stuttering in cutscenes/dialogue

[skepinho]

hi, after purchasing this game on tuesday i am really enjoying it and it runs perfectly fine on my pc during game play. However when i encounter a dialogue/cut-scene the game skips and jutters like crazy. i would like to know if this can be fixed? Maybe in a similar way to the mouse acceleration problem which i also suffered from but resolved by editing the APEngine file.

[skepinho]

can anyone help?

[markridin]

hi, after purchasing this game on tuesday i am really enjoying it and it runs perfectly fine on my pc during game play. However when i encounter a dialogue/cut-scene the game skips and jutters like crazy. i would like to know if this can be fixed? Maybe in a similar way to the mouse acceleration problem which i also suffered from but resolved by editing the APEngine file.

 

what kinda GPU do you have?

u don't happen to have an INTEL-Onboard or anything right?

[skepinho]

my GPU is a NVIDIA GeForce 8400 and no i dont believe i have an intel-onboard

[player1]

That's pretty dated GPU. Have you tried reducing all graphics options to low, to see if it makes a difference.

Edited June 6, 2010 by player1

[skepinho]

after lowering the graphics the cut scenes are still laggy any other ideas?

[fkldnhlsdngsfnhlsndlg]

This may seem strange, but if you have a firewall, try blocking Alpha Protocol from connecting to the Internet (it's a single-player game so it's not like it'll interfere). I'm not 100% sure, but I think stuttering has decreased a little since I've done that. I noticed a similar issue in Prince of Persia about a year ago, where it'd stutter every few minutes as it attempted to phone home (probably to relay play statistics to Ubisoft). I can't say for certain, but Alpha Protocol might do the same thing at certain points in the game.

[skepinho]

This may seem strange, but if you have a firewall, try blocking Alpha Protocol from connecting to the Internet (it's a single-player game so it's not like it'll interfere). I'm not 100% sure, but I think stuttering has decreased a little since I've done that. I noticed a similar issue in Prince of Persia about a year ago, where it'd stutter every few minutes as it attempted to phone home (probably to relay play statistics to Ubisoft). I can't say for certain, but Alpha Protocol might do the same thing at certain points in the game.

 

it kinda reduced the lag abit but it is still quite bad. I just don't get why it will run perfectly during gameplay but stutter and lag for the cut scenes and dialogues.

[winklebottom]

Cutscenes played perfectly for me. However, there was some stuttering in-game. I changed UseMinimalNVIDIADriverShaderOptimization=False to True in the APEngine file. The game became noticeably smoother afterward. Hopefully that helps your game.

[player1]

Just for fun, I tried AP on my 1201N ION netbook, and it was unplayable (mostly because mouse behaves "funny", if frame rate is below 20, not somethings that happens with other games, with less then stellar frame rates). I just hope that mouse issue gets solver properly in patch.

 

With such lower end GPU, I noticed also that cutscenes are indeed very demanding. While rest of the game was around 10-20fps, cutscenes where around 5fps. I have no idea why...

Edited June 7, 2010 by player1

[Tigranes]

Cutscenes seem to make use of more filters and postproduction things to make it look good close-up. This might be the cause on lower-end computers. Perhaps try going through APEngine.ini adn turning off some of the more advanced effects - but keep a backup in case your changes cause graphical errors (some peopel reported that turning bloom off breaks things).

[player1]

It's pitty that more of those options aren't exposed through in-game menues.

 

 

P.S.

True about bloom. Turning it off removes all 3d elements from menues.

Edited June 7, 2010 by player1

[Hassat Hunter]

While I don't notice slowdowns during most cutscene's, the "Gellato man" scene in Rome is really really choppy.

That's the only one I notice that's far more demanding than normal, and I have no idea why...

[player1]

Heh... In my netbook test I just used same cutscene.

Edited June 7, 2010 by player1

[player1]

Cutscenes seem to make use of more filters and postproduction things to make it look good close-up. This might be the cause on lower-end computers. Perhaps try going through APEngine.ini adn turning off some of the more advanced effects - but keep a backup in case your changes cause graphical errors (some peopel reported that turning bloom off breaks things).

 

I just noticed that depth of field, even if disabled in graphics options, still applies in dialog cutscenes.

 

This also reminded me of similar issue in Witcher, when I played it with with my old x1600pro radeon. In that game turning off DOF improved dialog performance.

[skepinho]

After fiddling with the APEngine file and turning off the high quality effects and the depth of field the cut scenes and dialogues now run much more smoothly. To anyone who replied, thank you for the help much appreciated.

[player1]

Please post what have you tweaked in APEngine.ini.

Edited June 8, 2010 by player1

[skepinho]

Please post what have you tweaked in APEngine.ini.

 

these are the changes I have made to the ini file

 

StaticDecals=True

DynamicDecals=False

DynamicLights=True

DynamicShadows=False

LightEnvironmentShadows=True

CompositeDynamicLights=False

DirectionalLightmaps=True

MotionBlur=false

DepthOfField=False

AmbientOcclusion=True

Bloom=True

QualityBloom=True

Distortion=True

DropParticleDistortion=False

SpeedTreeLeaves=False

SpeedTreeFronds=False

OnlyStreamInTextures=true

[Spydude]

I would turn off ambient occlusion first as that uses a lot of resources. Dynamic shadows are important. Motion Blur isn't too necessary either. If you are desparate for better frame rates see if you can change compositedynamiclights to true. That should help a bunch if it works.

[player1]

Dynamic shadows are one of few things that actually do have significant impact on frame rate.

[skepinho]

the tweaks have reduced the stuttering significantly however some still remains and it can sometimes become annoying. Can any suggest a decent GPU that would improve the performance of alpha protocol on my pc, preferably something not too expensive?

[One Wolf]

Just a reminder: settings changed in the ingame menu don't save unless you change the resolution also. Just switch the res with the other changes, accept, then switch back to the proper res.