The real reason cutscenes stutter...

[MKANET]

Has anyone figured out the real reason why cutscenes in almost all games stutter?  It doesn't seem like a "lack of hardware performance" related issue.  I've seen a post where someone was complaining about this issue even on a TITAN V graphics card.  How is it possible game developers don't notice this during beta testing?  If it only happens on PC's... can't Nvidia offer a driver based solution?

 

This would be a great topic on for an upcoming Linus Tech Tips.  

[HanZie82]

Came here for an answer, am disapointed.
That title is clickbait yo.

Sorry me trying to be funny. But i have no idea.

[Mira Yurizaki]

18 minutes ago, MKANET said:

Has anyone figured out the real reason why cutscenes in almost all games stutter?

  It doesn't seem like a "lack of hardware performance" related issue.  I've seen a post where someone was complaining about this issue even on a TITAN V graphics card.  How is it possible game developers don't notice this during beta testing?  If it only happens on PC's... can't Nvidia offer a driver based solution?

Cutscenes in games are handled differently. Some play a pre-rendered movie (using the in-game engine for whatever reason). Some cap the frame rate likely for audio syncing. But otherwise I haven't an issue with cutscenes stuttering in most of the games I've played. The last one I can recall in recent memory were the Call of Duty loading movies being iffy until the game was done loading the level.

 

Also the reason why game developers don't notice is because they only have a small number of configurations available for testing. Software can act just fine on one configuration, but break in horrible ways on another. Which is why you should never play around with system settings, files, and other configurations unless you know exactly what they're doing, because you never know if a supposed application problem was because you flipped a switch it was expecting to be in the other state.

[johnt]

My cut scenes can be jittery messes. GTX 1070 with a g-sync display. When that frame rate drops.... 

 

it 

is

noticeable

.

[MKANET]

Thanks for the responses.  The type of cutscenes I'm referring to are the pre-rendered scenes using the in-game 3D engine (when limited to 30fps)... while the rest of the game is smooth as silk at 60fps (no frame drops).  It seems like some kind of out-of-synch issue causing the video to drop frames.

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

18 hours ago, MKANET said:

Thanks for the responses.  The type of cutscenes I'm referring to are the pre-rendered scenes using the in-game 3D engine (when limited to 30fps)... while the rest of the game is smooth as silk at 60fps (no frame drops).  It seems like some kind of out-of-synch issue causing the video to drop frames.

 

It's likely used to mask a loading screen and the act of loading and initializing the next play area is causing problems. I've had issues in more recent Call of Duty games where the video playing is stuttery or having issues until the loading is complete.