Hi,
I want to share an issue with stuttering I have been having in Vintage Story. Please do share any help or similar experiences or commiseration.
Problem Description:
The stutter occurs at least once every few seconds. Sometimes more frequent, sometimes less frequent. Occasionally, the stutter is intense, like a short "hitch" or freeze where the framerate drops to zero. Usually it's more like a micro-stutter making the game feel noticeably unsmooth.
The problem seems to persist no matter what I change in the graphics settings. From very low to very high settings.
When looking at the task manager, the system is nowhere close to fully utilizing CPU/RAM/GPU resources. So I don't think it is a resource bottleneck. With the game active, CPU utilization sits around 2%-10%. GPU util sits around 40%. Disk util sits around 2%. Memory usage sits around 40%. It seems to use 1-2 GB of GPU Memory.
The issue is not related to terrain generation, as the stutter occurs in already generated areas.
The stutter may be slightly less intense when underground mining, or when I am not moving the player character or camera around. And it is somewhat worse above ground when moving the player character and camera around.
The stutter exists when playing vanilla, no mods.
The stutter issue exists in multiple versions of the game. I tested the latest release candidate (1.22 rc7) and the last stable release version (1.21.6). So, I don't think the issue is related to a particular game update.
The problem does not appear to get any worse or better the longer the program runs.
I don't think I had this problem a week or two ago. I remember the game running totally smooth, even with a long view distance setting. So I am thinking something may have changed on my PC sometime in the last week or so.
My game stuttering looks pretty similar to this issue I found on the GitHub https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues/8139
System Specs:
display: 1080p 144hz monitor (and 60hz secondary monitor)
gpu: 9060xt
cpu: 7800x3d
ram: 32gb
storage: 1tb ssd
os: windows 11
I attempted many fixes based on suggestions found online:
Things I have tried in Vintage Story itself:
Switching between fullscreen and borderless
Enabling and disabling vsync (on, on+sleep, off)
Setting limited framerate
Enabling and disabling minimap
Enabling and disabling Optimize Ram setting via the config file
Enabling and disabling Dynamic Color Grading
Deleting game files and reinstalling Vintage Story
Tried different versions of Vintage Story (1.21.6 and 1.22 rc7)
Enabling and disabling SSBOs with "cf allowSSBOs off"
Changed mouse sensitivity
Tried running VintageStoryServer.exe and connecting to it with the client separately
Tested on multiple worlds
Things I have tried outside of Vintage Story:
Enabling and disabling freesync and enhanced sync
Disabling Vsync in game and setting Vsync to Always On in Adrenalin settings
Disabling windows Game Mode
Disabling Game Bar
Closed all other applications (discord, browser, etc)
Increasing and decreasing mouse polling rate (tested from 100 to 1000)
Tried a different mouse
Enabling and disabling Smart Access Memory (rebar) in BIOS
Enabling and disabling Core Isolation
Enabling and disabling and C-states in BIOS
Changing refresh rate on monitor
Turning off second monitor
Turning on "Show only 1" monitor in windows display settings
Unplugging second monitor
Setting a frame rate target in adrenalin software
Clearing the shader cache in adrenalin software
Reinstalling graphics drivers (without first uninstalling them)
Uninstalling then reinstalling graphics drivers
Downgrading to an older version of graphics drivers 26.3.1->26.2.2
Enabling and disabling Optimizations for windowed games in windows settings
Enabling and disabling Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in windows settings
Tried looking for stuttering in other games and did not notice any
Tried running userbenchmark to look for any obvious issues with cpu/gpu/ram/ssd
Disabling Adrenalin in-game overlay
Unplugged non-essential peripherals
Enabling and disabling Bluetooth in windows settings and device manager
Tried "Default" and "Favor Performance" in Adrenalin settings Performance->Tuning->GPU->Tuning Presets
Made sure that the GPU is using AMD driver in device manager
Made sure EXPO is enabled in BIOS
Enabling and disabling integrated graphics in device manager
Applied recommended windows settings in OOSU10
Made sure hardware is not overheating
In about a month, I hope to replace windows with linux on my pc. So hopefully that fixes the issue if nothing else can.