Stuttering every 10 seconds

[Yuka 0]

Alrighty, I've done some searching and can't find anything that has solved my problem or even come close to my problem.

I run Arma at ~30 FPS. My system isn't the greatest, it's almost 3 years old. It will be upgraded, hopefully, in the coming months. It runs the game, nuff said.

I'm running a GeForce 7600 GS (AGP) on an AMD Athlon 64 CPU with 2 GB of RAM. The computer is running Windows XP 64-bit Edition SP2.

Now, this stutter is pretty confusing.

I'm on the latest drivers, I've tried Riva Tuner with various settings. Nothing seems to put a dent in this issue. The flush cheat/command does not affect it.

The stutter happens sometimes. Usually it is after playing for a little bit, sometimes it is there the instant I load a mission. Multiplayer or Singleplayer. My full testing process was done in multiplayer since that is what I only play.

The stutter drops my framerate by about 5 to 10 FPS for half a second. This is according to the time graph for FPS on the Fraps OSD on my Logitech G15 keyboard. The stutter occurs every 10 seconds exactly, it never is delayed or early.

Once the stutter starts, there is no way to stop it besides restarting ArmA. I have tried adjusting the resolution and the various graphic settings ingame with no effect noticed.

It is not an overheat of RAM, GPU, Video memory, or CPU, as I have monitored that closely.

This is not a network connection issue as it happens on LAN servers as well as internet servers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lt.chris 0]

at this point id try and make sure theres no spyware/viruses on my computer have you scanned your system?

even scanning my computer with the best anti-spyware/viruses this thing dected more than anything else

(its the best in my opinion)

Advanced Windows Care

simply

1. download

2. intall and run the program

3. go options at top right and click update to update the program

4. click Scan and itll display everything bad it finds

5. click Repair and itll sort the problems out

http://www.download.com/3000-2086_4-10783002.html

hope it works

[Yuka 0]

Tried the above, nothing was found. Machine is clean of viruses, spyware, and malware. Problem still exists.

[klamacz 448]

well, I have the same problem here. Funny it started when I changed my monitor from 4:3 LG CRT to 16:10 IIyama LCD I tried different resolution but no hope found.

After couple of hours testing I found its stuttering only when I move or rotate ingame, maybe its because of view-aspect-ratio?

[Yuka 0]

well, I have the same problem here. Funny it started when I changed my monitor from 4:3 LG CRT to 16:10 IIyama LCD I tried different resolution but no hope found.

After couple of hours testing I found its stuttering only when I move or rotate ingame, maybe its because of view-aspect-ratio?

My stuttering happens regardless of what I am doing or what is happening in game. Although it is more noticeable when I'm moving or rotating, however the framerate loss is the same if I am not moving.

Aspect ratio on my end is currently 4:3

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Stuttering happens often, when the hdd is working.

That explains why you see the stutter when rotating. ArmA is loading textures/etc from your harddrive.

But I have no clue why ArmA stutter every ~10 seconds.

(Have this problem myself.)

Be sure you disable your antivirus programm when starting arma.

MfG Lee

[Yuka 0]

Stuttering happens often, when the hdd is working.

That explains why you see the stutter when rotating. ArmA is loading textures/etc from your harddrive.

But I have no clue why ArmA stutter every ~10 seconds.

(Have this problem myself.)

Be sure you disable your antivirus programm when starting arma.

MfG Lee

Interesting. Thanks. I'll monitor HDD activity while this is happening and come back here with what I find.

[BraTTy 0]

Advanced Windows Care

Hey thanks thats actually a pretty good program.

Spyware scan seems too fast but it found things where Spybot and Adaware were saying I was clean !

So using all three programs I should be at least 90% clean !

[LeftSkidLow 1]

Yuka, are you playing on a server with accelerated time? Such as an evo server that has the day set to only 4 hours, if so this is your problem.

Nothing you can do about it but play somewhere else, when you bitch to the admin, its not their problem so they don't care.

[Flashover 0]

I've also been having this problem more recently. The stuttering occurs more often when I'm in a high texture area like grass, it 'breathes' back and forth when I am moving and my frame rates skip around a bit. But even at high speed in fixed-wing I get the same problem, same stuttering speed. It's quite frustrating but I am used to it now.

