Stuttering, Small freezes and framerate Issues

**Jazz** · 09-13-2013, 09:24 AM

(09-13-2013, 07:40 AM)jens Wrote: 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.

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).

Tested it exactly like you instructed. No improvements for me... I even noticed a bit worse performance. When exiting the bedroom after the intro and entering the larger, more open room the frames dropped from 60 to 30 and it looked like some stuttering was back. Never encountered this before.

"Medium" (autodetect)

i7 950
AMD HD5870 (13.4)
Creative X-Fi
Windows 7 x64

Kind regards,
Jazz

**dlux** · 09-13-2013, 10:38 AM

(09-13-2013, 07:40 AM)jens Wrote: [...]
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).

Tested the game as requested (low and medium). It hardly improves the stuttering.

Stuttering is worst in the room with the piano, using the lamp causes slighty more stutter. Moving from the hallway (where the room with the ringing telephone is) to the room with the piano (or vice versa) causes the game to freeze for 1 - 2 seconds.

The game is unjoyable with all the stuttering, I won't play it until it is fixed. I have even tried to run the game with the lowest possible graphics settings @ 1024x1280, but it still stutters and freezes.

OS: Win7 x64
GPU: HD5770, 1 GB (Catalyst 13.10 Beta)
CPU: Phenom II X4 @ 3,2 GHz
RAM: 4 GB

**Shawn6** · 09-13-2013, 10:42 AM

Worse for me than aamfp_stutter3. More freezes with aamfp_stutter4.

Launcher detected settings as high.

OS: win 7 64bits
GPU: HD 6850 1Gb
CPU: i3 2120 3,3Ghz
RAM: 4 Gb

**jens** · 09-13-2013, 11:15 AM

OK so patch3 made some improvement, but patch4 with the main_settings does not and if you modify it to have StreamBufferSize to 32768 as someone did does not do any good either?

You made sure to start a new game? Using continue or loading a game does not work.

Do the rest also have a Creative X-Fi sound card or similar like Jazz? Have you tried using the integrated sound and if that makes a difference?

**lovebunny** · 09-13-2013, 11:48 AM

(09-13-2013, 07:40 AM)jens Wrote: 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.

The aamfp_stutter4.zip does not contain a sounds or maps folder, so is it possible, that this latest patch does not remove all map and sound changes done in aamfp_stutter3.zip? Just wanna make shure this patch works as intended for everyone.

However, as I saied I made a manual backup of the two folders, restored them and then applied aamfp_stutter4.zip as desribed by Jens. Result:
Launcher detected High, new peofile, new game (watching the Intro for the 20th time, lalala ;-)), aaaaand minor stuttering noticable at doors and piano-shock.

Went to my main_settings.cfg and turned StreamBufferSize to the insanely low value of "32768": Voila, runs as smooth as vanilla ice cream in a warm mug of coffee. ;)

Edit: Hey, you called me "someone"! ^^

**jens** · 09-13-2013, 11:56 AM

Ah yeah lovebunny correct, you must make sure to use the original .snt and .hps files. So if you used the stutter3 test, then you have to undo that before using stutter4 and following the test steps.

OK, so having slightly higher value of the streamebuffer creates a stutter for you. Will wait a bit longer to have some more input from others on it. Think there is a risk of skipping/popping/clipping and similar for users with slower computers if it is too low.

**dlux** · 09-13-2013, 12:00 PM

(09-13-2013, 11:15 AM)jens Wrote: OK so patch3 made some improvement, but patch4 with the main_settings does not and if you modify it to have StreamBufferSize to 32768 as someone did does not do any good either?

I set StreamBufferSize to 32768 with patch 4. It seemed to help a little, but the game still stuttered.

I haven't tried patch 3 yet though. I'll try it out now.

(09-13-2013, 11:15 AM)jens Wrote: You made sure to start a new game? Using continue or loading a game does not work.

Yes. I even deleted the "../My Documents/Amnesia/Pig" folder and created a new profile. Didn't help either.

I tried the auto-detected medium settings, low settings, the lowest possible settings (I turned everything off) @640x480, windowed and full-screen... nothing helps, the game always stutters.

(09-13-2013, 11:15 AM)jens Wrote: Do the rest also have a Creative X-Fi sound card or similar like Jazz? Have you tried using the integrated sound and if that makes a difference?

I have 3 audio devices in my PC. HDMI audio, USB Headphones (with built in sound chip), and the onboard audio. I tried all of them and the game still stutters.

But to be clear, I do not have any audio stutter at all. Only the graphics stutter.

OS: Win7 x64
GPU: HD5770, 1 GB (Catalyst 13.10 Beta)
CPU: Phenom II X4 @ 3,2 GHz
RAM: 4 GB

**Shawn6** · 09-13-2013, 12:04 PM

(09-13-2013, 10:42 AM)Shawn6 Wrote: Worse for me than aamfp_stutter3. More freezes with aamfp_stutter4.

Launcher detected settings as high.

OS: win 7 64bits
GPU: HD 6850 1Gb
CPU: i3 2120 3,3Ghz
RAM: 4 Gb

aamfp_stutter4 + StreamBufferSize to 32768 and is much better.It's hard to say which is better. I think, however that aamfp_stutter3 is still the best at the moment.

**jens** · 09-13-2013, 12:06 PM

(09-13-2013, 12:04 PM)Shawn6 Wrote:
(09-13-2013, 10:42 AM)Shawn6 Wrote: Worse for me than aamfp_stutter3. More freezes with aamfp_stutter4.

Launcher detected settings as high.

OS: win 7 64bits
GPU: HD 6850 1Gb
CPU: i3 2120 3,3Ghz
RAM: 4 Gb

aamfp_stutter4 + StreamBufferSize to 32768 and is much better.It's hard to say which is better. I think, however that aamfp_stutter3 is still the best at the moment.

And this was with original map/sound files and not the one from stutter3?

**CalinTM** · 09-13-2013, 12:08 PM

Why in the patch 4 you didn't put the default values with StreamBufferSize to 32768 in the first time, if people say to modify the stream buffers ?