Checkmate

I would like to bring this post to an end. But before I do, I would like to take the time to thank everyone who tried to help me resolve my issue. You guys are truly a dedicate bunch of professional individuals and I truly have a great respect for you dedication to DCS. Now the question all of you are wondering, did I find a solution to my problem. The short answer is yes I did. Thanks to the time of one member of your community who realized that this was a new PC, he spent many hours helping me tweak and configure my system for Gaming and with his changes DCS began to run very well. I may see an occasional stutter two or three times in an entire mission, but that's probably just DCS, but compared to every second that's totally acceptable. I am still testing the system, but so far it's been a joy to fly and a beautiful thing to watch. Hopefully, next I will put this system to the test and make it out to the carrier with my shinning new F/A-18 (on not so shiny) and seeing how it responds. In the meantime, I sincerely want to take the time to thank this individual for their patients and hard effort in making it possible for me to fly DCS and thank you all for your help. Best Regards, Feetwet P.S. I Look forward to flying on your wing any day. (Ok a little cheesy, but the second movie is due out soon so I am feeling a little nostalgic.) :joystick:

Hi Frappie, Just tried switching mice and plugged in a wired mouse and still seeing those micro stutters. Thanks for idea it was good one. Also, I just checked and I have Game Bar set to off, probably because someone told me it was not necessary to have it on. Regards, Feetwet

Because I decided on Digital Storm AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (32-cores)(Boost Up to 4.5 Ghz) ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme Alpha (TRX40 Chipset)(Up to 4x PCI-E Devices)(Gen4 PCIe) 128GB DDR4 3200MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX (Extreme-Performance) 1600W Corsair AX1600I (Digitally Controlled Power Supply) 3x SSD M.2 2 TB Seagate FireCuba 520)(NVW Express)(Gen4 PCIe) Geforce RTX 2080 TI 11GB H20: HydroLux Pro Custom Liquid Cooling System Even those this is not fastest machine out there is comes pretty close and if this machine cannot run DCS then what can. There should not be only one kind of machine that can run DCS smoothly and some would say that this machine is pretty darn fast. I tried Track IR on just core 4 and set it to priority and it had no difference. Yes I tried doing the same with DCS giving it 4 cores and move Track IR to another core. No change. Very important that you know that I tried DCS with NO TRACK IR and their are still Micro stutters. There should not be any if you ask me. Truth be told they seem a little better, but they happen just as often and should not be their at all. Feetwet.

Machine is also liquid cooled (Big cooler) and we checked temps, volts, throttling and all look normal. Thanks for the idea. Feetwet

Hi Guys, This is not a track IR problem, but it does make it worse. I have cap my Frame Rate at 60 FPS and I have tried running Vsync, which I believe I am running now. But most importantly when running DCS I see the Frame Rate drop out very quickly and recover causing all objects in the sim from Terrain, fuel trucks, AI, other aircraft to momentary pause for a very quick second. These pauses keep happening ever 1 to 2 seconds and never stop. It does seem that Track IR makes the problem worse, but even if I pause Track IR while flying and look out at the ground below me I see these micro stutters still there and that make the sim feel so unrealistic that it is not really playable. It does not matter if I am at a high altitude or down low either. If you read the thread you will see I have tried everything recommended and even load another sim and their is no problem. The truth is this machine should have more than enough horse power to run DCS smoothly. Also if you go online and in this forum you will see that this has been going on for a very long time. My guess is if it were fixable it would have been fixed by now and it's not affecting everyone so what makes my hardware so different. Sometime I feel like the whole sim is hiccupping while I fly. Even the B-sweep on the radar scopes skips a little. Very annoying. Yes I checked the Event log while flying and even though there are few items in there I am assured that it has nothing to do with DCS and most people have some of these events and they are having any problems. Regards, Feetwet

I'm having the same issue and I am running on a new pretty fast machine. I've been posting about them on an earlier thread called, "Studder Non Stop on new Machine". I thought it had to do with Track IR, but now I am convinced it's may not be the problem. Try loading DCS without Track IR and see if the Jerks go away. On my machine I see them about every second or so and I see the framerate drop out. Not sure what's causing them since I am new to DCS. Regards, Feetwet

