Stuttering Framerates Suggestion

[Breakfast]

I found that using streaming in Saints Row The Third and Just Cause 2, the framerate would stutter so much on the client that the game was almost unplayable, even though the network monitor looked fine, the throughput and bandwidth usage was well within reason, the host and client framerates reported by the client were solid, and encode/decode was smooth.

Two things to try:

1. Turn off Vsync. This has been mentioned in other posts. Didn't help me too much on its own, but combined with #2, it may.

2. Run the game in Windowed mode if the option is available. It will still appear full screen on the client (for now, many have requested streaming in a window), but will be running in a window on the host. This drastically improved my framerates and eliminated the stuttering altogether without turning down the resolution or detail settings at all.

Hope this helps!

Host Build:
AMD FX-8120 8-core @ 3.11 GHz
8GB Corsair Vengeance
Nvidia GTX 660Ti Superclocked 4GB
Samsung 128GB SSD OS drive

Client Build (yep, this dinosaur streams just fine):
Sony VAIO laptop ca. 2006
Intel Core2 T7200 @ 2GHz
2GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce Go 7400
Samsung 128GB SSD OS drive

[NeptNutz]

If your "Enable hardware encoding" box is checked--uncheck it. Nothing in your host build is supported yet.

[The_Blog]

Originally posted by NeptNutz:

If your "Enable hardware encoding" box is checked--uncheck it. Nothing in your host build is supported yet.

How do you know if your hardware does support it?

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by The_Blog:

Originally posted by NeptNutz:

If your "Enable hardware encoding" box is checked--uncheck it. Nothing in your host build is supported yet.

How do you know if your hardware does support it?

You can open your streaming_log text file (with WordPad) in the Program Files>>Steam>>logs folder, search for "CaptureName", and see if it has "libx264" listed or something else. If it's "libx264", it is software encoding.

So far, it seems only Intel HD QuickSync hardware encoding is supported right now. But that will change.

Though I don't know what it's called, also search for "DecoderName" in the streaming_log file to see what your hardware decoder is. It should be supported.

[76561198135805035]

I will try your suggestion! Hope 1080P can run smoothly～THX

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by 蹁跹的顽石:

I will try your suggestion! Hope 1080P can run smoothly～THX

If you are not successful, try lowering the bandwidth (believe it or not). You might be surprised.

[Turn on the Display information. Start at 3Mbit/s, and keep working your way up. Also, don't gank your Host machine!!! Make sure it is solid 60FPS and up!]

[Breakfast]

I tried everything else listed in this thread and it had no effect whatsoever on my system's streaming performance. Only running the game in a window fixed the stuttering problem. I'm not saying any of these other suggestions aren't valid, just that they didn't work for me.

Similarly, years ago when I first fired up Red Faction Guerrilla on PC, it was a slideshow in full screen mode -- nothing resembling playable and single-digit frames per second. I switched to windowed mode and suddenly it ran smooth as butter. Not sure why.

[Rocket League]

Here is whay my log says:
"CaptureName" "Desktop BitBlt RGB + libyuv + libx264 baseline (2 threads)"

So would software encoding be better for me?
Host: I5-2500, Amd 6850
Client: I5-2450m, Intel HD 3000

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by junaid2pac:

Here is whay my log says:
"CaptureName" "Desktop BitBlt RGB + libyuv + libx264 baseline (2 threads)"

So would software encoding be better for me?
Host: I5-2500, Amd 6850
Client: I5-2450m, Intel HD 3000

From what little I know, "libx264" means software encoding. So, yes.

[Breakfast]

If the logs indicate that it's using software encoding regardless because the hardware is unsupported, what difference does checking the "hardware encoding" box make? Just wondering.

[PukeGX]

I got stutter problem with Dirt Showdown and Grid 2. I first turn vsync off, that give a better result, but stutter still there...
Then, I tried running them in windowed mode on host, but it's far worst in this case : it stutter more than fullscreen, when the game doesn't simply run at 30fps... So this method may be game specific.

Host PC :
Core i7 2600k
Geforce 680GTX
8Gb DDR3

Client PC (Laptop) :
Core i5 430
Radeon HD Mobility 5650
4Gb DDR3

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by torricane:

If the logs indicate that it's using software encoding regardless because the hardware is unsupported, what difference does checking the "hardware encoding" box make? Just wondering.

I don't know, but I do recall Batman:AA getting all jittery on my netbook when I had both hardware boxes checked. I can't remember what my configurations were at the time. It may have been when I pulled my GPU and was playng with QuickSync on the i5. You also have a super-strong host and an AMD processor. One, or both, of those might be negating this whole issue currently.

Are you getting "DecoderName" "VDPAU hardware decoding" for the VAIO in your log file? According to this post it looks like you might be right on the edge there. That might be your culprit!

[PukeGX]

In my case, both hardware box are disabled : hardware encoding does nothing in my host, and hardware decoding give me more lag than software, so I don't use it...

EDIT : looks like the last update change something : now with hardware decode enabled (DXVA), it works much much better for me : less lag and a lot less stuttering (they are still present).