1.08 --- Novigrad CPU sink persists

[sno0ks]

1.08 --- Novigrad CPU sink persists

EDIT: No, I don't mean stuttering throughout the city. No, it has nothing to do with people or objects being loaded.

EDIT2: Here is a direct embed of the video by Gallarian that shows the problem:

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Referenced in this thread: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/53925-1-07-FPS-Decrease-(Video)

CPU usage explodes in this area: https://i.imgur.com/yJvLg1U.jpg

Contacting customer service yields zero logical response. They tell us it's our hardware not being above minimum specs, even when it is above the recommended specs, or normal due to "moving around after standing still for a while." Asinine. Ridiculous. You walk into one little area of Novigrad and CPU usage spikes and FPS goes down dramatically. Leave this little area, it normalizes. Save game in this area and load, it's gone, until you leave and come back.

Amazing game. I love you CDPR, with all my heart, but I do not love your patronizing customer support.

 

[tamodolo]

That's not a problem at all. This is related to CPU use and novigrad has a lot o people walking and even if you can't see them, they are there. Try to decrease amount of people at same time (ultra states for 150. Max value is 300 via ini file)

I have some fps dips near Triss house but a little overclock on the CPU did the trick. I use 250 for the number of people.

I also tested with ultra value and all is well (I have a 3570K)

The problem may be worser if you have a AMD GPU because physx is being processed on CPU. 1.08 added flags to be processed in GPU option in the ini. Try to enable that and see if it helps. (physx on GPU will have minor inpact when on GPU in this game because this isn't a physx heavy game.

 

[sno0ks]

Please read what I said, then see how it relates to what you just said, and see how completely stupid that sounds.

---------- Updated at 11:00 PM ----------

Novigrad is solid EVERYWHERE EXCEPT A SMALL AREA OUTLINED ABOVE. If it was due to the number of characters in the city it would occur everywhere, not just in one specific little area, and it wouldn't go away the second you leave that little area and return when you come back.

---------- Updated at 11:08 PM ----------

Sorry for being hostile, but I can't stand being told the same logically compromised bullshit twice.

 

[tamodolo]

it's not bullshit. Just give a moment to think: why there is problem when you enter there from other areas and don't when you load already in there?

The answer is that there is more in the game when you enter there from other areas than when you load already there.

to put it simple: The people (and other stuff from the game) from where you was plus the people from where you are plus the people from where the game thinks you are going. When you load a game inside that area you just have the things from that area loaded.

Novigrad is a very big and complex city. That's is something actually spected to happen and that's also not the end of the world.

You can try messing with the garbage colector of the game but that's not much recomended...

edit: your cpu clearly not enough to handle that point in the game so that's why I sugested to ensure that physx is calculated on GPU

 

[DXMG]

Thats not how the streaming system works. The "people and stuff from where you was" are streamed out of memory/processing once you leave them, they make no difference to where you are now.

Likewise, the game doesnt predict where you are going, so its not loading things it "expects" you to use soon.

it loads the world in a big circle around Geralt.

It is possible that within that circle in that area of Novigrad, there are multiple elements that use more CPU time and so you get a drop... but since it wasnt there before 1.07, it is NOT by design and should be looked at as a bug and addressed.

FOr me personally, it makes no difference. If you are on a 60 FPS capable rig and its dropping into the 40s, thats a problem. FOr me its 30 and drops to 27, so eh.

 

[sno0ks]

it's not bullshit. Just give a moment to think: why there is problem when you enter there from other areas and don't when you load already in there?

The answer is that there is more in the game when you enter there from other areas than when you load already there.

to put it simple: The people (and other stuff from the game) from where you was plus the people from where you are plus the people from where the game thinks you are going. When you load a game inside that area you just have the things from that area loaded.

Novigrad is a very big and complex city. That's is something actually spected to happen and that's also not the end of the world.

You can try messing with the garbage colector of the game but that's not much recomended...

edit: your cpu clearly not enough to handle that point in the game so that's why I sugested to ensure that physx is calculated on GPU

Then why does it not occur everywhere else in the city? It would still be loading all of that stuff for where I am, was, and am going. But it only occurs within a very specific area. Only one area. Nowhere else. Your logic makes zero sense. The only logical conclusion is that something in that area specifically is hogging CPU power. Some geometry, script, or something else is coded wrong.

We're talking 60 frames across the board, except maybe in dense crowds it might drop to 50-55. Then you cross into a very specific area, and every single time, ti drops to 40. You walk three or four feet away, ti goes back up to 60. Walk three or four feet back, it goes down to 40 and stays there until you leave.

And like DXMG said, this is a 1.07 related bug, which means it probably is related to the way they changed streaming with that patch. It still in no way appears to be a 'working as intended" situation.

 

[sno0ks]

bump

 

[tamodolo]

Then why does it not occur everywhere else in the city? It would still be loading all of that stuff for where I am, was, and am going. But it only occurs within a very specific area. Only one area. Nowhere else. Your logic makes zero sense. The only logical conclusion is that something in that area specifically is hogging CPU power. Some geometry, script, or something else is coded wrong.

We're talking 60 frames across the board, except maybe in dense crowds it might drop to 50-55. Then you cross into a very specific area, and every single time, ti drops to 40. You walk three or four feet away, ti goes back up to 60. Walk three or four feet back, it goes down to 40 and stays there until you leave.

And like DXMG said, this is a 1.07 related bug, which means it probably is related to the way they changed streaming with that patch. It still in no way appears to be a 'working as intended" situation.

maybe. Still, a simple overclock solved the problem entirely for me. Skelige has more points that makes fps drom below 60 than velen/novigrad/oxenfurt

 

[SigilFey]

There is a similar issue in White Orchard:

If you travel to the large woodland area east-southeast of the tavern (across the river, near one of the bandit camps) you'll eventually hit a spot in the forest where FPS plummets. It's not a matter of too many trees to draw or anything, as I can wander around the northern edge of the forest (which is just as thick) and it's fine. Silky smooth, like most areas of the game. It's only when you start to approach the southern area of the forest that the FPS drop occurs.

What's cool about my personal situation, concerning this issue, is that I've played TW3 on two drastically different systems. One laptop with below-minimum specs and my beast of a desktop that can run Ultra at ~80 FPS everywhere. I can confirm what sno0ks is saying (although, I do wish he could maintain a respectful tone...) about this having absolutely nothing to do with the assets being loaded, PhysX, or any sort of GPU-realted issue. The problem is CPU-related, I believe, but not because of calculations for any nearby game assets.

Proof is here:

On my laptop, running a wimpy GTX 670m, I receive approximately 5 FPS at the bridge to Oxenfurt using Medium/High settings at 1280x720 resolution. On my desktop, running a GTX 980 ti, I receive about 75-80 FPS with Ultra settings + tweaked shadows at 1920x1080. BOTH systems bog down between 10-20 FPS in the forested area in White Orchard and the offending area in Novigraad. Obviously: not the graphics load or due to processing NPC data.

I haven't found any such area in Skellige yet, but I'm keeping my antenna up. I'm guessing that these sections may be where each giant map "converges", so to speak -- the 0x,0y point on the graph for each map. So, from the engine's perspective, this is the point at which it is generating the whole game world around you. Even though they are not in the center of each physical map, maybe it's the "hub" of the procedural world generation.

 

[sno0ks]

bump again