Stuttering graphics

[rocketman]

A few users has noted since the release of FB that graphics/animations stutter. It is not a fps problem as the games runs smoothly but 2-3 times per replay turn the animations stutter, like hitting/releasing pause really quickly. It is not dependent on graphics settings, size of scenarios, number of units or the amount of action.

If you have seen this too, please post system specs and other vital information in this thread:

We are trying, together with Charles and tech support to isolate the issue and hopefully find a fix as it is somewhat of an immersion killer. The same stutter seems to occur in other CM games, but it is highly individual between users. The main focus so far is that it is graphics card, drivers, sound system and output related in what seem a complex pattern. Location of installment seems to matter as well and if you have a SSD / hybrid drive.

Thanks!

[Placebo]

Just for info I have a hybrid SSD and HDD system with the CM installs using both disks without any issues. I can give you my full PC specs if it is of any use.

[rocketman]

Please do, as the problem seems to occur with very specific hardware and/or driver setup. Any clues are valuable clues.

[Bulletpoint]

Thanks for trying to solve this. I experience bad performance with stutters, but I am unsure if I have this specific problem, because my stutters seem to be that the fps takes a lot of hits downwards, then recovers.

Could you post a video that shows the stutter?

Edited May 5, 2016 by Bulletpoint

[rocketman]

They way you descibe it is exactly what I'm seeing. I said that it is mainly not about fps, because then the thread would risk being about "too low fps overall". I can have 35-40 fps and as it stutters FRAPS show me an instant drop/recovery for 0,5 sec of about 10-15 fps. I tried to do a video using FRAPS but it crashes the game

Please post your specs

 

[Bulletpoint]

1 minute ago, rocketman said:

They way you descibe it is exactly what I'm seeing. I said that it is mainly not about fps, because then the thread would risk being about "too low fps overall". I can have 35-40 fps and as it stutters FRAPS show me an instant drop/recovery for 0,5 sec of about 10-15 fps. I tried to do a video using FRAPS but it crashes the game

Please post your specs

 

Roger:

 

Asus G751-JY

Windows 10

CPU: Intel i7-4720HQ

GPU: Nvidia Gtx 980m 4GB

Ram: 16mb

256 GB SSD

 

One theory I was thinking about: Maybe the people who get the worst performance are those who use right mouse button to "look around", and the WASD keys to move the camera? That's what I do.

If the engine is made to be used with a top-down perspective (the preset cameras 1-9), maybe the mouselook movement could cause caching problems when you keep swooping around, looking up, now down, now up again? Ideally, all the game's assets should be cacheable with 4 GB video RAM and 16 GB system RAM, but maybe there's some odd programming issue that prevents this and causes data to keep being shuffled back and forth betwen system RAM, HDD, and GPU? My performance problems really feel like a caching problem through some kind of bottleneck in the system.

[rocketman]

Thanks. Interesting idea. But I see stuttering even if just the camera is locked behind a unit (camera 2) that is running across a field. I do use WSAD, but almost never right button to look around. Is that an SSD only or hybrid with HDD? One thing that has worked pretty well (to test) is to turn sound off in game (Alt-S). For me stutters disappear and then begin again with sound on. It would be nice if someone else could verify this.

[Kevin2k]

Windows XP can only allocate 2GB RAM to any game, and I have no issues. No issues as long as I keep ALL games off my slow 2.5" 5400rpm mechanical backup drive.

When sure that a HDD is not causing any (sound-) precaching stutters: Another possibility is that some background process unrelated to CMFB is using system resources once in a while.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Kevin2k
typo

[Thewood1]

I have always associated the stuttering with sound.  I stopped using sound mods years ago because some of them caused very noticeable stutters when a lot was going on.  It took me years to figure out and a confirmation post from Steve that sound chews up a lot of resources.

[rocketman]

52 minutes ago, Kevin2k said:

Windows XP can only allocate 2GB RAM to any game, and I have no issues. No issues as long as I keep ALL games off my slow 2.5" 5400rpm mechanical backup drive.

