Resolved Problems with shadows and performance since update

Since the update on tuesday I have a much lower framerate (about 10-15 fps less) on some tracks (e.g. Nürburgring, Hockenheimring). I think the reason is the changing of the shadow model. So I tried to reduce the graphics quality, but as long as the the option "shadow split" is set to "ON", that didn't help much. Even with most graphics options (e.g. "shadow quality") set to "LOW", the framerate didn't improve much. Only if I set "shadow split" to "OFF", the framerate is like it was before the update. But with "shadow split" set to "OFF", the shadows are very unsharp and soft and on some tracks I have shadow problems. For example at the Nürburgring the shadows disappear complete, at the Norisring the shadow of the crane on the left side of the back straight is wrong and much to big.

Now I wonder what the option "shadow split" is for. I always thought, that with this option you can only decide, whether a track shadow darkens the cockpit or not if you drive through shadows on the track. But this now always happens, even if "shadow split" is set to "OFF".

 

Shadow Split
This setting enables/disables a special render technique for shadows that helps scaling shadows over distance. Turn it on for higher quality shadows. Turn it off for a performance boost.

 

What is your car reflection settings? Set it to low to get more fps.

 

My problem is, that the framerate does not really improve with lower graphics settings as long as "shadow split" is ON.
As a test I set all graphics settings to the lowest possible values, but that helps nothing as long as "shadow split" is ON. At the start of a DTM race at the Nürburgring from the 24th position I still have only about 53 FPS.
The new shadow model seems to be very buggy and costs me about 10 fps. Before the update I could play with 60 FPS with VSYNC ON, and now it's hard for me to get at least 50 FPS. The options "Car Shadows" and "Contact Shadows" don't seem to work anymore. With "Car Shadows" OFF still all cars have shadows and when I set "Contact Shadows" to 1 still more cars in front of me than 1 have shadows.

 

I did another test. I reduced the resolution from 1920x1080/60Hz to 1280x720/60Hz, but even this helps not to improve my framerate. I also set "Car Shadows" to "OFF" and "Contact Shadows" to "1", but all the cars in front of me still have shadows.

 

Now I have found the reason for the lower framerate of the game since the update. In the nvidia control panel under Global 3D settings I have activated 2 DSR-resolutions (2,25x and 4,0x) for older games (e.g. GTR2). These DSR-resolutions are also available in the R3E graphics settings. Even though I choose the resolution 1920x1080 60 Hz and the game runs surely with this resolution and not with a DSR-resolution, since the update the shaders for the shadows seem to use this higher DSR-resolution. That's the bug, that caused the loss of 10-15 FPS for me. Now I've deactivated the DSR-resolutions in the nvidia control panel and the framerate in the game is exact the same as it was before the update. I can say this, because I always adjust the framerate with DTM 2014 on Norisring and Nürbrgring, because this combination is the most demanding for the graphics card in the game.

 

Hmm...I have waited 'til now to be sure about this fps drop problem and even if the game is still running well (mostly play on single player with 23 AI cars) I am now sure that my fps went from 115/120 in every case to 90/100 (lower on some tracks). I haven't changed anything in the game's settings except vsynch turned "off" since the beginning (auto settings gave me high settings). Took a look at the DSR in Nvidia control panel and it is "off" by default. Something in the new update is eating more power on cpu/gpu. Have a brand new z97 pc, thought it would have more "margin" to run nowadays games LOL...

 

I was wrong. It's not a problem with the DSR option. I just had reduced the number of cars to 16 to test something and I forgot to change that back. I think now, that the new shadow model is eating more power on cpu/gpu and lower video settings help not much. Only the reduction of the number of cars, seems to have an significant effect. The higher CPU load is for me the problem.

My workaround is at the moment to play the game with the resolution 1920x1080 50Hz and VSYNC ON instead of 1920x1080 60Hz and VSYNC ON. The video settings in R3E don't offer the resolution 1920x1080 50Hz, but the game supports it. You just have to change the value 60 to 50 in the sixth line <custom type="int32">60</custom> of the file "graphics_options.xml" under "Users\User Name\Documents\My Games\SimBin\RaceRoom Racing Experience\UserData". Now I can again play the game smoothly without studdering with the same video settings as I did before the last update. But the performance loss of about 10 FPS is not acceptable and I hope that Sector 3 Studios will be aware of it and change it.

 

Since the last patch (2015-07-07) my framerate is much better now. I can set the "car reflections" to HIGH now and have always 60 FPS in Fullscreen Mode 1920x1080 and VSYNC ON.