Post by d0dheim on Aug 6, 2014 9:11:22 GMT
One of the biggest issues I've had with racing in GTA:O has been render lag – lamp posts, phone booths, mailboxes, etc. not being visible until you're right on top of them, at which point it's too late if you didn't expect them to be there. I've lost way too many races to count due to having a lamp post appear at the last second and royally screwing me over. Sometime in March, remembering various posts I've seen on Reddit and elsewhere ranting about the samesaid issue, I picked up a fast USB flash drive to try to address the issue...
R*'s guidance here is to install the install disc (disc 1) to the hard drive and not install the play disc (disc 2) anywhere. Apparently, they specifically coded the game engine to load two assets at a time in parallel. As a result, if one were to also install disc 2 to the hard drive, then unless you have an SSD, you're actually reducing game performance, as you're increasing I/O contention and turning it into even more of a bottleneck. Hence R*'s guidance: don't install disc 2 (to the hard drive).
At the time I bought the flash drive, the general consensus was that the best way to reduce render lag was to install disc 1 to the hard drive as usual, but install disc 2 to a 16GB+ flash drive. So I tried it, and it worked. A little. Until the next content pack came out. By the time the high-life update came out, it was worse than before I had installed disc 2 at all.
So yesterday I was in a great lobby and did uncharacteristically well, holding first place every time I got there. Until the last lap, where I invariably got severe render lag and ate shit, falling to 3rd or 4th. So I re-researched the installation business and came across this, which I had completely missed in March. TL;DR: you want to install disc 1 to the flash drive and disc 2 to the hard drive. So I did that, also installing all game updates and content packs on the flash drive (though I don't know whether or not this makes a difference), and, uh, wow. Night. And. Fucking. Day. Hence this post.
As an added bonus, my framerate also noticeably increased. I didn't realize how low my framerate was before, but I'd guess 15-22ish; now I don't think I've seen it drop under ~25 once.
Hopefully this helps someone else, it's worth the $20 ("fast" is important here, as flash drives can vary significantly in speed, so you don't want a cheapo one.). Or, maybe I'm late to the party and this is already common knowledge – it wouldn't surprise me...
P.S. Don't forget to clear your system cache and reboot!
R*'s guidance here is to install the install disc (disc 1) to the hard drive and not install the play disc (disc 2) anywhere. Apparently, they specifically coded the game engine to load two assets at a time in parallel. As a result, if one were to also install disc 2 to the hard drive, then unless you have an SSD, you're actually reducing game performance, as you're increasing I/O contention and turning it into even more of a bottleneck. Hence R*'s guidance: don't install disc 2 (to the hard drive).
At the time I bought the flash drive, the general consensus was that the best way to reduce render lag was to install disc 1 to the hard drive as usual, but install disc 2 to a 16GB+ flash drive. So I tried it, and it worked. A little. Until the next content pack came out. By the time the high-life update came out, it was worse than before I had installed disc 2 at all.
So yesterday I was in a great lobby and did uncharacteristically well, holding first place every time I got there. Until the last lap, where I invariably got severe render lag and ate shit, falling to 3rd or 4th. So I re-researched the installation business and came across this, which I had completely missed in March. TL;DR: you want to install disc 1 to the flash drive and disc 2 to the hard drive. So I did that, also installing all game updates and content packs on the flash drive (though I don't know whether or not this makes a difference), and, uh, wow. Night. And. Fucking. Day. Hence this post.
As an added bonus, my framerate also noticeably increased. I didn't realize how low my framerate was before, but I'd guess 15-22ish; now I don't think I've seen it drop under ~25 once.
Hopefully this helps someone else, it's worth the $20 ("fast" is important here, as flash drives can vary significantly in speed, so you don't want a cheapo one.). Or, maybe I'm late to the party and this is already common knowledge – it wouldn't surprise me...
P.S. Don't forget to clear your system cache and reboot!
