[PC] Ongoing investigation - poor performance, crashes, resource allocation.

Just a brief dislcaimer:

Any suggestions posted in the main post here, or in this thread, may or may not work for everyone.

Use them, as you will, at your own risk.

Please read this post before posting in the thread. Thank you. -MFS

BASIC BEHIND THE SCENES INFO -- WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE THE GAME

 

I have been in contact with Tier 2 Support (EA), and they say (BIOWARE) is aware of,and investigating the draw distance issues.

 

People that are crashing or having high system resource usage, may be affected by this "bug/glitch" where render distances are abnormally high, or inversely, abnormally low. 

 

The way that this was explained to me..., the game is rendering things at some astronomically long distance or extremely close if not negative distances, which is causing the resource usage to skyrocket, and hence, causing crashes, stuttering, poor performance, lock ups, freezes, etc., regardless of what people have their settings at.

 

It is being investigated, from what I have been told. I am hopeful that a working patch will be implemented soon.

 

I have several issues that have been escalated to the studio, and several that are being researched by tier 3 support, before being forwarded on, to the studio.

 

I will re-post as soon as I have any more information.

 

_UPDATE_    
The game is currently misallocating the system resources, cpu, gpu, ram, pagefile and vram. This is due to bugs in the coding for Speed Tree, and draw distances. This is what is causing high usage spikes across all (random access and temporary) storage, and processing media, which in turn causes the stuttering, lags, crashes, etc. (Including SSDs? - VERIFIED! 12-31-14)

-Addendum-

For those of you using SSDs, please be careful...

Several people have noticed large writes to the SSDs (upwards of 20GB).

This may be due to allocation issues I mentioned (the game usage of the pagefile).

I might suggest, that you turn off system managed, or manual page filing for that drive,

and see if that reduces the writes to your SSD.

All of the issues that everyone is facing, regardless of platform, cannot be fixed, player-side.

(However, there are some things that can be done to reduce stuttering, and extend play time between crashes.)

IT IS A CODING ISSUE (or issues) within the game, that BioWare will have to address.

Now please do not take offense, or take this the wrong way.

I have tried many of the fixes in this forum, myself, with little to no improvement, however,

my system does seem to be more stable overall.

 

Many of the suggestions are really good, and do benefit stability, and longer game play between

crashes (with Nvidia cards) and slightly less jittery performance with AMD and Mantle api.

 

I have tried both Nvidia, and AMD graphics cards, and I am most stable with AMD using the Mantle API.

 

this does not mean go out and buy amd graphics cards, just to play this game.

what it means is that the game needs an overhaul of a great degree, to be more Nvidia GPU friendly, and more stable overall.

 

Lastly, from the response I received earlier today, (12-16-14) from the tier 2 reps is that the studio is actively addressing this issue.

And we should be seeing a patch/update in the very near future, unfortunately they could not give me a specific date.

I am expecting another call back from them early next week. I will report again, when I have more information.

 -Additional notes on what is happening inside the game-

DirextX Errors and Crashes

Because of the misallocation of resources, it is suspected that the crashes (with nvidia gpus) is being caused by timeouts.

Basically what is happening is that the Origin App and the Windows Operating system, are arguing with eachother,

over who is in control of the game, and this is what causes  the dxgi_device hung_    error...

and why the graphics card drivers are re-enabled by windows once you get out of the game and close it down.

Complete Shutdowns and Restarts 

Complete powerdowns or system restarts are usually caused by over taxing your PSU... drawing too many amps.

just double check that the wattage and amperage rating for you GPUS and cpu, do not over draw your PSU.

for instance, I need to upgrade my PSU, though I have not powered off or down during game play, but here are my stats...

psu antec 900w 80% + Bronze certified.

I have 4 +12v rails at 40 Amps each across 850Watts

my AMD dual R9720 DCUII OC 2GB each draw 500 watts @ 38Amps

and my AMD FX-8350 8-core @ 4Ghz draws 125w

so technically I should upgrade my PSU just due to power consumption of my GPUs alone...

Another cause for shutdowns is overheating.

Lack of airflow across major components like gfx cards, motherboard, heatsyncs, radiator(s), etc.

make sure that your fans and heatsinks are as dust free as possible.

if you are running into overheating issues, and have a side access panel, take it off,

or remove the outer shell, and run a small window or non-oscillating fan into the case.

for dust build-up, blow the heatsinks off with compressed air (low pressure 10-25 psi)

this can be accomplished in several ways...

that emergency tire pump in the back of your car or truck.....

an airbrush pump (for those artists out there)

or just go to a Target store, Office Max, Office Depot, or other electronics store and by

"canned air" "air in a can".... (and make sure you use the plastic straw that's taped to the side of the can!)

and follow the directions on the can, to keep it from freezing up in your hand, and leaking onto your components!

