Unexplainable camera look stutter after 45-50 minutes of gameplay.

[sa547]

As nobody was able to answer my question in Reddit, I think I would try my luck here.

A few weeks ago, I got my modded SSE setup finally up and running so that I could make the transition after years of playing LE (and decided to use that LE modded setup for mostly development purposes), but then I've been stumped by a camera pan stutter that shows up after some 45 minutes in-game and it happens every time, forcing me to quit playing.

Also inexplicably, when I tried using camera look with the XBox360 controller (I normally use for The Crew 2), it was smoother than what I could use with the mouse, and I don't know how that happened.

So far, I've just looked through (and perused some possible diagnostics and fixes from STEP and Phoenix Flavor)

• skyrimprefs.ini (ran BethINI on it, disabled vsync)
• enblocal.ini (also disabled vsync)
• installed SSE Display Tweaks and enabled only vsync with it and added limitations to only 60 FPS,
• tried Havok Fix and FPS Stabilizer, and these didn't work either
• configured the GeForce panel for the game (no effect)
• even bought a new G102 gaming mouse because the poll rate of the office mouse I used for years wasn't good and I thought replacing the mouse would work
• bought a new secondary monitor and removed all VGA cables and adapters, going for an all-HDMI setup to get the framerate within control (still the stutter happened)
• unplugged the XB360 controller (didn't work)

Here's my current modwatch list, btw, as some of the installs were salvaged from the (Wabbajack) Keizaal setup and included into my setup.

Note that I am using Silent Horizons ENB for Dolomite.

Here's the current hardware setup:

• Ryzen 5 3500 @3600Mhz; processor boost disabled
• 32gb of memory at 3200
• Gigabyte GTX1650 Super with 4gb of VRAM
• The game and the rest of the Steam directory is installed on a hard drive
• MSI Afterburner set up to run the cooling fans with custom curve
• One 27" LCD display, another is a 24" LED, both now connected with HDMI cables and run at 60hz; this is by far what I could only afford...

Yeah, of course, I went through searching every thread for a possible solution answer, tried and still got this predictable stutter coming out of nowhere. I do not wish to spend any more money on a new but expensive *sync monitor and/or a GPU to solve the problem.

I do also have to note that every other game worked fine at good FPS rates, but SSE.

-----------------------

Update: may look into disabling hardware acceleration in Discord, which by default had been enabled. Didn't work.

Update 2: Tried disabling vsync completely and relied on framerate cap. Didn't work either.

Other queries and answers elsewhere said that I'm using too many large texture replacers over 2k in resolution (those also came from Keizaal) and I may have to remove many of them if only to reduce the amount of VRAM consumption. Still another said that I may have a Papyrus stack dump.

Edited February 19, 2021 by sa547

[sa547]

RESOLVED: the stutter in question was eliminated after 1 hour of in-game testing.

Okay, the conditions for removing the lag:

• I just got rid of all limiters and anything to do with vsync (.INI files)
• only ENB's vsync setting was enabled
• SSE Display Tweaks was disabled completely - this mod/fix actually works only for monitors over 60hz and therefore cannot be used with a 60hz monitor connected to HDMI
• Havok fix enabled
• SSE FPS Stabilizer disabled
• Skyrim Realistic Overhaul disabled (to reduce VRAM consumption as much as possible)

I hope these findings should be of help to anyone using a system setup similar to mine.

Edited February 26, 2021 by sa547

[DoubleYou]

You have a bunch of [Camera] tweaks in Skyrim.ini. While they are probably fine, I haven't exactly tested them as working for SSE, so try removing them and see if that fixes the issue. Sometimes these things don't work as well as they did in previous games. 

[sa547]

skyrim.ini got processed through BethINI. I don't think the [camera] tweaks are a factor.

 

[DoubleYou]

I am the author of BethINI. BethINI will not remove custom tweaks unless it knows for certain that they are problematic. Just because it left them there doesn't mean that they are OK. You say the problem is with the camera, so it seems reasonable that the problem relates to the [Camera] settings. 

[sa547]

Ok, I think I'll disable the display tweaks because I'm not using a 120hz display, and remove certain texture packs because of some significant VRAM consumption. Also, have to check if Papyrus did a stack dump, which means certain mods may have to be removed.

Again, I cannot figure out why the controller has smooth camera view but not the mouse, and I'm not playing the game with a controller.

Edited February 19, 2021 by sa547

[z929669]

In MO, find SSE Display Tweaks. Right click, select "Information" > INI Files. Click on the ini and read through all of the settings and make adjustments one at a time, beginning with the most suspect (see below).

Note that these settings can conflict with your display driver settings in your config manager. So those settings can also impact inputs and thing relating to havok and stutter. Avoid changing multiple values at once in driver settings or below without first testing the result.

Notable settings (with values I am using) are:

EnableVSync=true
MaximumRefreshRate=144  #set to monitor refresh rate if your frame rates often exceed this value
FramerateLimit=144      #set to monitor refresh rate if your frame rates often exceed this value
MaximumFramerate=144    #set to monitor refresh rate if your frame rates often exceed this value

My guess is if you configure your dirver soft-settings and these accordingly, you will see some big improvements, depending on your system. I use AMD Radeon X, and every system may have different optimal settings for all of this. My soft-settings are:

I would also suggest always enabling both vsync and frame caps in SSE Display Tweaks OR in soft-settings ... the results using either one could be different.

[sa547]

After some reading elsewhere, I was beginning to realize this may be a software problem, something to do with the refresh rate and/or input lag (as oddly, I thought about 45 min / 60hz = 0.75?). 

EDIT: did tried your settings. Still the stutter/lag happened as predicted. I'm getting the feeling it has something to do at the hardware level, despite replacing the mouse and using the drivers.

However, I do remember initially playing the game at full screen mode and never experienced something this bad, long before I began reworking my modded setup. 

EDIT 2: Steam Overlay disabled. Am going to disable HPET at the OS level. Also:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/games-stuttering-when-moving-mouse.1341451/

EDIT 3: Camera look stuttering still happened even after disabling both Steam Overlay and HPET. Note also that I dropped the mouse polling to 125hz. Happened 45 minutes (again) into the game.

EDIT 4: seems USB polling may have to do something with the problem; I moved the G102 to another port, the same as what the XB360 controller is on. Also disabled controller support for SSE on the Steam page. Will report back.

EDIT 5: Updated to Win10 v.202H. Problem still occurred. Been thinking if it had to do with SSE Fixes, Display Tweaks, or...? Going back to USB polling issues and/or vsync. I might have to come back tomorrow and try disabling all but only what is actually needed. This is really draining, and I am supposed to be happy with my setup.

EDIT 6: a certain SSE Fixes setting concerning about VerticalLookSensitivity; I set this to false, then tested until I went over the 50-minute mark before the stutter struck again.

HPET enabled manually through BCDEdit. Gonna try another shot.

Edited February 24, 2021 by sa547