[TWD] Audio Issues (STEAM)

[DjNDB]

I am almost out of ideas. I believe your system should be able to handle the game, but as a last resort i would try if additionally to reducing the graphics settings as before, changing the resolution to 640x480 improves anything.

If that's the case, it might be a performance issue.
Ideally you would check the CPU and GPU load while it stutters.

[Drakosmick]

No changes..always the same.

[Drakosmick]

There can be something in the fact i've changed visive effects in the OS from panel control?

[DjNDB]

I have no lead what causes it yet, so anything is possible.

Logging some data while you run the game might help finding the cause.

These tools will log your CPU and GPU activity.

CPU: Download Core Temp. Start it and activate logging in the menu under "Tools/Logging on".

The log file created is called similar to "CT-Log [TIME][DATE].csv".

GPU: Download GPU-Z.
Start it, select the "sensors" tab, and activate "Log to File" at the bottom of the window.
Choose a location for the log file.

Now run the game for a few minutes until it has stuttered at least 2-3 times.

Finally Zip the files and attach them to a reply in this Thread.

[Drakosmick]

Here, man.
CPU & GPU LOGS.zip

[DjNDB]

There's some interesting information in there.

In the CPU log there is 100% load at 20:59:30 11/16/12 for about 30 seconds. That might just be the game starting up, but i can't be sure.

The GPU log shows something promising though.
At 2012-11-16 21:01:23 and 2012-11-16 21:01:57 the GPU load is 100% for 1-2 seconds each time.
That's about 34 seconds apart, very close to the distance of the two major glitches in your video.

It is also visible that your graphics card clocks down from 800 MHz to 100 MHz just before that happens.

That means, if there's a setting in your catalyst control center, that disables the power saving features of your graphics card, so that it doesn't slow down when the load is low, there's a good chance you can get rid of the glitches.

That's actually similar to what we tried earlier, but that power saving setting didn't include the graphics card.

[Ramsus32]

I'm having the exact same problem right now. I'm pretty sure running it in compatibility windows 98/me mode is causing this problem for me but I need to run it in this mode to prevent it from crashing and losing my save file.

This is so absurd, I can either keep launching the game hoping it doesn't crash, play through an entire episode in one sitting, and when I next start the game it will probably crash and loss my save so I'll just have to play each episode with random choices but there will be no stuttering OR

I can fix the crash and keep my save file through each episode BUT there will be constant stuttering during any action scene. I've enjoyed the game up to this point but the problems are becoming to much for me.

[Drakosmick]

Originally Posted by DjNDB

There's some interesting information in there.

In the CPU log there is 100% load at 20:59:30 11/16/12 for about 30 seconds. That might just be the game starting up, but i can't be sure.

The GPU log shows something promising though.
At 2012-11-16 21:01:23 and 2012-11-16 21:01:57 the GPU load is 100% for 1-2 seconds each time.
That's about 34 seconds apart, very close to the distance of the two major glitches in your video.

It is also visible that your graphics card clocks down from 800 MHz to 100 MHz just before that happens.

That means, if there's a setting in your catalyst control center, that disables the power saving features of your graphics card, so that it doesn't slow down when the load is low, there's a good chance you can get rid of the glitches.

That's actually similar to what we tried earlier, but that power saving setting didn't include the graphics card.

I can't find any power saving setting in AMD Vision Engine Control Center, I have the 12.10 version if that might help...

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Drakosmick

I can't find any power saving setting in AMD Vision Engine Control Center, I have the 12.10 version if that might help...

I don't have the same card, so i can't really help finding the setting.
From what i have found out the feature to disable is called AMD PowerPlay.

It might not be possible in the AMD settings though.
Some search suggested that it can be disabled using MSI Afterburner by editing the config file.

Be aware that using tools like that involves a risk, so only use them if you know what you are doing and how to recover from problems that could occur.

[Drakosmick]

Doesn't helps anymore...

[DjNDB]

Disabling AMD PowerPlay was the most promising workaround i found that should have helped.
Please make sure that the values in the MSIAfterburner.cfg are exactly like this:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

Then try the game again.

If it still stutters, please check if the GPU clocks down just before the game stutters.

To do that you can enable the On Screen Display of MSI Afterburner and watch the values while you run the game.
In order to do that open MSI Afterburner, click on "settings" and open the "Monitoring" tab.

Look at the middle section called "Active hardware monitoring graphs".
Select "Core clock" and check the "Show in On-Screen display" box at the bottom.
Do the same for "GPU usage".