Drivers

For those of you using nvidia gpus, roll your driver back to the 344.65 drivers. 

I have tried the newest 347.09 drivers, and I am still crashing.

With the 344.65 drivers I was not crashing as frequently.

Do a custom, clean, install, and ONLY INSTALL the graphics driver and physx. (unless you need

audio for hdmi)(or the 3d drivers for 3d hardware) also do not install nvidia experience.

I found that GPU usage was nearly halved, when I did this.... from a pegged 100% to about 50-60% usage.

(and that was with dual GTX 760 DCUII OC 2GB in SLI + GTX460 (physx))

For AMD users, update to the newest 14.12 drivers you should see similar results.

ROLL BACK TO PREPATCH 

Currently the Origin App is designed to force update games to the latest version on the server,

regardless of whether or not you have updates turned off....

this setting only applies to future updates to games you already have installed.

If you are doing a re-install, it will automatically update to the latest version on the server.

It currently does not support update roll backs. [GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE, ARRRGH!!!!):robotmad:

How to check for game version

C:\Program Files(x86)\Origin Games\Dragon Age Inquisition\_Installer
(or your game installation folder if on a different drive or in a different location)

file -> installerdata.xml

(5th line down from the top)
<gameVersion version="1.0.0.?"  />
1.0.0.2 patch    (released Dec. 9, 2014)
1.0.0.3 hotfix    (released Dec 10, 2014)

Also even with origin in game turned of, i am still getting achievement pop-ups...

will advise tier 2 of this issue as well. This has been escalated to the origin app team, as a bug report.

and they will be looking into it. It was suggested to update origin to the beta version, in the meantime,

and seeing if the issue persists.

(if anyone cares to test this, it would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!)

Screen Resolution and Refresh Rates

A possible fix for flickering trees, landscape, and grass...

go to your ingame settings,

your screen settings ... make the refresh rate just below your screens native refresh rate.

(i.e. monitor native refresh 60HZ, change setting to 59.94HZ) [you may have to restart the game to get this to work]

This may or may not work for some. If it does not, it has also been corrected by disabling SLI / CROSSFIRE

The game is desgined to run off of your screen's/monitor's/TV's native resolution and refreshrate.

If you have more than one screen, the game is most stable when you run the game in Fullscreen mode, 

at its native resolution and refresh rate, for your main monitor. However, I have found that by running in

windowed fullscreen mode, it is easier to alt+tab out of the game, in case it crashes or hangs. And just

alt+tab to the directX window, and hitting enter to exit the game, rather than to the desktop, and using the task

manager to shut the game down. Also, this way, you can see if there actually is an error message before shutting

the game down. 

If you try to to lower your resolution (i.e. from 1920x1080 to 1600x900) you will see and/or have problems when running

AMD GPUs, with the manlte api in windowed fullscreen, and sometimes in fullscreen mode.

and may cause a device lost error similar to the direct x error, but for the mantle api.

If your game image changes to a black screen with a bunch of horizontal (or vertical) lines, hit CTRL+ ALT + DEL, but DO NOT hit enter.

hit ESCAPE instead, you may have to hit escape several times for it to take you out of the garbbled screen.

this will also happen with windows media player as well.

Save Games

The game on PC currenlty caps the number of saves you can make.

It is curren'ty capped at 250 saves. This was done to keep from inundating the cloud save server.

I reached the cap at only level ten, on my first playthrough.

The workaround for this, is to make additional folders in your saves folder.

I generally make a new one with each new character, and name it the new characters name.

 

The game will slow down over time, because the more saves it has to read and load... obviously, the longer it will take.

 

So what I do is every 20,30, or 40 saves, is to take everything but the profile files, and the last few, most recent (1-5) saves and move

them into the current characters folder.

 

you will run into instances where file names are duplicated, when saving,

when you get the pop-up stating that you already have a file by this name,

put a checkmark in (do this for all conflicts) and select copy but keep both files,

by doing this it also allows you to backup your saves to a thumb drive, hdd, SSD,

or other storage media, as well

CLOUD SAVES

This game is already resource intensive.

