Extreme FPS problems Since Halloween patch

Roddy01 · October 2016

First post here:
I logged on today for a the first time in maybe 3 days. When I check my FPS in the settings menu its ~40 which is normal for me but when I am actually moving around it feels more like 5 in combat, 20 when things are calm. I have verified game cache, all mods were disabled in game but I unsubscribed from them, I have lowered a few settings, restarted my comp, nothing has helped. It seems to me that the recent patch must be causing these issues. I tried training mode and my FPS seems pretty normal so perhaps this is just an online issue, but I am experiencing it on servers where my ping is under 20. Anyone else having these issues?

GhoulofGSG9 · October 2016

Welcome to the tech support.

The issue you have could have all kind of sources (and could even be caused by server you play on). To get an idea what it is please follow http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/131384/how-to-make-a-good-tech-support-post-read-me-first .

If you continue to see the issue afterwards please follow these steps:

Type "p_logall" without quotes in the console (~ key) whenever you want to begin recording in game (don't do this until you at least spawn in a round)
then you can p_endlog /or just wait for the round to end/ or map to change/ or just quit the game and it will end automatically.

Then navigate to your appdata/home config folder
e.g %appdata%/natural selection 2/
And you will find your file, something *.plog
Zip it/ compress it.
Attach it to your tech support post

This will give us a frame by frame analysis of what is going on, so try to pick a time when you can best reproduce your lowest performance.
Don't record for longer than 30 minutes, and don't record for shorter than 5.

Also you can use the commands r_stats and net_stats to enable the monitor prints for both the render pipeline and network which are most likely the sources of your frame drops.

We have an idea what is causing the recent issue but need more data to confirm our assumption. You can try to switch to Beta branch and see if that is fixing your issues.

GhoulofGSG9 · October 2016

A hotfix has been released. Please confirm it works for you

TodPunk · October 2016

I jumped on this evening to discover my normally triple digit FPS has dropped to ~22-24 FPS in game and if I bring up the scoreboard or map it drops further to ~1-4 FPS.

Things I have attempted:
- delete the workshop directory
- Switch to the D3D11 Beta mode
- Turn all settings to their lowest (I have since put them back)
- Steam "Delete Local Content" and redownload
- different, unmodded server (local server)
- fullscreen mode
- Verified a couple other people on the TGNS server this evening have been experiencing some dropped FPS but not as pronounced.

Most important at-a-glance comp specs:
- Windows 10 Pro 64bit
- i5-4670 @ 3.4 GHz
- GTX 780 with 2GB RAM, Driver 376.63, released 10/22/2016
- 32GB RAM
- Main monitor 1920x1080, second monitor 1080x1920, offset to the right (it's rotated to be vertical, hence the oddity).

I have attached my NS2 TechSupport.exe zip and will happily provide other testing as I am able if someone requests such.

TodPunk · October 2016

I have attempted to do a "p_logall 0" and joining a server, but NS2 crashes, so, no bueno on that tool.

GhoulofGSG9 · October 2016

@TodPunk Merged your ticket with a very similar one please read the above posts of mine. Also make sure to run p_logall only after you joined a server!

IronHorse · October 2016

Can either of you confirm whether you're still having issues?
Because a hotfix was released that fixed the performance issue we could identify.

TodPunk · October 2016

Can confirm that this is still happening for me at least (and my post was well after the hotfix was deployed I believe?) but ran p_logall 0 after joining a server and playing a bit. Attached for your perusal.

Anything else I can help out with?

TodPunk · October 2016

There was a driver release from nVidia yesterday that I got notice of today. I updated and restarted my computer, and the game is now running at ~150-200 FPS again. I'm assuming the two are related since that's all I've changed and have tried several times this evening before the driver update.

Note that this driver (375.70) is 5 days newer than my previous driver (376.73) but a lower version number. I don't get it.

IronHorse · October 2016

Are you sure it wasn't 376.63* ?
Because thats the one I had, and I'd experience intermittent fps drops with it.
Sounds like Nvidia hotfixed it at least

GhoulofGSG9 · October 2016

IronHorse wrote: »

Are you sure it wasn't 376.63* ?
Because thats the one I had, and I'd experience intermittent fps drops with it.
Sounds like Nvidia hotfixed it at least

Maybe both packages contain the same display driver. Because the version number in his tech_support.zip is equivalent to the one in 375.63 .

TodPunk · November 2016

All things being equal, it's more likely I fat-fingered the number somewhere, as I can't copy/paste from the nvidia tool that displays that number. So I'll just chalk it up to my fault there. As IronHorse mentioned, at least nvidia seems to have hotfixed it. (I assumed the mentioned hotfix in posts before my fix were hotfix for NS2, not nVidia hotfix, so apologies if that wasn't what that meant.)

IronHorse · November 2016

It's all good, I am just grateful you posted the fix

BlackRiver · November 2016

Hi guys. I also have very low FPS. Is there a way to permanently edit a .ini file, where we can switch off things like distortion, bloom aso. I tried everything in the settings, but I have still < 60 FPS.

I have i7, 6 GB RAM and video card with 2 GB RAM running with Win 7 64.

