Stuttering on Stratis and Altis

[JohnnieConcrete 1]

No matter what setting or start up parameters (if any) I am getting stuttering , a stutter every second or so. I just use the editor with a heli and fly about

MSI is showing 70+ frames in editor

It wasn't like this a week ago.

Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit

GIGABYTE Z87X-D3H-CF

I5-4670K 3.4Ghz

8Gb DDR3 RAM (2 x 4Gb)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

80Gb SSD Corsair Force (OS) Steam on normal drive

SHARKOON SKILLER Keyboard

Microsoft Sidewinder X8

Anyone have any ideas?

[BadHabitz 235]

No matter what setting or start up parameters (if any) I am getting stuttering , a stutter every second or so.

You might want to list which parameters you've already tried. Have you defragmented your mechanical hard drive lately?

[nikiforos 450]

I have the same problem while flying a copter or a plane.

[JohnnieConcrete 1]

You might want to list which parameters you've already tried. Have you defragmented your mechanical hard drive lately?

-nosplash -skipintro -maxMem=8192 -maxVRAM=2048 -cpuCount=4 -exThreads=7 -noLogs, I also take them all out, makes no difference really

I have defragged a day ago , checked file integ thru Steam, re-installed Drivers.

Arma 2 runs no problem, all other games run no problem

@Nikiforosilce It doesnt matter what I use

[jumpinghubert 49]

-nosplash -skipintro -maxMem=8192 -maxVRAM=2048 -cpuCount=4 -exThreads=7 -noLogs, I also take them all out, makes no difference really

I have defragged a day ago , checked file integ thru Steam, re-installed Drivers.

Arma 2 runs no problem, all other games run no problem

@Nikiforosilce It doesnt matter what I use

try arma3 on your ssd if there is enough space. There is a steam betaversion, its able to install games on different drives.

[JohnnieConcrete 1]

try arma3 on your ssd if there is enough space. There is a steam betaversion, its able to install games on different drives.

Thanks, I do use the Dev Build

My SSD doesn't have enough space.....but I don't think its that

I'll keep trying.

[Hatchet_AS 201]

For what it's worth, we have been seeing massive FPS stuttering over the last couple days on our dedicated servers (DEV Branch). And we're fairly capable people with fairly serious hardware. Things were fine until Wed/Thur update this week. Unfortunately we've not nailed down the root cause yet as it's been elusive, and it's happening at random times to random players (regardless of hardware things). And it also happens regardless of being MP/SP session.

There is a definitive stutter, and the FPS is incredibly unstable when it happens. Typically I can pull 50-60 frames (vsync), and right now whatever this issue is, will drag my FPS down to 8-10, all the while bouncing back up into the 50's and skipping all around. Makes things unplayable when it happens.

*edit*

Perhaps also worth noting, that in general the FPS took a bit of a dive with the update wed/thur. This issue, is beyond that and seems to be very specific (ie.. it happens the same way, has the same effect, to whoever it happens too, whenever it happens).

Edited September 7, 2013 by Hatchet_AS

[Sneakson 1]

Restart, update drivers, bios, reinstall ARMA, switch to Stable, switch back to Dev... if you have microstuttering despite a high framerate being read it sounds like a graphics card issue.

[aus_twisted 0]

Restart, update drivers, bios, reinstall ARMA, switch to Stable, switch back to Dev... if you have microstuttering despite a high framerate being read it sounds like a graphics card issue.

It's a engine problem, I'm getting the same thing recently.

[Hatchet_AS 201]

Restart, update drivers, bios, reinstall ARMA, switch to Stable, switch back to Dev... if you have microstuttering despite a high framerate being read it sounds like a graphics card issue.

Appreciate the reply, but I think you have underestimated my level of competence with these things. To which I'll again say, this is not just me seeing this, and we're all pretty capable people with very serious hardware. Who have many years of experience with BI products and who historically run extremely stable dedicated servers and have few complaints with things. As we know how to manage what we do, and understand intimately the environment and variables we dealing with here.

In reading a vast number of posts on the forums here today and elsewhere, it is plainly obvious that there is a significant issue currently. That has just recently started (IMHO), and as I indicated, seems to very specific and outside of what I would consider normal performance issues.

