Camera Stuttering and Screen Tearing

[Soukyuu]

not the 30vs60 debate again...

[Lerend]

not the 30vs60 debate again...

It's not so much a debate as it is scientifically proven fact I'm not gonna sit here and argue over it, but capping your game at under half of your normal framerate is definitely not an acceptable solution for the problem.

Anyway, how 'bout that camera stutter? I've about had it with Radeon cards at this point between their mediocre performance in FFXIV, wonky shadows, poor catalyst control center implementation, and the AA texture flicker issues in Aion.

[Doman]

I don't think the camera stutter has anything at all to do with your video card. Rather, it's a programming logic issue - something purely on the coder's end, and it won't be fixed until they patch it.

To illustrate, think of it this way - whenever you move your mouse or your character, the camera responds by changing its rotation or the position it's 'looking at,' respectively. Each frame, the camera has to update the position it's looking at and its own position, (both in x, y, and z cartesian coordinates), and its own angular position (yaw, pitch, and roll).

The stutter is noticeable because they took the simplest form of updating-per-frame there is: "for each frame, new position = old position + this frame's delta/change." So whenever you're walking downhill, the camera is instantly displacing itself downwards however many units you 'fell.'

They could, instead, implement what's called linear interpolation, which results in a much more smooth and natural transition between "new position" and "old position." Each frame, instead of just instantly jumping to its desired point, it travels - usually half, but it's determined by whatever coeffecient > 0.0 and < 1.0 that you want - a percentage of the way to its desired point that frame. So if the camera's at (0, 0, 0) and needs to move to (10, 20, 30), linear interpolation would make it move to (5, 10, 15) the next frame, (7.5, 15, 22.5) the next, and it'd keep going half the distance each frame.

The basic math for it is "for each frame, camera's new position = (coefficient between 0.0 and 1.0) * ((desired position to look at, such as the player's location) - (camera's current position)) + (camera's current position)"

It's much better for aesthetic purposes. With a name like "linear interpolation," it sounds fancy and all, but it's still fairly easy to implement, as illustrated.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation as to why the camera stutter, at least, isn't a problem that originates from your end.

[Lerend]

I don't think the camera stutter has anything at all to do with your video card. Rather, it's a programming logic issue - something purely on the coder's end, and it won't be fixed until they patch it.

To illustrate, think of it this way - whenever you move your mouse or your character, the camera responds by changing its rotation or the position it's 'looking at,' respectively. Each frame, the camera has to update the position it's looking at and its own position, (both in x, y, and z cartesian coordinates), and its own angular position (yaw, pitch, and roll).

The stutter is noticeable because they took the simplest form of updating-per-frame there is: "for each frame, new position = old position + this frame's delta/change." So whenever you're walking downhill, the camera is instantly displacing itself downwards however many units you 'fell.'

They could, instead, implement what's called linear interpolation, which results in a much more smooth and natural transition between "new position" and "old position." Each frame, instead of just instantly jumping to its desired point, it travels - usually half, but it's determined by whatever coeffecient > 0.0 and < 1.0 that you want - a percentage of the way to its desired point that frame. So if the camera's at (0, 0, 0) and needs to move to (10, 20, 30), linear interpolation would make it move to (5, 10, 15) the next frame, (7.5, 15, 22.5) the next, and it'd keep going half the distance each frame.

The basic math for it is "for each frame, camera's new position = (coefficient between 0.0 and 1.0) * ((desired position to look at, such as the player's location) - (camera's current position)) + (camera's current position)"

It's much better for aesthetic purposes. With a name like "linear interpolation," it sounds fancy and all, but it's still fairly easy to implement, as illustrated.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation as to why the camera stutter, at least, isn't a problem that originates from your end.

Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes. This is pretty much exactly whats going on, the camera updates instantly whenever something non-transparent is between the camera and the back of my character, causing it to jump back and forth between positions as I move without any sort of smooth transition between the two. It definitely seems to be an engine thing, considering that it happens more with the "mouse" camera than it does the "keyboard" camera (why they used two separate sets of camera code is beyond me), but with so few reports of the issue and so many people saying "my camera doesnt stutter, I have no idea what you're talking about" I was beginning to think the game just hates me.

Now to toss it in the bucket of "hope it gets fixed in 2.0" issues I guess.