Victoria III - Massive drops on FPS

[erdemug93]

Short summary of your issue
Massive drops on FPS

Game Version
1.0.3

What OS are you playing on?
Windows

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Have you tried verifying your game files?
Yes

How much "pain" is this causing you?
10

Please explain the issue you experienced in the most condensed way possible
At the beginning of the game I was playing with almost no FPS drops, but by the 1860s the FPS dropped drastically and the game became unplayable. In Paper Map mode, it is between 4-10 FPS. The situation gets worse when I zoom in on the map. When I'm on the Laws screen, I can feel the computer suffer.

Processor: i7-7700
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (and I've updated drivers)

Please explain how to reproduce the issue
Come to the 1860s in the game and try clicking Resume...

Is there anything else you think could help us identify/replicate the issue?
When the game is paused, CPU is around 60%, GPU is like 60%. But when I click resume, CPU goes to 90% and GPU drops to 10%.

I have attached a save game
Yes

Upload Attachment
File(s) attached

 

[Tolomeidb2]

Short summary of your issue
Massive drops on FPS

Game Version
1.0.3

What OS are you playing on?
Windows

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Have you tried verifying your game files?
Yes

How much "pain" is this causing you?
10

Please explain the issue you experienced in the most condensed way possible
At the beginning of the game I was playing with almost no FPS drops, but by the 1860s the FPS dropped drastically and the game became unplayable. In Paper Map mode, it is between 4-10 FPS. The situation gets worse when I zoom in on the map. When I'm on the Laws screen, I can feel the computer suffer.

Processor: i7-7700
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (and I've updated drivers)

Please explain how to reproduce the issue
Come to the 1860s in the game and try clicking Resume...

Is there anything else you think could help us identify/replicate the issue?
When the game is paused, CPU is around 60%, GPU is like 60%. But when I click resume, CPU goes to 90% and GPU drops to 10%.

I have attached a save game
Yes

Upload Attachment
File(s) attached

Same issue form me, but 10 years into the game.
The screen can even literally freeze when zooming out.

Two majors issues according to my tab manager:
(i) Game was installed in D/ and used 100% of the maximum debit of the disk all the time. Installing it on C/ (which is an SSD) resolved this issue.
It improved the startup loading time of the game tremendously (from c. 8 minutes to c. 45 seconds). FPS were however only slightly improved.
(ii) RAM seems to be used at 90%+ all the times (8GB of RAM).

CPU is at 80%. GPU did not exceed 60% at maximum.
The game never crashes, but it can totally stop responding when changing the graphics parameters, or exiting the game with autosave on exit enabled.


Processor: i7-8750H
RAM: 8GM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

Graphics settings are set on medium. Setting on low does not resolve the issue.

 

[Chaapp]

Yes, same here.On the map (zoomed) I am on 15-18 FPS with a lot stuttering.

Processor: i7-7700K @4,2 GHz
GPU: Radeon RX6600
RAM: 32GB
512 GB SSD

I'm on Arch Linux an have the same problem on Proton Experimental and the Native Linux version.
Steam Deck is the same.

What I see is that all my CPU cores go to nearly 100%
Playing on speed 5
I have a feeling that it mostly drops, when the info boxes appear on the bottom right of the screen especially the market summaries.

Graphic settings don't make any difference.
I think my specs are higherthen the recommendations.

 

[History 75]

Tried all sorts at this point, regardless of game age bad FPS drops from the get go. Here's the weird thing.....

Running 3060ti and i7 8700 with 16gb Memory and using RTSS to cap at 60 and smooth out frame times. If I uncheck Vsync and take off the frame rate cap (so the frame rate can max out) i can go over 160FPS. So there is plenty of overhead. The minute I enable any type of Vsync for a smooth 60 the game simply cant lock at 60 fps. It just bounces around between 39 -59 fps and 60 here and there. I can only put this down to bad optimization at this point. Fingers crossed a patch can improve things.

 

[nhartwell]

Same issue here, game runs perfectly at around 60fps until around 1860s.

What I have noticed is that a good chunk of it is related to the 'ticks' for morning/afternoon/ night and days. The lag is worse at end of week and freezes all together for around 15 seconds on the first of the month (this issue at months end is present at game start but only for a second or two)

If I pause the game its completely smooth. If I slow the game down to its slowest speed it's also completely smooth between each 'tick' and then lags on the tick itself. It's at the point where it's unplayable going into the 1870s on any speed beyond the slowest setting and even that's being generous .

Hope this helps solve the issue.

 

[liam56514]

Same issue as everyone else. The late game becomes an absolute mess. How was this not tested and resolved before release?

RTX 3060TI
i7-9700K
32GB

 

[Nuklearius]

Same issue as everyone else. The late game becomes an absolute mess. How was this not tested and resolved before release?

The reason there is no late game content is that even Paradox can't play to that point reliably. This stuttering was an issue already way back with the leak, so I doubt it'll be fixed anytime soon.
It's not really a bug, it's just how the game was made. And while I expected performance to be bad, I did not expect it to be much worse than Victoria 2 with GFM especially considering most pops are calculated state wise now.

 

[doggoes]

This is still the performance of the new version

 

[Nuklearius]

This is still the performance of the new version

I think it's also down to assimilation not happening as in Victoria 2. Also Vicky 3 splits the pops far too often - everytime a new building is placed, which is why the games performance degrades just as industrialization really kicks in.

 

[nhartwell]

The reason there is no late game content is that even Paradox can't play to that point reliably. This stuttering was an issue already way back with the leak, so I doubt it'll be fixed anytime soon.
It's not really a bug, it's just how the game was made. And while I expected performance to be bad, I did not expect it to be much worse than Victoria 2 with GFM especially considering most pops are calculated state wise now.

