Grid & AutoSports Fixes & Tweaks. Read Before Posting another Discussion.

[sgtdrayke]

I have been helping fix codi games for along time. let me try and help you .
[ I DO NOT WORK FOR CODI BUT I HAVE BEEN A SUPPORTER / HELPER FOR A LONG TIME. ]
    Please note that all in this discussion are from my background and knowlegde,
     myself or Codemasters will not take responsibility if you choose to attempt anything in this post.
                                IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK

Ok so you suffer from fps drops & stuttering in game ( singleplayer ) in grid 2 & or  autosport.
Some questions for you .  Note this Discussion is regarding Windows 7,.. Grid Autosport is W7 & W8. vista users i would recommend upgrading.

Q-1. installed via CD/steam ? & installed to master Drive C: ?
Q-2. do you run your own antivirus with firewall and not windows ?

A-1 : i have for along time pushed the "Theory" that read/write of the game files on the master drive is the main cause for these issues. which is why i never install to master.
and it was recently proven by a few nice gamers to reinstall there games to a secondary drive . with steam this can be done with out reinstalling the game. simple click create and copy. 
A-2 : since a patch that went through on Grid Autosport my own av firewall was throughing out the game.as always you need to create rules for the game to access the internet.. but time comes when you will also need to edit adjust those rules.
   this does also include antivirus applications that give you protection over harddrives / memory access / other features. IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.. if you do not know what you are doing. most AV Applications give you the option of "did you install this program your self"? / Trusted. but remember the game is still attempting to connect to the internet. 

[ Some people think im having a laugh with this. but it is a true point that modern AV aplications will have "memory access protection" games apon install will automaticly apply for access with windows firewall and other av aplications. but if you use an av that is not supported then it will block some memory access and also C: access . ie reg keys and windows file access. alot of the time game support will just say "have you tried the game with all av disabled" . ]

Other Tweaks and options to help you

This is to give you an idea of options i will discuss.


These game options are from Grid Autosport and are running on :
- Intel i7 920 2.6ghz (stock clock) 8 thread 4 core
- Asus P6t Deluxe
- Corsair hydro h100
- Corsair Dominator 18gb DDR 3 1600mhz
- EVGA 760 GTX SC 2Gb   | Drivers currently on :  beta 340.43 DX11
- Creative SoundBlaster x-fi platinum fatal1ty champion series
- Samsung 24" 1920x1080 res 2ms monitors x2 (dual)
- 3x Samusung 1TB 7200rpm sata II    ( ALL Games are installed to a second 1tb drive )
    Vsync is on and perfect 60fps . even whilst recording
   Page file is running at 34293mb

Optional Tweaks
the first thing with freezing / stutters due to FPS is to lower msaa / aa  and the rest. they eat the most gpu power.
then its the big list ( worst offenders at the top )
- ambient occlusion
- advanced lighting
- anisotropic filtering
- global illumination
- water
- ground cover
- Smoke shadows

you will also notice that i have turned off "Advanced blending (intel)" < one of those "chuck it over the shoulder and get it dead senter of the bin" jobs unless you really want the best of the best and you have a Graphics card from the rambo family.

People always say start with turning the resolution down. these days i dont think that is such an issue. but note Pushing an anolog res sa 1280x800 is far easier for graphics cards then pushing  HD Res of 1280x720 or 1920x1080 . even more so depending if you are pusing HD i or p. 

Other Tweak 1.   Do not forget you can always run the game in window. this is good if you cant even get the game up and running in fullscreen to start with.
go to    C:\Users\-yoru computer name-\Documents\My Games\GRID Autosport\hardwaresettings\Hardware_settings_config xml and set Fullscreen to false and this will allow the game to run in a windowed mode. you can also adjust resolution and other settings in this file if you know what your doing.
and you can change ingame options to from your current setting ie if you are on high,. change to medium and second monitor to off. increase your options one by one untill it fails.

Other Tweak 2. old codi games had an issue were the mapping of your computer CPU would not be correct in the Hardware_settings_config xml. if you want to check you can open the xml using notepad and check the section "workerMapFile="system/workerMap8Core.xml"  refer to my "Facebook note Fix Grid 2 FPS Dropping" for information about how to edit this.

TWEAK 3  [ ADDED 10/07/14 ]

 DIRECT X .. is your dx upto date and have you checked ? it suddenly popped into my head from doing the alpha testing with BF were an issue was raised due to this one thing. . you might want to try installed the Dx file. this will update your dx with any changes or tweaks . sometimes helps. 
Destination of this file. :
YOUR INSTALLATION DIRECTORY  \steamapps\common\GRID Autosport\_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010\DXSETUP.exe
although it says JUNE 2010 . this was the last official time dx had to be packed and made available as a download. ( showing age here, pack in the day )
but the files supplyed withing this folder are dx11 x86 and x64 supporting files ..

