Hello!

Found a very frustrating problem that I've noticed since coming back to LFS.
I did not experience this in the older build (Can't remember what ones, but I've been playing from time to time over the years).

So, even tho its steady 60 FPS, and my monitor is 60Hz, the game seems to "stutter" abit when, or not look smooth as all other games.

I've tried almost everything now, Vsync on/off etc etc.

I have a GTX 570 and E8500. Does anyone else experience this? If you drive at a steady speed and look sideways, the objects seem to stutter by.

update your GTX 570 drivers

Already using the latest.

LFS "runs" at 100 Hz, so you're going to end up with a little stuttering if your display is locked at 60 Hz. I use a CRT with the refresh rate set to 100 Hz and LFS is perfectly smooth.

Try to disable v-sync and set the maximum fps in-game to 100. I have a 60hz monitor too and imo LFS runs much smoother with these settings.

Ok, even tho I select 58 FPS or 62 FPS ingame, It doesn't matter. Still the same stutter. Anyway, why doesn't it work to limit it to just 60?

With Vsync on, the game outputs exactly 60 FPS steady, and my monitor is 60 HZ so this shouldn't be a problem.

I mean, 95% of all people are running thier screens on 60Hz, doesn't ANYONE else experience this "unsmoothiness" that has gotten into LFS now? I did NOT experience this last time I played some patches ago...

Maybe we all got used to it?
If i remember correctly there was a statement from Scawen regarding this problem a loong loooooooooong time ago. The LFS physic-engine runs at 100hz so there's nothing you can do unfortunately, unless you buy an expensive 100hz monitor

VSync doesn't actually limit framerate, it makes sure that the graphics card sends new data to your screen only when it starts the refreshing cycle. To my knowledge LFS doesn't use triple buffering by default and this might cause both the front and back buffer (that's where GPU stores the image to be sent to the screen) to be full. When this happens, GPU has to wait until the front buffer is fully drawn on the screen before it can render another frame.
Try switching VSync off and disable frame limiting altogether. Also, are you sure your PC is 100% malware-free and that there is no background task running that could be causing this?

VSync affects LFS, because the wheel/controller input is read each new FPS, thought the physics always run at 100Hz, so it could cause some sttutering also

Quote from MadCatX :

VSync doesn't actually limit framerate, it makes sure that the graphics card sends new data to your screen only when it starts the refreshing cycle. To my knowledge LFS doesn't use triple buffering by default and this might cause both the front and back buffer (that's where GPU stores the image to be sent to the screen) to be full. When this happens, GPU has to wait until the front buffer is fully drawn on the screen before it can render another frame.
Try switching VSync off and disable frame limiting altogether. Also, are you sure your PC is 100% malware-free and that there is no background task running that could be causing this?

I've tried every single combination. V-Sync off without framelimiter aswell.
Also, It's not a malware or "backgroundtasks running"-problem.
The only thing that makes sense is that this game is running at 100 FPS all the time like some people have said...causing problems on 60-hz monitors.

I mean, the game is fully playable and this might not be notacible to most people...but I'm very picky and used to all my games running at a smooth 60 fps without stuttering at all. So its a gamebreaker for me, so I mostly play shitty outdated rFactor right now just because I can't stand the microstuttering in this game...

It's the only game I've encountered this in too

I think that people are exaggerating the effect of LFS engine running at 100 Hz. Physics calculations and image rendering are separated, LFS recalculates the entire physics every 1/100th of a second, but unless you limit the framerate it tries to render as much frames as it can. Very powerful computers can squeeze out even 1000 FPS at certain tracks. I really don't see how would that cause any problems. I'm very sure that many other sims and games use the same approach 'cause it's the logical thing to do.
It's hard to imagine what you're experiencing without actually seeing it with ones own eyes.
I played LFS on many computers with LCD screens and I've never experienced any problem like that.

I'd dare to say that more than 75% of LFS players play on 60Hz monitors, and I've never seen any problem with that (I am one of those people who notice when a game is stutering from a mile)

Anything from 40FPS upwards should look fine, if it does not I guess it's because several frames are skipped for some reason or something like that

Quote from pellson :

even tho its steady 60 FPS, and my monitor is 60Hz, the game seems to "stutter" abit when, or not look smooth as all other games.

Hi.
I registered only to answer this question.
I found that if I switch to 50Hz graphics mode and turn on VSync, the picture became much smoother. Because 100 divided by 50 exactly (without remainder). Excuse me for my English, I hope you understand what I mean.
Thank you for the information about "LFS engine running at 100 Hz". It helped me find a solution.

@Pavel_D

Quote from Evolution_R :

..."LFS "runs" at 100 Hz, so you're going to end up with a little stuttering if your display is locked at 60 Hz."
...
So my question is this going to be improved somehow with the new graphics / physics update? Thanks!

Quote from Scawen :

It's a good question. If I can get the graphics ready to a condition that is suitable for this release and could then get back on the physics so that is suitable in time for Eric to have finished the tracks, then this opens the possibility of working on separate physics and graphics threads. That would be a great help and the plan would be to combine this with some means of producing visual frames at the correct visual frequency for the monitor. That would either be by using a high frequency physics update that can be interrupted at any point for a graphical frame, or by using a lower frequency physics update that can be interpolated to produce graphical frames.

Obviously the graphics needs to be done then that would make it releasable, even with the current physics and it's possible this may happen. But I really hope I can sort out the new physics so we can move on.

@Evolution_R Thanks. I understand from your message that this issue should already be fixed, and I just need to download a newer version.

It is not fixed... it will be fixed.