On April 21 2014 21:25 y0su wrote: I'd like to see what settings can help eliminate this as much as possible?
I'm guessing turning off / lowering the following settings would work:
Reflections, effects, physics and models are all CPU taxing so lowering those might help the stutter problem, SC2 being CPU demanding above anything else.
My testing was done with Models high, but reflections off and effects medium (which are required to see some things like mocore building, as far as i know)
Physics off, too. I showed it with the game at about 100fps - but by the time it's down to 60, it feels like a weirdly messed up ~30-40
It was pretty much strongest system available for the game too, Haswell @4.5 or 4.7ghz with very fast RAM (faster than most 2133/2400mhz XMP's by a decent margin)
Hey. I noticed this happening in replays too and I think I know the reason.
In HotS (or perhaps even before HotS?) Blizzard added extra data/information to replays. Replays now track and log certain events every 10th ingame second (supply counts etc). When watching a replay you can clearly notice a microstutter at regular 10 ingame second intervals (00:10, 00:20, 00:30, 00:40, etc...).
I am pretty sure the microstutters in replays are somehow connected to the changes to replay files.
Hey LaLuSh! I think the general microstutter happened long before that, but the pauses, that definitely sounds plausible.
Let me know if you want to talk more about this with community/blizzard, i'd love to play their rts/moba engine but i already ripped out half of my hair over it, i'm too sensitive to things like input latency, stutter (macro or micro) and FOV so stuff like this occasionally destroys a great game for me
#fixsc2
To be clear, i know what you mean on the 10 second pauses 100000%, but i don't call that microstutter. Those are long pauses, they take like 60ms lol which is ~4 frames @60hz or ~8.6 frames @144hz. It's not a "micro" stutter, it's a full on stutter/pause.
What i call microstutter is the massive variance in the amount of pixels per frame that the camera or units move (it seems like the game runs on an update loop as you get the same behavior either scrolling the camera or just watching units move under it) which destroys quality of motion and makes things slightly jump/skip around
Yes now that you mention it... I remember recording my SC2BW "trailer" video before HotS was released and wondering why the hell my recording was stuttering.
When I look back at that video now I can see that the microstuttering occured whenever I was recording off replays. Doesn't seem to be happening in real games.
Are you sure this was present early on in WoL? I seem to recall Blizzard changing replay files in a patch months before HotS, which makes me unsure.
*edit: I realized now you seem to be referring to a different, much more frequently occuring kind of stutter. The 10s interval stutter doesn't explain your recorded frame stutters.
Early on in WOL, i'm not sure. I don't remember the pauses every 10 seconds, in particular (it's actually like 8 times per real minutes, super annoying)
The frametime inconsistency i think was a big thing as early as 2011 or earlier though. I used to get frustrated with how the game felt, especially when i had lower FPS due to streaming.
*edit: I realized now you seem to be referring to a different, much more frequently occuring kind of stutter. The 10s interval stutter doesn't explain your recorded frame stutters.
I'm refering to both, the sc2 engine has the constant microstutter problem when the game is unpaused and simulating, but it also has the big pauses every 10 game seconds. Both of them are big issues, i think the microstutter is a bigger issue, but the pause one is more noticable because the game just stops dead for like 1/15'th of a second and it does it often (~8x per real minute sometimes, so often 100 times in a single game)
Just based on what I've read in the thread, this seems like an issue with streaming a replay file, which isn't really a huge deal gameplay wise. Is any of your data based on actual gameplay?
Yes, all of the issues happen just as much in the actual game when you're trying to play competitively as they do in replays - that much is extremely obvious. It's easier to see in a replay because you can pause simulation which makes the issues go away, but with simulation unpaused (watching a replay or playing/spectating a game) the issues are there all the same. Both of them - the constant microstuttering, and when the game freezes for ~1/15'th of a second about 8 times per minute often (sometimes this doesn't happen if it's early in the game and there's not a lot of units? I don't remember)
The game saves data to replays and for spectators as you play, which is why they could be connected
I feel like this is being felt even more in LotV beta, we need to get someone from Blizzard to acknowladge this issue and at the very least explain why they can't fix it. It's pretty embarassing that this is still an issue, and as far as I'm aware will continue to be so.
How can we make our voice heard about this? Engine fixes I feel would be my most wanted feature of all in LotV and I bet that our community leaders didn't even bring it up at the summit..
Perhaps it's enough with a video that explains the issue with the graphs and such, doesn't necessarily have to show sc2 footage of it as I'm sure most people can relate already.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wxwv9d8.png)
