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[JaseC]

So apparently Irrational is unable to recreate the stuttering issue on their test PC's per Chris Kline from Irrational. I had tried all the fixes he posted, but nothing fixes the issue.

I don't believe this; the issue is far too widespread for it to not rear its head. More likely is that fixing it has been placed in the Too Hard Basket. Edit edit: Kline also states that the issue is still being looked into, so not all is lost.

Edit: Unless, as Tummi suggests, Irrational is just focusing on a particular subset of the stuttering. But even so, I still find the claim dubious.

 

[AquaMotley]

7790 would be nice, but he's trying to keep cost as low as possible. I'm aiming to find him something that can maintain 30fps at 1280x720 with pretty good settings.

I have a 7770 and it runs this game vsynced @60hz @ 1600x900.
That is with high texture/AF/shadow settings, AA enabled. So, depending on what his other specs are/will be, a 7770 will be plenty @720p.

 

[hlhbk]

I don't believe this; the issue is far too widespread for it to not rear its head. More likely is that fixing it has been placed in the Too Hard Basket.

Edit: Unless, as Tummi suggests, Irrational is just focusing on a particular subset of the stuttering. But even so, I still find the claim dubious.

I believe it. What is so hard to believe? I love PC gaming but the challenge is each machine is configured differently. I mean we didn't hear one word about it from the reviewers that played the PC version either.

 

[scitek]

This is probably a case of them knowing what the usual Unreal Engine 3 loading hiccups are versus the general public not.

 

[Betta Lines]

I believe it. What is so hard to believe? I love PC gaming but the challenge is each machine is configured differently. I mean we didn't hear one word about it from the reviewers that played the PC version either.

Reviewers rarely spot such things.

 

[Sethos]

Reviewers rarely spot such things.

They never do unless it's close to game breaking.

 

[JaseC]

I believe it. What is so hard to believe? I love PC gaming but the challenge is each machine is configured differently.

As I said, it's a very, very widespread issue.

I mean we didn't hear one word about it from the reviewers that played the PC version either.

Ask yourself this: When was the last time you read reviews that shared a commonality of complaints about technical issues, aside from special, egregious cases such as SimCity?

 

[MasonOfWords]

I can't stand it when dev studios say this. I refuse to believe they can't recreate it, particularly as they will know exactly where the triggers are across the entire level map. It sounds like they are either buying time or denying there is problem.

Nah, that's not how things work. They have no reason to lie, and a PC patch isn't expensive in comparison to console patching/recert. You'd be right to be skeptical if they'd constantly promised that they've found the problem and a patch is coming, but admitting that they can't repro the issue is the last thing that Irrational's management wants to hear from its testers and engineers. They aren't saying the problems don't exist, and hardware/software differences can make a huge difference for games or any other application.

Hopefully they're collecting dxdiag results from people who have had the problem, as that at least gives a starting point. But given how unfocused the discussion of stuttering has been in this thread (bad framerate at doors, constant microstutter, etc.), it is easy to see how they'd have trouble getting coherent results.

 

[hlhbk]

As I said, it's a very, very widespread issue.



Ask yourself this: When was the last time you read reviews that shared a commonality of complaints about technical issues, aside from special, egregious cases such as SimCity?

I can't remember if Sessler reviewed the PC version or not, but if he saw this issue I have faith he would have called it out. Also a lot of the reviewers on youtube I follow would have called it out for sure.

 

[JaseC]

Hopefully they're collecting dxdiag results from people who have had the problem, as that at least gives a starting point. But given how unfocused the discussion of stuttering has been in this thread (bad framerate at doors, constant microstutter, etc.), it is easy to see how they'd have trouble getting coherent results.

The claim is that the stuttering can't be reproduced, not that it isn't there. To be fair, though, Kline also says that investigations into the issue are ongoing.

I can't remember if Sessler reviewed the PC version or not, but if he saw this issue I have faith he would have called it out. Also a lot of the reviewers on youtube I follow would have called it out for sure.

Faith isn't something I'd consider permissible evidence.

 

[MaLDo]

I believe it. What is so hard to believe? I love PC gaming but the challenge is each machine is configured differently. I mean we didn't hear one word about it from the reviewers that played the PC version either.

Because the problem is visible in every pc around the world. There are three possibilities:

-He's lying

-He doesn't know what is the problem because he doesn't understand what people mean when talk about stutter or hitching.

