[1] When I initially boot up Freelancer Discovery, my FPS is maxed out (~155 FPS). If I click [NEW GAME] and enter Singleplayer, FPS sticks at ~140FPS. I go back to the Main Menu, it returns to ~155 FPS.
[2] When I enter the Discovery Game Server (Multiplayer), I get instantly capped at about ~50 FPS. If I exit to the Main Menu again, the ~50 FPS cap stays. Entering Singleplayer after having entered Multiplayer keeps my FPS at ~50 ( a limit which I got from visiting the game server).
It is as if my client absorbs an FPS-limiting parasite when entering the DiscoGC game server, and it retains that thing for as long as the program remains running; if I close FL and boot it up again, I find myself in Situation [1] (above).
Anomaly: I noticed that during precisely one test, my FPS in Frankfurt hit the Singleplayer value (~140 FPS), but then I Alt-Tabbed to check Discord, and it again absorbed the FPS-limiting effect; it remained at ~50 FPS after tabbing back into the game.
This is a very frustrating and experience-breaking phenomenon for me. My hardware is well above the spec required and FL works perfectly well in Singleplayer as stated above.
PS: I’ll take a break from the game/forum_RP while this issue is resolved and troubleshooted. It may very well be an adequate time to call it a season; the above would be the final nail for me this summer. If this mysterious FPS drop issue is resolved please send me a forum PM or hit me up on Discord.In the meantime, take care everyone, & be well.
Thanks to @Ramke and @Saronsen for attempting to help me with initial troubleshooting.
What I tried:
-All overlays were disabled before I noticed the FPS issues; I am now using Fraps, but disabling it doesn’t fix FPS.
-Turning off all Windows (10) Security features.
-Subsampling; setting Window Mode FL to run at 1600x900 resolution, when my resolution is 1920x1080.
-Pressing Alt+Enter twice (switching to Window Mode and then back to Fullscreen Mode) - didn't change FPS significantly.
-The -noframelimit command line argument (zero effect).
-Temporarily cutting “Limiter.DLL” from my FLDisco EXE folder and running it (got instantly kicked).
-Reinstalling Discovery temporarily fixes the issue; rebooting after reinstalling makes the issue return.
-I reinstalled Discovery about 10 times, reinstalled Freelancer about 5 times.
-Disabling fullscreen optimizations for the Freelancer.exe in the Discovery directory.
-Overriding High DPI Scaling (setting it to System-controlled).
-Turning on/off Advanced Scaling Options.
-Turning Win10 Game Mode on/off.
-Turning nearly every nVidia Control Panel setting on/off.
-Updating to Windows 10 2004. -Uninstalling non-essential Windows 10 utilities [*].
Others with same issue: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/...s.3015278/ Troubleshooting Completed - 7/02 -Comments: Searching on reddit and nVidia forums, I saw that other people had the same issue with older games - all were Windows 10 users (search for: "game limited to 50 FPS"). It appears that a Windows 10 app or utility causes the issue in some older games. I am not going to classify this as a "Resolved" issue because since I uninstalled many apps/utilities in bulk, I did not get to pinpoint the culprit program.
Edited the thread title, added "framerate" to make it searchable for reference.
Regards,
Skyelius
"It is a cold universe until you know God as your Father, and then it becomes a home. Even the next life simply becomes the Father's house, home."
—David Pawson