Frame drops & stuttering moving through areas

N0madS0uL

Now this title may not be very informative, but I would need to explain what is happening to me lately and the title would be too long.

What is happening is some areas have a hook, lag spike, stutter call it what you will, I have tried to figure out when this happens and so far it happens at preset areas. The best place to describe it is at loading zones, now not loading like loading screen but when walking from outside into say a city, specifically where that door icon is, even though there is no door, you move through the icon and that whole process stutters, move back and it just spikes for a split second dropping frames by 10 or so, back and forth same spike or lag.

I feel its something with loading of the area not a full out load but like a mini loading, now this never happened to me in the beta at all and I could swear never did until the last patch or maintenance.

I run an AMD 7800 with an i7 @ 3.9ghz and 16gb of ram...I play the game maxed out all the time with no issue, be it pvp or anything, these frame drops, lag spikes, hitches call it what you want happen anywhere in the game where there is a "mini load" not transition from one zone to another or going into a house but outside or inside specifically I noticed at the door icon but outside also where there is no icon but still at preset areas...I cant find processes causing issues or things running in the background, its not latency and its not system performance from what I can tell.

I have enough drive space, I am running the latest drivers I have set game priority to high, set the cpu park values to high performance, I have disabled audio devices accept my primary, I have set all settings to minimum, disabled vsync, anti-aliasing, disabled all addons, I dont even use ESOhead and its still hitches at these areas all over the game, everything else is smooth as silk its just this mini transition areas, or moving into or further into the zone...I cant explain it other than showing in a vid but I am hoping for some feedback. Thanks

kaygee

I have these issues too, really frustrating with the stutters when walking in said "doors" etc. I have also tried every "fix" I can find but nothing helps, so if anyone have a magical fix for this please share!

Tanizx

*bump*

yes please, need to know how to fix this, it happens all too often but when it doesn't the game is just fine. I have tried turning down settings but it still happens at random at these 'mini-loads.' I could go for a while and game runs smooth on high settings. But then at random, it just happens every few seconds.

Rasly

If you guys like tho fine tune video driver settings, then that could be a reason for all this. Then you can try to reinstall video driver and run the game right after ,without any extra settings.

Samiri

I have this same problems, it every time you enter a new (zone) whitout zoning to anything, so If I go from forest x to x grove or from Beach x to place x it gives a stutter when passing true that zone.

Its especially annoying in cyradiil because it seems like there are more mini zones in there.
For me its not once in a wile its EVERY time I have to go through a (zone), I can reproduce it everytime I want to.

I have around 40-60 FPS all the time even lowering it to low does nothing for me.

GrimMauKin

I get something similar, although for me it seems to happen when entering caves or tunnels.

flexrips

Same here. I get 40-60 fps just running around. When the zone indicator drops in the upper right hand of the screen, my fps drops to about 10-ish then pops right back up to normal.

Was told by a "customer support" agent that my graphic settings were too high.

gtx 770, i7 processor, 16 gigs of ram etc etc ...

Well, I put it on low. Guess what?...same thing happens. So it's not my graphic settings.

kaygee

Yea doesnt matter what settings you have it on, only thing i've figured out that REDUCE it (not remove it tho) is taking shadows completely off which again isnt pretty at all.

Doesnt help either to try "helpprograms" like game booster etc either, still get this stuttering...

Loxy37

There was an issue in Beta that was far worse than what it is now and Zenimax acknowledged it. What would happen is that your screen would freeze for 2-8 seconds and then resume. What causes it, is processor lag spikes where your CPU will go to 100% for the Duration. Its lessened by putting the textures down 1 notch but not cured.

Is this what you are getting?

Also I get a slight Hitch when I am entering a new Phased area like those Door icons you see which means you are moving into a phased area. This game is full of phasing so that could well be your hitching.

somebody21

I have this as well i tried everything the only thing that worked for me was turn off vertical sync i had to use afterburner to cap my FPS to keep the temp down. But the game runs somewhat better still some stuttering i think most of it is the game engine and poor game code because some areas have this and some don't, some towns lag/stutter worse than others even late at night with no one there, so yeah not your/our PC's.

