Framerate and Screen Tearing Problem in PS3 (PS3 only)

[gold123456th]

It seems like I was not the only one who experienced screen-tearing and framerate issues in PS3 version of AC2, which was a relief. The game even froze once. I can't believe its happening, I bought the PS3 version instead of the PC version because I didn't want any technical problems... There's no vertical syn in PS3 right?
Anyway, please leave your comments here so that Ubisoft might actually recognize this problem in the PS3 version of AC 2

I also discovered that screen tearing and framerate issues occur in Florence most of the time. The game was pretty smooth in the Villa

[Darkraven38]

You're not the only one my friend, there's a lot of posts were ppl have expressed multiple times that the games has tons of issues; Screen-tearing, fram rate, pop ups and shadows "dancing". I really wish they fix it soon, it would be a waste of a really good game if they don't fix this issues, and they will lose costumers like myself, that will never buy another single title that has ubisoft all over the cover of a game.

[TheEpicWolf]

I've had one freeze and a hell of alot of pop-up's . But i haven't seen any screen tearing as of yet and i've completed it, but i'm expecting it.

PLEASE! Ubi fix this, the game is amazing and it's a shame it suffers from these problems http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

[caswallawn_2k7]

about 10 hours in a little screen tearing (not much) other wise the game has ran perfectly.

[mooogleboi]

A lot of the framerate drops are accompanied with the screen being covered in tears, so people might not notice the FPS drop.

[gold123456th]

Is there vertical sync in PS3? The screen tearing problem should be removed if the frame rate is limited to the highest refresh rate of the TV

[thereader]

Good thread, yes I'm experiencing it and have talked about it in other posts. Its bad, both tearing and FPS slowdown.

Ubisoft, fix this!

[gold123456th]

Does PS3 have a vertical sync or horizontal sync option?
If it does, then the screen tearing problem should go away...
Or could I change the refresh rate of my PS3?

[haldalish]

Framerate gets bad in populated cities and screen tearing is the worst ive ever seen

[Dragonfire126]

I chose all problems, but i had both framerate drops and some freezes. These freezes often happen directly after saving. LUCKILY!

Don't get me wrong, but i'd rather have it after saving than DURING saving, which would mean some corrupted save files.

So please Ubisoft, fixs these freezing problems!

[midnight_owl]

It has the worst screen tearing I've ever seen in a console game.

[Jon1983uk]

I'm speaking for my 360 version here when I say I've sent it back for a refund to the mail order firm I bought it off now, due to my X Box freezing every 5-10 mins of play.

I've only ever had this issue with the AC games strangely. I may buy it again on one of the two formats (I have both consoles) if Ubisoft release a patch that fixes this issue and other reported ones on here, but otherwise I'm gonna skip what looked to be a very promising, fun game.

[GhostlyMagic]

I've only had these issues on my PS3 version:
- AI sliding about while waiting for the battle animation to load up. The most noticable of this bug can be noticed just before the starting credits in Florence as a "innocent" Ezio. When the Ai is knocked to the ground the AI's body flips around and jerks a bit while waiting up until the AI regain's its upright posture.
- Screen only teared when looking at the Villa's walls where they joined to the tower. I seen nothing out of the ordinary and actually accept such a little issue with the scale of the game.
- AI and scenery loading time lags. With a detailed city and probably rushed coding caused this game to slowly spawn a higher resolution scenery within a small given radius around Ezio. Ubisoft might want to extended and perfect the coding for this if gamers are complaining about scenery and individuals spawning out of no where causing distractions. Most notable ones is when you actually run from the Villa's Stable all the way up towards the Villa, you can see the scenery and locals slowly spawning in. Then there is Venice.....
- AI spawns out of nowhere. Now this part is sloppy as certain AI individuals just spawn out of nowhere and in your face. Whoever did the mapping and scripting should of actually spawned the AI far enough from the player and not when Ezio is right on top of the civilian spawn point.
- My game froze just Once (amazing really). When taking a horse from the Villa to Florence, through the mountains and into the neighboring city my game froze on the loading screen back towards the city passed the mountain. I sighed and restarted my PS3.....
- Guards "re-spawning" back into their position after I have killed a robber/carrier/mailman on the roof tops. It gave me this face " http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_confused.gif".
- Going past a guarded office with the sewer cinematic (6th Assassin's tomb) randomly activate when scanning what was in that already looted structure. I don't know how that activated but I do hope it doesn't happen again as it caught me off-guard and may have caused a bit of a heated issues with the guards.

I'm expecting Ubisoft to patch these issues in one big patch as they seem kinder then EA :P.

[gold123456th]

Do the guys at Ubisoft know about this problem? I hope they release the patch soon, cuz this game would be perfect without these flaws

[midnight_owl]

^^^^

Agreed. This game needed a few more months just to iron out the technical flaws. The core game is great.

[Spamhain]

Have you guys tried to force your PS3 to only display in 1080p? I saw another thread about this where somebody said that worked for them. If your TV doesn't go that high, then try 720p and disable the 1080i resolution. You have to uncheck the resolutions you don't want it to display in (this is in your PS3 display settings menu I believe).

Spam

[midnight_owl]

I've been running in 720p because 1080p just makes the game look worse.

[spencer87]

I've had both tearing and framerate problems, the tearing I can actually sort of live with its the framerate that kills the game for me. It seems okish when walking around however whenever I start freerunning it drops. Considering that's most of the game its very offputting, since running as fast as you can should be a joy not a lag fest.

