Weird lag issue

[DivineRabbit]

Summary: Random performance/FPS drop/lag

 

Game Version: A18-ish through A20.5 b2

Platform: Windows PC/Steam

OS/Version: Windows 10 21H2 19044.1706

CPU Model: i9 9900k, not overclocked

System Memory: 64GB

GPU Model and VRAM: RTX 2080Ti 11GB (normally not overclocked, but also tried MSI Afterburner auto-overclock-thing with the same results)

Screen Resolution: Game is run in fullscreen mode on primary monitor 2560x1440 - two additional 1920x1080 monitors are also on system (left and right of primary, so negative x,y window locations are a thing)

Video Settings: I've experimented with settings in a trial-and-error fashion, details below, current settings: Custom... AA Temporal 10%, full/high textures, medium UMA and reflection, reflected shadows off, shadows distance low, particles 50%, LOD distand 50%, Terrain high, grass medium, object quality high.  Bloom, depth of feild, motion blur; off.

Game mode: SP, MP host, and MP client

 

Did you wipe old saves? Yes

Did you start a new game? Yes

Did you validate your files? Yes

Are you using any mods? No

EAC on or off? On

 

***Not part of the form, but I'll add...

• Game is installed directly on the C : drive in Steam's default folder - the drive is a 1TB Samsung EVO 970 plus M.2 NVME SSD
• I've uninstalled that game and completely removed everything... Manually deleted the folder in program files, user directy, etc.

 

Status: NEW

 

Bug Description:

 

I've experienced a weird lag issue for quite a while, maybe since A18.  Googling the issue, and changing my settings, eventually I discovered setting shadow distance to low was the fix.  But, since A20, the issue has returned, and shadow distance is no longer the fix.  So, let me get in to the issue...

 

I can be playing and playing and playing, no problem, then randomly the game just tanks - I go from 140 FPS to 10.  This lasts about 5 seconds on average.  This happens in SP and MP, though when I'm hosting a MP game the others do not report any lag.  I have not yet been able to draw any pattern related to POI, entities loaded or entites in direct view, etc.  It really does seam completely random.

 

I can say it happens more on hoard night, so maybe loaded entites is part of the problem, but again it can be perfectly fine for minutes then randomly tank for 5 seconds.

 

Turning down my shadow draw disatance was originally a fix, that worked.  But since A20 that is no longer the solution.  I've done my best to change graphic settings in a trial-and-error method to see what, if anything, fixes it but I haven't figured anything out yet.

 

Detailed steps to reproduce the bug:

 

I can't really give any steps to reproduce, I'm assuming it's a system or settings thing, and it's totally random.

 

Actual result: Random performance dips and lag

 

Expected result: Consistant performance (whereever the performance falls on a scale of 1 to 10, consistancy would be nice, not randomly dropping from 10 to 1)

 

Logs: There's a lot of log files available, I'm not sure which, if any, would be helpful in this situation so let me know and I can provide them!

 

RWG Files: Can be provided, but I've excluded since this is an ongoing issue over multiple versions so I'm pretty sure that's not the issue.  All the same, happy to provide if requested!

 

Final thought: I'm more than happy to do or try whatever I can to give more information or help.  I'm a computer nerd so feel free to talk nerdy and skip the fine details and niceties. 

[P3rf3ctVZer0]

Can you make a video and post it to youtube of about 30 mins of ingame play? Also out of curiosity what is your shared exp distance at? Do you stream youtube in the background? If so have you tried dropping it to 420p as to no try and have windows prioritize streaming? Can you set textures to half and set anti aliasing to temporal 80%

I get 65 FPS almost 100% consistently since I made the changes except during the following.

 

- Players Start a Quest

- Zombie Hoard Spawns

- Large POIs load into view made of glass. 

 

Some other factors

 

- Player Kill Distance Set too high

- Failed Mods

- First time entering world

 

::Final Notes::
Your monitor probably does not have a 140hrz refresh rate and you only ever need 5 frames over what your monitor can produce. You should probably figure out the refresh rate and change accordingly.

These are my full settings by the way

 

Processor - AMD Ryzen 3700X 8-Core 16-Thread @4.00GHz
Video Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Ram - 32GB 2133 DDR4
OS - Windows 11 Pro 
Network - 26MB Up and 715MB Down
 

[DivineRabbit]

I can try the settings changes you suggested but you and I have very different hardware so wondering if you have any evidence to back anything up.  I've tried dozens of settings configurations, one more won't hurt, but i'd still like the game to look nice and not just shut everything off.

 

I was actually hoping to stream later today so that would work in lieu of the video your requested - I can just post share a clip of it here.

 

I do have a 144Hz monitor (vsync is off) and tend to get 120+ FPS most of the time, when it drops to 10-20 it gets painful lol

[Star69]

Have you tried turning dynamic mesh off? With this on, some rigs see a significant drop in fps especially in cities or looking toward cities.

[DivineRabbit]

I beleive so, I'll run it with it off for while.  I think it was off before and turn on when I was cycling through presets but I'm not sure.

[Jugginator]

Try turning shadows off completely. As well as try turning dynamic music off, see if that helps as well.