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[Kelegacy]

Well, I'm in Hall of Heroes and the stuttering is still the same, but I'm glad they are now able to reproduce it. Game looks and runs great at Ultra settings on my PC, but knocking it down to Very Low settings it runs the same...the stuttering is still there. So, I guess I'll hope they have a potential fix soon. It is pretty annoying for me but I've put up with it. With it gone, the game could be something I sit in front of for long periods. Right now it's almost checkmark to checkmark before I get fed up.

 

[Coolbgdog12]

I don't think the my documents engine tweak did anything. It seemed to go into effect when I edited the defaultengine that is in the Steam directory for Bioshock. "Steam.....\Bioshock\Xgame\Config\Defaultengine and Engine\config\baseengine. I'm now locked at about 55-60fps even in heavy battle. Before the game stuttered if I turned my eyes.

 

[hlhbk]

Well, I'm in Hall of Heroes and the stuttering is still the same, but I'm glad they are now able to reproduce it. Game looks and runs great at Ultra settings on my PC, but knocking it down to Very Low settings it runs the same...the stuttering is still there. So, I guess I'll hope they have a potential fix soon. It is pretty annoying for me but I've put up with it. With it gone, the game could be something I sit in front of for long periods. Right now it's almost checkmark to checkmark before I get fed up.

Outside of the first 10 minutes once I saw the stuttering I refused to play the game until they fix this.

 

[Shaneus]

Outside of the first 10 minutes once I saw the stuttering I refused to play the game until they fix this.

*brofist*

If it's an obvious performance thing that I can fix by dumbing down details or whatever, I have no problem with that. But when I know there's nothing I can do about it (hello Saint's Row 3 and until relatively recently, F1 2011) then I'll just not bother. Especially when I can see exactly what the symptoms are beyond what's happening onscreen (such as the CPU interrupts and single-core usage, in this case) then I can't bring myself to experience it in a sub-standard state (especially when it's so erratic... 60fps flat down to 20fps in certain sections is just jarring).

 

[Eyothrie]

*brofist*

If it's an obvious performance thing that I can fix by dumbing down details or whatever, I have no problem with that. But when I know there's nothing I can do about it (hello Saint's Row 3 and until relatively recently, F1 2011) then I'll just not bother. Especially when I can see exactly what the symptoms are beyond what's happening onscreen (such as the CPU interrupts and single-core usage, in this case) then I can't bring myself to experience it in a sub-standard state (especially when it's so erratic... 60fps flat down to 20fps in certain sections is just jarring).

same. I've been patiently waiting!

 

[Sethos]

So I turned down the sensitivity in the input file, turned it all the way down on my mouse settings but it's still extremely fast in-game. On the menus it's sluggish as hell but in-game it's unplayable ...

EDIT: Never mind, the mouse sensitivity slider wasn't enabled due to having a controller plugged in.

 

[rjfs]

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.

Even with Vsynch on I get really terrible tearing. I'm playing the Xbox version now and will hop back on pc is they can fix this.

 

[Shaneus]

Even with Vsynch on I get really terrible tearing. I'm playing the Xbox version now and will hop back on pc is they can fix this.

Can you have a look and see if there's a similar stuttering issue on the 360 one? I'm curious to see if that first bit in the video that was posted (just before you turn right after going straight ahead from the baptism) is across multiple platforms or if it's just a PC thing.

 

[hlhbk]

Even with Vsynch on I get really terrible tearing. I'm playing the Xbox version now and will hop back on pc is they can fix this.

Tearing is fixed if you use d3doverrider.

 

[s_mirage]

Even with Vsynch on I get really terrible tearing. I'm playing the Xbox version now and will hop back on pc is they can fix this.

If you're getting tearing even with vsync on then something settings wise is likely going wrong on your system. Are you on Nvidia hardware and have been playing with adaptive vsync?

 

[hlhbk]

If you're getting tearing even with vsync on then something settings wise is likely going wrong on your system. Are you on Nvidia hardware and have been playing with adaptive vsync?

I had the same exact issue as the guy you are responding to. I had Vsync on in game and not in the Nvidia control panel. I tried turning it off in game and forcing it via the control panel and the same thing happened.

Only fix I could find was d3doverrider.