If you have something other than the typical "do typical stuff" suggestions to share, I'd be more than happy to receive them. As uninstalling/reinstalling and switching branches is a little far fetched I think. And the comment, regarding faulty hardware is well, something I know not to be accurate. And is honestly very misleading, which is less than helpful.

[nikiforos 450]

Restart, update drivers, bios, reinstall ARMA, switch to Stable, switch back to Dev... if you have microstuttering despite a high framerate being read it sounds like a graphics card issue.

You kidding right? Tell the guy to do all this stuff in vain?

He is not the only one with similar problems you know and blaming our computers is not a good advice.

[St. Jimmy 272]

I have a feeling that the latest or one before patch did something that causes some micro stuttering for me but it's such a huge step to move from dev branch to stable to check if it's true... Well I've also 560 Ti so maybe I really have to check this out.

[ric 1]

Thanks, I do use the Dev Build

My SSD doesn't have enough space.....but I don't think its that

I'll keep trying.

When A3 was on my mechanical HD the stuttering was unbearable.

---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 20:07 ----------

I have a feeling that the latest or one before patch did something that causes some micro stuttering for me but it's such a huge step to move from dev branch to stable to check if it's true... Well I've also 560 Ti so maybe I really have to check this out.

when the stuttering is happening check your HD light to see if is flickering

[WildFire6 10]

It is most likely the engine writing a bunch of bs to the rpt file. Happens a lot. They mentioned something in the dev branch about it a couple days ago, im sure they are already on it.

[windies 11]

try arma3 on your ssd if there is enough space. There is a steam betaversion, its able to install games on different drives.

I just picked up a new SSD and put ArmA 3 on it and still have stuttering issue's and the load times are practically the same even though everything else seems to load much much faster. The only thing it did fix was the ground texture loading, it's still there and noticeable as well but it's not as bad as with my mechanical drive. I'm actually a bit put off that the load times are literally the same between my mechanical drive and my SSD.

[Ezkaton 10]

I was getting stuttering when spawning into an area for the first time until I did at LEAST a full 360 on the spot, and flying/driving to new areas would cause stutter as new objects popped into the scene.

HDD light blinking like mad the whole time.

Using a WD Black drive.

I'm currently installing the game to my SSD... if I recall correctly, and if A3 is like A2, then aren't textures and objects streamed straight off the hard drive as they're needed?

SSD should smooth that out for sure.

I'll report back when it has finished re-downloading though.

[nikiforos 450]

I'm very interested hearing your results Ezkaton.

[Furret 0]

ArmA games stream data from the install directory as needed, the game chooses what is and isn't needed, loading/unloading data from RAM as necessary.

The stuttering occurs because something in your game is being drawn that isn't waiting in RAM, it needs to be loading from the install dir into RAM first, causing a minute micro-stutter.

You can alleviate this micro-stutter by placing the game on a SSD or running a RAM drive with the game on it. Testing has shown there is very litter difference in these two methods.

You can minimise the number of micro-stutter occurances by setting the -maxmem and -maxvram parameters to the maximum your machine allows, this creates a larger pool for the game to use, reducing the number of loads/unloads.

(the -maxmem parameter is limited to a max of 2047, the -maxvram doesn't have a limit)

[Ezkaton 10]

It'd be nice if these were in the options, rather than having to dick about with launch parameters.

I know it's easy and all, but you know... for people who don't already know the parameters, in-game options with a small description on what it does could be useful for many.

Nikiforos, unfortunately my game is still downloading and I likely won't get time to try it tonight, I will however leave this thread open on my PC as a reminder for when I get home from work tomorrow.

Which will be about... 21 or so hours from now.

[JohnnieConcrete 1]

Appreciate the reply, but I think you have underestimated my level of competence with these things. To which I'll again say, this is not just me seeing this, and we're all pretty capable people with very serious hardware. Who have many years of experience with BI products and who historically run extremely stable dedicated servers and have few complaints with things. As we know how to manage what we do, and understand intimately the environment and variables we dealing with here.

In reading a vast number of posts on the forums here today and elsewhere, it is plainly obvious that there is a significant issue currently. That has just recently started (IMHO), and as I indicated, seems to very specific and outside of what I would consider normal performance issues.

