Improve Framerate in Cockpit By Switching Off Vert Sync

[Gabe Logan]

It appears that by setting Flicker Reduction to Normal, Vert Sync is switched off.

At 720p (at least) in the cockpit view, this makes the choppy framerate on some tracks (mainly those with lots of trees (Bathurst, Monza etc), improve a lot, at the expense of some screen tearing when the FPS falls below 60.

Thought I'd share this, as I found out completely by accident.

Unfortunately, these tracks are still significantly less smooth than when using an external view, and in part because of the flickery effect the trees have on the eyes (due to lack of transparency AA !), an effect particularly noticeable on Bathurst and Monza.

On a 42" plasma at 720p, I'm not seeing any effect on blur or jaggies whe using different Flicker Reduction settings - just the toggling on/of of Vert Sync.

 

[Nielsen]

I wonder why some people experience framerate drops while others don't. I play with standard settings and 1080p, but cockpit view is smooth on all tracks. I do notice some occasional screen tearing but it doesn't really ruin the immersion.

 

[ShawnPhillips]

I play at 1080P with image quality set to flicker reduction and GT6 runs much smoother then GT5 for me. Even in cockpit view I don't have any noticeable framerate drops. don't know how much a better hard drive helps, the one in my PS3 it the same 500GB from the PS4. (upgraded my PS4 to a 1TB drive and put the 500GB drive in my PS3)

 

[Metfanant]

I wonder why some people experience framerate drops while others don't. I play with standard settings and 1080p, but cockpit view is smooth on all tracks. I do notice some occasional screen tearing but it doesn't really ruin the immersion.

some people are just more susceptible to it then others...if it doesnt particularly bother you, then feel lucky...im pretty good at picking up on it when im looking for it, but consider myself lucky because my brain seems to be pretty good at ignoring framerate issues when im into a game...

 

[HoneyBadger]

It appears that by setting Flicker Reduction to Normal, Vert Sync is switched off.

Where does one find the flicker reduction setting in the PS3 XMB menu? I've been looking all over the place under settings and have yet to find it.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I play at 1080P with image quality set to flicker reduction and GT6 runs much smoother then GT5 for me. Even in cockpit view I don't have any noticeable framerate drops. don't know how much a better hard drive helps, the one in my PS3 it the same 500GB from the PS4. (upgraded my PS4 to a 1TB drive and put the 500GB drive in my PS3)

Interesting ... would not have expected a faster hard drive to impact this issue rather would have expected it to be isolated to the GPU and RAM.

 

[BeastyRacer]

Where does one find the flicker reduction setting in the PS3 XMB menu? I've been looking all over the place under settings and have yet to find it.

From the options in the game go to Display, then Brightness and Image Quality and go to Image Quality and you should find it.

 

[avens]

some people are just more susceptible to it then others...if it doesnt particularly bother you, then feel lucky...im pretty good at picking up on it when im looking for it, but consider myself lucky because my brain seems to be pretty good at ignoring framerate issues when im into a game...

Also framerate vastly varies depending on the PS3's temperature.

Play for two hours, select Apricot Hill with 10 cars+, laugh.

 

[SillyBillyP]

can anyone tell me if the jaggies are better or worse than in GT5?

 

[Nielsen]

some people are just more susceptible to it then others...if it doesnt particularly bother you, then feel lucky...im pretty good at picking up on it when im looking for it, but consider myself lucky because my brain seems to be pretty good at ignoring framerate issues when im into a game...

I don't buy that, I hated the GT Academy demo because of its framerate drops.

 

[paul loatman]

I wonder why some people experience framerate drops while others don't. I play with standard settings and 1080p, but cockpit view is smooth on all tracks. I do notice some occasional screen tearing but it doesn't really ruin the immersion.

Same here. I'm getting close to 60fps at all times when actually racing. Replays are sometimes a big laggy. I was actually really surprised by how smooth everything was when i first started up the game.

 

[Proud_God]

I don't buy that, I hated the GT Academy demo because of its framerate drops.

Neither do I. Everyone is negatively impacted by bad frame rate, almost by definition: gameplay at its very core consists of a sequence of frames being displayed. When the speed of this sequence is inconsistent and slow, there is a negative impact on gameplay. It just seems some people can't identify that negative impact as coming from bad frame rate.

 

[Gabe Logan]

Agree. In fact in outside views I've noticed no slow down at all. It seems to be just cockpit views (at least at 720p) that suffer from FPS drops.

Replays of course are running at 30FPS and blurry... so they feel pretty rubbish.

 

[Gabe Logan]

Same here. I'm getting close to 60fps at all times when actually racing. Replays are sometimes a big laggy. I was actually really surprised by how smooth everything was when i first started up the game.

But presumably you play using an outside view ? Try switching between o/s and cockpit when on a straight at Le Sarthe, Bathurst, and parts of Belgium... usually where there are lots of trees lining the track, or on pit staights**.

Framerate issues appear to be ONLY in cockpit view, on SOME tracks, at least at 720p - I couldn't speak for 1080p as these consoles struggle anyway with that - and you'd need to be sat just 3 feet from a 50" TV to see the difference anyway !

