Frame Rate Limiter Microstutter Fix

Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:48 am

This completely solved my problem, which I described in great detail in this post back in january: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1338471-patch-14b-inconsistent-look-speed-and-micro-stutter-solution/ (unfortunately it is not available at the moment because it's the beta section of the forum)

Please see my sig for global specs. The gist of it was that too many frames lead to the issue. But it was not consistent and would only occur when certain types of textures were on display. After capping with the MSI AB Beta it was smooth and from then on a mandatory action.

Suggestion for the OP: you can set an overall cap as described, and you can also add TESV.exe to the list and set the cap for just Skyrim.


edit: added a summary of my earlier post.
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Unstoppable Judge
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:09 am

Yes! It works perfectly! After so much time spent on trying to fix the MS (and not succeeding) this is a jewel. I can't believe how smooth the first person is now! I didn't get the MS everywhere, and only in 1st person, but it was annoying as hell! And now it's completely gone.

Thanks!
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trisha punch
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:09 pm

No offence to the OP but this has been discussed to death in this forum already.

It's worth reiterating that if you're using nVidia then you have a perfectly good frame rate limiter available to you via Inspector (as long as your drivers are up to date). I use this one, as well as triple buffering via D3DO.
Exactly , (but i did drop the triple buffering, when i got new cards).



The problem with a post like the OP, is that the Dev's read it and Think>."NO need wasting monies on this "They all fixed it". (BUT it still needs to be fixed!!)

The "problem " was fixed in previous games by Skyranger-1 He has never had the problem , but he can see it in the code. (think Matrix) so if someone that does not see this in his game CAN fix it for others , why would Beth ever waste one dollar chasing this issue.
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1159912-to-the-devs-fix-the-64-hz60-hz-bug-for-skyrim/page__view__findpost__p__18687406
By Skyranger-1

Some details on the subject:

1. The basic flaw appears to arise from using GetTickCount for game logic timing. GetTickCount normally returns a number of milliseconds that increases by 15 to 16 milliseconds every time that 15.625 milliseconds of real time pass. In theory that should produce a subtle 4 Hertz beat frequency on games like Oblivion when FPS is maxed out on and the monitor is running at a 60 Hertz refresh rate, where the game does 14 frames in which 15-16 millieconds of game time pass per frame, then one frame where 31-32 milliseconds of game time occurs, then repeat. The relevant code for that in Oblivion is fairly simple and does not appear ambiguous, though other methods of timing are used for some other purposes (IIRC QueryPerformanceCounter is used for performance monitoring and on some sound cards something else is used for lip synching, but not on other soundcards) and it is concievable that something less obvious is effecting things somehow.
Note that a wide variety of software uses GetTickCount in basically this way.

2. GetTickCount is, I've heard, implemented in the hardware abstraction layer, with the most common implementation (described above) being the reference implementation provided by Microsoft. It may vary slightly on some exotic computers, possibly including Xboxes. The behavior I described in #1 above is what I measured on my own computer and confirmed on every other computer I've tested GetTickCount on.

3. A few people do report something that looks like what theory would predict on Oblivion. Most people report not noticing such a thing on Oblivion, or noticing it but it being very minor. I personally have never noticed anything like that from playing Oblivion. When GetTickCount calls are patched to use finer resolution timing instead those people report the issue to be fixed. Oblivion Stutter Remover is the standard fix (it also does a bunch of other stuff).
Note that Oblivion had plenty of other unrelated issues that cause much worse stutter, but the 64 Hertz issue is the only issue that occurs all the time no matter what is happening in the game (unless the game is paused).

