Stutter every other footstep

[joseph380]

I first noticed this in Doom 3. Quake 4 and Prey do it also. Every few feet the game hitches, seems like the graphics jump a little. When running around it doesnt seem as smooth as other games. If you strafe back and forth its more easily noticable. I've seen this on 3 different pc's.

Com_precisetic 0 fixes it in game but the game doesnt save it like the show fps command. Tried adding it to the config file which didnt work. Anyone know the proper way to word the command for the config file?

[TerminX]

Do you have a dual core processor or a SMP rig? What are your system specs? IIRC, com_preciseTic is related to thread synchronization; if you're having problems that clear up after disabling it, you might want to use task manager to set the process affinity so that it runs on a single core/processor. You might also want to install AMD's dual core driver if you have such a rig.

Failing that, the proper syntax to add this to preyconfig.cfg would be the following: seta com_preciseTic "0"

[joseph380]

I currently have a x2 4800. But I've seen this on a 3500+ and a p4 3.2.

I learned the command from a Doom 3 forum thread when that game was first released. Other people were having the issue and most of them had Amd cpu's. That was August 04, before dual core was released.

I tried wording it just like all the other lines in the Doom 3 config file but didnt work. Havent tried it on Prey yet.

[joseph380]

This is one of the threads I was talking about. Its a subtle issue that I didnt notice until halfway through Doom 3.

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=11574&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=80

I got the command to work from the config gile. Forgot to add the quotation marks. But it doesnt work in mp. Some in that thread said UT2k4 does it but its not nearly as bad.

[neilsouth]

Im getting the same with my X1800XT and TFT 8ms monitor, its SO annoying!

[neilsouth]

Did anybody find a fix?

[AWE300]

what is your agp apperture size set to in the bios? try 128 or 256

[neilsouth]

Bit difficult with a pcie graphics card ;)

[AWE300]

D:
Sorry

[neilsouth]

No worries AWE :)

[AWE300]

:) Hope you find a fix!

[neilsouth]

So do i bud
It happens in

doom3
quake 4
Oblivion
and now prey

No performance problems just frame skipping, oblivion doesnt have com_precisetic i wish devs could see this happening :(

[Metal Boss]

As I mentioned in the other thread before it was deleted, this does happen for me as well and I believe it is dual-core related.

[avatar_58]

Oblivion
(

Oblivion doesn't work the same way, the stutters occur due to mass amounts of data being streamed per area. I bet it doesn't stutter indoors right? This is a seperate issue, and for an RPG I don't think its such an issue (to me, others might argue) :)

[neilsouth]

It does work the same way because ive seen it for myself it isnt stutter in the same way you mean.. for example if i stare at a wall and walk right or left
it goes..

skip , smooth , skip, smooth , skip , smooth

Exactly the same frame skip as in the other games i mentioned, this happens throughout the entire game indoors or outside.. frame rates are between 30 and 60fps , 60fps max being my vsync 60hz

[avatar_58]

You mean the skipping is actually constant? I don't know if this is the game's fault then, because on my PC it only happens when something needs to be loaded. Inside caves the game is smooth as silk.

It almost sounds like its having a hard time reading and writing to memory smoothly. Unfortunately since I haven't experienced such a thing first hand I don't know what to say. What hard-drive speeds do you guys have anyway?

[RedTiger]

If it's the problem I think it is, it has nothing to do with drive access. I was having it in D3 too but not very often, like once every 2-minutes, but yeah, very annoying. I haven't noticed it lately for some reason, and it hasn't happened in PreyD at all. I haven't set affinity either, on a 4400+.

[joseph380]

As I mentioned in the other thread before it was deleted, this does happen for me as well and I believe it is dual-core related.

Its been complained about since Doom 3 was released which was before dual core.

http://www.cesspit.net/drupal/node/1261

[neilsouth]

You mean the skipping is actually constant? I don't know if this is the game's fault then, because on my PC it only happens when something needs to be loaded. Inside caves the game is smooth as silk.

It almost sounds like its having a hard time reading and writing to memory smoothly. Unfortunately since I haven't experienced such a thing first hand I don't know what to say. What hard-drive speeds do you guys have anyway?

