Random freezes on planetary surfaces

[ziher]

I can't post on bug forum because privilege so i'm posting it here. I get short random freezes ~every 30s close to planetary surfaces ever since 3.3 patch, never had them before. Almost 6 months have passed since then so i'm assuming that it doesn't happen to majority or otherwise it would probably be fixed by now. It doesn't matter if i use low or high settings.
Only place where it doesn't happen is SRV training mission, in open/solo i get freezes on every planet. It makes planetary exploration unplayable (i'm using VR) and generally puts me off the game. Will this issue ever be fixed or should i move on.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

sorry don't own a VR
all I can suggest is making sure your gpu drivers are up to date (just reinstalling may help)
maybe even trying a slightly older version possibly
and deleting your gpu worktable xml so its refreshed

 

[VR captpopup]

I can't post on bug forum because privilege so i'm posting it here. I get short random freezes ~every 30s close to planetary surfaces ever since 3.3 patch, never had them before. Almost 6 months have passed since then so i'm assuming that it doesn't happen to majority or otherwise it would probably be fixed by now. It doesn't matter if i use low or high settings.
Only place where it doesn't happen is SRV training mission, in open/solo i get freezes on every planet. It makes planetary exploration unplayable (i'm using VR) and generally puts me off the game. Will this issue ever be fixed or should i move on.

Hi Ziher... welcome to my world

Below is a list of actions undertaken so far at the instruction of Frontier Development Team because I have the same problem. In VR mode and using oculus rift there is a freeze everytime I enter hyperspace with the sandtimer appearing in the bottom right corner and if you move your head during this freeze then the image scrolls out of view. Close to a planet surface the freezes occur randomly no matter what the settings. This occurs in both VR and normal view although the sandtimer only appears in VR.

Below is a list of actions I have undertaken so far at the instruction of Frontier and some off my own back out of pure frustration (complete and clean reinstall of windows etc)

As in your case, all was working fine with graphics at maximum settings and then along came the update to 3.3 and disaster!


Tested the game with lower (lowest) graphic settings
Disconnected all input devices on the desktop... reconnecting only the essential mouse and keyboard.

Tested the game in desktop mode and VR, both with and without Voice Attack
Updated all drivers and firmware for all devices
Changed DNS to google as instructed
Checked to make sure BIOS is the most up to date
Disconnected and reconnected all devices and checked connections
Contacted ISP and had the line tested... no issues reported
Uninstalled the game, removing all files etc except bindings (these are saved to my desktop). Reinstalled with default bindings.
Ran a memory test... all OK
Installed Steam and a game my sons used to play and ran this with no issues.
Tested my Flight Simulator program with all add-ons with no issues
Ran a Ping from my computer for a count of 200 with no issues
Hid windows services in msconfig and disabled all others... issue remains
My desktop was overclocked to a stable level but I have subsequently stepped it back along with the RAM in case there was some kind of bottleneck issue... issue remains
C'drive formatted and clean install of windows10 home edition
Loaded the game onto a laptop and tested... issue remains
Used a different ISP (neighbours TALK TALK) issue remains
Gathered information on my broadband, it's BT Superfast Fibre Plus recorded download speed of 69.7Mb/s
Supplied Netlogs and Netalyzr data
Recorded game footage and supplied times of interest within the footage to enable quick viewing.
Submitted game footage that showed connection error, image freeze but sound continuing and game stutters (see previous emails)

One of my latest emails (below)to Frontier support shows the level of frustration that I have reached and I do stress it is not like me to respond in such a manner... it never really gets you anywhere in my experience.

The issue was first raised very soon after the update to 3.3 and the ealiest email record I have of that is January 9th. I have to say, despite being very patient, very supportive and willing to help work towards a solution, I am now feeling utterly abandoned, frustrated and somewhat annoyed. I have spent many hours gathering the information and carrying out your instructions and I think the very least, out of common courtesy would be an update or something... but to be left completly in the dark is a bit unfair. I have worked with and supplied similar information to CMDR's Electron, Polyot, Naro, Vulcan, Zenit, Sputnik, Tronador, Minotaur, Unha and Miu. I am now left with a game that is faulty, an oculus rift (which I purchased just for use with Elite) now redundant and the realisation and suspicion that not only has the problem not been fixed but it will probably not be fixed and that if everyone just stays quite... maybe I would just go away.