The game should now show two values.


The first value shows the GPU load, the second one the GPU clock.

Now try disabling PowerPlay again using the MSI Afterburner config, and run the game.
If the GPU clock is low for a while, and than jumps to a higher value, while the game stutters, PowerPlay is still enabled.

If you are not sure how to interpret the values, you can make another video to show me the result.

[Drakosmick]

I'm trying...

[Drakosmick]

Originally Posted by DjNDB

Disabling AMD PowerPlay was the most promising workaround i found that should have helped.
Please make sure that the values in the MSIAfterburner.cfg are exactly like this:

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

Then try the game again.

If it still stutters, please check if the GPU clocks down just before the game stutters.

To do that you can enable the On Screen Display of MSI Afterburner and watch the values while you run the game.
In order to do that open MSI Afterburner, click on "settings" and open the "Monitoring" tab.

Look at the middle section called "Active hardware monitoring graphs".
Select "Core clock" and check the "Show in On-Screen display" box at the bottom.
Do the same for "GPU usage".

The game should now show two values.


The first value shows the GPU load, the second one the GPU clock.

Now try disabling PowerPlay again using the MSI Afterburner config, and run the game.
If the GPU clock is low for a while, and than jumps to a higher value, while the game stutters, PowerPlay is still enabled.

If you are not sure how to interpret the values, you can make another video to show me the result.

Here's what I've got when I click on "settings".
msiafterburner.jpg
I can't scroll up to visualize any tabs

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Drakosmick

I can't scroll up to visualize any tabs

It looks like MSI Afterburner isn't made for small screen resolutions.

Pressing CTRL-TAB twice after opening the settings window should open the "Monitoring" tab. You don't need to see the Top of the window to make the settings.

Alternatively you can move the window around by pressing Alt-Space, then Enter, and then using the Arrow keys.

[Drakosmick]

Originally Posted by DjNDB

It looks like MSI Afterburner isn't made for small screen resolutions.

Pressing CTRL-TAB twice after opening the settings window should open the "Monitoring" tab. You don't need to see the Top of the window to make the settings.

Alternatively you can move the window around by pressing Alt-Space, then Enter, and then using the Arrow keys.

Yeah, set like you said, but the purple on screen display bar that show core clock and gpu mhz doesn't appear in-game and also doesn't appear using hotkeys for show/toggle OSD...
But otherwise it stutters already, there is any other way to disable powerplay (not from MSI)?

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Drakosmick

Yeah, set like you said, but the purple on screen display bar that show core clock and gpu mhz doesn't appear in-game and also doesn't appear using hotkeys for show/toggle OSD...
But otherwise it stutters already, there is any other way to disable powerplay (not from MSI)?

Did you press the "OK" Button after enabling the OSD settings?
Also MSI Afterburner has to keep running in the background.

[Drakosmick]

Originally Posted by DjNDB

Did you press the "OK" Button after enabling the OSD settings?
Also MSI Afterburner has to keep running in the background.

With other games like Portal (always on Steam) it works, the OSD is shown.
But with TWD no....
But are we sure that the problem for the sound stuttering is Powerplay?
I've read that Powerplay isn't enabled in ati 6xxx series cards and in desktop pc...
The problem is with the walking dead only, because other games works perfectly...

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Drakosmick

With other games like Portal (always on Steam) it works, the OSD is shown.
But with TWD no....
But are we sure that the problem for the sound stuttering is Powerplay?
I've read that Powerplay isn't enabled in ati 6xxx series cards and in desktop pc...
The problem is with the walking dead only, because other games works perfectly...

It's odd that the OSD doesn't show.

According to AMD Powerplay is also available on desktop cards.

AMD PowerPlay™ technology is available in AMD Radeon™ HD 3800 Series desktop graphics processors and higher, AMD Radeon™ graphics processors for notebooks and Radeon™ Express motherboard chipsets and may be enabled on certain AMD Partner products.

If the OSD did work we could see for sure if the GPU clocks down while it stutters, so far i can only assume that based on the logs.

[Drakosmick]

No, no, doesn't show.
Is there any other software that can show OSD?

[DjNDB]

Originally Posted by Drakosmick

No, no, doesn't show.
Is there any other software that can show OSD?

EVGA Precision X can do that too.
It's based on the same software as Afterburner though. The menu looks the same, once you click "Monitoring", but that also means that it might not show the OSD too. It's worth a try though.