Lasers are killing my framerate!

[Old Duck]

I'm trying my first combat zones since switching to VR, and as soon as enough NPCs start shooting their lasers, my framerate just tanks. It's like a slideshow, which is not fun in VR. I've tried reducing all the "hungry" graphic settings to no avail. When the battle is over and it's just NPCs flying around happy, my framerate is fine. This is why I think it's the lasers causing the problem (I really noticed it when a capital ship dropped in and started its Vegas light show).

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this and what I can do to fix it? I don't mind temporarily "nerfing" graphics to fight in a CZ, but so far all my nerfs make zero difference!

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

sorry don't own a VR
but this sounds like the gpu is struggling with the amount of work required to keep effectively three displays going (try switching off main monitor)
to make sure it aint a cache thing try deleting the gpuworktable.xml in your products folder (don't worry it will re generate itself on game launch)

 

[Old Duck]

I had to dial back my HMD Quality setting, which doesn't look as good but at least keeps the game playable for the most part. Strange that only lasers cause this to happen (I can fly in rings all day with higher settings and no issue).

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

more display things to show not show pew pew per second =more gpu work is all I can think of
well and maybe that this game is not as well optimized as we would like

 

[Phongsalt]

I'm trying my first combat zones since switching to VR, and as soon as enough NPCs start shooting their lasers, my framerate just tanks. It's like a slideshow, which is not fun in VR. I've tried reducing all the "hungry" graphic settings to no avail. When the battle is over and it's just NPCs flying around happy, my framerate is fine. This is why I think it's the lasers causing the problem (I really noticed it when a capital ship dropped in and started its Vegas light show).

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this and what I can do to fix it? I don't mind temporarily "nerfing" graphics to fight in a CZ, but so far all my nerfs make zero difference!

Cease Fire?

 

[fishgotnosole]

I'm trying my first combat zones since switching to VR, and as soon as enough NPCs start shooting their lasers, my framerate just tanks. It's like a slideshow, which is not fun in VR. I've tried reducing all the "hungry" graphic settings to no avail. When the battle is over and it's just NPCs flying around happy, my framerate is fine. This is why I think it's the lasers causing the problem (I really noticed it when a capital ship dropped in and started its Vegas light show).

Does anyone have any ideas what is causing this and what I can do to fix it? I don't mind temporarily "nerfing" graphics to fight in a CZ, but so far all my nerfs make zero difference!

Bon jor Duck, any further info with system specs, etc, please?

 

[Old Duck]

Bon jor Duck, any further info with system specs, etc, please?

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-i7-9750H-Keyboard-PH315-52-78VL/dp/B07QXLFLXT

Feeding the Oculus Rift S VR headset. Normally I can play with mostly high to ultra settings in VR with no problem, even in asteroid fields, but for some reason lots of lasers just completely tank framerate. I've yet to find a setting to compensate for this. I thought bloom or effects might be the setting tied to lasers, but turning both these off did nothing. Scaling back my HMD quality helped a little, but I'd rather find a specific setting tied to the problem than scale back resolution.

 

[Bigmaec]

I went back to 2D from VR since I returned to Colonia, because I can't stand the framerate drop in CZs too.

 

[Old Duck]

I went back to 2D from VR since I returned to Colonia, because I can't stand the framerate drop in CZs too.

So it's not just me! I'm addicted to VR, especially in combat. Let's just say my neck is getting way more exercise and motion than it did staring at a flat screen. I'm willing to nerf graphics a bit while in a CZ to keep VR. Heck, I'd go back to EBL if it worked, but nothing I do to dial down graphics seems to help except to cut resolution, and that is not my first choice.

Where is @Morbad lately? Surely he would have a GraphicsConfiguration.xml hack to save the day. Speaking, I have a funny story. I tried turning off my "person" using 3DMigoto to see if that would help with framerates. At first I thought perhaps too many characters being drawn in a CZ was the problem. It didn't help, but it did make half the avatars in the contact panel appear naked!

 

[Morbad]

Where is @Morbad lately?

Building/validating a new system with a budget shortfall and a few hardware failures (mostly fans) that require I rebuild all of my other systems so I can rotate/cannibalize parts.

Surely he would have a GraphicsConfiguration.xml hack to save the day.

I don't see any particular slowdowns in CZs myself so I'd have to isolate some technical cause for the phenomena you are experiencing with lasers before I could do more than hazard a guess at what might fix it.

Does this only happen in VR?

Does the problem persist after the laser fire ceases or does it require?

What does your per-core CPU utilization history look like around the times you experience slow downs? GPU utilization?

What settings have you tried reducing other than resolution/scaling?

 

[fishgotnosole]

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-i7-9750H-Keyboard-PH315-52-78VL/dp/B07QXLFLXT

Feeding the Oculus Rift S VR headset. Normally I can play with mostly high to ultra settings in VR with no problem, even in asteroid fields, but for some reason lots of lasers just completely tank framerate. I've yet to find a setting to compensate for this. I thought bloom or effects might be the setting tied to lasers, but turning both these off did nothing. Scaling back my HMD quality helped a little, but I'd rather find a specific setting tied to the problem than scale back resolution.

Okay, thanks.