If you check back through these emails you will notice that this is most unlike me to write in this manner, I endeavour to be helpful and supportive because its the best way to work... but after 3 months I would challenge anyone not to get a bit sceptical. The annoying thing for me to accept is that before the update everything was great, after the update and the reporting of the issue, I am instructed to check so much at my end because the suspicion was that it was my rig and setup until the fault was laid clearly at the door of Frontier.

I would welcome an answer to the very simple question... now what?

CMDR Minotaur has managed to recreate the fault at his computer station but the QA team have not... so at the moment... we wait. On the plus side Ziher... at least I no longer feel so alone!

Ray

 

[ziher]

Thank you for posting this, i see you already tried few things that i planned to try like full windows reinstall and it didn't help. I can only add my observations:

• freezes started exactly after 3.3 update, never had this issue before
• i used Pimax 4K and GTX 1070 at that time
• i was assuming it's usual after-patch server issue that will be resolved in few days but it's still here after almost 6 months
• lowering GFX quality doesn't do anything to resolve it
• reinstalled ED, issue was still present
• freezes last for about a second, long enough for SteamVR background to show
• in SteamVR info window ED shows as unresponsive during freeze; there are no errors in SteamVR logs
• there is always one freeze during hyperspace jump and random freezes near planetary surfaces, most frequent when rocks start to show up
• oddly, freezes don't happen in SRV training mission
• recently i switched to Pimax 5K+ and RTX 2080, nothing changed, freezes occur with same frequency

My system:
Win7 64-bit
Ryzen 5 1600
16GB RAM
RTX 2080
Game installed on SSD
T16000, G25
Pimax 4K and 5K+

This is a serious game-stopper in VR and makes large part of ED gameplay unplayable. I play very little ED these days and find myself prefering other games that don't have this issue, even though i bought VR headset mainly for it.

 

[VR captpopup]

Hi Ziher
We clearly have the same problem and I suspect there may be others with the same issue too. If you don't mind I will add your user name in future emails to Frontier to add weight to the fact that this is a fault with the game and not users equipment or setups. The QA team need to replicate the problem, maybe try and play in the same sectors as ourselves... I am on my way back to Earth after a journey to the far side of the galaxy that has taken me almost a year (I have given up a bit since the problem occured in December 2018... the game is unplayable with this issue) and I'm currently just short of the middle.

I have an Elite Horizons lifetime pass and I'm not going to give up chasing this issue. I understand there is an update coming soon and who knows the issue may go away... if not then it's back on with chasing the problem down, working with Frontier to repair what was a tremendous game.

 

[ziher]

If you don't mind I will add your user name in future emails to Frontier to add weight to the fact that this is a fault with the game and not users equipment or setups.

Please do, I've been camping out in my Asp X somewhere between Colonia and Sag A since 3.3 patch, not planning to go anywhere until this gets resolved.

 

[Morbad]

Does this happen outside VR?

Have you tried maxing out the terrain work slider?

I could probably suggest some adjustments to the AppConfig.xml and a few other tweaks that may or may not improve things, but need a bit more information.

 

[ziher]

Does this happen outside VR?

Yes, at the same frequency as in VR, only without SteamVR popup.

Have you tried maxing out the terrain work slider?

Yes, i tried both min, middle and max, same result.

I could probably suggest some adjustments to the AppConfig.xml and a few other tweaks that may or may not improve things, but need a bit more information.

I'd appreciate that, thanks.

 

[Morbad]

Yes, i tried both min, middle and max, same result.

With your GPU you'll probably want to leave it maxed out, unless you run into any issues specifically related to it.

I would also recommend making sure the Elite: Dangerous profile in the NVIDIA driver options has 'prefer maximum performance' set for the power management option and that 'threaded optimization' is forced on.

Windows 7's core parking should be disabled as well.

I'd appreciate that, thanks.

Open the AppConfig.xml located in the main elite-dangerous-64 directory and try doubling the 'RenderThreadStackSize', 'WorkerThreadStackSize', 'RenderThreadQueueDepth', 'WorkerThreadQueueDepth' (names may not be exact, as I'm not looking at the file). Also change the number of workers to '5' and set PerformanceScaling to '0'.

If that doesn't improve things, you can revert them manually or just delete the file and have the launcher verify the game files.

You could also try changing setting the game to use large memory pages, but I'd recommend seeing if the above changes mitigate any issues first.

