Help with Graphics Stuttering

[adamg67]

Hi all,

I need some help with a "stutter" I get in GPL when racing online. I'll try and describe it: Everything will be running fine, 36FPS no probs, then suddenly the screen will freeze for maybe 1 or 2 tenths of a second, then it will be fine again. Sometimes it happens a few times in quick succession. Then everything will be fine again for a random amount of time, maybe 10 to 30 seconds or even more, sometimes a minute or two, then it'll happen again.

It doesn't seem to be related to where I am on the lap, or to whether or not there are other cars around. So far it's happened at Castle Combe and Spa.

The machine I'm running should be easily capabale of running at the res (1280) and detail I'm using (quad core i5 750, 4G RAM, GeForce 8600 GS, XP). I've had it happen with two different rasterizers now (OpenGL and Direct3Dv2). Everything is fine offline, it's only when I'm racing online.

It's more than distracting, if it happens on the way into a corner I'm lucky not to lose it (and last night I took someone else out as well), so I'm on a self-imposed online racing ban until I can get it fixed.

help!

Cheers, Adam

[BadBlood]

Anything on your network that could be holding up traffic (virus checker, auto e-mail, that sort of thing) and are you running wired?

I don't see how you can fix it if you don't run online - how about the BREASTS races. There's one tonight and they are super-friendly. Chatroom is BREASTS on Igor - 9pm wednesdays.

[FullMetalGasket]

Check you don't have Vsync enabled - If it's on when running 36FPS you'd get nasty random stutters/freezes.

I've had it happen a few times when I've forgotten to disable Vsync after an offline session at 60hz 

[adamg67]

Anything on your network that could be holding up traffic (virus checker, auto e-mail, that sort of thing) and are you running wired?

Good thoughts, but I'm running wired, and when it first happened (castle combe) it was pretty much a clean XP install, no virus no firewall no email.

I don't see how you can fix it if you don't run online - how about the BREASTS races. There's one tonight and they are super-friendly. Chatroom is BREASTS on Igor - 9pm wednesdays.

Yes, good point... I need some things to try before I can try anything online though, then I'll try some qualy in fun races (after asking of course) as it happens in qually as well as the race.

[adamg67]

Check you don't have Vsync enabled - If it's on when running 36FPS you'd get nasty random stutters/freezes.

I've had it happen a few times when I've forgotten to disable Vsync after an offline session at 60hz 

Thanks, never tried 60fps (though it should do it) but i'll check gfx options in the nvidia panel (95% certain it's off there) and rasterizer config (never played with it). If it's on I've got something to test.

[FullMetalGasket]

You'll also need to check the rasterizer settings in GEM+ if running V2 rasters as that can enable it too 

[blito]

same thing happens to me but only when racing online and then only on the ukgpl servers.. i just put it down to a less than perfect connection

[NickyIckx]

  well , as you said trouble is only while racing online , I cant imagine its  an issue by wrong settings inside :
Nvidia controll
Core.ini video settings
GEM rasterizers settings
or
by 8800GS videocard , even so this one is sort of poor compared to CPU and RAM you are running .
 
could be wrong settings for network inside your core.ini maybe .
here are mine :
[ CLIENT ]
to_ip=                                        ; Connect to IP address
via_ip=                                       ; Connect via IP address

[ Communications ]
alternate_ip_addr_lookup=1                  ; Find IP addresses another way  0 = No alternate lookup *  1 = Use alternate way
bcast_augment_status=0                      ; Prepend status with IP address?
bcast_listserv=                               ; IP address of race list server
bcast_listserv_req=                           ; Empty string, or start with '?'
bcast_listserv_req_freq=10.000000           ; Request race list frequency
bcast_ping_disable=0                        ; Disable response to pings
bcast_ping_port=0                           ; Ping port number (0=default)
bcast_port=0                                ; Broadcast port number (0=default)
bcast_recv_disable=0                        ; Disable broadcast reception
bcast_send_disable=0                        ; Disable sending broadcasts
bcast_send_freq=4.000000                    ; Broadcast frequency (seconds)
clock_adj_delay=8                           ; How often may client adjust clock?  Only used when synch_method = 0 (see [ Tasks ]) original=4  in version 1.1  
disable_ipx=0                               ; Disable IPX support
disable_modem=0                             ; Don't look for/use modems
disable_network=0                           ; Disable network support
disable_tcp_ip=0                            ; Disable TCP/IP support
ignore_net_read_errors=1                    ; Don't disco if error reading pkt
ignore_net_send_errors=1                    ; Don't disco if error sending pkt
ip_addr_lookup_timeout=2                    ; Timeout to find own IP address. Default = 2 sec.
log_server_comm_errors=0                    ; Log errors for client channels?
log_server_connect_status=0                 ; Issue messages as clients connect
mem_client_send_every=1                     ; Client packet freq via memory
mem_client_send_size=276                    ; Client packet size via memory
mem_server_send_every=1                     ; Server packet freq via memory
mem_server_send_size=516                    ; Server packet size via memory
net_lan_client_send_every=2                 ; Client packet freq on LAN
net_lan_client_send_size=132                ; Client packet size on LAN
net_lan_server_send_every=2                 ; Server packet freq on LAN
net_lan_server_send_size=384                ; Server packet size on LAN
net_mdm_client_send_every = 3                ; Client packet freq on dialup
net_mdm_client_send_size = 84                ; Client packet size on dialup
net_mdm_server_send_every = 3                 ; Server packet freq on dialup
net_mdm_server_send_size = 384               ; Server packet size on dialup
net_server_port=0                             ; Server port number (0 = default)
net_use_mdm_bandwidth_for_tcp_ip=1            ; Use modem bandwidthfor TCP/IP - 1 = Use net_mdm_ settings *
;net_use_mdm_bandwidth_for_tcp_ip=0            ; Use modem bandwidthfor IPX    - 0 = Use net_lan_ settings

 
Did you done some speedtest on your Internet connection ?
Hows your provided speed anyway ?
are you behind  an router?
or modem only ?
did you test GPL online with all firewalls turned down completely ? as well Antivirus stuff ...

rarely it could be an weak LAN chip on your motherboard too .

plz keep us updated

regards
NickyIckx

[adamg67]

Hmm, this is interesting, but... I used to race GPL online with a 56k modem, and sometimes had very bad connections by modern standards, and it never affected the graphics. All that happens is you get warp and discos. I'll check my network settings anyway though.

Dodgy LAN card had crossed my mind, I have some spares to test with, but only one full PCI slot which has my studio audio card in it - I can swap it out to test though if all else fails.

Yes, the spec of the machine looks a bit odd I built it for an artificial intelligence project that needed loads of CPU and memory. A graphics card update will happen now I'm using it for other things, but for GPL the GS card should do fine for now.

I'm a bit tied up this week but will check all my graphics and net settings as soon as I get chance.

Thanks all,
Adam

[Al Heller]

Out of interest - are you using the onboard audio? Exactly the same thing happened to me when I switched to a high-spec PC & in my case after MUCH investigation it turned out to be soundcard issues. I was getting sporadic mini-stutters just as you describe whilst using the onboard soundcard on my shiny new PC - however when I installed my ancient audigy 2 soundcard all the stutters went away...