PS. my specs
i5 3.4
8 Gigs ram
gtx 760 OC'ed

Sandhya

I have noticed considerable increases in stuttering when I have add-ons enabled, more specifically things that 'do' something with your maps, like esohead markers. I've had ZrMinimap as well but quickly kicked that out again because it was causing MASSIVE stuttering on every area transition, possibly because of its combination with esohead markers.

But, unfortunately, the problem persists even when running the game without any add-ons, it is however significantly less apparent. If anything, I'm 100% certain this is server related and has a lot to do with server loads and perhaps the phasing tech behind it, as these issues are virtually gone during the late hours or early mornings when there are far less people online. CPU loads never spike to 100% (not even on 1 core) and I am also seeing below 100% gpu utilization when this happens, and there is hardly any difference when lowering settings.

i5 3570k @ 4.2 Ghz / GTX 660 / 8gb

Audigy

To me it sounds like your system is on hold. Something is lagging behind, so your whole system has to wait for the new information to arrive and that's why it goes into its knee´s. This could be your CPU that has to wait for the GPU data, or a slow HDD, maybe even an internet issue - or your CPU cant progress the data fast enough.

But also addons with a high refresh rate cause these type of lags. As more updates rolling in, as more your PC has to work. If your pc for instance has to analyze the whole map for harvesting nodes, then this can cause lags.

N0madS0uL

Hmm glad im not the only one having this issue, it is not my system that much im sure of, if it is then it's the games use of the system resources that is screwed up, however I do run addons and I have disabled all and as I said they make no difference to this kind of stutter, its a preset location if you run out of davons watch to the stable master you will get a hitch going through that arch, that is one of countless places.

I have noticed the minimap (ZrMM) i think it was, this does something simliar that someone wrote a thread about about in the Star Wars Old Republic game when you jump up and open your inventory it would lag or hitch in that game.

With ESO and the ZrMM minimap mod it happens when the minimap goes away during looting and then comes back, creates a hitch. I am not sure if the reasons for the hitch are related to the use of some functions in the game, that being a "mini load" as I like to call them. I am only speculating, but the person who wrote the thread on SWTOR back then said something about poor coding of the game engine specifically in relation to networking if i recall correctly.

Either way this is an error I never had during the beta and during early access dont recall having it either, but last 2 weeks its become apparent and very annoying.

kaygee

I might have found another thing that can help atleast lessen the stutters etc, if you have Nvidia then stop the Nvidia Streamer Service process as told in this thread!

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/573811/nvidia-streamer-service-may-be-freezing-your-pc/

Samiri

So basicly so fare its, some addons fu... it up but still can happen if no addons are there.

N0madS0uL

Just a little update, these hitches do seem a bit less for me, I am not having them as "pertinent" or in my face as they were a week or two ago, even my PvP has been better (now that I can actually enter again) so it seems like there was some work done in the back end of the game and I would like to thank Zenimax for that (i can only think it due to them) and I hope they would keep up streamlining and ironing out the creases of this game, there is still much work on many aspects of this game but at least there is some work being done, so thanks.

Cepeza

There is no magical workaround fot that. Those are usual model grid fills. They are required to unload overall grid data and load isolated(not passable boundaries, just that one open "door"). You can identify them when you are not able to have a direct LOS to objects inside the isolated area. That mechanics make you have good fps in all other cases and areas of map. They can minimize them, but they will never be gone completely.

Pixelex

This issue is back for me since one of the last two patches.
When moving through areas sometimes it stutters. It feels like mini loading parts of the zone/area.

Has anybody else this problem, too?

ZOS_AlvinM

Hi @pixelex. If you have any add-ons active please disable them and try to navigate the areas that have given you trouble. Please reply to this thread if this issue persists.