BUG - Mass Effect 3 Shields not Recharging when playing at high frame rate.

[darthwilson]

Hi folks

I have just finished ME1 and ME2 legendary editions and have moved to ME3. I thought the difficulty was extremely hard and then noticed that my shields were charging at an extremely slow rate. I looked online and people stated this bug from the original (non-legendary edition) that high refresh monitors caused a bug. I used the game settings to lower the refresh rate cap to 120Hz and my shields are working again.

Can the developer team please take note of this and fix the bug. It's a disgrace that such a noticeable and game-breaking bug that was there in the original game made it into a remaster of the game for modern hardware.

(Playing on a Dell 1440p 165Hz Monitor)

Thank you.

[projsynchro]

Figured I'd chime in and say that this bug is still also present in ME2.. I was hoping this issue with high refreshrates was fixed with HFR being a selling point.. but I guess not.

[darthwilson]

I never noticed it! I must check that now =o

[projsynchro]

@darthwilson It seems that some cover is not considered cover, which might be throwing off my expectations of recharge timing. It seems inconsistant at least.

[Myscellanie86]

It's indeed still there for me too... What a shame. I had forgotten about it and was wondering why my shield was buggy. This is really sad, I can't move on with the trilogy :/ (I mean I could but I don't play games with the framerate of a powerpoint presentation)

[oRevanchisto]

Also encountering the same bug. How could they not fix this when HDR is a selling point?

[RainbowAshii]

I started today my insanity run on ME3LE and I've noticed that after taking damage, barriers on Shepard don't replenish, during the fight while in cover or even after the fight. I literally have to quicksave and quickload to have them back again. It's really annoying situation on insanity difficulty level. Restarting the game didn't help either.

[HuskyRa1n]

I've noticed while playing my shields aren't recharging, which is making my insanity playthrough substantially harder. Turns out an old bug from Mass Effect 3 PC version is still in the code, having high framerates keeps shields from recharging

To "fix" this issue - all you have to do is cap your framerate to 60 FPS. It's a real bummer though, not being able to play at high FPS because a decade old bug didn't get fixed.

[TrukkenCS]

Would be nice to be able to play the game at 144 FPS and still get my shields back.

[christian_39]

This issue was also present on the OG version of ME3 and it is not present neither on the LE games. See here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mass-Effect-3/Shields-don-t-regenerate-in-single-or-multiplayer/m-p/103717...

Bug cause: It seems the issue shows up when the game runs at framerates ABOVE 144 fps.

• If someone owns a 240hz monitor and can test would be great.
  • If setting the fps limiter to 240 fps on a 240hz display fixes the issue => we change the description of the bug to "shields won't recharge or will recharge slowly if the framerate does not match the available thresholds on the in-game fps limiter (i.e., 60, 120, 144, 240).
• I own a 165hz display so I can't test all the 240fps scenarios (if I disable vsync and allow the game upto 240fps on my 165hz display the shields won't reload at all, see Scenario 5)

Video depicting the issue:

Test scenarios:

• Scenario 1:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 240
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: DISABLED. 
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 2:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 240
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED 
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 3:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 240
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: ENABLED (162 frames max) 
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 4:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 144
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: ENABLED (162 frames max) 
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED 
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 5:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: DISABLED
    • In-game vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: N/A
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED (application controlled)
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 5:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: DISABLED (i.e. set to 240 fps since it is the only possible setting for "disabling" it when vsync is off)
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: N/A
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED (application controlled)
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: DISABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (shields DO NOT RELOAD at all). In this case the game will 
• Scenario 6:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: DISABLED
    • In-game vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: N/A
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED (application controlled)
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: DISABLED
  • Results: FAILURE. Shields do not work properly (slow regeneration)
• Scenario 7:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 144
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: PASS. Shields regenerate properly
• Scenario 8:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 144
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: DISABLED
  • Results: PASS. Shields regenerate properly
• Scenario 9:
  • Setup:
    • In-game FPS limiter: 240
    • In-game vsync: DISABLED
    • Nvidia control panel FPS limiter: ENABLED (144 frames max)  => this one will cause the game to render at 144 (same as setting the limiter in-game)
    • Nvidia control panel Vsync: ENABLED
    • Nvidia control panel G-sync: ENABLED
  • Results: PASS. Shields regenerate properly

Conclussions so far:

• Going above 144 fps will cause the shields either to reload slowly (any case where I allowed the framerate to be in the 165 fps neighborhood), or to not reload at all (when I allowed the framerate to cap at 240fps using the in-game limiter).
• Whether you use G-SYNC or not seems to be irreleavant. As long as I go above 144 fps the shields issue shows up.

Workarounds:

1. If you are playing with in-game VSYNC OFF (to force vsync in the driver level, useful when using a G-SYNC compatible display) => limit the framerate to 144 fps. You can either do it using the in-game limiter or your graphics card tool (example: nvidia control panel for Nvidia cards), the result is the same.
2. If you are playing with in-game VSYNC ON and you own a display that works at 144+ hz (tested with my 165hz display) => you need to limit your framerate using your graphics card tool (example: nvidia control panel for Nvidia cards).

In either case you need to limit the framerate to 144fps, otherwise you will experience the issue.