Junior Member
Hello!
I am new to the forum but not new to the game, unfortunately I couldn't find a technical support section on FH forums so I hope this is going to be okay.
I also realize that there must've been hundreds of threads about frame rate drop issues, and also plenty enough fixes provided, but bear with me on this one, as this is unlike anything I've come across in these games.
So I appear to have an issue that looks like a frame rate issue - but isn't actually caused by frame rate drop. Let me state before I get into the thick of it is that I bought a game good few months ago and I've had your usual frame drop issues caused by V-sync and all sorts and I've fixed them since and game has ran beautifully. I use a laptop and it isn't overheating, even when I am not using an extra cooling system for it. Laptop still performs great when playing other games, e.g. Rainbow Six Siege etc. - even though I have also had frame rate drop issues with it - and I have also fixed them with all the advice provided on these forums and it has been fine since. So laptop performance is out of the question here I think (But I will provide the specs at the bottom of the post just in case).
The problem has arisen today. I've delayed my Windows 10 update for weeks, as I just didn't want the hassle over Xmas time, and it always causes it. This time was no different but the actual laptop gave me no choice whatsoever, it just said it's doing the maintenance on 13/01/18 and that was it - I wasn't allowed to delay it any longer. I let do it's thing but I didn't have time to test anything out that same evening. Today I totally forgot that the update even happened, so I ran the game without second thoughts but odd flickering and cuts/frames whilst changing tabs in the menu already worried me. I selected Heroes customization tab and the issue have become apparent quickly. It looked like a massive frame rate drop. I ran a practice duel and it was even worse. It no longer looked like a frame drop as such as much as some weird animation/flickering issue, as if motion blur got activated as default and didn't run properly, the game wasn't slow as such, it just jumped about through animations once in match/game.
I've been trying to fix and figure this out all day today but I got nowhere. Here's what I've done so far:
I did all of the default checks and fixes that I usually do, I checked all the graphics settings, filtering etc., display settings, V-sync, motion blur etc. I then checked if maybe the update didn't switch the graphics processor settings back to default on FH to the integrated card instead of my NVIDIA. It did, but changing it back to NVIDIA didn't fix the issue. After that I checked for the new update for the drivers, indeed - there was a new update out so I thought I had it there. But no. So at this point I started switching off all the unnecessary programs running, trying to decrease the processing load and seeing if any of this would make a difference. Nothing worked. I then found out about the Game DVR bollocks with new Win10 updates and followed the instructions on how to fix that to improve frame rate etc (regedits). None of these fixes changed anything.
I then tried running the game in windowed mode and VOILA! Everything game wise was back to normal. Smooth and running great. May I also add that I checked frame rate with fraps in both modes, and it doesn't differ at all. It varies between 40-60, sometimes peaking at 90 on loading screen. What's even funnier about this issue is that I cannot physically show you guys with what I got on fraps recording because the flickering/framerate/lagging is not present on the recorded footage (WTF?), the game looks absolutely smooth and there is no issue. I also checked other games for similar issues (R6Siege etc.) None of the games had this issue going. So at this point all I established is that somehow the fullscreen mode is causing me this display issue but it seems to have nothing to do with my frame rate or the game/laptop performance. Yet it looks like a frame rate issue and it's a massive hindrance to the game display - I cannot see the parry/gb indicators in time to react and other characters in actual game look like they're lagging big time too which makes it unplayable in fullscreen mode. But it's absolutely fine in windowed mode. (Borderless Windowed mode does the same thing as Fullscreen) I am lost as to how to deal with this. I am actually uploading a video recorded off my phone of this issue, because that seems to be the only way I can physically show what's going on. If anyone has any idea on what's going on here then please let me know.
I know this is a long post, but it's been a long day trying to get this figured out and I wanted to make my issue very clear - as this just doesn't seem to be a regular frame-rate issue, I wouldn't go bothering you lovely people about this, if I was in denial about my Laptop performance or just not very confident about doing the fixes myself. I hope someone knows deh weh...
Specs:
(Win10 Home 64-bit)
Intel Core i5-4210H 2.90 GHz
8.0 GB of dedotated waaaaaam
GeForce 940MX 2048MB DDR3 (latest driv. v. 390.65 and directX 12.0 - all up to date)
Resolution at 1366 x 768, 60Hz refresh rate
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BjpAdz0ijs
I realise this video's rendering is bad as it's taken with my photato phone and at first it might be difficult to see what I am on about. So if you can't see it right off the bat - go to around 0:38 - I change to windowed mode, and the game is smooth but the frame rate indicator isn't affected - I change it back to fullscreen around 1:20 and the laggyness/framerate like issue is back. Runs smooth on windowed - runs laggy on fullscreen - frame rate remains the same regardless.
Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help!
Ubisoft Support Staff NCSA
Hello!
And thank you for taking the time to reach out to us about this issue in such detail. One thing we would first suggest is that perhaps something went awry in the initial installation of the update. It is likely you'll need to verify the integrity of your game cache in order to make sure nothing is missing. You can try this by way of these steps:
1. Launch Uplay.
2. Select the Games tab at the top of the window.
3. Click on the game title within your games library.
4. Select "Properties."
5. Under "Local Files," choose the "Verify Files" tab.
Should you still run into issues following this, we would advise providing your DXDIAG and MSINFO to our technical teams for further investigation, whom can be reached through support ticket here.
Junior Member
Thanks UbiWvlf,
I was worried that it might be something to do with the update, unfortunately I left the laptop unattended to do the update and just turned up once it was finished. The file verification unfortunately did not help, it didn't find any issues with the game. The problem is still there. I have submitted my case to the tech team, we'll see what they can find, thanks for your advice!
Junior Member
I have a similar issue, Watchdogs will not do fullscreen, nomatter what I do. Files i verified, i even tried to uninstall and then re install. it makes no difference.
one thing that does look spoky is that the screen resolution is undefined. I don't know if it is a Windows issue or a game issue.
Im running windows 10 pro 64 bit I7 4770K, 16Gb ram and a Nvidea GTX 780
Junior Member
Same issues happening here, but I've been somehow plagued by a weird memory leak since season 4. In Dominion, after playing for a while, my frames would drop to around 40 fps. Now whenever I get it, it starts right from there. In Duels and Brawls this only happens after a few rounds, and I fix it by minimizing the game and coming back, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Dominion or the Apollyon gamemode. I'm going to try run the game in windowed and see if there are any improvements that way and I'll come back with a reply if it works for me. I'm going to send a support ticket afterwards if nothing is fixed.
