Choppy Gameplay with ATI cards : fixed WITHOUT disabling Vsync

[Violet_Dawn]

I thought I'd register in order to share a little fix for the stuttering gameplay I had with my ATI card ( radeon9800pro ). While disabling Vsync does work, it gives rise to tearing problems, which is what Vsync is supposed to counter.

The problem is not Vsync itself, but rather the way the DoW engine deals with the prerendering of frames as required by Vsync. The buggy way in which the engine does this gives rise to the stuttering.

In order to fix this, all you need to do is install the ATI tray tools, keep Vsync enabled, and in your direct3d settings, put the value of Flip Queue Size to 1. No more stuttering, in either DoW or WA.

WARNING : this tweak will also increase your performance in other games that have problems with how ATI implements Vsync, such as Oblivion. However, it will also lead to performance loss ( stuttering ) in a few other games. Homeworld II became unplayable through extreme stuttering. This is easily solved by turning off Vsync for that particular game. Ofcourse you can sidestep all this by using game-specific performance profiles through the ATI tray tools.

[Moe]

Interesting, thanks for sharing this.

[morf]

Hi, a few quick questions...

1) in the ati tray tools there are settings for vertical sync in both direct 3d and open GL, should both be on?

2) for open gl should i be choosing default on or always on? likewise for direct 3d should i choose application preference or always on?

3) does ati tray tools override the standard windows display settings or should these also be changed?

4) does ati tray tools need to be running during dow or can i set it and then exit?

thanks

Morf

[Violet_Dawn]

1 : for DoW, only directx
2 : always on is the easiest
3 : it overrides
4 : you can exit unless you're using gamespecific profiles

and don't forget to put your flip size queue to 1 !

[morf]

Thanks dude... its made a big difference.
They should sticky your fix ( moderators?)or at least link/draw attention to it in the general forums as there is a lot of ati users out there suffering in 1.5.

Thx again

morf

[MeTH_MAN]

excellent stuff m8 :D

[SchizoBadger]

OMG... that fixed it! Thanks so very much! It works just like in the old days now!

Here is a link to the tray tools if you didn't have them like me:ATI Tray Tools (http://downloads.guru3d.com/downloadget.php?id=733&file=7&evp=c88892e66dcc79c98663504cefc000b9)

[Beepos]

Hopefully this will work for me. I'm just a little confused on how to enable Vsync through these ATI tools?

[Ehammer]

Any similar stuff for nvidia?

[morf]

@beepos

d/l install and run... the ati tools icon will appear in the tray.
right click -> direct 3d->wait for v/sync->always on

then direct 3d->flip queue size->1

cheers and thx again to violet_dawn game works great now

:dance:

[Violet_Dawn]

Glad this fix isn't a fluke that only works for me !
And yes, Nvidia has the same setting, but it's called differently : max frames to render ahead. A much clearer name for it than ATI's flip queue size, hehe.

I'm unsure if there are any problems with Nvidia drivers and Vsync tho.

[morf]

@violet dawn

how did you come across this? trial and error?

any other suggestions for dow tweaks? :up:

[Beepos]

Bah No luck.

Fine in 1.41, terrible stutter lag for 1.5. Tried this method for my Radeon 9250 and still the stutter online. :boohoo:

[murphyj]

What are ATI tray tools and how do I get them?

[Violet_Dawn]

@Morf : I read an industry article some time ago, and one of the engine designers commented on buggy Vsync implementation and how it created mouse-lag problems. So I fiddled with some Vsync variables, suspecting the DoW problem had to do with frame synchronising, and here we are.

@Murphy : google is your friend.

edit : @Beepos : the online stutter since the patch is completely separate from the ATI problem. It's logical this fix doesn't work for the 1.5 problem.

[Question]

I did as you said. The stutter was still present, but significantly better. It might not be the ATI card.

[Dazz]

Back in the days when i had my 9800 flashed to PRO it ran dawn of war pefectly slight stutter in comes cases but only with shadows on high.