1.) I would suggest, turning off ALL overlay programs or functions that are coming from outside the game.

2.) Turn origin in game -OFF- for DA:I

3.) Play in offline mode for single player campaign... (obviously you have to have connection for MP)

4.)Only rely on local hard saves, as the ones from the cloud could be compromised,

corrupted, or not synced (and you lose a lot of game play) and they aren't usually as

secure as the saves on your PC.

This will eliminate any lag caused by communication between your system and the server....

(and if the server is ever down your buggered anyway)

So, unless you are playing multiplayer, play in offline mode.

Possible conflicts with windows updates dated 10 Dec. 2014

Microsoft releases "Silver Bullet Patch"     <<<< open this in another tab or window, as it is an external link

How to Delete Origin Cache files

Completely close out of origin before doing this.

 

Delete only the origin folder in each of these locations: 

c:\users\<your account's user name>\appdata\local  (i.e.   c:\users\fred\appdata\local) 

c:\users\<your account's user name>\appdata\roaming 

c:\programdata 

 

If you can't find (or see) the appdata folder, then you need to go into your folder options, 

and make sure to put a check mark next to "show hidden files and folders" 

after you have finished deleting the cache folders,

EMPTY YOUR RECYCLE BIN

Now, restart origin, and let if reverify everything it needs to. Don't mess with it, don't do anthing!

Just let it run and do what it does. This WILL take a while, especially if you have a lot of origin games, like I do.

Tips to improve frame rate during game play

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/631230-dragon-age-inquisition/70597812    <<<<outside link, open in new tab

Kudos to tekmage01 for finding this info

Materializing in the fade

For those of you who materialize in the fade area, with the black steps,

more than likely you have a command line option for forcing frame rate,

either in your launch option in origin,

or in your Desktop shortcut...

remove it an relaunch the game. you should now materialize in the jail cell 

where you first meet Liliana and Cassandra.

If you wish to continue using the frame rate command line, only add it AFTER waking up in Haven.

If you have issues with the cutscenes "racing" or rushing, change the command line to reflect

a 30 FPS cap. (simply change the 60's to 30's)

Wired vs Wireless (especially for controllers and possibly for wireless mice) 

http://segmentnext.com/2014/11/18/dragon-age-inquisition     <<<<<open in new tab. external link 

While perusing the many different sites for answers, (yes, still stuck here and not able to enjoy this or any other game)

I came across an article that pertained to wireless devices (namely controllers).

The game by default will not recognize wireless devices. And it was suggested to use WIRED devices. (DUH!)

So in summation for both wireless controllers (and possibly wireless mice)

That the game may not recognize, or disconnect from said devices intermittantly,

causing the inablity to use said devices on occasion (hover over highlights,

inability to use said device for input, the UI switching between input modes, [i.e. keyboard/keypad input (numberd conversation options),

to using the mouse to hover over and highlight the option before clicking on it, to no option... just the text in the option being visible.]

so if your wireless device also has a wired connector option... USE IT.

or break out that old dusty coreded one you've got stuck in your junk drawer...(and we know everyone has one) lol

Visual C++ 2012 / 2013 update 4

I have had some luck with this. My system does seem to be more stable.

For 32 bit OS users, update to the x86 version.

For 64 bit users update both the x86 and x64 versions.

Visual C++ 2012 Update 4   \  

                                                     |<<<<outside links. open in new tab

Visual C++ 2013 Update 4   /

-Update Dec. 23, 2014-

I spoke again to a tier 2 (Tech Specialist) [EA]. We have gone over and through every single idea, that they have at thier disposal,

for troubleshooting, and work arounds. At the end of a very lengthy conversation, which took place over multiple calls, uploaded

logs, reports, and verbally conveyed personal gaming experience, the rep stated that we have exhausted everything that they and I

can think of to narrow these issues down to a root cause. And unfortunately, with the lack of information that we are receiving,

from the studio, and not having the same tools, or developement software, we cannot resolve your issues. If your game is working

"somewhat", there is nothing further that we in tech support can do for you, until the studio releases more information, a patch,

update, or hotfix.

I just want to be very clear about this. Tech support has been very accomodating, polite, understanding, and very helpful! (at least they were to me). I have no complaints as to thier expertise, or knowledge. They only lack information from the developement studio.

The tech specialists have assured me that they will escellate my issues to the studio. Now, as to when and if I get any feedback, that is an unknown. However, my issues will be investigated further, as to why I am experiencing the mis/overallocation of resources, crashes, lag, audio bugs mission glitches, and flickering terrain, trees and grass. 

