doveman
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Posts posted by doveman
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I just upgraded to the latest NV drivers. Performance is terrible. As mentioned before, I use the BS2 Battle mission as benchmark. The problem is not the stutters, but effects. At mission start with all the units around I get descent FPS above 30, but the more stuff blows up, the worse it gets. At some point an artillery barrage or something went down and so did my FPS... to around 7!!!
Perhaps people who say overal performance was increased are right, no matter the FPS, just flying around results in a very smooth gameplay, but once explosions come into the mix the framerate simply dies.
Just for comparison, can anyone claiming smooth gameplay run the Battle mission for Black Shark and post results? If it's a question of configuration/drivers/settings, I'd really like to know.
If you, or someone else, could attach a trk from Battle with stuff blowing up I'll try that and see how it goes. I haven't really worked out how to blow stuff up myself yet, so I'm just flying around at the moment ;)
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I think I just managed to have a flight without any stuttering, except for when I deliberately crashed into the ground, but if there's a stutter after it's decided I'm going to blow up and before transitioning to the third-person explosion, that doesn't affect my ability to fly so that's OK :)
I'm not sure which of the things I did has caused this happy state of affairs (and I need to be sure I can replicate it) but I'll do some more testing and try and narrow it down.
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Anyway, for those with stutters, which I've never had or understood what could be going on, RAM isn't going to help there, SSD maybe but it must be because your CPU is being hogged at times by something other than the hog.
There are options to allow the DCS processes to be ignored by AV software which may be 'realtime' monitored and could cause an impact, just a thought.
Really though, I'd be willing to bet that the systems that suffer this have umpteen processes running in the background that aren't necessary and /or the system is possibly poorly configured.
I just wonder what some people'd task manager is doing at the times of these stutters. How many processes are using up cycles when the game is running and which of them need disabling.
Hi Bodo,
I can't see that a 500MB/s SSD is going to help with the stutters when a 1500MB/s RAMdisk doesn't.
As for the CPU being hogged, it averages around 40% when I'm flying but as I said, I tried using GameBooster to kill any unneeded processes and services but that didn't help. I've already set Antivir not to realtime scan my Games folder (on HDD or RAMdisk) and added DCS.exe to the processes exception list as well.
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I've timed it and from RAMDisk it takes about 9s for Launcher to load, then when I start an Instant Mission it takes about 5s before the DCS box appears, then about 30s before it changes to the black screen and about another 30s before BS2 shows the "Press pause to fly" screen.
From HDD, it's about 25s for Launcher to load, 7s for the DCS box to appear after starting an Instant Mission, 34s before the black screen and about 96s before BS2 is ready.
So Launcher and the final stage go about three times quicker, whilst there's not much difference in the second and third stages, which total 35s and 41s for RAMdisk and HDD respectively, so I wonder what's going on during these?
I would have expected a bigger improvement in all stages really, as you can see from these benchmarks of the RAMDisk (IMdisk awealloc) and the HDD respectively that the former is around 13x and 29x faster for Seq and 512k reads and 290x and 182x faster for 4k and 4k QD32 reads.
With these results, I wonder what it's like with a much slower SSD (around 500MB/s, i.e 3x slower than RAMdisk). Perhaps someone with an AMD system and a SSD could time how long it takes for DCSW/BS2 to load for them and post the CrystalDiskMark for their SSD as well?
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I've just done some more testing without Radeon Pro's Double Vsync and it does indeed drop to 10fps when I fly below 20.
I tried deleting smokecloud.pfx and it seemed like that was causing BS to fail to load but that turned out to be a weird bug between FRAPS and Radeon Pro, so I have to load FRAPS after BS is loaded. Now I can fly as low as I like and it stays at normal fps (about 48 on Instant Mission - Shooting Range). Nice find sylkhan :)
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Well I tried killing some unneeded processes with GameBooster before launching DCSW (from RAMDisk) but I still get the stuttering.
I've also got a problem if I fly below 20m, where the framerate drops to 10fps. If I climb above that, it rises back to 25fps, then 40fps.
Sylkhan found this here but I tried his fix of deleting smokecloud.pfx and then BS wouldn't load!
EDIT: My mistake, that was caused by a weird bug between FRAPS and Radeon Pro. I have to load FRAPS after BS has loaded for now. Deleting smokecloud.pfx does indeed fix that problem and I can fly as low as I like and maintain normal fps now (48fps on Instant Mission - Shooting Range).
Still got the problem with stuttering though. Maybe there's another file I can delete to fix that ;)
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Yeah I guess all we can do is wait. ED know what's best for the company and the fans. I think the game looks fine honestly like everyone else, I just wish the game would run better, especially on multiplayer but I think partially that's cause I only have 4GB of RAM. Usually stuttering and pauses are caused by low RAM. :)
V1.2.1 was a good leap forward performance wise, so I'm expecting good things.
