Bad performance in CZs

[B1rdy]

During some fighting in high and med CZs in Furtuna last night, my mate and me noticed bad performance (in VR). Analysing the issue, we found it is completely unrelated to GPU load, because lowering rendering resolution does not affect the issue. SteamVR performance graphs show a series of CPU frame time spikes, up to above 16ms, that occur for about 20 seconds*. After that the frame times will return to normal, below 8ms. This does apparently happen randomly, independent of what is rendered on screen. The player ship is stationary the whole time, about 5 Km off the CZ.
In flat mode, I could also notice huge frame drops in the same CZ. Upon entering the zone, with all ships spawned, the Fps are around 188 with some slight drops to 170ish. Then, intermittently, but not as long as in VR, the frame rate drops to 120-130 and recovering back to about 150. This happens several times during the testing period of about 5 minutes.

Since not my only computer affected, but also the system of my mate, a hardware or configuration issue is also unlikely. He has a Ryzen 1700x (SMT on and off does not make a noticeable difference) and I have a 6800K.

Any thoughts?

*This is varying throughout the course of the conflict. Becoming lower and shorter in lenght the longer you stay in the CZ. The issue might be related to ship count.

 

[B1rdy]

Giving this some further thought: Non-VR Fps as well as Task Manager do not indicate a CPU bottleneck (in VR) per se. Per core load stays at about 70%, below 60% overall with 12 threads being used (at least on my system). I even lowered from WQHD to FHD, Fps stayed the same. Despite that and the fact, that my non-VR test was run at Ultra details, while VR tests were even done with the VR low details preset, we ran into some kind of VR related CPU bottleneck. I am going to check a different SteamVR version.

 

[B1rdy]

Continuing my monologue I can say that, the issue is happening with both of the latest SteamVR beta and regular version. I found that, applying VR low preset, result in better results after reloading the game. The stuttering still happens occasionally. I'd claim though my CPU should be powerful enough since it can deliver 120Fps and more in non-VR, with max details. I am at a loss...

 

[Robert Maynard]

Does this happen when you are alone in the instance?

 

[Aashenfox]

I get noticeable performance degradation over time when in czs or RESes, recording software compounds this.

 

[Old Duck]

This is new since update, yes?

 

[B1rdy]

Does this happen when you are alone in the instance?

Yes, verified the issue in solo today. Edit: But it is only happening in CZs. Stations and on planets, ED is rather GPU bound, as expected.

I get noticeable performance degradation over time when in czs or RESes, recording software compounds this.

I don't use recording software. The integrated Win10 app is disabled and Geforce Experience is not installed. Also I had this happening yesterday, when we were moving between different CZs.

This is new since update, yes?

I am not sure, since I played very rarely (especially in VR) since 3.3 launched. I can't recall having issues regarding CPU performance in ED.

 

[MeggaMortY]

I have the exact same issue. Last played last weekend (I think saturday), and game ran fine AFAIK. I boot it up today, and I barely got out of a station. My FPS was tanking in the 15fps range (in VR). I stood around the station for a while thinking what could be the issue, and fpsVR was showing me random CPU spikes that went into the 14+ ms, which tanks the FPS. Usually, CPU would hover around 2.9-4.0ms range. Spikes were completely random. Sometimes they'd occur for a second, sometimes for 20+ seconds.
No windows background scan or something like that. Windows game mode is disabled. No nVidia game experience installed.
Ryzen 2700X and GTX 1080.

 

[ocflyer]

What is the network connection performance during these CZ performance lags?

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

Buy paintjobs, will help.

 

[Dutchman141]

I run into the same framerate drops in CZs and HazRes.
Outside of that the game runs quite smooth again.
I'm on Xbox One X btw.

 

[MeggaMortY]

To be honest I didn't check if I was in a CZ or not. But OPs description is very much like what I was experiencing too. I didn't check my internet since it was the CPU that was having issues, but I can see lag causing a delay there. Will check next time.

EDIT: Checked just now. There were no major CPU hiccups this time around. I'm confused, internet connection could have been the issue in my case.

 

[B1rdy]

What is the network connection performance during these CZ performance lags?

I pretty much ruled out internet connection. When my mate and me discoverd the performance issues, we were playing in open, during th evening. My testings were done the next morning, in solo. In general my internet connection is pretty good latency wise (right now, even though on WLAN, as opposed to cable connection on my gaming PC, my ping to goolge is 10-12ms) and regarding packet loss. I also setup port forwarding for ED.
But as I have found, the sudden spikes on the CPU is the problem. My/ our workaround was playing with forced motion smoothing, that way locking the Fps to 45 or 60 giving the more headroom to buffer the spikes. It works good enough, but is far from ideal.