horrific stuttering makes multiplayer impossible since dx11 patch [it's a bug - only devs can fix]

[19//Moach]

this is the same problem I had reported once before - my normally smooth (single player) 60fps performance degrades to an unplayable/suicidal 3fps on multiplayer -- I am now thoroughly convinced that this is not a hardware issue, and is almost certainly (99% sure) exclusive to multiplayer

 

 

this is most severe upon spawning/respawning and only in a few lucky cases it either "releases" so I can takeoff, or I somehow start up to a surprisingly smooth game (at times this belies a later revenge of the lag-bomb, which invariantly ensures my flight can only end in a forced disconnect and/or crater)

 

most times, it starts off (once I hit the "start" button) already under the severe and unyielding grip of a framerate more often associated with the timing of a powerpoint presentation....  no taking off there -- even taxiing is impossible (or requires magical powers which I lack) at 3fps and below

 

 

so I'm stuck with single player - where the framerate is locked to match my monitor's 60hz limits (else it even reaches up to 80) 

 

 

 

not ideal  

 

 

 

any thoughts?

 

 

 

 

Moach's PC specs (as of december 2016)

 

[OS]

Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

 

[Processor]

3.40 gigahertz Intel Core i7-3960X overclocked (stable) to ~4.1GHz under liquid cooling by Corsair

Multi-core (6 total) Hyper-threaded (12 total)

 

[MoBo]

Board: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P9X79 PRO Rev 1.xx

UEFI: American Megatrends Inc. 2104 08/03/2012

 

[Memory]

16334 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory - DDR3 Quad-Channel

 

[Display]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 [Display adapter]

Driver Version 368.81

main display res 1920x1080 (32bit, 60hz, VGA) 

2nd  display res 1080x1920 (90° rot, 32bit, 59hz HDMI)

 

secondary display not used for IL2 (windowed mode)

 

[Other Stuff]

ASUS Bluetooth (integrated to MoBo)

3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator

Razer Nostromo

Saitek Pro Flight Combat Rudder Pedals

SteelSeries Apex RAW Keyboard

Wacom Tablet

X-55 Rhino Stick (centering spring modified with smoother bungee cords)

X-55 Rhino Throttle (home repairs performed due to saitek's infamous reliability)

Kensington Expert Mouse

Logitech G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse

TrackIR 5

Edited January 18, 2017 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[ACG_Invictus]

I downgraded to driver 368.81 last night and that helped me a lot, but I see you are already running that driver version. Did you use a tool like NVidia inspector to make changes to the game's NVidia profile? After some experimenting yesterday I found many of the changes I've made in the past now cause real problems so when I downgraded I did a clean install using the Guru3d DDU tool to completely remove the old drive before installing 368.81. All in all performance is much better but still some very minor studdering every once in a while.

 

I might give this a try later today as well (it can't hurt I guess)...

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/26724-frame-drops-after-small-patch/

Edited December 24, 2016 by ATAG_Invictus

[[BSS-214]commiekiller18]

I tried the Driver thing and that made matters worse for me. But I'm going to try the un check seed when downloaded fix.

 

Thanks for the Input guys.

[AstrixAU]

Could a antivirus be affecting your outgoing connection and is possibly scanning at the same time? Try opening task manager while playing and see what is happening with the PC's resources.

 

Try borderless and try a windowed mode so you can see if the GPU, CPU and Disk are being over utilized. If that's the case you can use Resource monitor to see exactly what is happening.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Not being rude but you have a GTX580..


The game clearly states its minimums.
So other than basic fixes i don't think the devs have any sort of obligation to make it work on Old video cards.
 

Minimum system requirements

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i5/i7 2.8 ГГц
• GPU: GeForce GTX 660/Radeon HD 7770 with 2GB VRAM or better
• DirectX: Version 11

[19//Moach]

 

Not being rude but you have a GTX580..

 

 

The game clearly states its minimums.

So other than basic fixes i don't think the devs have any sort of obligation to make it work on Old video cards.

