Suggestion about rendering

Are you seeing the RAM increases while in a game? Does it happen idling in hideout or sandbox mode? If no, does it happen in a bot match, or just in real games?

Are you using the Vulkan or Direct3D 11 backend? Does changing graphics backends make the stutters and RAM usage better or worse? Can you post a screenshot of your graphics settings?

We're continuing to work on optimizations but narrowing these things down will help us a lot.
 
Are you seeing the RAM increases while in a game? Does it happen idling in hideout or sandbox mode? If no, does it happen in a bot match, or just in real games?

Are you using the Vulkan or Direct3D 11 backend? Does changing graphics backends make the stutters and RAM usage better or worse? Can you post a screenshot of your graphics settings?

We're continuing to work on optimizations but narrowing these things down will help us a lot.
Hey! Sorry to butt in, but while on the topic of performance, but do you happen to know if this issue can be resolved: https://forums.playdeadlock.com/threads/performance-issues.98611/

Some players have significant issues specifically when looking towards the mid area of the map, from any point in the map.

My friend played the game on a low-end laptop, but before the major update, he was getting a steady and playable 30 FPS at min settings. After the major update, he only gets that much FPS as long as he's not looking towards mid. When he does, he gets 5 fps.

I wasn't able to play with him since the major update because of that.

Sorry if this is somewhat off-topic.
 
Are you seeing the RAM increases while in a game? Does it happen idling in hideout or sandbox mode? If no, does it happen in a bot match, or just in real games?

Are you using the Vulkan or Direct3D 11 backend? Does changing graphics backends make the stutters and RAM usage better or worse? Can you post a screenshot of your graphics settings?

We're continuing to work on optimizations but narrowing these things down will help us a lot.
Yes in match only, as the game goes it starts to worsen the FPS. im not sure if this happens idle but one time i was afk using my PC while idle and after i went back i had those stutterings. My system for some reason also reduces game FPS to 30 when its on background/not in view, maybe giving to much hitch but unsure if has any causality.
--
will make proper tests by playing matches while recording RAM usage and then testing out in other instances such as fully idle (ex: 30minutes). Will give results soon.
I also know that PerfView (mentioned here) can be used as a way to trace usage and send advanced results, which then i can share to you either here or DMs in this case.

Im using Direct3D 11, will try out Vulkan to give out results too. Thank you for the response !

Graphic settings:
1770933149981.png

video graphics config:
"video.cfg"
{
"Version" "20"
"VendorID" "4098"
"DeviceID" "28639"
"setting.cpu_level" "1"
"setting.mem_level" "2"
"setting.gpu_mem_level" "2"
"setting.gpu_level" "3"
"setting.knowndevice" "1"
"setting.defaultres" "1920"
"setting.defaultresheight" "1080"
"setting.refreshrate_numerator" "0"
"setting.refreshrate_denominator" "0"
"setting.fullscreen" "0"
"setting.coop_fullscreen" "1"
"setting.nowindowborder" "1"
"setting.mat_vsync" "0"
"setting.fullscreen_min_on_focus_loss" "0"
"setting.high_dpi" "0"
"setting.r_citadel_ssao_quality" "0"
"setting.r_citadel_distancefield_ao_quality" "0"
"setting.r_effects_bloom" "false"
"setting.r_post_bloom" "false"
"setting.r_citadel_antialiasing" "1"
"setting.r_citadel_upscaling" "0"
"setting.r_citadel_dlss_settings_mode" "0"
"setting.r_dlss_preset" "5"
"setting.r_depth_of_field" "false"
"setting.r_arealights" "false"
"setting.r_texture_stream_mip_bias" "0"
"setting.r_dashboard_render_quality" "1"
"setting.r_particle_depth_feathering" "true"
"setting.shaderquality" "1"
"setting.recommendedheight" "0"
"setting.r_citadel_fog_quality" "0"
"setting.r_citadel_motion_blur" "1"
"setting.r_citadel_shadow_quality" "0"
"setting.mat_viewportscale" "0.746000"
"setting.r_fullscreen_gamma" "2.200000"
"setting.r_low_latency" "1"
"setting.r_light_sensitivity_mode" "true"
"setting.r_citadel_fsr_rcas_sharpness" "0.250000"
"setting.r_citadel_fsr2_sharpness" "0.500000"
"setting.useadvanced" "1"
"setting.monitor_index" "0"
"setting.aspectratiomode" "0"
}
 
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Are you seeing the RAM increases while in a game? Does it happen idling in hideout or sandbox mode? If no, does it happen in a bot match, or just in real games?

