Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo (Stutter Fix, No Input Lag) - PC Master Race Reality Check

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Michael takes over his wheel and goes BERSERK on an input lag, stuttering, frame lock, performance analysis and some fixes for Sébastien Loeb Rally Evo. He loves the game though - still.
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Our Twitter account: / epictechbros
Script:
Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo is a pain in the ass on the PC. You can see us playing it here, like this, and this, and here like this and even like this. And most of the time we had a shitty experience with it. The effort that went into the development of the pc version must have been close to none. But we found some settings, that worked for us in the end. Time for a PC Master Race Reality Check.
In order to keep input lag as minimal as possible and unlock the framerate, we usually don’t play games with v-sync enabled. Unfortunately Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo becomes a visual mess as soon as players don’t sync their frames. Constant stuttering, lockups, frame drops and spikes get in the way of controlling the cars. As you can see in the footage: the game is almost unplayable like this. It’s such a mess.
So we thought, okay let’s try to enable v-sync and cut frames at 60 then, but guess what? The game continues to stutter regularly. We were facing frustrating circumstances.
Next we tried out the PS4 version with the first patch being installed. We wanted to know which sweetspot developer Milestone chose for the console. After recording and analyzing some footage and noticing some minor input lag we concluded, that the PS4 version ran at 30 frames per second with v-sync enabled. Along the way we encountered some minor frame drops during replays and races at night as well as other technical issues like fading objects at the side of the road and missing sound effects. But after all: the PS4 version was at least working and fun to play. From what we hear the Xbox One version has way more framerate problems. For our testing we were limited to the PC and the PS4 though.
So we went back to the pc port, opened up the barebones graphical options for the game and set the sync to half. On 60Hz displays this option limits the framerate to 30 and voila: We reconstructed a Playstation-like experience on our PC. At least the game was starting to be playable. The stuttering was gone completely, but we were still unhappy with the input lag, that naturally occurs by enabling V-Sync. Here you can see the PC version with and without V-Sync side by side. The in game wheel movement matches our inputs 1:1 without V-Sync.
As a last resort we gave FreeSync a shot and finally prevailed. The inputs are not as good as they could be without any syncing, but as you can see: the input lag is minimal and our Eizo monitor did a good job keeping the jumping framerate in check. Like this we definitely preferred the slightly better looking pc version over the console version.
Apart from getting the game working in a playable fashion we also have some other bad news: Triple monitor setups or Ultrawide resolutions are not supported at all. Playing the game in 4K on the other hand is possible, but it takes a heavy toll on your framerates. Even on our high end build featuring a Geforce GTX 980 Ti we went as high as 1440p for the maximum resolution. Our racing wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS was detected and worked well. It has to be noted that playing SL Rally Evo with a wheel additionally reduces input lag, because players can turn the wheel as fast as they want to. Playing with the pad, the turning animation of the virtual driver has to be finished first.
And that’s it. We put a lot of research and work into this episode, because the game underneath the technical mess is by far the best Milestone has produced to date. We enjoy the driving, the track layouts, the campaign and many different parts of the game. But as it stands we at least have to put up a huge warning sign for this game. Depending on your hardware with the 30fps lock, FreeSync or GSync the PC Master Race still enjoys the best version of the game in the end.

[@TheKazzerscout]

Still to this day can't get this game running without constant frame locking and stuttering. A shame because on the odd time it works okay for a stage the game is decent fun.

[@Peterdeskater100]

Such a bummer that you have to go to so much trouble to get it working decently :-( I think I will wait and see if Milestone fixes their game themselves.

[@sikckaputten]

+Peterdeskater100 then you'll probably wait forever. milestone are known to leave their games for dead and not fix anything.

[@avavii]

They actually fixed it - I went back to it today.

[@jaxmk1]

Thank you for this made allot of diference!!! thank you.

[@avavii]

Your welcome, glad it helped

[@onlycamper9198]

thank you for this video from italy.

[@Krisisawake]

Very interesting. Good job mates.

[@avavii]

+Kris Grym Thank you very much mate :)

[@Tony-1971]

I like SLRE more than Dirt Rally. I just like the physics in SLRE more than Dirt Rally's. The cars behave like theyre made of paper in Dirt Rally. But in this game the cars have weight to them.