Bearshin, Not sure where to find that in Windows 10. Did a search, but not coming up with anything that looks like the admin tool. I do remember that in Windows 7 so I know what it use to look like. We did check the CPU voltage with AMD Ryzen Master and CPUID HWMonitor while running DCS and everything according to Digital Storm's tech said that everything look normal. Regards, Feetwet

I agree, hope one day someone decides to fix it. I don't know if DCS is aware of it, but I see talk about it in other threads. Maybe someday in a future release of DCS they might be able to address this. Or Maybe if this is a Track IR issue then Natural Point might do something about it. In the mean time I do what I do best wait and get older. Maybe sometime in my life time they will fix it. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Flappie, I'm using Track IR 5 with the latest software version 5.4.2.27545 You bring up a good point and I did as you suggested and went into the Track IR software and used 3D Preview mode and Camera view, the head movement is very smooth. The other thing I noticed is the stuttering I am seeing is only showing up in DCS with Track IR running. I did install another game called IL-2 and looked very carefully for any stuttering, but did not see any in IL-2. Thanks for ideal. Regards, Feetwet

Lange, I thought that this might be a problem with one of my M.2 drives, so I reinstalled DCS on another M.2 drive and still got the same stutters. Not sure this ruled it out, because all the M.2 drives could be causing the problem, but since it only happens when Track IR is running I focused on Track IR. I did see a post from back in 2018 with a petition for Natural Point to fix their driver and I did speak with them on the phone and they were aware of such a problem, but they would not acknowledge if their driver was the cause and I can only hope that they would contact DCS and look into it. Thanks Again, Feetwet

Will, I tried full screen and then I lowered the resolution and notice the stutters were still happing at the same frequency. If I do not load Track IR or I use a hot key to Pause Track IR the stuttering goes away. I did not try using the mouse, but if I use the Num Keypad to move my head around I do not see any stuttering even though this is a hard way to fly since it's hard to get your head pointed this way when you need to locate a switch to push. Thanks for the help. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Lange I did try this and I'm sorry I forgot to respond, because it sounded like a great idea. It did not have any effect, but let me explain how I did it in case I did it incorrectly. Also, Thank you for providing the idea. I launch both programs and then used the Task Manager and found their names running under the details tab. Then I right clicked them each one at a time and set their Priority to High. Then went back into DCS to see if the stutter was gone, but in both cases the stuttering was still there. I call them micro stutters because they happen very fast. The FPS does not have time to go down to zero, but it feels like it does. If you look really carefully you will see the AI stop moving for a millisecond and the scenery stops momentarily as well. A simple 360 roll feels more like a ten point roll. The stutters are very fast and I'm trying to figure out how to capture them on video even though I know others have seen them. I have to believe that something like this is fixable. I can't figure out where to focus my efforts on getting this fixed. When I watch the Frame Rate is say it's dropping from 60 down to 30 and then back up, but if that were the case I would think this would still look like things are moving smoothly not micro stuttering every second. I'm not a programmer so I just guessing at the problem, but I do see other people posting videos and their screens look smooth as they fly. My guess is a machine like this one should be able to handle a smooth frame rate, but I could be wrong, I'm still learning as I go. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Bearskin, I joined the ASUS ROG and Natural Point the makers of Track IR forums. Buy the way, thank you for the suggestion. First things first. You were right their are a lot of people having this same issue and their is even a tread on the DCS forum going back to 2018 with a petition asking Natural Point to fix this problem. As good as this all sounds Natural Point says their aware of the issue, but they sound like they don't know what's causing it. They asked me to make video of it and suggested I use the video recording software built into Windows 10 (Windows Key followed by G). All new to me. When I tried doing this in DCS, it brings up a screen on top of DCS with several recording buttons and it darkens the screen. What's interesting when I do this is the stuttering goes away. WHY??? Please any one know why? Also, is DCS aware of this issue and is their any one at DCS that could help me with trying to fix this problem. I know that is a lot to ask for just one individual, but I have always dreamed of one day learning to fly DCS and I'm not ready to give up on that dream just yet. S anything ED or DCS can do would really be appreciated. The more I dig into this problem the more confusing it gets. In the mean time I spoke with Digital Storm and ask them to help me make sure my Bios and motherboard software is up to date. Hopefully they will get back to me today and let me know if I need to update. Please DCS I am asking for your help if their is anything you can do. Regards, Feetwet