I think it has something to do with resolution as well, a higher resolution causes more skipping.

[boomboomer 0]

Your stuttering problems are caused by having your settings too high for your hardware to cope without swapping to the pagefile or bottlenecking at the GFX card.

If you think your hardware is upto the job then disable the pagefile and see if ArmA will still run or CTD.

Otherwise turn your resolution down to something your GFX & memory can handle and set all options to low or normal, apart from AA and shadows, which should be off. Turn Vsync off in Nvidia settings and render frames ahead to zero, or one.

Yuka - your machine should just cope with normal settings at 1280x1024 but if you have anything higher then you need a new GFX card - the AGP slot is your limiter though.

[Yuka 0]

I do play on an Evo server with the 4 hour days and I happen to be the server admin.

I haven't heard from any of my players about such a stuttering problem, though. I do have a second evo server that I can use to test the theory (just change it to 24 hour days).

As far as my graphic settings are concerned. I've been running at 1024x768 at Low graphic settings and the problem exists. I'd assume that the problem would exist at higher settings, although I will give that a shot, although I don't know if I can handle the lower frame rate. 30 FPS is my personal low limit, as I have worked with high-speed video editing for a couple years, so I have developed the ability to tell the difference between 30 and 60 FPS, anything lower than 30 makes me want to pull my hair out.

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Your stuttering problems are caused by having your settings too high for your hardware to cope without swapping to the pagefile or bottlenecking at the GFX card.

Not correct.

ArmA stutter happens also when flying over the sea with no island in sight @60fps

With fraps you can see the fps beeing stable, then go down 10-15, then jump up again, and so on.

MfG Lee

[boomboomer 0]

Not correct.

ArmA stutter happens also when flying over the sea with no island in sight @60fps

With fraps you can see the fps beeing stable, then go down 10-15, then jump up again, and so on.

MfG Lee

So turn your pagefile off and see if it still stutters, as another poster pointed out your PC maybe doing something non-ArmA related while your flying over sea. A clean boot (or dual boot) would prove if it's your hardware causing it.

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Tested everything possible.

It's not all the time and I don't really care anymore.

ArmA is just a bitch, no more no less.

All the little bugs that kill my gaming experience, one more doesn't hurt.

I wait for 1.09 final AND 1.09 linux dedicated server.

MfG Lee

[Yuka 0]

Confirmed that this problem is caused by the 4 hour days in evo. My server has been switched back to 24 hour days.

[guttersnipe 1]

I have a similar performance glitch - a bad stutter every 10 seconds or so.

Alt-tabbing to the desktop I found that Norton Anti-Bast**D (05) keeps flashing up an intrusion alert (by my own computer apparently on a portscan of 2302).

This happens regardless of whether I'm hosting a LAN or Internet. If I disable NAV the stuttering seems to disappear (it is also improved when I kill my outward bound internet connection).

I've tried configuring NAV to ignor this instance in every fashion imaginable (adding the Arma ports etc to the exclusions list etc, adding by name & IP the problem machine (ie mine) etc) .. but the error still occurs.

Short of permanently disabling NAV (which I'm reluctant to do as I've alot of work files on my machine) I can't seem to find a way round this problem. (Norton have been their usual helpful selfs (ie dilly squat reply)

I've seen a similar issue discussed here - in the Flashpoint forums - http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=46333 - and here - http://www.nakedsquid.com/index.p....tart=30 .

Anyone any ideas?

[OL 0]

I think a lot of this has to do with loading textures from the HDD, because of the little amount of RAM that ArmA uses. If the developers had optimised the ArmA experience for computers with large amounts of memory, then performance may have been much more consistent. I have tried to reduce texture loading delays as much as possible by having lots of fast RAM and by having the ArmA directory on the fastest part of my 10 000rpm Raptor HDD but it doesn't improve things that much

EVO can also place a strain on the CPU with large numbers of enemy units. I know the EVO Blue++ version I play on the >>VR<< server, which is designed for 50 players drags my system into the teens FPS wise when approaching towns. It also makes FPS much worse in wooded areas for some reason, even though my 3870 is a powerful card, shader wise.

I think I may get a faster CPU this weekend...