Re: Regular stutter when selecting targets with Active buffs/effects

I'll do so as soon as I get home from work. 🙂

I'm thinking it happens for everyone though. Tried on two different pcs, a laptop, and it happens to a friend.

Spin your character with the left or right arrow or drag the mouse whilst selecting and deselecting YOURSELF, whilst under the influence a few buffs that have time remaining. Upon selecting your character you should notice a small drop in frames. It's more obvious if you uncap the frame rate, but it happens when vsynced as well.

It's not exactly game breaking, and I expect a lot of people don't really notice or get bothered by it, because we don't really target our own character much. It does do it sometimes when targeting other players, though, who have buffs active as well.

All stutter related to this UI issue goes away when CTRL U is used to disable the interface.

SWTOR seems to have many stutter issues completely related to the UI. Such a shame, but I guess we just have to accept it.

@JosiahLightwood 

The  UI is based on what was scaleform - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaleform_GFx

Autodesk have benched it now i believe after they purchased it, so support is limited to nonexistant now

@JosiahLightwood 

if you happen to be Nvidia you can try seeing if the settings at this link help at all, also add low latency to on or ultra too

It does it for everyone. You can test yourself if you apply lots of buffs to your character, show FPS (ctrl shift f), and select and deselect your character a few times in a row. Do it in your stronghold or something whilst spinning your character left or right with the arrow keys to really make the stutter obvious. It's even worse with vsync off, as the FPS can drop from 200 to 150 in a split second.

I'd be happy to point out the stutter to anyone who says they can't see it if they record a video of themselves doing the above. Maybe then bioware will be able to help fix it? I'll try to record a video myself today to show anyone who doesn't understand what I'm trying to explain.

Literally every twitch stream I've watched has had the  same stutter when I've seen people target themselves to cast a heal or something.

Could you test it yourself?

Here is a video. It does this on three different computers. A Ryzen 3600, RTX 2060 PC. A 9600k RTX 2060 PC and a i7 8700 laptop with 1050 Ti.

I have reported it on the bug forums as well.

https://hastebin.com/odusoferux.rb

@JosiahLightwood 

I did try spinning with the keyboard with 6 buffs on me and selecting and deselecting, i maintained 157fps +/- 5 fps doing this for 60 seconds to be sure

I play in fullscreen window mode with custom profile in the nvidia profile if it matter

My instinct says to not believe you, but I have no reason not to. I generally have no clue how it can do it on three different computers and I can point it out on twitch streams whenever someone targets themselves.

If I uncap my frame rate in a stronghold and run at 200 fps. Targetting my charcter with a few buffs, as above, will drop it to 150 for a brief moment. I use vsync though, so in the video it just drops to like 57.

I've even tried running the UI at default, in case it was some setting in my custom UI that was causing the issue.

As you seem to genuinely be helpful. Can you use the built in windows recorder to recreate the same video I just did?

i am running a i7 9900k with a 2080 , with my profile max fps is around 157 fps green , i buffed up and run around like in your video with kolta etc running and there is no major dip

Perhaps this is related to single core performance. My partner is a 9600k and I'm a 3600 Ryzen, so ~4ghz on single core under loads. 9900k can go much higher.

I will say its HARDER for me to detect the stutters when the frame rate is unconstrained, as opposed to using Vsync. Can you try doing the same with Full Screen Windowed + Vsync. I also notice you are on a very old driver in comparison to myself. This gets more confusing, because now it could be Nvidia driver related :/

@JosiahLightwood 

i'm trying to work out video first lol 

edit - new link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E1jc7dI41s&feature=youtu.be

i dont do video so it took me a bit to work out start and stop lol

@JosiahLightwood 

I am running the latest video driver 441.87 version albeit it has an enhanced shadow issue ...

I gave Fast Sync a go in Fullscreen with Low Latency On and Ultra. It makes no difference other than feeling more responsive. Still stutter when targetting myself. I use High Performance profiles in Nvidia and Windows Power Plan.

The fuzzy effect? I have noticed. I run the same driver as well.

I'd be worried about my computer, but I can't explain why others do it. But then I can't explain why yours doesn't. This is infuritating. Something so reproducible for me in very, very specific situations, tied unquestionably to the UI, just seems too game/software related.

The video URL is 404 not found. Did you paste it properly?

Nevermind, I engaged detective mode and found it.

@JosiahLightwood 

My nvidia settings https://imgur.com/a/KoiWCTj if it matters , I run at 2560 x 1440 resolution on pretty much ultra settings

Ok I feel better now, It does it for you as well.

I have no idea why you can't notice it in game.

It's definitely less obvious in your video with the uncapped fps, and the video being 30FPS, and potentially the faster clock speed of the CPU.

Did you use Windows Game Bar to record it? They have a 60 FPS High Quality option.

It would be useful if you could repeat the video using my FullScreen Windowed + Ingame Vsync options and under the same video recording settings. Hopefully I'm not asking too much, if you're still willing to help compare to support a potential fix.

I'm gonna record one using Fullscreen + no vsync @ 30fps to see if I can make my stutter look less obvious to confirm.

@JosiahLightwood 

i dont notice any stutter ingame and i also dont really notice any major fps drop either though

I'll try the 60 fps video but it wont be tonight though its midnight here in australia 

I can see the drops in the fps counter. There is a stutter at 00:30-00:32 as the most obvious. It's very hard to point them out in a 30 FPS video.

Here is my video recorded at 30 fps with vsync off. It's the same as yours. I also find the stutters to be less perceivable in game using these settings, especially because the frame rate is fluctuating rather than being a static VSYNC. I think if I got a Gsync monitor or a 144hz this would be an acceptable solution for me, but I currently just have a 60HZ 1080p.

@JosiahLightwood 

I was using 60 Hz as a refresh rate , i could engage gsync i guess and see what it does also if set at 144Hz

I think people are just very different in what they consider stutters or smooth. My partner just isn't phased by them. Even my first video, which demonstrates how I perceive my problem, they didn't see what the big deal was. xD

@JosiahLightwood 

The only time i have seen a pause effect is mounting speeders 🙂

Tried capping it at 100fps with Nvidia Vsync Off. Much better. If I wasnt looking for the target stutters then I wouldn't notice them.

It seems that it's Vsync, or Windows Vsync in Windowed mode, that's causing the UI Target stutter to be much more obvious.