Who ISN'T having NPC Pop-In issues?

[sleepingjoker]

Who ISN'T having NPC Pop-In issues?

This NPC pop-in bug is really annoying me, and it seems like all the threads are just people agreeing that they have the issue.

However, since it doesn't look like the bug is effecting everyone, I'm curious about who IS NOT having any NPC pop-in issues at all. Can people who definitely ARE NOT experiencing the pop-in post what their set up is? E.g. steam v. GOG, settings, version, and what their pc is running? I'm hoping there might be something in common we can find (yes its a long shot).

People who are experiencing the bug should also post, since it'll help too. and anyone who managed to fix the issue please post what you did!

Many thanks.

I'm running Steam v 1.05
i5 4670k @ 4.2ghz
980 ti OC
ultra + ini tweaked settings (double foliage and grass draw distance; increased shadow quality)

 

[TheGHOSTyA]

Dual 760 and FX 6350@4.5 ghz here same probs

 

[fatalframes]

Don't get me wrong but I believe we have more than enough threads on this issue for the devs to be aware of this. And while I'm not a mod I find this thread highly redundant (and therefore uneccessary). Just because a dev does not respond to individual threads does not mean they have not caught wind of it. Maybe 1.06 is taking so long as it simply is not so easy to fix.

Personally speaking I'd rather have programmers working on reported bugs rather than responding to forum posts as there time is well spent elsewhere atm. In a nutshell: Don't draw the conclusions that the devs are not aware of this issue just because there is no official comment on it. I'm no CDRED zealot standing up for his beloved devs (if you read some of my other posts you will most certainly see this) but sometimes things are what they are.

Addendum: The programming noob (and I count myself among them) who is imagining a programme to be composed of code "building blocks" may cry in outrage and say "but it is such a simple problem! It should take them 2 days max to fix this!!!!" as with that line of thinking one would expect that they only need to replace the affected "building block" and we would have unicorns and butterflies on the fields once more... Sadly this is apparently not so. What I've learnt over the last few days is that obviously programming is not as easy as everyone appears to be thinking. I mean in the last patch they did not even touch alchemy, yet it is totally broken now. So I suppose the complexity of the programme itself may factor in why it takes them so long to single out bugs (when they are interconnected on the code level).

 

[sleepingjoker]

Fatalframes I agree with you mostly; the devs definitely know about the issue and I don't want them responding to this post instead of working on bugs either. I hope I'm not coming off as complaining about the problem more.

I just posted the thread because from what I hear there are people who aren't having the issue, and I was curious what their set-ups are like in the vague hope i could figure out what's causing it on my system. Hence the point of getting posts from people who are NOT experiencing the issue, since i don't believe any of the other threads have any of those.

 

[prince_of_nothing]

I think everyone has NPC pop in, but different levels of severity. Mine isn't too bad at all. On my machine, only certain NPCs seem to be affected by this bug, whilst most of them aren't.. When I visit Oreton for instance, it's the same NPCs that pop in always..

 

[maramsp]

Most likely its a ram issue. And here goes not the more ram you have, but the faster the ram is.
I heard people with 16gigs got it, and i myself dont got it.
The one with 16gigs however was running the same clock speed as me namely 1600mhz. But i just have 12 gigs of ram.
Also could do due to your ini tweaks and then especially the shadow ones since if they are cast from persons, the engine have more work to do rendering them.
But still, this should be a memory issue, since normally pop in happens when you have less memory.
But why i dont have the trouble with my 12 gigs, and someone with 16 gigs has it, that i dont know

 

[prince_of_nothing]

I don't think this particular issue is related to RAM. My RAM is running at 2133 GHz, and I still see NPC pop in.

Also as I mentioned earlier, it's the exact same NPCs that keep popping in. If it was hardware, I would expect it to be more random.

 

[maramsp]

Fair enough indeed.
Really strange that it happens with ur ram clocked at 2ghz...
Might be an engine problem then.
So if thats the case, then CDPR should fix it.

PS. When exactly did the 980TI came out? Since i only can find june as release date and no date. And since you have one...