 

[Red]

I tried using my card (5870) in my brother's PC and found performance was no different than the last one we tried (GTX 240). Doesn't matter what settings we are using. Low performs the same as ultra. I did notice he is getting weird CPU spikes (~80%). He has a Phenom II X3 720. It's not great, but I wouldn't think that's what's causing him to see frame rates in the teens for much of the game... I am guessing the problem is his hard drive. I don't know if it has to do with the stuttering issues many others are having. I had very short hitches on my PC when I crossed a loading zone, but they were so slight as to practically be a nonissue. When he crosses the same line, his machine almost comes to a standstill. It hitches for a good thirty seconds at least.

Sometimes he gets perfect performance, but it doesn't last. As soon as he walks through a hallway or enters a new area, it goes to shit.

My gut tells me it's the hard drive. It seems like loading new areas is the culprit... but then, I'm watching task manager right now, and it's the only thing running besides this window, and his CPU is holding steady between 70-78%...

At least D3DOverrider works for him though! No trouble there.

 

[joeygreco1985]

Ok I did some tests, as the game needs to be launched with the command line "-ReadTexturePoolFromIni" to use the PoolSize value from the file (otherwise it's calculated).

So, in and area where my VRAM was stuck at 2GB (max of my VRAM), and the game was stuttering like hell each time I turned the camera, I tried several values :

PoolSize=140 (like in many UE3 games) : textures are blurry and VRAM does not exceed 750MB.

PoolSize=400 (default one) : less blurry but only 1000MB VRAM used.

PoolSize=1200 : sharp textures and 1900 VRAM used, no stutter in the large areas, even by going from one end to the other.

So it depends on how many VRAM you have, just try.
For now let's say your VRAM minus 800.

To enable this, you have to open the properties of the game in Steam, and in the first tab you have a button "Set launch options", and put "-ReadTexturePoolFromIni" without the "".

For me it works well, the game is always smooth and I only got little drops when it streams the level, but the big stutter is gone.

This absolutely fixed my stuttering. Thank you so much for this!

 

[ambientmystic]

I tried using my card (5870) in my brother's PC and found performance was no different than the last one we tried (GTX 240). Doesn't matter what settings we are using. Low performs the same as ultra. I did notice he is getting weird CPU spikes (~80%). He has a Phenom II X3 720. It's not great, but I wouldn't think that's what's causing him to see frame rates in the teens for much of the game... I am guessing the problem is his hard drive. I don't know if it has to do with the stuttering issues many others are having. I had very short hitches on my PC when I crossed a loading zone, but they were so slight as to practically be a nonissue. When he crosses the same line, his machine almost comes to a standstill. It hitches for a good thirty seconds at least.

Sometimes he gets perfect performance, but it doesn't last. As soon as he walks through a hallway or enters a new area, it goes to shit.

My gut tells me it's the hard drive. It seems like loading new areas is the culprit... but then, I'm watching task manager right now, and it's the only thing running besides this window, and his CPU is holding steady between 70-78%...

At least D3DOverrider works for him though! No trouble there.

UE3 is very, very heavily CPU dependent. If switching graphics cards made no difference it's almost 100% certain that your CPU is to blame. Also since he's using an AMD CPU, has he already installed the AMD Dual Core Optimizer? It still applies to newer tri and quad core CPUs, so long as you're using an AMD one.

 

[Shaneus]

I tried using my card (5870) in my brother's PC and found performance was no different than the last one we tried (GTX 240). Doesn't matter what settings we are using. Low performs the same as ultra. I did notice he is getting weird CPU spikes (~80%). He has a Phenom II X3 720. It's not great, but I wouldn't think that's what's causing him to see frame rates in the teens for much of the game... I am guessing the problem is his hard drive. I don't know if it has to do with the stuttering issues many others are having. I had very short hitches on my PC when I crossed a loading zone, but they were so slight as to practically be a nonissue. When he crosses the same line, his machine almost comes to a standstill. It hitches for a good thirty seconds at least.

Sometimes he gets perfect performance, but it doesn't last. As soon as he walks through a hallway or enters a new area, it goes to shit.

My gut tells me it's the hard drive. It seems like loading new areas is the culprit... but then, I'm watching task manager right now, and it's the only thing running besides this window, and his CPU is holding steady between 70-78%...

At least D3DOverrider works for him though! No trouble there.

That's exactly the same problem everyone else is having. At least, I'm pretty sure it is. Same as mine, anyway.

