Sunday 19 May 2013

Metro: Last Light stuttering and SLI

UPDATE 4: This weekend I tested Metro Last Light benchmark and I've found that DXTory is very useful in Metro. Everytime I found a game with stuttering, my first shot is DXTory. The problem with Metro is that the first time I tried DXTory in this game, I saw that game framerate doesn't match DXTory framerate and there are slowdowns. So I discarded DXTory for this game. Big BIG mistake.

What you have to do is apply a x2 factor in DXTory framerate limit. So, if you will play in a 60hz screen at 60 fps, set in game profile "vsync controlled by application", set Vsync ON in the game menu and SET FRAMERATE LIMIT TO 120 FPS IN DXTORY! Fucking smooth framerate.

Note: Use Hyperthreading if you cpu has it.



UPDATE 3: Some people report that the stuttering fix doesn't work for them. I've seen that using "Realtime priority" to MetroLL.exe after start the game, eliminates stuttering too. But then, can appear sound distorsion when too many sounds at the same time (for example in firefights). Anyone knows a 4AGames contact email?


UPDATE 2: Ok, now I know a real fix to avoid stuttering but .... you have to use a cracked exe. Game starts without steam and stuttering goes away. I'm using the modified user.cfg too, with


sso_connect_tries 1
sso_first_time 0
sso_receive_updates 0
sso_receive_updates_thq 0






UPDATE 1: Shit! today after restarting my computer, stuttering is back O_o
I hope 4A games can fix this problem because playing yesterday 3 hours without stuttering is a different experience.


About stuttering (multigpu and monogpu users)

If you are experiencing stuttering while playing, please try this config:

user.cfg
- Copy to c:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\4A Games\Metro LL\[game code]\
- Run game
- Change video options if necessary (the file sets your resolution to 1080p, change it to your native resolution in game menu. Also advanced physx is activated, disable it if your gpu is not good enough).


Profile for Nvidia Inspector
- Import with nvidia inspector (not necessary).
- This profile limits your framerate to 60 fps.


About SLI

I'm used to customize SLI profiles. I've been doing since there were no programs to help in the task (like SLI profiler or Nvidia Inspector).

Rarely appear unsolvable problems and it is normal to slightly increase performance over nvidia profile.

The performance of Metro Last Light is extremely surprising. Its optimization is amazing. But the scaling in SLI configurations is not as good as expected. Yes, increase the performance of something that's already good, can not be bad. But it could be better.

I found a profile that increases performance SLI enough, at the expense of a graphic problem. Light glares are visible through geometry. The last game I remember with a similar problem using an early SLI profile was Prince of Persia (sun glare was visible through the mountains), and was easily solved by changing the SLI profile (I even think nvidia not take long to fix).

Custom SLI profile in Last Light increase performance 30-40% in my computer. A 40% more performance in the most demanding scenes is a great jump. I tried in a place where there are lots of tessellation and characters.

Why write about this? Because logic says to hide glare effects does not have to cost 40% of the performance. Since it is not possible to avoid this error by changing SLI profile (I've tried), I'd love that 4A Games and Nvidia can fix to this problem.

Game configuration is 1920x1200, SSAAx3, Very High preset, very high tessellation and advanced physx. My computer is 2700K@5ghz and Tri-SLI GTX680 with 32GB of ram.

Screenshots:












Custom SLI bits: 0x080600F5 for DX11 and 0x02400205 for DX9

Friday 17 May 2013

Aliens Colonial Marines - Launch / Post-patches comparisson

I made a lot of screenshots of Aliens Colonials marines comparing the game in release day versus current state post patches. Patches have included a lot of improvements. All textures are now four times larger (diffuse and bump textures). A lot of new specular textures have added. New light points. New fog zones. Color grading. Ambient Occlusion. Chromatic aberration. Selectable noise filter. New effects and more.