 

[Ipsofactor]

Ppl that's cause of the "optimisation". And that's probably a quick fix for "optimisation". That's got nothing to do with our hardware, it's fine rly (the hardware).
U can always check the optimisation thread and depark ur cores and disable hyper-threading as well if u want a better experience.
But don't forget that DX12 is coming in a few months and the devs will port the game so it's gonna be so much better. BUT in the mean time true its annoying.
When the mod tools get released its gonna be way better as well.
But there's already a ton of threads like this. okay have fun and dont lose ur nerves !

Edit : i meant its good to be vocal about it cause the devs gotta acknowledge and do something about this dung.
But there's already so many threads that u can post there.

 

[muh3yxap4e]

That's why there ARE PROGRAMMER and COMMUNITY MANAGERS !!! DO You see the difference ?? Do you expect a community manager to code and a programmer to respond in the FORUMS ?! ?!? !

 

[darxide]

I have no noticable pop in issues of any kind.



i5-4670 @3.4GHz (OC to 4.0GHz)

MSI GTX N760 Twin Frozr 2GB (Factory OC)

8GB RAM (No OC)

Game is installed on a Samsung 850 EVO SSD



Mostly High settings, a few Ultra. No Hairworks, 50-55FPS in most situations. Dips to 45 in a few scenarios.

 

[Aryolis]

No pop ins for me either.
FX8350 stock 4.1
270X AMD at stock 1070 mgh.
Win8.1
16 gigs mem at 1600
14.12 drivers
settings mostly high, textures ultra, shadows med., post processing all off except bloom, light shafts, ssao.

No pop ins, no stutter, not a single crash in 55 hours of play time.

 

[WillyDio]

Most likely its a ram issue. And here goes not the more ram you have, but the faster the ram is.
I heard people with 16gigs got it, and i myself dont got it.
The one with 16gigs however was running the same clock speed as me namely 1600mhz. But i just have 12 gigs of ram.
Also could do due to your ini tweaks and then especially the shadow ones since if they are cast from persons, the engine have more work to do rendering them.
But still, this should be a memory issue, since normally pop in happens when you have less memory.
But why i dont have the trouble with my 12 gigs, and someone with 16 gigs has it, that i dont know

It's not a RAM issue. I have 16gb of RAM and have the NPC count to "LOW" as I found it pointless having generic NPC clutter towns and roads, plus it makes it easier to find "named" NPC. Shadows are set to medium, everything else is ULTRA. Blur related options OFF. Turned AA off as it didn't make enough of a difference running it and chipping away at performance. Vignette, Bloom, etc. ON. Hair Works set to 2, which might be the reason as that should make ALL NPC hair become effected (I think). I have the issue too. If I run or ride too quickly into a locale, they'll pop up. Also, like in Novigrad, the NPC seem to spawn out of place, and quickly RUN to their spots. This isn't a RAM issue. It's a coding issue and a late NPC loading issue. I've also seen Drowners floating off in the sky (like a hundred feet up from water surface while in a boat) until you get close enough, then they'll drop and start swimming under water. That's a coding bug. NPC at time pop up from underground in an opposite manner, OR they'll appear in a group and run towards their designated spot. Again, that's a coding issue.

They need to adjust WHEN the game loads the NPC to the screen. My guess is they were having performance issues, hence decided to have them appear at the last second, which probably works OK for lower-end cards or people running 2gb VRAM or less, but those of us with at least 4gb of VRAM or more are being penalized with late appearing NPC.

FWIW, people write "I''m running a GTX 770 SLI, so I should be good". If all you have is 2gb of VRAM, it wouldn't matter if you were quad SLI. All you have available is 2gb of VRAM! People don't seem to understand this, and probably don't realize they are over-committing VRAM, which eventually crashes the card. Play GTA V with it's built-in VRAM usage indicator and you'll understand better what eats VRAM and what doesn't, and what completely floors VRAM (like AA4 + lots of Shadows + DSR 4k downsampling is over 6gb if you max textures, etc.). Once DX12 hits the scene, you'll get a huge increase as your VRAM will be used PER card, so two 2gb cards will be seen as 4gb (If I'm understanding it correctly). Until then, understand your GTX 780 SLI boils down to how much VRAM your single card has.

8350 @ 4.5ghz
MSI GTX 970 4gb Gaming4G OC @ +100 core, +250 mem, +6mv, k-boost running
16gb Rip Jaw RAM
EVGA 1000w Supernova G2
MSI 990FXA-GD80 V2
352.86 (still running this)
Patch 1.03 until fix the bugs

 

[fatalframes]

That's why there ARE PROGRAMMER and COMMUNITY MANAGERS !!! DO You see the difference ?? Do you expect a community manager to code and a programmer to respond in the FORUMS ?! ?!? !

