Game Stutter

[JMacari]

my game just randomly stutters in game. it shows consistant fps at ~92 but when it stutters it jumps to ~40 for a split second. i hadn't played LFS in a while, and i used to get no stutter whatsoever. because of this i don feel my specs are very important. my audio also crackles a little bit at the same time it stutters. i play many other games and they run fine. any help would be appreciated:)

[imthebestracerthereis]

Are you playing window'd or full screen?

[JMacari]

full screen

[Hallen]

LFS is very CPU intensive. Something is eating up cycles is what I am thinking.
You don't happen to be using Mozilla Thunderbird for your email do you? I know that sometimes when running LFS, Thunderbird will for some reason start sucking all the CPU cycles and LFS starts stuttering really bad. If I shut down Thunderbird, the problem goes away in LFS instantly.

If not that, I would guess you have some other app or malware that is sucking up CPU time.

[JMacari]

i ran enditall to kill everything and it still happens... i run spyware and virus searches on a regular basis.

fixed. i disabled my antivirus instead of killing it and it seems to work find. thanks for all the responses:)

[JTbo]

fixed. i disabled my antivirus instead of killing it and it seems to work find. thanks for all the responses:)

Is your antivirus Norton?

[JMacari]

back when this thread was alive i noticed this problem wasn't actually gone, but i wasn't really playing often enough to bother with it anymore. recently i've been playing quite a bit again. lfs is one of the least taxing games i play, yet it has this stutter while others (cs:s, n2003) have no problems at all. the game looks great, and i get better fps than the other games i mentioned. however, this stutter happens several times a lap and is very annoying and sometimes causes me to miss my marks. it does not happen at specific points on the track. i close out of everything from task manager that is not needed so i have minimal memory and cpu usage. i'm really lost as to why this is happening. i have uninstalled and reinstalled with no luck. thanks for any help.

[JMacari]

bump:(

[greg_slideways]

do you run any instant messengers thats what happens when i run those types of programs!

[JMacari]

i thought that too, so i tried exiting it and it seemed to make no difference.

[bolders]

are you running any temperature monitoring software or anything like that which may be writing logs to the hard drive. If these truly are random glitches and not happening at regular intervals its not likely but perhaps worth a quick check

[Toddshooter]

Try turning skins off for awhile. I get stutter when a new skin is downloaded. I thought skins were supposed to wait until you were stopped or in the pits.
I get skins downloading while raceing which induces stutter. Sometimes at the worst time like a high speed corner.

Also can you clairify if it is one stutter, or a bunch all together like when the Anti virus kicks in.

[StableX]

I get stuttering everytime a new person joins the server and leaves the pits. I just thought it was down to the skin download.

[Takumi_lfs]

I get stuttering everytime a new person joins the server and leaves the pits. I just thought it was down to the skin download.

Yup, me too.

[JMacari]

well, it happens offline as well.

[nelson_trujillo]

When I started getting it, I tracked it down to be HDD related because it was at the same corner every lap (and offline too but not the same corner), kept defragmenting until drive died some time later. Got a new one and left a dedicated HDD for LFS... but I getting it again, not as bad as before but it's there...sooo, it's not HDD related as I was advicing others before.
Didn't think about the skin downlading process, in my case this could be, in yours, try speeding up the HDD (by defragmenting and increasing the virtual memory)

EDIT: just found out this, it maybe help us all: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=37803

[JMacari]

this is getting very frustrating :(

it was installed on my external, so i tried installing it on my normal hard drive but there is no difference.

[Woz]

Do you have vsync lock on?

If your fps drops to a level close to the vsync rate due to current in game demands it can half your fps. If you have vsync on make sure your fps NEVER drops below the vsync or thjis is a common symptom.

Also how much rame does your GFX card have. If its only 64, keep an eye on the memory usage. You can check this on one of the options screen. If you have setting that require too much of your GPU it could cause huge slow downs.

HTH

[JMacari]

i do not have vsync on. i have experimented with it but the problem still occurs. same with setting a max fps.

i have a 6600gt w 128 mb of memory. where is this option to view its memory usage? at first i thought it was something using the cpu, but i closed everything... what might cause the gpu memory to be used? because i have good fps and it'll flash down ~25 fps just for an instant when it stutters, i feel as though it probably is something external using up memory or something like that but i have no idea how to determine what that might be.

[BYN]

You said you thought you'd solved it by disabling your antivirus.
What anti-virus, spyware or internet security programs are you using?

[Takumi_lfs]

The game is running fine on a 6600GT with 128mb on a AMD 3500. I usually had 80-130fps alone.

So, What CPU do you have and how much RAM?

[lil chris]

Before i Upgraded I had a 6600 and 6800 GT and this happened sometimes. You are absolutley you have not other prgrams running at same time? Mine was down to windows media player as I liked to play music as I drive. weird thing was some songs would cause lfs to fps drop, dunno ifIi was imagining it though. But Windows media play does lag LFS for sure.

[W1ldPort75]

I also have the same problem , but my game only stutters if someone joins the race or server . Tried doing all those things with vsync and what not , but it still the same . I also tried different resolutions at 60hz-85hz but no change :shrug: . The thing is i never had probs with LFS until patch Y , but oh well , nothing is perfect :(

[JMacari]

You said you thought you'd solved it by disabling your antivirus.
What anti-virus, spyware or internet security programs are you using?
i disable all these and turn them off before playing any games now... there is no process related to them remaining in task manager.
The game is running fine on a 6600GT with 128mb on a AMD 3500. I usually had 80-130fps alone.