 

[ziher]

I tried everything you suggested except 'RenderThreadQueueDepth' and 'WorkerThreadQueueDepth'. I can't find it in AppConfig.xml but i did double 'RenderJobQueueSize' and 'KernelJobQueueSize'. Nothing seems to make any difference.

I'm also not sure how to set large memory pages for ED (i do have admin listed under 'Lock pages in memory' in Local security policy).
I'll head back to Colonia and get a different ship, haven't tried that yet.

 

[Morbad]

I tried everything you suggested except 'RenderThreadQueueDepth' and 'WorkerThreadQueueDepth'. I can't find it in AppConfig.xml but i did double 'RenderJobQueueSize' and 'KernelJobQueueSize'. Nothing seems to make any difference.

I'm also not sure how to set large memory pages for ED (i do have admin listed under 'Lock pages in memory' in Local security policy).
I'll head back to Colonia and get a different ship, haven't tried that yet.

Yeah, the JobQueueSizes were what I was referring to.

To force large memory pages you'd need to add an entry for the game in the ImageFileExecutionOption key in the registry, but I'm not even sure the current version of the game allows large pages.

What ship are you in now?

 

[ziher]

I'm in ASPX. I uploaded 2 videos that show how it looks, first is SteamVR mirror, second is desktop view.

Source: https://youtu.be/uZXDlrapFKk

Source: https://youtu.be/HdI3gL2ss2w

 

[Morbad]

Yeah, that is odd. I've never seen anything like it. Might be useful to run something like process explorer to monitor CPU utilization and MSI AB's sensor panel to capture GPU use, to see if there is anything unusual going on with them.

Not sure how it could be related to the ship itself, but I'll see if I can find an Asp X and duplicate this.

 

[Morbad]

Doesn't seem to be anything intrinsic to the ship.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf68H8SmTo


Also, my CPU and GPU utilization...no oddities on my end:

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I have also started to get this is the last couple of weeks. As there has been no patch, I have to assume it's something my computer is doing. Most likely a driver issue. I will be reinstalling my driver's today.

I have an RTX2070.

 

[ziher]

Just returned to Colonia, tested it with Sidewinder and freezes are gone! I then switched back to my ASPX, there are occasional stutters but no game breaking freezes with SteamVR background like before.

Freeze that always happened in hyperspace is also gone. I'm not sure why but it looks like returning to station, selling cartographic data and switching ships resolved the issue.

Thanks for your help Morbad, if freezes return i'll report back.

 

[LuciusEsox]

Hmm, interesting. I too came looking for information about stutters on planetary surfaces and am about 30 jumps out from colonia having just been walkabout the other side of Sag A... I wonder/hope if unloading all my cartographic data will also do the trick ?

 

[LuciusEsox]

Well I arrived at Colonia and unloaded a couple hundred mills worth of cartographic data and there is a marked improvement, not 100% gone but almost imperceptible freezes now on planet surface. I did not have these at all before the patch 6 months ago .

Btw I am not using VR and I play at 1080 on a I5 4590, GTX 1070, 16gb ram, Win10. all in game sliders maxed with ss set to x2. At 1080 it is very smooth everywhere on this system with those settings.... until you get the stutters.

 

[ebbrell]

I had something similar, my nvidia setting were all messed up. Fixed them now smooth as butter

 

[Robotlike]

I had the same issue when i was in the centre a month or so ago. I was stationed at Colonia and headed for Sag A right after the Chapter 4 update. The closer I got to it the worse the jump and surface freezes became. At the time I attributed it to the update or my hardware.
I became suspicious of the cause after reading other cmd's post in the PC issues forum that they also were experiencing the freezes. An we were all in or near the centre.

So on my departure from Sag A i kept track of when the stuttering stops. The following is a copy of my posts from an older forum string.

"In my previous post I reported that I saw the stuttering appear as I approached the centre then disappear in Rykers Hope roughly 5kly from Sag A. Then on my trip back to Sag A it reappeared.

Now that I’ve left the center and am currently more than 6kly away in Empyrean straits the stuttering is still happening in jumps and planet surfaces.
At this point I can’t confirm if the centre is the issue.
As my course takes me further away hopefully I’ll see some improvement

The stuttering started to diminish about 7.2 KLY from Sag A until completely disappearing at 8.4 KLY .

All smooth now in jumps and on surfaces. Very strange"