GeneralDynamics

Thanks for the additional suggestions, guys. I'll check on the Spectre/Meltdown settings, but it might be a while. Need to find the time to re-install 1903, and I'm tied up with work this week then out of town over the weekend. Silly me, I got so frustrated after the problem persisted after the clean install of 1903, I re-imaged my machine back to 1803 without taking an image backup of 1903. Had I done that, I could have easily switched back and forth between the two. Will do that next time for sure...

Now that I mentioned that similar behavior I've seen in the past was SSD related, I see some commonality in our systems, Goa. You use a Samsung 970 EVO NVME SSD, I use a Samsung 960 Pro NVME SSD. Hmmmmm, I wonder... Are any of you other folks with good performance using Samsung NVME SSDs? Edit: Going back and looking at everyone's specs, I see several of you are using Samsung 9xx NVME SSDs, so I guess that's not the issue, either.

And that's the other thing, many of you guys are running VR without issue, and my testing was done on a single 1920 x 1080 display without using the second screen I normally use for Helios. Then I go back to 1803 where I can run 2 such displays without issue. I remember some time back on my previous PC build I had similar performance issues with Crysis 3 that acted the exact same way, not a stutter, but the graphics output would slow down and then lurch forward repeatedly. It ended up being that buffering was turned off on the SATA SSD I was using at the time and was not a graphics issue at all. Turned on buffering and Crysis was super smooth. However, there does not appear to be a way to control buffering for the nvme PCIE SSD I'm using now. And even if I could, why do things work fine in 1803 and not 1903? My gut tells me that this also is not a graphics subsystem issue because of nature of the behavior. Then on the other hand, my Titan X Pascal is getting a little long in the tooth and perhaps it has issues with the newer versions of W10. I just don't know. And that "not knowing" is what prevents me from investing big $$$ in a 20 series card. Do any of you guys have a RTX 2080 Ti you could loan me to test with? Just kidding:-)

My apologies, guys – I wasn’t ignoring your suggestions, but rather work has required 14 – 16 hour days this last week. So here’s what I’ve tried thus far: 1. Updated BIOS to latest release. Default settings, no OC. 2. Clean install of W10 1903 from Media Creation Tool flash drive, let Windows install the drivers it wants. 3. Sound card drivers were not installed by Windows, so downloaded and installed the latest. 4. Clean download and install of DCSW Open Beta and modules on bare bones system, no mods, no USB devices connected other than keyboard and mouse. 5. Started DCSW, FA-18C “Ready on the Ramp” instant action mission, Caucuses. SAME PROBLEM! *sigh* 6. Installed all latest drivers for motherboard and peripherals, including nvme SSD driver and graphics card. 7. Started DCSW, same mission, still crap. 8. Rolled back graphics driver to 430.86 Studio version, that according to nVidia is much more thoroughly tested than Game Ready Drivers, and are designed for use by professionals. (Unable to find the 399 release someone suggested on nVidia’s site.) 9. Started DCSW, same mission, same issue. 10. Disabled all onboard devices not in use in BIOS, no help. 11. Game Mode on, Game Mode off, added DCS.exe to Windows Graphics Settings, set to “High Performance. No difference. 11. Threw up my hands, cursing violently, re-imaged machine back to 1803. 12. Started DCSW, same mission. SMOOTH… AS… SILK… GRRRRRR! What the hell, guys??? After all this, I still had the same “surging”, laggy performance as all the other times that Microsoft has deemed it necessary for me to endure another W10 1809/1903 enema. I’ve developed a nagging twitch in my right eye, accompanied by a high-pitched, maniacal giggle not unlike that of Chief Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movie series (Peter Sellers versions.) I’ve tried Process Lasso before, but it ended up being detrimental to my performance as some have suggested might occur. For those that asked about my system specs, they’re in the spoiler below. The bottom line as I see it, is that Microsoft has introduced something in the 1809/1903 W10 releases that does not play well with my system. Period. Maybe my system was already on the edge performance-wise, and Microsoft added just enough fluff in 1809/1903 to push my system just over that edge. I have no idea what to do to fix it at this point other than disabling Windows updates so I remain at 1803, and I’m only going to be able to do that until November when 1803 is no longer supported. Maybe I’ll try again at some point and take an even deeper dive into troubleshooting, and short of that, I’m certainly willing to entertain any additional suggestions or revelations you guys might have, so if you think of something don’t hesitate to post it here. Until I hear anything new to try, I’m just going to fly and enjoy my system as it is until I’m no longer able. Thanks again to all of you for your kindness and consideration!

