VA causing intermittent Lag/Frametime Spikes in Elite Dangerous in Borderless

[RadioActiveLobster]

So I've been experiencing an odd issue recently that I've been trying to narrow down.

The only game I use VA for is Elite Dangerous. I prefer to run Elite in Borderless Windowed mode as it makes ALT-TAB'ing easier to access things like EDDB, EDSM, Inara, etc...

Recently, though I do not have an exact time as I had taken a break from playing for a number of weeks I've started getting intermittent lag in the game when running VA while in Borderless Windowed Mode. The issue is NOT present when running in Fullscreen mode. I have no idea if it's the result of an Elite game update (as there have been several recently) or an issue with VA or an issue with Windows. I've done my best to narrow it down.

At first I though it might have to do with the recent big HCS Voicepack updates and the new Singularity Profiles as they just happened to be the latest thing I'd updated when I started playing but I think I've eliminated them as I've reproduce the issue after completely uninstalling all HCS Voicpacks, the HCS Plugins, deleting the Singularity VAP and doing a complete fresh install of the latest stable VA build. The issue is still present even with nothing from HCS installed and no profile running.

If I have Elite running in Borderless Windowed Mode and I simply launch VA and let it set there doing nothing the problem starts happening. If I close VA the problem immediately goes away.

I can observe the issue in real time via the MSI Afterburner OSD where I monitor my FPS and Frametames in real time. With VA running you'll intermittently see massive spikes in frametimes and a drop in FPS which in game shows as stuttering or freezing. Close VA and the issues immediately go away. Leave VA running but change Elite to Fullscreen and the issues immediately go away.

Any ideas or thoughts? I'm willing to do some more testing if it can help narrow down the issue. I'm still not sure if it's even VA's fault. Could be a problem with the way Elite is doing Borderless mode (if that changed in any recent game updates), could be Windows fault (running Windows 10 Pro 64bit, Version 1709, OS Build 16299.309) or maybe even Nvidia's fault as I have updated my nvidia drivers recently.

Everything is pointing towards VA being the issue though, at least based on my observations.

[Pfeil]

While you observe these issues, is VoiceAttack visibly doing something? E.G. are messages appearing in the log?

Have you observed CPU usage spikes from VoiceAttack.exe during this time?


If it doesn't happen while the game is fullscreen, I wonder if minimizing the VoiceAttack window(possibly to tray) would produce the same effect.

[RadioActiveLobster]

I have not noticed anything appear in the log or VA window when the incident happens. During the test where I had no VAP enabled and with no HCS stuff installed the log was basically blank at all times.

I normally have VA open on one of my side monitors but I'll try testing it out with it minimized to the tray and see if that causes any change to the behavior.

As for CPU usage spikes, I haven't observed any large spikes but when I do my further testing I'll keep a closer eye out on it.

I'll do some more testing on it tmrw as it's 1:10 am right now.

[RadioActiveLobster]

I have discovered the cause of the problem and it's a unique one that will only affect a very small group of people. Not even sure if it's something VA could fix as it appears related to whatever black voodoo magic Nvidia is doing to get Borderless/Windowed G-Sync working in Windows.

To start off a bit about my setup.

I have three monitors. I have an Acer z35p 3440x1440p 100Hz G-Sync panel, a Acer XB270HU 2560x1440p 144Hz G-Sync panel and a BenQ GW2765 2560x1440 60Hz panel.

I have them arranged with the XB on the left, z35p in the middle and the BenQ on the right. So basically it goes G-Sync, G-Sync, Non G-Sync going from left to right. I have Fullscreen and Windowed G-Sync enabled.

In the past I have always had my "extra" programs when I run Elite on my right monitor. So that's where I had Discord, Voice Attack, EDMC, etc... So they've always been on my third non G-Sync panel. Recently I decided to leave Discord on the right monitor and move the other programs to the left monitor because it was just easier to have them there so they weren't covering up the chat in Discord. I didn't really think of this as a major change but now that I look back, this is when I started having problems.

The issue seems to only occur if the Voice Attack window is present on a G-Sync panel when the game is in Borderless mode. In Fullscreen it doesn't happen because the game is not using the Borderless G-Sync setup (it's using normal exclusive fullscreen G-Sync) so that left monitor isn't in "G-Sync" mode.

I have found that if I have VA on the G-Sync panel but minimized to the taskbar the issue does not occur. If I move VA back over to the non G-Sync panel the issue also goes away as well.

I think the issue is that the nvidia driver is seeing the VA window as something that is interacting with the Borderless G-Sync and that is causing the stuttering in the Borderless version of the game (that is also using Borderless G-Sync).

As a fix for me personally I'll just move VA back over to the non G-Sync monitor and all is well.

Hopefully this can help someone else out who's experiencing the problem but I imagine the group of people who happen to have a mixture of G-Sync and Non G-Sync monitors is rather small.

[Pfeil]

Glad you figured it out, thanks for sharing you findings