DX11 strange "rubber banding" effect - possible solution (1.36-1.49)

[Aragwath]

Hi, first of I would like to thank you for fixing my game with this :D

Are there any telltale signs If I set the t_average too high? What would happen if set too high? Will the game stutter every now and again?

[JHTrucker]

@Aragwath - The higher the value the longer it will take to calculate the average, but it's probably still so fast that you can't see a difference?
But if you're having to ask that question, I think your problems are caused by something else.

What I'm going to type now may well be a load of rubbish or perhaps something to consider, I have no definitive proof.

Consider startup memory settings that most people use, probably, these values taken from the NPI AA post.
-mm_max_resource_size 32 //Resource loading buffer size. Default = 22MB, max. 100MB.
-mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 1000 //Maximum temporary memory buffer area. Default = 112MB, max. 1000MB.

The above will set the game to have 31 loading buffers of 32MB each.
By default the game sets 5 loading buffers of 22MB each.
Everyone has more than enough memory for this game, so why not just set it to the maximum possible?
Well, buffers don't fill themselves, your cpu does that job, the more buffers you have the greater the time taken by your cpu to fill them.

The game, as we all know, only really runs on 1 core of everyone's multicore cpu. So if you force your cpu to do more work it stands to reason that other cpu related things may suffer, resulting in lower fps or stutters etc.

Basically, imagine the game runs in a loop, 100 times a second ? something like this:
cpu - game logic/menus etc
cpu - physics
cpu - read input from mouse/keyboard/controllers etc
cpu - control 50 AI vehicles (game default)
cpu - sound
cpu - continually fill buffers with game world data whilst you're driving
cpu - generate current frame from data within the buffers and pass to gpu to render
gpu - render frame
start loop again.

Having a high buffer value will give you a much faster startup load time, you can clearly see a difference in speed. But once you are driving, are those buffers just loading too much data that you can't see anyway as it's all much further away from your location?

As an example to what I'm saying, if you set these:
-mm_max_resource_size 32
-mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 35
You'll get 1 loading buffer, the game will load up really slowly and you'll see the scenery popping into view as you drive because there's not enough game world data available from that 1 buffer to create a complete frame. Your fps should increase because the generated frame isn't as full/complicated as it would ordinarily be. The more data used to generate the frame the longer it will take to create it before it gets passed to your gpu to do it's one and only job, render it (SSAO & SMAA at least give it another couple of jobs, if they're used).

So, if you have stutters and already have:
-mm_max_tmp_buffers_size 1000
Then why not try 500 to half the number of buffers you we're using to see if it indeed is better or not... again, none of this is fact!

[baranismen]

With vsync on, when you drive around the game world the driving motion will randomly, but suddenly, slow down and then rapidly speed back up. Repeating this for a few seconds or so making you feel like you are driving a frog down the road or "rubber banding" effect.
The framerate isn't dropping below vsync level at these moments."


With every game update its becoming more and more demanding to run, especially as it's still just running on 1 cpu core.

I thought it was only me.. Any solution for this problem or its the game engine itself? Currently I disabled the V-Sync with my monster 5900x & 3070TI & 32gb of ram, yet game seems still not %100 stable or utilizes the resources.

[JHTrucker]

@baranismen - The fix is in the first post that you part quoted.

With vsync on set:
uset t_averaging_window_length "xx"
Where xx = vsync fps x 5

Example: 60Hz monitor vsync on = 60 fps
xx = 300

If you are saying that you have already tried it and it doesn't work... then your problem lies elsewhere. But the main problem is the game engine itself.

With vsync on, try setting in NPI or NCP:
Maximum pre-rendered frames '1'

[baranismen]

@baranismen - The fix is in the first post that you part quoted.

With vsync on set:
uset t_averaging_window_length "xx"
Where xx = vsync fps x 5

Example: 60Hz monitor vsync on = 60 fps
xx = 300

If you are saying that you have already tried it and it doesn't work... then your problem lies elsewhere. But the main problem is the game engine itself.

With vsync on, try setting in NPI or NCP:
Maximum pre-rendered frames '1'

My monitor is 144hz so with the current hardware I got, I get usually around 100FPS, sometimes 150 sometimes 50 on rain & heavy traffic (5900x + 3070TI + 32gig ram + SSD installed game), and I actually tried window length on 240, but multiply was 4 for me, not 5. I'll give it a try again but unfortunately I don't have a stable FPS, its going up & down randomly, mostly traffic dependent though (jazzycat's packs) and traffic density is 1.3 I guess.