I have nothing against you avatar, i just dont think you understand what its like
and what happens.. its nothing to do with the hard drive its nothing to do with caching its not the same. Really wish you could see it for yourself :doh:

[Ron]

I have this very same problem with Prey and Doom 3... This was the reason I didn't buy quake 4 :( So I had to cancel my pre-order on prey. I really didn't want to but the truth is I will not enjoy the game with the stuttering the way it is. But here is the strange thing about it. I didn't have a single problem with prey before I reinstalled windows... Now I have the stuttering. I have the exact same Drivers and software I had in there before with the exact same versions of drivers, programs, and games. The only reason I had to reinstall was because of some website where I was looking for wallpaper installed something into my system without me telling it to and I could not remove it so had to reinstall. Now all my other games are working perfect without a single frame loss or skip of any kind all set on max settings (Battlefield 2/SF/EF/AF, Titan Quest, FEAR, Condemned criminal Origins, The Godfather, Half Life 2 Episode one, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and Oblivion). Now oddly enough I was surprised when I seen prey working on the D3 engine and it worked fine at first up until my reinstall. I have not tried the console command yet but I remember when I had this problem with Doom 3 it only smoothed it out a tiny bit and not enough to make the game work properly. After all this I went to my other 3 systems and had the same exact results... I hope they find a fix for this because I would like to pick this up when it comes out and already had to cancel my pre-order which really disappointed me since I was really enjoying the demo.

Tested on all of the systems below with all there latest Bios, Driver's, Windows Updates. In each system the stutter was slightly different and was present on various in game graphics settings. The stutter was most visible on the 3.0/3.4/3.4em64t. I tried the seta com_precisetic "0" setting in the cfg file but that didn't do anything. Ether later or tomorrow I will try the console command and see if that helps any if at all. I really hope something is done about this problem and not just passed along like what was done with d3 and q4.

P4 3.4 Ghz EM64T
Asus P5ND2
eVGA 7800GT 256mb PCI-e
Creative XFi Xtream Music
2 Gig's DDR2 533 OCZ
250 Gig maxtor 16MB Cache
Windows XP Pro
---------------------------
P4 3.4 Ghz
Asus P5GD1
eVGA 6800GT 256mb PCI-e
Crative Xfi Xtream Music
2 Gig's DDR 400 Corsair XMS
250 Gig Maxtore 16MB Cache
Windows XP Pro
---------------------------
P4 3.0 Ghz
Soltek SL-865Pro
Chaintech Apogee 6800GT 256mb AGP
Crative Xfi Xtream Music
2 Gig's DDR 400 Kingston HyperX
200 Gig Maxtore 8MB Cache
Windows XP Pro
---------------------------
P4 2.8 Ghz
Asus Black Pearl P4PE-BP
eVGA 6600 256mb
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Gamer
2 Gigs Generic DDR 333
3 x 80 Gig Maxtore Drives
Windows XP Pro

Almost forgot... I am not sure if it looks the same for others but for me its almost more of a combo of frame skip, stutter, and a jitter. Strafe makes everything your looking at kind of jitter/stutter while walking streight kind of looks like its skipping frames.

[neilsouth]

Ron wouldnt be supprised because its the same engine its the same damn flaw

[Ron]

I did a lot of reading today on the issue and I can't find anything to smooth it out enough to make it enjoyable. One of the more interesting threads I seen on this issue (amongst thousands) was this one:

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=11574&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I tried all the various console commands and even did them on the command line, IE:

"C:\Games\Prey Demo\prey.exe" +seta com_fixedTic 1

"C:\Games\Prey Demo\prey.exe" +seta com_fprecisetic 0

"C:\Games\Prey Demo\prey.exe" +seta com_fixedTic 1 +seta com_precisetic 0


The last command smoothed things out a lot but then there are 2 major side effects, 1.) You will start to run extremely fast randomly causing you to almost fly across the screen, 2.) Audio will loose synch and sometimes very badly.
And other various command options... There are also commands to show the skip in frames in various ways. So far the one that comes close to smoothening this out would be com_fprecisetic but still not smooth enough. I pretty much give up since I spent nearly 4 hours trying to smooth out the skipping but even with that com_fprecisetic command its not smooth and then the audio goes out of synch.

[neilsouth]

I dont think the devs know how to solve it or cannot be arsed too want proof
prey is nearly out same basic engine since doom3 with alot of tweaks and STILL
this damn frame skip remains. Ofcause its not just me either ^

:(

[Ron]

Figured I would mention; A few of my friends werent sure they had the stuttering. I told them to Circle Strafe the tip of the bar... They then seen the stutter very clearly. Just figured I would mention it for those that don't see it when playing.

[neilsouth]

I dont think the devs care Ron, because its been happening since doom 3

[PlayfulPuppy]

To the guys that are having this issue: Is it a fairly consistant time between skips? Like, 5-10 seconds of smooth gameplay then it seems to lurch forward a fraction of a second?

I was getting that when I first got DX9 installed, but I ended up being able to fix it by swapping DX-Graphics from Debug to Release mode (That option, however, is only available if you have the DXSDK installed). Oddly, it was on Debug by default, although that may have been a carry-over from the DX8 installation I had previously.

It's a pretty out-there solution however, as this should only occur if you've done development work in DX9.

[edit] Shit, totally ignore everything I just said. I completly forgot that Doom 3 uses OpenGL, not DX. :doh:

[neilsouth]

Nope playfulpuppy , its like a car going along a road and every 3yards the car jerks :P