 

Minimum system requirements

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i5/i7 2.8 ГГц
• GPU: GeForce GTX 660/Radeon HD 7770 with 2GB VRAM or better
• DirectX: Version 11

 

 

 

Normally, I'd agree - but, you're missing an important bit here that makes the old hardware point moot:   this same old 580 runs comfortably at 60fps (and above) on single player, and with some luck, holds out for some times on MP just as well

 

if my "vintage" GPU were itself the problem, it would never run fine - graphics cards do not care whether we're flying online or off.... 

 

 

this is a telltale sign of our problem being particularly a software bound issue -- namely one that occurs exclusively with multiplayer

 

 

it is true that perhaps a newer card would cope better with the frame drops (which many players have reported as a nuissance, in various ways) - but the underlying problem is nevertheless still there - and in my case, this has a bad enough result that I was able to partially isolate it:

 

we're dealing with a sporadic stuttering that happens upon nearing certain (unknown) objects in multiplayer - them being rendered or not is of no importance, since the stutters persist with the object out of frame (found by looking in all other directions) - and continues even after distancing much further than from the point where it started (turned and flew the opposite direction, where before there was no lag)

 

 

I have noted a dramatic spike of GPU bus activity when this is happening - this tells of a "thing out there" that makes the program (on the cpu) call a bunch of card I/O operations that it normally wouldn't do - this slows down rendering massively - but not by fault of the graphics card itself (a newer card, of course, would perhaps not suffer as much from it)

 

disk and network I/O remain unchanged during this phenomena - the cpu and memory load are also unaffected

 

but particularly, this never happens in single player - so it is safe to rule out any potential fixes that only affect the game as a whole - this is not what's going on here...

 

 

note also, shutting down other processes like anti-virus proved to be not a factor - I've shut down as many as possible without losing critical OS functionality already, all to no avail

 

this is most certainly NOT the same issue as the known GTX770 bug -- it is also not the same as any issues that make the game crash -- this is potentially the true cause of the multiplayer stuttering that has existed since long before, and has been brought up a few times in the past, yet it never got fully isolated

 

 

some players have pointed out lag near other aircraft - however, this I have not been able to reproduce (planes are not causing lag, by themselves at least - else every plane would do it) -- my theory as of today is that some effect is doing it - it happens quite frequently when nearing targets or strafing ground units - it is the most common on respawning after a flight. 

 

it can be avoided with some limited reliability by restarting the game entirely instead of respawning -- does not work in all cases, but it does seem to make some difference, as first-spawn lag is just about 30% likely - and increasingly so on subsequent attempts

 

before the patch I remember the occasional "stray puff" of smoke or debris at times - I have not seen those anymore since dx11 - I wonder if those things are related, somehow....

Edited December 26, 2016 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[Dakpilot]

Perhaps it is worth checking in game your VRam usage in these situations with, 1.5GB it may become saturated at certain times, while running perfectly at others

 

use MSI afterburner or similar program

 

During tests long ago I saw usage higher than 1.5GB

 

Perhaps this is reason for GTX660 as min spec, not actual performance, but VRam

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[216th_Jordan]

Vram could be the reason. When Vram is full the card tries to shift some of its memory to the system memory which slows it down incredibly. Definately worth a check.

Edited December 26, 2016 by 216th_Jordan

[150GCT_Veltro]

Same here with GTX 760 2GB., micro freeze and stuttering.

Edited December 27, 2016 by 150GCT_Veltro

[19//Moach]

Vram could be the reason. When Vram is full the card tries to shift some of its memory to the system memory which slows it down incredibly. Definately worth a check.

 

 

 

I supposed that might be it -- for a small part, though, as if this truly were the root cause of the issue, or anything more than a fraction of what causes the issue, then single player would also be suffering from this stuttering just as much... 

