Screen tearing and stutter when moving

[sioux612]

Hey guys,

first of, I play via Steam so currently I'm on 0.12.35 but this bug already happened on 0.12.33.

I used to be able to easily play on fullscreen, on 3000x2000 resolution and the game didn't noticeably drop in FPS even in medium sized factories with 3000 bots flying around.

Then I stopped playing for like two weeks and now whenever I play (regardless of saved game or new game) I have the following problem:

When I move around it feels like the FPS drop dramatically/the game starts to stutter. When I stand still everything moves smoothly.

Additionally the upper fifth of the screen appears to tear. Vsync on or off doesn't change anything.

The problem persists regardless of resoltuion but gets worse the larger the resolution/window.

All drivers are up to date. In the config file opengl is on false, vram is on all.

Changing graphics quality doesn't change the fps or the problem.

Does anyone have an idea how to fix this?
I wouldn't even care if I just started the game for the first time and it showed me the boundaries of my surface book but it worked perfectly fine for weeks

Kind regards,
Sioux612

[bergi9]

Perhaps it good to tell what device you're using.
I assume you're using a Surface Book?

[sioux612]

Oh sorry of course, Surface Book i7, 16gb RAM, dGPU (940m or 960m with a 1gb of vram)

[Loewchen]

Please post a screenshot with show_fps, detailed_info and time_used_percent activated through the debug menu (F4, F5) taken while the issue occurs.

Greetings Loewchen

[sioux612]

I had to take screenshots for detailed info and time used individually because they overlay each other

I also took screenshots both while moving and while standing still, unfortunately the screen tearing can not be seen in the screenshots.

http://imgur.com/2RGrLra

Oh and I also notice a lag of around 1/3 to 1/2 second for the UI in the main menu to respond to the mouse ( change its color to orange) and can see screen tear even there

TBH I'm not entirely surprised that I got a bug I couldn't find any info about, I magically attract (new) bugs in every program, device and machine I use

[orzelek]

Can you try reducing the texture size to lower setting in the options?

It might be that your GPU run out of VRAM and it's using RAM for textures. Seems that your render time is very erratic there and fps is low.

[sioux612]

Just tried that (to very low), it raises my FPS by 1
I also don't actually have a problem with plying at 18 fps but it appears to be lower (isn't actually lower) while moving which is the main problem

I also lowered the light render quality which didn't change anything

[Loewchen]

The page flip takes way too long, it should be in low single digits, no idea what would cause that.

[orzelek]

Try disabling the vsync. Page flip is indeed really to high.
Some info about your PC config and factorio log could be helpful.

[chipotng]

Hi there,

i had the same problem in late Game, kilo-sized-Base.

I think it's a kind of caching issue. What helped me:

1. load Game
2. run systematically through your base (max. zoomed out) [it will stutter like hell.]
when done, restart factorio

After restart all "visited areas" were almost flawless.

Beware of unvistited outpost, gives massive lag.

[sioux612]

Enabling or disabling VSync inGame doesn't appear to change anything unfortunately
I don't have an option to toggle vsync outside the game
My logs are empty except for the basic information about my settings, probably because the game doesn't acutally crash

I even switched Graphic Processors just to try it out if it might be a problem with that but both integrated graphics and the Nvidia chip cuase the same issue

I also just reinstalled the game (second time) which didn't change anything

What other infos do you need, I will do my best to supply you with all the info you need

Surface Book i7, 512gb, 16gb RAM, dGPU with 1gb vram

Edit: I currently have no mods installed but are there mods that can improve performance?

[bobingabout]

I think one thing that most people don't realise is that... Updating drivers is NOT ALWAYS a good thing. Sure if you have issues, update, but if everything is working fine... don't fix something that isn't broken, you can sometimes make it worse.

The fact that you mention that Factorio used to work fine, you haven't played for weeks, and all drivers are up to date suggests that your drivers may have been updated since your previous play session, and if so, may be the cause of your issues.


Now, I'm not going to say this doesn't need fixing, but this information may be useful for solving the issue. If possible, reverting the driver to the state it was in last time you played the game, even on a temporary basis to see if the problem is resolved would be useful, because then the devs know it's a driver issue, and can help them work on a fix.

[sioux612]

Unfortunately I receive updates for the SB almost weekly so I have no clue to what changed when.
I just hope that somehow it gets fixed with 0.13 by accident or I might reinstall Windows.

In the meantime, is there a way for me to force a smaller resolution without having to play in a 3 inch window or having to change my native resolution every time before I play?

