Is there a way to lock the Frame Rate in Silent Hunter 4?

[nx02nx02]

I have a 8800GTX and in Silent Hunter 4 the frame rate jumps around so much it causes stuttering, non smooth graphics. Vsync only helps so much. because when the FPS drops below the vsync refresh rate the stuttering starts again.

I have my refresh rate at 100 and frame rates jump between 40 and 90 FPS on max settings. This causes terrain lag and graphics stutters. I just want to force the Frame Rate to stay at 40 and then it will stay smooth.

Is there a console command or a program that can lock the framerate?

[nx02nx02]

I have tested it a bit more and I have my refresh rate at 100hz. So this locks the in game framerate to 100 FPS, as long as the ingame framerate stays at 100 it is perfectly smooth. If the ingame framerate drops to even 99 or 98 FPS = instant stutter and looks like it's at about 10 or 15 FPS.

Is there any way to fix this?

[maerean_m]

While playing games it's perfectly ok to set the refresh rate at 60 Hz (from the Graphics Options menu) and thus limiting the framerate at 60.

[Nisgeis]

I have an 8800 GTX and I don't get any such problems when the fps drops below the vsync rate.

[nx02nx02]

Ok I have been doing some testing and here is what happens. Playing the game with 1024x768 @100hz with vsync on. These settings lock the framerate at 100FPS. Using fraps and the ingame counter, (ctrl+F8) During certain times in the game the frame rate reads exactly 100 FPS and no fluctuating. as long as it stays right at 100 it is ""perfectly"" smooth. But the second it drops to anything but 100 even if it just drops to 99FPS or 98 FPS sometimes 95FPS or so = instant stutter, lag, frame rate stutter. It honestly looks like it's at about 5 or 10 FPS but it reads in the 90's. Then when it goes back up to exactly 100FPS, (where the refresh rate and vsync is) it instantly becomes smooth again.

When it dips to 98 or 95 or so the frame rate looks really low. I can see the slowness to the framerate. I shouldn't be able to see a huge difference between 98FPS and 100FPS what is going on here?

[Nisgeis]

Sorry if this sounds obvious, but do you have the latest driver and tried re-installing it? Do you get the same problem in any other game now?

Also, try getting a copy of nHancer, and changing the settings in there to see if that improves things.

[k1l0]

ram and hdd may influence frame rate ... even if you have triple 8800 ultra

at 60fps and beyond you should see no difference so if there is stuttering it's probably not the video ...


try defragmenting.

[ATR-42]

I just got done with a fresh windows install after a motherboard replacement (to the 780i)

so again i had to tweak graphics card and SH. I found that turning on Vsync in both nivida control and SH4, helped but i was still getting stuttering and was unable to read the frame rate it was jumping so fast. looked like it was going between 90s and 130s.

strangely enough i dropped the ansitropic filter from 8x to 2x and the Antialiasing from 16q to 4x. I did this in both Global and application specific.

what do you know, smooth as silk... i cant visually see any difference in quality, picture looks amazing, and the frame rate is LOCKED at 60. smooth, and very fluid, no jumpies.

also check this thread as well
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517&page=4

Specs.
E6700 C2D
evga 780i
evga 8800 GTS 540
Raptors

[nx02nx02]

Thanks for the replies.

This is with a fresh install of XPSP2 and I have tried every combination of settings I can think of and it doesn't change. If the framerate and refresh rate are the same it is perfectly, liquid smooth. If however, the framerate drops 1 frame below the refreshrate it instantly stutters, lags, skips, tears and blurs.

I tried60hz 70hz 85hz and 100hz and it all does it.
This problem goes away if I disable vsync but then I get the tearing.

I made a thread over at the UBI forums
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6921019045/m/7281081836
if anyone knows what's going on here please reply. Thanks.

[Marko_Ramius]

I can confirm this problem on my on rig. And this drive me --> :damn:

I have a LCD at 60hz and a good 8800GTS. I have to choose between stuttering or horrible tearing effect.

I think the problem is, with Vsync on, when the fps is on 60, it's ok. But if the fps have to fall under this 60, even 1 or 2 fps, the driver will past very quickly from 60 to 30 (because of Vsync) even if the fps counter show 58 or so.

I saw this in other games but not so boring than SH4.

