itch.io

Glad to hear that! Two days stable is a great sign. You’re probably right about the shader cache NVIDIA’s default is often way too small for games like VoTV that keep adding new objects as you progress.

And yeah, definitely a smart move to stay away from the BIOS flash while under the influence that’s a 'sober self' task for sure. If it starts acting up again around day 30-40 when the game gets even heavier, that 2023 BIOS might be the final boss you'll have to tackle (a lot of USB stability fixes for X3D chips dropped in 2024/2025).

For now, just enjoy the game and stay safe out there in the woods!

Look, this seems like a classic Windows/driver conflict that gets "stuck" in the system memory even after a reboot. Since reinstalling GPU drivers helps, it means the driver state is getting corrupted and can't reset itself properly. You've got a beast of a PC, but that Windows build (26200) and the AM5 platform can be temperamental. Here are the specific steps to fix this, without the fluff:

1. Disable "Fast Startup". This is the most important step. In Windows 11, "Shut down" is actually a form of hibernation. If the GPU driver hits an error in-game, a normal restart won't clear it because Windows just reloads that same error from the disk. Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do. Click "Change settings that are currently unavailable" and uncheck "Turn on fast startup".Shut the PC down and turn it back on manually. Until you do this, other fixes might not stay permanent.
2. Remove duplicate GameInput. This is a known issue in Windows 11, especially on Insider builds. Sometimes two versions of this service run at the same time and fight over your mouse input. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps and search for "GameInput". If you see two versions, uninstall the older one. If there is only one, you can still uninstall it and let Windows reinstall a clean version automatically.
3. BIOS and fTPM. Gigabyte X670 boards and 7800X3D CPUs had notorious issues with mouse "hitching" caused by the fTPM module and USB power delivery. Check if your BIOS is at least from 2025/2026. If not, update it. Newer AGESA versions fix USB bus errors that high-end mice like your OP1 8k are very sensitive to. Also, try plugging the mouse into a different USB port on the back ideally one of the ports that goes directly to the CPU, avoiding the ones next to the audio/PS2 jacks.
4. NVIDIA Shader Cache. Since a driver reinstall helps, it’s likely that VoTV (Unreal Engine) is corrupting the cache files as you progress. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, go to "Manage 3D Settings" and set "Shader Cache Size" to 10GB or Unlimited. The default setting often glitches out when the game starts spawning a massive amount of objects after the first two weeks in-game.
5. USB Power Management. Windows might be "sleeping" your USB controller to save power, which causes stutters even at 1kHz. Go to Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers. Right-click each "USB Root Hub", go to Properties > Power Management, and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

In short: kill Fast Startup, fix GameInput, and update your BIOS. If that doesn't work, your specific Windows Insider build might just be fundamentally broken with the game's engine, and you might need to roll back to a stable version of Windows. Let me know if any of that helps!