Puzzling drops in frame-rate during game play.

from Sins Forums

Despite having an older machine (P4 3GHz HT, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 7800 GSOC w/256MB RAM), Sins runs very well.  However, nearly every game I run into a problem where my frame-rate suddenly dives to 2 or 3 FPS for no apparent reason.

It can occur just by looking at a planet with a single structure in orbit at a certain zoom level.  Zoom a bit out or a bit further in and the frame-rate returns to normal, but returning the zoom level to something in-between reintroduces the problem (at that particular location).  And, sometimes it just occurs at certain viewing angles, but not always what you would expect.  For instance: while encountering this problem, swinging the camera around such that the entire map beyond the object you’re focusing on may actually make the problem going away (rather than making it worse like you’d expect because it's bringing more objects into view).

The kicker is I can save the game at that point, exit to desktop, and then reload both Sins and that saved game back up, and return to that “problem area” and the FPS will be normal again.  The problem just disappears.  And that’s easy enough to do in a single player game, but when it occurs in a multiplayer game I’m kind of stuck with just dealing with it.

I’ve read that there’s a “text bug” that can cause your frame-rate to drop, but when this particular problem happens to me there isn’t any text on my screen.  It remains even when I hide the UI (ctrl-shift-z + toggling the cinematic mode on).

Any suggestions?

technical
5,447 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Hmm. I have the same specs as you, except with a 7600GTOC. What I would suspect that to be, is just trying to load textures and such, because when you zoom in it must have to increase detail for each ship texture, building, planet, etc I would imagine.

Things that might help:

- Get new drivers
- Make sure you don't have any overheating issues
- Defrag your hard drive.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Could you open the Task Manager while the game is running and see how much CPU and Memory usage Sins is taking during a time when it works normally and compare it to a time you experience a frame rate drop? If the CPU usage spikes or Sins is suddenly eating a ton of memory, that might contribute to some issues like you mentioned and also why exiting it and re-opening seems to fix it. I assume you're running XP, as it's an older machine. Some other things to try/think about:

*Disable your anti-virus (assuming you have one) or other security-related software while running Sins to see if that makes any impact
*What if you turn down or up the graphic detail level? Does that help at all?
*What is your normal frame rate at when things work fine?
*Does it just happen to certain orbital structures or any? I'm not clear on one thing- when you are having the problem at a certain angle, is that at a given zoom level or does that only apply to any level. Is there a way in Sins to always jump to a certain zoom level (I can't check this now)? Maybe what's happening is the zoomed out texture is also being displayed with the closer, more detailed view of that object/angle?...

It may be a Stardock/Ironclad issue that just manifests itself because you have an older PC, but if you can answer some of those things above, that should help them and you figure out the root cause a bit better. Keep us posted!
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I've had the same problem, but I don't have an old machine. I'm running a 1.8Ghz Dual Core, with 2 gigs of RAM and a ATI Radeon X1950 Pro graphics card. As a benchmark, it can handle Crysis at medium settings.

Zooming appears to cause the problem, with the game locking up when I either zoom in or out in larger battles (which means, for me, about a hundred in total).
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Have you turned down the video settings, salainzero? It sounds like you have a similar, but different issue from Gyson here.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I'm guessing, if it's intermittent like this, that it's due to the in-game text bug. I don't understand why this happens, but whenever there is text displayed on the game screen, ie whispers from other players, notifications of structures/ships completed, games saved or loaded, paused, etc., the framerate will take a nosedive, and will recover as soon as the text disappeaers.

I've seen moderators state this is a known issue and being worked on, so if this's actually the problem you're having, take heart and hold out for the next patch!
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah the text bug you referred to is fixed in 1.03. Who knows, maybe it is somehow related to the Infocard lag issue although I think that might just be textures being loaded and thus causing slow down. One of my friends gets this same issue but it is usually just the first time that he clicks on each type of infocard that it does it then it is fine after that.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Have you turned down the video settings, salainzero? It sounds like you have a similar, but different issue from Gyson here.
End of quote


Well, I could, but I don't think I should have too. Sins isn't all that graphically intensive, is it? All it is is planet/ship models and a sky box, after all.

Also, I don't think my issue is related to the text bug. AFAIK, there's no text onscreen when I get the problem.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
From what I know and based on the age of your card, you could be experiencing overheating of your card or more demand than it can manage. If you run Crysis at Medium resolution, you should try turning down Sins a bit and see if that helps. There's no harm other than a loss of some visuals. And while Sins does work well on older hardware, that's not to say you won't need to turn down some settings to get it to work well. How old is your video card- about 3 years? I'm trying to remember when AMD made the X1950...
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Sorry, I wanted to get some more information before responding.

-My normal frame rate is around 30-60 depending on how much is on the screen/how zoomed in I am. Usually it hovers in the 50’s unless text pops up on the screen, which (due to the known text bug) causes it to briefly drop down to the 30’s until the text vanishes.

-I have the latest drivers and my video card isn’t even remotely running hot, and I defrag regularly.

-The task manager reports that Sins is using about 1,250,000 K memory regardless of whether the problem is occurring or not. It also reports that Sins is using 100% CPU regardless of whether the problem is occurring or not.

-The problem doesn’t occur with any specific ship, planet or structure. In fact, while running some tests it just occurred on the main-menu screen (which I took a screenshot of to use as an example), which caught me by surprise because it’s the first time I’ve noticed it occurring there. When the mysterious drop in frame rate does pop up, it seems to only occur at specific zoom levels. Scrolling the mouse wheel forward or back allows the frame rate to return to normal until I zoom back to a specific point on the problem area. It can occur while zooming in on a fleet of several hundred ships, and it can also occur while zooming in on a single object in an otherwise empty gravity well.

-This occurs when there’s no text on the screen and is different than the text bug.

Now, here are some new things I’ve noticed:

-alt-tabbing out and back into the game restores the frame rate to normal.

-hitting the “printscreen” key to take a screenshot causes the frame rate to return to normal (actually, it causes the frame rate to return from say, 5, to 30 while there is text on the screen showing the path the screenshot was saved to, and then finally to 50 when the text disappears, but that interim stage is part of the known text bug).

So, I guess the question is.. why does my frame rate occasionally tank at particular zoom levels while focused on random objects, and why does taking a screenshot / alt-tabbing to desktop and back correct it?

Here's a before and after picture of the problem occuring at the main menu screen (FRAPS frame rate at the bottom left) :



Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
I had this same problem. It turned out to be some sort of flaw in the 16x.xx drivers (happened on 167, 168, and 169). I switched to 171.16 and the problem has gone away in all games. Performance also improved.

My drivers come from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/. I'm pretty sure the drivers posted there are also compatible with desktop cards as well as notebook cards. They're real Nvidia drivers, but the inf files have been hacked so that they support all cards and take advantage of the unified driver architecture.

EDIT: You need to go to the community forums to find the latest drivers. It's a link at the top of the page. That's where the 17x.xx series are.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Hmm, 169.21 is currently the latest release from the Nvidia site. I'm probably going to wait until they get another version released there. However, you mentioned that "the problem has gone away in all games", which implies you were experiencing a problem like this elsewhere. So far Sins is the only game I've experienced this problem on.

Now that I know that just snapping a screenshot will cause my frame rates to return to normal, it's not a huge deal, but the fact that it happens in the first place does seem odd and may be a symptom of a larger issue.