Arkham Knight PC tech-talk: settings, performance etc

[Retroguy]

I tried running it without AVG last night to see if that made any difference- the weird thing is that I didn't have any stuttering for the first half an hour or so, then it started to creep back in. And I''d already got to the first batmobile part before I loaded the game up again, so it wasn't just driving or gliding that was affecting it. There's definitely something really weird going on.

[MansizeRooster]

I've noticed that when the volumetric smoke is displayed, say when the Batmobile brakes, the frame-rate is decimated into the low teens. Doing the same move to make the smoke display again shortly afterwards doesn't produce nearly the same frame-rate issue. So it's basically a loading issue - getting something into memory is causing the whole game to stall, and it must still be in memory 2nd time around, so it doesn't have the same effect.

[NecroMorrius]

Hardly. There's no AO whatsoever in the PC version which makes a massive difference, especially given the art style, the rain effect is dialled back considerably & I don't even know what is going on with the cape when it's blowing in the wind. I'm sure it will be fixed, but it's difficult to comprehend anyone at Warner Bros. thinking that no-one would notice & that it wouldn't receive an almighty panning. Delaying by a couple of weeks would have been far more sensible.

The rain effect is dynamic, it runs down the cape in rivulets (think Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park getting sleazy with Laura Dern). The console version seems to be a shader in comparison. If you turn on the Nvidia bollocks the raindrops whiz off the cape as you're flying in a way that looks a bit weird.

I have the rain effects which are missing from the cowl and Batmobile in the images. I should try and figure out why mine seems fine, might be able to help other people.

[MDY]

Performance analysis between all three - PC running a 7870/8350 combination.

[Retroguy]

I've noticed that when the volumetric smoke is displayed, say when the Batmobile brakes, the frame-rate is decimated into the low teens. Doing the same move to make the smoke display again shortly afterwards doesn't produce nearly the same frame-rate issue. So it's basically a loading issue - getting something into memory is causing the whole game to stall, and it must still be in memory 2nd time around, so it doesn't have the same effect.

That could be right- I was going to say it almost felt like the game was loading in parts of the city, but then they were parts I was retreading my steps over, so that didn't totally fit. But then again, the stuttering kept on during my game, it's not like it went away after I've been playing for a while and presumably had most effects in the memory. In fact, it almost got worse as time went on.

I wonder why some people have the stuttering issue and some don't too.

[JoeK]

Remember the whole stutter issues with Half Life 2? I never had any of that, bit gpd knows how many folk suffered from it!

[Retroguy]

True, and hopefully with this issue being so prolific, it'll make it easier for them to track down and patch out.

[The Fox]

Seconds-per-frame is the new Frames-per-second.

[Treble]

For the people not suffering, what's the differentiating factor? Moz has Win8.1 & SSD, what about Cooticus and the others with few-to-no issues? I'm on the broad-spectrum setup everyone pretty much has (970/16GB RAM/i5) but on Win7 64-bit and a regular chug-along HDD.

Mr. Treble, consulting detective in the hizoos

[Cootinho]

For the people not suffering, what's the differentiating factor? Moz has Win8.1 & SSD, what about Cooticus and the others with few-to-no issues? I'm on the broad-spectrum setup everyone pretty much has (970/16GB RAM/i5) but on Win7 64-bit and a regular chug-along HDD.

Mr. Treble, consulting detective in the hizoos

mine is 8.1 64bit not installed on my SSD just my standard HD and i7 16GBRAM R9 290

[MansizeRooster]

I'm Windows 8.1 64-bit, SSD, i7 quad-core dual-threaded@4GHz, 16Gb RAM, nVidia GTX 780 ti, 1440p screen. Everything is maxxed out, I tend to get a locked 30fps with small dips here and there, but the smoke caused by the Batmobile kills the frame-rate down to ~12fps.

Looking up at the sky and using the grappling hook spikes my fps to 60.

[JoeK]

I5 2500, 16gb and a 780 here. Everything set as high as possible, but without AA on. Running at 1080p with not too much problem at all. Certainly no issues with the batmobile.

[Len]

For the people not suffering, what's the differentiating factor? Moz has Win8.1 & SSD, what about Cooticus and the others with few-to-no issues? I'm on the broad-spectrum setup everyone pretty much has (970/16GB RAM/i5) but on Win7 64-bit and a regular chug-along HDD.

Mr. Treble, consulting detective in the hizoos

Win 8.1, SSD, i7-4770K, 16GB Ram, Titan X. Everything maxed out.

[The Fox]

On my quick test I thought the rain textures were present on my game, but I'll check again tonight as I may have been mistaken. I'll also look out for the wave texture on the background sea on the intro, as that is another potential issue that's fairly clear.

Frame rate-wise though mine was absolutely fine, Batmobile section included.