Looking at the specs that should be an adequate machine. Though, theory is a wonderful thing. There's a slight performance variance between a mobile variant of the GTX1660ti and it's desktop counterpart. However, I'm curious as to how you have it configured. It's unlikely that the "generic graphics stuff" sub heading could be an underlying issue. As the 1660ti is more than capable of running ED, with all the bells and whistles switched on. VR is a bit tougher to process, but the GTX1660ti is well within the recommended specs by Oculus for the Oculus Rift S.

Things to consider trying:
Are you running a paging file? As with that amount of RAM you really don't need to. If you need one, Tom's Hardware has a guide here. Just select "No paging file" then click set & OK. It may ask to reboot.
What speeds and voltages are the RAM & CPU reporting as in the UEFI?
Have you captured any thermal characteristics with something like Open Hardware Monitor as the processing of heat could also be a contributory factor.
A tool such as Process Explorer is streets ahead of the Windows built in Task Manager. It can be helpful in trimming out unneeded process & services that may improve performance. Property sheets of each process will also show their individual system demands.
Overall power withing the system could also be an issue, though wouldn't put very high in the list of usual suspects. I'll assume you're running it on AC. The reason I go here is that heat and power overheads or lack of, will cause modern chips to try to throttle down to compensate. In a busy CZ there's a lot going on.
Are you using an external monitor, HOTAS, keyboard etc?

Also, have you tried turning off "Idle Hand Animations" and "Headlook Smoothing" "Ship Panel Animations" within ED to see if that makes any difference? (Totally get that these options are quite important with VR - just a issue finding suggestion)

Does this only happen in VR?

This was my next question.

 

[dayrth]

Hi @Old Duck

I was in a combat zone Wednesday night and didn't get this issue. I'm using an Oculus Rift CV1 and I have a GTX980 graphics card. Most of my settings are on high, but I did find that supersampling killed performance. I think I set that to 0 and upped the 3d quality setting (iirc).

 

[Old Duck]

UPDATE: It seems that capital ships are the culprit, and only when they start firing their Disney World lasers (Federation cap ships). I'm beginning to wonder if this may be a network issue rather than a graphics issue, as I've been in a wing every time this happens. I'll try a High level combat zone in Solo today and see if I still get the same terrible slideshow. When I solo a low CZ, framerates remain solid even with most settings at high.

I have noticed I get more "stutter" in stations when other players share an instance with me, though it's nowhere near as bad as CZs with a capital ship. Perhaps sharing the data for each of those 1000 beam lasers is what is bogging down the framerate? I'll experiment more today and get back to you all with my findings.

 

[Old Duck]

I don't think it's networking, as that "stutter" has a different feel than the slideshow effect I'm getting with Federal capital ships. For some reason, the Vegas Laser Show kills performance for me. That's okay, I'm happy doing low and medium CZs. The rest of the game runs fine, so I'm not going to get my volt meter and oscilloscope out just to try to diagnose something that's probably Frontier's fault anyway.

 

[fishgotnosole]

I don't think it's networking, as that "stutter" has a different feel than the slideshow effect I'm getting with Federal capital ships. For some reason, the Vegas Laser Show kills performance for me. That's okay, I'm happy doing low and medium CZs. The rest of the game runs fine, so I'm not going to get my volt meter and oscilloscope out just to try to diagnose something that's probably Frontier's fault anyway.

Any further updates here, Duck?

 

[Old Duck]

Any further updates here, Duck?

I've pretty much just given up High CZs for now. I was actually able to INCREASE my settings from my defaults in a Low CZ and still get good framerate, so I don't believe the issue is hardware related or any other sort of "break out the voltmeter and hex editor to fix it" problem, but rather something on Frontier's end that is unoptimized. It seems directly tied to too many beam lasers being drawn at once, as happens when a capital ship enters and starts firing away. I'm not a huge fan of CZs to begin with (I find them a grind), so I'm not going to waste any more time on the issue if nobody has a quick, "Just change this setting in your GraphicsConfiguration.xml file!" solution. The Squadron I fly with has plenty of other pilots who love grinding CZs, so they can have my share as well

 

[DracosAlpha]

Since the last update, I'm actually seeing a slight periodic drop in framerate just sitting there doing nothing. I timed it and it happens almost exactly every minute. I've downgraded the graphics two steps, but that doesn't change anything. It's weird, because it didn't use to do that, and literally nothing has changed on my system since then. I don't use my game computer for anything else. I thought it was just me experiencing this, and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what could have happened.
I'm guessing since others are reporting framerate drops, that maybe there's something happening with the actual executable?
I am not able to see any performance issues on any monitoring software I've tried.

 

[Mogen Teras]

Since the last update, I'm actually seeing a slight periodic drop in framerate just sitting there doing nothing. I timed it and it happens almost exactly every minute. I've downgraded the graphics two steps, but that doesn't change anything. It's weird, because it didn't use to do that, and literally nothing has changed on my system since then. I don't use my game computer for anything else. I thought it was just me experiencing this, and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what could have happened.
I'm guessing since others are reporting framerate drops, that maybe there's something happening with the actual executable?
I am not able to see any performance issues on any monitoring software I've tried.

I've had this problem myself, not using VR, just regular monitor 1080p. Happens in some areas, not at all in others. Still no solution for it thus far. I tried everything,

 

[Old Duck]

I've had this problem myself, not using VR, just regular monitor 1080p. Happens in some areas, not at all in others. Still no solution for it thus far. I tried everything,

I should try a high CZ someday in 2D. I have lots of headroom on my computer in 2D 1080p, whereas VR pushes my GPU right to the limit.