4. The FO3 & FNV game logic timing code is slightly different. I have not investigated exactly how it is different, since the issues related to it are readily fixed by the same GetTickCount hook as Oblivion. On FO3/FNV, a very large number of people report (and sometimes show videos of) severe issues on Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas that look vaguely similar to what a 4 Hertz beat frequency should look like, but are probably too much worse than the Oblivion issue to be really the same thing. When GetTickCount calls are patched to use finer resolution timing instead those people report the issue to be fixed. I personally do not notice the issue they describe or show in videos on my FO3 install, but I *do* notice an equally severe issue with NPC animations that goes away when GetTickCount calls get patched (why do I never hear anyone else talking about the vibrating NPC animations?). Fallout Stutter Remover fixes these issues on FO3. New Vegas Stutter Remover fixes them on FNV, and so does the 4GB enabler linked from the NV script extender web page.
My presumption is that FO3 / FNV added some sort of issue with scheduling, inter-thread communication, or multiple time measurements per frame that amplified the effect of the 64 Hertz issue. But I don't know, I've never looked for code relating to the issue.

-----
Anyway, if Bethesda coders happen to read this, please avoid using GetTickCount on the PC, and think carefully about any timing done for game logic or animation purposes.
I mentioned before, it seams that the more brute power you give Skyrim the smoother it gets.

Game released i was using : 860 @ 2.8 GhZ 8 GB RAM and a 560 ti w/ 1024 VRAM . (and had serious , stutter , jitter with a FPS around 30- 60)

Current: 2600k @ 3.4 Ghz 16 GB RAM SLI (2) 580 's W/ 3096 each. (FPS is locked in Inspector to 59) and is smooth for the most part. still some hitching , but that is to be expected in a windows game enviorment.

To any new converts to Nvidia camp.. They also mess up drivers on ocassion, :smile: make sure to get "Inspector" use the FPS limiter in there . As being native to the driver feels better to me, and if not using MSI afterburner for anything else, frees up a background app. ( even tho I control FPS at driver level i still always run MSI for the pics...PNG )
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Amy Gibson
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:22 pm

Werd MSI is more my workaround for a terrible card BIOS that would prefer my card cook itself. Would love to not need it but that would require me manually changing my fan speed which I will forget to do.
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Euan
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:32 pm

Still doesn't work. Mass micro-stuttering. Would like to fix this and finally continue playing. Never drop under 40 fps btw.
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Jesus Duran
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:17 pm

FYI- the newest release of Precision X from EVGA has an FPS limiter also.
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Nick Pryce
 
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Post » Thu May 31, 2012 10:20 pm

I'm also using MSI Afterburner but my fps limited to 59, if i set 60 i still get the stutter. Also I'm using Ati Tray Tools to force triple buffering for Direct3D. Standart Catalyst can only force triple buffering for OpenGL. Now it is really smooth. Also I noticed another thing if i set my fps limit to 40-45 game feels slower like when you set low mouse sensitivity. I guess engine really sensitive about fps.
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Ownie Zuliana
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:07 pm

Didn't work for me either. But I have new dual 7870s in Xfire, it may be something they will iron out in upcoming AMD drivers, or upcoming Skyrim patches. I am curious as to what gfx cards others with this problem are using - could be card-specific problem. It is unfortunate users do not have the presence of mind to specify their gfx hardware when complaining about problems that could be hardware related.
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X(S.a.R.a.H)X
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:00 am

For whatever reason my 6870 has now stopped stuttering in skyrim... I had the stutter up until a week or two ago until I cleaned up my PC a little and got rid of some unused programs. After that it's just like it was when I bought the game.. (the stutter appeared after one of the patches)
Another strange thing is that my friend who has the EXACT same setup as me (we bought 2 of everything at the same time and I built his PC for him) has never had the problem. I'm thinking it might not be the cards or even the drivers themselves, but another factor entirely...
Just as a random comment though I'm also thinking of swapping to nvidia. Sick of all the driver problems with AMD... :down:

EDIT: Btw, if I ever do get the problem then I'll post back with details of what I installed around the same time as the problem reappearing. I have an SSD on the way so I'll do a full reinstall of windows and try skyrim with a bare minimum amount of programs on my system, see if I can locate exactly where the problem is.
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Gracie Dugdale
 
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Post » Thu May 31, 2012 11:12 pm

I'm running 4-way SLI with GTX 680s and I get the issue with the shaking/vibrating/displaced creatures (including animals being pulled straight up into the air when I run on my horse, only to fall to the ground and die if I stop the horse) in 100Hz and 120Hz modes. My horse also runs on air and stutters when I try to run. Likewise, I get the flickering water issues and all of that as well.