Windows 8.1 N

Installed on 250GB Intel 730 SSD

MSI GTX 970

16GB system RAM

i5 4690K

[Treble]

I5 2500, 16gb and a 780 here. Everything set as high as possible, but without AA on. Running at 1080p with not too much problem at all. Certainly no issues with the batmobile.

And 8.1? If so, then so far users on 8.1 appear to have fewer issues - even from this very low-tech straw poll.

I'm waiting on a new SSD that'll be Steam-dedicated, so can directly compare afterwards. Not upgrade to Win8.x with 10 around the corner (and free).

[Nespresso]

From Gamespot:

Retailer Green Man Gaming has pledged to offer refunds if the next patch for the game does not fix most of the issues.

Dear Batman: Arkham Knight PC owners,

We are aware that there are performance issues for some users playing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. WB Games is working diligently with our development teams, NVIDIA and AMD, to identify and fix the issues as quickly as possible.

Please know that we value input from those who are playing the game and we are continuously monitoring all threads posted in the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Community and Steam forums, as well as any issues logged with our Customer Support. If you are experiencing any issues with the game, please be sure to report it to http://support.wbgames.com/.

In the meantime, we wanted to provide recommended, in-game graphical settings for those with minimum and recommend specs hardware. We will provide recommended settings for the Ultra specs as soon as we are able to conduct more tests. At the bottom of this post, you can find additional information that may help alleviate some of the most frequent issues that some players are experiencing. Also, for reference, we have included a list of the minimum, recommended, and ultra hardware requirements.

If you purchased your copy of the game through Steam and are not satisfied with your experience, you can request a refund at https://help.steampowered.com(Steam refund policies can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds).

Thank you for your patience as we work on resolving these issues and please be sure to check back for updates.

[JoeK]

And 8.1? If so, then so far users on 8.1 appear to have fewer issues - even from this very low-tech straw poll.

I'm waiting on a new SSD that'll be Steam-dedicated, so can directly compare afterwards. Not upgrade to Win8.x with 10 around the corner (and free).

Ah yes. 8.1 and installed in my standard hard drive (non SDD)

[NecroMorrius]

OK, let's see if we can figure out anything in common.

Windows 8.1, Intel 4770K, 8GB RAM, Samsung 840 500GB SSD.

2x 970s (not sure if the game is using the second one). I tried it with SLI enabled and with the second GPU set to PhysX dedicated, I didn't notice any difference but I've got the Gameworks shite switched off.

No stuttering, 1440p. Almost always 60fps, sometimes drops a bit when I use the grapnel gun I've noticed. Occasional low-res textures visible. Rain effect isn't as pronounced as the console version but it does seem to be there. I have rivulets of water running down things.

Not much running on the PC while I'm playing the game. No third party antivirus etc. Steam overlay is switched on.

I can move the game to my HDD as a test?

[HarryBizzle]

From Gamespot:

You missed out the bit where if you're not running the recommended spec they expect you to play in 720p and they want you to play with low textures if you have a 3GB AMD card. Unreal.

[Retroguy]

That Gamespot article makes a big thing of the issues being severe on AMD cards- I'm not really sure things are much better on NVIDIA cards are they?

I'm not really sure my 970 is playing the game the way 'it's meant to be played' at the moment, certainly.

[HarryBizzle]

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Just got home and my download has reset again. Fuck this game man.

[JoeK]

Well, that was unexpected....lighting effects have seemingly switched off DX11 stuff on their own. They still show 'on', but they're definitely off.

Very strange...Maybe this is all part of Scarecrow's plan

[Nespresso]

Aaaaaand the performance is all over the shop. Got everything on normal and no Nvidia stuff enabled but it honestly does not seem to make a single difference whether or not I've got all things on high or low, it will continue to chug forth no matter what. Once you're in the Batmobile the game will dive into 20fps territory. Yikes. Even just flying around the map seems to down my PC on its knees.

Last time I'm ever going to pre-order a game again.

[Hexx]

I've had absolutely no problems until the last 30min when some instense story stuff has happened - ruined by frame rate dropping to single figures (even standing still talking to someone during an ingame cutscene)

c!)

[JoeK]

Well, it's testament to the quality of the game that I'm willing to ignore a lot of the stuff that's being mentioned (and I'm not suffering quite as much as most it seems), but reading this article from Eurogamer, I'm actually unsure whether all of this will ever get sorted out...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-batman-arkham-knight-pc-lacks-console-visual-features

[Hexx]

Not sure if it's related but advertising/banner add/featured articles on Steams front page all seem to have disappeared.

[deerokus]

This is exactly what Steam refunds were made for.

[Hexx]

CDKeys likely won't refund though (although GMG have hinted they might if the issues aren't patched)

[JoeK]

I would accept a free upgrade of a season pass