 

[rohlfinator]

My gut tells me it's the hard drive. It seems like loading new areas is the culprit... but then, I'm watching task manager right now, and it's the only thing running besides this window, and his CPU is holding steady between 70-78%...

IIRC someone earlier in the thread installed the game on a RAM disk and still got that stuttering. It seems to be CPU/bandwidth related, although even people with high-end CPUs are getting the stuttering.

 

[Eyothrie]

Its engine related. Until we get a patch, it won't get fixed.

 

[JBourne]

D3D overrider definitely helped with the stuttering for me (I'm on a laptop and it was unbearable), but if it's going to be patched I'll probably just wait. I suspect I'm going to love the game and would hate to have my experience lessened by performance issues.

 

[Red]

Damn, that's the stuttering issue? It's way worse in his game than in the video that's been making the rounds. I didn't have any such issues when I played through myself. I wouldn't think his CPU would be a limiting factor. It's not top of the line, but I thought a 2.8GHz tri-core would be plenty.

I'm going to try clearing out and installing a Caviar Black in his system. See if that helps at all. His HDD is pretty slow... Even a small improvement would help.

 

[Shaneus]

Damn, that's the stuttering issue? It's way worse in his game than in the video that's been making the rounds. I didn't have any such issues when I played through myself. I wouldn't think his CPU would be a limiting factor. It's not top of the line, but I thought a 2.8GHz tri-core would be plenty.

I'm going to try clearing out and installing a Caviar Black in his system. See if that helps at all. His HDD is pretty slow... Even a small improvement would help.

Trust me, it's not his HDD. I have an i5-2500K @ 4.9GHZ and when there's slowdown, the single core that Infinite uses hits 100% and the CPU interrupts (which I guess is an indication of shit waiting to use that core) goes through the roof. If it was a HDD thing, I think you'd see more consistent slowdown.

 

[JAYSIMPLE]

i did the ram pool change in the ini file and it stopped all stuttering. it did cause some textures to do the old school unreal fade in better textures randomly tho, it was a sacrifice i was happy to make tho.

 

[Red]

Trust me, it's not his HDD. I have an i5-2500K @ 4.9GHZ and when there's slowdown, the single core that Infinite uses hits 100% and the CPU interrupts (which I guess is an indication of shit waiting to use that core) goes through the roof. If it was a HDD thing, I think you'd see more consistent slowdown.

Are you talking about the stuttering issue? If it was a CPU problem I'd expect to see it occur during sections where a lot of obvious calculations are occurring. But it happens in empty spaces... Doorways, hallways, corners of rooms, and it's easy to replicate. It feels as if the game hits a snag at loading zones.

If this is the stuttering bug, it's pretty serious. I figured many people were exaggerating its extent, since my machine was more or less smooth beginning to end. Playing it on my brother's though -- it's gross how choppy it gets, and for like, no reason.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

So I just got a new 5.1 sound card I'm trying to set up, and I just started playing Infinite. As such I'm trying to tweak things a bit....

Does anybody else notice that this game has really poor surround-sound implementation? Or is it just my setup?

It doesn't seem like any of the major sounds - like voices or loud ambient sounds - are coming from my rear channels. For example I'll stand in front of a person who is talking and spin around slowly, and the sound just goes back and forth in my front channels. It's kinda weird. But there are other ambient sounds coming from the rear channels, so they're not totally mute.

 

[Shaneus]

Are you talking about the stuttering issue? If it was a CPU problem I'd expect to see it occur during sections where a lot of obvious calculations are occurring. But it happens in empty spaces... Doorways, hallways, corners of rooms, and it's easy to replicate. It feels as if the game hits a snag at loading zones.

If this is the stuttering bug, it's pretty serious. I figured many people were exaggerating its extent, since my machine was more or less smooth beginning to end. Playing it on my brother's though -- it's gross how choppy it gets, and for like, no reason.

It's 100% a CPU problem. I'm only guessing, but to me it seems like while the single CPU core is giving instructions to the GPU, monitoring controller input, outputting sound etc., all of a sudden it has to load whatever scripting or AI is used in the upcoming scene... and prioritises itself over all of that, hence the slowdown. Don't think the game streams data as it needs it, of course it reads ahead... which is why it's doing it in all the same spots and always before a large scene (from what I can gather of my limited playthrough).

