HD 2.0/Fury Update - framerate drop

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

Hey all,

Anyone experienced this - playing offline, it seems as though there is too much going on for the hardware to handle, and there's a noticeable framerate drop/stagger. It picks up again afterwards, but it is a little off putting.

It's happened on two tracks - Moa Therma - Phantom (in a tourney) and one of the new ones on Eliminator - the one of two that's available on starting the Fury campaign content. Happened two or three times in the eliminator race. Haven't played any more than that at present.

The only reason I noticed it all is the superb job done previously to keep the framerate solid.

[Handmadelion]

Wouldn't that be nuts, if they actually made a game "too" good, that the frames just can't register it all and ends up making it look bad. Now that's what I call metal. :guitar

[SaturnReturn]

I've noticed when doing Time Trial that there is a kind of stutter/micro-freeze sometimes. It doesn't seem to slow you down but can cause a reaction that takes you off your line, which is a bit annoying when you're looking for tenths or even hundredths of a second. It's not too frequent and I don't see it as a massive issue so far, although it would be very annoying if it happened on a potential personal best time. Most of all, I'm intrigued to know what's causing it. Seems odd.

[Nunalho]

I felt some too, shame because it was butter smooth before (except for the last turn of metropia).

[Mu5]

I agree, the last turn in Metropia was the only place where it annoyed me before. I was playing Ubermall Phantom and a couple of Zone games yesterday and the frames were dropping all over the place :(

[Handmadelion]

I had some stuff to do, but I decided to play a "little" Fury. And that's exactly what I got. I did the first campaign event in an eliminator game. I did two 180' turns right after the other and my game froze :D

[AlexMax]

Slowdown is really obvious for me around the start/finish line in "The Amphiseum" Zone Battle.

[flashbax]

Thank god its not just me, I thought my bravia was about to chuck the towel in lol

[Rod Hull]

I've noticed it too - only had time to play through the first two events of the first round you're given in the single-player campaign, but have seen problems in both.

Noticed some REALLY MAJOR slowdown and stutter on the eliminator round - the framerate dropped to what looked like well below 20fps at times - very poor.

Also seen screen tearing cropping up as well - noticed it on both events :(

Love the new menus/tracks/music/ships/modes etc. but this is really a major bug IMO. One of WOHD's strongest features is that it's almost always been fast and smooth at 60fps - just not seeing that consistently at all at the minute unfortunately with the new update...:?

[KIGO1987]

This update is the best yet,

The game actually feels like it was when i originally purchased the game last year, plus better now, everything is super responsive and quick now, just the way any wipeout should be.

Ive noticed quakes are heaps faster now, so is weapon response,

Im yet to try on online yet, im praying that there are no Vista pads in online eliminator mode.

[shakesquire]

Slowdown/screen tear was really noticeable in split-screen 2-player on Talon's Junction, and in general on zone tracks for me.

As Norfolk says it's jarring to see any sort of slowdown in a game which has hitherto been silky-smooth...

Is it just me or is there screen-tearing on the SL logo screen now?? :?

[Spece2goin]

Im yet to try on online yet, im praying that there are no Vista pads in online eliminator mode.


Vista pads on eliminator,
you made me laugh!!

in fact, On Eliminator, it's cambodia on the first weapon pad!
and framerate is not good with 2 quakes, rockets explosions and elimination on the screen...

but i haven't seen slowdown in ither situation...

[Axel]

Paul did state in another thread that they have realised the problem and looking to roll out a patch soon to resolve the issue.

[jan709]

weird, i havent noticed any of these issues :eek, maybe my ps3 is so awesome it can handle what others cant. Or im blind :p

[Rod Hull]

Not noticed any real improvement to framerate drops and stutters with the 2.01 patch :(

Any single-player eliminator race still shows a LOT of framerate drops - sometimes to what looks like well below 30fps. Zone Battle is also badly affected.

The only modes I don't see heavy framerate drops are normal Zone, Detonator and some races - some of the new tracks seem to have framerate issues on virtually any event...

Stutters however (different to framerate slowdown - where it just randomly skips forward or pauses for a split-second) AND screen tearing are still present in all event modes for me, too.

Screen tearing has now been fixed on the SL intro screen, though where I was seeing it before also...

[KIGO1987]

Vista pads on eliminator,
you made me laugh!!

in fact, On Eliminator, it's cambodia on the first weapon pad!
and framerate is not good with 2 quakes, rockets explosions and elimination on the screen...

but i haven't seen slowdown in ither situation...

Kyoto was being a cheeky shiit. I went on online eliminator mode just a lil earlier, no Vista Pads to report:g Here;
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6551

Its Cambodia, plus Laos, Burma and Vietnam, yes. But its a fun mode.

[anderkovver]

with the patch 2.01 the froze is gone in the menu thanks again SL and the framedrops are gone for people who have problems clean up your ps3 maybe it will help ...put effectscreen to off and no music effect will improve the play also

[loxy]

framedrops no gone with last patch for me...I have a perfect framerate only in time attack mode. Screen tearing visible especially on the fury's track but when I see the quantity of details on Modesto or Talons junction, it's not surprising ...no secret
and modify the sound effects have no incidence on the graphic treatments obviously

[Nunalho]

I dont understand how some of you have fr problems and i dont :nod

On the other hand i have constant sound effects problems in fury tracks that really get annoying ( feels that i am constantly inside a tunnel).