Are you using the Vulkan or Direct3D 11 backend? Does changing graphics backends make the stutters and RAM usage better or worse? Can you post a screenshot of your graphics settings?

We're continuing to work on optimizations but narrowing these things down will help us a lot.
@JasperP - Hey i came with the results and more details after tests, this includes detailed infos and videos to help you and also makes things easier i think. Sorry for delay, was meant to do this yesterday.
(note that i mention the word "stutters" but its 50/50 either hitches and stutters, both happens ingame)

I made a summary for instant easy visualization and overall idea but also included medias:
  • Vulkan does not fully work for me, it crashes while entering the "Explore NYC"/Real game but does not for Sandbox. Possibly because my GPU is one version older/ too old of GPU. Its think its ok

  • Consider that i did not restart my pc between those different tests, its possible that it could be my hardware problem in some way,sometimes after having these issues and closing the game my system looks a bit slow for some time.

  • Usually my issue is Stutterings/Hitches: Specially Micro ones, a freeze Ranging from like 0.1s to a 1.5s, this happens pretty much after any action, ranging from: opening: Shop, TAB, ESC, someone used ability, map action such as patron being destroyed, its almost like the asset is being reloaded again the memory, this does not happen immediatelly in the first minutes of the game.
    I just tested a fresh game restart, background apps closed (by pressing to turn off pc but spam ESC to cancel), yet i receives those micro stutters, its super unpredictable because some tests it happens after minutes into the game while others only after several minutes. These hitches is also the audio but they usually occur more if i have discord and a clipping software open(medal.tv) and specially if i alt tab too much. This is happening much more after this major update though.

  • I played two matches where i recorded Task Manager for RAM usage, ideally i think i shouldnt use recording devices as it could affect the result but i already tried without them and issue still appears as i play more. Not having Recording/Discord still has this stuttering issue but less chance.

  • Initially, fresh restart, RAM Hideout usage is about 3.200,0 mb, Training area is around 2.300,0. In match at Lane stage its ~5.000,0mb. At mid game (20min) it might go up to 8.500,0 mb. On game end and back to hideout, it will stay around ~4.300,0mb -- which i guess its fine because things are loaded. However, restarting the game and then playing two matches consecutively, the RAM while in hideout after second match was about 6.100,0 mb-- it could be that more things area loaded in RAM as i played two matches but unsure if really thats intended to stay. See HERE - 1:56:17

  • Played three bot match in total, 1 like normal (played lane, bought items, upgraded, made many kills) (17min) and second i went idle for 10min then left, on both the RAM stayed at around 4.000,0. Third is where match lasted for 78minutes. This whole match RAM was at 4.000,0 but one moment went to 5k mb but back to 4kb mb. I still had minor stutters when using an item or shop for example. Minor issues seemly started to appear after i played around (move, buy, kill), micro stutters that increased from just moving around to then also opening Shop causing another micro stutter or using an item.

  • Being idle in hideout will not cause issues, possibly just like i went idle for 40minutes in the bot match. It seems i have to actively move around, open UI elements (shop, player), see effects and all.

  • Alt-tabbing seems to make this hitches and stutter more comon and worse, possibly because personally my game FPS is reduced to 40 when alt-tabbing, maybe causing some hitch in the game (its on window-no-border mode) (dont know what makes it do that)

  • Discord seems to severely affect the performance, specially while a voice chat, example: i was in one with +5 users. Restarting game and then joining a custom match map will almost immediatelly starts perceiving micro stutters/freezes, which becomes worse much faster as the game goes, although i also had recording on, as oposse to have it closed and receive less common stutters. Maybe because it consumes a lot in total for 16gb RAM, although i have seen a report about discord causing issues to deadlock (HERE) and another but for CSGO.
There is a post above me in this thread that mentions about looking at Mid causing FPS issues (Another thread), in my tests where i was already in the huge stutters stage, if i were to look around middle/patron, i would receive a Stutter every single time (Here - 1:51:16).
There is a Pause bug where Shop glitches and creates multiple duplicate of its effect, causing almost everyone to receive 1 fps (Post1) (Post2) (Post3).. while thats not common (Pretty sure happened to me once in this major), its possible that in some way this Object or Effects is being doubled as the game goes despite no pauses. Could be looked at too

78minutes bot match:
Might be useful to see RAM usage and notice pattern of stutter after an action. I also made some notes of some stutters/freeze in description

Two Bot match
this includes fewer stutters and hitches, its all quick. Listed two, Basically it means it will happen in bot match.

