Jitter/Stutter with camera movement on a simple project

Koros

Referencing https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/19504

We also see the "stutter" or "jitter" @fracteed et al. note here with 3.1 Alpha Official.

Tried all of the settings/workarounds mentioned in the issue, plus some.

Best guess for why others fail to see it is framerate. When content, debugging settings etc. bring the framerate down it becomes apparent.

However it is "defined" the camera movement in a simple project is not smooth. It is similar to that mentioned in the issue and behaves as illustrated in the video.

Just testing this and don't need workarounds :smile: but... It is definitely there, regardless of settings, how the camera was moved, materials, Msaa, shadow etc.

Cheers B)

Koros

Jitter Project @fracteed linked demonstrating the issue. https://github.com/godotengine/godot/files/2089685/move_cube_jitter.zip

Koros

Update Turned SSAO off in scene->environment, enabled Msaa 2x app override in GPU settings and enabled Vsync in Godot. Directional shadows don't seem to have much of an effect except for the shadows themselves.

Almost jitter/stutter free.

Megalomaniak

Vsync helps, but chances are your monitors actual refresh rate is close but slightly different from 60Hz, perhaps 57 or 59 or so. Not to say that it is the only cause of any stuttering, but there might be multiple stutters(so to speak) accumulating. The screen tearing(which is helped by Vertical Synchronization) being just one of the sources.

Just for debugging you might want to use something like rivatuner statistics server or if using amd graphics then theres also the option to establish a frame rate cap through the radeon options/driver settings. Test out limits other than 60 fps such as 57, 58 and 59 for an example. Ultimately if this alone helps solve the problem I recommend you make a bug report/feature request on tracker for godots VSync to actually poll monitor for it's actual vertical phase for accurate/appropriate refresh rate.

Mind, part of the problem is some monitors just don't report an accurate rate and just claim to be "60".

Koros

Good points, will try some of that!

Also while not exactly definitive have also noticed that camera distance from objects as well as the camera rotation around the Y axis affects the degree of stutter or hitching as well as the frequency.

With some rotations and also at some distances from objects we can get the movement issues to just about completely disappear. (In a windows release export, not the editor)

Thanks @Megalomaniak

lawnjelly

I don't know whether it will fix your jitter issue, but I wrote a blog post on solving such problems, maybe it will help with ideas: :smile: https://gamedev.net/blogs/entry/2265460-fixing-your-timestep-and-evaluating-godot/ and referenced it here: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/10388+