Weird FPS cap issue

[Redon]

I've been considering giving Disco another try, but after reinstalling it, I've run into a strange problem where playing online seems to cap my frame rate to exactly 100 fps in a seemingly arbitrary way, which I'll try to explain in more detail below. First, I should mention that I use a 144 Hz monitor, but I run it at 120 Hz with LightBoost. I've been using the Nvidia control panel to toggle vsync on or off, and Fraps to benchmark fps.

• At 120 Hz with vsync, the game initially runs at a constant 120 fps as long as I don't connect to the server. I can play like this offline for as long as I want and not have any problems. As soon as I connect to the server though, the fps cap begins alternating between 120 fps and (exactly!) 100 fps at seemingly random intervals. Here's what that looks like over the course of about 20 minutes.
  
• At 144 Hz with vsync, the same thing happens, except that it is alternating between 144 fps and 100 fps.
  
• With Vsync disabled, the game initially runs at about 180 fps while offline, but as soon as I connect to the server, the frame rate is permanently capped at 100 fps.
  
• In all three cases, the described behavior persists even after disconnecting from the server and loading an offline save. Only restarting the game seems to fix it.
  
• This behavior occurs regardless of whether I use the -noframelimit option in the launcher.
  

Unfortunately, the frame rate feels very choppy when this 100 fps limit is active, much more than you might expect based on the numbers. The difference is jarring and makes it hard to enjoy the game. I've reinstalled Freelancer and the Discovery mod from scratch at least twice, to no avail. I've not experienced such problems with any other games. The fact that this only happens once I connect to the server seems especially odd to me. I'd love to understand what's going on here.

[Uknown]

If your monitor is at 30, 60, 90, 120 Hz, try Use a multiplier of 30 but for example, i play with 50FPS when on Battery, and 110FPS Connected (my laptop has a 120Hz Panel) ...
So in RivaTuner i set 50/110 depending the usage, i can't tell you it don't fill "Choppy", the issue is that Nvidia Control Panel cannot make a "VSync" for games older than DirectX 9.0c when Freelancer by itself is using a DirectX 9.0a so the Control panel have not working here...
This is a creepy problem, i mean, one guy have one of that Hiper-Fast Monitors and running Vanilla Freelancer over 155FPS don't make any issue ...
So why Discovery is capped for 155FPS? ...
I really don't know, but as a tip, just set 10 Frames less than your monitor can update, your will not suffer, and is pretty nicely, but you know, keeping to open a software to limit your hardware, well i don't really belive you like doing that "Everytime" you has to log-in to the game
On Deskopt still using a 60Hz Monitor, but i don't really know why still "Choppy" just because it gets lowered to 58-59 ... is pretty weird in reality, anyway ...
for the moment a software like
RivaTuner Statistics Server can help you out to make your game without any Choppiness
Good luck out there

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✨ ⇝ Nanosinx#1541 ⇜ ✨

[Nightowl]

You should not Forget that the game is over 15 years old.
There was no 4k or more than 75Hz at that time...

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This is a game, a Roleplay-Game!

[SlappyTheRoach]

Have you got the line -noframelimit in your optional Arguments?



If not try that and see how you go, so long as you have a third party software to cap your fps bellow 155. otherwise the server wont be happy with you.

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Reworking sig

[Redon]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I'm aware that this game is very old and that there might be compatibility issues with modern machines and expectations. However, I used to play Discovery online on the same PC with the same OS with no such issues before, which tells me this problem doesn't need to exist. If it wasn't possible to run this game at more than 100fps, then there would be no need for the FPS limiter in the first place.
I understand that preventing jittering is the reason the FPS limiter exists; I'm not asking to play with an uncapped frame rate. I'm trying to run the game at a smooth 120fps (with or without Vsync), which my computer is clearly capable of because it runs it at a constant 180fps offline when uncapped.

As I stated in the OP, I've tried running the game both with and without the -noframelimit option, and it made no difference. According to the FPS limiter's documentation, it is supposed to cap the frame rate at 155fps. Yet with or without -noframelimit, I get 180fps while playing offline, and with or without -noframelimit, my frame rate is capped at 100fps as soon as I connect to the server. There is no obvious reason why this should happen, and yet it does. It's not Vsync doing that, it's not frame drops due to performance issues, and it's not the 155fps cap that the FPS limiter claims to enforce.

Is the FPS limiter supposed to have an effect while playing offline? If yes, how come it does not cap my frame rate while playing offline? If no, which means it only applies once connected to the server, is there any possibility that this issue is related to the FPS limiter not working as intended, seeing as it only happens once I connect to the server?

[Redon]

So here's an update that I didn't think I was going to post...

In my attempts to find out if anyone had been dealing with the same issue before, the only thing I could find that sounded even remotely relevant was this post from one and a half years ago. A guy talking about a 100fps cap, claiming that connecting via a VPN got rid of it. Sounds crazy, but I figured why not give it a try, it can't hurt.

And what do you know, once I connect using a VPN, the issue actually disappears. Yes, somehow, using a VPN fixed the issue of getting a mysterious 100fps cap in multiplayer. And maybe not so surprisingly, it's not actually connecting from a different location that fixes it, but just running the VPN software seems to do the trick, even when it is disabled. Once I exit the program, my ingame fps goes back down to 100. Somehow the VPN qualitatively affects my connection in a way that resolves this weird problem. I have no idea what's going on, but I guess I'll be using this as a workaround for the time being.

Anyway, resolved... I guess? Strange stuff.

[Omi]

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[Omi]

Hi Redon

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[SlappyTheRoach]

That is a strange one that is. I can run 150fps, even though my screens only a 60Hz, I can still have the game run at 150fps. Normally I just leave it sitting around 80fps to save memory and stuff. And that's just by running the -noframelimit.

Edit: good to see you resolved it and got it working again.

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Reworking sig

[Redon]

Hi Redon

Hi