[@deadstump4970]

liked the video. I will have to give these settings a go tonight. What wheel settings are giving you the best wheel feel? I tried it with my G27 and it just felt bad with some crappy centering spring effect.

[@avavii]

+deadstump Thank you for the Like! We went with the standard settings but calibrated the wheel ingame manually once, so we could turn our wheel less (90°) to get the full steering extent to both sides. In the video you still see it at the standard 1:1 setting though. That's tough to play. We are more happy with the 90° full extent and then playing in the bonnet perspective. :) If you find the right settings that work for your wheel and you please share them here as well. ^_^ Happy Driving.

[@Sawbonespc]

Some thoughts for you, I have a Freesync 144hz Asus. The game still stutters all over the place no matter what I tried, until using Radeon pro, (2 R9390's) Once I locked frames, kept Vsync on the game became fluid smooth.. better than what your showing here as your "no stutter" still shows very clear stuttering just not as bad and certainly playable. Radeon Pro, for ATI users seems to do the trick, even ATI's built in frame limiter does not work but using dynamic frame rate control and limiting frames with RP gave me the most fluid experience.

[@avavii]

+Sawbonespc Thank your for your input. The 30fps lock does not stutter: it advances 1 frame every two frames, that's why it might look stuttery to your eyes or in slomo. But a smooth 30 is more stable than a stuttery 60 or 100 on a 144Hz display.

[@Sawbonespc]

+EpicTechBros. And this is where I think the difference in human perception comes into play. My Girlfriend at 30fps has no problems with content and claims it is smooth, yet i see stuttering. At 60 Fps I do not, she cannot recognize the difference. Same with my brother and room mate, one see's the stuttering i'm talking about (in my own test) and the other does not. Is it possible that some people are just hypersensitive? Especially when it comes to racing games which I've played for over 20 years now? Using Radeon Pro and setting dynamic control to 60 is the smoothest experience I have got from the title. Really find the game to be fun, not really a simulation like some tout it to be, but it is fun.

[@blackmesa3777]

I have fatal gamepad-inputlag in SLRE (1.04) for PS4. But no problems in Dirt Rally.

[@aissakrioua7755]

Thank a lot for your video bro, it solved the problem !

[@Mark_BLN]

Every few stages during loading it gets to 100% and just hangs, forcing me to kill the process. Is that happening to you too? You have any workaround for it?

[@DVAFP]

I'm using a wheel, v-sync off and I still get a shitload of input lag. In other games it's just visual , not in this one. Turned the textures to low improved a bit. Hope they fix this shit cause otherwise it would be an awesome racing sim

[@avavii]

Experiencing the stutter would be normal in your setup with Vsync disabled. But the input lag should be gone actually. As you can see in the video: this combination allows for 1:1 movement of the wheel and what's shown on the screen. Are you playing it on a monitor or on a TV?

[@DVAFP]

+EpicTechBros I'm playing on a tv, I never had any stuttering problems like the ones shown in the video

[@avavii]

Then it might be that your graphics cards driver enables (overrides) VSync. That would explain your input lag as well.

[@thefurs1507]

Great video. Can i change my wheel settings playing with ps4 gamepad on pc. The linearty sucks

[@secretRBRman]

So have they patched it yet? its been a few months now?

[@avavii]

Yes. Apart from the intro cinematic and videos, it can now run smoothly at 60fps with vsync. Or unlocked at variable framerates. The stuttering and weird framerate drops with physics have been patched.

[@MrPummetje]

you should go with a 144hz monitor its way better for racing games :D

[@avavii]

+MrPummetje In general we do, you can see that, if you check out our other videos. The monitor we are using here also is 144Hz. But this game is a very special case. So no, going 144Hz just does exactly the same thing as going 60Hz - both have microstuttering without VSync and with full VSync. Because the game physics are no longer in sync with what you are seeing. If you use the half setting at 144Hz you get 75fps locked, which is even weirder in SLRally Evo. So this is not the solution here this time. In general we do agree with you totally. 144Hz monitors are great for racing games. :)

[@FlankerB3]

nvida users can fix stutter in almost all games by enabling vsync in nvidia control panel and disabling it in game! in some games that even doubles the framerate!