I've been testing a map that I've had in the works for a while now, after having fianlly finished reworking the architecture of the map. So I did a full compile and tried out my map. I would get 40-50 fps but the game would still be stuttering. Like the ground makes these little jumps. It's not severe, but certainly bad enough. Looking at my FPS rate it was fluxuating wildly. The rate would go between 40-45 but nearly instantaneously so it looked like several of the numbers at once.

Finally the last thing I noticed was that this occured only where I had point lights set up. Obviously a very big lead as to my issue but I still don't understand why this would be happening and I was wondering if anyone else had this issue.

I've never had this problem before and I have done full compiles in the past but this is the first full compile since the sdk update so I was wondering if maybe that had something to do with it too.

Did you play the map while Hammer was running? :P That's what happens when you have a high demanding program running in the background.

Try compiling the map with the "REN GAME AFTER COMPILE" option UNchecked

Then after it compiles close hammer and start dod then run the map

If the map is already compiled just make sur ehamme ric losed and try running the map

I have gotten these stuttering issues since the sdk update before last only when hammer is open

I ran it with and without hammer running. With hammer running the problems were worse, but withouth hammer running the problems were still there. A good idea though.

Did you run RAD?

Yeah I did a normal Rad compile (as well as a normal vis compile too).

Hrm, well I solved my problem. However I think it might be a "my computer only" issue I don't know.

What was causing the stuttering was that I had some lights set a the color red and set to gentle pulse. For some reason the gentle pulse setting is what was making my fps go nuts. Not sure if anyone else even uses the gentle pulse in any map but if they do I wonder if it has the same problem. This seems new since some updates as it worked fine before.

Dynamic lighting always causes fps drops...it's a lot of overload for the engine to handle. It's especially bad if the mapper leave the lighting in an open area...the farther away you can see the lights the worse the fps hit is.

I have some flickering lights in my sewers in dod_battlebridge but they don't cause a problem. However as FuzzDad mentioned you can only see them when in the sewer.