Of course, I don't know *exactly* what's going on behind the scenes, but I did some very close monitoring of my PC's resources (to the point of running Windows performance logging) and found two things: Only one CPU core was being used (at least, that's what was obvious... the others were doing fuck all, which I'm pretty sure was just other things in the background, non-Infinite related) to do everything, and whenever this stuttering occurred, the CPU interrupts skyrocketed... and nothing else. GPU, disk activity, memory throughput was all normal (in fact, they all dipped while they waited for whatever was clogging up the engine to do it's thing).

Apologies for sounding more than a little abrupt there... it's taken far too long for me to work out what the hell it was and basically prevented me from enjoying it. I'm peeved to say the least!

 

[Red]

Ah yeah. With a PC like yours you'd think it would be smooth sailing. What a frustrating problem.

 

[Pagusas]

So I just got a new 5.1 sound card I'm trying to set up, and I just started playing Infinite. As such I'm trying to tweak things a bit....

Does anybody else notice that this game has really poor surround-sound implementation? Or is it just my setup?

It doesn't seem like any of the major sounds - like voices or loud ambient sounds - are coming from my rear channels. For example I'll stand in front of a person who is talking and spin around slowly, and the sound just goes back and forth in my front channels. It's kinda weird. But there are other ambient sounds coming from the rear channels, so they're not totally mute.

Im running 5.1 DTS Connect to my downstair receiver when playing the game and have found it to sound good, the surround channels are used a lot and good environmental placement. Sometimes it feels voices are coming out of the wrong channel, but gun fire and taunts all come correctly and add to the experience.

 

[DJ Lushious]

Does anybody else notice that this game has really poor surround-sound implementation? Or is it just my setup?

It doesn't seem like any of the major sounds - like voices or loud ambient sounds - are coming from my rear channels. For example I'll stand in front of a person who is talking and spin around slowly, and the sound just goes back and forth in my front channels. It's kinda weird. But there are other ambient sounds coming from the rear channels, so they're not totally mute.

It's just you. Surround sound is not an issue with my configuration. Which card did you get? Maybe we can help you figure out what's going on.

 

[spacemonkeynation]

The stuttering ini tweaks in the initial post seem to have fixed the issue on my end (other than the level streaming hitches now and then). I have a new problem now where Vsync is not working unless I run the game in borderless windowed mode. I've tried forcing through the Nvidia panel and using the in-game setting. It functioned normally prior to doing the Field of View slider tweak in the ini files. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Red]

So I just got a new 5.1 sound card I'm trying to set up, and I just started playing Infinite. As such I'm trying to tweak things a bit....

Does anybody else notice that this game has really poor surround-sound implementation? Or is it just my setup?

It doesn't seem like any of the major sounds - like voices or loud ambient sounds - are coming from my rear channels. For example I'll stand in front of a person who is talking and spin around slowly, and the sound just goes back and forth in my front channels. It's kinda weird. But there are other ambient sounds coming from the rear channels, so they're not totally mute.

Voices are done poorly. In general the sound is fine. I found myself impressed by the sound design and disappointed by the sound mix.

 

[goldsoundz]

Steam just downloaded a 10MB update; I have no idea what it does though.

 

[TheThunder]

Same thing here, will check to see if it's their "FoV fix" they talked about.

 

[Backfoggen]

So I just got a new 5.1 sound card I'm trying to set up, and I just started playing Infinite. As such I'm trying to tweak things a bit....

Does anybody else notice that this game has really poor surround-sound implementation? Or is it just my setup?

It doesn't seem like any of the major sounds - like voices or loud ambient sounds - are coming from my rear channels. For example I'll stand in front of a person who is talking and spin around slowly, and the sound just goes back and forth in my front channels. It's kinda weird. But there are other ambient sounds coming from the rear channels, so they're not totally mute.

I had a similar thing, turns out everything was set to stereo. The game definitely has great surround sound.

 

[Eyothrie]

Steam just downloaded a 10MB update; I have no idea what it does though.

Hopefully it fixes the area loading hitching. I'm stuck at work or I'd test it out myself

 

[Mr. Plankton]

Are they saying that they've managed to corner/fix the stuttering that occurs when you cross some invisible line in a level? The large area before Comstock's House is a good example of this.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I had a similar thing, turns out everything was set to stereo. The game definitely has great surround sound.

I looked in the in-game Audio options but didn't find anything about stereo or surround.

