Cannot stop stuttering - HELP

[BenKay]

Hi guys,

I'm really struggling with stuttering in game...especially visible on tight hairpins, as the background has to move across the screen very quickly.

I've tried various guides I've found online. It's the only game I have any issue with. iRacing, AC, AMS all run beautifully smooth. Even ACC with everything maxed, I get smooth gameplay.

What I can't figure out in Rfactor2 is I get stuttering even with just 1 car on track...it doesn't necessarily seem in any way linked to the complexity of the scene being rendered.

My specs are :
i7-7700k
2080ti FE GPU
32GB DDR4
Rfactor2 running off SSD

Running Triples 7680x1440 @ 165Hz with multiview.
GYSNC is enabled.

Launcher settings are :
AA : Level 3
Post-processing : Low or off
V-Sync : Off (have tried video too)

In game settings I've tried almost everything, low settings, highest settings etc. with not much noticeable difference.

I'm averaging around 95FPS with lows reported of 80FPS or so....but when stuttering, this doesn't seem to be reflected in the FPS figure.

In the .ini file, I've capped refresh rate at 165Hz

Using CTRL+F, the GPU bar never goes above 50%
Using the other in-game chart, all the bars are very low.

The top green bar is solid all the way across (I think this is CPU?)...but there seems to be a kind of line chart being drawn above the green bar which very rarely shows anything at all.

I'm not sure what that means for my CPU usage? If I move windows focus to another window, that green bar drops down to about 1/3.

I'm a bit worried that for whatever reason, RF2 is absolutely maxing my CPU and that's why I have stutters, but how can I avoid that? I would have thought an i7-7700K would be more than enough?

Really desperate for help, from any experts out there!

 

[Ace King]

Game Guide & FAQ
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/rfactor-2-game-guide-and-f-a-q.119019/

(Important Info taken from this Game Guide)
2.4 Game Performance Characteristics

The game is made to be bottlenecked by the CPU, meaning that the GPU should be at full utilization. It is possible to check if it is working like intended by pressing Ctrl-C while in game.

The green bar represents GPU utilization and should be full at all times. The purple bar represents CPU utilization and should never reach full usage. The thin lines below are a histogram to represent the speed the physics calculation is being done. Ideally it should be at the left, reaching the middle at a worst case.

10.7 The game stutters and behaves weirdly
Clear the CBash and shaders folders on your UserData/Log directory. It should help solving the problems, although it isn't a 100% guaranteed fix.

I added a article on "Micro Stuttering and Scenery Judder" which is some good info to read:
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/micro-stuttering-and-scenery-judder.146323/

Note: Read "Richard Hessels" fantastic results on post #8 plus several others with great results!
rF2 does provide a Frame Limiter that can be setup in your "player.json" file but it didn't help in my case! In both cases when using the Frame Limit it's important to cap it to a figure where your system can consistantly maintain it and not drop below the figure set.

Hope some of this Info may help you as much as it helped me and others, best of luck.

 

[thepharcyde]

Riva tuner, limit frames to the refresh of monitor. Ignore the fact you have gsync

 

[RasmusP]

I don't think it has anything to do with a limiter or vsync or anything. I freshly have a gsync monitor now myself so my guess would be 2 things:
1. Gsync simply isn't triggered. 165hz sound like Asus monitor? Go into your monitor osd and activate "show fps" or "show Hz" or similar, you should now see the hz of the monitor (it's not fps!!).
Check this while being on the desktop so it will show a constant 165. Now start rF2 and check if that value will change to match your fps. If the 165 stays, gsync isn't actively running. Sometimes games have problems with alt+tab out and back in or need to be windows and fullscreened again (alt+enter) etc.
Just check that out and also see how it should be running by comparing fps and the monitor Hz counter for other games that run smoothly

2. Cpu spikes are just too big for gsync to compensate. RF2 is heavy on the cpu. The crucial thing is, it's not heavy on the graphics card though! Cpu limiting is spiking way more extreme than gpu limit does. So gpu limit looks like: 80,78,80,75,85,82 fps and so on while a processor limit is more like: 80,82,78,30,33, 87,42 and so on. Huge lags!

