I'll add this to the OP.
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The Witness PC performance thread
- Thread starter JaseC
- Start date
I'll add this to the OP.
Sweet, but you may want to add Durante's post too as it explains some modifications that you may need to make to achieve a locked stable framerate.
Your wish is my command.
Ha, cheers.
Betta Lines
Member
I'm assuming you're talking mainly about performance and presentation? Because the problems associated with this type of locomotion surely need to be addressed before it can be an amazing VR game in general.
I don't understand. How can people be absolutely fine playing Windlands (myself included) but not The Witness? Sure, some people can't handle some forms of locomotion in VR but, hell, there's a thread on GAF about people not being able to play The Witness on a tv without getting sick. Some people can't play FPS games at all but that doesn't mean that those games aren't amazing FPS games.
I tried to play it yesterday on my vaio laptop after coming home from work but it had really awful performance even at the lowest graphics quality and no vsync, repeatedly crashing at a particular part shortly after passing the first multi-lock gate.
After checking the Steam forums out I found the game logs and realized my laptop was trying to run the game with the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics card, which made me realize in turn that for some reason the laptop was missing the multi-video card drivers that'd allow me to swap the integrated graphics card for its discrete ATI one. After installing the drivers I was finally able to play the game without it dying on me, but I got some ridiculous slowdown (<10 fps) with graphics quality set to mid when I approached the Japanese-style temple for some reason, and it didn't appear to be related to the direction I was looking in, so I guess I'll be playing with graphics set to low to avoid those kinds of issues the next time I boot the game up.
After checking the Steam forums out I found the game logs and realized my laptop was trying to run the game with the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics card, which made me realize in turn that for some reason the laptop was missing the multi-video card drivers that'd allow me to swap the integrated graphics card for its discrete ATI one. After installing the drivers I was finally able to play the game without it dying on me, but I got some ridiculous slowdown (<10 fps) with graphics quality set to mid when I approached the Japanese-style temple for some reason, and it didn't appear to be related to the direction I was looking in, so I guess I'll be playing with graphics set to low to avoid those kinds of issues the next time I boot the game up.
Betta Lines
Member
If the main locomotion system of the game relies on traditional input commands, that means it has fundamentally not been made with VR in mind. This is not specifically about getting sick. It's about being put in a category of 'amazing VR games'. If The Witness can be categorised as such, then basically any game with a first person perspective and decent performance can be too, and that surely undervalues all of the effort being put into from-the-ground-up VR games. I am not denying that this is an amazing first person game. I'm questioning whether it can be classified as an amazing VR game (at this stage).
No, I'm talking about my experience. I'm the guy who could play 4 hours of KB/M HL2 VR mod on DK1 (!) and only feel slightly queasy. It's certainly not "market ready" or "mass market friendly" or whatever people love to throw around, but still a great experience.
My issues with it boil down mostly to my lowly 970 forcing me to look at shadows of a resolution I haven't seen since the mid-2000s and the deficiencies of DK2 tracking not allowing me to walk around. All I need now is a high-end Pascal GPU and a Vive!
This doesn't affect The Witness much. Movement speed is very slow and the game uses snap turning. Most of the value in the game (both aesthetically and gameplay-wise) is taken while standing still, rather than moving.
Didn't realize that walking around within a limited space would still work out of the box. Vive it is, then! Would be awesome if they bring in full support for locomotion by the time it is out. Since the interactivity is limited to the panels, we don't really need anything more than that
Durante said:
Trying your config, I still get some slowdown in the swamps on my 980. Wonder if my 2600k is holding things back somehow, but further reducing resolutions does seem to lead to better performance...
for the sake of my ego I'll chalk this up to GAF > Internet > GAF
Try to enable the rendering performance overlay in the Rift tool to see why you're dropping frames.
What about the fov? Did you have to change that?
how did I not know about that option, wow!
Yup, aging CPU. I guess I'll finally overclock, lol.
Betta Lines
Member
It's not that slow when you run. What's this snap turning you're talking about? In any case, The Witness is already causing nausea on a screen for some, so I'm not so sure the slow pace and visual style is necessarily that helpful. I agree with your second point however. But I think finding a more VR-friendly way of getting between puzzle areas is important.
Wok
Member
Trying to run the variables but my game crash while launching...
Remove the line about shadow_quality or set it to 2.
Chance Hale
Member
Is there a way to increase the shadow lod distance? They become blurry way too soon even at high.
I had huge success with my tweaking! I bumped down several settings and changed resolution to native on my monitor. Now it looks beautiful and runs smooth. I also changed vertical Fov to 64 and it's very comfortable to play. Here are the tweaks for anyone on a lower end card like me:
low_res_reflections false
sun_shadow_resolution 256
point_shadow_resolution 256
antialias_panel_rendering true
skip_mipmaps 1
msaa_sample_count 1
panel_render_width 512
render_width 1680
render_height 1050
dynamic_resolution false
low_res_reflections false
sun_shadow_resolution 256
point_shadow_resolution 256
antialias_panel_rendering true
skip_mipmaps 1
msaa_sample_count 1
panel_render_width 512
render_width 1680
render_height 1050
dynamic_resolution false
Tried it, still crash, should I keep the /medium? Should I keep the two line that were there initially: disable_developer_shaders true, debug_shadow_maps false?