I just picked up the Creative X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro. Within Windows I have everything configured to 5.1, connected to my receiver via optical which also indicates it is getting a Dolby D signal.

Voices aren't coming from the rears. Also I walked by an electrical box that was giving off a pretty loud BZZZT noise, and while spinning in a slow circle I wasn't getting that out of the rears either. But like I said, some stuff comes out of the rear, just not what I was expecting.

I probably would have never noticed any of this if I weren't testing the new sound card to begin with.... Could just be poor mixing like you said.

 

[Ricker]

Hopefully it fixes the area loading hitching. I'm stuck at work or I'd test it out myself

It does not...

 

[mileS]

It might fix the FoV slider? I can't check right now but that sounded like one of the first things they wanted to fix.

 

[JaseC]

Are we sure this is an official patch and not a phantom update, perhaps simply to add hooks for the upcoming DLC? There are no product updates mentioned on Steam.

 

[Backfoggen]

I looked in the in-game Audio options but didn't find anything about stereo or surround.

I just picked up the Creative X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro. Within Windows I have everything configured to 5.1, connected to my receiver via optical which also indicates it is getting a Dolby D signal.

Voices aren't coming from the rears. Also I walked by an electrical box that was giving off a pretty loud BZZZT noise, and while spinning in a slow circle I wasn't getting that out of the rears either. But like I said, some stuff comes out of the rear, just not what I was expecting.

I probably would have never noticed any of this if I weren't testing the new sound card to begin with.... Could just be poor mixing like you said.

I had to set it with the configure button under the Windows sound settings. The occasional sound still sounded like it was coming from the rear speakers with stereo but voices and a lot of other effects definitely didn't have the surround effect.
With everything set to 5.1 it's all fine.

 

[Shaneus]

Are we sure this is an official patch and not a phantom update, perhaps simply to add hooks for the upcoming DLC? There are no product updates mentioned on Steam.

Might be, but the .exe has definitely been updated in one way or another:

Testing now.

 

[leng jai]

Surely if it fixed the stuttering there would be more buzz about it.

 

[neoism]

Hopefully it fixes the area loading hitching. I'm stuck at work or I'd test it out myself

nope started my second playthrough... the stuttering is mostly gone but it still does this I'm also using this but its still there would like to know what the update was for. :/

Lastly, setting the bInitializeShadersOnDemand cvars in XEngine.ini and XCompat.ini to TRUE may also help. (Credit to Irrational itself via KoruptData.)

posted on the official forum..

Although I don't know the purpose behind the changes, the files which were changed follow:

XGame/CoockedPCConsole_FR
Engine.xxx
Engine.xxx.uncompressed_size
XCore.xxx
XCore.xxx.uncompressed_size

XGame/Content/Audio/Packed/Windows/Banks
STARTUP.bnk

Binaries/Win32
BioShockInfinite.exe

 

[hlhbk]

Are they saying that they've managed to corner/fix the stuttering that occurs when you cross some invisible line in a level? The large area before Comstock's House is a good example of this.

They have reproduced the issue, and said they are working on a fix but have been slient for 48 hours.

 

[Minion101]

Rebooting the game seems to fix stuttering for 5-10 mins.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I don't know, frienditos, I'm not sure this game has the best surround sound. I fired up Dead Space 3 and did the slow-turn test on a couple environmental sound sources and could immediately hear it go to the rears - loud and clear.

Everything in the rears for Infinite just seems to be a more quieter version of what's getting sent to the fronts.

Still a fun game though...

 

[Shaneus]

I've done a bit of sleuthing, and I've found the files that are getting accessed in that video that was posted earlier at the first stutter (the 0:48 second mark, just after the baptism and just before the large door):

On close inspection, it reads these files once each time that point is passed:
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\s_TWN_storeA_int.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_FL02.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo2.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Game.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Kyn.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Loot.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo_FL01.xxx
BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_TWN_Skywalk_Vista.xxx

And these files twice, at the same time:
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\s_TWN_storeA_int.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Localization\INT\s_TWN_storeA_int.INT
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_TWN_Skywalk_FL02.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\English(US)\S_TWN_Skywalk_FL02_L.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo2.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Localization\INT\S_TWN_Skywalk_Geo2.INT
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_TWN_Skywalk_Game.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\English(US)\S_TWN_Skywalk_Game_L.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_TWN_Skywalk_Loot.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\English(US)\S_TWN_Skywalk_Loot_L.bnk
BioShock Infinite\XGame\Localization\INT\S_TWN_Skywalk_Loot.INT

So I would guess that it's decompressing the .xxx files and then reading the audio/INT (I guess "interaction"?) files.