 

again, this ONLY happens on multiplayer - and even so, it only happens in certain situations

 

if this were indeed being caused by hardware or drivers, it would affect both online and offline play somewhat consistently - however this is certainly not the case, and the issue appears erratically, on specific occasions, exclusively when playing online

 

 

I have had small stutters during "scene transitions" on single player (obviously a symptom of running under minimum specs) - but these were always benign and nothing more than a "what happened there?" type moment - never to last more than a couple of seconds, to no effect on the overall game experience

 

on multiplayer, however - the stutters are MUCH more severe and can last from a few seconds to several minutes - they start and stop just as mysteriously - sometimes the timing of the onset can seem to imply a possible cause (on occasion it starts immediately upon causing an explosion, lasting some 10~30 seconds afterwards) - but this is more likely a circumstantial correlation, as other explosions have been caused without a sign of the same issue 

 

similarly, it has been observed that little to no relation exists between scene complexity and the duration and severity of the stutters - it has been found at times to begin upon entering a busy area - yet other (even busier) areas have been entered in the same way without any problems whatsoever

 

 

 

thus, I am thoroughly convinced this is a software bound problem - and it is very possible that in a way, we're ALL experiencing it - those with newer hardware may not perceive it as much, due to the less severe nature of the frame drops, yet it is there - and has been perhaps even prior to the dx11 update

 

it seems to me that this is only a greater manifestation of an existing bug, which is evidenced, not caused, by dx11 putting a greater load on my over-the-hill GPU

Edited December 27, 2016 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[[BSS-214]commiekiller18]

I had it happen in SP on a runway and some 1vs1. I messed with the setting's and put AAx2 too AAx4 which seemed to fix it on SP(weird). Now on MP I only get the stutter when approaching planes. skips and stutters then smooths out and lags a bit it seems. Did a fur ball in SP 8vs8 and no fps drops what so ever. And I would just like to note. It is not lag online, it is something with the new updates.

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

Windows 10 and you'll fix your DX11 issues..

[150GCT_Veltro]

ONLY online, i have FPS "jumping" from 60 to 12 for one second, and go on....57 to 13....ecc. ecc.

W7 64/16GB

GTX760 2GB

Unplayable in this way....

[[BSS-214]commiekiller18]

 

 

Windows 10 and you'll fix your DX11 issues..

 

Id rather stay away from windows 10 atm, seems older games have problems on it. Thanks for the input though.

 

 

 

ONLY online, i have FPS "jumping" from 60 to 12 for one second, and go on....57 to 13....ecc. ecc. W7 64/16GB GTX760 2GB Unplayable in this way....

 

Same problem, does yours do this wile aircraft are around or just randomly? Mine seems to be only when there is another plane around. and zooming in and out stutters alot

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Have you people on Nvidia Card having Issues Made a IL2 Specific Profile in the control Panel

This Profile below is for Max quality with good performance (tho little will change it)

• Specifically to reduce Stuttering Set Prerendered frames to 2 or 1. (most game use 3-4 and too many on a low end system can cause bottlenecking)
• Set max power usage (its a home computer plugged into the wall there is no need to worry about power saving)
• Turn off ingame MSAA(anti aliasing)
• Turn on Nvidia FXAA (It IS IDENTICAL Quality to MSAA x 2 but at the gpu/cpu cost of MSAA x 1, but it also smooths edges on UI/Text/Gunsights and gauge needles where MSAA ONLY Does 3d models)
• Turn off ingame Vsync (which is adaptive type)
• Turn on Nvidia Vsync (DO NOT USE TRIPLE BUFFERING)
• Turn on Shader cache (NOTE: When you first run the game and new Scene/graphics there might be Some stuttering while it makes shader cache files but this only happens once)
  
  That should get you on the right track atleast.
   

[coconut]

If the issue is indeed online-only, people having this problem should include the ethernet controller in the hardware listing, as well as checking that their driver is the correct one and is up to date.

