Assassins Creed Black Flag Dx11 3D Fix*
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An existence proof for how the game should run: [url]http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719117&page=4[/url] CPU usage 50% of 8 threads. Frame rate in Havana 61 fps, SLI Titans running at 70%.
An existence proof for how the game should run: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719117&page=4

CPU usage 50% of 8 threads. Frame rate in Havana 61 fps, SLI Titans running at 70%.

Acer H5360 (1280x720@120Hz) - ASUS VG248QE with GSync mod - 3D Vision 1&2 - Driver 372.54
GTX 970 - i5-4670K@4.2GHz - 12GB RAM - Win7x64+evilKB2670838 - 4 Disk X25 RAID
SAGER NP9870-S - GTX 980 - i7-6700K - Win10 Pro 1607
Latest 3Dmigoto Release
Bo3b's School for ShaderHackers

#76
Posted 07/11/2014 12:18 AM   
I would sell one testicle for 61 fps in Havana! Not to resort to such extreme measures, I've stopped playing AC4 for a while, no matter how sad that makes me as the game is gorgeous. Last thing I tried yesterday was the driver downgrade to pre-CM. No change in the stuttering with wrapper, no stuttering without wrapper. Overall, it seems the average STP is a little lower, probably some SLI optimisation was better on the newest drivers. To clarify: My GPU activity for the SLI 580 was, according to Nvidia Inspector's monitoring, maxed out on both cards. In all scenarios. I don't think he moniotor gives actual percentager, or I only looked at the topmost graph. It was filled to the max, on both cards. I will use the driver downgrade to play through DMC with Helix's fix. The game is visually beautiful, and it stays at 60 fps, without any dips ever, on ULTRA settings. But was really in the mood for some shivering of the timbers and what not, matey, arg arg! Maybe later, with some luck. Thanks again!
I would sell one testicle for 61 fps in Havana! Not to resort to such extreme measures, I've stopped playing AC4 for a while, no matter how sad that makes me as the game is gorgeous.

Last thing I tried yesterday was the driver downgrade to pre-CM. No change in the stuttering with wrapper, no stuttering without wrapper. Overall, it seems the average STP is a little lower, probably some SLI optimisation was better on the newest drivers.
To clarify: My GPU activity for the SLI 580 was, according to Nvidia Inspector's monitoring, maxed out on both cards. In all scenarios. I don't think he moniotor gives actual percentager, or I only looked at the topmost graph. It was filled to the max, on both cards.

I will use the driver downgrade to play through DMC with Helix's fix. The game is visually beautiful, and it stays at 60 fps, without any dips ever, on ULTRA settings. But was really in the mood for some shivering of the timbers and what not, matey, arg arg! Maybe later, with some luck.
Thanks again!

#77
Posted 07/11/2014 09:40 AM   
@Zappologist: if you are getting max GPU off both your cards, that's as good as it gets with this game. That's what I was seeing before, and why I say the game is GPU limited. The only thing you can do to smooth it out further is to lower some settings. Generally the biggest impact is the World setting. In your case, if your CPU is running 4 cores, that's as good as it gets as well, and a better video card would in fact help in this case. Maybe play the game after you upgrade GPUs. My case seems different. Somehow my system has busted AC4, so I get 11 fps in Havana [u]in 2D[/u], because it's only using two of my four cores. GPUs are not pegged, so it's definitely CPU. Tried all the usual stuff, reinstall game, tried 320.49 drivers, tried setting full power mode, changing affinity all the usual annoying stuff. No idea why all 4 cores are not active, because they definitely were before.
@Zappologist: if you are getting max GPU off both your cards, that's as good as it gets with this game. That's what I was seeing before, and why I say the game is GPU limited.

The only thing you can do to smooth it out further is to lower some settings. Generally the biggest impact is the World setting.

In your case, if your CPU is running 4 cores, that's as good as it gets as well, and a better video card would in fact help in this case. Maybe play the game after you upgrade GPUs.