Thanks so much for the replies, gents. What you've reported is consistent with what I've read on the forums regarding 1809/1903. I'm at nVidia driver 431.36 which I believe is the latest. I updated my bios a few months ago if I recall, but I'll see if there's a newer version available. A clean install of 1903 might do the trick, but I had already been down that road with 1809, spent hours getting everything reconfigured, and all for naught. I don't relish rebuilding everything from scratch again, but I may have to bite the bullet and give 1903 a shot.

Hello fellow armchair pilots, I come to you hat in hand for an utterly maddening Windows 10 problem that appears to be unique to me and my system based on what I’ve read in the forums concerning performance in the 1803, 1809 and 1903 updates. What I read was that 1803 was a poor performer, but that performance was more or less restored with 1809/1903. It’s the exact opposite for me. 1803 is for the most part buttery smooth with high settings, but every single time Microsoft shoves an 1809 update down my throat I’ve had to re-image my machine back to 1803 to reclaim smooth performance again. Here’s the problem… When taxiing on the tarmac, 1803 is super smooth, no issues. With 1809 and doing the same thing, I get this weird “surging” or lag effect for lack of a better way to describe it. It’s not like a stutter where frames are skipped. It’s more like display output slows down a bit and then speeds up again to catch up to where it should be, but in a smoother fashion than what we see with stutter, roughly at about one second intervals on average but it varies. Total immersion kill. I re-image my machine back to 1803 and all is well again, and this exact same scenario has played out the last three or four times Microsoft has thrown 1809 in my face. Needless to say, I’m completely fed up with Microsoft’s “we know what’s best for you” big brother bull crap. I wish I had some way of showing the behavior, but I suspect a trk file will likely play fine on another computer. After takeoff I don’t notice it as much and things seem to smooth out again while in the air. Sometimes after I land, that smoothness persists while rolling on the ground, other times not. However, it happens after restarting DCSW every time. I’ve done a clean install of 1809 from disk and a clean install of DCSW (HOURS worth of work) and both resulted in the same behavior until I go back to 1803. Also tried with Windows "Game Mode" set on and off. I guess all I’m asking at this point, for my own personal sanity, is whether anyone else experienced similar issues with 1809? Or is it just me? All I know to do now is maybe try and force the 1903 download and see if that resolves the problem. Any other suggestions you guys might have would certainly be welcomed. This has been driving me nuts for months now.

I can confirm that setting the INS knob to NAV after AutoStart completes also resolved my issue. Thanks! If anyone is interested in seeing the behavior after taking off with the INS knob in the GND position, I added a track to my post on the previous page.

Didn't try a normal cold start since I haven't dug into the procedure that deeply yet, on my to do list. But I can tell you it does not occur in the free flight Instant Action mission. Based on that, it does seem to be possibly related to a change in the AutoStart procedure. I didn't include a track file because I didn't think ED would want the entire track of the AutoStart. But if ED would like a track file, I'll be happy to record one showing the behavior. Edit: added track file. You'll notice that I updated to hotfix 2.5.4.29079 to see if that would fix the issue (it did not) but this started with DCS 2.5.4.29004. Velocity vector issue.trk

Velocity vector locked after 2.5.4.29004 Open Beta update DCS 2.5.4.29004 Instant Action, Caucuses, Cold Start After AutoStart, taxi to runway and takeoff, velocity vector is locked in position at about 1 degree above level flight and does not traverse the pitch ladder when climbing or diving. Screen shot attached showing the position of the velocity vector - it never changes from this position relative to the pitch ladder.

Last update... I give up. Folks, do NOT use the Matrox interface if you want to use a 1080P Helios touch screen with your main 4K display. I was so focused on getting the 1080P -> 4K upscaling to work, which it did wonderfully with the Matrox, I didn't get around to testing the Helios profiles until tonight. Because the Matrox makes the two displays look like one display at 3840x1080 to both Windows and nVidia, that jacks up all the coordinates on the touch screen and causes a whole new round of weirdness. Even when setting both displays to run at native resolution without the Matrox and setting the DCS res to 5760x2160 to account for both displays, I get extremely thick, blurry, unintelligible lines in the exported FA-18C DDI exports on the 1080P display. I suspect this is due to DCS graphics output going out to two different display resolutions. It was the same trying the dedicated graphics card to drive the 4K plus the integrated graphics driving the 1080P touchscreen. As far as I can see, a 4K main viewport with a 1080P Helios touch screen is just a no go. I'm done, boxing everything up and sending it all back, 4K TV and the Matrox.

