This is just something I have notice that when I play without vsync on then there's this tiny micro lagging without any actually FPS drop. Specifically, in SSBB, as that's the only game I play on Dolphin.
It's not really a huge issue for me as input lag isn't really an issue in this game + my FPS is high enough to avoid FPS drops because of vsync, however, I'd thought I'd report about it, still, looking for a fix.
Has anybody else noticed such a thing?
I've noticed something similar in 3.5 with Skies of Arcadia on LLE audio. It runs fullspeed, but it looks as if a frame or two is skipped. Reported FPS remains at 30 and reported game speed is still at 100%. This only happens with LLE audio when running around towns, ships, dungeons, etc; battles are unaffected. HLE audio is unaffected as well.
I thought V-sync was the cause of this issue, but turning it on and off did not resolve the perceived frame skip. I really haven't played a whole lot of other games on 3.5 yet; I'll try some other to see if it comes up again.
Dolphin has a lot of odd micro-stutter issues. I always leave V-sync on just in case but in some cases not even that works. In some games I need to use openMP to fix the micro-stuttering. In some games I have to use fps for limiting or audio throttle to fix the micro-stuttering. And in some games all of the above doesn't work and I have to find other solutions.
Okay, interesting.
For fun, I tried to turn off vsync and instead use OpenMP as a fix. It didn't work. Then I tried 'limit by FPS' and set it to '60' FPS. That only made it worse, if anything. Last I tried 'limit by FPS' + 'auto', and so far, I didn't see any micro stutter, however, it can be quite inconsistent as it sometimes starts right away, and other times, only after some random amount time has passed. Usually not too long a time, tho. This is only tested with SSBB, of course.
Make sure to try limit by fps and vsync at the same time.
I will.
BTW: I stumbled over these things called HPET, TSC, LAPICs. I think they're called 'event timers'. Anyhow,
take a look here (read whole thread).:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/107578...e-and-fps/
They are suppose have an influence in terms of gaming/general performance, and also many seem to associate them with causes for stuttering/micro lag, it seems.
If you have a motherboard that supports HPET, and you're using Windows 7, you might want to try to use HPET exclusively, or even try to disable HPET, in the BIOS + enable/disable HPET in Windows (7). But there's more info in the link ^
However, the HPET timer might cause an increase in input lag, like on your mouse, but this is likely already true for you *except* if your motherboard doesn't support HPET, or if you have it turned off in the BIOS. My DPC latency avg. is about 100-125 with 250 as max. This is with HPET mixed with other timers + with HPET used exclusively, doesn't matter. I cannot turn off HPET completely, but if done so, the DPC latency should be lower, I guess.
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
If you don't have an HPET option in the BIOS then HPET will always either be on or off, it seems. You cannot enable/disable it only via Windows (7). You have to do both.
Anyhow, it's worth a read. I am testing this out myself, ATM (using HPET exclusively).
