Perfect workaround for Microstutter problem

[Marcurios]

I was pretty annoyed by the fact that whatever i tried with Fallout 3, it just didn't feel smooth,

while my rig is perfectly capable of running this game at high settings.

 

I've got it to run stable, that wasn't much of a challenge since other people already found out

why the game crashed a lot..believe me when i say, this guy really found a way to eliminate

most, if not all of the crashes in fallout...the link here... http://lordbean.googlepages.com/fallout3fixes

 

But that didn't solve the microstutter problem..

So i googled a bit and found that as stated by the boys from Bethesda that you can change the value

iFPSClamp in Fallout ini from 0 to 60.

This is al very nice but when your framerate drops the gamespeed drops with it, also the other way around..

Resulting in constant shifting in your walking speed...

 

So i tried a little program called FPS_Limiter_2.0.

First i tested the game with fraps with the settings to my liking..

My minimum framerate i got out of that test was 55 at high settings with Ugridstotoad=7 in fallout ini.

Ugrids to load makes objects from a far visible making it more realistic but also more demanding on your rig.

 

So i thought, maybe it will work when i put iFPSClamp=55 in my ini file, and then

run Fallout trough FPS_Limiter set at 55 FPS....

And y'all are not going to believe this, but it works like a charm...

 

With only FPS limiter i still had the stutter

With the FPSClamp the gamespeed went crazy...

 

Combined it's really freaking working, i am a very happy man right now...

Played til the birds began to squirm..

 

Hope it works for some of you too..

 

Asus P5N-E SLI - Q6600 Oc 4x2.8 Ghz

Asus ENGTX275 Oc 700/1400/2400

2x2 GB OCZ Nvidia SLI-Ram 5-4-4-12/2

2x320 WD drives in Raid

Audigy 4 Pro Platinum

 

Test resolution 1280x1024

[gsmanners]

55 f/s? That's not very smooth IMHO.

 

It would be nice if the stupid developers had actually fixed this game, rather than rely on us paying customers to fix their game for them.

[overload1977]

most people know about this fix but it dose not work for everone , this is nothing new, beth i hope will fix most of the bugs soon before the year ends

[Marcurios]

55 f/s? That's not very smooth IMHO.

 

It would be nice if the stupid developers had actually fixed this game, rather than rely on us paying customers to fix their game for them.

 

 

Your brain updates the picture 25 times per second, so a true 30 fps would be smooth...look at the movies..

Maybe you have a faster brain, like a kung fu master, i don't know...seems smooth to me anyways...and before it didn't at 60 fps...due to the stuttering of the gamebryo engine..

 

I agree that it has to be solved by the devs, we pay good money for it so that would be prudent..

 

But it still is a kickass game, no matter what...

[Marcurios]

most people know about this fix but it dose not work for everone , this is nothing new, beth i hope will fix most of the bugs soon before the year ends

 

True, but i did not see anyone on any forum whatsoever that combined those two...

 

Some did the fpsclamp thing and were not satisfied because the game speeds up and slows down..

And all the people who did the fpslimiter thing said it works perfectly but for me it did not..

 

Only when i applied both of them it worked really well..

 

I know it won't work for everyone, that's why i said Hope it works for SOME of you too..

[gsmanners]

Your brain updates the picture 25 times per second, so a true 30 fps would be smooth...look at the movies..

Maybe you have a faster brain, like a kung fu master, i don't know...seems smooth to me anyways...and before it didn't at 60 fps...due to the stuttering of the gamebryo engine..

 

Nice to see that old myth trotted out again. The truth is much more difficult to describe.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold

[phoneyLogic]

It is even worse than anyone can imagine :)

The 50 Hz (Pal) or 60 Hz NTSC is just the "half-picture-frequecy"

So the "full picture frequency" is indeed 25 Hz for Pal and about 30 Hz at NTSC.

With 50 Hz (which are 25Hz full-pic-freq) and lower you get :wacko:

[gsmanners]

To achieve a flicker-free apparent motion, the theoretical minimum would be 250Hz. However, natural-looking images don't really vary by much in light intensity, so you can generally achieve the same effect with a minimum of 75Hz. I've studied this for quite some time, and the difference even between 60 and 75Hz is quite apparent if you are really paying attention.

[Marcurios]

I've read this wiki and it makes sense..

Some people and some animals have indeed a faster response to intermittend light then others.

I'm just glad i'm not one of them..

 

I do see the interference when the framerate drops below 60 when it's on vsync, thats jerky allright..

 

I guess you would have to have a framerate of 150 steady and a refreshrate of 75 to make sure

almost everyone can perceive flicker free..

 

well, learned something new today..thanx..

 

[Edit]

 

I've been tweaking like crazy the last couple of days in my ini files

and i got it to the point where i had 60 FPS constant with high/ultra settings..

When loading new data for the new grids the fps only drop for 1/3 of a second and

will then almost immediately be 60 again...

 

The most benefit was gained when i changed the value iNumHavokThreads from 1 to 5.

 

I then put ifpsclamp to 60 because my config lets it run constantly at 60 fps.

 

And this is even better then the fps_limiter solution..

 

So i gues that you have to make sure it runs at 60 fps, and then put the clamp in..

 

And then it will play like any other game...

 

It feels the same now as crysis and fc2, even more responsive with the mouse..

 

No slowdowns whatsoever..

 

i must say, it took me 40 hours or so to get it running flawlesly...

 

a very nasty and demanding game...but worth the trouble anyway...

 

also another huge fps boost was gained when i set prerendered frames to 1 in nvidia control panel..