So you should look for the minimum fps you hit and limit the fps to that value. For my i7 2600k that's pretty much 65 fps. Alone on track I can run at 100 fps but when one other car joins the track in front of me I'll see heavy stuttering then...

(3.) your 2080 isn't running in 3d mode!? Have a look at the core frequency of your card. My 1070 wanted to run automobilista in 2d mode at 700 MHz instead of 1500+ MHz. The result was massive stuttering! Go into your nvidia settings and select for rfactor2.exe to "prefer maximum performance". This will lock your gpu into full 3d mode

 

[BenKay]

Hi Rasmus,

Thanks for the response.

1. It's Acer monitors - I can't find a live refresh read-out - but if I enable "G-Sync notification" or whatever it's called in Nvidia control panel - then it does show as active during Rfactor2 gameplay.

2. I wondered this, but the chart within RF2 is basically showing the CPU is very little stressed with no major deviations. I do think you've maybe hit the nail on the head though about limiting FPS to the expected minimum, I've now read this elsewhere too on other forums. The only question is if I can do this just within the .ini file, or whether I have to use RivaTuner, which people seem to keep using.

3. No, the 2080ti is locked to maximum performance, but good thinking.

Will play about with frame limiting to a min level later tonight.

 

[BenKay]

Riva tuner, limit frames to the refresh of monitor. Ignore the fact you have gsync

But if I do that, I'd be limiting to 165FPS, and I don't think with the resolution and multi-view I really ever get to 165FPS anyway....so it'll have no effect?

 

[BenKay]

But if I do that, I'd be limiting to 165FPS, and I don't think with the resolution and multi-view I really ever get to 165FPS anyway....so it'll have no effect?

Or am I misunderstanding what RivaTuner does when a frame limit is set?

 

[RasmusP]

You're absolutely correct! I would always recommend Riva tuner though since it won't cause problems in 99% of all cases while being the absolute best limiter! I did some frame time comparisons and Riva tuner is just a perfectly flat line most of the times. Really awesome tool!
The gsync indicator might be on but sometimes even that one is screwed. I'm sure the Acer has something like it. Probably within the "game enhance" or "game tools" or similar where you have some kind of "dark stabilizer" or "crosshair overlay" blah.
It's the only way to be 100% sure.

To fps limiting: Riva tuner is just another limiter. Not all limiters are similar smooth and accurate though. Riva is the best I know of!
But like you already said, don't put it to 165, put it to the minimum yoh reach. Or a little bit above.
If maximum is 110, average is 80 and minimum is 62 I would put it to around 70. So you have as high fps as possible with the dips not being too brutally hitting.

Addition to cpu vs gpu limited drops: for me it seems like a gpu limit is just slowly bogging down and going back up whereas a cpu limit is like a hiccup. The cpu reaches its limit and runs into some kind of "traffic jam" which leads to a massive spike. If you put the limiter closer to the minimum it can constantly achieve, that jam won't be as massive and the absolute minimum fps will be a lot higher somehow.

I always say: better smooth and low fps instead of spiky high fps.

Oh, to the gsync indicator: does the gsync symbol go away when you hit alt+ enter making the game windowed/borderless?
The cpu graph is pretty useless btw and that it changes massively when the game isn't in the foreground is normal!

Image from a GeForce forum post with probably your Acer:

 

[BenKay]

Thanks Rasmus, very useful again.

I am going to try RivaTuner this evening with a sensible FPS limit set....

Using that method, I guess it is correct to have any V-SYNC turned off within RF2 settings? What about G-Sync in Nvidia settings, on or off?

Ben

You're absolutely correct! I would always recommend Riva tuner though since it won't cause problems in 99% of all cases while being the absolute best limiter! I did some frame time comparisons and Riva tuner is just a perfectly flat line most of the times. Really awesome tool!
The gsync indicator might be on but sometimes even that one is screwed. I'm sure the Acer has something like it. Probably within the "game enhance" or "game tools" or similar where you have some kind of "dark stabilizer" or "crosshair overlay" blah.
It's the only way to be 100% sure.

