High FPS....But: Stutter/ Input Lag/ Viewport Jitter etc

[-=seany=-]

With OA this seems to be back with a vengeance. Even on my own in the editor I experience it on Takistan. 60 fps but I get this input/view port stutter when panning around, more so when I move to areas of more buildings or dense foliage, BUT still my FPS is well above 50fps in these areas. So why the jitter...stutter etc?

Mouse Smoothing
Mouse smoothing appears to me to be a BandAid trying to fix a much deeper problem. On my own in the editor if I turn mouse smoothing all the way down I get bad input/screen jittering. Turning it up helps the problem a lot, almost makes it unnoticeable. BUT, the more activity that is on the screen; walking around a town or playing a mission, the effect of mouse smoothing becomes less and game feels choppy/jittery etc even though my FPS are never dropping lower than 30fps. Why can the game not have smooth input without the need for mouse smoothing? And if we do need mouse smoothing why does it loose all effectiveness when the scene become more complicated or a lot of cpu calculations are occurring(eg AI)? Remember- FPS are still high.

Max Frames
I know people will suggest to adjust this, but I have played with various values and it makes no difference, so I leave it at default.

LOD/Texture streaming
I know people will also say this is to blame. But I can tell you there is a clear difference between the two. For example; running around on your own in the editor at 60+ fps is not affected at all by streaming (maybe if it was on
Zargabad(SP?))

Us users are constantly wanting more performance increases and optimizations. But I believe it is things like this stutter at high FPS that is causing a lot of the problems and complaints that BIS cant fix. What is the point in optimizing the game and getting better FPS if playing at 60 fps feels like 17 every few seconds? The problem is that the game does run at acceptable FPS, it just FEELS much lower most of the time which I believe generates a lot of these performance issues and complaints.

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What made me post this was an interesting review of the Nvidia 460 in which they used Arma2 OA as a benchmark. They clearly sum up what has been bothering me about Arma2 since it was released, but I could never quite explain. The question is, what can BIS do about it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...x_460_review/3

During our testing, we found that optimizing performance in Operation Arrowhead was less about improving framerates, and more about improving the responsiveness of controls. With high settings, we sometimes observed relatively high framerates even when there was so much input lag and choppiness that the game was simply not playable.

Framerates were admirable with both GTX 460s, but again, the raw framerate is not the most important performance characteristic for ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead. Control responsiveness can suffer when the system is overloaded, even if the reported framerates are high. This indicates that Operation Arrowhead is not particularly GPU-bound, though it is certainly demanding.

Please give you thoughts on the issue, thanks.

[Lee_H._Oswald]

I remember online playing Operation Flashpoint Resistance, "Capture the Island" with tons of addons and zillions of AI units.

I played @ 9FPS but you could still hit someone with your rifle.

In ArmA/ArmAII/OA there is sometimes so much "input lag" playing alone in the editor with just 3-5 trees in your sight, you can't aim properly.

We can see that adding AA to this game affects performance in a big way. We lost 28% of our average framerate just for 2X AA.

There must be something BIS had not fixed since ArmA I up to day.

I really hope this "thing" can be found some day.


MfG Lee

[EDcase]

This is very strange. In the campaign I get quite low fps (27ish) but it feels smooth enough when playing and no stuttering.
I haven't had the time to do much other testing yet.

i7 920@3.6
GTX285
6Gb
Win 7-64

Nvidia and game profile "Frames render ahead"= 0 (This makes it more responsive for me)

[MavericK96]

There must be something BIS had not fixed since ArmA I up to day.

I really hope this "thing" can be found some day.


MfG Lee

Yeah, it does seem like AA affects the framerate in this game a lot more than it really should.

[archsceptic.]

I'm getting lag and micro-stutters at 40-60fps, alternatively when fps drop to 30 the game can be smooth and flowing.

The vaunted "engine optimisations" have only given me better LOD switching on most objects apart from some trees, some trees look like they are made from plasticine until I'm about 4 virtual feet away.

Somehow I was hoping for better 'optimisations' seeing as there is far, far less vegetation and trees.

[Iroquois Pliskin]

Two words - VSync.

[Leopardi]

I remember online playing Operation Flashpoint Resistance, "Capture the Island" with tons of addons and zillions of AI units.

I played @ 9FPS but you could still hit someone with your rifle.

In ArmA/ArmAII/OA there is sometimes so much "input lag" playing alone in the editor with just 3-5 trees in your sight, you can't aim properly.





There must be something BIS had not fixed since ArmA I up to day.

I really hope this "thing" can be found some day.


MfG Lee

The "thing" is called Vsync. you have to use 3rd party softwares to disable it.

[archsceptic.]

Sixteen words - Me personally, I already have VSync forced off through ATT with a game profile for ArmA2.

[-=seany=-]

I too have tested the Vsync theory and all it did was cause screen tearing, even at lower FPS than my refresh rate.

Is there anyone you can turn mouse smoothing all the way off and not get any input jittering?

[Lee_H._Oswald]

The "thing" is called Vsync. you have to use 3rd party softwares to disable it.

Nope, I can disable it in the NVIDIA control panel, it's disabled since OFP.

Nice try.


MfG Lee