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Vertical Sync drops FPS
SPACoD Offline
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#1
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago Vertical Sync drops FPS

I recently bought a new Full HD 23" monitor and ran Amnesia in 1920x1080. I continued developing my custom story and while I was testing, the image was tearing when I was moving left and right. I then enabled VSync which drastically dropped my FPS when looking at something that is right in front of you, like opening a door or staring at a wall you're touching. My FPS halves when I do that (goes to 30 and tends to stay at 30).

Specs:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Build 7601 (SP1)
CPU: Intel i3 2120 @3.3 GHz
GPU: Nvidia (Gigabyte) GeForce GTX 560 Ti @900MHz (Driver Version: 310.70)
MBO: MSI P67A-GD65
Disk Drives: 1 TB WD Caviar Green HDD, 90 GB Corsair CSSD-F90GB2
Monitor: Fujitsu SL23T-1 Led @60Hz (Connected via the VGA cable, analog)
RAM: 2x 4 GB DDR3 @1866 MHz

If you want to try to reproduce the slowdown you can put everything on max except SSAO Samples and go stand right in front of a wall or even stare at the floor.
Note that having VSync off makes the slowdown not happen but then the image starts tearing.
Before I had an SXGA (1280x1024) resolution monitor and I didn't use VSync, in fact I could run it with 128 SSAO Samples with the FPS stuck to 45, it was too much to run it at 60. I enabled Triple Buffering in the NVIDIA control panel but it isn't really helping. Staring at the floor or a wall without VSync make my FPS drop for at most 10 FPS (which is then 50 and it doesn't go below that point).

I will try playing some other games without VSync and see if the image is tearing there.

P.S. I was playing Dark Room as a test custom story, you'll see that in the log. I also saw a thread similar to this one but I thought someone could help me with this annoying problem.


Attached Files
.log   hpl.log (Size: 17.95 KB / Downloads: 95)
(This post was last modified: 01-05-2013, 09:08 PM by SPACoD.)
01-05-2013, 09:06 PM
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#2
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

Vsync causing a decrease in performance is something to be expected, especially with such high SSAO sampling (it's not an issue with the game). Also, you didn't say whether you were running the game in fullscreen or not.

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(This post was last modified: 01-05-2013, 09:43 PM by Your Computer.)
01-05-2013, 09:42 PM
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SPACoD Offline
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#3
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

I was running in full screen and SSAO samples are only 16, note that I said when I was using SXGA resolution monitor I could put it on 128 with 45 FPS which is actually quite nice. I just played Battlefield 3 with everything on max settings and it didn't lag or stutter. Without VSync there was MAYBE some image tearing but if there even was I didn't notice it. I also tried putting VSync on in BF3 but still no lag whatsoever.
I don't understand how it isn't an issue with the game because it only happens when an object is very close to the player's camera, not any other way. It might be an OpenGL issue, BF3 uses D3D 11.
I had issues when I played Minecraft as well, sometimes the drivers would crash and everything would turn pink for a second and then return to normal, but all Youtube videos and that kind of stuff broke so I had to reload the pages to get the video again.
I think that would be all I have to say, can't wait for HPL 3 which will use DirectX Big Grin
01-05-2013, 11:08 PM
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#4
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

If you had enabled vertical sync when using the SXGA monitor, you would most likely not have passed 30 FPS. If you think about it, would vsync be doing its job if a fraction of a frame is sent to the monitor? What number of frames would prevent the monitor from receiving a fraction of a frame when the refresh rate is 60hz? That would be 60, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5 and 1. Your graphics card can't generate 60 FPS when vsync is active? Then it goes to 30. It's not the game's fault that you receive 30 frames or less with vsync on. Vsync is just doing its job.

FYI: HPL3 using DirectX? Nope.

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01-06-2013, 01:01 AM
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SPACoD Offline
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#5
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

I read somewhere that devs are planning on making HPL 3 use DirectX. I also forgot to mention that the old monitor's refresh rate was 75Hz.
But I don't get why it's happening only when an object is really close and why is the image messed up when VSync is off, I played a few games with it off and everything is looking like it should.

EDIT: For DX support check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPL_Engine
(This post was last modified: 01-06-2013, 12:17 PM by SPACoD.)
01-06-2013, 12:05 PM
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plutomaniac Offline
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#6
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

Yes I think Thomas said at one of his blog posts that he wanted the next engine to support DirectX and preferably both DirectX and OpenGL.

Well, if they make it DirectX then people will have way less problems when trying to run it. That's for sure...
01-06-2013, 12:22 PM
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#7
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

DirectX support was probably for Xbox support, but IIRC they're not bothering with console support yet. There won't necessarily be less problems (though, this is not to say that there will be problems). Most technical support issues here deal with hardware and driver limitations, which isn't an issue of the game itself and can also be found for DirectX games. Duplicating your work for the PC market when there's no real return for it wouldn't make sense.

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01-06-2013, 06:46 PM
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plutomaniac Offline
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#8
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

That's why I believe that its better to be DirectX only. Most of the technical supports threads have to do with OpenGL issues due to low compatibility especially with older hardware. For example with DirectX all newish Intel cards should be supported as well as older AMD/Ati and Nvidia cards that can support for example DirectX 9.0c but not above OpenGL 2.1.

Thomas once said that they are really trying to make the games able to be played by lots of machines even a lot older at low settings. By implementing opengl that cannot always be achieved. DirectX will be a better way to go in the future. And yes, having both DirectX and OpenGL does not make sense to me too, it's almost double the work.
01-06-2013, 07:22 PM
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#9
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

DirectX only would exclude the Linux and Mac market. That would contradict any desire for extending to a wider market. By late 2014 to 2015 we'd probably see card manufacturers drop DirectX 9 support, or at least consider doing so.

BTW, SPACoD, the closer you are to an object, the higher the quality will the textures be. If you have trilinear texture filtering set, that's the most intensive texture filter available for the game. As far as i know, this game doesn't reduce the polygons for objects at a distance like BF3 does.

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01-06-2013, 07:54 PM
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plutomaniac Offline
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#10
Solved: 8 Years, 1 Month ago RE: Vertical Sync drops FPS

Mmm, didn't really think of that. It's also OS X and Linux. DirectX 9 will probably be dropped after Windows XP stop receiving support (2014).

SPACoD, that's how VSync works actually. It works at 30,60 or 120FPS. Most probably the game runs at something like 50FPS so in order to enable VSync it drops to 30. If the game runs at 74FPS for example then it would drop to 60. Newer nvidia drivers have an option called Adaptive VSync which does not limit you to 30,60 or 120FPS. Another option with Intel Z77 chipsets is Virtu MVP on selected motherboards.
01-06-2013, 08:16 PM
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