Stuttering, Small freezes and framerate Issues

[CalinTM]

Only at the piano is a minor stutter, the rest is very ok and smooth.

[admiraltennek]

Alright, well I just did a quick play-through of the entire game with the latest stutter fix applied, and while I can confirm that it did indeed reduce instances of stuttering in the game by a very large margin (aside from the aforementioned one that occurs when reaching the piano at the beginning of the game), it also appears to have unfortunately incurred a side effect in which certain sound effects do not play during certain parts of the game (most noticeably when sabotaging the machine in the latter half of the game; half the sounds of explosions and glass shattering were completely missing).

So, some substantial progress in alleviating this issue definitely made, but still some ways to go to provide a definitive fix without causing any unwanted side effects.

My system specifications are as follows:

OS: Windows 7 (64 Bit)
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 670 (latest drivers)
CPU: Intel i7 2600K
RAM: 16GB
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB SSD
Launcher Settings: High

[lovebunny]

New test: [...]
When reporting back, please include your system specification with:
OS, Graphics Card, CPU & RAM. Also say what settings you used in the launcher (low, medium or high).

Followed every step of the instuction neatly:
Launcher detection: High.
OS: Win7 64Bit
GPU: GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Newest 520.49 Drivers)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400
RAM: 6GB
Drive: OCZ Vertex3 SSD

Result: No stuttering at doors, bathtub, stairs etc, but then at the piano-shock a 1/3 second reproducable freeze. :( Gamelogic jumps from ~5ms to >20ms directly after the stuttering. Tested lower graphic settings, but the piano-shock-stutter remains.

I reverted back to the old sounds and maps folder, kept the patched aamfp.exe, new profile, new game. Result: No stuttering at piano-shock. GameLogic remains at friendly 5-7ms max.

The I tried some more tweeking the main_settings.cfg. Ended up with MaxChannels="32", StreamBuffers="8" and StreamBufferSize="32768", where the latter is at veeery low 1/8 of the original value. Everything runs smoothly without stuttering. I'd assume with the original number of 8 buffers I should hear all intended sounds, so I'll play this way now. Not shure if lowering the StreamBufferSize that much will work for everyone, as I'm using a fast SSD.

[lovebunny]

Played the first three maps now, and everything works fine. No stuttering or obviously missing sounds. Great game until now! Compliments to all at frictional games. :)

I just went to the bathroom (real life, it's 3:50AM here in Germany) and my wife woke up and suddenly came in... O.o Duuude, not much and I would have kicked the door into her face! ^^ God damnit, I'd rather go to bed now. ;)

[admiraltennek]

I reverted back to the old sounds and maps folder, kept the patched aamfp.exe, new profile, new game. Result: No stuttering at piano-shock. GameLogic remains at friendly 5-7ms max.

The I tried some more tweeking the main_settings.cfg. Ended up with MaxChannels="32", StreamBuffers="8" and StreamBufferSize="32768", where the latter is at veeery low 1/8 of the original value. Everything runs smoothly without stuttering. I'd assume with the original number of 8 buffers I should hear all intended sounds, so I'll play this way now. Not shure if lowering the StreamBufferSize that much will work for everyone, as I'm using a fast SSD.

I gave this suggestion a try and made it to the Bilge (the 9th chapter?) before sound effects started not playing at random once again.

Back to the drawing board, it seems...

[DasBiebo]

thx for all the support! I hope we have something final soon.

[admiraltennek]

Going off of lovebunny's suggestions I believe I may have finally found a definitive fix for the stuttering without causing any problems with the sound effects in the process. Here is what I did step by step:

1) Reverted my game files back to their original unaltered state and deleted the "Pig" folder in
My Documents\Amnesia.

2) Replaced (in the installation directory) the original aamfp.exe with the latest patched one, and also
placed in there the SDL2.dll that came with it (the patched executable won't run without it).

3) Started up the game, configured my settings and created a new profile.

4) Went into My Documents\Amnesia\Pig, opened up main_settings.cfg, and set MaxChannels to 64,
StreamBuffers to 8, and StreamBufferSize to 32768.

5) Presto. No more stuttering and no more missing sound effects. The game ran pretty much perfectly
for me and I played it for about a good hour straight without any stutters or other issues.

