I noticed my project was stuttering when I upgraded from 4.18.3 to 4.19. So when I ran the profiler it was showing hitched frames. But now that I tested in an empty project I notice it happening there too:
Create a blank project (Third person template)
Hit Play and Run Command Prompt “stat DumpHitches”
Every few seconds the engine will freeze and show “Hitched Frames”. This doesn’t happen in 4.18.3.
Edit (Seems to happen when you have 2 instances of the engine open, one minimized. In 4.19 it will freeze, doing the same in 4.18.3 it won’t)
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The problem happens even with just one instance of Unreal editor open.
Editor freezes for long time (30-60 seconds) when running a game as “play in editor” and using any “stat” command that shows a bar chart. (For example, a “stat Game” command causes the freezes, while “stat fps” does not). CPU utilisation is 100% on all cores during the freezes. If I stop the “play in editor” session, the editor works fine for most operations, except for editing project settings. The Project Settings window also freezes periodically for 30-60 seconds. If I close the Project Settings window, start a “play in editor” session, turn off “stat Game” and open Project Settings again, it no longer freezes.
Running the game in “standalone game” and using “stat Game” results in freezes of just the game.
A packaged game in dev configuration does not have this problem - I can use “stat Game” without any freezes.
In short, using any profile command with a bar chart (like “stat Game”) triggers periodic freezes of editor and game.
The problem happens in any game - both my main project and any sample project created from standard template.
The problem happens only in 4.19 versions (from 4.19 preview 1 to 4.19 release). Older versions (4.18 and older) do not have this problem.
I had this problem in two configurations:
Desktop with 6-core Intel i7 CPU, GeForce GTX970 video card and Windows 7.
MacBook Pro (2017, 13") with MacOS Sierra (10.12).
Interestingly, the problem on MacBook Pro is gone after upgrading to MacOS High Sierra (10.13).
The problem on desktop persists.
I am also getting massive hitching of the editor when using any stat commands. Using ‘stat startfile’ will hitch and freeze the editor for 2-3 seconds at a time.
Hi, we’ve noticed this at our office in all our machines since we downloaded 4.19 and it persists in 4.19.1, this is really frustrating. Our game is fast paced and this is really apparent. I’m gonna open an issue on the new form.
I’m also getting hitching that is new to my project since shortly after updating to 4.19, and the only thing in stats that I can find causing the hitches are:
Stat Renderthreadcommands shows CreateRenderThreadResources is jumping way up in frame time. Stat Engine shows Frame Sync Time jumping way up in frame time.
Profiling is a dead-end that shows nothing deeper in the tree past these two instances.
When I first start the game, it’s perfectly smooth at 300+ FPS. Gradually those two metrics I listed start jumping to 5ms for a frame… then 10ms… and 30ms… and if I wait enough it even gets to 100+ms. So FPS drops from 300 to 10 or worse. Depending on what I’m doing in game, sometimes the hitches happen once a second, other times once every 10. I can do things that exacerbate it and make those frame times rise faster - like enable floating combat text and continuing to do damage to things, but the objects are in a pool and are just the same 10 being re-used over and over.
If I don’t use floating combat text, it still eventually starts to hitch, but it takes a lot longer. At first I was thinking garbage collection was causing the issues, but I’ve tried tweaking that in so many ways and seen no difference in the progression of hitching.
To those of you who are also experiencing hitching, is it related to the two stats listed above?
Thought so, but some of the other comments seemed like they might be more closely related to mine. I suppose I should open a new bug report for it then. Thanks!
Mine is not :(. Been working 60 hours a week at my day job, so I haven’t had time to properly look into reproducing it in a blank project. Ah well, in time…