Interval stutter / jitter / duplicated frames bug - workarounds

[TexelGuy]

yep, i figured that actual refresh rate is temporary, and i also figured that nvidia shadowplay does this same procedure, since my recording's fps varied from 59.98 to 60.02 on a daily basis. so it's not likely an obs bug, but the windows itself (perhaps it's caused by the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) which is default for windows instead of HPET that was around for like 15 years). might also try to disable HPET in BIOS, but that takes so much testing and i just can't bother doing that.

The original poster of this thread @wiliextreme tested this on Linux as well and saw the same behavior, so I don't think Windows is to blame here.

 

[ciinTri]

The original poster of this thread @wiliextreme tested this on Linux as well and saw the same behavior, so I don't think Windows is to blame here.

I think he was implying that he tested it on a "Bootable USB Drive", so someone experiencing these stutters need to confirm this with actually installing Linux.

 

[TexelGuy]

I think he was implying that he tested it on a "Bootable USB Drive", so someone experiencing these stutters need to confirm this with actually installing Linux.

There's no difference between an Ubuntu partition on a USB drive vs on an internal drive. It's still Linux. You can't boot into Linux without installing it somewhere, and a USB drive can be used to do that as well.

 

[TexelGuy]

There's no difference between an Ubuntu partition on a USB drive vs on an internal drive. It's still Linux. You can't boot into Linux without installing it somewhere, and a USB drive can be used to do that as well.

Unless you're talking about the "live" Ubuntu that you can access before installing it, but I think it should be very obvious that you shouldn't use that to test OBS, because it will be lacking GPU drivers. I doubt that's what he was talking about.

 

[ciinTri]

• changing OS (tested Windows 10, 11 and even tried OBS from bootable Linux Ubuntu)

I think mentioning "bootable" would be a redundant thing to say if he did a Full Installation of Linux, either way this statement lacks clarity, and needs confirmation by users other than OP.

 

[TexelGuy]

I think mentioning "bootable" would be a redundant thing to say if he did a Full Installation of Linux, either way this statement lacks clarity, and needs confirmation by users other than OP.

Fair point, I assumed it was an installed copy on a USB drive because it seemed obvious you're not supposed to use the live session version for this kind of thing.

Unfortunately, wiliextreme seems to be inactive, we might not be able to get a reply from him. You're right that we need other people to test it on Linux. OBS is on macOS as well, so maybe someone who has a Mac can test it.

 

[wiliextreme]

@TexelGuy @ciinTri
To clarify, when testing on Linux, I only booted live Ubuntu from pendrive. I didn't bother with full HDD install because I only wanted to quickly check if it is windows-only bug or not. The stutter at regular intervals was still present so I assumed it is a bug inside OBS or some library used by it. I suspect Linux installed on HDD would give the same result, but didn't try it by myself.

 

[rematb]

Hey guys, i've been reading this post past few days and i have encountered an issue with my streaming + gaming PC with "frame pacing" at least thats what i think it is.

Long story short i have Elgato 4k Pro capture card and i use OBS on my gaming PC to fullscreen project to capture card, when im not using OBS my game works really smooth, precise. As soon as i open OBS and cast a screen to capture card the game still has high fps, low frame times but its not as smooth as before, it feels "heavy" if you know what i mean.

Anyone else had similar issues in the past?

 

[aftrshck]

What software should i use in order to cap my monitor refresh rate at exactly 120 or 60 HZ (if it's even possible) ?

 

[PaiSand]

What software should i use in order to cap my monitor refresh rate at exactly 120 or 60 HZ (if it's even possible) ?

Windows. Check on the display settings.

 

[aftrshck]

Windows. Check on the display settings.

This doesn't give you exact numbers, usually something like 119.96424 or 59.99432 etc.

I heard people are using some custom software in order to get exactly 120.000/60.000 or at least get really close it.

 

[wiliextreme]

@TexelGuy @ciinTri
Just realized I might have been wrong about Linux having this issue. I don't remember if I actually recorded any actual video while on Linux or maybe I just noticed interval stutter on OBS preview and assumed it would be also on recordings (which may not be true as proven by Elgato Camlink which stuttered only on preview).

So this bug may or may be not present on Linux, not sure, don't have time right now to check it again but wanted to clarify that if someone else would like to test it.

 

[aftrshck]

I did some testing on CachyOS (Arch Linux with both Wayland / X11 display protocols) and results i got weren't really good in my case (i7 8700 and RTX 2060 Super).

While i didn't notice any interval stutter at all (i even forced FPS/display refresh rate mismatch in OBS to get it), the recordings were really choppy (frame drops/encoding lag?) and overall game/OBS performance is just horrendous compared to Windows.

Linux uses completely different techniques for display/window capture + doesn't have game capture at all since you are running things through Proton. It looked to me like they are not very optimized for OBS or Nvidia/Intel hardware (had constant 75-80% GPU/CPU load while windows barely reached 45-50%).

Could be running flawless on AMD but i can't test that sadly.

 

[aftrshck]

If you are feeling like recording on Linux, i highly suggest this software: https://flathub.org/apps/com.dec05eba.gpu_screen_recorder
Way better performance than anything i've seen on Windows including OBS.