When I put them and remove the /medium, the game is running but only at 1 fps.
Im running the game with default setting, so it should take these changes.
Crash for me.
Wok
Member
Tried it, still crash, should I keep the /medium? Should I keep the two line that were there initially: disable_developer_shaders true, debug_shadow_maps false?
When I put them and remove the /medium, the game is running but only at 1 fps.
Im running the game with default setting, so it should take these changes.
Crash for me.
I have some weird issues too now.
I am putting every setting to the cheapest cost value, disabling vsync and limiting max framerate to 30 FPS, only to get a very variable framerate... I think it depends on the in-game location.
Plus if I use the following, the game runs, but if I use the same settings with /medium or /low, the game crashes on start.
Code:
:/display
vsync false
:/render/high
low_res_reflections true
shadow_quality 2
sun_shadow_resolution 256
point_shadow_resolution 256
antialias_panel_rendering false
skip_mipmaps 2
msaa_sample_count 1
aa_mode 0
panel_render_width 512
render_width 1920
render_height 1080
dynamic_resolution trueWhoops.
No idea, I haven't done a study. But reading the comments of people who have played Windlands going back to the early demo version I didn't see any complaints, and I only use that game as a metric because it is pretty wild. Obviously there are people who have problems with it and folks who don't. I fall in the latter camp and have never experienced sickness from VR so I'm glad that devs leave hooks in their game to enable VR. Another reason why my main VR platform will always be PC.
Man, what is up with this game. I turn on my computer and the game is now running at about 30 FPS with G-Sync and no in-game vsync. These are the exact same settings that was giving me 144 FPS last night, and the game hasn't been patched since then.
Disabled G-Sync and the framerate shot way up. Re-enabled and it was back to 30 FPS.
Rebooted and everything's fine with G-Sync. I tried a few other games before rebooting and they were all OK.
Disabled G-Sync and the framerate shot way up. Re-enabled and it was back to 30 FPS.
Rebooted and everything's fine with G-Sync. I tried a few other games before rebooting and they were all OK.
Yeah, it's kind of annoying that it never seems to remember what you set it to. I have to turn off v-sync every time I start it up.
Ah, I do keep an eye on the thread but didn't see your post from yesterday, however I've updated the "credit to" portion accordingly. Situations like this is why I recently added the following to my PC performance thread OPs (that is, the ones that didn't have it):
When posting your own tip/trick or something else you'd like to see here in the OP, be sure to mention my username as this way the post will appear among the results when I search for my username after an absence. I may miss it otherwise.
paperspace
Member
I had the same issue earlier, but it seems to be working now.
As for the "patch notes":
http://steamcommunity.com/app/210970/discussions/0/458607518210424784/#c458607518210466203
Nyteshade517
Member
A potential fix for people who have audio problems, plus a couple of fixes to people getting stuck outside of valid gameplay space.
I had some weird framerate the first time I loaded (GTX 770), but restarting the game fixed it for some reason. Try that?
(If not, make sure to tweet @Jonathan_Blow or post in the forum since they're actively working on all this)
Hopefully I can fix my issues I had last night which were bad stutter / frame drops for no apparent reason. Usually when turning left or right, but at any speed. Actually made me feel kinda unwell as it dipped into the 20s even in the opening tunnel area.
Specs I would think should be able to handle this game on high... 970 OC, 4771 etc.
Specs I would think should be able to handle this game on high... 970 OC, 4771 etc.
Turning vsync off in the variables file will switch it off by default
What OS? And does it behave the same way without the overclock? A 3570k + GTX 770 has been running fine on Windows 7 64-bit for me.
SirMossyBloke
Member
I may have missed this, but when creating your own variables in the file located in the data folder, when I run the game, do I select "use defaults" or "high" as high is the present i've applied.
I've also set the game to run at 4k. How can I tell it's actually running at that downsampled resolution on my TV? I'm getting a smooth 60fps at apparently 4k on a 970. Seems good even for this game.
I've also set the game to run at 4k. How can I tell it's actually running at that downsampled resolution on my TV? I'm getting a smooth 60fps at apparently 4k on a 970. Seems good even for this game.
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
It's related even though not directly related. But can anyone tell me if my laptop supports usb 3.0? The ports aren't labeled with anything so I can't visibly tell.
I see one of them states usb 3.0, but considering I only have 4 USB ports, there are lot of things listed there and I'm looking for clarification.
I see one of them states usb 3.0, but considering I only have 4 USB ports, there are lot of things listed there and I'm looking for clarification.
Interesting, I get ~7ms CPU usage at most so I'm perfectly fine on that front.how did I not know about that option, wow!
Yup, aging CPU. I guess I'll finally overclock, lol.
I really need a new GPU.
USB 3.0 ports should be blue colored.
Wow, you've gotta give it to him, he's really going above and beyond to try and sort out the various issues people are having.