When sure that a HDD is not causing any (sound-) precaching stutters: Another possibility is that some background process unrelated to CMFB is using system resources once in a while.

Interesting idea, but I can't see how we can ever identify a system background process as it causes the problem

Maybe tech guys have a cool toy for it

 

[rocketman]

34 minutes ago, Thewood1 said:

I have always associated the stuttering with sound.  I stopped using sound mods years ago because some of them caused very noticeable stutters when a lot was going on.  It took me years to figure out and a confirmation post from Steve that sound chews up a lot of resources.

Sound do seems to be involved and that Steve (see his post in the other thread) has chimed in on it before. So maybe a comparison of modded sound vs stock sound. However, we have users with stuttering without sound mods, but then again, there are more then one sound mod.

[Bulletpoint]

5 hours ago, rocketman said:

Is that an SSD only or hybrid with HDD?

Pure SSD.

[PIATpunk]

 use right mouse button to "look around", 

^^  This is pretty much the only time I see major stutter, like down to a 2-3 fps sometimes , when using the rmb to sweep left and right, up down.  Otherwise everything's reasonably smooth.

[rocketman]

9 hours ago, PIATpunk said:

 use right mouse button to "look around", 

^^  This is pretty much the only time I see major stutter, like down to a 2-3 fps sometimes , when using the rmb to sweep left and right, up down.  Otherwise everything's reasonably smooth.

2-3 fps, that doesn't sound good at all. Do you see this both in command and replay phase? Just to make sure, we are mainly concerned with stuttering of animations, i.e. units running across a field, shells from tanks in mid air etc. - and not the map/buildings/trees etc looks choppy when panning the camera.

[PIATpunk]

52 minutes ago, rocketman said:

2-3 fps, that doesn't sound good at all. Do you see this both in command and replay phase? Just to make sure, we are mainly concerned with stuttering of animations, i.e. units running across a field, shells from tanks in mid air etc. - and not the map/buildings/trees etc looks choppy when panning the camera.

ah ok I see this when I am panning in the command phase, so pls ignore.

[rdh376]

This is a problem that I've been trying to fix for ages..

A stutter that occurs when a new sound is played that causes the game to freeze for roughly a second and the map redraw.

The frustrating thing is that it seems to be a common problem but there isn't a common fix.

For me, the stutter disappears when I mute the game but obviously this isn't an ideal solution. It's clearly not a graphics problem.

I have a V15 Nitro laptop. I've uninstalled and reinstalled all my drivers including sound (realtek) and hard drive drivers to no avail. I've installed the game on both ssd and hdd to no avail. I tried windows system repair which didn't work.

I will point out this problem isn't exclusive to CM however, it's just more noticeable than in other games.

 

If anyone has found a fix for this extremely annoying problem, please share.

Cheers

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by rdh376

[rocketman]

Does your laptop have a hybrid drive? If it does, install CM on the C partition (SSD), and it might help. It did for me. Also check if your laptop has two graphics cards (mine does). Make sure CM runs on the proper high quality graphics card in that case. Hope it works.

Edit: My bad, just saw that you tried SSD. Try the graphics card option.

Edited July 10, 2016 by rocketman

[rdh376]

6 hours ago, rocketman said:

Does your laptop have a hybrid drive? If it does, install CM on the C partition (SSD), and it might help. It did for me. Also check if your laptop has two graphics cards (mine does). Make sure CM runs on the proper high quality graphics card in that case. Hope it works.

Edit: My bad, just saw that you tried SSD. Try the graphics card option.

Yea i've made sure it's not running on integrated graphics or anything like that. I've also tried using the recommended settings in the nvidia control panel for the graphics, no joy

[rocketman]

After updating CMBS to the 4.0 engine I get the same stuttering graphics problem as in FB when the game is installed on a hybride drive's non-SSD partition.