[6.0] Frequent stuttering/freezing

[tarax007]

Good Morning, Afternoon and Evening!

After roughly 5 hours of troubleshooting, I have come to the only logical conclusion: My save game is Broken and I want to help figure this out.

For my system specs, I have the Vulkan and DxDiag files available for you to inspect.
The following link goes to a Google drive folder with all the information, a few screenshots, save file and a windows task manager X4 dmp file (8gb - Still uploading at the time of posting).
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

General specs
CPU: Ryzen 5950x
Ram: 32gb (3200 xmp profile)
GPU: Evga FTW3 3080
Motherboard: Gigabyte x570 Aorus Master (Rev 1.1)
OS: Windows 11

Game specs
Game version: 6.00 (497467) - Own all expansions.
Game is NOT modified.
Gamestart: The Acomplished Scientist

So what is the problem?
I will direct you to the following youtube video, as it's the best way to show it: https://youtu.be/kCsp8soBsJ8
In short, I am experiencing a fairly even & frequent game stutter/freeze (every 5-10 seconds~) for up to ½-1 seconds.
The intensity varies a bit as you can see in the GPU usage log i have an image of in google drive. Regardless, this issue is very noticable while walking around, flying and navigating menues, it happens everywhere at all times.
You can clearly see that the GPU drops to 0% load and at times even the cpu load is reduced by about & up to 10%.

Fairly recently in this game I DID accidentally go afk while supercruising around (aka phone call, twice). Which made me end up 1000+km off the sector center (Happend in Hatikvah's choice 1, and one of the new Boron systems, forgot which one tho..). I only mention this becuase I seem to remember this causing odd performence issues in X Rebirth ... But My memory of the specifics is fuzzy.

What troubleshooting actions have I taken, that didn't work nor changed anything?
It feels like I have literally tried everything, hence my conclusion this is a save & game engine issue.

Game related

• Loaded a previous save
• All Low & Ultra graphics (preset & "manual", including FSR/MSAA on and off)
• Removed all config files in Documents folder
• Removed steam cache folder
• Steam verified game
• Reinstalled game
• Given the game Windows Admin rights
• Deployed resource probes in various systems
• Removed a few planned but unused station pots

Windows

• Disabled composting and other windows "enhancements"
• Rolled back a recent windows update
• Disabled all non-essencial programs & services (with restart)
• Disabled "Auto-HDR" wich I normally used
• Tested various other games, from Distant Worlds 2, Horizon zero dawn, Stellaris, No man sky - No issues.

Nvidia

• Tried driver: 531.61
• Tried driver: 531.68
• Tried various Nvidia Control panel settings (from letting 3d-programs decide, to various custom settings for X4)
• Disabled Nvidia overlay & experience alltogether.

I am SURE I have forgotten something, but you get the gist... I've manaded to try a lot.

The final nail in this coffin is really the fact - Starting a new game (be it a Custom budgeted gamestart, to another Acomplished scientist).
The game runs fine again (funnily enough, this was the last thing I tried... lol).

It is JUST this save that has broken something in the game. So please, help me figure this out

[Alan Phipps]

Are you in the process of building one or more stations in Boron space that are not currently holding all the resources that they need? (Reason for asking.)

[tarax007]

Grreetings!

Interesting! You sparked some new testing Ideas, which have now concluded!

Short anser is: Actually yes, kind of... However, I found something new!

I did put down 2 plots in Sanctuary of Darkness, nothing added to the "blueprint" however, just 2 blank plots.

As I had shortly mentioned in the OP. One of the things I tried, was removing all "empty" plots like that. So they are not visible in the saved game I first shared (save game 2). The only thing left in that save is HQ, Argon Hull factory as well as a station being built in Profit center alpha.

The other thing I mentioned trying, was reloading a few earlier saves without any difference. This is where I now detected something new!
But we are getting into slight spoiler territory here. To be safe...

Mission spoiler

Spoiler

Show

In the saves I first tried, the most recent one & before I placed the plots. All took place just after I finished the Sanctuary of Darkness mission, defending the construction of the highways. In the earliest save I tested then, I only had my Argon prime Hull Parts factory and HQ plots. These saves also have this stuttering problem.

So just now, I went even further back and loaded 2 saves from a few days ago (something I had not done yet, because that is like 10-19h of progress lost ). And everything was fine, no stuttering!

Thus I theorize...

Spoiler

Show

These 2 new saves I just tested. One took place 2h before I started the mission in Sanctuary of Darkness. And the other sitting in the system, just about to start doing the mission. In both cases no stuttering issues detected!

Could this problem be related to the finished highways taking damage from the lightning strikes somehow? The frequency seem to fit with the stuttering to be honest... Something for the devs to try: Temporarily remove the smaller & periodic lightning strikes damage output from the system? See what happens?

I added the mentioned saves to the google drive folder.
Savegame 2: My Original & most recent saved game. -Bugged
Savegame 10: Save game before placed plots, after finished the mission. - Bugged
Savegame 6: Literally about to start doing the mission. - No stuttering/freezing!
Savegame 5: Save just 2h before I started the mission. - No stuttering/freezing!

In conclusion, perhaps the outcome of this mission plays a part in this problem?

[crew27]

Same thing happened to my save, it occurred after I opened up the boron kingdom. Not immediately after, maybe 15 game play hours after. Tried the same save on 2 PC"s. One is a 3080 Ti, the other 2080 Ti. Both on good SSD's and CPU'. Wiped my entire kingdom clean to see if it would fix it, it didn't. Has to be something with the AI clogging things up, specifically with the boron. If I load the save pre boron the game runs fine. The pre-boron game had about 60 hours, after had about 77. Don't think I can play with the stutter driving me crazy, hard to go back to the old save and lose all that time; especially since its possible for it to break again.

[tarax007]

Yeah, clearly we are not alone. I remembered last night I had a backupfolder from last weekend, with a save before I even entered Boron Space.
So I grabbed that one and "soft restarted" from there. It's a bummer, I love the boron and lost loads of progress. But Im not one to care about these things.
Because now I kind of know what to expect and what I need to do before going in there, so that is what I am going to do. Adapt and overcome!

Build up a bit more, see what the devs find out and say & if they find a fix.

[crew27]

I went back and suffered through a few more hours of the stuttering, then it cleared up. Could be one of my stations finished building, or the boron finisihed building something. Wish I replied quicker before you went into your new save, but if it happens again it most likely will clear up. (I guess?). My station being built was in Terran space, Mars. Not in Boron space.