[19//Moach]

seems this has been a thing for longer than I thought:   https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/14901-please-fix-microstuttering/

 

 

I would bet this is the same issue from that thread - which was acknowledged by devs at the time, but it petered out before anything got fixed... well, obviously enough, the issue is still very much there (if it is the same thing, as I suspect) and now it's cruelly more evident to lower-end GPUs that I suppose must take longer to recover from each hiccup

[150GCT_Veltro]

Id rather stay away from windows 10 atm, seems older games have problems on it. Thanks for the input though.

 

 

 

 

Same problem, does yours do this wile aircraft are around or just randomly? Mine seems to be only when there is another plane around. and zooming in and out stutters alot

 

For me is a costant micro freeze every few second. I've never have this problem before, not in this way at least.

[150GCT_Veltro]

 

Have you people on Nvidia Card having Issues Made a IL2 Specific Profile in the control Panel

 

This Profile below is for Max quality with good performance (tho little will change it)

 

• Specifically to reduce Stuttering Set Prerendered frames to 2 or 1. (most game use 3-4 and too many on a low end system can cause bottlenecking)
• Set max power usage (its a home computer plugged into the wall there is no need to worry about power saving)
• Turn off ingame MSAA(anti aliasing)
• Turn on Nvidia FXAA (It IS IDENTICAL Quality to MSAA x 2 but at the gpu/cpu cost of MSAA x 1, but it also smooths edges on UI/Text/Gunsights and gauge needles where MSAA ONLY Does 3d models)
• Turn off ingame Vsync (which is adaptive type)
• Turn on Nvidia Vsync (DO NOT USE TRIPLE BUFFERING)
• Turn on Shader cache (NOTE: When you first run the game and new Scene/graphics there might be Some stuttering while it makes shader cache files but this only happens once)

   

  That should get you on the right track atleast.

   

 

 

Thank for this dude. It works great.

 

Testing now windowed without vsync, i will test also online.

Edited December 29, 2016 by 150GCT_Veltro

[19//Moach]

I would also like to note that the fixes recommended here DO in fact, produce very good results -- thanks for the info

 

I got even better (I think) results by enabling transparency AA, and setting it to "off/multisampling" below... could be placebo, but no performance loss, and I think it makes trees and stuff look better and less flickery

 

 

it's worth pointing out that while these settings do minimize the stutters to a point where the issue is effectively not noticeable, (even on my "vintage" gpu) it is very possible that the underlying root of the problem remains - it behooves the devs to verify this (as it behooves us all to use the word "behooves" more often)

 

 

anyways- even if it is merely a symptomatic fix that we have come upon here, it is nevertheless an undeniably satisfactory one

 

 

and btw, if you're running on windowed mode (which I thoroughly recommend) - you do not need vsync

 

 

 

 

oodles of thanks - this has made multiplayer possible again, and now the improvements from dx11 can truly be enjoyed   

 

 

cheerz!         

Edited December 29, 2016 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[BOO]

I would also like to note that the fixes recommended here DO in fact, produce very good results -- thanks for the info

 

I got even better (I think) results by enabling transparency AA, and setting it to "off/multisampling" below... could be placebo, but no performance loss, and I think it makes trees and stuff look better and less flickery

 

 

it's worth pointing out that while these settings do minimize the stutters to a point where the issue is effectively not noticeable, (even on my "vintage" gpu) it is very possible that the underlying root of the problem remains - it behooves the devs to verify this (as it behooves us all to use the word "behooves" more often)

 

 

anyways- even if it is merely a symptomatic fix that we have come upon here, it is nevertheless an undeniably satisfactory one

 

 

and btw, if you're running on windowed mode (which I thoroughly recommend) - you do not need vsync

 

 

 

 

oodles of thanks - this has made multiplayer possible again, and now the improvements from dx11 can truly be enjoyed   

 

 

cheerz!         

