Hello guys
so USF4 is finally out on PC, and i see a lot of peoples complaining about different problems, but am having a relatively good experience so far, so though about sharing some tips for peoples who never played on PC or are simply having some issues, ive been playing SF4 on PC since more than a year now, and transitioned to Steam day 1, i dont claim to have deep technical knowledge but i played around with the game enough and faced a lot of problems before figuring out what cause some of the most recurring issues, before talking about how to run the game properly her’s my PC spec in case you want to compare :
Geforce GTX 760
8Gb memory
Win 7 x64
CPU i7-3820 @ 3.60GHZ
MB ASRock x79 extreme 4
Updating/installing latest drivers for your GC and DirectX
usually USF4 will install directx at first start if its not found in your systeme, but her’s the link anyway
Directx :http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35
Nvidia drivers : http://www.geforce.com/drivers
AMD drivers : http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
**How to avoid freezs/slowdown and crash while playing : ** please note that this is my experience with an Nvidia GC, AMD users might have other forms of problem, or no problem at all
before asking why you should do this since you have a pretty decent PC like me ( if its the case ), you have to know that SF4 is a game from 2009 and is not optimized to take advantage of the latest technologies or to use the full power of your PC, while it does run fine it theory, a lot of process in the background can interfere with it , here are the the situations that can cause freez/slowdown/crash/back to desktop :
*close any flash/html5 video/animation in the background ( preferably close your browsers )
*dont play in windowed mode, or borderless and disable windows Aero preferably, always play in full screen
*playing in windowed work fine as long as you dont have windows Aero activated , preferably using windows classic theme
*Vsync from Nvidia panel can make the game run at half speed ( 30 fps ), it did work fine at some point with the GFWL version, but since some drivers update, it has been broken for me
*Vsync from Nvidia panel work fine now, you can even lower the input lag by setting the maximum pre rendered frame to 1
*tricking the game to use windows Aero Vsync dosnt work and cause lag and slowdown
*disable notifications from other software that will switch you back to the desktop, not all software do that, skype notification are fines for example
*running the game at MAX settings is better and smoother than the default settings for online play if your PC can handle them, i tried both settings ( max and default ) and the difference online is pretty clear
*if you have a 120hz monitor you can make the game run at 120hz by editing the config.ini files located in C:\Users*********\Documents\CAPCOM\SUPERSTREETFIGHTERIV
this is what worked for me to eliminate freezs ,slowdown and other graphical rendering issues
**Online ,questions and how to avoid lag : ** note that it dosnt matter how good your connection is, watching youtube or torrenting while playing online will cause lag
*** is it as good as the old GFWL ?** No
*** is the Xbox online better ? ** No
*** Why peoples are saying that Xbox online is better ?**
because steam has way more low level players with bad habits and bad PC spec/settings, remember that Xbox is a box with fixed hardware/settings and nothing running in the background beside the game, so when you face 5 low level players on Steam in a row …
*** So the online on Steam is good ?!**
its not perfect but its ok and totally playble, i play on Xbox live every weeks with friends, its pretty much the same for me, if you face someone with good internet then it run smoothly, if you face someone with bad internet , then well … its bad
*** how is the level of play on Steam ?** its low compared to Xbox, and the player pool is smaller, but there are a lot of good players, if you face one add them to your list !
how to know if you need to configure your internet settings/Router or not, and how : if your computer is connected to a simple direct line modem (ADSL) you dont need/cant do anything
*dont use your GFWL imported data, i have no idea why it does cause lag online, but when i created new save data with the steam version, the lag/freez were drastically reduced ,however i have a friend who imported his data and it worked fine for him, if you want to delete your imported data go there C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\177254111\ and delete the folder 45760
*dont connect your computer with Wifi, use an ethernet cable connected directly to your Router
*let say you play 10 matchs, half of them are bad, half are good, then you dont need to do anything, chances are that you just faced players with bad connection/settings and nothing is wrong on your side
*you played 10 matchs or more, and not a single one of them was good/playble ( assuming your not having graphical problem and the game run already smoothly ) then you probably need to forward some ports for steam on your Router
Required ports : https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711
how to do it ( tutorial ) simply chose your Router model : http://portforward.com/english/applications/port_forwarding/Steam_Client/
**reduce the number of max pings/minute on the steam client **
top left corner menu, click on Steam > Settings > in Game > in game server browser ; max ping/minute > i personally use 500
- if this still dosnt work, you can try to completely disable the firewall on your Router , simply tape the model of your Router on google along with " disable firewall " everyone has a different router, so thers no universal method, but you can start by taping 192.168.1.1 ( assuming thats your Router address ) on your browser, simply look for a way to disable the firewall without modifying any other settings
- as a last resort you can bypass completely your Router and run it in bridged mode ( no Wifi and other services in bridged mode, not advised ) every Router has a different way to set up Bridged mode, so look on google with the model name of your Router assuming your Router has this mode
- as another last resort you can try to run your Router in DMZ mode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMZ_(computing), assuming your router has the option, look up on google for how to do it with your Router
**Vsync, on or off ? **
i personally only turn it on when am in training mode or playing offline, and disable it online, why ? her’s an example to make it simple with fake numbers
- lets say Vsync add 2 frames of input lag offline, and going online can add 2 frames of input lag or more because of X/Y factors , thats a total of 4 frames of input lag between the Vsync and the inherent online lag
now you disable Vsync when you go online, thats -2 frames of input lag, there you go, you just removed some input lag for free ! something not possible on consoles
this is very helpful for peoples like me with average internet quality, but then why should you keep it offline you may ask ? well if you disable Vsync the input lag is reduced by a lot, difference between online ( inherent lag ) and Vsync off while offline is noticeable, so if you leave it on while practicing offline you are getting yourself used to the inherent online lag passively ,or even better you can disable it and simulate input lag in training stage from the training menu so you can leave it off all the time and not worry at all
also be aware that playing with Vysnc off all the time and then switching to Xbox is a big difference , you might have to get used to the slightly more laggy inputs on Xbox since it has Vsync , if you play competitively and plan to go to tournaments or simply play with friends in weeklies like me on Xbox, i advice you to leave the Vsync on while training
i hope this has been helpful for you, if you notice other bugs/problem you can ask for help