Now I of course can't guarantee this "fix" will work as well for everyone else as it did for me, but so far it seems to have completely resolved the stuttering without causing any noticeable issues with the sound. Now the only last niggling issue I have with the game is random drops in frame rate when running it in windowed mode, but I don't think tinkering around with the sound settings will help any with that.

[Woopzilla]

Yes, I can confirm that I've also managed to get stutter-free game.

I get a stutter-free game if I:

• Use the patched aamfp.exe inside aamfp_stutter3.zip.
• Use the patched SDL2.dll inside aamfp_stutter3.zip.
• Use default main_settings.cfg but only change StreamBufferSize to 131072 (so MaxChannels is still at default 64 and StreamBuffers is at default 8.

All other files are untouched/original.

I did not need install the new config/maps/sounds folder inside aamfp_stutter3.zip to achieve this. I can still get a very smooth game with these files installed but the piano part will still have a small noticeable framedrop. However, it is much better than the original game.

I've also made some videos to show the differences:
Youtube seems to have changed their design again... the expand window button is now 'hidden' in the options menu: http://i.imgur.com/WXLyyhS.jpg Make sure to increase size quality/size to see the stutters better.

100% Original game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC7Fp-ofbXo
3 big stutters + some small ones

Fully patched game (everything in aamfp_stutter3.zip applied - all files and folders): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uk80eCN_so
Only 1 very small stutter

As decsribed above (only patched aamfp.exe + SDL2.dll - not the folders - and StreamBufferSize="131072", MaxChannels="64", StreamBuffers="8"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFOBvCl6a6o
No stutter at all

Another video with same settings as above to test max settings (ingame resolution 1920x1200 + all settings to max: 16xAF, SSAO High - 32 Samples, Shadow Quality + Resolution High, etc..): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3GFD_A1wx4
No stutter at all

I used the 'Detect' settings -> Normal Quality. V-Sync On, Adaptive V-Sync On. I always make a new profile and start a new game for each test. If you load old profile saves then it will have stutter it seems. You can save and load as much as you want though once you have a new profile.

Intel i5 750
8GB DDR3 1333Mhz Corsair
ATi HD 5850
Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm Sata II
Windows 7 64-bit Pro

[jens]

Great, thanks for the detailed tests! Gladly skip the files, as the less changes we have to make the less risk of creating new problems for others.

So based on the latest feedback, here is a new test, it has only the change of removing the map and sound changes, the config has been modified to follow your latest tests. So if you would please just do the test again following the same instructions that would be perfect. If you have any friend or someone you know that has not had any issues before, if you could ask them to test as well that would be helpful in making sure we are not creating a new problem for others.

(if you used stutter3 test, then you have to revert the changes done by it before testing this version)

New test:

http://thedarkswarm.com/downloads/public...utter4.zip

How to test:

- Download file and unzip it. Then copy/move the contents of the folder
into the game directory. If you do this correct Windows will prompt you
to overwrite and merge files and folders. Do this (but warning that you
will destroy your regular install and will have to redownload if you
want it back later.). You can find the location of the game folder in
Steam by right-clicking on the game, properties, last tab and click
browse local game files.

- You now have to delete the file My
Documents/Amnesia/Pig/main_settings.cfg. The game will create a new one
with the new settings.

- Launch the game using the launcher, use the settings as detected and
do not tweak them. That is use low, medium or high as suitable for your
setup.

- Start a new game and see how it works. If you have stutter, try
running the game without vsync (make sure it is not forced in control
panel for graphics card) and see if that makes a difference.

When reporting back, please include your system specification with:

OS, Graphics Card, CPU & RAM. Also say what settings you used in the launcher (low, medium or high).

[Woopzilla]

Yes, this patch works great for me.

Original game + everything in aamfp_stutter4.zip + new profile and new game. Auto-detect settings were Medium quality + Vsync On + Adaptive Vsync On.

No stutter encountered in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vblLtszEe7Q

Unfortuantely, the only friend I know who plays aamfp is playing a Mac version.

Intel i5 750
8GB DDR3 1333Mhz Corsair
ATi HD 5850
Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm Sata II
Windows 7 64-bit Pro