My case seems different. Somehow my system has busted AC4, so I get 11 fps in Havana in 2D, because it's only using two of my four cores. GPUs are not pegged, so it's definitely CPU.

Tried all the usual stuff, reinstall game, tried 320.49 drivers, tried setting full power mode, changing affinity all the usual annoying stuff. No idea why all 4 cores are not active, because they definitely were before.

Acer H5360 (1280x720@120Hz) - ASUS VG248QE with GSync mod - 3D Vision 1&2 - Driver 372.54
GTX 970 - i5-4670K@4.2GHz - 12GB RAM - Win7x64+evilKB2670838 - 4 Disk X25 RAID
SAGER NP9870-S - GTX 980 - i7-6700K - Win10 Pro 1607
Latest 3Dmigoto Release
Bo3b's School for ShaderHackers

#78
Posted 07/11/2014 10:45 AM   
As I mentioned before, when I look at CPU activity, only [u]one[/u] core is active to the full, with the others just barely doing anything, some do nothing. If I mess around with affinity, the core that was at 100% will just distribute this full work change amond 2 or three other cores, each working like 25%, with the rest still barely active. So, in this case, it's as if the CPU performs the [u]same[/u] processing output, not [u]more[/u]. And the result is the same. No matter how many CPU cores work, the GPUs are at full change, and the game is intermittently dipping the fps if the wrapper is active. Regardless of all other variables (CPU load spread, GPU load, RAM, 2D vs. 3D, grapics settings low/off, new/old drivers etc), the game is jittery with the wrapper, and smooth without. It's interesting that you saw your 4 CPU cores all active before, and not now, wonder what happened... For me, only the first one is active to the full, the remaining 7 mostly idle (unless I fiddle with affinity, as explained, but with no consequence)
As I mentioned before, when I look at CPU activity, only one core is active to the full, with the others just barely doing anything, some do nothing. If I mess around with affinity, the core that was at 100% will just distribute this full work change amond 2 or three other cores, each working like 25%, with the rest still barely active. So, in this case, it's as if the CPU performs the same processing output, not more.
And the result is the same. No matter how many CPU cores work, the GPUs are at full change, and the game is intermittently dipping the fps if the wrapper is active. Regardless of all other variables (CPU load spread, GPU load, RAM, 2D vs. 3D, grapics settings low/off, new/old drivers etc), the game is jittery with the wrapper, and smooth without.
It's interesting that you saw your 4 CPU cores all active before, and not now, wonder what happened... For me, only the first one is active to the full, the remaining 7 mostly idle (unless I fiddle with affinity, as explained, but with no consequence)

#79
Posted 07/11/2014 11:31 AM   
Microsoft recommends to compute all timing on a single thread. Computation of timing on multiple threads — for example, with each thread associated with a specific processor — greatly reduces performance of multi-core systems due to modern power management technologies that idle and restore various cores at different times, which results in the cores typically being out of synchronization. Using the Windows API SetThreadAffinityMask that single thread is set to remain on a single processor. Typically, this is the main game thread. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee417693%28VS.85,loband%29.aspx So SetThreadAffinityMask would explain why you are seeing most of the load on a single core, I think.
Microsoft recommends to compute all timing on a single thread. Computation of timing on multiple threads — for example, with each thread associated with a specific processor — greatly reduces performance of multi-core systems due to modern power management technologies that idle and restore various cores at different times, which results in the cores typically being out of synchronization. Using the Windows API SetThreadAffinityMask that single thread is set to remain on a single processor. Typically, this is the main game thread.


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee417693%28VS.85,loband%29.aspx


So SetThreadAffinityMask would explain why you are seeing most of the load on a single core, I think.

#80
Posted 07/11/2014 05:21 PM   
I'll monitor other games as well, but since I don't remember ever having in other games the performance/stuttering issues I have with AC4, you may be correct that what I'm seeing is the default/efficient CPU core load behaviour. But really, I've never had to check my CPU load before in all my 20+ gaming life (not that they had cores back then LOL), so I have no idea what the norm is.
I'll monitor other games as well, but since I don't remember ever having in other games the performance/stuttering issues I have with AC4, you may be correct that what I'm seeing is the default/efficient CPU core load behaviour. But really, I've never had to check my CPU load before in all my 20+ gaming life (not that they had cores back then LOL), so I have no idea what the norm is.

