Microstuttering in 1.4 (full screen borderless window only)

[besweeet]

I searched the forum for "stutter," "stuttering" and "microstutter" and found nothing relevant to MTA 1.4, so here this goes...

Ever since 1.4 was released, I've been noticing some pretty obvious microstuttering. Both the in-server FPS counter and FRAPS report the maximum frame rate, as it always has, however.

Other reports of this can be found here: http://mrgreengaming.com/forums/topic/1 ... -released/

I'm not sure if it's the server that I always play on.

I've also been using every nightly for the past few weeks, and nothing has changed.

[Grafu]

Try unchecking 'Disable driver overrides' in your video settings tab. Also be sure that screen mode in 'Advanced' tab is normal (not windowed)

[ccw]

Press F8 and use the command: showframegraph

Then make a video showing the stuttering.

[besweeet]

Try unchecking 'Disable driver overrides' in your video settings tab. Also be sure that screen mode in 'Advanced' tab is normal (not windowed)

That was already unchecked.

I've been running it as "borderless keep res" for the longest time, even with 1.3 (and below) without this microstuttering.

It actually looks like setting it to the standard mode did the trick. Though I wish I could use the previous settings, as switching back to my desktop in-between maps (which I do often) is instant, whereas it takes a few seconds due to my monitor changing its refresh rate or something.

The version I'm currently on is mtasa-1.4-full_rc-6820-20140823, BTW.

[Grafu]

You choose: freezing and quick-switching or smooth gameplay and a bit slower traying down. I personally haven't found any configuration which would let me play smoothly and have instant tabbing.

[besweeet]

You choose: freezing and quick-switching or smooth gameplay and a bit slower traying down. I personally haven't found any configuration which would let me play smoothly and have instant tabbing.

The thing is that I could play with any fullscreen mode without any type of stuttering prior to the 1.4 update. That's really the only software change that my machine's experienced lately.

[Grafu]

You choose: freezing and quick-switching or smooth gameplay and a bit slower traying down. I personally haven't found any configuration which would let me play smoothly and have instant tabbing.

The thing is that I could play with any fullscreen mode without any type of stuttering prior to the 1.4 update. That's really the only software change that my machine's experienced lately.

It takes 0.2 second to tray down, 0.5 second to tray up. And I am pretty sure I don't have that 'microstuttering' in my gameplay.

Here's my setting layout:

Disable Aero Desktop: checked

Disable Driver Overrides: checked

Fullscreen mode: standard

Streaming memory: max

[besweeet]

It takes 0.2 second to tray down, 0.5 second to tray up.

That's how things were when I was using a non-standard borderless mode.

[Grafu]

It takes 0.2 second to tray down, 0.5 second to tray up.

That's how things were when I was using a non-standard borderless mode.

This is what I've got with the settings layout I provided.

[ccw]

Try fullscreen windowed with the latest nightly and see if it helps.

https://nightly.multitheftauto.com/?mtasa-1.4-rc-latest

[Grafu]

I am pretty sure there are more than one windowed mode. Which one should we try?

[besweeet]

Try fullscreen windowed with the latest nightly and see if it helps.

https://nightly.multitheftauto.com/?mtasa-1.4-rc-latest

Nope. Still happens. I'm starting to wonder if the server happens to be causing it. I only play on MrGreen's race and mix servers. Will try some others sometime.

[besweeet]

Just an update: The currently nightly ("mtasa-1.4-full_rc-6846-20140903") honestly seems to have the most microstuttering of all of the previous builds I've used...

[ccw]

Press F8 and use the command: showframegraph

Then make a video showing the stuttering.

[besweeet]

Press F8 and use the command: showframegraph

Then make a video showing the stuttering.

What's really odd that I just noticed is that even when recording at 60FPS via FRAPS (to an SSD of course), the recording shows none of the microstuttering that I observed while actually playing... The showframegraph command didn't show any large spikes at all either. Yet, while playing, it's still very obvious that there is some occasional stuttering of some sort (again, that only just started with MTA 1.4).

[besweeet]

The latest nightly, 6867-20140920, is honestly one of the worst builds for microstuttering for me... Once I get my iPhone 6 Plus, I'll do a little 60FPS video recording.

[ccw]

Check your graphic card settings. Do you have vsync forced on, or triple buffering enabled?

[besweeet]

Check your graphic card settings. Do you have vsync forced on, or triple buffering enabled?

Nothing is forced on; everything is at their default settings, as everything was prior to 1.4.

[ccw]

Just to confirm this only happens on 'borderless' fullscreen modes?

[besweeet]

Just to confirm this only happens on 'borderless' fullscreen modes?

It happens with either one of the bordlerless window options. Traditional full-screen doesn't do this.

One thing that I failed to mention was that when 1.4 came out, I installed it over my existing 1.3 installation. Not sure if that would cause frame rate issues.

[Grafu]

For me the microstuttering existed in 1.3.5 and earlier versions with both borderless window settings.

[besweeet]

Here's the video: http://briansweet.me/files/IMG_0166.MOV

The microstuttering can easily be seen.

I recommend downloading the video completely first.

[ccw]

So it briefly freezes once a second?

Does it happen on other servers?

[besweeet]

So it briefly freezes once a second?

Does it happen on other servers?

One second? It's extremely brief...

I haven't tried other servers yet but I will today.

[ccw]

In the video, the freeze happens at 00:10, 00:11, 00:12, 00:13, 00:14, 00:15, 00:16, 00:17, 00:18

[besweeet]

In the video, the freeze happens at 00:10, 00:11, 00:12, 00:13, 00:14, 00:15, 00:16, 00:17, 00:18

Hmm... What are you using to watch the video? I recommend Windows Media Player for the smoothest 60FPS playback. And what do you mean by freezing?

The microstuttering can be seen between 00:10-0:12 with another small moment at 00:15. The rest is a smooth 60FPS.