As much as I adore this game the engine is still a hilariously/depressingly inconsistent sack of shit from time to time. I still get constant stuttering problems on random boots of the game, solvable only by exiting and launching again, sometimes restarting. LOD transitions I swear get worse or at least more bizarre with each patch. I can stand looking at two buildings side by side, walk backwards and watch the one on the right have its shadows transition between various quality tiers, while the one on the left seems to only have two; full shadow or horrible dithered transition to nothing. I can walk towards an NPC and see his gutter quality texture until the HQ version pops in at the last minute, and then walk backwards and see that HQ version stay for longer.
*shrug* It's like the engine just fucking chokes constantly and has no idea how to utilise hardware.