-He has not tested the game to search the problem.

Which of the three gives you more afraid of?

This is probably a case of them knowing what the usual Unreal Engine 3 loading hiccups are versus the general public not.

But I said before, think about this:

The game is perfectly playable for the fisrt, more or less, 20 minutes disabling background level streaming. With no pauses. And all the textures, characters, sounds and objects are perfectly visibles. And after those 20 minutes there is a couple of characters that does not appear where it should. Although you can keep walking across the level after that place.

The same first 20 minutes, with background level streaming enabled, are riddled with hitchs and pauses at fixed points of the level.

The logical question is:

What is being loaded in those pauses?

Two characters? Because if instead of walking for 20 minutes and suffered 30 "loading pauses" to get to that point, just load the earlier checkpoing, there are still pauses in the same places.




Look the group of people and background tower appear out of nowhere as we approach and how it seems the cause of the jerks (00:12)
(LevelStreaming = True)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o19usvrn3hk7rj4/BackgroundLevelStreaming_True.mp4



And look how disabling streaming, the people and the tower keep appearing without pausing.
(LevelStreaming = False)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1o2gzuobmtdmzyw/BackgroundLevelStreaming_False.mp4

 

[scitek]

Well, it's good to know the game will likely never be fixed. I'm glad I didn't put my play-through on hold hoping for a patch.

 

[hlhbk]

Nah, that's not how things work. They have no reason to lie, and a PC patch isn't expensive in comparison to console patching/recert. You'd be right to be skeptical if they'd constantly promised that they've found the problem and a patch is coming, but admitting that they can't repro the issue is the last thing that Irrational's management wants to hear from its testers and engineers. They aren't saying the problems don't exist, and hardware/software differences can make a huge difference for games or any other application.

Hopefully they're collecting dxdiag results from people who have had the problem, as that at least gives a starting point. But given how unfocused the discussion of stuttering has been in this thread (bad framerate at doors, constant microstutter, etc.), it is easy to see how they'd have trouble getting coherent results.

I just posted by dxdiag and asked if others should do the same on their forum.

 

[hlhbk]

Because the problem is visible in every pc around the world. There are three possibilities:

-He's lying

-He doesn't know what is the problem because he doesn't understand what people mean when talk about stutter or hitching.

-He has not tested the game to search the problem.

Which of the three gives you more afraid of?






But I said before, think about this:

The game is perfectly playable for the fisrt, more or less, 20 minutes disabling background level streaming. With no pauses. And all the textures, characters, sounds and objects are perfectly visibles. And after those 20 minutes there is a couple of characters that does not appear where it should. Although you can keep walking across the level after that place.

The same first 20 minutes, with background level streaming enabled, are riddled with hitchs and pauses at fixed points of the level.

The logical question is:

What is being loaded in those pauses?

Two characters? Because if instead of walking for 20 minutes and suffered 30 "loading pauses" to get to that point, just load the earlier checkpoing, there are still pauses in the same places.

I choose the 4th option, that you actually believe all PC's are having this issue is the one I am most afraid of. People in this thread have posted they are not having issues.

 

[Betta Lines]

Nah, that's not how things work. They have no reason to lie, and a PC patch isn't expensive in comparison to console patching/recert. You'd be right to be skeptical if they'd constantly promised that they've found the problem and a patch is coming, but admitting that they can't repro the issue is the last thing that Irrational's management wants to hear from its testers and engineers. They aren't saying the problems don't exist, and hardware/software differences can make a huge difference for games or any other application.

Hopefully they're collecting dxdiag results from people who have had the problem, as that at least gives a starting point. But given how unfocused the discussion of stuttering has been in this thread (bad framerate at doors, constant microstutter, etc.), it is easy to see how they'd have trouble getting coherent results.

I think there is an element of playing for time though. I'm very sure that there are people at the studio who have seen the game installed on many PCs in their homes and offices, and are fully aware of what we are talking about, but they are sticking with 'we can't recreate it' until there is more concrete info - and by that I mean:

a) is this a widespread problem that is going to affect sales/PR for the company if we don't fix it

b) is it actually fixable, and if so,

c) how long will it take, how many resources will it need, etc.