Update: For anyone else having 1080P -> 4K upscaling issues similar to what I described earlier, the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital SE solved the problem quite nicely! https://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/digital_se/ Around $150. For those that may not be familiar with it, it's an interface box that connects to a single DisplayPort output on your graphics card and has 2 DVI outputs, one for each monitor. You define the resolution you want for the overall display size, in my case 2x1080P or 3840 by 1080 pixels. The Matrox box splits this into two discreet 1080P signals, one going to the 4K TV which upscales that 1080P signal nicely now for the main viewport, and the other going to the 1080P Helios touchscreen. Without the Matrox interface I had and endless array of screwy problems mentioned earlier. One I didn't mention was even if I defined a single screen for the 4K TV, no Helios, and set the resolution to 1920 by 1080, the TV would upscale the main viewport but the GUI still would not scale correctly even with the "Scale GUI" checkbox ticked. Which means that the button or whatever you clicked on the screen was not where the screen displayed it making it nearly impossible to navigate the menus. Several times I had to edit the Options.lua file and set things back to where I could use the GUI again. The DCS performance is nice and smooth again at 3840x1080 at max settings for the most part, and while the upscaling results in a little bit of shimmering now and again, I can live with that until ED completes their graphics optimizations. Once they get that sorted, I'm hoping I'll be able to run in 4K plus the Helios 1080P touchscreen with my current hardware. It's able to run Crysis 3 with all max settings at 4K resolution with nary a skip or lag, not to mention all my other games. Just can't quite pull it off with DCS just yet. Added bonus, I couldn't detect any appreciable input lag whatsoever attributed to the Matrox unit. Thanks again for everyone's input!

Hi Franx - I'm just guessing without being able to look over your shoulder, but I suspect you may have remnants of both the RTX and Radeon drivers lurking about in your system that may be interfering with each other. Download the latest nVidia drivers for the RTX 2070, do not install yet. Reinstall your RTX 2070 hardware, then go to Windows Control Panel, Programs and Features, and uninstall every nVidia and Radeon driver you can find listed there. Afterwards, run the nVidia exe you downloaded to install a fresh set of drivers and hopefully that might resolve the issue for you. Edit: Oh, wait... duh. You won't have a working monitor to do the installs with using the RTX. Download the RTX drivers as mentioned above, don't install. Back up your current system. Disable or unplug your network adapter so Windows can't automatically download/reinstall the Radeon drivers while that card is active. Try uninstalling all the drivers while you have a working monitor with the Radeon. Where you want to get to is just having Windows default VGA drivers installed so you may have to go through a couple iterations of driver uninstalls to get there. Then you can shut it down, reinstall the RTX 2070, start the system and then run the nVidia driver exe you downloaded if you're able to get output at that point. Reenable your network adapter.

