We're a quite stingy with new information, but don't want to keep good news for us. Today it's about the well known micro stuttering.
What is this micro stuttering?
Many people reported that their game stops from time to time for about 1 second. That's annoying and destroys the atmosphere.
Which bloody software deamon is causing those?
In general this stuttering is related to the world streaming. While playing the game and walking through the world, several pieces are dynamically loaded in such as NPCs or the environment. Also graphic effects such as textures or materials, in this case just called "Shaders", are being compiled.
The longer I play, the less stuttering there is!
That's true! Shaders are reused on different object. So if a shader has been compiled once, it does not need to be compiled again for that certain object but is available in the memory and might be accessed, which saves computing time and stuttering. Unfortunately, those shaders will only last for the current session.
Now the good part!
With the new patch all compiled shaders will be stored locally on your computer, which means they are available anytime. The result is a heavy and noticable decrease of micro stuttering!
There are some preconditions or better some pieces of info you should know of:
- Of course every shader still needs to be compiled once. In case a shader which is needed is not yet compiled (e.g. when you start the game the first time) you will still notice the stuttering once as the compiled shader needs to be created.
- If shaders are already compiled they may now be directly accessed and not cause stuttering - that's also the case after a game restart!
- From time to time you will still notice some stuttering since there are other objects which are loaded in as stated above.
- Changing any of the graphic settings in the game options will need new shaders to be compiled, rendering those useless which have already been compiled. That means that you will again experience some stuttering as these shaders will now need to be recompiled instead of simply accessed.
Prepared with this new information there's only one thing left: patiently wait for the final version.
