Freezing at Resource Extraction Sites since 1.2

stunsm · Mar 15, 2015

Hey everyone, for the last few days I've been having an issue with my DK2 anytime I fly around a RES. It's not as constant as judder, but much more pronounced, everything will be extremely smooth, then occasionally the screen will completely freeze for upwards of a second, then back to normal. This happens once maybe every 30 seconds or so. I was previously able to run at full max settings without a hitch, I've since tried lowering all graphical settings to low or off, dropped the draw distance to minimum, oculus image quality to minimum, I've even tried dropping the resolution. Every combination of settings seems to yield about the same frequency of freezing. I reinstalled Win 7 last night to try a clean slate, the results seem to be exactly the same. I've tried all of the settings here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122451&p=1893896&viewfull=1#post1893896 , still no change. I'm starting to think I may just have to stay out of the RES until the next update drops, but I had my first wing experience in one the other night and had a lot of fun, I'd like to avoid that option! Any thoughts? Thanks!
Win 7 x64, i7 4790K (core parking and hyperthreading disabled, but tried both ways), ASRock Z97 Extreme4 mobo, 2 GTX970 (tried with SLI enabled and disabled, no noticeable difference), 32GB DDR3 2400, 850W PSU, Samsung 850 SSD.

PS: I didn't see anything in the Judder/FPS drop thread about freezing like this, mods, please move this if inappropriate.

Ancipital · Mar 15, 2015

I'm getting this too, without a Rift.. I think it's a freeze when things spawn, maybe. It's pretty nasty in combat, can kill you. Maybe consider a formal bug report in that forum?

stunsm · Mar 15, 2015

I'm not sure if it's only when things spawn, but I'm not familiar enough with the spawn mechanics to say for sure. As of now, I'm about 50km from the RES checkpoint (lots of straight line flight testing out different settings), nothing really spawns that far out, but I still get the same freeze. I'm still digging through the forum and trying some of the other recommended solutions, but a bug report might be a good idea.

Starvald · Mar 15, 2015

I'd like to add that I'm getting this as well, since 1.2.

I used to be able to run max settings in res sites with no slow down (unless I was using dsr or supersamling, which I stopped using before 1.2). Now I get judder and freezes. It's alright for a bit, then it slows down. I'm not convinced it's just due to more craft flying about and fighting, as while dropping to low settings does help - it's still there a little. And the freezes seem to occur with the same frequecy. I can cope with running on low settings, but I do like my eye candy, and would like it back..... It's a real shame, as the vulture and the new res sites are a lot of fun!

Hopefully it's some inefficiency introduced with the 1.2 code, and hence fixable, and not just the increased workload - as that would increase the spec needed to run elite in vr into silly money.

My specs are 4770k, 16gb ram, 2x 780ti in sli, and running from an ssd. So not exactly light on horsepower, which has me worried!

I know the rift is still in development, but it's such a difference to elite, that I'm reticent to go back to playing on my monitor, I know many of you feel the same

Splatalot · Mar 15, 2015

I also get this, but not with all RES's. I'm hunting between Cerno and LHS1933. Cerno fine, LHS 1933 I get freezes. This happens irrespective of the number of NPC's. It can happen with no NCP too. Really makes me want to puke in the DK2.

stunsm · Mar 15, 2015

I just went through the changes suggested by drkaii in this thread from a week or two ago, after defaulting all of my nvidia settings: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=121355
The skips have stopped entirely, even back up at ultra, at least in the RES I was in. I didn't try them before I had the issue because the game was running so smooth, but this seems to have done the trick for now. Except for the UI color change, I still can't get the hang of the green scheme! Thanks drkaii!

Edit: Well, scratch that! After playing without a single freeze for about 30 minutes on ultra, I went to a different RES in the same ring, and am right back to the regular freezes. I'm starting to think Splatalot is right, and some RES's are just prone to it, even though I can't tell a difference with asteroid density or anything along those lines.

milint33w · Apr 15, 2015

I have this issue as well. I started playing again (fresh install) a little more than a week ago and I have been going into RES in a vulture in the same 3 locations for a week in my vulture fitted the same way and have had no lock ups until today when I started getting exactly what you guys describe. I am on an ssd and nvidia GTX 680. Its really frustrating. These little things are the kind of thing that make me stop playing really fast. I hate feeling like something is broken.

seanwasere · Apr 20, 2015

After a while it makes me feel like I want to vomit, so i need to leave the RES for a while.

r00x · Apr 22, 2015

Happens to me as well. I wouldn't say they last a second but it's clearly not normal judder, it's a freeze. It does appear to happen more when more ships are floating around.

Disappointing as just grabbed a second 970 to fight the judder that I was still getting in RES zones at low settings. At least I don't have that any more.

2xGTX 970s in SLI
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Core i5 3570k @ 4.5GHz
Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H mobo

2x supersampling with shadows on 'low', moderate draw distance and Oculus quality, everything else pretty much low or off if possible (again, was chasing that judder, now the second card has turned up maybe I can considering raising things).

Jake_blakeson · Apr 23, 2015

I noticed that for the first few minutes after starting the game it is really choppy, then they smooth out. Way more chop then before the 1.2 patch. Maybe we have to take a few steps backwards, before fixing the chop in the 1.3 patch ?

r00x · Apr 24, 2015

It's more likely we're just not that much of a priority, really. Do people experience these problems outside of VR? I exclusively play ED in the Rift (because, of course, it's awesome) so I'm not actually sure! If not then I'd expect we won't see any performance tweaks any time soon. I can't imagine we're that big of a demographic compared to other players.

However, I *am* optimistic for when ED starts shipping on PS4. They're gonna have to pull some magical tricks to get this game working on that thing with Morpheus, which as I understand it is something they're interested in doing (correct me if I'm wrong). So I am hoping any such optimisations will carry across to our side.