  ADDED NOTE DX11 TO DX10 has been Used by many to fix some lag drops or stutter problems this can be done & its very easy .  as always create a backup before you edit.
C:\Users\-yoru computer name-\Documents\My Games\GRID Autosport\hardwaresettings\Hardware_settings_config xml
   Within the xml you will need to Find.  <directx forcedx10="false" /> and you need to make this  <directx forcedx10="true" /> .
Remember to save . this should force the game to load in Dx10 . but note this will also drop graphical features that are supported by DX11 and DX10 is known to be more resource hungry than DX11

TWEAK 4 [added 13/7/14] STEAM OVERLAY
Totaly slipped my mind this one. until i installed on another machine (DOH)

right click the game title in steam > properties > general - tab just above "set launch options" a small box with "enable/disable the steam overlay while in-game.


ok i hope this helps you all .

as always message me if you want to fire any questions at my head 8-}

Sgt Drayke          
[ Please if you found this helpfull let me know by
following me on twitter and Posting a Comment @ sgtdrayke ]

My list of Forum support and videos

For Grid AutoSport black screen issues click here
A fix for Grid 2 that may help click here VIDEO
Facebook note Fix Grid 2 FPS Dropping Click here
Facebook note Fix Grid 2 Settings Fix Sheet click here
Facebook Note Fix Fro RaceDriver Grid Dirt2 F1 2010 Click Here
Steam Forum Grid And Dirt 2 Game load Crashes Click Here

Other Disussions i have helped
Codi forum Nvidia Graphics Card Issue? Game Freezes
Codi Forum Stuttering in both Grid 2 & Autosport

[sgtdrayke]

Just Added

TWEAK 3  [ ADDED 10/07/14 ]
DX Files update.

[mcnab]

Thanks sgtdrayke, after the latest patch on pc i had stuttering in game, so i tried all of your fixes unfortunately none of them worked,

I would just like to add 1 more that solved my problem.....

Uninstalling the high res texture pack!!

I believe my pc is more than capable or running this pack as it was fine until the patch.

[Shinobi75]

i have the same problem with this stuttering in multiplayer races.
i test this with and without ki drivers, and without ki drivers the stuttering was not so heavy.
restart the game will stop the stuttering too..for a while.

[sgtdrayke]

@mcnab 
    . sorry to hear this.. i must admit if you arnt to bothered about the pack then why need it.?!
..

@Shinobi75
  Stuttering in multiplayer races is a whole different ball game.. 
Why?
You have to keep in mind that your computer is attempting to :
A- Process everything in the game at the Specs you have set it to ..
& then
B- Get the information coming from the internet every mili second and process and render that into the game for ever mili second of the race. including the extras that you wont think of like damage skid marks so on. aswell as position of very one on track even if you cant see them.

Other facters that cause problems with this already problem is that hardware will slow everything down. you internet speed. it may be 60m or 20. ( min 40mb for online ) but what if you are being capped/reduced due to data usage, also router is it 100mb lan or 1000? do you have fibre or copper cable.. all these play effect on how your pc gets the info .. and then has to process it.

look at lag this way... snap shot of a pc in a few second whilst gaming. "pc has processed everything and is processing the packets. but 3 packets from the internet dont arrive.. the pc then goes into alert mode stutters whilst waiting for  resent packets or the next in the line.. when it does get it , it then has to process the game and the packets and spit it all back out. resulting it Stutter/lag reduced FPS.. " thats the short hand version.

I have been getting the feeling the game prefers 64 bit os and over 8gb of memory. but taht said i do have 2 people im trying to help that fit that..

i will find the answers :)

Sgt Drayke

hey Checkout my Youtube video Discussion

[sgtdrayke]

ok another update

 i think i found a general issue accros the board.. after testing the game on 2 of my other machines that are all completely different. i had to create firewall rules for both  (thats because i use comodo) but both i also had to disable steam overlay. ?!

just incase your not sure.
right click the game title in steam > properties > general tab just above "set launch options" a small box with "enable/disable the steam overlay while in-game.

another one of those "yes this has effected many games in the past. but why i didnt think of that, " i have my self from the day i installed steam disabled that in the steam properties. so hents why i havnt had a prob with that on my machine..

:)

Sgt Drayke

hey Checkout my Youtube Video Discussion?

[sgtdrayke]

Update to this topic . ( 08/09/14)

Added infomation Under Tweak 3 :
 how to change DX11 To DX10 . in some cases this has been the required fix to resolve stuttering and fps drops.

Sgt Drayke

[Ak1504]

Hi,

i only get stuttering sometimes when using windowed mode. Any ideas on that. Btw: I prefer Windowed mode because i play games on my TV and use the PC Monitor as second display so i dont like that fullscreen switching shit.