Fallout New Vegas w/ TTW Mod "Hitching"/"Stuttering"

[DeliveryGodNoah]

Hello there!

I've been attempting to play Fallout 3/New Vegas again, and recently came across the Tale of Two Wastelands mod which I found very exciting.

After a (I assume) successful installation, I booted up the game to find that the game seems to "hitch" or "stutter" (I'm not sure what the correct term for it would be).

I noticed it at first in the early sections of the Fallout 3 campaign, where NPCs seem to interact with each other. Such as shooting at each other. (The first time I really noticed was when one of the Vault residents run in to talk to some guards and the guards instantly start shooting at him)

The framerate goes from a very steady 60FPS dropping to ~50FPS for a brief second and jumping back up to 60.
This is a very brief drop too, as I can barely catch the counter going down and back up again, but it causes the game itself to hitch for a second, like it pauses but picks up almost instantly.

This also happened a couple times in the wasteland, where I didn't see anyone, and in Megaton when running back and forth through the town.

I've tried all the usual "fixes", such as:

Uncapping the framerate
Capping the framerate using a different method (Afterburner, Nvidia Control Panel, NVSR)
Trying using the "Stutter Remover" mod (with several setting changes in the config file)
The 4GB patch mod
Windowed/Borderless mode
Uninstalling all mods except the TTW mod
Turning graphical settings down

Nothing seemed to work. I know the engine used for Fallout 3/New Vegas is finicky and not very user friendly, but I was wondering if anyone could help me with some other possible fix that they've learned that I haven't tried.

Specs:

980ti Factory Overclocked

Xeon 1231v3 CPU

16GB RAM

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Running game off of SSD

 

[Dom_79]

The threaded optimization of the Gamebryo/Creation Engine(s) is very poor.
Most likely the small stutter you are noticing is due to Core #0 being overloaded while your other (six?) cores go almost unused.

Have a monitor program open while gaming and check your per-core usage - not just a CPU package average usage.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah]

The threaded optimization of the Gamebryo/Creation Engine(s) is very poor.
Most likely the small stutter you are noticing is due to Core #0 being overloaded while your other (six?) cores go almost unused.

Have a monitor program open while gaming and check your per-core usage - not just a CPU package average usage.

So this morning I took your advice and used Afterburner to monitor my CPU and GPU usage (I forgot to set my GPU for OSD, but it was displayed in the LCD of my keyboard).

CPU usage never went above 95%, even in Megaton with lots of NPCs. When the game hitches, I don't see it go above 95%, but it does seem to drop to ~65% before going back up again. GPU usage is pretty constant between 8-15% usage in or out of town.

 

[Dom_79]

95% usage on core0 (the first/main core) or is that just the cpu average?

If that's the average then I would say it's very likely you are hitting 100% on the first core.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah]

95% usage on core0 (the first/main core) or is that just the cpu average?

If that's the average then I would say it's very likely you are hitting 100% on the first core.

I'm pretty sure that's just the first core, unless I'm interpreting the reading in the screenshot incorrectly. It says "CPU1"

 

[Dom_79]

Try recording the data to a log, that way you don't have to be watching the output 😉

Just wanted to add something about your example of the "hitching/stuttering" seeming to actually cut out parts of dialogue/interaction of NPCs/world events because guards started instantly shooting at a vault resident.
That is how that event is supposed to happen, you didn't "miss" any dialogue or interactions between the NPCs. That resident is trying to "make a break for it" from my recollection and the guards have orders to shoot.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah]

Try recording the data to a log, that way you don't have to be watching the output 😉

Just wanted to add something about your example of the "hitching/stuttering" seeming to actually cut out parts of dialogue/interaction of NPCs/world events because guards started instantly shooting at a vault resident.
That is how that event is supposed to happen, you didn't "miss" any dialogue or interactions between the NPCs. That resident is trying to "make a break for it" from my recollection and the guards have orders to shoot.

No, you're right, but I know that's not what I mean. I've played the game tons of hours before, it's only recently when I've decided to start again that I've noticed the issue. It's when I'm moving and the game freezes for a fraction of a second and I can clearly see the framerate dip during that time.

 

[Dom_79]

Well if this issue isn't due to hardware limitations your best bet is going to be asking for help from the Tale of Two Wastelands mod people.
I've never heard of software that just "pauses" itself for a split second every now and then so I won't be able to help you any further, sorry 🙁

On the bright side, at least you know that your issue is not caused by hardware but by software and you know who to contact for help