NFS: Underground - erratic speed

[Durzel]

Hi,

Got a very weird problem I'm trying to fix..

Been playing NFS:Underground recently, and have encountered a very annoying problem.

Basically what happens is that when there is a lot of detail/lights, etc on screen the game runs fine (bear with me), but when I go in tunnels and other "shielded" (i.e. game not drawing sky and other complex horizon stuff) areas the speed goes up to some stupid level where the car basically becomes uncontrollable.

I have the graphics up to full on everything, and am running it at 1280x1024 - the max resolution.

I know it sounds like an odd complaint - actually complaining about a game performing too well, but in this particular game when this rapid speed up occurs I basically can't control the car, and suffer accordingly (i.e. smash into the walls, barriers, etc). It's so bad that I've had to play a couple of races on Easy purely because when I've got to the tunnel sections I have to slow the car down to a crawl to be able to negotiate the tunnel properly..

It's almost as if vsync is off or something, or the game isn't locking the refresh to the actual elapsed time, etc.

Any ideas?

(Tried regular 3.9 Catalysts, and Omega 3.9s - same effect. Monitor is at 160hz at 1280x1024)

 

[Deadmanwalking]

I might be very far off the mark, but sounds like an FPS problem. In that it is pretty normal when detail etc, then shoots to something stupidly high when in shielded areas.

Any FPS monitor etc or way to cap it?

 

[(Shovel)]

You mention "IT's almost like vsync is off", is there an option to force it on?

As well as in the game itself, it might be worth checking the ATI driver controls don't also contain an option to force vsync as well. I've got an NVIDIA card myself so I can't help much beyond vague suggests

 

[Durzel]

It seems like vsync, but I don't think its that.. I will check but I'm 99.99% sure that vsync is on, given I haven't changed any of the default driver settings.

The game itself has no vsync settings.

The problem is that I literally can't turn the graphics detail up any higher - eveything is on max.

What actually happens is that not only does the framerate double (or more), but the car and everything else around runs at double the speed. It's difficult to quantify into words really - the easiest way of describing it is to imagine playing the game at twice the speed (i.e. car turns twice as fast, time goes down twice as fast, etc).

 

[leggy]

This may sound stupid but turn your refresh rate down.

If vsync is on, turning your refresh rate down (for a set resolution) will cap the frame rate at that number.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Durzel

Does the game hang before speeding up as you've described?

I ask only because I recall a bug in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (NFS:U's predecessor) whereby the game would (very infequently) hang for a period of time and then without warning uncontrolably speed up as if compensating for the time spent 'hanging'.

Whether your problem is an extention of this, or something different, I don't know, but it may be worth contacting EA's support team and just seeing if it is a known problem with the game, rather than just the drivers.

Kind Regards

 

[Durzel]

Hi Jonty,

No, the game doesn't exhibit any delay before switching speeds. I could do 3 laps of the same course and it would speed up at the same places every single time.

Tunnels are by far the worst - the game basically goes twice as fast in these areas (i.e. car is completely uncontrollable).

Its definitely a FPS related issue, but it seems like the game is bound only by FPS, not any "real world clock" - which is stupid to be honest. It'd be like playing Quake with variable character speed/gun firing depending on how fast your computer was, if that makes sense.

I can of course lower my monitor refresh but Im reluctant to do this because other games perform fine.

 

[exxxie]

I got these kind of problems Durzel.. it IS an FPS issue im certain.. I was playing at 1280 full detail.. and would constantly have problems in certain areas.. try turning down some options or even dropping down to 1024 and see if this fixes it. It did for me.

Its as tho NFS:U needs a frame limiter like GTA3/VC has.

(only a work around.. I'd welcome a more informed fix)

Im using a GF4ti with dx9b and 53.03 drivers.

 

[Xavier]

i have the creeping suspicion that if you turn your desktop refresh to 60hz it won't happen... If you have a moment give it a whirl and let us know.

 

[Durzel]

Hi,

I patched the game to 1.2 (latest patch, original is 1.0) and the problem disappeared. Give that a whirl exxxie!

Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[worMatty]

That answer was so obvious, none of them bothered to suggest it

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by Durzel
Hi,

I patched the game to 1.2 (latest patch, original is 1.0) and the problem disappeared. Give that a whirl exxxie!

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Durz,

You got a link to that patch?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Laz

Just quickly passing through. Anyway, to get the latest patch EA would prefer people use the auto-update utility which ships with the game. As far as I know, EA aren't providing the patches for conventional download (I found this Patch Page but I don't have the game installed, so it didn't do anything for me).

Kind Regards

 

[~Lazarus~]

Thanks Jonty - Ill check that out when I get home - not tonite cos Ill be a drunken wreck (doing a straightfae tonite )

Had another thought -0 is this a patch for ONLINE play - or just for normal?

 

[Durzel]

The link Jonty posted is the one I used.

I think the patch is for online play (it advises you that you need to patch if you try it). However, the patch did fix my single-player problem, and I think it might fix some other generic problems as well.

 

[Xavier]

just wondering, but what version does your game report top-right when patched? mine is 1.1001.00 or something and doesn't change after using the EA patcher... tres peculiare

 

[Durzel]

Mines something like 1.2541.00 I think. It's definitely not 1.1001.00 (which is the unpatched version)

 

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

try turning on the max Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering that your graphics card supports. See if it still speeds up in tunnels (It will because it has to render less) But it shouldn't speed up as much. If it doesnt speed up as much then it's a fps problem.