Because there is a chance that such stutters are an inherent flaw in the engine, which could require massive reworking to resolve, in which case they might deny all knowledge, particularly after good sales numbers and good reviews across the board. I think they are playing for time, to see if it is worth theirs.

 

[hlhbk]

I think there is an element of playing for time though. I'm very sure that there are people at the studio who have seen the game installed on many PCs in their homes and offices, and are fully aware of what we are talking about, but they are sticking with 'we can't recreate it' until there is more concrete info - and by that I mean:

a) is this a widespread problem that is going to affect sales/PR for the company if we don't fix it

b) is it actually fixable, and if so,

c) how long will it take, how many resources will it need, etc.

Because there is a chance that such stutters are an inherent flaw in the engine, which could require massive reworking to resolve, in which case they might deny all knowledge, particularly after good sales numbers and good reviews across the board. I think they are playing for time, to see if it is worth theirs.

They never denied it wasn't an issue and they said they are actively looking into it.

 

[MaLDo]

I choose the 4th option, that you actually believe all PC's are having this issue is the one I am most afraid of. People in this thread have posted they are not having issues.

Easy. Ask for someone to upload a video like this in the same place (showing those characters in the end) and without stutter.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o19usvrn3hk7rj4/BackgroundLevelStreaming_True.mp4


Then we talk again.

 

[scitek]

I choose the 4th option, that you actually believe all PC's are having this issue is the one I am most afraid of. People in this thread have posted they are not having issues.

The real problem is not everyone agrees on what exactly the issue is. People complaining about the framerate tanking momentarily when they get in an elevator, or open some doors, or even at the half-way point between a large area, need to realize that's the engine streaming stuff in.

The hitching people are getting when simply panning the camera around and constant dips to 58/57 FPS from 60 is what shouldn't be happening. I should've taken a screen of my framerate graph in afterburner toward the end of the game. It was a mess.

 

[Betta Lines]

They never denied it wasn't an issue and they said they are actively looking into it.

Indeed, but I believe by saying that they haven't been able to recreate the problem, they are leaving their options open in case they can't find an adequate solution. And I fear one of those options is... let it pass.

 

[MaLDo]

The real problem is not everyone agrees on what exactly the issue is. People complaining about the framerate tanking momentarily when they get in an elevator, or open some doors, or even at the half-way point between a large area, need to realize that's the engine streaming stuff in.

The hitching people are getting when simply panning the camera around and constant dips to 58/57 FPS from 60 is what shouldn't be happening. I should've taken a screen of my framerate graph in afterburner toward the end of the game. It was a mess.

Both problems must be fixed because there are lots (if not all) of games that stream data while playing without framerate impact.

Constant stutter only moving the camera is the easiest to fix problem. Actually I think can be fixable only tweaking ini files to find the pefect config for your pc or playing with framerate limits, while Irrational find an universal preset. And only affect some users.

Pauses in level triggers maybe is not easy but is more important because can't be fixed editing files and affect everyone.

 

[Eyothrie]

I choose the 4th option, that you actually believe all PC's are having this issue is the one I am most afraid of. People in this thread have posted they are not having issues.

I choose to believe that these people either don't notice the area loading hitching because they're not playing with a locked framerate or they're just not sensitive to it. Until these people show proof that they're not experiencing these area loading hitches, I'll continue to believe this. I have the game installed on 3 PCs- a build from 2009, a laptop, and a 6 month old high end gaming PC. Its happening to me on all three machines. At the exact same spots shown in Maldo's videos.

 

[JRW]

The hitching people are getting when simply panning the camera around and constant dips to 58/57 FPS from 60 is what shouldn't be happening. I should've taken a screen of my framerate graph in afterburner toward the end of the game. It was a mess.

The only time I see that specific type of stuttering (panning) is when I have Post Processing set on Alternate, The stuttering is noticeable without even looking at an FPS counter... but I prefer the way Alternate looks and just been dealing with it.

 

[Betta Lines]

I choose to believe that these people either don't notice the area loading hitching because they're not playing with a locked framerate or they're just not sensitive to it. Until these people show proof that they're not experiencing these area loading hitches, I'll continue to believe this. I have the game installed on 3 PCs- a build from 2009, a laptop, and a 6 month old high end gaming PC. Its happening to me on all three machines. At the exact same spots in Maldo's videos.