Hi BIGNEWY, It's amazing the time you spend helping so many people, so I wanted to say thank you for all your help all over the forum. I know a lot people would be lost without your help. Yes I've have been reading your threads all over the forum helping everyone. Absolutely amazing. So thank you. Now back to business. I tried all that you mentioned above: different USB ports, removing all USB devices that are not necessary, updated all windows and video drivers, but the only thing I did not mess with was the motherboard and bios since the machine is brand new and I'm not that familiar with it. It was built by Digital Storm so I had there technician remote into the PC and check every thing he could. He also ran several utilities like AMD Ryzen Master to check CPU voltage and temps, FurMark, Heaven and Superposition (4k Benchmark 11876) Benchmarks to overload the CPU and GPU and they all ran smoothly. I tried running these utilities with Track IR running in the background and saw no problem. I see a lot of talk about refresh rate, but it does not matter what refresh rate I have set. What I see is a very rapid FPS drop and then backup and when that happens their is a stutter. I'm guessing their is some recourse that Track IR and DCS are sharing, but when I hit the hot key to pause Track IR in DCS the stuttering seems to stop, so I am wondering if its worth uninstalling Track IR and reinstalling the software again. Any thoughts? Regards, Feetwet Update: I just tried reinstalling Track IR 5.4.2 drivers and it had no effect.

Hi BIGNEWY, I gave it a try but no go. I ran two mission: the first was a F-18 mission with a Mig-21 and all I did was a 360 roll watching my aircraft stutter as it did its roll. Then I tried the F-16 Startup Training Mission and I watched as other F-16s taxi in front of my aircraft just stuttering by in a jerky fashion. I could see the frame rate drop momentarily from 60 down to 40 and back up. By the way, if I pause Track IR then everything stays smooth until I release the pause. Thanks for the suggestion. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Worrazen, I would be more than happy to help you test with my machine. I replied to your PM, but I can't tell if it went through because when I checked the sent box it shows zero messages sent. But to answer your question, anything I can do to help especially with my machine I would be happy to do. I'm so very impressed with DCS, so anything I can do to improve it for myself and other please count me in. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Bearskin, I tried two different ports. I noticed that half the ports are blue and the other are Red. I think this has something to do with Gen 3 and Gen 4, but to be safe I tried it in both and still had the stutters. But you have a good idea and I think what I will do is remove everything I can except for the keyboard, mouse and Hotas, and for some reason my monitor needs a USB Plug not sure why and then I will move the Track IR to another port and see what happens again. Thanks for idea. Regards, Feetwet.

Hi Bob, If I ever find a solution I will let you know since flying with Track IR is so much more immersive. Regards, Feetwet

Hi BIGNEWY, I tried it and unfortunately it did not have any affect. But I wanted to thank you for preparing the Autoexec.cfg file for everyone. I just dropped the file into my /DCS World/Config directory of DCS and restarted the computer and DCS. I tried running several different missions and I still see the stutters every second. I'm not sure at this point what else to try. I learned a lot about my computer with your help and everyone else, so I am very grateful for all that you guys have done. What a great community that so many of you would offer to help. I have tried disabling the SMT (Hyper-treading), overclocked the GPU, tried assigning DCS to a specific Cores, moved DCS to another drive, unplugged certain devices to free up USB ports, removed my USB Hub, tried different settings in DCS, video board and monitor, set DCS to priority in the Task Manager, tried the Open Beta, even set the refresh rate to 60 Hz and it still drops the rate by what looks like 30 FPS know matter what refresh rate I use. In the end the only thing that stops the stuttering is turning off Track IR. But something tells me it's not Track IR since there are so many other users using it with DCS. I just think that DCS is using up all the bandwidth of the CPU that their is no more room for resources on the CPU for the both of them. I will admit that watching the sim running without Track IR is a beautiful thing to see. Watching all those AI planes takeoff while kicking in afterburners or watching other aircraft in external view is something to be seen. Unfortunately, the moment I turn Track IR on again everything in the sim just starts stuttering. I mean everything. Not just my head movement, but every other object in the sim. I wish another company made something similar to Track IR with a 64 bit driver that might behave better with DCS, but I looked and their is nothing out there. In the end I hope someday I get to learn how to fly the F-18 and the F-16. After reading the manuals I can see their is no other hardcore sim like it. Again thanks for trying to help. If you think of anything else let me know and I will give it a try. Thanks Again, Feetwet (Robert)

