Why does Skyrim sound/physics got wonky on new 120+Hz monitors?

[imaheadcase]

Like most people who play skyrim on new modern monitors above 60Hz, you have to enable FPS limits in it or sound/graphics go crazy. What is actually going on with the game engine that enables sound odd behavior?

Like i fired it up last night first time in a year, and had to limit FPS to 90 on my 144Hz monitor or sound of water was everyplace, textures popped in and out, and physics would go crazy like animals would go up 100 feet in air randomly. Switch to 90FPS capped and everything is back to normal. lol

I'm just curious why this game in particular does this and not other older 3d games? Something specific to the game engine? Console port blues?

FYI: Those interested in playing Skyrim again on high refresh rate monitors use this http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mod...rim/ajax/moddescription/?id=34&preview=&pUp=1 I found 90 to be the best settings, but others say they have to use 75FPS capped, have to try different ones.

 

[BFG10K]

I'm just curious why this game in particular does this and not other older 3d games?

Many other games/engines have the same limitation (old & new), but the FPS threshold might be different. Also some have irremovable framerate caps so the problem never happens.

The reasons why it happens vary, but in the case of Skyrim it's because the engine is designed around a fixed tick rate, hence it's capped to 60FPS by default. This is similar to Doom 3, Rage and HPL engines.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Some methods of calculating the physics are unstable if the time step is too small. If the physics isn't decoupled from frame time you can get weird results. I've seen it happen in quite a few games. Mechwarrior 3, tomb raider underworld, dead space etc.

 

[imaheadcase]

Well its not capped at 60fps default, since it can go higher, just not much. Its just very strange that its even a issue. Especially since it effects certain items only in game.

I guess i just never played specific game like that since getting faster monitor.

 

[soccerballtux]

countdown variables that get incremented faster than they get decremented, possibly because there are unaccounted for delays in the render path that aren't a problem when you're limited to 16.6ms/frame but when that delay is lower, they don't get taken care of/decremented away

 

[Black Octagon]

The word 'new' in the thread title irks me. This always was an issue, including on 'old' 120Hz monitors.

In addition, I'm pretty sure the answer to the OP's question is easily available via a quick Google search.

Bah.

Humbug.

 

[ViRGE]

As Flapdrol1337 correctly notes, the issue is due to instabilities in the simulation engines. If your time slice is too small, then certain types of physics simulations can break down, hence the need to cap the physics simulation at a certain rate, generally 60Hz.

There is no one right answer to this. It's possible to make a variable physics engine, but of course it's a tradeoff in capabilities and development difficulty. Often what you'll find is that more simulation-complex games will stick to 60Hz, or alternatively will have a means to lock the physics to 60Hz while running other parts of the simulation at a variable rate.

The word 'new' in the thread title irks me. This always was an issue, including on 'old' 120Hz monitors.

In addition, I'm pretty sure the answer to the OP's question is easily available via a quick Google search.

Bah.

Humbug.

Hey, be nice now.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I remember firing up games like Ultima 7 (80486 era) on my old pentium 2 and having it go insane, like everything was going a million miles an hour. Had to use a cpu limiter to use it.

I know this is not exactly the same but the issue that older games not allowing for new hardware is itself a common problem.

 

[adhdrunsme]

Dude techmo Superbowl 94 best game ever

 

[adhdrunsme]

Well other than Mario Kart by the way

 

[Whitestar127]

The reasons why it happens vary, but in the case of Skyrim it's because the engine is designed around a fixed tick rate, hence it's capped to 60FPS by default. This is similar to Doom 3, Rage and HPL engines.

Well, I'm not sure it's a "normal" fixed tick actually. In Skyrim most things move in a normal tempo even if you turn the fps up. In Doom 3 there is definitely a fixed tick, because if you turn that up to 75 fps, then everything goes faster.

There is some odd thing going on in Skyrim. For example, it almost seems as if objects that can be moved have their own rendering engine. You can have silky smooth head movement at 60 frames per second, but pick up an object and toss it, and it looks like it moves in 25-30 frames per second. Strange.

Mileage will vary for how high fps you can play with. I used to play at fixed 85. Only rarely would I see an elephant go up into the clouds, lol. The water sounds and screen flickering would start when the fps approached 100 if I recall correctly.

 

[beginner99]

I remember firing up games like Ultima 7 (80486 era) on my old pentium 2 and having it go insane, like everything was going a million miles an hour. Had to use a cpu limiter to use it.

I know this is not exactly the same but the issue that older games not allowing for new hardware is itself a common problem.

lol. I remember PacMan on a 80286. Had to remove the turbo or else you were chance-less because it ran too fast.

 

[maddie]

As Flapdrol1337 correctly notes, the issue is due to instabilities in the simulation engines. If your time slice is too small, then certain types of physics simulations can break down, hence the need to cap the physics simulation at a certain rate, generally 60Hz.

There is no one right answer to this. It's possible to make a variable physics engine, but of course it's a tradeoff in capabilities and development difficulty. Often what you'll find is that more simulation-complex games will stick to 60Hz, or alternatively will have a means to lock the physics to 60Hz while running other parts of the simulation at a variable rate.

Hey, be nice now.

How in the world does this work with a range of GPU and CPU targets? Each one will have a different execution speed.

 

[ViRGE]

How in the world does this work with a range of GPU and CPU targets? Each one will have a different execution speed.

With GPUs you don't care. With CPUs you either have an algorithm that's stable at sub-60Hz, or you slow down the simulation to compensate.

 

[Headfoot]

I really hope Fallout 4 uses a new engine that is xbone/ps4/pc only...

 

[imaheadcase]

The word 'new' in the thread title irks me. This always was an issue, including on 'old' 120Hz monitors.

In addition, I'm pretty sure the answer to the OP's question is easily available via a quick Google search.

Bah.

Humbug.

What irks me is someone responding with no info at all. Someone could find a friend via a quick google search.

 

[Black Octagon]

What irks me is someone responding with no info at all. Someone could find a friend via a quick google search.

I tried that, but couldn't find a friend for all the poorly-titled forum threads in the search results