If you're curious, download a program called ProcessActivityView and run Infinite in windowed mode so you can see this other window. Thinking about it, it may only be stuttering because it's decompressing the .xxx files into the .bnk and .int files.

Edit: A bit more interesting: When walking back to the start of the checkpoint, you can see where it reads ahead the previous section, and the files it opens are only these two:
E:\SteamDirect\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\XGame\CookedPCConsole_FR\S_OFB_Sound.xxx
E:\SteamDirect\steamapps\common\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Content\Audio\Packed\Windows\Banks\S_OFB_Sound.bnk

So yeah, I think it's stuttering on the decompression of those files, not necessarily the accessing of what's inside them... especially going by that last bit where it's only opening a single file.

Edit #2: The .xxx files I suspect are just pointers. S_OFB_Sound.xxx is only 8KB, while S_OFB_Sound.bnk is 372KB.

 

[Cuban Legend]

Can't you just run the game decompressed like most games?

 

[Jedi2016]

So yeah, I think it's stuttering on the decompression of those files, not necessarily the accessing of what's inside them... especially going by that last bit where it's only opening a single file.

That would explain the "area loading" slowdown, but not the "chugging" that I've gotten. It came back with a vengeance when I was playing last night, the first time in several days. It seemed to happen right after a large load of new information (location spoiler:

Spoiler

the switch to the "other" Columbia in Finkton

). From that point on, the game went into super-stutter mode permanently. I quit as soon as I hit the next checkpoint. Completely exiting the game back to desktop and restarting fixes it. Interestingly, loading a new area from scratch (with loading screen, such as when transitioning between locations) does not fix it. I had to completely shut down the program.

I'll be curious if this patch addresses that. If they've changed the compression settings, it might fix the "loading" slowdown, but I wonder if it will fix the other.

 

[rohlfinator]

That would explain the "area loading" slowdown, but not the "chugging" that I've gotten. It came back with a vengeance when I was playing last night, the first time in several days. It seemed to happen right after a large load of new information (location spoiler:

Spoiler

the switch to the "other" Columbia in Finkton

). From that point on, the game went into super-stutter mode permanently. I quit as soon as I hit the next checkpoint. Completely exiting the game back to desktop and restarting fixes it. Interestingly, loading a new area from scratch (with loading screen, such as when transitioning between locations) does not fix it. I had to completely shut down the program.

I'll be curious if this patch addresses that. If they've changed the compression settings, it might fix the "loading" slowdown, but I wonder if it will fix the other.

Are you using the PoolSize fix? It seems like a lot of people have had success getting rid of the non-"area loading" stutter with that.

 

[Shaneus]

Can't you just run the game decompressed like most games?

In what context are you talking about "compression"? This is the way the game's been released, and it's not unusual for any game to use some kind of compression or packing for things like audio or textures. It's just that this one seems to handle it rather badly.

That would explain the "area loading" slowdown, but not the "chugging" that I've gotten. It came back with a vengeance when I was playing last night, the first time in several days. It seemed to happen right after a large load of new information (location spoiler:

Spoiler

the switch to the "other" Columbia in Finkton

). From that point on, the game went into super-stutter mode permanently. I quit as soon as I hit the next checkpoint. Completely exiting the game back to desktop and restarting fixes it. Interestingly, loading a new area from scratch (with loading screen, such as when transitioning between locations) does not fix it. I had to completely shut down the program.

I'll be curious if this patch addresses that. If they've changed the compression settings, it might fix the "loading" slowdown, but I wonder if it will fix the other.

Are you using the PoolSize fix? It seems like a lot of people have had success getting rid of the non-"area loading" stutter with that.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. From what I can tell, there are two distinct issues people are having: One that I think is to do with VRAM, which can be fixed by manipulating that PoolSize value. The other is to do with reading the game audio, which it looks like is happening to pretty much everyone (unless you're running the game at 30fps locked, in which case I don't think the issue is as noticeable).



PS. I've posted my earlier findings over at the 2K forums so it'll be interesting to see whether it gets censored over there like Maldo's post or not...