I don't thinks it's a Track IR problem any more. I think Track IR was a by product of the stuttering going on in the background. I turned Track IR off by not loading it and then I went into a training mission and with my head not moving and watched two AI F-16s takeoff and noticed them stuttering down the runway. I watched a truck drive by the front of my airplane, as it drove by in a Jerky or what looked like a stuttering manner. I don't even think my hardware is the issue since I have now tried other games and they all run fine. I can only assume something is going on with DCS. Thanks, Fetweet

I tried it and it had no effect. Thanks, Feetwet

Hi Sn8ke, I may have spent two much money on this machine, but my hope was that I could use it for DCS and possibly other flight sims down the road. I have always wanted to get into DCS and thought that this machine would have no problem trying to run it as well as other software. I will contact the Digital Storm Tech and verify that the high performance is enabled for my CPU in Windows. My guess it already is. They spent a lot of time tweaking this machine. I do know that they check the memory and since this is a AMD computer they give XMP Memory profiles another name, but they did check to make sure that the memory profile was turned on and it is set to 3200 MHz. I'll will also mention the SMT in the Bios as you suggested. I believe this processor has 32 cores, but I believe most games only use 2 to 4 at best. I just figured that DCS would leave the other cores alone, but some day if I get into video editing I figure I could use them. I will also try deleting FXO and Metashaders folders to rule that out. not sure what that it so I do not know what I am loosing by deleting it, but at this point I have nothing to loose. I tried reinstalling DCS on my primary M.2 drive just to see if that would make a difference, but like everything I have tried it had no affect. No matter what I do I still see my frame rate cut in half every second and I tried setting the refresh rate to 60 Hz, but as you know that did not help either. I thought about getting a second video board, but I see a lot of game developers moving away from SLI and in the old days DCS did not play well with SLI so I just figured one RTX 2080 Ti liquid cooled would be enough. It's just giving me a headache sitting in a training mission and watching other aircraft move in a jerky fashion as they move past me or trying to move my head around with Track IR and having it pause every second. Not sure what DCS is doing in the background, but like you said I have watched Cinebench, Heaven, and Furmark all run as smooth as silk so it has to be something that DCS does not like about this machine. Thanks for the advice. Regards, Feetwet

Hi Lange, Thanks for the idea I do have it set to Maximum Performance which has no effect. I thought the problem might be tied to Track IR, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I feel like it's a product of the rapidly changing Frame Rate in DCS. I'm was just trying a training mission and at the beginning of the mission the plane is paused while everything in the cockpit is still working, including the radar. I notice the B-Sweep line starts skipping across the screen about six seconds after the start of each mission. It's like for 4 to 6 seconds everything is smooth and then suddenly the frame rate starts dropping in half and bouncing back up very quickly and everything in the cockpit from B-sweep line on radar to head movement with Track IR all start skipping. Even if I watch outside and look at an aircraft flying by I will see it pause momentarily. It take about a few seconds on the start of every missions, but once it starts it never stops bouncing the framerate and everything in the sim gets jerky. I do hope this problem can be fixed or a least I find a way to minimize it so I can at least fly DCS. Regards. Feetwet :(

Hi Lange, I have selected my monitor refresh rate to 60Hz and set DCS VSync to on. It is still stuttering when I look around I see the FPS drop below 60 every other second and then bounce back up to 60 FPS. It seems whenever it drops, it stutters for a micro second making it very uncomfortable to fly smoothly. The only way to get rid of the stutters it is to turn Track IR off or Freeze it. Thanks for trying to help. Feetwet

I just got a new machine and the first thing I noticed after installing DCS software was the stutters caused by Track IR and DCS. If I try running DCS with Track IR turned off or just put my hand over the receiver the stutters go away. Is there no fix for this?