This Fixes the 64hz bug , it's true what happens. The engine runs at 64HZ/64FPS but the monitor is at 60HZ. So what the game engine does is drop 4frames per second to sync the engine with the graphics card/monitor this is what causes the frame skipping. Only one other game engine does this and thats the one with Doom 3 and Prey !

1) Install FallOut 3 Vegas
2) Install the fallout new vegas update 2 or make sure it's ver 1.1.1.271
3) Copy over the fallout new vegas update 2 NOCD ( skiddy )
4) Download and unpack preliminary_4 into your vegas dir
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34832
5) Copy over the dx9.dll file into your vegas root dir
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6LHPT9ZC
6)Run the launcher , it will say detecting new hardware and show a 7800GS. Leave it at that , but set up your graphical options!. Put Water Multisampling to LOW
7) Apply
8) Run the no_stutter.bat

TOTALY SMOOTH GAMEPLAY ( Don't use ifpsclamp )

Oblivion does it , Fallout does it and now Fallout Vegas all the same damn engine and they all have this horrible skipping effect. The ONLY thing that cures it is " oblivion stutter remover " and " fallout stutter remover ". Now i'm not talking about microstutter nor am i talking about harddrive loading !

Basically with every step forward or sidewards the screen skips once every second step. For example Smooth....skip....smooth....skip...smooth...skip , i have seen this with my previous system as well with totaly different hardware. When it first happened with oblivion it caused me to near enough go into debt trying to get it fixed thinking it was my system. Only for it to be cured by a mod!. Here's the thing , i've also seen it skipping in some of the video trailers that Bethseda has shown with oblivion and this fallout series. No i'm not talking about video trailers in general just the game being played in the video.

From my viewpoint there is either a problem with nvidia and the engine or something else is going on, i had a 8800GTS with oblivion and a Gtx260 now. I cannot reproduce this problem via fraps or any other in game video , so trying to prove it to others via evidence is extremely difficult.


ASRock Penryn1600SLI-110d , Q6600 @ 3100MHZ , Palit GTX260 @ 731/1485/1209 , 8GB , SyncMaster T240 , Creative XFI-GAMER , Windows 7

Honestly, it's most likely the bottleneck of opening the rather large .bsa archives and consistently trying to stream content from random parts of the multi-gigabyte compressed archives. I've taken to putting the data files for games on my solid state drive and have no problem with stuttering.

I'll see if I can put together a fraps showing the difference.

ya know i never had problems with oblivion.... or Fallout 3

I never had much stuttering issues with Oblivion and Fallout 3, honestly. This is beyond stuttering, though--this is low-FPS choppiness.

NVIDIA and Bethesda know about the issue.

The issue was worked around for Fallout 3 specifically in the driver because it's too fargone for the devs to consider patching the game.

NVIDIA let Bethesda/Obsidian know about the root cause of the issue and Obsidian is looking into fixing it. The way that the engine is destroying resources all at once is poor resource management and the driver does not like it... the application and driver don't get along with one another. If Obsidian refuses to fix it NVIDIA will be forced to continue to put in workarounds in the driver that sidestep general behavior just for this application. NVIDIA can't change the fundamental core driver operation which works for every other game/engine out there for the sake of one developer simply because the developer chooses not to spend time fixing something. Really the developers should be doing the full QA, catching this issue, and fixing it in the application, as there is only so much that can be done on the driver side given that it has to support every game out there in a general and safe way.

That said, Fermi will not have the problems because it is a different architecture which does not hit the same path that causes this.

The async thread wakes up every 16 milliseconds (60fps) to run an update. If more than 16ms have elapsed since the last update, it will run multiple updates to catch up (for example if 51ms have elapsed, it will run 3 updates). Similarly, if the update is called too soon, it gets ignored. When com_preciseTic is set to 0, it skips this bit of logic and always runs a single update no matter what.

this is a tic synch when the game is unsynched, in the console type in, COM_PRECISETIC 0 and the skipping in doom 3 on the frames will be gone

also i tested it on the machines, and it does do it, the Video cards in my these machines are all Nvidia, but after this COM_PRECISETIC i dont think its the hardware at all,

My apologies Neilsouth, I am definitely wrong and it isn't related to loading (this is from the fallout 3 tweakguide):

