Player Reports: Stuttering / FPS Drops
Hey Geese (and Ducks)! Over the past few days, some Windows PC players have been experiencing sudden stuttering and FPS drops, particularly while moving their mouse. We've been digging into this nonstop, and after a lot of testing, we want to share what we've found.
What's going on?
First, the important part: this wasn't caused by a game update. Prior to today's v4.10 update, we were already receiving reports of this issue. The previous PC build had not been updated since May 20, when we released v4.09 with some role adjustments. We actually held back the release of v4.10 while we investigated these reports because we wanted to better understand what was happening before introducing a new update into the mix. Nothing was patched, added, or altered on our side when these reports first started appearing, and today's v4.10 update is not the cause of the issue. After a lot of investigation (huge thanks to the players who sent us logs and ran experiments with us), we traced the issue to a change outside the game.
A recent Windows update appears to have made the system's mouse pointer handling significantly slower on some PCs. Every time the mouse moves, Windows updates the on-screen pointer, and the game has to wait for that operation to finish.
On affected machines, that wait became long enough to cause major frame drops. For the technically curious, a few things helped us narrow it down:
The issue only appears on Windows PC, and only while the mouse is moving.
Holding down a mouse button seems to make the game smooth again, because Windows changes how it handles the pointer while a button is held.
The issue doesn't occur during remote-control sessions.
PCs with otherwise identical hardware can behave completely differently.
What we're doing about it
Even though the underlying cause isn't in our code, our players are the ones dealing with it. So we're fixing it on our end rather than waiting for Microsoft.
v4.10 does not include a fix for this issue. The team is actively working toward a hotpatch that we hope will resolve the stuttering and FPS drops for affected players.
Today's v4.10 update will not make the issue better or worse, and we'll share more information as soon as the hotpatch is ready.
In the meantime
Keep Windows fully updated. Microsoft may also address the issue on their end.
If you're affected, please submit a report with your Windows version. You can find it by pressing Win + R, typing winver, and pressing Enter.
Some players have reported lowering the polling/response rate on your mouse may help.
Thank you for your patience, and an especially big thank you to everyone who sent us logs, tested weird things, held mouse buttons for science, and helped us narrow this down.
We genuinely could not have tracked this one down without you.
If you need to contact support or would like to provide information, please send an email with all of the relevant information (email, userid, description) to: [email protected] or create a ticket through the website: https://support.gaggle.fun/support Honk on.