 

 

 

 

I'd attributed turning vsync on to being the reason i stopped the stuttering...........perhaps it was the frame limiter all along for me (1060 on a 60hz TV)

I'd attributed turning vsync on to being the reason i stopped the stuttering...........perhaps it was the frame limiter all along for me (1060 on a 60hz TV)

[EisenWaffel]

 

Have you people on Nvidia Card having Issues Made a IL2 Specific Profile in the control Panel

 

This Profile below is for Max quality with good performance (tho little will change it)

 

 

• Specifically to reduce Stuttering Set Prerendered frames to 2 or 1. (most game use 3-4 and too many on a low end system can cause bottlenecking)
• Set max power usage (its a home computer plugged into the wall there is no need to worry about power saving)
• Turn off ingame MSAA(anti aliasing)
• Turn on Nvidia FXAA (It IS IDENTICAL Quality to MSAA x 2 but at the gpu/cpu cost of MSAA x 1, but it also smooths edges on UI/Text/Gunsights and gauge needles where MSAA ONLY Does 3d models)
• Turn off ingame Vsync (which is adaptive type)
• Turn on Nvidia Vsync (DO NOT USE TRIPLE BUFFERING)
• Turn on Shader cache (NOTE: When you first run the game and new Scene/graphics there might be Some stuttering while it makes shader cache files but this only happens once)

   

  That should get you on the right track atleast.

   

 

 

Do you run with the game set in Fullscreen mode or Borderless window mode?

[150GCT_Veltro]

Good question.

 

I've now upgraded again to W10 after a bad experience with the previous release, and i'm testing again the Full Screen. On Berloga is gone very well, still some stuttering on DED but without the FPS costant drop i had before (freeze).

Edited December 30, 2016 by 150GCT_Veltro

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Fullscreen of course where you get the most Performance out of ANY Gpu

Just like the launcher says (fullscreen upto 15% faster but might cause alt tabbing issues )

Also Vsync still works in that windowed borderless mode (just not Normal windowed modes)

But if i do switch to windowed borderless i get same frames (60 in garage 60 in battle 40-60 when like 10 he-111 nest to me on runway.

[EisenWaffel]

Fullscreen of course where you get the most Performance out of ANY Gpu

 

Just like the launcher says (fullscreen upto 15% faster but might cause alt tabbing issues )

 

Also Vsync still works in that windowed borderless mode (just not Normal windowed modes)

 

But if i do switch to windowed borderless i get same frames (60 in garage 60 in battle 40-60 when like 10 he-111 nest to me on runway.

 

Well I've tried every combination of settings, I can get smooth frame rate free of microstutter in single player but the stutters I see a lot of (and I think other people see these too) is related to netcode and loading data I guess, I see a stutter a lot when players join or leave, when stuff happens like someone getting shot down or an objective gets completed. I even changed a setting an played for a long time and for some reason for a while no stutters, later on same settings tons of stutters. I thought the DX11 was gonna magically cure it but while it gave some better fps sometimes these inefficiencies remain. Other things like it shouldn't be so choppy on the ground I mean does the "dust" effect need optimized although I turned off grass.

 

If anyone wants to try these settings here's what I got tweaking for a quick mission.

 

startup.cfg:

fps_limit = 0

fullscreen = 0

grass_distance = 0.00000

multisampling = 1

vsync = 1

 

 

Edit: For now I'm running with the Shadercache off and Threaded optimization off (because I heard it moves some GPU processing to the CPU) In my highly scientific testing these settings give good framerate, sync and can make stutters a little less noticeable in multiplayer.

Edited January 8, 2017 by GreedyPoor

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Regarding the Stuttering Keep in mind the Shader cache and the first time you see new planes and skins it might stutter till they chached and everything happy

 

[Dakpilot]

@ Greedypoor

 

Do you have a 2 or 4GB GTX760 ?

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[EisenWaffel]

@ Greedypoor

 

Do you have a 2 or 4GB GTX760 ?

