11 replies to this topic

[J4ck4l]

This bug has been around for quite a while now. I find it rather annoying, especially during combat. I couldn't find any bug report about it. Should i have missed it, then sorry in advance:

Bug location:
Global

Steps to reproduce:
Load any map wit Dual LB10X build, stand close to wall zoom in and aim at wall (or aim at floor). FIRE and observe massive FPS drop (below 10 on my system).
Repeat with lasers, but during firing aim and drag a line.

Reproduction rate:
For me 100% if done as described above. The drop in FPS seems to be related to the amount of visual "sparks" during the fire/explosions of the impacting LB10X rounds/laser beams.
This is best to reproduce on HPG Manifold. Zoom in on the ground of the outside area, then fire the dual LB10X.


Bug evidence: n.a.

Possible workaround:
Disable certain details (sparks?) of the explosions that create tremendous use of resources.
Lowering the amount of particles doesn't seem to help a whole lot.

My system:
CPU: i7 4790k @ 4.4Ghrz.
RAM: 8Gb. DDR3
GPU: AMD R9 280x
Win: WIN 7 Home premium


Hoping to have supplied enough information.

Edit: Details added for reproduction rate and workaround.

Edited by J4ck4l, 04 February 2016 - 10:56 AM.

[Ironwithin]

Probably less of a bug and more lacking optimisation...

Have you tried turning Particles in advanced video options down to low ?

[J4ck4l]

Yes, agreed. Just too bad that the fireworks (wich is half the fun) result in a hefty framedrop.

I have to admit I haven't tried this after recent updates. I will try this evening and report.

[J4ck4l]

Ironwithin, on 03 February 2016 - 06:04 AM, said:

Probably less of a bug and more lacking optimisation...

Have you tried turning Particles in advanced video options down to low ?

Tried the above. It doesn't seem the help much. Frames still drop like mad.

[Ironwithin]

J4ck4l, on 04 February 2016 - 11:04 AM, said:

Tried the above. It doesn't seem the help much. Frames still drop like mad.

Hmm, bummer.

Are your drivers recent ?
Sadly I'm not familiar with AMD/Radeon cards, maybe someone else stumbles along and has an idea.

[J4ck4l]

Ironwithin, on 04 February 2016 - 11:12 AM, said:

Hmm, bummer.

Are your drivers recent ?
Sadly I'm not familiar with AMD/Radeon cards, maybe someone else stumbles along and has an idea.

Yes they are recent. There were years ago as well. It just hasn't been improved/optimized yet i guess....

[Kshat]

Don't bother, it's the same with nVidia-cards. Maybe a Titan X/GTX980Ti is able to do the trick, everything other I tried and still get framedrops like mad. It's not as worse as years ago, but still noticeable.
And the behaviour that it's much worse when using any kind of zoom is still prevalent.
The smoke of your high heat gets this going, too...

[MechWarrior319348]

Its not the explosion, its the smoke created by the explosion, which appears simultaneously with the explosion. Are you running a low end machine? are you able to have some of the options set to medium?

Oh wait, now i see, yeah you should be able to run the game, BUUUTTTT this game is just.... i dont know. I have a low end user.cfg (config file) that I use (I have a laptop), and it eliminates a lot of sparks and smoke effects. I'll take a look and see if i can isolate the commands so you can try them out. Or you can take a look yourself if you are in a hurry -

user.cfg

Ok ,try these commands, if you dont know how to set up a user.cfg, there are instructions in the link above. takes about 15 seconds to make one.

con_restricted = 0
sys_spec_Particles = 1
g_radialBlur = 0
e_ParticlesLod = 0.5
e_ParticlesQuality = 0
e_ParticlesLights = 0
e_ParticlesGI = 0
e_ParticlesDiffCM = 0
e_ParticlesShadows = 0
r_ShadowsParticleNormalEffect = 0
r_ShadowsParticleKernelSize = 0
e_ParticlesCullAgainstViewFrustum = 1
e_ParticlesMaxScreenFill= 64
e_ParticlesMaxDrawScreen = 2
e_ParticlesMinDrawPixels = 1
e_ParticlesMotionBlur = 0
e_ParticlesObjectCollisions = 0
e_ParticlesAnimBlend = 0
r_UseParticlesHalfRes = 1
r_UseParticlesHalfResForce = 1
r_UseSoftParticles = 0
r_UseParticlesRefraction = 0
r_UseParticlesGlow = 1
r_UseParticlesMerging = 0
e_ParticlesThread = 1
e_ParticlesPreload = 1
i_particleeffects = 0
e_particles = 0
e_particles_lod = 0.1
e_ParticlesForceSoftParticles = 0

Edited by Gigliowanananacom, 05 February 2016 - 08:31 AM.

[J4ck4l]

Gigliowanananacom, on 05 February 2016 - 08:05 AM, said:

Its not...

***SNIP***

...les = 0

Thanks alot you for your reply.
I tried adding the above to my user.cfg. To no avail. I find it hard to be exact... but it "feels" like it made no difference at all. Same as decreasing the detail level of the particles didn't. It seems to be linked to the type of surface, which is dictating the amount of smoke etc generated.
For instance in HPG Manifold, the regular metal terrain doesn't give much problems. In fact i run that map on 130-140 fps. (in testing ground that is). But for it to kill our fps that much, nearing 10fps. Is absurd. Especially as some maps have terrain features/walls that generate the same amounts of smoke when fired upon. (Some rocky areas of Viridian Bog for instance.) Such a drop in FPS during a brawl...just ouch.
I am amazed that after tuning down the visual settings the drop in frames is still so extreme.

[MechWarrior319348]

Have you tried deleting the shaders? I do it about once every 3 weeks, seems to help.

Also make sure you have the 64 bit client enabled, up it the top right of the patcher window. If you have 32 bit enabled, your computer will not use the full amount of RAM avaliable for things like that. that can cause a slowdown.

Also, you didn't mention if you were using DirectX 9 or 11 in the graphics settings of the game. Theoretically DirectX 11 would be faster because it is better optimized; however there is an unavoidable net loss in performance because it uses quite a few more features.

Oh, also take a look at your AMD control panel (right click on the desktop and click on it), and make sure that it is set to "use program settings" for all the different settings.

Last thing I can think of is to paste my entire user.cfg into yours, play the game and see if it makes a difference. If it does, you can close the game and start deleting chunks of the user.cfg until you narrow it down to what helps, unless you wanna play with MW4 graphics of course...... just make sure the file isn't saved as user.cfg.txt. Sometimes people message me saying the file didn't do anything, and this always their problem, it has to be saved as a config file. You will notice a severe drop in quality if it works. This step would probably take a little while, but if you get desperate enough you may wanna try it.

Is this a new issue for you? or has this always been the case? You may have to live with it, maybe they will optimize the game a little more in the future. Its been a while since they have added any performance changes in a patch.

Edited by Gigliowanananacom, 06 February 2016 - 09:37 AM.

[Goose]

r_radialBlur = 0
g_radialBlur = 0
e_ParticlesMotionBlur = 0

Yeah, it looks dumb, but I've seen both them "radialBlur" lines listed across a bunch of forums; Maybe you could isolate which one, and report?

[J4ck4l]

The issue has been present for me from the beginning. Even after I upgraded to a i7 the problem is still there.
So far it looks like only some people are having these issues. Is that correct?

I will try what was suggested and report back.