[JHTrucker]

@baranismen - Ok, but this topic is about stable fps (at vsync value) and driving speed slowing down and speeding up, not fps up/down.
It's normal that when you get to a more demanding area that fps go down as there's more work for your cpu to do before it passes the scene to your gpu to render.

Having high fps in a slow driving truck game isn't worth it. You're better off capping your fps at 60, via 60Hz or 120Hz with half vsync option. Or 144Hz half sync for 72fps.
That way you don't see the massive changes in fps and instead it'll run at around 50-60fps at all times. Then turn off your fps indicator and just enjoy the drive.

My old hardware and the settings I use mean I drive at 30fps everywhere. But I've since given up on new game updates as driving through the rebuilt Austria results in single figure fps, stutters and audio crackling.
So it's game version 1.41 for me, which isn't a problem as I stopped buying DLC at 1.36 when it was clear to me that the DLC's were just causing fps problems by adding too much detail whilst not giving any new options to reduce that detail level. Instead you can only use existing options that make your game world look worse than it did 9 years ago, when I bought ETS2.
Multicore support is required so your cpu can actually feed your gpu with the data it needs, but until SCS do that, we're all stuck with fps issues regardless of how much money you spend on hardware.

I fully expect SCS to release an update for DX12/Multicore at some point in the future whilst removing DX11 at the same time (like they did with DX9 when DX11 came out). Then my gtx760 won't run the game anyway as it's a DX11 gpu... I won't be disappointed though... I'm already out!

EDIT: If you have a gsync monitor, follow this advise here: https://roextended.ro/forum/viewtopic.p ... 155#p46155

[Vlad50075]

I now set config.cfg - uset t_averaging_window_length "60".
Having now driven all over ATS and ETS2 worlds (1.37), i've had no more rubber banding issues since setting that to "60".

As a double check, i set it back to default 20 and rubber banding is straight back.

I still get "rubber banding" after increasing this value. I also testing 60, 120, 300. I testing with higher multiples of vsync fps. Nothing new.
My PC: Windows 7, Amd athlon x4 641 quad core processor, Nvidia gtx 960, 8 gb Ram DDR 3.
It's impossible to play because of this effect.
Are there any other solutions to this problem?
Help me please.

[JHTrucker]

@Vlad50075 - You should have noticed "(1.37)" in the part of my post you quoted... I'm guessing you are using / talking about 1.49, which is now far more demanding than 1.37 from 4 years ago. Me and my old hardware only drive around in 1.41, any thing higher just turns certain areas into a slide show, < 10 fps.
You never know... perhaps the 1.50 update that is much talked about will provide better performance... when it arrives...

EDIT: Removed unhelpful info.

[Vlad50075]

JHTrucker, thanks for the help, but it didn't help. Let's wait for the vulcan to be added by SCS.

[JHTrucker]

@Vlad50075

Ok, those settings were from my old pc that's now running windows 10, for the past few months. Prior to that the same pc was running windows 7 but using different settings:
All gpu driver settings for "Sync & Refresh" were all kept at driver default, "app control", that way the game is in control of vsync and that probably works better with the games 'averaging_window' setting.

NPI/NCP
Frame Rate Limiter - "Off"
Vertical Sync - "Application controlled"
Vertical Sync Tear Control - "Standard"

Config.cfg
uset r_vsync "1" or "2" for 'half refresh rate' <-- I used "2" for 60Hz & 30fps
uset t_averaging_window_length "150"

For me, that gives the game 5 seconds (the past 150 frames) in order to calculate the average time required for displaying the current frame.

If the above doesn't help then perhaps your problem is caused by something else.

-----

The SCS blog for "Updated PC Requirements" https://blog.scssoft.com/2023/09/pc-sys ... pdate.html
States this:
"Our games will still run on older systems—we don't wish to disappoint our dedicated fans by making their existing hardware obsolete. However, the experience might not consistently meet our 30 FPS benchmark. If this is the case, we recommend adjusting and possibly further lowering the in-game quality settings to improve the framerate."

That doesn't sound like their updates will start to use more of the available hardware (all cpu cores instead of just 1) and thus give a performance improvement for everyone.

EDIT: If you have ATS, and you haven't done so yet, you can test the new 1.50 update... https://blog.scssoft.com/2024/04/americ ... pdate.html