt change much. But I will check whether some cores/components hit max temp.

EDIT
Two CPU cores hit max temp of 88°, but just briefly. This is not even throttling territory so I assume thats not the issue. They stay around 75° even when stuttering occurs.
I watched some Gameplay on Youtube and the stuttering seems pretty similar, I guess other people are just not that annoyed by it. To me its very frustrating.

[MaCarBre]

Originally posted by The Spice:

Did you test and confirm that the stuttering you are referring to are indeed related to walking through zone borders? If you open F2 menu, you can see the instance count. When that count resets, it means you passed though a zone border. Those borders are lines of a grid and are always in line with cardinal directions. When you are aware of this, and get a feeling where you are in a 60mx60m block, it's possible to avoid this type of stuttering in combat.

This type of stuttering can be reduced somewhat on Intel CPU's by disabling C-states in BIOS (makes CPU run at max clock, without constantly switching between low and make, which also makes it more stable).

Probably unrelated to stuttering most annoying in Ashlands, but feel like I should mention that your CPU shouldn't be hitting 88°C. 13th gen Intel CPU are known to have oxidation issues, thermal problem and being unstable. I would highly suggest that you update your motherboard BIOS and apply Intel based profile on your CPU if you want your CPU to live longer with better thermals. Highly recommended to watch this video.

[The Spice]

I know about the Intel issues and limited wattage aswell. If I update the BIOS the undervolting will be locked and I will see higher temps, thats why I will keep current one.
The 88° were probably only for few milliseconds, its the MAX TEMP on two cores recorded in the whole testing. In a laptop its actually not that uncommon to have 80-90° C temps on i9 CPU honestly. Im pretty happy with my thermals currently.

I feel like Ashlands is stuttering more than other biomes, and when I check BepinEx log I can probably make out why: Its spawning lava debris, enemies and other stuff every few seconds. I also tried a fresh install and flew over to ashlands. its still bad.
I dont think its all related to zone border stuttering, because that is managable, something else is probably broken in this biome.
I wouldnt say its unplayable, when you compare the smoothness of other games like enshrouded or helldivers, Valheim gives me a headache.

[The Spice]

Ok I just checked with the instances aswell, and they sometimes go from 4.5k to 7k which actually takes like 6 secs, and in that time you might even pass through another zone to just repeat the process, which can make the stuttering feel endless.
Regarding the avoiding combat across zones, no shot I can remember where these start, and often times youre just surrounded by lava. Its not a valid option at all. This is just a game/engine issue.

[MaCarBre]

Originally posted by The Spice:

If I update the BIOS the undervolting will be locked and I will see higher temps

Where did you get this information? That goes against anything I've been hearing from players that actually updated their BIOS and applied Intel defaults profile. About few dozen players so far complaining about crashes and having thermal issues in Valheim, such as this one[i.imgur.com] - i7-1300KF. My laptop throttles when CPU goes above 85°C and sometimes breaks in a way that I have to restart it so it stops throttling. 88°C is terrible in a desktop configuration, which can and should run at 70°C max with a decent air cooler. Again, prob not related to your stuttering issues.

There are no known stuttering issues in Ashlands that are not related to zone loading. If you are stuttering via particle effects of lava and fire. Mods can also cause issues. When testing vanilla setup, you should not have BepInEx installed either. Do this test via fire staff. You should see no stuttering if you don't move across boarders.

It would also be helpful if you could record a video in which F2 window is showcasing instance count not resetting while you are experiencing stuttering. It would be extra useful if you could also upload the same world and character with which you are experiencing stuttering so I can test the same area and so we can compare it.

[The Spice]

https://imgur.com/a/p74v8L1
The quality is a**, but you get the experience.
Theres both zone border stutter and the "other" stutter, which Im talking about.
FPS is capped at 80, but notice that it never reaches 80 FPS.
When I restart the game, the FPS will be good again at first, but it starts stuttering after few minutes.

It is a laptop btw, and Lenovo disabled undervolting in a later BIOS update, hence why Im not using it, I actually reinstalled the old BIOS.

[The Spice]

https://imgur.com/a/HrmInCA
And here is the same place after game restart, rock solid 80 FPS,
I have no idea whats going on at this point.
BTW i reinstalled windows yesterday, but that didnt help.