GZDoom lags as soon as I start a new game

Hey guys.

I just recently got my hands on GZDoom 1.1.0 so I can play D4D v3 Alpha 7. The only problem is that the game lags to a crawl as soon as I start a new game.

This doesn't happen with just D4D, either; It even happens when I play the game without any addons/mappacks. This issue occurs even if I'm not playing with any slaughtermaps.

The audio lags as well, so it can't be related to the EXE itself. This problem has never happened before with any older versions, and it doesn't even happen at all with Zandronum.

Sure, I could stick with Zandronum to avoid this issue, but that would keep me from playing D4D/other MODs that require GZDoom, and I'm not planning on playing D4T.

If you want to know about my computer, here's the information:

Edition            Windows 10 Pro

Version           1607

OS Build         14393.1198

Processor        Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CP5    M 540 @2.53GHz

Installed RAM  4.00 GB (3.43 GB usable)

System Type   32-bit operating system, x64-based processor

With all of this information provided, is there a way I can solve this?

I know that this has become a wordy post, but I just want to explain this in the best way I can.

Gzdoom 1.1.0? Did I read this right?Anyway,you need Gzdoom 3.0.1 for new mods and other new features. Maybe new version could fix your problems.

Crap, that was a typo.

I meant GZDoom 3.1.0.

Maybe use older version of gzdoom,like 2.4.0 or even older or update drivers. 

much like mysteriousharuko I would recommend going with GZ 2.4 for the time being.

Personally, D4T is a better Doom 4 mod than D4D, and it even runs on 1.8.6, although D-Touch tends to crash because of a supposed memory overload or something (not confirmed with evidence). GZDoom 3.x is not that stable compared to 2.4, given all the bug reports I saw here and there on the ZDoom forums. At least with D4T, you don't need a specific version of GZDoom.

Might be related to the Windows 10 Creators Update. That has caused all sorts of problems with some graphics drivers - especially Intel's.

Time for an update.

My computer went through a system update, and I still have some problems.

GZDoom only has lag with the sound in-game, but the framerate completely shits itself when I go into the menu during gameplay.

In other words, it's STILL not properly optimized after an UPDATE.

For those who are wondering, it now happens with previous version of GZDoom (Again, it's NEVER happened before).

I've went ahead and switched to GZDoom SVN. It lags when I go into a menu/console/pausing.

I'm now sticking to Zandronum. Sure, it's FAR behind in technology, but at least it doesn't lag. I've yet to try QZDoom, but I'll have another update once I try it.

Can you try GZDoom with the software renderer? That'd help Graf exclude some potential causes.

The only thing that helps is posting graphics hardware specs. Also 'lags' is not very descriptive. How many fps?

One thing that's definitely causing problems is running Windows 10 on manufacturer-deprecated hardware because the drivers may not be 100% compatible with Windows 10.

You should run "bench" in the console and see what comes up.

Okay. I apologize for being vague with my provided information.

Both the in-game FPS counter AND the FPS counter provided in FRAPS (Yeah, I forgot to mention that I have FRAPS) tell me that the game runs fine during gameplay (Average of 150-200 FPS, game freezes for half a second every once in awhile), but tells me that the framerate drops in the menu (Average of 2-35 FPS).

I also just tried to run the game i software mode. The issue still occurs.

I noticed this also happened to me after the Win 10 update.

In the menu the frame rate is capped to 35 fps. Only if it dips lower there's a problem.

But you STILL haven't told us what kind of graphics card you use! This is the only important factor because what you experience is clearly a driver issue.

@purist:

Windows 10 with certain Intel and AMD drivers is a known cause for problems. What's your specs?

Oh, graphics card.

The graphics card is DirectX (I think).

DirectX is not a graphics card but a graphics programming interface for Windows.

GZDoom should say something about the graphics hardware during startup.

OK, who's willing to bet that it's gonna be yet another substandard integrated Intel-something thingamabob?

The CPU's specs:

https://ark.intel.com/products/50179/Intel-Core-i5-460M-Processor-3M-Cache-2_53-GHz

indicate that this is a mobile processor, probably installed in a laptop or barebone/slim desktop PC, and it has "processor graphics". Never been impressed by those, no matter how good their specs look on paper, their actual performance is usually comparable to an low-tier DX9 video card from the first half of the 2000s. Can't expect stellar frame rates from those. In fact, especially for GZDoom, I wouldn't be surprised if running the software rendered straight resulted in smoother frame rates.

Judging from the Wikipedia page that CPU comes with some OpenGL 2 compatible 'graphics accelerator'. These are utter garbage across the board.

It's really time that these old systems vanish from the market. There's no chance that they will be able to run effect-heavy GZDoom mods at acceptable frame rates ever.

35 minutes ago, Graf Zahl said:

It's really time that these old systems vanish from the market. There's no chance that they will be able to run effect-heavy GZDoom mods at acceptable frame rates ever.

The only reason those (and their even worse predecessors, the Intel IGP) became popular in the first place was that their drivers had a token DX10 compatibility, which allowed to certify systems carrying them as "Vista ready" (and later, Windows 7, 8, 10...), so in that respect, they aren't going anywhere soon. They will just be replaced by the next generation of the same crap. Some more actual capability might trickle down, but their main purpose will be just to provide a display and pass "certification".

There is no "next generation of the same crap" anymore, fortunately.

Modern Intel chipsets have all the features needed to run the modern GZDoom renderer at full features with acceptable speed and even support the Vulkan API so they are mostly future-proof.

The main issue with these old chipsets is that they were approx. 3 hardware generations behind entry-level cards both in terms of performance and features at a time when those 3 generations meant they were obsolete the moment they entered the market, as this was the time when unified shaders became a thing and of course these chipsets did not have them. For software it means that a fully dedicated separate legacy render path is needed to support them.

Today, the same distance merely means you got a somewhat underpowered graphics chip that's clearly too weak to run the latest batch of modern games but for most applications requiring 3D graphics are fine because it got the needed features and they never need the full performance of a dedicated solution.

Funnily enough, starting with Intel HD (so 2011) they had unified shaders, and from the previous generation (Intel GMA) they had fully hardware shaders. As I said, all this sounds good on paper, but in practice...

In practice, current Intel chipsets are a lot better than these old ones which had been obsolete even on paper when they were released.

When I was testing the HD 4000 in my computer it was able to run GZDoom fully featured, just a bit slow on larger maps, and that thing is already 5+ years old.

But sadly for GamingMarine, the "Intel HD" that's integrated into his CPU isn't quite the "Intel HD 4000" in your computer, so... :)

so...

... it's old. And like I said:

2 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

It's really time that these old systems vanish from the market. There's no chance that they will be able to run effect-heavy GZDoom mods at acceptable frame rates ever.

Okay, another update. This time, it's *probably* going to end this conversation.

Recently got my hands on QZDoom, and, unlike GZDoom and GZDoom SVN, it's properly optimized. The framerate doesn't shit itself during gameplay, and framerate doesn't drop in the menu/console. This *might* mean that my issue's been resolved.

This conversation was worthless.

QZDoom is just an older build of the exact same code so this is hard to explain.

Or he simply fired it up/reverted in software rendering mode, thus bypassing the issue entirely.

QZDoom runs just fine in both Software AND OpenGL mode.

With the same/equivalent detail settings as GZDoom?