Huge FPS drop in scope (propably video memory related game bug)

There is a huge problem with the video memory setting, a FPS drop when going into scope.

When having texture quality and video memory very high and going into the zoom mode of a weapon or binocular the FPS drops for me from something like 70 to 20-30 for 10-15 seconds and then its go up to 100 FPS. When having the video memory set to default i have less overall FPS (like going from 80 to 60 overall) but then the scope FPS drop isnt there (or its very short, under 1 second).

It seems there is a big problem with the video memory and maybe in combination with texture quality setting. When i saw this FPS drop problem in zoom mode i changed all ingame graphic settings to identify the specific setting that is causing this and it was the video memory setting.

Problem documented in pictures:

Ive monitored also the CPU, take a look:

4 cores accumulated to 1 graph to make it easier to read

Ive marked the game runtime (standing in feruz, not moving, not looking around), the time the weapon was scoped and the FPS drop. Its interesting to see the CPU has less work to do during the FPS drop.

I did also tests with different exThreads settings, problem still there, just different FPS drop time lenghts but thats hard to measure exactly.

I did also test it with having all game graphic settings to be to the lowest level, except for textures and video memory which were set to very high. Same problem, FPS go down from something like 150-200 to 30 (FPS drop) and then to something like 250-300 (depending on what you are looking at).

If you set textures and video memory to low then it seems the problem isnt there (or very very short, like under one second).

If you set textures to very high and video memory to default then it seems the problem isnt there (or very very short, like under one second).

So it seems to be a workaround at the moment to set the video memory to default but this costs you 10-20 % of your overall FPS (in my case, not measured exactly, just round about).

Whondering whats going on there, i hope you guys will find it out @ work.

Gameversions tested:

current and also tested beta patch

Can someone reproduce and confirm?

Repo mission:

http://rapidshare.com/files/440595868/mission.sqm

just a unit in feruz abad, load and go into zoom

Hardware:

ATI 6950 with 2 GB RAM

Intel 2500k @ 4 GHZ

Intel x25 SSD (OS and Game running from it)

Why that is a problem?

In the game you have to scope often to target something, very difficult with the FPS drop (its getting worse when looking around, very stuttering).

Edited February 10, 2011 by Ginger McAle

I just tested that, and indeed, I notice the same! Haven't payed much attention to that yet, because the game is often a bit sluggish. But now that I know what to look for, I can reproduce your problem in that settings on Takistan. Haven't noticed on Chernarus though; but I didn't test very extensively.

Maybe you should post that as a bug on the tracker.

EDIT: My system: Phenom II X4 940, Radeon 5850, Win 7 64bit, Catalyst 10.9

Edited January 4, 2011 by Brainbug

I noticed the same problem with the newest betapatch, and i have also extreme Lod-issues when using videomemory with very high settings. (1Gb HD5870) .... Is 1GB DDR5 not enough?

Regards Culti

Tested with b76973, used shortcut from beta patch to start the game (unmodified, no mods, etc. to exclude other error source). Problem still there.

Another test, showing graphic settings now also:

Init (with graphic settings on screen now)

Weapon scoped, FPS drop for 18 seconds (with 20 - 30 frames)

Weapon still scoped, normal FPS after 18 seconds

Edited February 10, 2011 by Ginger McAle

So it seems to be a workaround at the moment to set the video memory to default but this costs you 10-20 % of your overall FPS (in my case, not measured exactly, just round about).

That not only lowers overall FPS, but also makes driving much worse, because you get heavy stuttering when driving fast, in curves etc., i.e. always when you see a lot of "new" area at once.

I reverted back to "very high" RAM setting, I'll just have to live with the scoping issue; but in warfare games im usually driving more often than scoping.

I am experiencing frequent freezes and I have noticed that they tend to happen after using the scope.

What happens is that the frame rate drops and the game stutters until the gaps between stutters is less and less frequent, resulting in a complete freeze.

I too am using the "Very High" RAM setting. My resolution is set to 2560x1600 with 1920x1080 3D res.

Hopefully this adds a few more details to assist in the debugging effort.

Edited January 5, 2011 by cobracmndr
grammar

I noticed the same problem with the newest betapatch, and i have also extreme Lod-issues when using videomemory with very high settings. (1Gb HD5870) .... Is 1GB DDR5 not enough?

Regards Culti

"Default" in this case is basically "auto" as far as I can tell.

Default is auto, I have 2gb of RAM and that is the only setting that it will use all of it on. I too am having these major FPS drops when looking through a scoped weapon, i am trying to determine whether it is a mod that is causing the problems and so far no mod being removed / added has given me the bug in the editor but when i try to play warfarein the XR server (so far) i try to zoom and i get lag.

I may have found a way to repeat it tho if I look NE in the Celle map that seem to do it???

Edited January 20, 2011 by eddie247

yes, had the same problem, solved by leaving the default video memory.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=113119

I've tried with video memory set to default and I still get huge frame drops when looking through the scope.

Tred this briefly with new driver and problem is gone.

Tred this briefly with new driver and problem is gone.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a go.

I now realise exactly what ginger was encountering and other people too, my framerate drops considerably after looking into a scope for some time (usually 10-15secs) , only not a much as before the nvidia driver update, where before it was unplayable now it is awkward and annoying :D

Tred this briefly with new driver and problem is gone.

GingerMcAle

Did you use latest Videodriver / Direct X update?

Yes of course. Ive made sure this isnt a issue that only i have with my software / hardware combination.

I just have this problem with WarFX-Particles.

This may be related

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/18064

Edited March 5, 2011 by eddie247

80336 fixed it.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=118921

Most likely due to:

[80336] Optimized: Reduced frame rate drops caused by texture loading

Any more Threads/Info on a fix 4 this?

There is this ticket in the Community Issue Tracker:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/14397

And i saw also this thread about it:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=117051

The issue has been fixed with this beta patch:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=118921

Wonderfull i shall have a look 2moz, seems the problem for me only happens in MP.

Thanks for posting.