So, What CPU do you have and how much RAM?
amd 3000+ 2.0 ghz w 1 gb of ram. i get the same fps you mentioned but with the stutter.
Before i Upgraded I had a 6600 and 6800 GT and this happened sometimes. You are absolutley you have not other prgrams running at same time? Mine was down to windows media player as I liked to play music as I drive. weird thing was some songs would cause lfs to fps drop, dunno ifIi was imagining it though. But Windows media play does lag LFS for sure.there are a couple processes i don't know what they are in task manager, but as far as i know everything that would take cycles is closed.

[Gnomie]

I also have the same problem , but my game only stutters if someone joins the race or server . Tried doing all those things with vsync and what not , but it still the same . I also tried different resolutions at 60hz-85hz but no change :shrug: . The thing is i never had probs with LFS until patch Y , but oh well , nothing is perfect :(
I'm assuming you've played around with the skin downloading settings too, then. That's the only thing I can think of. :shrug:

[W1ldPort75]

@ Gnomie , exactly :thumb: i forgot to mention it :) :) . Tried , and tried again , but no clue what i should do :shrug: . But the good thing is , it only happens for a millisecond and then is gone , still pisses me off tough :x . Oh well , if anyone has any ideas fell free to post them here :thumb:

[W1ldPort75]

Ok here we go again :really: . After testen everything there is to test , on a 6600gt 6800gt and 8800gtx i noticed that the problem is not our computers , the problem comes from LFS . I remember never having stutters , if a player joined the server or just came out of the garage , everything started after patch y was released :( . I think the devs should work something out , i have lost alot of good laps because of this stuttering bs :bigeye: . I havent been driving that much since , it really gets on my nerves sometimes :x .

[nelson_trujillo]

Ok here we go again :really: . After testen everything there is to test , on a 6600gt 6800gt and 8800gtx i noticed that the problem is not our computers , the problem comes from LFS .
You mean same system with 3 different GCs? or 3 different systems?
I have an AMD 3000 and a different card, and I agree, I started to have the same, around the time when beta testing the Y. I overclocked the processor and the card and still it's there, just learnt to live with it... and it's not the skins downloading thing, because it happens when racing alone (online)

[JMacari]

i was messing around with this program called uniblue speedupmypc. in it there is a cpu optimization wher eyou can like prioritize processes. i raised the priority to lfs and the problem is gone. i don't like this solution because i'd rather not have anything else running in the background, but it at least narrows the problem down to something definitely taking cycles from the cpu. is there a way to do this in windows (not using a 3rd party app)?

[W1ldPort75]

@ nelson ,
well i have 2 systems , a 4000 athlon 6800gt and a dual core 6600 8800 gtx . Both of them are in mint condition , with 2 gb´s of ram etc etc . The other one is from my cousin , who also plays LFS . The funny thing is neither of us gets it in singleplayer , only when someone leaves the garage or joins the server . I tried alot of different options , but still have it . I also got used to it but it can get really anoying , sometimes i even stop playing LFS .

@ JMacari ,
did that prog really work for you ? I can´t see why a prog like that should work as both my cpu´s really never had a prob with other intense games . I guess i´ll give it a try , who knows :shrug:

[Woz]

i was messing around with this program called uniblue speedupmypc. in it there is a cpu optimization wher eyou can like prioritize processes. i raised the priority to lfs and the problem is gone. i don't like this solution because i'd rather not have anything else running in the background, but it at least narrows the problem down to something definitely taking cycles from the cpu. is there a way to do this in windows (not using a 3rd party app)?

Just CTRL-ALT-DEL and in the process list right click LFS. You can set the priority there. Dont set too high as you need the OS to breath :)

[JMacari]

Just CTRL-ALT-DEL and in the process list right click LFS. You can set the priority there. Dont set too high as you need the OS to breath :)
omg thank you, my problem is finally solved. :):)


@ JMacari ,
did that prog really work for you ? I can´t see why a prog like that should work as both my cpu´s really never had a prob with other intense games . I guess i´ll give it a try , who knows :shrug:
other games i play are fine too, it's only lfs. and the above ctrl alt del method works perfect. give it a try, hope you find that it works for you like it did for me.

edit: i just now started up n2003 (a game i haven't had problems with) to see it's priority, and it was already set to high. maybe that's why lfs was the only thing having problems, other games are already at high while lfs by default is normal.

[W1ldPort75]

Well i tried , and still isn´t working for me , maybe a little but not much . Is there a way i can set the priority and keep it that way every time i start the game ?

[JMacari]

here is what my target line reads for the lfs shortcut:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c start "runhigh" /high "C:\LFS\LFS.exe"

just be sure you point to the right locations for your machine, they may be different than mine. the last location should point to your lfs.exe, where your shortcut currently points to. this edit changes the icon to the cmd.exe icon, but you can change it back to the lfs one so it will look better at the same place you changed the target line (right click the shortcut -> properties. there should be a "change icon" button. just browse for your lfs.exe).

but if running in high priority didn't fix your problem, it may be beneficial to not run such a high priority as it can take away from the rest of your system.

[SladiVadi]

Probably resolution and antialiasing are too high.