General Performance Issues, Workarounds, and Potential Fixes (so far)

[Blargnarg]

Figured I'd share some of the performance issues I've run into, and what I've found seems to trigger them, current workarounds, and what some of the potential fixes devs could implement are. I've enjoyed the game, but man does it just barely pass as playable performance wise on my machine.

Problem: Game gets slower the longer it has been running

Workaround: Close and re-launch game

Fix: Check for events or other things taking up memory or being rendered, but never unloaded

Problem: Consistently low FPS

Workaround: Reduce resolution (works really well, and the game's art style doesn't look bad at lower resolutions either)

Fix: Add more graphics options. If I'm not mistaken, the game uses raytracing, which would explain why it really chugs on my GTX1080, even at 1080p. 4k is totally unbearable in certain parts of certain maps, particularly in well lit areas. Raytracing can really limit what performance options and optimizations are available, but I do think having some LOD distance and maximum bounce count options could go a long ways in streamlining the game for older/weaker hardware (we're not all on the RTX train, and probably won't be for a while).

Fix #2: Text in menus suffers the most from lower resolutions, while the main 3D viewport almost becomes "aesthetic" at lower resolutions, thanks to the art style. Offering 3D resolution and menu resolution options could allow the most demanding part of the game to be run at a lower resolution to achieve reasonable performance, without ruining text readability in menus (especially the evidence board).

Problem: Game resolution is not kept on relaunch and loading saves

Workaround: Change to the native resolution (or whatever the game seems to be running at), and then switch back to the desired resolution.

Fix: Probably something to do with config files and the engine "relaunching" itself in the background.

UPDATE: It seems the game resolution reverts to whatever your native resolution is whenever the engine does a little "re-launch" in the background. So pretty much whenever you're loading, saving, or the game starts chugging while it's trying to bring up some notable dialogue or information. An easy way to tell it's going to happen is the game freezes and the Windows loading cursor (spinning blue circle) comes up. The game will eventually recover, but it'll be in the native resolution, instead of whatever is selected in settings.

Problem: Map causes game to hang for a moment before showing

Workaround: ??? Deal with it? (Keeping the map closed can reduce evidence board loading times, however)

Fix: I really couldn't say for sure here... is the game referencing the game state every single time the map is loaded? Surely it could just be cached as an image of some sort and updated periodically.

Problem: Evidence board becomes increasingly slow as the game progresses

Workaround: Try to limit how many items are on your evidence board at once. I went crazy pinning stuff to it, and made the board almost unusable.

Fix: Can't say for sure here either, but I'm willing to bet the evidence board is calling more about each item than it really needs to, even without looking at the details for those items.

Problem: Details regarding something on the evidence board pull up off the screen, making it impossible to read said details

Workaround: Run a higher resolution. Revert back, if needed, once done managing evidence.

Fix: On resolution change, update "default" evidence details window location to center of new resolution. I'm on a 4k monitor, and have to play at 720p (see: consistently low FPS). I'm willing to bet the evidence details windows are going to x:1920 y:1080 (center of 4k), which would be totally off the screen for 720p. As the window popup animation is occurring, the window flies to the right, and slightly up, which supports this theory.

Hopefully I'll remember to come back here and update this with some of my other findings and such. I have some general gameplay related suggestions, but I think those are less important than the performance stuff, at least for now, considering the state of the game. Fixing the performance should make it easier to find bugs and allow more players to share their findings other than "the game is freezing" or "it's really laggy", which seems to essentially be the most common complaint right now. Other than the constant performance struggle, I've really enjoyed the game so far, fingers crossed the game can run easier soon.

["George"]

Thanks for the tips ! I sure hope they also fix the shop issue, where you can't interact with your furniture after buying stuff for your place.

[Blargnarg]

Originally posted by Les cramptés des condés:

Thanks for the tips ! I sure hope they also fix the shop issue, where you can't interact with your furniture after buying stuff for your place.

Of course! It seems the furniture issue is resolved upon reloading the game, as with most UI/menu related issues. However, I've had no luck with placing the bathroom scale... it doesn't even show up for me when I attempt to place it. Perhaps it's somehow winding up in the neighbor's apartment 🤔