Fullscreen: Framerate stuttering, Windowed: No stuttering

[The Real Franklin]

I know in the Known Issues there's this defeating little line:

Quote

 

Sound/physics stutters

This is a bug in Unity and it affects some players quite badly and others not at all, though is most common on Windows, there is no known cause or fix at this time.

 

But this micro-stuttering start just after I upgraded to the latest stable build. Zero mods, I re-validated the files through Steam, I prioritized the KSP process, nothing seemed to fix the new stuttering. I even tried those Unity garbage monitor mods, and I'm not getting 'red spikes' like they suggest you would if this was your issue, suggesting to me it's something else. Nothing works.

Except switching to windowed mode. Without even dropping the resolution or changing any other settings, there is zero stutter in windowed mode, but it's unbearable in fullscreen.

Given circumstances, is there any plausible issue that could be concluded? AMD Phenom,  Windows 10, I'm aware of the Phenom crash issue, and while it's never been a problem for me, I'm still using that '-force-gfx-st' launch option, and have checked for the stutter with and without it.

I'm at a loss at this point.

[sal_vager]

I should update that, there's a sound stutter bug in Unity, and a pause caused by the Unity garbage collector when it stops the game to check for and delete objects in the heap memory that have had all the references to them removed.

Your issue might be the Unity GC, but I have not heard of it changing with fullscreen mode, actually it sounds like a graphics issue as in fullscreen only the KSP window is being drawn.

Can you take a look here and post your logs and dxdiag hardware report please.

Someone with similar hardware might be able to offer help.

[diomedea]

Don't have a sure recipe for this. KSP is one of those games that seem to perform better in Windowed than fullscreen on my machine too, though fullscreen here isn't as bad as described in the OP.

Googling for evidence on the issue, couldn't find any who shows to have a clear idea about what causes performance differences between the two modes. But differences are frequently seen, in some cases (with some games) better in fullscreen, with others better in windowed. The only thing they seem to agree is in fullscreen the game gets full exclusive control of the GFX to pilot the intended display, while in windowed all output is mediated through the OS, the window acts as a graphics buffer, which should be of help to reduce artifacts.

However, a few sites (e.g. here) also report about fullscreen and V-sync. If I get that right, windowed has V-sync off by default, but when fullscreen has it on, it reduces performance (measured as FPS), which could be seen as stutter if FPS goes very low. Could be that helps with KSP in the OP case too.

[TheKorbinjer]

If there is a setting, turn off vertical synchronization. it can cause sideways flickers, resulting in different frames showing at once

[The Real Franklin]

14 hours ago, sal_vager said:

Can you take a look here and post your logs and dxdiag hardware report please.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9U1KwT04IySN244Y25GWGl3Vlk?usp=sharing

• KSP version:

  build id = 01622
  2016.12.06 at 07:56:51 CET
  Branch: master

Completely clean version. Uninstalled, removed residual files, reinstalled. Same issue.

[sal_vager]

9 hours ago, The Real Franklin said:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9U1KwT04IySN244Y25GWGl3Vlk?usp=sharing

• KSP version:

  build id = 01622
  2016.12.06 at 07:56:51 CET
  Branch: master

Completely clean version. Uninstalled, removed residual files, reinstalled. Same issue.

Looks okay, there's a newer graphics driver though but only by 6 days, could be a hotfix for fullscreen issues.

If that doesn't help then there may be a workaround, if you add -popupwindow to your launch options you can set KSP to a fullscreen window with no border.

You might need to hide the Windows taskbar while playing KSP though as it has a tendency to try to be above all other programs.

[The Real Franklin]

Nah, I appear to already be running the 17.3.3 version, it auto-updated about a week ago.

I mean I can play in windowed mode if I really wanted to, but wont that just hurt my FPS having the game rendered on top of the desktop and everything else?

[@tticus]

I have the same exact issue. I havent had any issues before but for some reason recently I get massive stuttering in full screen mode. it is fixed when I go to windowed mode. 

 

The same issue and fix happens in Cities Skylines too. Stuttering in Full screen. then no stuttering in windowed mode.. 

 

I can hear my CPU fan spin up and then stop with each stutter too. Not sure what the issue is.

 

3570K R9 390 and 8GB ram. Windows 10.

 

 

[sal_vager]

On 29/03/2017 at 1:45 PM, The Real Franklin said:

Nah, I appear to already be running the 17.3.3 version, it auto-updated about a week ago.

I mean I can play in windowed mode if I really wanted to, but wont that just hurt my FPS having the game rendered on top of the desktop and everything else?

No idea sorry.

 

4 hours ago, @tticus said:

I have the same exact issue. I havent had any issues before but for some reason recently I get massive stuttering in full screen mode. it is fixed when I go to windowed mode. 

 

The same issue and fix happens in Cities Skylines too. Stuttering in Full screen. then no stuttering in windowed mode.. 

 

I can hear my CPU fan spin up and then stop with each stutter too. Not sure what the issue is.

 

3570K R9 390 and 8GB ram. Windows 10.

 

 

Hmm does City Skylines let you maximize the game window? And do either of you have Sunless Sea? You might have the same issue there.

Please check your resolution in KSP matches the resolution of your desktop, it could be screen scaling in fullscreen mode that is causing the stutter.

[Dafni]

2 hours ago, sal_vager said:

Please check your resolution in KSP matches the resolution of your desktop, it could be screen scaling in fullscreen mode that is causing the stutter.

Speaking of matching resolution. How does one go about this?? If I set KSP to the native resolution of my screen the fonds become impossible to read (3840x2160). Would you just go to the next lower 16:9 resolution??

Edited April 12, 2017 by Dafni

[sal_vager]

6 minutes ago, Dafni said:

Speaking of matching resolution. How does one go about this?? If I set KSP to the native resolution of my screen the fonds become impossible to read (3840x2160). Would you just go to the next lower 16:9 resolution??

Basically, select the same resolution in KSP as your desktop/monitor size in pixels, you can try increasing the UI scale in the settings screen to make the currencies more readable.

[The Real Franklin]

I actually get the same thing with Cities Skylines as well (don't have Sunless Sea to test), and have an ultra-wide monitor (2560x1080; 21:9), so perhaps it's a matter of under-performing hardware trying to support a larger resolution for a poorly optimized game. But again, same resolution in windowed mode and no stuttering.

[sal_vager]

9 hours ago, The Real Franklin said:

I actually get the same thing with Cities Skylines as well (don't have Sunless Sea to test), and have an ultra-wide monitor (2560x1080; 21:9), so perhaps it's a matter of under-performing hardware trying to support a larger resolution for a poorly optimized game. But again, same resolution in windowed mode and no stuttering.

So I guess it's not the optimization

Seems it might be a graphics card setting or driver issue.

Edited April 12, 2017 by sal_vager

[The Real Franklin]

Could be, but the drivers are up to date, the card settings haven't changed, and the game's run without stutter right up until this last update. So arguably that's the only real change so far. A game's own changing performance is as much a factor as anything else.

[Martian Music]

On 3/29/2017 at 0:31 PM, sal_vager said:

if you add -popupwindow to your launch options you can set KSP to a fullscreen window with no border.

Wow, I had a 0 FPS drop every second or two and this actually fixed it (and saved my life!!). Thanks!