To fps limiting: Riva tuner is just another limiter. Not all limiters are similar smooth and accurate though. Riva is the best I know of!
But like you already said, don't put it to 165, put it to the minimum yoh reach. Or a little bit above.
If maximum is 110, average is 80 and minimum is 62 I would put it to around 70. So you have as high fps as possible with the dips not being too brutally hitting.

Addition to cpu vs gpu limited drops: for me it seems like a gpu limit is just slowly bogging down and going back up whereas a cpu limit is like a hiccup. The cpu reaches its limit and runs into some kind of "traffic jam" which leads to a massive spike. If you put the limiter closer to the minimum it can constantly achieve, that jam won't be as massive and the absolute minimum fps will be a lot higher somehow.

I always say: better smooth and low fps instead of spiky high fps.

Oh, to the gsync indicator: does the gsync symbol go away when you hit alt+ enter making the game windowed/borderless?
The cpu graph is pretty useless btw and that it changes massively when the game isn't in the foreground is normal!

Image from a GeForce forum post with probably your Acer:

 

[BenKay]

Oh and last question, is Riva Tuner now known as Riva Tuner Statistic Server? Is it the same software?

I can only find very old versions of Riva Tuner

 

[thepharcyde]

Oh and last question, is Riva Tuner now known as Riva Tuner Statistic Server? Is it the same software?

I can only find very old versions of Riva Tuner

https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download,2.html

Edit the 'Framerate Limit' option on the main GUI view

 

[RasmusP]

Oh and last question, is Riva Tuner now known as Riva Tuner Statistic Server? Is it the same software?

I can only find very old versions of Riva Tuner

Vsync all of in rf2 yes, nvidia control panel gsync on (I use fullscreen only btw) and nvidia vsync on.
Riva tuner (and yeah, Riva, rtss, statistics server, all the same) is best to get from guru3d. They always have the latest update online.

There's the stand alone version which I never used yet and the symbiosis version with msi afterburner which is for me the greatest hardware monitor and gpu overclocking tool out there.
But I guess standalone will do it if you don't wanna overclock

You can create profiles for each Programm but also set the global profile. It detects 3d applications automatically according to your detection level (off, low med high). Low works for most games but you'll get the overlay and limit for stuff like power point etc too.

So I have it globally off and only on "low" for specific games. The limiter works without the statistics overlay, jfyi

 

[BenKay]

Rasmus,

Only as you seem very knowledgeable on GPU's, a question if I may

If I do an overclock in Afterburner, and apply the settings, are they applied within the card? Or does Afterburner need to be running in the taskbar in order for the overclock to apply?

Vsync all of in rf2 yes, nvidia control panel gsync on (I use fullscreen only btw) and nvidia vsync on.
Riva tuner (and yeah, Riva, rtss, statistics server, all the same) is best to get from guru3d. They always have the latest update online.

There's the stand alone version which I never used yet and the symbiosis version with msi afterburner which is for me the greatest hardware monitor and gpu overclocking tool out there.
But I guess standalone will do it if you don't wanna overclock

You can create profiles for each Programm but also set the global profile. It detects 3d applications automatically according to your detection level (off, low med high). Low works for most games but you'll get the overlay and limit for stuff like power point etc too.

So I have it globally off and only on "low" for specific games. The limiter works without the statistics overlay, jfyi

 

[RasmusP]

Rasmus,

Only as you seem very knowledgeable on GPU's, a question if I may

If I do an overclock in Afterburner, and apply the settings, are they applied within the card? Or does Afterburner need to be running in the taskbar in order for the overclock to apply?

It needs to be running. Or well.. It needs to run once to set the overclock and then it's stored until the card loses power (restart pc etc ).
So it's like.. Temporarily stored in the card. So the card will always reset when you reboot the pc but afterburner doesn't need to be running once it applied the values.
Hope that makes sense

 

[BenKay]

Got it!