Thanks in advance!

BeigeAlert · November 2016

BlackRiver wrote: »

Hi guys. I also have very low FPS. Is there a way to permanently edit a .ini file, where we can switch off things like distortion, bloom aso. I tried everything in the settings, but I have still < 60 FPS.

I have i7, 6 GB RAM and video card with 2 GB RAM running with Win 7 64.

Thanks in advance!

Go to your Natural Selection 2 directory, in it there's a program called TechSupport.exe. Run it, and save the zip file with the results in it, and upload it here. This gives us the detailed information we need to diagnose your problem.

TinCan · November 2016

BlackRiver wrote: »

I have still < 60 FPS.

Shot in the dark: Have you confirmed V-Sync is disabled?

BlackRiver · November 2016

TinCan wrote: »

Shot in the dark: Have you confirmed V-Sync is disabled?

Thanks for the replay!

Yes! I tried everything in the settings. There was almost no impact on the performance. I gained ~ 5 more FPS. I will run the TechSupport.exe later.

BlackRiver · December 2016

Guys, this is my tech_support.zip

BlackRiver · December 2016

It is me again! Any news about my issue? Thanks!

BeigeAlert · December 2016

Hi @BlackRiver You say in your post that you have a video card with 2GB memory, yet your dxdiag file from tech support shows that you are using on-board graphics, which is well below the minimum specs for this game. Are you sure you actually have a dedicated video card in your machine? And if so, are you sure it is actually being utilized?

BlackRiver · December 2016

BeigeAlert wrote: »

Hi @BlackRiver You say in your post that you have a video card with 2GB memory, yet your dxdiag file from tech support shows that you are using on-board graphics, which is well below the minimum specs for this game. Are you sure you actually have a dedicated video card in your machine? And if so, are you sure it is actually being utilized?

Hi! Thanks for the replay. I play on a laptop that has 2 video cards - Intel and AMD. I set NS2 to use the AMD one with 2 GB. Normally I do not have any problems to play heavy games. I guess NS2 still uses the Intel video card. Any idea how to change that?

BeigeAlert · December 2016

Hmm, I don't have any experience with those types of setups. Is there any way you could run ns2 in a window and confirm that it is using intel instead of amd?

Obraxis · December 2016

NS2 should report in the logs which GPU it is using. You can try and force it to use your AMD mobile card in your Catalyst Drivers, but mobile systems sometimes dont work with many games.

BeigeAlert · December 2016

Ah yes, I see at line 11 in your log.txt

Direct3D 9 initialized: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600

BlackRiver · December 2016

Thanks guys. I already forced the game to use the AMD, but it looks like that this does not work. I do not have a clue what to do now...

Soul_Rider · December 2016

Can you just disable the intel graphics in the bios when you want to play NS2?

Lorente90 · December 2016

So, since the update I am getting around 20fps in big fights and lower performance in general.

My specs:

- Windows 7 64bit
- fx-8320
- GTX 960 with 4GB VRAM, with drivers up to date
- 8GB RAM

Nordic · December 2016

Lorente90 wrote: »

So, since the update I am getting around 20fps in big fights and lower performance in general.

My specs:

- Windows 7 64bit
- fx-8320
- GTX 960 with 4GB VRAM, with drivers up to date
- 8GB RAM

Please follow the instructions from the second post in this thread. I have quoted them below.

GhoulofGSG9 wrote: »

Welcome to the tech support.

The issue you have could have all kind of sources (and could even be caused by server you play on). To get an idea what it is please follow http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/131384/how-to-make-a-good-tech-support-post-read-me-first .

If you continue to see the issue afterwards please follow these steps:

Type "p_logall" without quotes in the console (~ key) whenever you want to begin recording in game (don't do this until you at least spawn in a round)
then you can p_endlog /or just wait for the round to end/ or map to change/ or just quit the game and it will end automatically.

Then navigate to your appdata/home config folder
e.g %appdata%/natural selection 2/
And you will find your file, something *.plog
Zip it/ compress it.
Attach it to your tech support post

This will give us a frame by frame analysis of what is going on, so try to pick a time when you can best reproduce your lowest performance.
Don't record for longer than 30 minutes, and don't record for shorter than 5.

Also you can use the commands r_stats and net_stats to enable the monitor prints for both the render pipeline and network which are most likely the sources of your frame drops.

Lorente90 · December 2016

Hi, not many improves, attached is the p_log

BlackRiver · December 2016

Soul_Rider wrote: »

Can you just disable the intel graphics in the bios when you want to play NS2?

Sadly, there is not such option in the bios. I can only disable the dGPU.

Nordic · December 2016

BlackRiver wrote: »

Soul_Rider wrote: »

Can you just disable the intel graphics in the bios when you want to play NS2?

Sadly, there is not such option in the bios. I can only disable the dGPU.

There are other options to disable the intel GPU.
For example, you could start by uninstalling any intel gpu drivers.
You could go to your devices menu and left click -> disable on the intel gpu.
There are many ways you can accomplish this as you can see with this link, but maybe this link will give you the help you need.

Extreme FPS problems Since Halloween patch

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