** and in addition, if yo have Reduce Flicker set to High, the stuttering is obvious as Vert Sync is thn switched OFF. Instead yo get screen tearing.
There is a also a lot of flicker/shimmer caused by the trees, which increases the faster you are going - this lack of Transparancy Anti-aliasing, adds to the framerate issues if you are sensitive to it. The first straight at Bathurst in cockpit view with Flicker Reduction at high, "feels" like its running at less than 30 fps - go to hood-view, and it's like butter. So I guess, it's your choice.

 

[timekiller001]

I'm using cockpit view all the time and using 720p as it's my TV's native resolution. No framerate drops at all, raced on Spa, Bathurst and other tracks with many trees, no problems at all.

 

[Gabe Logan]

I'm guessing you have flicker- reduction set to Normal... so all you have in busy areas is 'screen tearing' - ala GT5 throughout ! Many tracks have a lot less than 60FPS. it just isn't as noticeable when Vert Sync is switched off.

Try switching between o/s view and cockpit on Le Sarthe, Brands Hatch, Bathurst, where there are loads of trees lining the track. If you really can't see the difference in framerate, you are one of the lucky ones !

 

[hilde86]

I had framerate drops in the GT Academy demo but with GT6 everything is fine and runs smooth, so I have no idea what's the problem here and yes I will notice framerate drops when they are problematic but they aren't in GT6. I also play with 1080p and drive in cockpit view all the time. In GT Academy I had to set my PS3 to 720p to make it driveable in cockpit. All in all I'm very satisfied with GT6!

 

[Trux]

can anyone tell me if the jaggies are better or worse than in GT5?

Worse, However applying Flicker reduction in the display options seems to help.

 

[Zevious Z]

holy god I turned on Flicker reduction just to try it and it totally borks the performance. Did a race at Madrid and I doubt the frame rate averaged higher than 30fps. DO not enable Flicker Reduction if you want to use the cockpit cam at 1080p! lol...

There are most definitely frame rate issues with this game. If you don't notice it you don't notice it but the problem does exist...I'll be interested to see what Digital Foundry has to say because I expect they'll find some pretty substantial frame rate variance...

 

[SillyBillyP]

@Trux. Thanks for the reply, and the tip on improving it

 

[SillyBillyP]

@zevious: I always use bumper cam, so maybe framerate'll be ok with flicker reduction. If not, I could lower resolution to 720.

 

[Zevious Z]

anyone who hasn't noticed any frame rate issues should run a lap at Bathurst at around 10:30 on a sunny day using the cockpit view. If you don't notice the poor frame rate through the downhill twisty section then I don't know what to say. Its got to be sub-30 fps through much of that section...and that's with just one car (me) on the course.

 

[teth75]

Sharpen is the one to remove blurr!

 

[teth75]

did a race with flicker reduction and was like a cartoon there was so much blurring.
I have to admit it has its charms.
I'll stick with sharpen though lol....

 

[skazz]

Yeah, I think sharpen helps with the blur (hard to be sure without extensive testing, having too much fun to test now)

With regard to frame rates: the first few hours I was finding cockpit frame rates horrible, I switched to bumper cam. However, after a few days either I've adjusted or the auto install onto my PS3's SSD has done some magic. I see plenty of frame drops in replays but cockpit view at 1080p is smooth the vast majority of the time.

So to all those with issues: what type of PS3 and HDD do you have, and how many hours have you let GT6 run to auto install and optimize things?

 

[Johnnypenso]

I'm guessing part of the reason some of you don't notice the FPS drops is because of your tv. I remember being surprised in one of the GT6 "what setup are you using" threads, a great many people were playing the game on 36" or less monitors. It's not nearly as noticable on a small screen as it is on a big one, especially if you sit fairly close. I'm about 5 feet in front of a 55" and there's no way you can miss the FPS drops but I don't think I'd notice it on a 32". Even when I was on a 42" inch screen it was far less noticable than it is now. I imagine on a 70" it probably looks like hell

 

[bolloman]

what option i have to set for more fps? flicker reduction, normal or sharpen? it hurt my eyes if i drive in cockpit view.

 

[carracerptp]

I'm guessing part of the reason some of you don't notice the FPS drops is because of your tv. I remember being surprised in one of the GT6 "what setup are you using" threads, a great many people were playing the game on 36" or less monitors. It's not nearly as noticable on a small screen as it is on a big one, especially if you sit fairly close. I'm about 5 feet in front of a 55" and there's no way you can miss the FPS drops but I don't think I'd notice it on a 32". Even when I was on a 42" inch screen it was far less noticable than it is now. I imagine on a 70" it probably looks like hell

I sometimes play on a 20" SDTV, it is very easy to see the framerate drop.

 

[Zer0]

This has been working since GT5:

If that bothers you reduce the screen size to 90% in the GT5 video setting and you will notice a difference. Not much people know that.

I reduced my GT5 screen size to around 92 / 94 %, then I used my TV stretch function to bring it to full screen again, barely any loss in crispness but more stable frame rate. Been doing it for over a year now. I also used 1080i mode at times, not sure if makes any difference in terms of frame rate, but on my TV, the picture quality looks as good as 1080p.

Also the 1080i mode should give a boost in performance and with a better detail than 720p.

 

[Zevious Z]

what option i have to set for more fps? flicker reduction, normal or sharpen? it hurt my eyes if i drive in cockpit view.

Normal gives the best frame rate performance, but its still far from fantastic...