 

[RasmusP]

Got it!

Sounds like you wanna try some overclocking?
If so my guide might be helpful. Not the most in depth but I think it'll give you an idea
https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...-are-you-running-3d-mode.155508/#post-2773743

Second post is about overclocking.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Another thing to look at, in your UserData\player folder open Controller.json and search for a line that says "Use Thread" and make sure that is set to true (not false). This will free up some more of your CPU thread that handles physics (the purple bar).

 

[Case_]

Also, I would once again mention the launch parameter "+highprio" I had very good success with for solving microstutter and/or warping in rF2 for some reason, even though I don't have to run any other games with high priority and there's nothing that would seem to be interfering with rF2. But for some reason it still made my game run perfectly smooth after trying pretty much everything I could come up with.

 

[BenKay]

Hey Rasmus,

So success last night!

My findings :

Unfortunately I've probably tried too many things at one time, to know which one was the golden bullet, but it seems the game is running much smoother now (I've not seen any of the weird micro-stuttering since I played with settings last night).

I've even maxed all settings (every in-game option on high or ultra), anti-aliasing at 5 and post-processing at Ultra, and still get buttery smooth gameplay.

Things I've done:

1. OC GPU (using OC tuner feature of RTX cards)
2. OC GPU Memory (went all the way to +1000 Mhz! and seems stable in stress tests and game play!!)
3. Made sure "use thread" was TRUE in controller.json (it was anyway)
4. Went into Nvidia Control Panel - made sure GSYNC was enabled (it was, and verified with monitor HZ display)
5. Nvidia Control Panel - set maximum pre-rendered frames to 1
6. Nvidia Control Panel - set VSYNC to "FAST"
7. Ran game (40 AI cars at Daytona, wet) - decided on a RivaTuner limit of 80FPS

This resulted in nice gameplay, very smooth and completely eliminated my stuttering.

As a further test, I closed down RivaTuner, and ran the game again. Now it could exceed 80FPS, and did, and I still had no stuttering....so I've decided not to cap the frame rate for now.

I think this puts the solution down to either :
1. Maximum pre-rendered frames = 1
or
2. Nvidia VSYNC to "Fast"
or
3. Of course the GPU Overclock (though I don't think this will be it).

Thanks so much for your help...I'm not sure if VSYNC to "fast" is the correct solution(??) but now it's all working I'm not going to play around too much and break it again.

Really happy, thanks for everyone's advice!

Ben

Sounds like you wanna try some overclocking?
If so my guide might be helpful. Not the most in depth but I think it'll give you an idea
https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...-are-you-running-3d-mode.155508/#post-2773743

Second post is about overclocking.

 

[RasmusP]

Glad to hear you could solve it
Reading through everything you tried the only thing I would say is making a difference would be that gsync just finally runs as intended. For whatever reason though!
pre-rendered frames aren't running anyway without vsync since gsync uses only double buffer. I really don't know that for sure but I can really feel the difference in the input lag when I set pre-rendered frames from 1 to say 8 when vsync is active. With gsync I don't feel any difference though!

Anyway, setting it to 1 would normally just make things worse as you deactivate a buffer and therefore lose performance.

All the rest won't cause microstutter to go away. Influence performance for sure but not day/night difference. Just an fps change...

VSYNC to "fast"

This is not active anyway, gets overruled by gsync. Maybe this triggers gsync to finally become actively running but it should not make any difference. Also fastsync gives me microstutter if I use it instead of gsync (tried it a lot of times with my old 60hz monitor...). It's meant to be used when at 2x refresh rate or higher fps.
So for games like Counter Strike where modern PCs put out 200+ fps.

Anyway, awesome that it's working now and nice that you've found the hz counter on the monitor. Great tool for this stuff!

Now the last thing for you to do is to fill in the "real name box" in your account settings (only visible for other premium members) and sign up for some racing