Two Real Match | Possibly more important
at around 18:22 in the video, RAM from 5k mb starts to go to almost 9k mb at 9minutes of game after fresh game restart, no stutters yet i think. Not sure if normal.
At around 1:56:43 i start doing tests in other modes and its noticeable the game is consuming 2x RAM, worse than restart game

Discord party issue despite restarting game each round. Restart just before this match. I have a second monitor and discord in the side and sometimes i did alttab in it.

I also made two PerfView but they are for the full match and contains a huge amount of data which i think have to do properly later.

There are some recent threads about FPS issues too but doesnt seem like exactly mine issue, will share here for visibility for more details just in case.
Post

Thanks

---
Edited to fix a youtube link
 
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Thank you for all the testing and all the notes; it is really helpful, and I already have some ideas of things to look into on Monday. Internally I use bot matches to test performance with, so it's good to know you can reproduce the performance issues in a bot match.

If the Vulkan crashes produced a crash dump, can you attach it to this thread? If you Browse local files in Steam, then go to game\bin\win64, you should see a recent deadlock .mdmp file labeled with the time it crashed. Uploading that is helpful to narrow down why you're crashing.
 
i agree about adding dx12 as a nice bonus. or at least making vulkan work better on windows
considering my experience with vulkan on cs2 i think vulkan performing way worse(on windows at least) is a source 2 thing, usually vulkan/dx11 perform about the same in my experience(only had amd gpus(R9 280 and rx 6600) so far really)
 
Thank you for all the testing and all the notes; it is really helpful, and I already have some ideas of things to look into on Monday. Internally I use bot matches to test performance with, so it's good to know you can reproduce the performance issues in a bot match.

If the Vulkan crashes produced a crash dump, can you attach it to this thread? If you Browse local files in Steam, then go to game\bin\win64, you should see a recent deadlock .mdmp file labeled with the time it crashed. Uploading that is helpful to narrow down why you're crashing.
No problem!! Im happy its useful, Thank you!

Sure! heres 5 of them
Two should be ones in the previous test, +3 where i just tried again. In case you need any info let me know
 

Attachments

@JasperP i have sent a forum DM with ETW tracing i did of the stutters/freezes, i think it can help. Since it could include sensitive or private information, i sent in your DM. Let me know if you prefer it to somewhere else instead

//fixed typo of 'ETW'
 
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Thank you for the crash dump and the traces, especially how organized they were, and the inclusion of videos. I don't have anything immediate to report right now, since it will take a bit to do a more thorough investigation and fix, but I did want to report back and say that it did help give several leads on performance issues.

I believe one issue is a Windows 10-exclusive issue that was fixed in Windows 11. We have a workaround but we want to simmer on it a bit internally before pushing it out to all of the users

If someone else with an NVIDIA card can provide some additional PerfView traces during stutters or hangs, that would be a huge help; the more of these we have the more data points we have to focus on. Bonus points if you organize them and provide video captures associated with each trace.
 
Thank you for the crash dump and the traces, especially how organized they were, and the inclusion of videos. I don't have anything immediate to report right now, since it will take a bit to do a more thorough investigation and fix, but I did want to report back and say that it did help give several leads on performance issues.

I believe one issue is a Windows 10-exclusive issue that was fixed in Windows 11. We have a workaround but we want to simmer on it a bit internally before pushing it out to all of the users

If someone else with an NVIDIA card can provide some additional PerfView traces during stutters or hangs, that would be a huge help; the more of these we have the more data points we have to focus on. Bonus points if you organize them and provide video captures associated with each trace.
Where would you like the PerfViews sent? Just in Direct Messages? And should we just record during the gameplay on OBS despite that it may mess with the trace?
 
Where would you like the PerfViews sent? Just in Direct Messages? And should we just record during the gameplay on OBS despite that it may mess with the trace?
DMs would be great. Thank you.

Legends!
This bug is absolutely horrible and is getting worst, after each micro patch. It is borderline unplayable. And it has been affecting my team, including randoms and friends. Just confirming on my end that this is a pretty bad graphical bug going on. It gets worst when there's a lot of things going about - I wish I knew how to do the PerfView thing, otherwise I would absolutely love to help.

Anything for this game (okay, not anything, but you get my point!)
 
Legends!
This bug is absolutely horrible and is getting worst, after each micro patch. It is borderline unplayable. And it has been affecting my team, including randoms and friends. Just confirming on my end that this is a pretty bad graphical bug going on. It gets worst when there's a lot of things going about - I wish I knew how to do the PerfView thing, otherwise I would absolutely love to help.

Anything for this game (okay, not anything, but you get my point!)