Not so sure that's the reason there is no late game content. But i hear what your saying.

Looking round the forums plenty of people have reached 1936 and said nothing about lag. I'm sure they've experienced some, as to be expected, but not to the point people like myself and the other posters have to the point where its, and I promise I'm not exaggerating here, 'unplayable' which I'm personally gutted about as I've really enjoyed what I've had the chance to so far.

This seems to be affecting players with a wide range of system quality. I would be happy to buy myself extra RAM (the weakest part of my setup) if I knew for certain it would resolve the situation but there's people with 32GB and high end processors struggling. I also run CK3/Hoi4 etc perfectly throughout the entire time frame.

I appreciate the devs are very busy but has there been any acknowledgement of this issue (outside of the reddit post by Mikael about pops slowing the game down) ? I feel like given some players have no issues and some can barely play the game suggests there might be more to it.

Just a quick nod from the team that they're looking into it or some feedback would be really appreciated

Looking forward to getting back into Vic3 soon as possible!

 

[Nuklearius]

Looking round the forums plenty of people have reached 1936 and said nothing about lag. I'm sure they've experienced some, as to be expected, but not to the point people like myself and the other posters have to the point where its, and I promise I'm not exaggerating here, 'unplayable' which I'm personally gutted about as I've really enjoyed what I've had the chance to so far.

Like I said, that's how the game is designed. Every time a new building is build and every time pops migrate they split and each new split pop requires its own calculations even if its just 500 people large.
You can mess around with the game and create the lag very quickly if you build every single available building in every single state (you can use cheats) as Russia or Ottomans or any other Major. If you then set them to autoexpand, the lag will be unbearable by the 1850s already.
The only reason why the game doesn't stutter like that at game start is that most countries have just massive peasant pops, but with every new building and every migration the game becomes a bit slower.

 

[nhartwell]

Yeah, I've gathered that, and your right of course.

But what confuses me is that some people seem to be able to play the game fine, and others can't. Clearly the pop problem should affect everyone no? Yet people are happily finishing campaigns. That can't be just down the people's tolerance of the lag, there has to be an issue with optimization as well
I'm tolerant of poor performance normally but this is bad enough for me to stop a campaign.

 

[Tkrens]

I am having similar issues with a Ryzen 3800x and a Radeon 5700xt and 32gb ram. After 1860/1870 the FPS just massively drops to 10-20 and the game itself becomes very slow, ticks take far too long. My experience is also that the game is just unplayable.

 

[Strigoi Tyrannus]

I have tested various things like high/low graphics, vsync on/off and FPS uncap/cap on 30/60. To me it seems there is some major issue with the map atleast using a lot of CPU. ---When I am in the menu, my CPU uses 100%. This is weird to me, I cant explain it.
-When ingame and zoom out to the paper map, I can get 100+fps and mostly it stays pretty high. When I zoom in more, my CPU goes to 100% and the fps drops to 2-30. Seems when I move the map to fog of war/further from my country (Belgium), the FPS gets better.
-Zooming in and out causes massive lag.
-When zoomed in, it seems the amount of zoom causes different amount of lagged. When zoomed in pretty much fully, the fps is better. When zoomed in at an "optimal" distance where you see multiple regions there is way more lag. When zoomed out high (but not paper map high), the fps gets better again.

So it seems there is more CPU usage depending on where you are at the map. My GPU is never at 100% and also the game automatically suggests the highest graphic settings to me.

My specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600K CPU @ 3.80GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.8GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

 

[History 75]

I have tested various things like high/low graphics, vsync on/off and FPS uncap/cap on 30/60. To me it seems there is some major issue with the map atleast using a lot of CPU. ---When I am in the menu, my CPU uses 100%. This is weird to me, I cant explain it.
-When ingame and zoom out to the paper map, I can get 100+fps and mostly it stays pretty high. When I zoom in more, my CPU goes to 100% and the fps drops to 2-30. Seems when I move the map to fog of war/further from my country (Belgium), the FPS gets better.
-Zooming in and out causes massive lag.
-When zoomed in, it seems the amount of zoom causes different amount of lagged. When zoomed in pretty much fully, the fps is better. When zoomed in at an "optimal" distance where you see multiple regions there is way more lag. When zoomed out high (but not paper map high), the fps gets better again.

So it seems there is more CPU usage depending on where you are at the map. My GPU is never at 100% and also the game automatically suggests the highest graphic settings to me.

My specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600K CPU @ 3.80GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.8GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

Indeed its the map zoom levels that exhibit the most variation and you have described the highs and lows that correspond with my own experience. The map navigation should be buttery for a real relaxing enjoyable experience in my opinion.

I can't say anything about the later game stages as I'm sorry to say I am not prepared to sink hours into a game that performs so erratically. Especially when its clear from this thread there are plenty of 'more than capable systems' experiencing issues. Lets hope for some optimization sooner rather than later and to I'm sure they will get it sorted.

I will say that similar but not as drastic issues are to be found in CK3 when opening multiple windows or viewing the court room.

I will take a closer look at the CPU usage and post again.


NEW******

I've attached a screen shot showing CPU usage and you can see the map zoom level ( usually the worst spot) and that not all cores are maxed out yet I'm seeing this massive FPS drop. from over 100 fps to the 30s shown here.

My Specs
i7 8700
3060TI 8GB
16GB 2666 Memory

 

[arvocamp30n]

I have the same issue here, the fps in Europe goes to 20 when I zoom in and out. I have a 3090 and a ryzen 7 5800x

 

[Xryphon]

Zooming into Europe specifically causes insane amounts of lag that is unbearable. Compared to other regions such as China, it is simply unplayable in Europe for me because of how much lag I have to endure when selecting a state, etc.