Note: There is another type of stuttering which can occur, often referred to as micro-stuttering, juddering or skipping. It usually appears as tiny skips, like missing frames in a movie. This is not the same as the normal type of stuttering mentioned above, it is not caused by loading new data, it appears to be an actual bug related to graphics synchronization in the Gamebryo engine, possibly made more noticeable by certain graphics drivers. A video demonstration of the problem is shown here. To confirm the problem, use the iFPSClamp=60 setting as covered in the Advanced Tweaking section - if that removes the skipping then you are experiencing this issue. However changing iFPSClamp does not properly resolve this problem as it will then ruin your overall game speed at certain times. At the moment the only known solutions you can try are to firstly force enable VSync both in the game as well as in your graphics card's control panel - see the VSync option in the In-Game Settings section for instructions. If changing VSync doesn't work, try using a different version of your graphics driver. If that still doesn't work, there is a fix which some users claim will work as posted here. If none of these things work then you will have to wait for either a patch and/or a new graphics driver version to resolve the issue. It's an issue that's been present in the Gamebryo engine at least since Oblivion so it is not new, and so far there is no real solution.

Using iFPSClamp is not a solution though as some other users have suggested and will cause slow motion as I mentioned. Although it's an engine problem, it looks like nvidia has optimized the driver to minimize this:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=330950

My apologies Neilsouth, I am definitely wrong and it isn't related to loading (this is from the fallout 3 tweakguide):

I recognize EXACTLY what you're talking about: it feels like a slight "jerk" that happens (in my case) about two times per second, regularly, when you're spinning around, walking, running, or straffing.

And yes, yes, yes, I get the occasional loading pause, as well as the texture loading stutter, as well as the rare texture-thrashing hiccups. That's not what I'm talking about here.

None of that has made a difference. The ONLY setting that fixes it the FPS clamp=60 in oblivion.ini, but we all know that once your framerate goes below 60 FPS, the game will run in slow motion (and if you don't have vsync enabled) when you go above 60 FPS, the game will run too fast.

The slight jerky motion I'm talking about feels very much like the jitter you get in Doom3 when you have preciseTic enabled and your framerate goes below 60 FPS.
I believe the problem seems to be related to a lack of synchronization between the rendering engine (possibly the movement or physics code?), and the video card. The fact that the FPS clamp fixes the problem, tells me that it is not a videocard problem.
I'm almost certain that a real FPS cap in Oblivion (no, I'm not talking about vsync!!!) would solve the problem, but I still haven't found a mod that implements that, perhaps because it's something that can only be implemented at the renderer level. This would be like the setting "com_maxFPS" in Quake3. The Source engine (Half-Life2, Portal, etc.) also has a setting for a framerate cap.

NOTE: Vsync forces the renderer to wait for synchronization with the monitor's refresh rate. Even though LCD pannels do not display using a "refresh rate", they still get a signal that has a refresh rate in Hertz (cycles per second). Yet, the renderer can still be rendering frames "ahead" while it waits for synchronization. This is particularly true when Triple Buffering is enabled, which is also one of the causes of mouse lag when vsync is enabled (the computer is too busy rendering frames ahead, so the mouse input is slightly ignored by the CPU in favor of the graphics rendering!).

Forcing a framerate cap (such as Quake3's "com_maxFPS") tells the engine to NOT render frames ahead when reaching the set goal. If the framerate cap is set to 60, then the renderer will only try to render 60 frames per second, and not any more. In games where the network code is dependant on the framerate (Quake2, Quake3, ET:QW, etc.) such a framerate cap can be very beneficial for both the client and the server (the more frames rendered, the more information that has to be sent through the connection).
In addition, setting a framerate cap can also save CPU cycles, allowing the processor to run cooler in the case where the computer can easily mantain the framerate goal.

I believe the problem seems to be related to a lack of synchronization between the rendering engine (possibly the movement or physics code?), and the video card. The fact that the FPS clamp fixes the problem, tells me that it is not a videocard problem.

Same problem here. I can deal with low fps, but the stuttering is really annoying me. I'm running an ATi Radeon HD 4650, so it's not just NVIDIA, and thus also confirms your last quote. Also, even when I turn graphics to Low and resolution to 800x600 pixels, the fps is way up high, but stuttering still occurs... I'm just hoping for a fix...

The problem is that the game engine works at 64 hertz, and your screen refresh rate is usually 60 hertz (with vsync). This means you to lose 4 frames every second, causing the skipping effect.

Because they are not sensitive enough to notice it (or don't have good enough frame rate normally to distinguish it from poor performance) so they think you are talking about fps drops or big memory related stutters Don't bother trying to explain it to anyone who has never seen it. They will be convinced you are talking about something completely different, or that its your system. It is a well documented flaw in the game engine, and yeah it is bizarre that they have not fixed this when the FOSE/OBSE stutter remover did it so well.


And yeah, I feel your pain too. I played FO3 with the clamp set to 60 and it was ok for me, but now I have a 120hz monitor so I cannot even use that fix. Average FPS seems to be around 55 to 80 fps. And its one of those things that disturbs the immersive experience for me too. If I can be bothered I will drop the refresh rate down to 60hz and clamp.

