Developer Update: Shadow Optimizations in Game Update 1.4

[Goretzu]

This is a good improvement, but should have been optimised a long time ago.

 

 

I've just turned them off, drops my GPU temp by a good 20 degress celsius.

[snoooze]

I had been playing this game on the highest settings. All of a sudden every time I walked I would get this weird stuttering.I tried it in different areas. Since I was on Dromund Kaas I figured it was the planet. There are some areas in the game where your framerate drops for whatever reason that I've not been explained. So I went to the fleet and it was a little better on the fleet. I went to Belsavis and started fighting and there was the stuttering again. There were more models present on the fleet then when I was questing so it made no sense that with fewer models on the screen that I was still getting the stuttering. I then set all the settings to low and it completely wiped the stuttering away. The problem is I dont play the game this way. I want my pretty graphics and be able to play my favorite game. It's the reason I spent a lot of money on a new rig. There must be an answer that is over my head because I dont know **** about game engineering or whatever. I just want the same game I was playing back. What changed except the patch? I've decided that I will not be getting MoP in order to keep supporting this game. Please dont make me stop playing because of this stupid ****.

 

Intel Core i5-2500

Zotac AMP2 GeForce GTX 580 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card

12GB Memory

 

I shouldn't be having these issues.

Edited September 27, 2012 by snoooze

[Rogoo]

Players with high-end AMD CrossFire or Nvidia SLI machines should notice a large improvement when running the game with the new shadow system.

 

But... but... but... you freaking broke it ?

 

Great job.

[Bleakmage]

This is anything but "useless" as you put it. Increasing the optimization of the Engine should be #1 on the list. After all, it is the foundation of the game. Since the Engine is very poor at the moment, its limitations are still staggering. But this is a step in the right direction.

 

LMAO at your signature, lolz!

[Urael]

I am going to add my displeasure to the "shaow optimization in 1.4". If by optimization you ment that:

1. I would have a drop in FPS
   
2. Stuttering
   
3. would have to turn OFF shadows and drop shading to the lowest level
   

and still have problems. You succeeded.

 

I have never had any problems with stuttering before patch 1.4.

 

[Polebreaker]

Well looks like there's SLI/Crossfire issues for people for sure.

 

For me, single 5770 1gig using ancient stable drivers 11.7, there is an improvement, in the sense that I've had shadows turned off since release due to an unacceptable performance hit. Now I can turn them on high with no discernable change, and they look just fine. Quite the positive change.

[Nomaad]

Before the patch,im running with maxx settings, with no real issues with lagg, now, unplayayble unless i put all my setting to the lowest, sorry, i didn't invest big time REAL money on a new rig to play this game on low settings.

 

Mop is calling me....

[Ryric]

I was also running all graphics settings on high before the patch. When I logged in yesterday the game was basically unplayable due to low fps/stuttering, my fps was somewhere around 5. Experimenting with different settings, I can remove most of the problem by turning off nameplates completely, but the issue returns as soon as I target anything and the nameplate of the target comes up. Adjusting shadows or any other graphics settings seems to have no real effect. I'm running an ATI Radeon HD 5670 video card.

[Urael]

Well looks like there's SLI/Crossfire issues for people for sure.

 

For me, single 5770 1gig using ancient stable drivers 11.7, there is an improvement, in the sense that I've had shadows turned off since release due to an unacceptable performance hit. Now I can turn them on high with no discernable change, and they look just fine. Quite the positive change.

 

There are also NVIDIA and ATI issues.

 

I have never had any problems with stuttering or any graphics issues prior to this "optimization".

 

There are some recommendations here for NVIDIA and ATI:

 

Choppy gameplay post patch

 

I will be looking into this when I get home.

[Caltone]

My FPS were awful after the patch. I am running CrossfireX 5770's with crossfire enabled. When I turned shadows to low, FPS is now acceptable. I also noted the flickering in my mini map and map which is noted in this thread as a crossfire issue that was addressed on PTS but apparently reintroduced with the patch. I am running the latest drivers (12.8)

 

Just a follow up. I went into catalyst control center and disabled crossfire. After doing that, the game ran much faster and I can now turn shadows back on. So much for investing in a crossfire setup Please keep us updated on the fix

[Urael]

Hey everyone - we're aware of some issues introduced in Game Update 1.4 that may cause frame stuttering or performance problems (particularly on CrossFire or SLi setups). If you are experiencing these problems, please try disabling shadows. We are working on resolving these issues, but disabling shadows in the meantime may result in a performance increase. If you notice a performance increase after disabling shadows, please post to let us know (as some of you already have). We'll update you if we have any more information to share as we work on this issue. Thank you!

 

It is not just Crossfire or SLi. Nvidia and ATI are also experiencing problems.

 

Please roll back this "optimization" because it sure wasn't a "quality of life" "improvement" until it is fixed.