Thanks everyone. I haven't tried running the Helios screen through the onboard adapter yet but will give that a try. I tried the 30 Hz route as well at 4K resolution, it was smoother but everything moving was blurry. Part of the problem is that I don't understand how the screen mapping works from the sim, then through Windows, then to the Titan and out to the displays. I'm back to the old 1080P tv now since the 4K blew up, and as far as I can tell, both the touchscreen and the tv are getting discrete 1080P signals. So, as it stands, the defined resolution in DCS is 3840x1080. That goes through whatever trickery is involved in the multi monitor setup in either Windows or the nVidia Control Panel, and somehow the Titan knows to send 1080P to each monitor. Again, that's with two 1080P displays I'm currently using. So now the question is, when using a 4K plus the 1080P touchscreen, why does the TV hijack the 1080P signal from both outputs and display both on the 4K TV side by side??? Arrrgh. Best I can tell, I need to somehow spoof the TV into thinking it's only getting a 1080P signal in order for it to upscale to 4K. A couple of additional ideas have crossed my mind: 1. Set the 1080P touchscreen as the primary monitor and the TV as secondary, and then reverse the screen layout in Helios so the overlay goes to the primary monitor, and change all the screen coordinates for the viewports to match. Then, will I get a 1080P signal going to the touchscreen, with the remaining spillover 1080P signal going out to the 4K which would then be upscaled? I dunno, we'll see once I replace the dead 4K TV with another one. 2. Purchase a Matrox DualHead2Go adapter, which I believe WILL send a discrete 1080P signal to both the touchscreen and the 4K TV, in which case the TV should upscale that signal as desired. Need to talk to Matrox about this, but from what I've read online that seems to be the case. Of course, the other option is to bite the bullet and go native 4K on the TV plus the 1080P touchscreen driven with a 2090ti. I'm reluctant to spend that much money with Vulkan in the works as I understand ED is already reworking their maps to support it. But when will it actually be complete? That's anyone's guess at this point. So, I'm looking for a poor man's solution until the architecture is updated. I can currently run at 4K with the additional Helios screen at 40+ FPS with the Titan, but there is intermittent stutter and that just ruins the immersion for me. I need everything to be buttery smooth to really enjoy the sim, but at the moment that appears to be a pipe dream with my current hardware and the additional touchscreen on top of the 4K TV. I think that's all going to change eventually with the introduction of improvements to Edge, i.e. Vulkan support, but we'll just have to see. It's hard for me to justify the insane amount of hard earned money needed for a 4K TV PLUS a $1200 graphics card on top of that until all this settles out and we see what kind of performance increase comes with updated DCS architecture. So, for now I'm looking to just do the 4K TV and hopefully find a way to get it to upscale a 1080P signal the way I want, and then make further decisions down the line as more news comes out regarding DCS performance improvements (or doesn't)… LOL!

Thank you both very much, Capt Zeen and Greekbull, for your consideration and assistance. Greekbull, are you saying that you had great performance with the 2090ti at 4k res while using the Helios monitor? Was the performance stutter free, even while flying over say Las Vegas and/or large cities in the Persian Gulf map? I see that you have your 8700K OCed to 5.0 GHz? I've tried that as well and also had a stable OC at 5 GHz, but in my experience that has always resulted in more stutter rather than less, forcing me to return to stock settings. All I do is fiddle with multiplier and voltage. Are there other BIOS settings that need to be addressed for an overclock to perform without increased stutter, or is that all you do as well? My 65" 4K TV sits at desk height, but my flight seat and controls are mounted on a platform on casters so I can roll it all out of the way in one go for regular gaming. The platform is 10.5 inches in height, so while I'm using it with the 4K TV my eye level is roughly center of the screen, but I still have room enough to lower the Helios screen to the point that the line of sight when looking at the top edge of the Helios screen extends to the bottom of the 4K TV, give or take. The touch screen is mounted on an adjustable articulated arm attached to the desk, so I can also swing it out of the way when not being used. That aspect worked out very well. Sounds like there's hope, but wow, a 2090ti RTX on top of a 4K TV... If I go missing from the forums and there happens to be an area of disturbed earth somewhere out behind the house, then that's likely where my wife hid my body. LOL! Thank you again, both of you!

Let me ask another question. Is anyone running DCS at 4K resolution plus a Helios monitor? If so, what GPU are you running and what does your performance look like? Thank you!

There is a new community driven Helios V1.4 available here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3302014/ Additional info here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=221100

