Fullscreen not working & Stutter when scrolling or zooming in/out

[StefanMST]

Hi there, i wanted to ask for help/advice for 2 problems i run into.

#1 The Fullscreen Mode wont work - every time i start EU4 it will run the game, play the music but it wont show me the loading screen or the main menu. Fullscreen optimization didnt help anything - do i overlook something?

#2 When running EU4 on speed 2 or 4, while scrolling the map and zooming in/out, the game stutters form the start. Turning the graphic options down or using mods (Fast Universalis) dont help. When paused everything goes smooth

I run EU4 on a Legion 5 Laptop
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti
16 GB Ram
Drivers should be up-to-date

DxDiag and EU4 Files are attached - thx for any help/suggestion

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on eu4.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.

Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.

Is that any better?

 

[StefanMST]

Thx for the reply - as stated above i already tried the "fullscreen optimization" and it didn't worked. Further the launcher doesn't offer options for VSync or a change of the refresh rate.

edit: eu4 starts properly in windowed and borderless fullscreen but in both cases the refresh rate buttons are greyed out and locked at 120hz

 

[grotaclas]

Your system.log is from a startup with borderless fullscreen, right? Could you try to start with fullscreen again and post the system.log from that startup? I'm trying to find out what could prevent the game from working in fullscreen on some nvidia systems and currently I have the suspicion that it is related to the refresh rate. Can you select 60 Hz as a refresh rate on windows and if you can, does it improve the stuttering in borderless fullscreen? In addition, you could try to set "vsync=no" (without quotes) in the graphics section of "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/settings.txt". If you have another (older) monitor, you could try it use it and see if it offers any improvement(both in fullscreen and borderless fullscreen).

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

 

[StefanMST]

thx for the reply, here is the system.log from a fullscreen startup

the only available refresh rate in my windows settings is 120hz - sadly i have no other or older monitor
switched Vsync off in the txt file, started EU4 in Borderless Mode, didn't help with the stutter. All my other PDX Games run fine in Fullscreen and with Vsync

 

[StefanMST]

currently I have the suspicion that it is related to the refresh rate. Can you select 60 Hz as a refresh rate on windows and if you can, does it improve the stuttering in borderless fullscreen?

Hey there - i resolved my fullscreen problem now with "Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)" by changing the refresh rate to 60hz with it. Now EU4 runs in fullscreen mode. but the light struttering when scrolling and zooming stays

 

[AndrewT]

That system.log shows 120hz as the only available refresh rate at any resolution,. I've seen that once or twice before but have no idea what could be causing that.

What fps are you seeing in the game now?

And does this problem happen right from the start in 1444? Or only in mid or late game, or only after playing for a period?

 

[StefanMST]

As far as i read on different boards my Legion 5 offers only 120hz to choose, with CRU i can open up the 60hz rate.
FPS are quite low (10 - 30 FPS) when scrolling/zooming. When Paused quite normal (30 - 60 FPS) and no stutter.

new system.log from a startup this morning with CRU is attached

Edit: It happens from the Startdate 1444

 

[AndrewT]

I'm not familiar with that utility, I have to confess. Can I get new copies of all those files in your OP here, with it in effect? Thanks.

 

[StefanMST]

Can I get new copies of all those files in your OP here, with it in effect?

Here they are

 

[grotaclas]

thx for the reply, here is the system.log from a fullscreen startup

the only available refresh rate in my windows settings is 120hz - sadly i have no other or older monitor
switched Vsync off in the txt file, started EU4 in Borderless Mode, didn't help with the stutter. All my other PDX Games run fine in Fullscreen and with Vsync

Thank you for the info.

Hey there - i resolved my fullscreen problem now with "Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)" by changing the refresh rate to 60hz with it. Now EU4 runs in fullscreen mode. but the light struttering when scrolling and zooming stays

So I guess that the stuttering is unrelated to the fullscreen issue. Unfortunately I don't know any solution for the stuttering. You can find many posts about stuttering issues(mostly in this forum and on the eu4 subreddit), but I don't remember any good solutions. A few of them found some workarounds, so maybe you can find something there which works for you. I vaguely recall the following workarounds, but I'm not sure if they were for stuttering or other performance issues: forcing eu4 to keep using one specific CPU core; limiting the maximum FPS to get a more consistent framerate; changing some settings in the GPU drivers.
Or maybe AndrewT can find a solution for you

 

[AndrewT]

In that error log we see a problem mod, and some other unusual errors. Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-EU4
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/EU4 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4 folders
In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam EU4 or Documents EU4 locations, before installing again.

- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add EU4.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- unload GeForce Experience if loaded
- start the game with no mods active and test with a new campaign, NOT any existing one

Is that any better?

 

[StefanMST]

well i did this before posting here but i will give it a try again when i come home from work.
just one question: what do you mean with "unload GeForce Experience"?
Uninstall or turn it down to Zero for EU4?

 

[AndrewT]

Neither, just unload it so it is not showing the the Windows task bar.

 

[StefanMST]

Sadly no real change concerning the slight stutter when scrolling/zooming - could it be a issue of the latest patches from 1.31 onwards and/or the usage of Single-core!?

@Fullscreen 60/120hz topic:
EU4 will only use 60hz for Fullscreen, even when the monitor is set to 120 and Vsync is on.
Borderless & Windowed will offer 120hz.
None of these have an effect on the stutter.

well guess it is what it is

 

[AndrewT]

The game is NOT restricted to a single core. As with all our current games it will use other cores when possible. But not all game processes can be usefully or safely made multi-threaded.

1.31 was slower than 1.30 due to the devs adding too many new provinces, they said. Later patches helped that to some extent but further optimisation may not be possible. But that issue was more slow time passing rather than the stuttering/jerkiness you see.


I see you have CK2, HOI4 and Stellaris that all use the same game engine as EU4 - do they all have the same problem?

 

[StefanMST]

I see you have CK2, HOI4 and Stellaris that all use the same game engine as EU4 - do they all have the same problem?

No - they all run fine and can use fullscreen without my "CRU-workaround".

 

[AndrewT]

That is odd, as EU4 and CK2 in particular are very similar under the covers. I frankly don't have an explanation for what you are seeing!

 

[StefanMST]

Yes quite odd, CK2 runs fine with fullscreen 120hz, FPS are between 80-100,
I fear there isn't anything else i could do or try? anyway, thank you for trying...

 

[AndrewT]

I know of no other tweaks to the game that might help you here.

You could try things like exiting Steam and running eu4.exe , and if Windows has Game mode enabled, undo that.