#81
Posted 07/11/2014 05:56 PM   
I just finally got around to trying this fix, looks amazing. Makes me want to beat the game again. Good work.
I just finally got around to trying this fix, looks amazing. Makes me want to beat the game again. Good work.

#82
Posted 07/14/2014 06:53 AM   
Hi Neal0790, can you please let us know if you also experience the performance issues we were discussing here? (the sudden drop in fps for half a second, periodically), in cities versus on the ship. Mabybe give some details about our setup, especially if it's smooth for you. And if you also have those issues, can you please try it after uninstaling the wrapper. This always solves the stuttering for me, but nobody yet understands what happens. Thanks
Hi Neal0790, can you please let us know if you also experience the performance issues we were discussing here? (the sudden drop in fps for half a second, periodically), in cities versus on the ship. Mabybe give some details about our setup, especially if it's smooth for you. And if you also have those issues, can you please try it after uninstaling the wrapper. This always solves the stuttering for me, but nobody yet understands what happens.
Thanks

#83
Posted 07/14/2014 09:40 AM   
I saw this in the release notes. Will this introduce problems if it's not disabled or will it be a help? I was just wondering if it would alter the pipeline, perhaps store shaders before they are recompiled via the wrapper? What’s New in Release 337 Shader Cache: 3D Settings->Manage 3D Settings Page Added Shader Cache setting to reduce CPU usage by saving compiled shaders to a disk cache. This may improve performance and reduce the time it takes for a game to load.
I saw this in the release notes. Will this introduce problems if it's not disabled or will it be a help? I was just wondering if it would alter the pipeline, perhaps store shaders before they are recompiled via the wrapper?


What’s New in Release 337

Shader Cache: 3D Settings->Manage 3D Settings Page
Added Shader Cache setting to reduce CPU usage by saving compiled shaders to a disk cache. This may improve performance and reduce the time it takes for a game to load.

#84
Posted 07/15/2014 11:45 AM   
Seeing how Nvidia more hinders than helps the 3D community efforts, whenever they change something, this new setting may even be the cause of the stuttering, when other shader manipulations are involved (such as when the wrapper is active). But Mike suggested this be on, and an additional related setting in the wrapper ini. I think it is on by default in the Control Panel when the new driver is installed. I did not test with it off yet.
Seeing how Nvidia more hinders than helps the 3D community efforts, whenever they change something, this new setting may even be the cause of the stuttering, when other shader manipulations are involved (such as when the wrapper is active).
But Mike suggested this be on, and an additional related setting in the wrapper ini.
I think it is on by default in the Control Panel when the new driver is installed. I did not test with it off yet.

#85
Posted 07/15/2014 11:59 AM   
[quote="Zappologist"]Seeing how Nvidia more hinders than helps the 3D community efforts, whenever they change something, this new setting may even be the cause of the stuttering, when other shader manipulations are involved (such as when the wrapper is active). But Mike suggested this be on, and an additional related setting in the wrapper ini. I think it is on by default in the Control Panel when the new driver is installed. I did not test with it off yet.[/quote] This setting does not cause me any problems, though it's hard to tell if it makes any positive difference either...
Zappologist said:Seeing how Nvidia more hinders than helps the 3D community efforts, whenever they change something, this new setting may even be the cause of the stuttering, when other shader manipulations are involved (such as when the wrapper is active).
But Mike suggested this be on, and an additional related setting in the wrapper ini.
I think it is on by default in the Control Panel when the new driver is installed. I did not test with it off yet.

This setting does not cause me any problems, though it's hard to tell if it makes any positive difference either...

Rig: Intel i7-8700K @4.7GHz, 16Gb Ram, SSD, GTX 1080Ti, Win10x64, Asus VG278

#86
Posted 07/15/2014 12:12 PM   
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