Strange performance issues....need help!

[TheTerminator]

Hi guys,

I finally got theif 3 and... oh man.... am I impressed !! I just love the game. As a huge thief fan to the previous 2 games, I personally was worried how the game would turn out with all the critics around, but I don't know what they're beefin' about... its the best thief game so far! The atmosphere is still there and back with avengance! Impressive graphics and shadow effects, and stunning audio make the thief series stand out more than ever!

Now, a minor performance (though strange) issue which I wish to sort out:

You can see my system details below, and I can tell you that with all settings maxed out @ 1024x768 resolution, the game is quite smooth. So overall, the game looks and feels great. But, I have discovered a very annoying bug or performance issue where the game jerks a bit. Let me explain in detail with examples.....

...... I am playing the game smoothly and, suddenly, Im in a particular area where it starts jerking. So I stop moving garreth and see whats going on (seeing that the performance has been great all along). Then, I try to simply mouse look around the place to see if it jerks anymore....and.... I noticed that just by mouse looking around, the game was silky smooth again. But when I decide to make garreth walk around again, it starts jerking and I can notice this by watching garreth stuttering while he moves. And these kind of jerks are definitley not performance glitches from my hardware... its seems as if its a bug.

I can deduce this because if a game is jerking because of low performance, it would jerk even while you mouse look around that same place where it was jerking. But it doesnt, and this makes me think.... is this a bug ? And I must point out that this slight jerking is not experienced constantly, and only in certain sections of the game. For example, in St.Edgar's Church I did not experience and glitches whatsoever. But in places like Garreths home and some other city areas, this does happen sometimes. Might I also point out that the jerks are not too strong... they are quite mild... mild enough for me to notice that the game still runs smoothly overall. But they are quite annoying jerks which jeapordize the atmosphere.

Could anyone tell me what might be wrong ? Can someone point me out to a possible solution ??

NB: I have downgraded my ATi drivers from 4.5 to 4.4 since it solved the flickering light issue for me (which I beleive most people are doing).

Thank you for your help!
TheTerminator.

[HOC]

not a bug....but i guess ya can say it's a performance issue. some areas in the game just create drops in fps, which causes it to jerk a bit.

obviously it's nothing major. but it isn't something that only goes on in this game with this engine.

[TheTerminator]

Yes I understand that areas which drops FPS in a game are quite common amongst several games, but I must repeat... this is no FPS drop. If I stay at the same spot where it jerked and simply look around with the mouse, the jerks stop !

Its only when I start moving garreth when it starts to jerk (and these jerks are none like ive seen in any game). They are strange jerks which I have never seen, not even in a hungry game such as Far Cry with settings all maxed out. If there is a drop in FPS, I would notice it slowing down, but this is no slow down. Period jerks.

TheTerminator.

[sparkasaurusmex]

I'm not a programmer, but I guess the game only loads the area around you, so if you don't walk it doesn't have to load anything. Then looking around wouldn't be as bad as walking.

[TheTerminator]

With reference to your post sparkasaurusmex,

It is natural that the map has to be loaded..... but this is definitely not the case. The game never stops to load the map while I move... these jerks are very unnatural jurks.

Trust me, I have been gaming all my life and I know when a computer stops to load stuff into memory. This jerking is happening in certain areas only.... and only in those areas. No matter how many times I come and go, it keeps jerking in that same place.... its impossible that the computer is loading the map while im moving.... I would notice the difference anyway. And with my system specs, I have no doubt that it has no trouble in performance for loading such things.

I have also noticed (with my testing) that while Im experiencing these jerks, the only one jerking is garreth ! And the surrounding movements keep on going as normal. This has further pointed out to me that this is either a game bug, or something with the ATi drivers (having noticed that there were already some flickering issues with 4.5 catalyst drivers).

Thanks again for reading and I would appreciate some more professional advice from either technical staff members or other expertise.

Thanks!
TheTerminator.


PS: Please, don't take this the wrong way.... these jerks are not so strong.... some inexperienced users might not even notice them.

[styphon]

I seem to get a moderate drop in FPS sporadically in places where it doesn't make sense also. I realize that atop a building, looking down on a large area, you're likely to get a frame rate drop because your vid card is having to draw more. But for me it happens in a small room or alley. It's only once in a while but it's annoying. I never had this issue with Deus Ex2, which uses the same engine.

Strange.