If I switch to 60Hz I only have the flickering water issues, but I didn't have this issue on a 60Hz monitor with the same cards. My monitor is currently a Samsung S27A950D. My previous monitor was an HP ZR30W.

I don't have these issues in the other games I have been playing at 120Hz. It seems ludicrous to me to have these issues 5 months after a game has been released. It really destroys the immersion factor even with the water only flickering at 60Hz...
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Etta Hargrave
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:47 am

BTW, I disabled SLI and tried 120Hz vs 60Hz and all the issues are still present, so it doesn't appear to be an SLI issue...
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Avril Louise
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:45 am

I've tried basically everything and I'm still getting microstutter when vsync is on. I tried borderless window, 3 different framerate limiters, etc. I don't like playing without vsync because it messes up the game's timing on many things but I hate the microstutter even more. Will we ever get a fix for this?
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Kyra
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:20 am

Will we ever get a fix for this?

Yes. The fix is called Diablo 3...

:(
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Hope Greenhaw
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 2:09 am

I have this strange problem where transitioning to new areas after a loading screen causes the game to lag/stutter/run at a very low frame-rate. This is amended by alt-tabbing out of Skyrim and coming back to it, making the game run normal again. This has been going on for months now and I don't know why. It could be mods, but what type? Could it be texture mods or some other type?

Here's my rig:

Nvidia GTX 285 1 GB
6 GB of RAM
Intel i7 920 2.6 ghz
Windows 7 Ultimate Edition
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Noraima Vega
 
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Post » Thu May 31, 2012 10:49 pm

See my posting too about this (http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1367137-any-ideas-on-the-massive-fps-drop-when-going-from-in-to-outdoor/), although that pointed towards indoor to outdoor transition. But the principle is the same: a sudden (massive) drop in fps after a scene change with indeed the Alt/Tab way to get it all normal.
I can assure you: it's a Skyrim bug, has nothing to do with mods. I did a total clean Skyrim install, totally vanilla and no tweaks what so ever. And the fps drop caused by transition was there. For me it was always there but maybe 1 out of 10 transitions. But after the 1.5 patch that is now 7 out of 10 transitions :(
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Anna Watts
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:10 am

I tried the frame rate limited in MSI afterburner, but it made load times instantly go up from ~15 seconds to nearly 1 minute. Then again, I had the frame rate limited to 30 FPS in an attempt to reduce VRAM usage in certain areas. It worked great to reduce VRAM usage... for a while. But the inevitable would eventually happen regardless.
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Chris Ellis
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:26 am

I tried the frame rate limited in MSI afterburner, but it made load times instantly go up from ~15 seconds to nearly 1 minute. Then again, I had the frame rate limited to 30 FPS in an attempt to reduce VRAM usage in certain areas. It worked great to reduce VRAM usage... for a while. But the inevitable would eventually happen regardless.

Bit of a necro but I know plenty of people have had this loadtime issue when limiting FPS to 30. Set it to 32-33, and loadtimes are back to normal. If using NVIDIA Inspector, use 35 as atleast I couldn't find a way to set it to anything between 30-35. The game will have much longer loadtimes when fps is locked to below 32fps, for some reason. Most likely related to the 64Hz thing as 32 is half of 64.
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Katie Pollard
 
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Post » Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:13 am

I tried the frame rate limited in MSI afterburner, but it made load times instantly go up from ~15 seconds to nearly 1 minute. Then again, I had the frame rate limited to 30 FPS in an attempt to reduce VRAM usage in certain areas. It worked great to reduce VRAM usage... for a while. But the inevitable would eventually happen regardless.

If you mean with the "inevitable" that stutter comes back then I also have this problem with the MSI Afterburner. Every now and then during a game session it just stops working and I get stutter. I normally fix it by doing a alt-tab to Windows and back. The ENB's fps-limiter works ok but it is a bit too fps hungry at the moment (I have an AMD card).
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Rusty Billiot
 
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