Weird stuttering during cutscenes

[Paisan™]

I recently got a Gaming PC which runs GTA IV on an inconstant 60 frames, occasionally dropping down to 45-50. Back to the topic, during cutscenes, things stutter. Like if a character moves, he won't move smoothly, he'll stutter his way across. If any of you have played GTA SA on PC, and seen Tenpenny's cop car stutter during the first mission, then think of it like that, but with characters not cars. Any help is appreciated!

[Tomas.]

I suppose cutscenes' zooming may not work correctly at above 49-50 FPS or something, so here's your stutter/zoomed-in cutscenes.

 

 

Tenpenny's cop car stutter during the first mission

Use frame limiter in SA.

[Paisan™]

I suppose cutscenes' zooming may not work correctly at above 49-50 FPS or something, so here's your stutter/zoomed-in cutscenes.

 

I'm not very good with PCs, could you try dumbing that down for me?

[HigorSM]

Is the VSync in your game on? if it is not, turn it on, it may solve the problem,

or even better, download any program that limit the FPS of the game, and limit it to 30, some people say the game have some problems if your FPS is higher than 30.

[B Dawg]

GTA IV shouldn't have any problems with going over 30 FPS (except the very last story mission, but I think that was fixed in the latest patch)

[Tomas.]

GTA IV shouldn't have any problems with going over 30 FPS (except the very last story mission, but I think that was fixed in the latest patch)

If you do a bit of research, you can notice that IV is still pretty FPS-dependent at times just like old GTAs, so high FPS may trigger some things like this helicopter bug and broken cutscenes, or rapid movement of several script objects (e.g.

or tollbooths' gates). Playing at around 50 FPS should be enough I think. Edited October 7, 2017 by Tomas.

[Paisan™]

So if I turn on Vsync I won't be able to play at 60fps, right?

 

Yeo, VSync fixed it, but I think I prefer to play at 60fps rather than be locked at 30. Thanks for your help.

Edited October 8, 2017 by ClaudeIzABadAzz

[HigorSM]

So if I turn on Vsync I won't be able to play at 60fps, right?

 

Yeo, VSync fixed it, but I think I prefer to play at 60fps rather than be locked at 30. Thanks for your help.

Vsync locks the FPS to the refresh rate of your monitor, so if your monitor refresh rate it's 60hz, it will lock to 60FPS (at least on the last version of the game, on 1.0.7.0 it locks to 51 for some reason)

Edited October 8, 2017 by HigorSm

[Paisan™]

 

So if I turn on Vsync I won't be able to play at 60fps, right?

 

Yeo, VSync fixed it, but I think I prefer to play at 60fps rather than be locked at 30. Thanks for your help.

Vsync locks the FPS to the refresh rate of your monitor, so if your monitor refresh rate it's 60hz, it will lock to 60FPS (at least on the last version of the game, on 1.0.7.0 it locks to 51 for some reason)

 

Well then I suppose my refresh rate is 30.

[Dryspace]

"Well then I suppose my refresh rate is 30."

 

That's highly unlikely...unless you are using a certain kind of 3840 x 2160 monitor, or perhaps a television set to progressive scan.

 

Are you using the game's V-Sync setting? What is more likely in my opinion is that the V-Sync method used is either combined with a 30 fps frame cap, or is limiting your frame rate to multiples of your refresh rate (1/2, 1/3, etc.)

[Paisan™]

Vsync is off and no frame cap is used. My monitor is 1920x1200.

[Dryspace]

V-Sync is off? I thought you said that before you tried V-Sync you got around 60 fps, dropping to 45-50?

[Paisan™]

No, that's without VSync.

[Excalibur Voltaire]

IV PC port was horrible so things like this is common problem, but you can try turning on the Vsync

[EtherTakeover]

Try launching the game using LaunchGTAIV.exe

[Dryspace]

There seems to be some misunderstanding here.

 

In Post #10, I suggested that, if you were using V-Sync, the V-Sync implementation used may be combined with a 30 fps cap, or is dropping your framerate to whole fractions...

 

...but you immediately replied that "Vsync is off". Which means that you are getting 30 fps when V-Sync is off...

 

...But originally you stated that, before you ever tried V-Sync, you were getting up to 60 fps.

 

Let me try to clarify: You said that you were getting up to 60 fps--but then when you turned on V-Sync, your framerate was limited to 30. Is that correct? If so, please re-read Post #10, where I suggest that it may be a poor V-Sync method that is used.

 

Here is one way to test: If you don't already have it (and you should), download "RivaTuner v2.24 MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2009 Edition". The reason you want this is because it includes "D3DOverrider", which is a very useful little utility.

 

First, launch GTA and turn V-Sync OFF. Then quit GTA.

 

Install RivaTuner v2.24, and then launch D3DOverrider. Make sure "Force Triple Buffering" is OFF, and "Force VSync" is ON.

 

Leave it running and launch GTA. If D3DOverrider is correctly doing it's thing, you should hear a single beep shortly after the game launches.

 

Don't touch the in-game V-Sync setting--leave it OFF. If your problem still exists, then it almost certainly has nothing to do with V-Sync.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Dryspace

[therottenheart]

I notice if you remove the "cutscenes.rpf" file from the game the cutscenes runs completely smooth without any lag or stuttering. But you don't have dialogue. So im guessing the game is trying to sync the dialogue with the cutscreen and that's why it lags.

Is there anyway to edit "cutscenes.rpf" and fix this somehow?

[Dryspace]

11 hours ago, therottenheart said:

I notice if you remove the "cutscenes.rpf" file from the game the cutscenes runs completely smooth without any lag or stuttering. But you don't have dialogue. So im guessing the game is trying to sync the dialogue with the cutscreen and that's why it lags.

That sounds like a useful discovery.

[MrEWhite]

Capping cutscenes to 50 FPS fixes this issue fyi. Just use Fusionfix and cap it to that.