City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Possible FPS killer identified, with a strange solution.

IanTheM1

By IanTheM1,
Posted on: 2010-04-30 21:01 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Okay, first a small story. I was once again speeding around Indy Port testing my graphics settings, trying to pin down just what on earth is causing the terrible framerate jitters I've been having since I17 came out.

Unhappily, I finally came to the last possible setting: Shader Quality. I had resisted turning it down because unless you keep it at High a large portion of CoV (largely anything Arachnos-related) looks godawful. Resigned to doing so, I turned that down and things seemed to calm down quite a lot, though the jitter was still slightly detectable.

Even so, I zipped on over to towards the Green Line to finish up my testing. I happened to notice that two of the trees nearby were casting terrible looking muddy-gray shadows. Just for the hell of it I decided to see if they looked that bad with Dynamic Shadows and...

Um...turning on Dynamic Shadows (Low Quality) actually stabilized my framerate?! (Keep in mind that turning Dynamic Shadows actually automatically turns Shader Quality back up to High.)

Confused, I switched back to High Shaders, Stencil Shadows. Crippling slowdown. High Shaders, No Shadows at All? Slowdown remained!

So, I went back to Dynamic Shadows (Low Quality). My average framerate seems to have suffered slightly and obviously said fancy shadows don't look as pretty as they could, but the game-killing, laggy jitter is completely gone! I'll consider that a victory (assuming this wasn't a fluke)!

Summary: If you're suffering from really bad lagginess/FPS jitter, try turning on Dynamic Shadows. Fair warning though, this obviously has the potential to overwork your graphics card if you're using significantly older hardware. I'm personally using a card that's just barely still workable for such things, so your mileage may vary wildly.

IMPORTANT: No promises, no guarantees. Only possibly works with/due to old cards/old drivers. Once again, your mileage may vary. Not a replacement for good ole fashioned new drivers.

To the devs: Clearly something to do with Shaders and Shadows is seriously borked. Maybe-sorta.

Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!

 

Posted

What video card and drivers are you running with?

 

Posted

What kind of issues are you having with the 197.45 drivers? The 175.19 drivers are nearly two years old and your issue may be resolved with the latest drivers.

 

Posted

Sounds like a good reason to upgrade to a newer card and maybe even away from nVidia.

NewEgg lists quite a few AGP video cards using an ATI chipset. You can find them here.

I was surprised to find some relatively modern chipsets there in AGP versions, and the prices aren't as bad as what I thought they'd be.

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

Black Pebble is my new hero.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Justice View Post
Sounds like a good reason to upgrade to a newer card and maybe even away from nVidia.

NewEgg lists quite a few AGP video cards using an ATI chipset. You can find them here.

I was surprised to find some relatively modern chipsets there in AGP versions, and the prices aren't as bad as what I thought they'd be.
For me it's largely a moot point. I have a new computer waiting to be built that's much more powerful than what I'm running now.

Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!

 

Posted

Well in that case, get to building.

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

Black Pebble is my new hero.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by IanTheM1 View Post
Upgrading my drivers any further breaks DirectX functionality on my card. This wouldn't affect CoH, I know, but most of my games do use DirectX.

AFAIK, this is a somewhat-known compatibility flaw with nVidia's drivers that I believe stems from using an AGP card.
My interest in your old drivers is because it is difficult to endorse your suggestion to fix/work around a problem which may not exist with the latest drivers. If you choose to run with older drivers, that is your decision. But, when you see problems, especially graphics related problems, our first response will always be to recommend that you update your drivers.

NVIDIA has had a great track record of fixing problems in their drivers and supporting older hardware. If you have issues with their drivers, I would suggest you let them know.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/driverq...assurance.html

I would feel more comfortable if you would edit your original post and make it clear that you are running with older drivers and that this problem may or may not exist with the latest drivers.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex View Post
I would feel more comfortable if you would edit your original post and make it clear that you are running with older drivers and that this problem may or may not exist with the latest drivers.
Post edited to clarify.

Also sending a report to nVidia right now, though I personally have less confidence in them fixing the issue.

Edit: Actually, just got a random idea that may or may not pan out. Report put on hold.

Edit2: Nope, drivers still broken. Getting back to that report. Aaaand done.

Never surrender! Never give up!
Help keep Paragon City alive with the unofficial City of Heroes Tabletop Role Playing Game!