If you have something other than the typical "do typical stuff" suggestions to share, I'd be more than happy to receive them. As uninstalling/reinstalling and switching branches is a little far fetched I think. And the comment, regarding faulty hardware is well, something I know not to be accurate. And is honestly very misleading, which is less than helpful.

Its true what Hatchet says, I'm the same, a long time BIS customer, luckily I know whats what with a PC so I know where to start and where to stop and how to test, My PC is 100% healthy

It happened around about the time 32bit systems were given a boost or the roads were changed somehow

[jumpinghubert 49]

not a solution but maybe a workaround till the next patch delete the stuttering: push the rotation blur to 200. It doesn´t costs performance.

[Sneakson 1]

It's a engine problem, I'm getting the same thing recently.

Appreciate the reply, but I think you have underestimated my level of competence with these things. To which I'll again say, this is not just me seeing this, and we're all pretty capable people with very serious hardware. Who have many years of experience with BI products and who historically run extremely stable dedicated servers and have few complaints with things. As we know how to manage what we do, and understand intimately the environment and variables we dealing with here.

In reading a vast number of posts on the forums here today and elsewhere, it is plainly obvious that there is a significant issue currently. That has just recently started (IMHO), and as I indicated, seems to very specific and outside of what I would consider normal performance issues.

If you have something other than the typical "do typical stuff" suggestions to share, I'd be more than happy to receive them. As uninstalling/reinstalling and switching branches is a little far fetched I think. And the comment, regarding faulty hardware is well, something I know not to be accurate. And is honestly very misleading, which is less than helpful.

You kidding right? Tell the guy to do all this stuff in vain?

He is not the only one with similar problems you know and blaming our computers is not a good advice.

Well, did you TRY?

I see lots of users complaining and moaning about ARMA and then dropping bombs like â€Hey bro, why can’t I max all settings on my several years old hardware! Bullshit!â€.

I haven’t had any major issues on two different machines running Win7 32-bit and Win8 64-bit so whatever issues users are having clearly are not universal so re-installing their entire systems or something close to it should have a chance of clearing up any issues unless the issue is specific to your exact components.

Issues like these are not magical and either are specific to your computer because somewhere there’s a mess that needs to be cleared or it is specific to your or a broader (universal) spectrum of components.

If I’m having the issue and you’re not and we have similar hardware then it is obviously the software spooking.

If you really want to solve an issue then take your time instead of adding start-up-parameters and whining about how I’m making you waste time.

And I just tried flying around Altis and playing the Showcase: Infantry on both a Win7 32-bit Q9550/560 Ti/4GB DDR2/HDD and on a Win8 64-bit 4770K/770/16GB DDR3/SSD system with no micro-stuttering whatsoever.

I’m not denying you have issues but I’m saying there’s probably something more you could do to resolve the issues.

[Ezkaton 10]

I'm very interested hearing your results Ezkaton.

I'm currently tabbed out, but I'm playing Annex at the moment... the only stutter I'm getting is when I get frame drops in bad areas, like the main airfield, etc.

But out and about, flying around, etc. I only get stutter when going over towns... and even then it's minimal compared to my WD Black drive.

Mind you, I had zero stuttering on Stratis with my mechanical drive... it's just Altis.

Aaaaaand, boom, game crashed.

That god damn Physx_x86.dll crash... AGAIN.

Edited September 9, 2013 by Ezkaton

[Tyl3r99 41]

could this maybe related to the beta NVidia update??

maybe it will improve in the next phsyx update who knows but the game does need to use more ram... as BI have added a huge island

[nikiforos 450]

I'm currently tabbed out, but I'm playing Annex at the moment... the only stutter I'm getting is when I get frame drops in bad areas, like the main airfield, etc.

But out and about, flying around, etc. I only get stutter when going over towns... and even then it's minimal compared to my WD Black drive.

Mind you, I had zero stuttering on Stratis with my mechanical drive... it's just Altis.

Aaaaaand, boom, game crashed.

That god damn Physx_x86.dll crash... AGAIN.

Thanx for the reply

So buying an SSD will not make stutter to dissapear. Damn I really had high hopes about this .