[caswallawn_2k7]

disable the 1080i resolution
I've got very very few problems and the 1080i option is still enabled on my PS3. the screen tear is minor and happens around the times I would expect it (moving from one pretty much closed area into a wide open space) but even then at most I probably see screen tear about once every half hour if that, if I stay in one area it pretty much never happens again so I'm thinking this is more to do with pre loading than anything else.

[midnight_owl]

@caswallawn

What screen size is your TV? I see screen tearing pretty much anytime I move, except indoors. No tearing there.

[caswallawn_2k7]

it's only a 32inch.

[thereader]

I've got very very few problems and the 1080i option is still enabled on my PS3. the screen tear is minor and happens around the times I would expect it (moving from one pretty much closed area into a wide open space) but even then at most I probably see screen tear about once every half hour if that, if I stay in one area it pretty much never happens again so I'm thinking this is more to do with pre loading than anything else.

Wow, you're lucky. I see horizontal screen tearing about three times every ten seconds if I'm running through the streets or on rooftops (and I'm not giving a wild estimate, that's close to the truth). Its seriously almost non-stop when I'm outside. Same with the frame rate in those crowded areas (or jumping from roof to roof)

Why isn't this happening to everyone and only some of us? I'm playing on a 2008 40gb (3rd gen), 720p with component cables.

[caswallawn_2k7]

with component cables
that could be part of your problem, the component cable is much less reliable and lack's the speed, bandwidth and performance of the HDMI leads.

[thereader]

Originally posted by caswallawn_2k7:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">with component cables
that could be part of your problem, the component cable is much less reliable and lack's the speed, bandwidth and performance of the HDMI leads. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, I have an HDMI cable in the post and it'll get delivered tomorrow. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed on this one.

For what its worth, no other PS3 game has given me screen tearing issues like this. I wonder if Ubisoft decided to push the PS3 to the max and thus the screen tearing and frame rate issues are dependent on our TVs/cables? That doesn't make sense but I'm not an expert. All I know is that no other game gives me problems.

Some people are swearing up and down that they haven't seen any frame rate drops or tearing, even late into the game (which is where they started for me: mid to late game). Maybe they're all on HDMI?

[caswallawn_2k7]

on another note are you running audio through the main video lead? as I'm using the optical for sound (through a surround system) meaning the sound doesn't have to be sent up through the video output, that would also lead to bandwidth being pushed up on the video cable.

it possible they have pushed the PS3 and tried to get it as far as they can and miss judged the optimisation causing these problems but it does seem somewhat situational as some people are seeing very few problems others are seeing massive problems, so it could be just a mix of all the different setup options causing certain problems.

for example different age consoles have different heat output's, different leads have different bandwidths and quality outputs and different TV's will read the scaling/speed info differently.

but while component is better than scart/composite leads it relay is nothing compared to true HDMI lead this is why the older white 360's (that don't have HDMI) have a lower quality output than the newer systems that use HDMI.

[thereader]

^ Interesting. I'm just using component cables (3 video, 2 audio) straight to the TV. I don't have an optical/surround sound setup.

It does seem like there's a lot of factors involved, and I'm sure Ubisoft is sitting there going "OK, some are experiencing this, others aren't, how the hell do we release a patch for this?"

I've noticed that in less crowded areas (like near the Thieves Guild in Venice) that the FPS is relatively steady, and tearing is minimal. Then, as soon as more people are on the streets (even if you're just on the rooftops) the screen tears and the FPS chugs big time.

And of course, indoors or in tombs/caves etc the game looks STUNNING: no graphic issues whatsoever and a rock-solid frame rate.

But in a game where we spend most of the time running and climbing outside...the graphic problems really ruin the experience.

Perhaps, if all else fails, a cheap fix could be to include an option to lock the frame rate at 30fps so that those of us who are experiencing problems could be addressed, while people who have minimal tearing/FPS issues could leave it unlocked.

This of course means a slight dip in graphical quality, but when the game is in the near 60s when indoors, and goes below 20 (no joke) when 8 guards are chasing you through the streets as you're trying to climb and free-run like mad --basically when things get extra-crazy-- a compromise at a solid 30fps isn't that big of a deal.

[gold123456th]

I'm using a HDMI cable, not from Sony though, but the problems still exist.
Maybe my HDMI cable isn't "fast" enough?

[midnight_owl]

It has nothing to do with your cables, your PS3, or your TV. The game engine simply is not coded well. Ubisoft should have taken more time to iron out obvious technical issues, but instead, rushed it to retail for Christmas.

[pharos33]

Got a chance to play my bro's 360 version in 1080p with HDMI. Holy hell is all I can say. First of all the graphics are naturally amazing. But what I couldn't believe is how SMOOTH it is.

ZERO frame rate chugs and one minor screen tear is all I saw in the same areas I would test my PS3 version.

360 version blows the PS3 version away...and I mean completely.

Trust me, it pains me to say that because I'm a PS3 guy all the way. Its just very true in this case.

Please bring the PS3 version up to par for God's sake!!!

[midnight_owl]

Yeah, I wish companies that were planning mult-platform releases would make sure each version stood on it's own rather than release all versions at the same time. I would have gladly waited another few months if I knew they were polishing up the game to run its best on the PS3.

[gold123456th]

Anyone know when the patch is gonna be out? any ideas about it?

[pharos33]

Originally posted by midnight_owl:
It has nothing to do with your cables, your PS3, or your TV. The game engine simply is not coded well. Ubisoft should have taken more time to iron out obvious technical issues, but instead, rushed it to retail for Christmas.

I can confirm this. Picked up some HDMI cables today and aside from a great increase in colors and sharpness, the screen tearing and frame rate is unchanged. Meaning **** poor.

[gold123456th]

I'm probably not going to play this game until the patch is out
Better cross my fingers for the patch to work