 

Cheers Dakpilot

 

Regarding the Stuttering Keep in mind the Shader cache and the first time you see new planes and skins it might stutter till they chached and everything happy

 

 

I got the 4 gb 760. About the caching I'd rather have the game preload as much as possible even if it's longer load times. I hope they continue refining the DX11 and 64bit implementation

[Dakpilot]

I got the 4 gb 760. About the caching I'd rather have the game preload as much as possible even if it's longer load times. I hope they continue refining the DX11 and 64bit implementation

 

Vram is not likely the issue then

 

Sometimes setting nvidia texture quality from = quality to = performance has helped me in the past with little drop in picture quality

 

It is worth using MSI afterburner to look at GPU performance to see where an anomaly may be causing the stutters

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[19//Moach]

sadly it seems the recommendations above and their "miraculous" results were merely circumstantial -- for a day or two the issue hadn't occurred and I figured it was perhaps fixed - but no, the problem is now back, very much the same as before

 

 

as for the anomaly - I've checked the nvidia inspector performance meters, it seems the GPU is actually at a slightly LOWER load during the stuttering

 

the GPU BUS indicator, however, shoots up and stays at a near constant 100% - unlike when everything's normal, where it spikes briefly then levels out below 30ish% 

 

the CPU and memory don't appear to be at any higher or lower load during the issue - system interrupts are seen at a reasonably higher level on the task manager

 

 

my guess is that there is something that happens exclusively in multiplayer which causes a spam of GPU I/O calls - and those are most likely operations which are not meant to be executed repeatedly, and are happening here due to a bug of some sort - during normal performance periods, these calls would probably be done once, then not repeated until necessary at a later time (writing to shaders maybe?)

 

 

anyways, I am positively certain that this is a software-related issue and fundamentally has nothing to do with your computer specs - your graphics settings are also not a direct factor to whatever's causing it (though that and your specs may affect the severity of the symptoms you experience)

 

 

 

 

so, those are the clues to the mystery:

 

 

 

it's ONLY happening on multiplayer

 

it causes repeated I/O operations on the GPU

 

it is not noticeable on monitoring CPU or memory

 

it is somewhat more common on second-time spawns

 

it disappears immediately, reverting to smooth gameplay upon bailing out or "unspawning" (that thing where the camera slowly pulls out)

 

it very probably already existed before the dx11 updates - dx11 makes the symptoms far more extreme (especially on lower end cards)

 

it happens with variable degrees of severity, from a mild FPS drop to a massive game-breaking wall of 3fps punishment

 

it seems to originate/stop on key moments such as spawning in, or approaching aircraft and ground objects (when things enter/leave the scene)

 

it happens more frequently on more crowded servers, and moreso yet on missions which have ran for some time already

 

it does not seem affected (except in severity of symptoms) by graphics settings (both in game and through nvidia inspector) or hardware specs

 

it is also not affected by different driver versions (many tried, no changes)

 

it's most likely happening to EVERYONE - though to the lucky ones, it manifests only as a nuisance stuttering, and thus receives little attention

 

 

 

 

PLEASE - we need this fixed asap

 

many of us, including myself, are having extreme difficulty with multiplayer because of this, to a point where the game becomes effectively unplayable

Edited January 1, 2017 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[[BSS-214]commiekiller18]

Seems like the nvidea control fix smoothed my game out over all, might use ultra now. THANKS for that! Sadly last night I dove on a pe-2 on the WoL server and on my Boom and Zoom I got fairly close 100 meters or less and bam 5 frames, if that, super slide show..... I never had this problem before the 2.006 update's. Something wonky is going on. Also I would spawn and be at 15frames on random spawns and then wait 10~20 secs to move my head and it would clear up..... Idk whats going on, Ive had these drops on other servers as well.

 

 

Cheers Buzzard.

[150GCT_Veltro]

Yes, is still present even if it's a bit better now but still not acceptable for a smooth experience.

W10 has not fixed this problem.

 

We need to check also different Nvidia Drivers, 368.81 for ex, even if we don't have the 780.

Edited January 2, 2017 by 150GCT_Veltro

[ACG_Invictus]

I changed Texture Filtering for the BoS Nvidia profile to "Performance" last night and noted that seemed to help a great deal.  Only one very minor series of stutters that lasted for perhaps 1 second. 