If we had a way to block the fps to 40 or even 30, it would be better. But i don't think it's possible ..

[Dantenoc]

This is something that has driven me nuts in the past too. Seems like today's games are written in a very strange way.

I mean, isn't the human eye only capable of distinguishing around 20 something frames per second? As far as I know, movie films only have 24 frames per second, and nobody detects any laging in the motion!!

What gives?!?! how come you have to have a ridiculously high frame rate count in order for a game to be smooth? Given the human eye's limitations, I really don't think that it's a frame rate issue at all, it has to be something else :-?

[ATR-42]

What kind of display are you using? when you go into your display properties in windows does it show "your display model" driving your video card? or does it show "plug and play monitor"?

I had to force windows to recognise my LG246. Also i understand when it comes to LCDs match all the refresh rates, for example the drivers only show my LCD as allowing 60hz so thats what i run it at in SH as well as the desktop.

[MarkShot]

I just got done with a fresh windows install after a motherboard replacement (to the 780i)

so again i had to tweak graphics card and SH. I found that turning on Vsync in both nivida control and SH4, helped but i was still getting stuttering and was unable to read the frame rate it was jumping so fast. looked like it was going between 90s and 130s.

strangely enough i dropped the ansitropic filter from 8x to 2x and the Antialiasing from 16q to 4x. I did this in both Global and application specific.

what do you know, smooth as silk... i cant visually see any difference in quality, picture looks amazing, and the frame rate is LOCKED at 60. smooth, and very fluid, no jumpies.

also check this thread as well
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=128517&page=4

Specs.
E6700 C2D
evga 780i
evga 8800 GTS 540
Raptors

Thanks very much for this tip. I was having the exact same jerkiness when panning the camera from the bridge (normally around 60 FPS). Turning AF to 2X or simply off smoothed it out completely with no difference in near texture rendering quality.

Specs:

QX6700 OC @ 3.2GHz
NVidia 680i mobo
EVGA 8800 GTX (768 VRAM)

By the way, if you go beyond 4X on the AF, you lose the halo effect of the Sun. So, I left it set there. Not too much off a difference in AA when viewed at 1600x1200.

[AkbarGulag]

I was holding off until people with more modern rigs had this.

I have an old card, so was loathe to post. I realise I need to upgrade, but I am having a bad fps problem. This game was more than playable in 1.4.

I can watch the frames, and they will be smooth, say for me 25fps. I can glide over the water, or even sit still. Every say 10-20 seconds, there will be a 'jump' in frames that is accompanied by a stutter OR visual tearing. The frame rate of the jump is ALWAYS 60, despite having V.sync disabled at hardware and software level (yes, I have tried them on also).This is only on 1.5 patch.

To make sure it was not my rig, I did the following.

Removed SH4 and addon.
Removed old drivers
Installed new driver. (updated)
Updated Direct-X.
Disabled virtual memory.
Clean cache and temp files.
Check of MSconfig and boot processes.
Defrag.
Re-enable Virual memory.

Clean Install of SH4, then tested it in game... smooth.

Install Addon... stutter and tearing.

I was then hopeing it was a heat issue, but alas it wasn't.

Now, heres a question that if answered may help me. Due to the fact I use a radeon card, is there any way I can 'Disable' ansitropic filtering and Antialiasing. There is only the option for 2x and 4x repectively.

[demowhc]

There is a way to use vsync at any frame rate while keeping gameplay smooth... you need to turn triple bufferning on in your video card options, then force the game to use it with an app like DXTweaker because SH4 doesnt nativly support triple buffering.


and AkbarGulag to turn OFF AA and AF you just tick 'application preference' in the ATI catalyst control center..then its up to the game if AA and AF is applied, if the game doesnt have options for these like SH4 it is off by default.

if you untick application preference it will run at whatever level you have it set, ie - 4xAA

[nx02nx02]

There is a way to use vsync at any frame rate while keeping gameplay smooth... you need to turn triple bufferning on in your video card options, then force the game to use it with an app like DXTweaker because SH4 doesnt nativly support triple buffering.





Tried it, I cant get Silent HUnter 4 to force triple buffering. I tried DXtweaker and D3Doverrider and I get a error with both, Can not initialize 3d engine.

Are you sure dxtweaker works with Silent Hunter 4?