[daniel34]

I even switched Graphic Processors just to try it out if it might be a problem with that but both integrated graphics and the Nvidia chip cuase the same issue

Are you sure the game is running on the Nvidia chip? Is there any any noticeable difference in performance between the integrated and dedicated graphics (there should be)? Does the performance change if the surface book is running on external power?

Also, a log file might be helpful.

In the meantime, is there a way for me to force a smaller resolution without having to play in a 3 inch window or having to change my native resolution every time before I play?

No, playing windowed or changing the resolution yourself are the only options. Factorio doesn't have resolution settings.

[sioux612]

I do not have a way to see on which chip it is running but I can change the chip it is supposed to be using.
Obviously if that entire system is borked it could totally be that it is running on the wrong chip.

There are no noticeable differences between on and off power but then again I haven't seen differences in that even in games like Portal 2 or Forza Apex
Also the SB doesn't offer like "highspeed mode" and "balanced mode" etc, it only has energy saving on or off and I have energy saving permanently off.

Running it on either chip causes the same issues and doesn't affect performance in a way that I have noticed which is why I'm so perplexed by the bug.
At the same time I haven't ahd comparable bugs in any other game of program.

My log file is:

Code: Select all

   0.002 2016-06-10 13:50:06; Factorio 0.12.35 (Build 18124, win64, steam)
   0.002 Operating system: Windows 10 
   0.002 Program arguments: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe" 
   0.002 Read data path: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data
   0.002 Write data path: C:/Users/xxx/AppData/Roaming/Factorio
   0.002 Binaries path: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin
   0.028 Graphics options: [FullScreen: false] [VSync: false] [UIScale: 200%] [MultiSampling: OFF] [Graphics quality: normal] [Video memory usage: all] [Light scale: 20%] [Screen: 255]
   0.029 Available display adapters: 1
   0.029  [0]: \\.\DISPLAY1 - Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 {0x05, [0,0], 3000x2000, 32bit, 60Hz}
   0.029 Create display on adapter 0. Size 1280x720 at position [850, 622].
   0.714 Initialised Direct3D:[0] NVIDIA GeForce GPU; driver: nvd3dumx.dll 10.18.13.6472
   0.746 Desktop composition is active.
   0.788 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua)
   0.792 Loading mod base 0.12.35 (data.lua)
   0.866 Checksum for core: 3711505753
   0.866 Checksum for mod base: 2829195351
   1.233 Initial atlas bitmap size is 16384
   1.237 Created atlas bitmap 16384x7754
   5.903 Sprites loaded
   6.336 Loading sounds...
   7.722 Factorio initialised
  14.751 Loading map C:/Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\saves\_autosave3.zip
  14.825 Info Scenario.cpp:124: Map version 0.12.35-0
  15.276 Checksum for script C:/Users/xxx/AppData/Roaming/Factorio/temp/currently-playing/control.lua: 393467729
  29.519 Steam API shutdown.
  29.522 Goodbye

[orzelek]

Log you posted shows it's running on intel chip. That could explain those horrible rendering times - try to switch it to nvidia and then run it and check in the log if ti actually switched.
You might need to search for a setting to force nvidia gpu for the game - can't help with details I use desktop.

Alternatively you can post the save so someone here can load it and see if it's something with the save.
My bet would be on some cpu/gpu switching issue that gets you stuck on cpu built in gpu.

[youdoomt]

I do not have a way to see on which chip it is running

Nvidia has a option to show what software that are using the card/chip:

gpu activity.png (18.54 KiB) Viewed 8450 times

I know it's in danish, but it still shows where the option is.
And you should get this icon in the area down to the right:

icon.png (718 Bytes) Viewed 8450 times

Hover it or click to see.

[youdoomt]

Log you posted shows it's running on intel chip.

The log says that even though the graphics card says otherwise.

[orzelek]

Log you posted shows it's running on intel chip.

The log says that even though the graphics card says otherwise.

Actually that was my error - its a display connected to built in intel but d3d init states nvidia. It's a bit curious state from my point of view but I guess it works like that with those dual setups.

[Loewchen]

Log you posted shows it's running on intel chip.

The log says that even though the graphics card says otherwise.

The log says its running on the Nvidia one as well.

0.714 Initialised Direct3D:[0] NVIDIA GeForce GPU; driver: nvd3dumx.dll 10.18.13.6472

This here only shows what the display is connected to:

[0]: \\.\DISPLAY1 - Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 {0x05, [0,0], 3000x2000, 32bit, 60Hz}