I agree - there is a chance that some people's systems are just way overkill for the game, so even when the the loads are triggered, the drop in performance is still giving them above 60fps, so it's not noticeable. Indeed, if I turn settings right down to simulate having a monster PC, and go with Adaptive V-sync in the nvidia drivers, the drop in performance during these loads just results in a bit of tearing and the stutter is almost entirely gone. But at that point I'd be getting about 200fps without V-sync with those settings, so the performance is being wasted - the tradeoff for removing the stutter is not worth the drop in visuals. It's painful to see the game running comfortably at 60fps on high settings at all other times.

 

[MaLDo]

I agree - there is a chance that some people's systems are just way overkill for the game, so even when the the loads are triggered, the drop in performance is still giving them above 60fps, so it's not noticeable. Indeed, if I turn settings right down to simulate having a monster PC, and go with Adaptive V-sync in the nvidia drivers, the drop in performance during these loads just results in a bit of tearing and the stutter is almost entirely gone. But at that point I'd be getting about 200fps without V-sync with those settings, so the performance is being wasted - the tradeoff for removing the stutter is not worth the drop in visuals. It's painful to see the game running comfortably at 60fps on high settings at all other times.

In fact is exactly the opposite: P

Hitch triggers cause framerate drops to similar framerates for everyone. If one of those triggers makes the game fall down to 36 fps, for example, a player used to play with framerate between 30 and 40 fps, will not notice anything. Whoever is playing with a stable framerate of 120 fps on a very powerful computer, will notice a lot more.

 

[Betta Lines]

That's not what I'm seeing - the higher I make my settings, the lower my framerate tanks during these loads, making it more obvious. But with low settings, which is capable of hitting 200fps, I can use V-sync which limits it to 60fps despite the massive overhead. Therefore when the performance drops from 200 to say 80fps, V-sync is still showing 60.

 

[JRW]

Easy. Ask for someone to upload a video like this in the same place (showing those characters in the end) and without stutter.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o19usvrn3hk7rj4/BackgroundLevelStreaming_True.mp4


Then we talk again.

Worth noting when viewing this video its better to download and play it for the full 60fps playback which makes the stuttering a lot more noticable, when watching online the video is capped @ 30fps.

 

[MaLDo]

Worth noting when viewing this video its better to download and play it for the full 60fps playback which makes the stuttering a lot more noticable, when watching online the video is capped @ 30fps.

Yes, more noticeable. But pauses at 00:11, 00:13 and 00:15 are perfectly visible at 30 fps.

 

[gsx302]

If you have a 680, there shouldn't be any reason to not play it maxed out

Thank you!

 

[s_mirage]

Thank you!

Just a slightly contrary viewpoint from a fellow 680 owner: you might want to drop dynamic shadows to very high. At ultra I get frame rate drops when I'm very close to some objects and I can't visually tell the difference between the two settings.

 

[bluedeviltron]

Is it my machine, or does vsync, whether enabled in game or via Nvidia control panel, introduce an unreasonable amount of stuttering? With all other settings maxed and vsync turned off, it's as smooth as butter but tears worse than any game in recent memory. With it on, it's kind of unplayable. Can't do a 360 turn without chugging.

 

[Gbraga]

Just a slightly contrary viewpoint from a fellow 680 owner: you might want to drop dynamic shadows to very high. At ultra I get frame rate drops when I'm very close to some objects and I can't visually tell the difference between the two settings.

I second this, you don't have to, but the visual difference is so insignificant that you should anyway.

Is it my machine, or does vsync, whether enabled in game or via Nvidia control panel, introduce an unreasonable amount of stuttering? With all other settings maxed and vsync turned off, it's as smooth as butter but tears worse than any game in recent memory. With it on, it's kind of unplayable. Can't do a 360 turn without chugging.

I got a lot of this microstuttering with D3DOverrider, so I just use the game's vsync and hope it won't drop below 60 anywhere.

 

[MasonOfWords]

I think there is an element of playing for time though. I'm very sure that there are people at the studio who have seen the game installed on many PCs in their homes and offices, and are fully aware of what we are talking about, but they are sticking with 'we can't recreate it' until there is more concrete info - and by that I mean:

a) is this a widespread problem that is going to affect sales/PR for the company if we don't fix it

b) is it actually fixable, and if so,

c) how long will it take, how many resources will it need, etc.

