Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

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Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 27 Sep 2021, 11:22

So I recently got into Apex Legends and I've come across this issue where my mouse inputs are very jittery/choppy while in a busy area or looking at a large of the map. I'm suspecting its related to high cpu usage and although naturally this only happens in real BR matches I've managed to recreate it in testing range by using prime95 on 4 cores out of 16(9900k)

Description of the issue:
Instability of mouse input processing or frametime spikes NOT VISIBLE ON FRAMETIME GRAPHS caused by mouse interrupts. This leads to a choppiness when panning and tracking enemies.

Here is some 120FPS footage of me comparing mouse inputs to controller inputs.
download the video to view it in 120fps.
-Controller is perfectly smooth while using the mouse results in jitter.
-look at the buttons to see which input I am using.

Here's some footage on a random part of the map. There is not even a lot of activity going on here but the stuttering is still present.
The stutter is much worse when there are multiple teams fighting
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Zc1M0 ... sp=sharing

I managed to recreate this issue in the test range by simulating high cpu usage with prime95
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P3RbJg ... sp=sharing


Pretty obvious that the mouse input is laggy compared to controller because the game only processes the position of the joystick at 125hz. Strafing with the keyboard is pretty smooth too as it should be. Only when I move the mouse it becomes laggy

Heres some footage on youtube since the jitters are visible EVEN on 60fps. The 120fps videos show it better though.
Focus on the crosshair, the stutters make the pipe and weapons "vibrate" while doing this type of maneuver.
LOOK AT THE BUTTON HINTS TO SEE WHICH INPUT I AM USING





Things I've tried (main rig) 9900k, gtx 1080
stock windows 20h2
stock windows 21h2
stock windows 7 sp1
125hz, 500hz, 1000hz polling
different usb ports (usb 2, usb 3, front panel)
all devices unplugged except mouse
different mouse, different keyboard, different mousepad
180fps cap, 160fps cap, 140fps cap, 120hz cap. It seems like is reduced the I go but it is definitely still there.
r5apex low priority, high priority
mouse interrupt cpu affinity
different nvidia drivers
cpu underclock
cpu overclock
cpu stock (stock bios)
hyperthreading on, off
different monitor
entirely different rig (9600k, 1650 super)

At this point I just think its the game but how come no one else has noticed it?
I really would appreciate it if someone could try this out on their setup.
If you want to try it out just go to a busy area in the map (might have to try multiple times as it seems very random on which areas of the maps it happens) and do the same movement I am doing in the video footage.

You can also go to testing range and run large fft's on 4+ cores
confirmed that the stutter only happens on 4+ atleast on 9900k and 9600k



Since I've tried pretty much everything I suspect it's just due to a bug in the game engine similarly to how the frame pacing in this game breaks when its running at 200+ FPS, but then again how isn't this on the front page of r/apexlegends?
I've wasted lots of hours trying to fix this and would appreciate if any apex players on this forum could try this out so I know if its just the engine being bad or something wrong with my setup

FPSMaster
Posts: 185
Joined: 04 Jun 2021, 20:39

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by FPSMaster » 27 Sep 2021, 13:30

I have the same problem. My system is totally fine, and every other game is ok. But In apex, when moving the mouse I get some kind of jitter or micro lags. It looks like im playing with 50hz polling rate xD
Its the most visible, when you focuse your aim on one object. Then move from left to right while holding your aim on that object.

My rig:
GtX 980Ti Strix = GTX 1070 (never goes over 75°c, clocks are stable)
Intel xeon E3-1231 v3 = Intel Core I7-4770 (doesnt reach more then 60°c because I have a good cooler, HT disabled, max 85% Usage, HT off and Turbo boost off)
16gb RAM 1600mhz
SSD

disq
Posts: 65
Joined: 10 Oct 2018, 16:05

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by disq » 27 Sep 2021, 14:49

I've noticed the same but since my current PC is very old (CPU only has 4 cores) i could not complain, since i'm playing on absolete hardware.

For me the worst areas in Olympus are "Solar Array" and "Oasis". When i'm in those spots, it feels like i'm dragging something with my mouse. I also don't spot any frametime spikes during that time.

The optimization in this game is just something else, for example, since the Genesis update there's a known bug with 100% CPU usage (even with high end systems) and is yet to be solved by the devs. IMO its a game related thing and not something on our systems.

It's just a mess.

Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 27 Sep 2021, 14:54

This needs to be fixed asap, if they not fix it, i will hire some hackers and let them pay. Just to get their attention lmao
Last edited by Stimpy7314 on 27 Sep 2021, 15:26, edited 1 time in total.

Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 27 Sep 2021, 15:02

The weird thing is, in firing range it feels "ok" not smooth but also not choppy, but still not smooth either

Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 27 Sep 2021, 16:14

Update: Smt/ht off helped a bit with input lag but not the "choppyness"

Yes i know, i said in my "post" that i tried ht on/off. But i didnt make that post, its made from someone else i just copied it because its very good explained and exact my problem :D

Original: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/unsmo ... ge.437939/

Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 27 Sep 2021, 18:16

Update 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

Set it to decimal 40. Holy it feels sooo smooth idk if it is placebo but try it guys ^^ u might lose fps or even get a fps boost. Try it

Eonds
Posts: 262
Joined: 29 Oct 2020, 10:34

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Eonds » 28 Sep 2021, 01:26

Stimpy7314 wrote:
27 Sep 2021, 18:16
Update 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

Set it to decimal 40. Holy it feels sooo smooth idk if it is placebo but try it guys ^^ u might lose fps or even get a fps boost. Try it
It's obviously not placebo but it's not increasing smoothness, it's just decreasing the amount of the time the CPU spends on the application. If you have a bunch of background tasks running on your OS it could 100% help. For me it's not "smoother" it's just more responsive. Apex is just an awfully made game and network latency jitter in that game literally causing visual stuttering & weird lag. My advice is literally to delete the game (joke mostly), and play a properly coded game. So many things cause stuttering on any system including but not limited to, power saving features, idle features, spread spectrum settings, interference, unstable overclocks, bad ram PCBs, improper OS setup for smoothness/low latency, non optimal cooling, power/clock gating, a bad monitor, Something could be broke on your motherboard, etc. There's simply too many factors and then playing Apex on top of that just doesn't make sense. If it's not present in any other game then honestly just delete/make a complaint to them so they can solve it. Proper system diagnosis/tweaking makes A MASSIVE difference but apex is honestly just a poorly developed game.

Stimpy7314
Posts: 108
Joined: 27 Sep 2021, 11:20

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by Stimpy7314 » 28 Sep 2021, 02:44

Eonds wrote:
28 Sep 2021, 01:26
Stimpy7314 wrote:
27 Sep 2021, 18:16
Update 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl

Set it to decimal 40. Holy it feels sooo smooth idk if it is placebo but try it guys ^^ u might lose fps or even get a fps boost. Try it
It's obviously not placebo but it's not increasing smoothness, it's just decreasing the amount of the time the CPU spends on the application. If you have a bunch of background tasks running on your OS it could 100% help. For me it's not "smoother" it's just more responsive. Apex is just an awfully made game and network latency jitter in that game literally causing visual stuttering & weird lag. My advice is literally to delete the game (joke mostly), and play a properly coded game. So many things cause stuttering on any system including but not limited to, power saving features, idle features, spread spectrum settings, interference, unstable overclocks, bad ram PCBs, improper OS setup for smoothness/low latency, non optimal cooling, power/clock gating, a bad monitor, Something could be broke on your motherboard, etc. There's simply too many factors and then playing Apex on top of that just doesn't make sense. If it's not present in any other game then honestly just delete/make a complaint to them so they can solve it. Proper system diagnosis/tweaking makes A MASSIVE difference but apex is honestly just a poorly developed game.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\PriorityControl decimal 22 U dont need to restart so play with the values

What also helped for me, is following this guide https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/ ... obilebasic Might be placebo too because the tweaks are "outdated" but again helped me so might help u too. U can always fresh install windows if something goes wrong

MT_
Posts: 113
Joined: 17 Jan 2017, 15:39

Re: Apex legends, Gameplay feels awful/choppy

Post by MT_ » 28 Sep 2021, 07:53

So you changed scheduler CPU to Fixed Length on a short interval length versus the default (Assuming non-server Windows edition) of Variable/Foreground triple length intervals with short interval length.

Can you explain why this would improve performance? Or was this setting totally wrong in the first place?

Logic would dictate that a long interval length would actually achieve most stable frametimes as there is minimal amount of context switching. Either way I have never seen such dramatic behavior in any game, on any Windows edition after changing this option though.
LTSC 21H2 Post-install Script
https://github.com/Marctraider/LiveScript-LTSC-21H2

System: MSI Z390 MEG Ace - 2080 Super (300W mod) - 9900K 5GHz Fixed Core (De-lid) - 32GB DDR3-3733-CL18 - Xonar Essence STX II

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