Slower loads since 240, also stuttering lasting in seconds, especially entering gorge tunnels

HeatSurgeHeatSurge Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
edited March 2013 in Technical Support
The game loads slower for me since 240. 241 was an improvement, but compiling the shaders takes somewhat longer than 239. However, that's not the biggest problem with 240.

Since 240 I've been actually getting somewhat better performance in-game (or is it placebo?), however the game starts hitching pretty heavily after playing 8-10 rounds, and especially during/after descent it seems, at random times (every 2-3 minutes) during gameplay for a few seconds (4-8), as if there's some really bad memory leak.

When the hitching starts happening, and in general I've noticed that the first time I enter a gorge tunnel (as a marine or alien) there's a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad hitch - like the game freezes completely for 15-20 seconds. Then it's fine (even though it starts hitching even more as said above). Even entering a gorge tunnel subsequently hitches extremely bad for me; it's made me avoid using gorge tunnels altogether for fear of heavy hitching plague.

314.14 GTX 480, Win7 x64, all settings max 1920x1080 (decals turned to max, vsync off, texture streaming on - it happens with off as well), fullscreen (not windowed fs), i7 920 @ 4.2ghz .

I'll record a demo; not sure if that will help and it'll be one heck of a long demo because I think the hitching doesn't start (or is not bad) until after playing 3-4 rounds at least. I'll try to see if it happens early-ish.

Comments

  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    also try to run r_stats 1, net_stats 1 and net_log 3, the last one creates a log.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Type "loadtimes true" in the console when you first start ns2.
    Then join/make your own server and right after you jump into a gorge tunnel check the console for any model or effect loading (shaders compiling should report as well) and be sure to report the ms it takes to load.
    Thanks
  • HeatSurgeHeatSurge Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    I kinda doubt the hitching is network-related, but sure -_- . The entire game freezes, and it feels like a rendering problem to me... but whatev. I will do some more investigating, just wanted to report in case someone else gets this.

    It's especially really bad specifically when entering gorge tunnels (the game stops as if the computer's frozen for like 15-20 seconds, then resumes).
  • MoroderMoroder Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183962Members
    Hi I was looking for help for this trouble too, It doesnt happen for me on training mode, my specs are:

    AMD Phenom II 1090T 3200 Mhz
    asus NVIDIA GTX 560 ti drivers 314.07
    4 GB RAM
    Windows 7 64 bits

    any fix to it yet?
  • ObraxisObraxis Subnautica Animator & Generalist, NS2 Person Join Date: 2004-07-24 Member: 30071Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    HeatSurge wrote: »
    It's especially really bad specifically when entering gorge tunnels (the game stops as if the computer's frozen for like 15-20 seconds, then resumes).

    I often get this if I have put my PC into hibernation mode or sleep mode. It seems the graphics driver is somehow less efficient when that is done. Rebooting my PC then playing NS2 always fixes it.

  • HeatSurgeHeatSurge Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    My PC has hibernation, sleep, and power saving functions disabled, and isn't a laptop. It's also on 24/7...

    Anyway, I kept getting this, but not always, and sometimes it takes like 2-3 hours of playing before it starts happening. When it's ns2_descent, it seems like there's a higher chance of hitching to start happening, and yes gorge tunnels are kinda bad too.

    We're almost up to 242 anyway, so I'm hoping it'll magically fix itself. I don't think I can put my finger on when/why it happens.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Could you try what I posted please?
  • HeatSurgeHeatSurge Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited April 2013
    Just an update: I had those stutters for a long time, especially on Descent. Descent was really really bad for some reason.

    That was on drivers 314.22 I think. I updated to 320.00 yesterday, and it seems like the game loads a lot (like, 15 seconds compared to 2 minutes before) faster, performs much better, and all the hitching is gone.

    I'm using a GTX 480 by the way.

    I really hope it wasn't some one-time thing yesterday, but unless I come back, you can consider this "resolved" for now.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    @heatsurge awesome , thanks for posting your fix!
  • HeatSurgeHeatSurge Some Guy Join Date: 2012-09-15 Member: 159438Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited April 2013
    Update, I played a continuous 5-hour session on Saturday, and everything was running a-ok the entire time.

    I would've never guessed that drivers can break a game so badly; never had an issue so bad with nvidia drivers before (except a shader issue with BF2142 about 4-5 years ago now for one driver version lol), and I always run the newest betas...

    TL;DR: To anyone using nvidia that has stutters which "feel" like a memory overflow or caching, try the 320.00 drivers.
  • shonanshonan Join Date: 2013-01-28 Member: 182562Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited April 2013
    And here I thought AMD drivers were bad :P
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    drivers these days get optimied for many games.
    I can completely imagine they break stuff for different ones then.

    I had drivers which refused in certain games to render water while a different version work just fine. :)
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