3D Vision settings and Windows 8.1

Posted by slimdavey310417

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3367

Specs of the systems I have tested this game on.

PC1:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

Asus M5A99FX Pro 2.0 (Bios 2501)

AMD FX-8350 Black Edition 8-Core @4Ghz  (Seidon 120M Liquid CPU Cooler 2x 120mm fans [1push+1Pull])

32GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 @1600  C9-9-9-24

Dual Asus GTX 760 DCUII OC 2GB (in sli) (with and without Zotac GTX 460 1GB  or Gigabyte GTX 660Ti 2GB dedicated to Physx)

2x WD Mainstream Black Lable 1TB Sata3 6GB/s (OS,  Applcations, and general storage)

1x WD Mainstream Green Lable 3TB Sata3 6GB/s (games only)

HDMI Connected 40" Magnavox 40MF401B 1920X1080p @60Hz

PC2:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

Asus M5A97 R2.0

AMD FX-4130 Quad Core 

8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 @1600 C9-9-9-24

Dual Asus R9 270 DCUII OC 2GB (in crossfire)

1x WD Mainstream Black Lable 1TB Sata3 6GB/s

DVI-D Connected Acer 19" 1600x900@60Hz

PC3:

Same as PC1 exept with

Dual Asus R9 270 DCUII OC 2GB in crossfire

Nvidia x60 Series GPUs

This has also been comfirmed by an EA employee.

There is a pattern of _60 series GPUs (460, 560, 760, including Ti )

Having read through many of the PC related posts, and having GTX 760s installed on my system,

and with all of the issues I have been having with the game, and after doing a fair amount of research 

There does seem to be a pattern of the _60 series GPUs having more issues with the game, than with

other versions.

The reason for this is not yet know, but is (supoosedly) being looked into at Bioware.

Dumbing down your system 

(which you shouldn't have to do, in the first place, but...)

(confirmed for me at least... no crashes after 30+ hours of play, still

get occasional stutters though, but the game is very playable now.)

This game is obviously optimized for consoles.

With that being said,

I have searched the internet to get the hardware specs of an XBOX One.

Here is what I found....

http://www.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/Xbox_One_Hardware_Specs

So what I have done, as an experiment, and with some pretty decent,

and with some very acceptable results, I might add...

(still get stut-t-t-terin from time to time, but no crashes as of yet) 

 1.) Disabled  SLI,

2.)Underclock both of my Asus GTX 760 DCUII OC 2GB cards by -105MHz (even though sli is disabled),

3.) I have underclocked my ram to 1333 Mhz (from 1600Mhz),

4.) I have updates, and info sharing turned OFF in the ORIGIN APP.

5.) I have the origin app set to offline mode, when I play the game (obviously if you are going to play MP you can't do this)

6.) I am still using the 344.65 drivers with ONLY the main driver and physx installed.

7.) I am using MSI Afterburner with RTSS for overlays to monitor GPU temps and usage.

8.) I have removed my 5,000 BTU A/C

9.) I have added 5 x 120mm case fans + 1 x 200mm "Bigboy" Case fan for airflow and circulation.

(no longer have overheating issues - gpu(s) with load run around 45-50c - cpu even at full load still runs at around 30-35c) 

10.) Disabled any services related to streaming, or network sharing that were running in the background... (i.e. windows media player network sharing service, Nvidia Shield Streaming sevice, Fraps, etc.)

(I disabled these services through the taskmanager > Services tab > services button.... and then setting each of the programs I mentioned to either disabled or manual)

11.) Changed "Turbo Boost" option, in bios, to "Normal" mode.

12.) Nvidia Control panel Options-

          Manually create profile for - DA:I exe

     A.) All default settings except these 4 entries....

          1.) *Cuda - GPUs  - GPU 1 of 2 (in second set of dropdown list.)

                 {changed from all}. (for those of you with multiple gpus - 3x/4x SLI select your main card only! (will

                      be marked as gpu 1 of 3 or gpu 1 of 4)

          2.) Maximum pre-rendered frames - set to 3 - from use global default.

          3.) Multi-display/Mixed-gpu acceleration - Single display performance mode

          4.) Power management mode - prefer maximum performance

*The reason I chose to go with this option was to reduce the number of shader cores running,

to get it as close to the number of cores in an XBOX One (768 shader cores)

My current configuration is PC1 (from above) with sli disabled, and no tertiary (third) card dedicated to physx.