Because there is a chance that such stutters are an inherent flaw in the engine, which could require massive reworking to resolve, in which case they might deny all knowledge, particularly after good sales numbers and good reviews across the board. I think they are playing for time, to see if it is worth theirs.

We live in an age of dead-simple profilers. Unless all the engineers at Irrational are completely unfamiliar with the tools of their trade, they would probably be able to get pretty precise timing and location information from a PC exhibiting the problem.

When Ken Levine is tweeting config file changes, it is crazy to pretend that Irrational is downplaying the issue. If anything, they're being too honest and open, since everyone is so upset that they admitted they can't repro the problem. They could've just said "We're looking at it" and not said anything else until there was a patch.

I think that maybe some PC gamers are still jumpy about the whole SimCity thing, but it is helpful to remember that not all companies are soulless monsters.

 

[Eyothrie]

Chris Kline at Irrational Games just posted the following on the 2K forums:

We are now able to reproduce this issue internally.

I'd like to thank everyone who has provided information to help us track this down, and for your patience so far. I would like to ask for your continued understanding and patience while we work on mitigating the problem and testing any solution we find.

-- Chris Kline, Technical Director, Irrational Games

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...ing-Pauses-even-on-high-end-PC-hardware/page3

Good news!

 

[ref]

Chris Kline at Irrational Games just posted the following on the 2K forums:



http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...ing-Pauses-even-on-high-end-PC-hardware/page3

Good news!

Hallelujah!

I wish I could overlook it, as it's not really *major* in my opinion, but I just can't stop noticing the stupid pop in stuttering. I'd really like to continue playing the game, as I haven't even made it in past 2 hours because of this. Hopefully we get a fix soon.

 

[RaGMasTeR90]

Hey guys. I think i ran into a game breaking bug

After i visited

Spoiler

Chen Lins shop and his wife told me he was brought to the Good Time club, i cannot leave the shop to go to the Plaza of Zeal.

Im stuck at the loading screen. Restart does not help cause the save point lets me start in the building... any solution to that?

I also tried reloading the chapter. Doesnt solve the problem ...

Fixed! never(!!) change bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming to False! Just dont do it!

 

[Betta Lines]

We live in an age of dead-simple profilers. Unless all the engineers at Irrational are completely unfamiliar with the tools of their trade, they would probably be able to get pretty precise timing and location information from a PC exhibiting the problem.

When Ken Levine is tweeting config file changes, it is crazy to pretend that Irrational is downplaying the issue. If anything, they're being too honest and open, since everyone is so upset that they admitted they can't repro the problem. They could've just said "We're looking at it" and not said anything else until there was a patch.

I think that maybe some PC gamers are still jumpy about the whole SimCity thing, but it is helpful to remember that not all companies are soulless monsters.

Quite right, I'm getting cynical in my old age.

 

[neoism]

I posted here

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...ing-Pauses-even-on-high-end-PC-hardware/page2

You can see Chris Kline (Irrational) posting there.

good at least they said they could recreate it on their machines so hopefully a patch will come next week at the latest.

 

[Saty]

Wonder if what they did to 'induce' stuttering will be part of solving it.

 

[MaLDo]

That's not what I'm seeing - the higher I make my settings, the lower my framerate tanks during these loads, making it more obvious. But with low settings, which is capable of hitting 200fps, I can use V-sync which limits it to 60fps despite the massive overhead. Therefore when the performance drops from 200 to say 80fps, V-sync is still showing 60.

Forcing the game to run at 30 fps, 95% of the loading stutter has gone. Because the "loading pauses" change the framerate from 30 to 29 fps for a second, so only one frame is lost. Playing at 60 fps, the framerate goes from 60 fps to 34 in most of the triggers and then rises again to 65 fps like a rubber effect and finally goes to 60. The process take a bit more of one second so you lose more or less 40 frames. 40 >> 1.

Maybe in your case your specs are adding a factor in the "pause time" because your cpu. In my case all loading pauses are identical in low or ultra.

 

[plumpblumpkin]

Chris Kline at Irrational Games just posted the following on the 2K forums:



http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...ing-Pauses-even-on-high-end-PC-hardware/page3

Good news!

Hell yea!