Do you expect a community manager to know every bit of detail? Also, every single red post I've seen so far was not from a COMMUNITY MANAGER but from a PROGRAMMER. So maybe cdred uses MODERATORS instead of COMMUNITY MANAGERS

Fatalframes I agree with you mostly; the devs definitely know about the issue and I don't want them responding to this post instead of working on bugs either. I hope I'm not coming off as complaining about the problem more.

Don't worry, you didn't ocme off as complaining, and even if you were it would have been your right to do so. Also on NPC pop-in and some being people affected more or less.. This is debatable: It also comes down to how important it is to someone. If someone barely pays attention to such things he won't notice it so much as someone who places alot more value in stuff like that. So even the ppl who seem "less affected" may - objectively - experience the exact same pop-ins as everyone else.

 

[etsubmariner13]

I think my game decided that loading NPCs was higher priority, so occasionally in Novigrad I'll come across barrels floating in air. The underlying object isn't loading, which appears to be those 'chicken boxes'.

 

[Black_Iris]

Not to be uncooperative but I really think that those who insist they "don't have NPC pop-in" probably never noticed it, because it is obvious that's a problem not tied to hardware and hence is the same for everyone. For example if you fast travel a lot is much less probable you will be able to notice the issue. Same goes if you die a lot and reload every two fights you have. Both cases remove the problem from happening as fast traveling and loading a save in an area loads all NPCs immediately, hence it will not happen (and this is also why devs could really have problems replicating the issue from saves in areas where the problem happens the most).

But for those that insist you don't have it: travel on horse only, never using fast travel for an hour or so and when you come to villages rest assured you WILL notice it. If you still don't then you probably are blind.

 

[DreamyMeadow]

I am having these issues as well, surprisignly enough But on a serious note, I haven't noticed these pop-in problems before patch 1.04, I think? I remember that only after the patch I started to notice these issues. Before, running around Novigrad, everything was loading up fast and smoothly, if it happened then it must have been at least much less noticeable.

 

[sinsa13]

Not to be uncooperative but I really think that those who insist they "don't have NPC pop-in" probably never noticed it, because it is obvious that's a problem not tied to hardware and hence is the same for everyone. For example if you fast travel a lot is much less probable you will be able to notice the issue. Same goes if you die a lot and reload every two fights you have. Both cases remove the problem from happening as fast traveling and loading a save in an area loads all NPCs immediately, hence it will not happen (and this is also why devs could really have problems replicating the issue from saves in areas where the problem happens the most).

But for those that insist you don't have it: travel on horse only, never using fast travel for an hour or so and when you come to villages rest assured you WILL notice it. If you still don't then you probably are blind.

I think a lot of people are just blind. A friend tells me he has no problems playing his game. He says that he has no popin problems. I go to his house and watch him play the witcher for a bit. He has popin he just thinks thats the normal way it's supposed to be..... He argues that many of his games do that and it's normal....

I eventually just shrug and let it drop. there will be no convincing him that his hardware is out of date and should be updated to get the best out of his games. He plays on a 1440 thinking it makes the difference....

 

[Easo]

It's quite random for me, happens rarely, but when it happens, NPC's appear after 10-20 seconds.
290X 4GB, i7-4790K, 16GB DDR3-2400 MHz, Samsung Pro 512 GB.
Game itself runs smoothly.

 

[BaaaaL44]

Also posting here: Those who frequent the forums may know that I have been trying to get this fixed since day one (and my other profile Lobasso) An update for those who don't know yet: I have managed to get the issue to be noticed by the devs, and support acknowledged that they are looking into ways to fix it. I think you guys may be onto something with the RAM theory, but it is definutely not a hardware issue. I ask you all (as I did in my own thread) to post your RAM clocks, and whether you do or do not have pop-in. Make sure you really do not have it before posting false negatives (travel from Novigrad to Oreton on horseback without saving/loading/meditating and see if you do):

2x8 Gb Corsair Dominator Platinum, 1866Mhz (XMP) - HAVE pop-in.

I wonder if there is a common denominator