I am basically waiting for NVSE (or whatever they will call it) so I can use the stutter remover. Just doing some mod work while I wait (although I cannot even truly do that until the Script Extender is out).

OP: My situation is exactly the same as yours, except I didn't open my wallet for new hardware. I have an ATI card, too. Not sure why conventional wisdom seems to suggest this problem is limited to nvidia cards. I have found the iFPSClamp fix to be the biggest improvement, but the engine just seems to be riddled with all sorts of other problems. The worst IMO is the fact that more than three NPCs on the screen will send framerates through the floor. It is not a performance issue. Setting everything to low (settings and resolution) fixes nothing. It's not a HDD issue. It's not EM radiation coming from my neighbor's microwave. The engine is BAD, and shame on Bethesda/Obsidian for not doing more pre-release testing.

My fear is that these problems are so close to the fundamental components of the engine that they will never be fixed. I feel your pain.

Specs:

Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Core i7 920
6 GB DDR3 Corsair
ATI Radeon 5870 (Catalyst 10.9)

@ Neilsouth

I know what your talking about mate, ive seen this frame skip several times with the Gamebryo engine. Indeed, its there but not noticeable, but can be pronounced to the point where it becomes pretty obvious to the naked eye. The easiest way for others to see this, look at the ground as you move, you will notice it the skip in the scenery. This is not usually a gamebreaker, but if the problem becomes more pronounced, it will start to effect the player.

I played Oblivion on 8800gtx, then 8800GTX SLI without the problem. The first time i noticed it was with FO3. But with later DRIVERS, it was smoothed out (still present but barely noticeable most of the time).

Now ive got FO:NV. The problem is still present, but not a big deal. The framerate is high and the peripheral response is good, but that skip is still present. Like a frame is missing in every 3 frames rendered or something.
Now, when I move, the problem disappears. If i pan my view with the mouse )or controller), i get the skip and/or a momentary pause instead. This happens regardless what scenery i am looking at; be it the sky, the distant hills of the whatever. Doesnt appear to happen as much indoors as it does outdoors. My current system is SLI 260 and my framerates are sky high with and without SLI. Ive run the game in Single GPU mode, i might disable the second card in a minute and completely turn off Physx to see what difference this makes. I managed to reduce the problem by setting my Max Pre-Rendered Frames in the Nvidia Control Panel to 0. This has reduced the pause, but not the frame skips you mentioned.

For your sake Ill say to everyone, its not your system. My comp is very well maintained, 64bit Vista with 4gb Corsair memory, with barely any programs running in the background.
I use Diskeeper Professional to keep my hardrives defragmented and the system flies like a dream.

Ohh just forgot to say, i upgraded my 8800GTX's for the 260GTX's i got as a birthday present (i was over the moon when my other half bought them for me a few years ago)...guess what...oblivion ran perfect on the 8800gtx, but upon upgrading to the 260's, i first began to notice this problem (not the pausing, that only seems to be effecting me with FO:NV).

I saw a thread on Guru3d where users reported similar problems, and recommendations were being made to revert to 18x.xxx drivers to resolve the problem. Have NVIDIA broken something in their later drivers? I havent tried the older drivers but i might just do that.
Seems we are a minority, us that notice or have been effected by this problem.

And I agree with NielSouth, theres no point in posting comments that provide nothing but the obvious, we have tried them all. So mention of upgrading his monitor is utter bullsh^t. Read my post and you will see, its got nothing to do with the monitor or his computer. Its related to drivers and the game engine.
Neilsouth, dont go wasting your money buying new hardware to try to fix it, it wont work. If you want to upgrade anyway, then go right ahead, but dont do it for the sake of these games. We are unfortunate enough to suffer with it.

Well i don't recommend to use the iFPSClamp tweak, this is what it does...

iFPSClamp=0 - This variable appears to control the synchronization between game physics and graphics, or something similar of that nature. By default it's set so that they're synchronized (=0), however this is known to cause 'micro-stuttering', or more aptly, frame skipping - The skipping seems to occur because certain frames are dropped to keep up with the physics tic rate. In any case by setting this variable to =60 for example, you can remove micro-stuttering, however in places where your framerate is below 60FPS the game physics will slow down, and in places where your FPS rises above the iFPSClamp value, the game physics will speed up. For that reason it is recommended that you do not alter this from its normal value of =0

By default it's set so that they're synchronized , however this is known to cause 'micro-stuttering', or more aptly, frame skipping

The skipping seems to occur because certain frames are dropped to keep up with the physics tic rate.