 

[Coolbgdog12]

I think I may have fixed my stuttering. I was playing around testing my framerate with fraps and before I did all these changes my FPS were hovering in the high 40's to 50's with the stutter when turning or looking at locks. I then did this and now with the same settings in the same area I tested before runs at a mostly locked 60fps. One thing I noticed was as soon as I looked at a door with a lock the frames would drop but after doing these steps my frames stayed the same(60s) regardless if I was looking at the lock or not.

I went to defaultengine.ini in the XGAME/engine folder and changed the "poolsize" to 512.
My baseengine.ini file in the Engine/config has the bsmoothframerate=true as well as minsmoothframe=51 and maxsmoothframe=60. Poolsize in there is 512 also.

I also made sure the engine files in the user documents/my games/bioshock infinite folder have the same value. I also have the -readtexturefromini launch option in steam.

I have my settings as followed:
Res=1080P
Textures=Ultra
texture Filtering=Ultra
PP=Normal
LOD=Ultra
A.O.=OfF
Light Shafts On
AA=ON
Dynamic Shadows=High
Vsync Off.

I also have D3Doverrider running with Vsync and triple buffering on.

This is on a AMD FX 4100, GTX 550 TI, 8GB RAM, 7200 RPM 1TB HD.

I think I'm not going to tinker with these settings as this is very smooth for now.

Edit: Just tested some more stuff and not using D3Doverrider made screen tearing and stuttering rear it's ugly head.

 

[Shaneus]

Chris Kline at Irrational Games just posted the following on the 2K forums:



http://forums.2kgames.com/showthrea...ing-Pauses-even-on-high-end-PC-hardware/page3

Good news!

Fuck yes!

Can someone in this thread do me a favour and update this thread, complete with quotes, when there's an update on their forum? I'm at work so I won't be able to read any links until I get home. Cheers

 

[Wishmaster92]

I would love to replay this game on the next generation consoles, do you guys know if irrational hinted anything about cross gen development? Might be the wrong thread to ask, ill try the ot.

 

[hlhbk]

Fuck yes!

Can someone in this thread do me a favour and update this thread, complete with quotes, when there's an update on their forum? I'm at work so I won't be able to read any links until I get home. Cheers

I would be shocked if we hear anything until tomorrow at the earliest.

 

[catabarez]

What is the best way to get SMAA on this game?

 

[A More Normal Bird]

What is the best way to get SMAA on this game?

Either injector (mrhaandi's or SweetFX) will function identically, but SweetFX has additional features that you may want to use. If you have an AMD/Ati card you should get RadeonPro, which can inject SMAA, FXAA, or MLAA into any supporting title and can also integrate SweetFX, all without having to add files to the directory of individual games.

 

[Ricker]

The tearing is massive in this game if I turn Vsync off,I usually dont mind some tearing here and there but it's constant on my 560Ti...I would love an ETA on the fix because I am halfway through the game I guess but I dont want to stop for 2 weeks.

 

[Varna]

So are the 2+ GB of VRAM usage only in the outside area? Just got my 690GTX back and naturally the game runs great. But yeah, I'm getting some hitching once the vram cap is hit.

What would be the best thing to drop down to get under 2GB VRAM?

 

[t-ramp]

So are the 2+ GB of VRAM usage only in the outside area? Just got my 690GTX back and naturally the game runs great. But yeah, I'm getting some hitching once the vram cap is hit.

What would be the best thing to drop down to get under 2GB VRAM?

Did you try the tip in the OP?

Mitigate stuttering: Navigate to (My) Documents\my games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config, open XEngine.ini, and follow the instructions in this post. (Credit to Mechazawa.) Additionally, if you have a card with more than 512MB of VRAM, find the PoolSize cvar in XEngine.ini and change it according to your amount of GPU memory, using the formula [amount of VRAM in GB] x 600 -- also ensure that the -ReadTexturePoolFromIni cvar has been added to the game's launch options (right-click -> Properties -> Set launch options; may cause instability). (Credit to GSY Miguel and antitrop.) Lastly, setting the bInitializeShadersOnDemand cvars in XEngine.ini and XCompat.ini to TRUE may also help. (Credit to Irrational itself via KoruptData.)

 

[s_mirage]

So are the 2+ GB of VRAM usage only in the outside area? Just got my 690GTX back and naturally the game runs great. But yeah, I'm getting some hitching once the vram cap is hit.

What would be the best thing to drop down to get under 2GB VRAM?

Use the poolsize ini tweak in the OP set to 1200. That seems to have helped me but YMMV.