Removing Input Lag

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Sebhael
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Sebhael
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Other/Misc
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Beginner

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Date Added
4 years ago
Date Modified
10 months ago

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Removing Input Lag from Fallout 3 (and TESIV:Oblivion)

The Issue.This tutorial is to address the input device lag in Bethesda's latest release, Fallout 3. The latency problems are the most noticeable when you are moving your pointer through the menus, pip-boy, and even when attempting to use Windows LIVE while playing. What happens is that Nvidia cards come shipped with a certian setting enabled in it's ForceWare; this setting causes the engine to pre-render frames before you even really get to create the scene. The engine unfortuantly starts to build up frames too fast before you can utilize the data, and it starts to bottleneck horribly on your GPU and CPU; which then gives the impression that you are just lagging incredibly bad. In truth, the fix is simple and efficient.

The FixIn order to change the settings, you will have to be using a ForceWare version higher than 174, the option is not found in the control panel for previous driver versions.

  1. Head to your Window's Control Panel (Generally START > Control Panel)
  2. Search for NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL; Open this application.
  3. You will need to enable advanced settings for the control panel, you can easily do this by going to View > Advanced or there is also a nice sized button right beneath it that you can click to change the setting as well, whatever works for you.

  4. Now, scroll down the left side list and find MANAGE 3D Settings (second link down the list).
  5. At the top of the new screen, go to the top of it and click the "PROGRAM SETTINGS"
  6. There's a chance that Fallout 3 is not in the list at the time, so uncheck - Show only programs found on this computer; Now re-check the drop down list for FALLOUT 3 select it when found.
  7. There's two settings that you can play with here, one of them are essential, the other one is strictly personal choice and may or may not cause in-game issues/artifacts. So you will have to play with these settings to find your preferred "sweet spot".

    • MAXIMUM FRAMES TO PRE-RENDER. This is the imporant one, having it set to 3 is what is causing the pure majority of your input lag. Even reducing this number down to just 2 will give you increased response times. The exact number that this should be set to is all up to personal preference. Some people will say to turn it to 1 or 2, some will tell you to just turn it off in GLOBAL SETTINGS. I'm not going to advocate any number, so you will have to play around with the settings to find your choice.
    • VERTICAL SYNC. Some have said to turn this off to help with the issue as well, does it work? It might, but the game starts to act really funny as you play so I personally press that you should not turn this off under any circumstances. The game's engine does not take high FPS numbers into consideration for performance, the engine really prefers to have 30-60fps for the best in-game performance. As my FPS raised with VSync off, I started to notice horrible hitching, shearing, and in-game "things"; such as physics, and movements where completely off-key. Though, I'll add it to this as it is an option towards better input device performance.

  8. Hit APPLY; start up your game and enjoy the increased input responsiveness!

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Comments

    • P2: Drudge
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    Sebhael
    Posted by TrappaKeepa A disgustingly simple fix to a big issue. I have a beefy system (not godlike by any means, but still beefy) and from time to time I get this lag issue. Thanks for this great piece of info. Now would you like 5 Ultrajets or 5 Nuka Nades?

    I'll take the Ultrajets. I don't do drugs, but I got some homies in Megaton that will purchase that off me for some mad bucks.

    Im a noob

  • TrappaKeepa

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    TrappaKeepa

    A disgustingly simple fix to a big issue. I have a beefy system (not godlike by any means, but still beefy) and from time to time I get this lag issue. Thanks for this great piece of info.

    Now would you like 5 Ultrajets or 5 Nuka Nades?

    Which God do you kill for?

  • Gbuzzy

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    Gbuzzy

    Nice job. Make's it a lot better.

    Old Clvl system was better.

  • Mxmlln

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    Mxmlln

    Perfect tutorial mate :)

    Going to try it out !

    Inactive

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    Spawndex

    Good guide, im going to use it right this second, thanks man

  • roma.

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    roma.

    Useful tutorial and well written.

    space

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    Amen

    Very helpful, Well written, Easy to Follow, and useful.