Strange Stutter Problem

[Donner & Blitzen 10]

I'm experiencing a strange stutter problem. I'm not sure if it's the same thing as the "microstuttering" other people have been experiencing, but it seems to be unrelated to what I'm looking at in game (i.e. unrelated to how hardware intensive or expensive the scene is).

Basically, what happens is that my performance seems to be increasing and decreasing for no apparent reason. I'll be standing still, looking at the same scene, and my game will suddenly get choppy, then suddenly get smooth, etc., independent of how hardware intensive the scene is.

Any ideas?

Dell Studio XPS 1645

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

i7 720-QM (1.60Ghz Quad)

ATI HD4670 Mobility Radeon

[PTV-Jobo 820]

To be honest, after 1.55 (full and even the beta) my performance has been shot to hell as well as a lot of guys also who play on the CAPS server. We thought it was ACE or another mod, but me and a friend spent an entire day testing every single combination--both non-dedi and dedi servers, and no matter what, there's weird stuttering. We even loaded up Duala which has always been a silky-smooth map for us, and even now we get stuttering out of nowhere.

I have a core i7, Win 7 64-bit, 6GB OCZ ram and a HD4870 X2 (2GB) card--while I always had a bit of stuttering that I got use to, but ArmA now is becoming damn-near unplayable for a lot of us in my group out of nowhere.

Before 1.55, we all had great game times, and now? Now some don't even want to bother loading up ArmA, just to get discouraged. Hope you make out better than I have, heh. Just know you're not alone here...

[Donner & Blitzen 10]

=/

Has BI acknowledged the issue?

[ast65 10]

Deleting config + latest beta + exthreads = best performance and graphical quality :)

[rscarrab 10]

@ @ST

Deleting the config? I had a crash in 1.54 and i had kept my configs from 1.55, same crashdump errors were popping up.

I thought for a moment that it could have had something to do with the config but after re-installing about 8 times ive been busy double checking my hardware and drivers to make sure there isnt any instability. There isn't.

So are you saying delete the config folder in my documents, boot up the game and let the beta version create the config file & folders?

Can you confirm that has alleviated a CTD for someone?

[Donner & Blitzen 10]

Something else that is weird:

Whenever I return from viewing the map, saving the game, changing video settings or alt-tabbing, my performance is smooth...for several seconds, before degrading again.

I have no idea why this would happen...From all this, it seems that my system is perfectly capable of running the game smoothly at the given graphics settings, but something is slowing it down...

Oh, I didn't mention this before, don't know if it's important, but I'm running Combined Operations.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Donner & Blitzen

[ast65 10]

So are you saying delete the config folder in my documents, boot up the game and let the beta version create the config file & folders?

Exactly! (and don´t forget to put exthreads in commandline)

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

Can you confirm that has alleviated a CTD for someone?

Well, that´s a bit hard to tell because it´d be pure speculative but I can confirm that is has improved performance for people with i.e. slow loading LOD´s a lot :)

[rscarrab 10]

@ @ST

Ye, im going to try the -exthreads later. I disabled HT so Prime95 is only showing 4 CPU's now instead of 6 or 7 (cant remember exactly). So what would that be in terms of -exthreads= X?

And i noticed that everytime i re-installed Arma2OABAF (and/or up to 067 beta)i would have to flush my video settings, cause i was getting bad LOD flickering too. (and i dont mean actually doing that flush thing where you press shift and type it in or whatever, i mean literally)

Its a little trick that ive used which lets me keep my config file (but now im thinking maybe i should actually just make a new one like you said). I noticed pretty bad LOD switching when i carried my config file over to a new install which hadnt been configured to my ideal visual settings yet.

If anyone here is having this problem, than it cant hurt to give this a shot (if you dont want to delete your config file); I would set everything to lowest using the preset. Then set my resolution to native (1920x1200) and 3d Res to 100%. Then i would manually --not touching the presets-- change every option from low to vhigh, one by one.

Then, i would drop the Res to what i want it at which is 1920x1080 and re-adjust the 3d res to 100% (cause it tends to be low after i do this).

Then back out and LOD flickering would fall under "atm normal" (for want of a better term), which is basically as good as the current patch can deliver. If i still had very noticable LOD switching id just rinse and repeat what i just mentioned, in that order.

Thats what worked for me anyway, though bear in mind i am using an SSD for Arma.

Cheers. :)

[ast65 10]

I´m running an I7 with HT on, no cpucount in commandline but exthreads=7; works like a charm (so far :p).

[rscarrab 10]

Wish i had a lucky charm. ;)

Gonna try out the -exthreads, fingers crossed deleting my .cfg and doing that (plus 1.56 official) will stop my random CTD's.

[Donner & Blitzen 10]

Update

This odd stuttering/performance drop occurs in vanilla ARMA as well, so I don't think its a problem with 1.55.