 

Prior to 1.4 and your shadows "optimization" I had no problems with SWTOR. This is the first and only MMORPG that I have ever experienced "stuttering" and it began with your deployment of 1.4.

 

ROLL BACK UNTIL FIXED. Don't make us play with sub performance and sub graphics UNTIL you fix the problem.

[lklinga]

Got to love the Roll back whines happens in every game.

[Telsnow]

Got to love the Roll back whines happens in every game.

 

Gotta love companies who release things anyway despite knowing they were broken on the PTS.

[GnatB]

It is not just Crossfire or SLi. Nvidia and ATI are also experiencing problems.

 

Not sure you're aware of this, but Crossfire is the multi-card ATI mode, and SLi is the multi-card NVidia mode, so yeah, Crossfire/Sli *is* ATI/NVidia. (though specific modes of ATI/NVidia. It's possible the problems persist on single card setups though)

[Telsnow]

Not sure you're aware of this, but Crossfire is the multi-card ATI mode, and SLi is the multi-card NVidia mode, so yeah, Crossfire/Sli *is* ATI/NVidia. (though specific modes of ATI/NVidia. It's possible the problems persist on single card setups though)

The problem most certainly persist on single card setups, seeing as how thats what I'm running and am having the same issue.

[Metalmac]

You know the PTS that constantly had posts on this problem were totally IGNORED OVER and OVER...

 

MANAGEMENT AT BIOWARE SUCKS, yea I said it they suck and this patch proves they do.

[folly]

I have horrible framerate issues with patch 1.4. I cannot turn my camera without the environment skipping constantly. Everything worked wonderfully before this patch.

 

Please fix this or roll back these changes. I do not want to have to unsubscribe because of this issue.

 

I have downloaded and installed the newest drivers from nVidia.

 

Core i5 @ 2.53GHz

4GB RAM

nVidia GeForce GT 425M

[GuybrushT]

Just to clarify, you are using CrossfireX, not SLI, as you have AMD cards. And when you switch to Fullscreen (Windowed) mode or windowed mode, CrossfireX is disabled as AMD doesn't support CrossfireX in Windowed mode (Nividia's SLI does work in windowed mode, however). The map/minimap flickering is a CrossfireX issue, so you only see it when it's enabled. This same issue was present during beta but fixed (same goes for the multi-GPU performance issue, by the way). Bioware should check their changes back in beta that fixed all these issues and see if they can re-apply them.

 

Cool, thanks for the info! I didn't know that windowed mode disabled CrossfireX.

[THESITHWAR]

I had to roll back to Nvidia driver 296.10 to help get things fixed. Once I installed it using Nvidia's clean install and in Windows "Safe Mode". it was 95% better. I reset everything in Nvidia's control panel to previous 306.23 settings.....with one exception. Under "Manage 3D settings" i set "Mamimum Pre-Rendered frames" to (8) and now it's 95 % better...It didn't reduce all stuttering but it close to gone. All my in game settings are on high and the new shadows are awesome! Give this a try. It may/may not work for some, but I was at the point that I wanted to try ANYTHING. I'd like to know if this helps. here's the link for the 296.10 drivers http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/43997

[Ryric]

Windowed mode fixes the issues for me as well. Thanks for the tip!

[Rogoo]

The amount of fail and bugs that go into most of Bioware patches is mind boggling.

 

I'm pretty sure that they won't manage to pull of something of a famous CCP (EVE Online's devs) "delete the boot.ini" patch though.

 

Yes, seriously. CCP released a patch that completely destroyed your whole OS.

 

True story. Google it. (

)

 

So to recap: Bioware has the second place in the "worst QA and worst coding" department, but CCP was WAY better in terms of communication.

[Bleakmage]

For me, so far so good ~Knocks on wood~ and I'm running SLI.

[Liquidacid]

the shadows not only look a hell of a lot better (no more Lego shadows!!) but my framerate is smoother and my overall FPS is much higher... ty

[Khosann]

The stuttering problem persists for single cards too.

 

I wish people read older replies before posting with frustration.

 

If you disable nameplates the stuttering goes away. But you should not constantly select an NPC or your companion. Because creature selection enables the nameplate for the selected target. So when you complete your task remove the selection by hitting ESC. Hope this helps.

 

I have GTX 580 and disabling nameplates solved my issues by 95%. I never experienced low FPS, only stuttering ( a small drop in performance persists).

 

But some people have lower spec systems or Crossfire / SLI configurations. This solution may not work for them.

 

I think they used an old beta code to add shadows to nameplates, loot visual clue light columns ect. The unoptimized code is causing stuttering.

[jerrydink]

I like how people who are experiencing 20 FPS are complain about awful performance. I'm experiencing 1-5 FPS...this game is basically unplayable...and in my opinion, if I can't PLAY, I can't PAY. Fix it Bioware. I'm sure many other users will agree with me.