[Hellfire_WZ]

The sound effects seem like a general problem, I get that too.

[newtype]

I don't notice any sound problems as I'm usually too into the game to notice, but there is definitely some extremely minor stutters every once in a while during regular gameplay. I consider myself pretty anal about such things, but I honestly don't think the momentary drops in the FR are a big deal-

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

I've still noticed a frame rate drop.

[Rod Hull]

I'm still noticing this on every Fury single-player event now - I previously thought it only badly affected Eliminator and Zone Battle, but the framerate drops are so heavy at times that it's more than off-putting.

My XMB is running at 1080i - so I assume WOHD is too (my LCD TV is fairly old, and has a panel res. of 1280x768 - and feeding it 1080i looks better on all sources than 720p). I haven't yet forced it into 720p, from what I've read elsewhere (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-wipeout-hd-fury-interview?page=3) (3rd question from the bottom) this may improve framerate?

I appreciate that there are a lot of technical improvements to the graphics and rendering in Fury, but WipeoutHD with Fury or not MUST remain as close as possible to 60fps at all times. At the moment, the framerate dips are just too frequent to be acceptable - all IMO, of course.

Now with Fury, I get heavy framerate dips on EVERY track on EVERY event whenever I perform a boost start, ALL Eliminator events when there is two or more ships on the screen and a weapon goes off, all Zone Battle events when there are two or more ships on the screen at various points, and at random points throughout regular races on any of the Fury tracks...

Not withstanding the framerate dips is the massive screen tearing that was introduced in Fury on some of the new tracks...it just serves to make the game look ugly and seem like it's running on less-powerful hardware than before.

Can the devs PLEASE look into improving things with a patch - or at least acknowledge that the experience has drastically changed, and not just shrug it off?

I know I'm not alone in this thinking...:(

[Z_Zoquis]

I notice the occasional screen tearing and slight frame drop, but nothing at all dramatic. It still looks to be running at 60fps for me most of the time. As far as the big drop with boost starts, I just don't really see this at all...ever as far as I've noticed.

Is it possible the game behaves differently on different PS3 systems?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for further optimization. Anything that will improve the performance of the game is great afaic. I just find it odd that some people seem to be experiencing different performance than I am. I mean I'm used to that in the PC realm, but on consoles? Could it be a heat issue? I happen to have my PS3 and TV on a big metal grill type of stand that allows airflow on every side, top and bottom of the PS3. Could some of these issues be related to overheating or something?

[PLazarou]

Now with Fury, I get heavy framerate dips on EVERY track on EVERY event whenever I perform a boost start, ALL Eliminator events when there is two or more ships on the screen and a weapon goes off, all Zone Battle events when there are two or more ships on the screen at various points, and at random points throughout regular races on any of the Fury tracks...
As far as I can tell, the framerate doesn't dip due to the boost start. It's just below 60fps at the start constantly, because all the ships are bunched up. You only notice it when you boost start because it's a sudden movement. Same with random frame drops mid-race, this will be when there are plenty of ships near each other. (the higher-detail models kick in when they're nearer the camera)

So no, you're not alone, I notice it too! But it's really just off the line where it's obviously below 60. Once the ships separate it's smooth 99% of the time. Would be nice if they could keep optimising it though...

[ProblemSolver]

My take on the frame drop thing is; if you can't keep 60fps remove
features and / or visual quality. That's it.

[AEREC]

I only notice framerate drops on eliminator when alot of stuff is going on, I have not seen them in a single race yet though. It's not bad enough to ruin the game but it is still very noticeable.

It kinda sucks since Wipeout is one of the few titles that lists 60fps as a feature (Like Call of Duty and Burnout).

[Connavar]

I certainly would prefer a constant 60fps game, but frankly, the framerate is
99% of the time rock solid, except on Eliminator, but that's normal with all
the chaos, I prefer to have the mode with some framerate drops, than not have
it at all, so I won't complain ... fantastic work SL!

[Darkdrium777]

The new optimization they made to the tracks with patch 2.00 and subsequently the 2.01 fix certainly helped for game modes other than Eliminator (The reason why it was put in place I think.) Haven't seen that Metropia hairpin frame drop again in single race or anything else but Eliminator.

[Rod Hull]

Changing to 720p indeed does give a smoother experience - even on Eliminator modes the framerate drop is not as much as it is when viewing in 1080, but all at the expense of the overall quality of the visuals IMO.

My TV displays 1080i material much better than 720p - there is a LOT of visible aliasing/blocking in 720p mode that vanishes when outputting in 1080i - giving a much crisper, sharper picture.

This would probably explain why some are seeing big framerate hits and others are not. Those running in 1080i/p will certainly see considerably more tearing/slowdown than anyone running in 720p, where it's MUCH less noticeable.

[Z_Zoquis]

I'm in 1080p.

[PLazarou]

Count yourself lucky - your eyes aren't as sensitive to these things. Trust us, the frame drops are there, and it's nothing to do with different spec PS3s.

[Nunalho]

I did a few more tests and i ve found out that the sound issue only happens when i play in 5.1 DD sound. If i change the PS3 settings to 2 speakers the sound on Fury tracks is fine... it must be some bad 5.1 coding.