 

1.) I'm currently running at "High" rather than "Ultra" as I did previous to the Dx11 upgrade.  I have manually switched off HDR and Bloom off in game but am using a SweetFX / REshade profile.  I should add I removed SweetFX in a prior test to see if it was causing the stutters and can confirm it made no difference. 

 

2.) I am currently running dual GTX 1070 SLI cards for a triple screen 5926x1080 setup using Nvidia 368.81 driver.  I have have tried newer drivers but they do not seem to matter all that much....stutters still there.

 

3.) I limit FPS to 60fps but Vsync is off....leaving it on seems to make stuttering much worse. FPS limiting the game using the in-game limiter does not.  

 

To date, the only things that make the stutters (much) better is downgrading Texture Filtering to "Performance" and running the game at "High".  Not that big a deal visually to be honest.  YMMV.

 

Hope this helps narrow down the problem and/or helps others work around the problem.

[[TWB]Pand]

I am still struggling even after making the control panel/in game changes as identified.

 

I have a GTX770, and my in game frame rate rarely drops below 100+ and sits around 150 most of the time, but it doesn't even feel like a consistent 60.  Anyone else experiencing this and found a workaround?   The framerate and silkiness was AMAZING after the first DX11 patch, and after the second DX11 "hotfix", it now feels worse than when it was on DX9, just with what appears to be a fake higher number in the top right corner.

 

GPU usage never exceeds 75%.

[216th_Jordan]

I have a lot of stuttering in fullscreen mode with vsync on. It stops when I put the fps limiter on with my screens fps (60hz).

[[TWB]Pand]

I have a lot of stuttering in fullscreen mode with vsync on. It stops when I put the fps limiter on with my screens fps (60hz).

with vsync on it's even worse than with vsync off.   I have tried matching to my refresh rate also.

[coconut]

 

 

the GPU BUS indicator, however, shoots up and stays at a near constant 100% - unlike when everything's normal, where it spikes briefly then levels out below 30ish%

 

Try lowering your terrain detail if you can. I would expect that terrain textures take up most of the VRAM, and limiting the number of fully detailed textures present on the GPU at the same time could help.

[19//Moach]

any attempts to lessen the issue through settings seems to fall victim to the randomness of the issue - at times, you'd think some particular change made it smooth, while in reality you just "got lucky"

 

if any improvements can be had from NVIDIA inspector settings, they'd be apparent on single player - and persistent throughout the game under a vast majority of situations, including on MP, but there your results will be masked by the uncertain onset and varying severity of what I've come to call the "LagF**k" problem

 

 

I've had the stutters range from a few fps lost, barely noticeable, to a solid wall of grievous 2~3fps, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes... and these "spells" come as mysteriously as they go - and leave us to guess at anything that could have had any connection to each case

 

 

 

the human mind gravitates towards cause-and-effect conclusions (even false ones) -- beware of placebo fixes

 

any settings changes must then be tested throughout multiple runs - I've had entire "lucky days" where I thought I had the problem fixed, and just as much unlucky others too... 

 

 

completely reinstalling the game (through steam) had no effect

 

recommended fallback drivers were tested as well -- no changes to the problem in the long run, with either latest or fallback

 

 

all points to:  software-side bug

 

 

 

I draw this conclusion on my professional experience as a game developer (not affiliated with 777) - I've picked up some patterns that help locate issues by their fundamental nature:

 

hardware/config issues are generally somewhat consistent in their onset - software issues in that sense, are largely more erratic.

 

I thus infer that this one is most probably the latter, based on the observation that, under my specs, the game performs reliably at 60fps in single player - and varyingly between 60 and 2fps only when online

Edited January 3, 2017 by 19.GIAP//Moach

[banPilot]

So nobody has checked VRAM usage yet when the stutters happen?

[Remontti]

I get these stutters too in multiplayer with my GTX 1080 / i7 6700k (4,5GHz). With just couple planes the stutters mostly happen when looking around. When there are many planes around I get constant stutters and it is unplayable. Single player seems to be still ok. Before the patch everything was super smooth. 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Remontti