Hey all you Input/Output experts out there - I could really use some suggestions. My setup (pertinent items): Sony X900F 4K TV, HDMI connected. Second 1080P touchscreen running Helios, DVI connected. I7 8700K. 32 GB RAM. Titan X Pascal. Asus Maximus X Formula. I've really come to love and depend on Helios over the years so it's a must have. I recently purchased the Sony, and I knew trying to run DCS in 4K plus the additional 1080P monitor would be a stretch (I like high settings), even with the Titan. BUT I thought no worries, if my system couldn't handle it I could always just go 1080P on the Sony, let it upscale to 4K, and still have a way better experience than with my old 1080P TV, right? WRONG! Here's the problem - 4K + an additional 1080P screen is indeed too much for my system. Framerates bounce all over the place between 40 and 60 FPS, and the Titan is maxed out at 90+ percent utilization, hitting 99 percent at times. Overall, an intermittently skippy, stuttery mess depending on what's being rendered. I can't send a 1080P signal to JUST the TV that I know of. When the resolution is adjusted to account for a 1080P main viewport plus the 1080P Helios monitor side by side, the overall resolution generated is 3840 x 1080. The TV sees this resolution and says, hey, I can fit all that on my display, no problem, so I get a 1080 pixel tall "band" across the center of the TV displaying both screens, and nothing goes to the 1080P touchscreen. Because 3840 pixels is the maximum width of the TV, no upscaling takes place. If I force the TV to a 1080P resolution in nVidia settings I get output on both screens, but of course in that scanario there's NO upscaling on the TV and the native 1080P image looks horrible. Has anyone been able to get around this problem and get 1080P upscaling to work on a 4K TV with Helios running on a second 1080P monitor? I've run through so many scenarios in my pea brain that my head is spinning, and everything I've come up with I've managed to shoot down after research. So there you have it - you guys are my last hope. Please be gentle:-) And on top of everything else, the TV was bought Sunday and I spent that afternoon and evening experimenting. I shut it off, went to bed, got up, went to work Monday, got home, and the TV was DEAD! Would not power on. Called Sony, went through all the troubleshooting steps. DEAD! Probably one in 10,000 Sony X900Fs have this issue, and I got one. I hadn't even removed the tape from the bezel yet! *SIGH* I figured I should go and buy a lottery ticket under the circumstances, but I'd probably be killed in a traffic accident on the way to the store. LOL! Anyway, before I buy another 4K I'd really like to hear from you guys... Thank you!

Yes indeed... It was late, I was tired, and I had just experimented with the AutoStart cheat (LWIN+HOME) to see what it would do. I simply couldn't help myself, and 20 minutes later the original post was born. Hope you guys got a chuckle out of it:-)

:thumbup:

This looks like a Saitek Cyborg EVO stick - is that correct? Logitech and Saitek have teamed up over the last year or two, and Logitech has been working with Saitek to update drivers for their legacy devices. I don't know if you've tried this already, but you might attempt going to this page: http://www.saitek.com/uk/down/drivers.php Next, select the "Sticks" tab at the top of the page (not "Cyborg"), and there you'll find updated drivers and software for your legacy Saitek Cyborg flight stick. For years I had given up finding drivers or software for legacy Saitek devices, and for quite some time there were no drivers available whatsoever on Saitek's site for older devices. Mad Katz provided legacy support for Saitek for a while, but I didn't have much luck with their drivers. If you had given up like I did, give this a try and see if the latest drivers resolve your issue. I don't have this stick, but the newer drivers worked for some of my other legacy Saitek devices.

Glad to help, Animal - happy flying!

Here is the link to the touch screen setup for Helios as originally posted by Gadrock: http://www.gadrocsworkshop.com/node/48 This was written for Windows 7, but I think the same concepts can be implemented in Windows 10 if necessary. If the correct Windows settings don't resolve the problem, then I think the next step would be to consult the documentation for your touch screen monitor.

Well, good grief. I updated to 2.5.3.21708, reinstalled the mods via OvGME, and now the AMPCD is working fine again. Radar rotary knobs still can't be actuated from the touchscreen, however.

Having trouble getting the DCS log attached, trying again... Had to rename it. I can't see anything obvious in the log associated with the AMPCD export. DCS_log.txt

*sigh* 2:30 AM and I've tried everything I can think of to get the AMPCD working in Update 2. It's blank on the Helios screen, but I can see that the Helios buttons are working in the AMPCD screen in game, just no export to the window in Helios. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything associated with the FA-18C Update 2 profile, downloaded the latest export.lua file from Capt Zeen's profile downloads, followed the instructions to the letter, all with no luck in getting the AMPCD export to work. It was working in Update 1, but can't get it sorted in Update 2. Radar rotary knobs aren't working either. I can't get them to turn on the touchscreen - it's like they're static, but if I use the mouse in game to change the position of either knob, the position is reflected in the touch screen. Everything else is working as far as I know. DCS version is 2.5.3.21444 Capt Zeen, thank you so much for putting this profile together - truly a work of art, sir. NOT complaining at all, just looking for some assistance to get the AMPCD and radar rotaries working in Update 2 :-) 2_monitors-FA18C.lua