Follow the steps on this wiki page to take a PerfView trace to send to us. If you aren't able to send a trace, that's OK, you can still help by telling us details about your OS version, your GPU, and running some basic tests for us:

1. Does switching to Vulkan in the settings help performance at all? You will need to restart the game after selecting Vulkan.
2. Do the performance issues happen in a bot match, or Explore NYC, or only during live matches?
3. Does toggling the HUD by pressing F7 and typing `citadel_hud_visible 0` improve performance for you?
 
Follow the steps on this wiki page to take a PerfView trace to send to us. If you aren't able to send a trace, that's OK, you can still help by telling us details about your OS version, your GPU, and running some basic tests for us:

1. Does switching to Vulkan in the settings help performance at all? You will need to restart the game after selecting Vulkan.
2. Do the performance issues happen in a bot match, or Explore NYC, or only during live matches?
3. Does toggling the HUD by pressing F7 and typing `citadel_hud_visible 0` improve performance for you?
1771381230059.png

YES SIR!

Will be conducting these immediate tests as we speak!
 
Follow the steps on this wiki page to take a PerfView trace to send to us. If you aren't able to send a trace, that's OK, you can still help by telling us details about your OS version, your GPU, and running some basic tests for us:

1. Does switching to Vulkan in the settings help performance at all? You will need to restart the game after selecting Vulkan.
2. Do the performance issues happen in a bot match, or Explore NYC, or only during live matches?
3. Does toggling the HUD by pressing F7 and typing `citadel_hud_visible 0` improve performance for you?
Baseline:
Microsoft Windows
Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6466)

GPU:
AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT
GPU: 7480
Revision: C0
BIOS Version: 022.003.001.034.000001
Shaders: 2048 Unified
DirectX Support: Unknown
Pixel Fillrate: 100.2 GPixel/s
Texture Fillrate: 100.2 GTexel/s
Memory Type: GDDR6 (Samsung)
Memory Size: 16368 MB
Bandwidth: 288.0 GB/s
Drive Version: 32.0.23017.1001 (Adrenalin 26.1.1) / Win10 64
Drive Date: Jan 08, 2026
GPU Clock: 1565 MHz
Default Clock: 1532 MHz
AMD CrossFire is disabled.

Vulkan setting is ticked. I will check for selecting Vulkan. Bare with me!
 
Follow the steps on this wiki page to take a PerfView trace to send to us. If you aren't able to send a trace, that's OK, you can still help by telling us details about your OS version, your GPU, and running some basic tests for us:

1. Does switching to Vulkan in the settings help performance at all? You will need to restart the game after selecting Vulkan.
2. Do the performance issues happen in a bot match, or Explore NYC, or only during live matches?
3. Does toggling the HUD by pressing F7 and typing `citadel_hud_visible 0` improve performance for you?
1771382188469.png

Just me trying out in hideout, and it feels much more choppier. It's offputting already.

2)
Performance issues happen during live matches. Any stuttering that may happen in hideout is quickly resolved - not anything to cause any frustration over. It is more when there is a lot of action going on. It is at it's worst at Street Brawl.

3) Seems slightly worst when the hud is off? Could be placebo though.

Vulkan is terrible. Please no :c
 
Follow the steps on this wiki page to take a PerfView trace to send to us. If you aren't able to send a trace, that's OK, you can still help by telling us details about your OS version, your GPU, and running some basic tests for us:

1. Does switching to Vulkan in the settings help performance at all? You will need to restart the game after selecting Vulkan.
2. Do the performance issues happen in a bot match, or Explore NYC, or only during live matches?
3. Does toggling the HUD by pressing F7 and typing `citadel_hud_visible 0` improve performance for you?
Trying it back on the faster running option (DirectX), I notice an increase in choppiness when the hud is turned off.

I really do think it is due to rendering of effects. It typically concides with some sort of effects or being exposed to something new, like a new angle or whatever.

Could be placebo... unsure...
 
You can use the Steam FPS Overlay or the built-in overlay to get more concrete numbers instead of a hunch. (Note that the built-in overlay has a bug where it freezes FPS after a match is done; I've fixed this internally but it isn't in the public build yet. To workaround, either relaunch the game or use the Steam FPS Overlay instead)

Two more tests to try:

1. Try adjusting the game's resolution to be lower; does that help improve performance?
2. You can disable particle effects by typing `r_drawparticles 0` in the F7 console. Does that help your performance issues? You can also try `cl_particle_simulate 0` to freeze particles.

You also never responded to me with whether the performance issues happened in bot matches and Explore NYC as well.

For the purposes of keeping this thread organized, please try and run all of the tests you can, and reply back with a single post with results once you've done so. If you aren't able to run certain tests, then please let me know why.
 
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