Before you run out and buy more RAM, I've got 16GB and it still stutters. I've tried running from a 10GB RAMDisk, which leaves about 4GB after Windows and DCSW only uses about 2GB and still stutters and I've tried running from HDD without the RAMDisk, so there's about 13GB free and DCSW still only uses about 2GB and still stutters. The stuttering's much the same whether running from HDD or RAMDisk so it can't be RAM or file streaming speed related.
The game looks fine but I can't play it whilst it keeps stuttering/freezing whilst I'm trying to make tight turns or avoid the ground!
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So could anyone from the people who are happy about the way DCS runs provide their settings/driver version?
Apparently I have reported a bug or problem, since the thread has been moved. There was 4 pages of discussion about the engine (which by now everyone should already know to be futile - no, ED will not write a new one from scratch and no, do no expect an update that will make it use 8 cores to the max and give you a solid 60 FPS).
Since not everyone is experiencing the problem I'd like to appeal to the generosity of the lucky ones and humbly request they share their knowledge.
Assuming you're using Nvidia, these settings that GriffonBR found worked for him might help you http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1568123&postcount=92
Now that there's a 64-bit compatible version of Radeon Pro available, I did try to recreate them with that for my ATI 6950 but it didn't seem to help me. The upper screenshot basically has everything set to Application Controlled anyway, so it was only the lower screenshot settings I could copy, namely Ansiotropic Optimisation Off (I've never forced AF on DCS anyway and it doesn't have a setting in-game to enable it), Trilinear Optimisation On, Triple Buffering Off (this is off without Radeon Pro anyway). Texture Filtering was already set to High Quality in CCC and Tessellation set to 1x.
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I've seen some improvements from the recent updates, notably when I'm on the ground at the start of Cold Start in Mozdok and rotate the view with Num4/Num6, it used to stick/freeze momentarily a lot, which it no longer does. Looking at the helos on the left used to bring my FPS down from about 42 to 23fps and now it goes to about 27-28, which is still not great but a welcome improvement nonetheless.
However, I still have a problem with it stuttering/freezing every now and then, which seems to happen at the most inopportune times when I need to be in complete control and so I can't really fly it at the moment. I'll have to experiment with Radeon Pro and see if there's any tweaks I can make that will prevent this. I don't think it's a data streaming issue though as I tested from RAMdisk and HDD and it was the same with both.
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I'm testing back and forth between running DCSW from a HDD and a RAMDisk.
What I need to know is when it looks to the paths in the registry. If I run the updater from my RAMDisk (R:) for example, will it look to the path in the registry (D:) and update the files there instead of on the RAMDisk?
Or if I've launched the Launcher.exe from RAMDisk and then select a mission and launch BS2, will it look to the registry path and load the BS2/KA-50 module from there, or just look to the mods sub-folder on the same drive it's running from?
I can change the registry paths manually each time (which is what I've been doing to be sure it's not going to load from the HDD when I'm trying to test the RAMdisk) but if this isn't necessary it will obviously make life a bit easier for me. Otherwise I guess I could always make a batch file on each drive to change the registry paths before launching the updater.exe.
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Just want to throw my two cents in on this and say way to go ED. This autoupdate feature brings this game into the 21st century finally. No more waiting for patches and feature updates. All on the fly just like Arma... Keep up the good work.
Er, I've never had ArmA auto-update. I have to check the beta patch site regularly to see if there's a new one (although there are some third-party apps that will do this for you).
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After I start an Instant Mission and the DCSW interface closes, I then get a DCSW box on my desktop for quite a while before the BS loading screen appears. I don't recall this being the case with 1.2.0 and I think the BS loading screen appeared much sooner after the DCSW interface closed.
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Seems like we need something like Modman, that would allow us to install the mods and keep a database of installed mods. Then, after an update it would be a simple matter of clicking a button to re-install all the mods, rather than copying everything from the backup folder which as MadTommy's experience suggests might not be a good idea. It might even be possible for this program to check a database and flag up any mods that have been identified as incompatible with the current version of DCSW/BS2 (obviously such a database would have to be kept updated by either the mod creator or users).
Perhaps such a program could also manage any config changes we make (i.e maxfps=30) and find those lines and edit them for us, rather than just overwriting the .cfg files with our modded ones, which may cause problems if new lines have been added in the latest update.
Then we might be able to spend some time flying instead of tweaking all the time ;)
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If I were you my friend, I wouldn't rename or delete it.
I'd just edit the "Avionics_AC_400Hz.sdef" file (located in ".../Sounds/sdef/Aircrafts/Cockpits/") and decrease the "gain" value.
It seems 0.9 for me.
0.3 would be nice...
Cool, thanks. Didn't know I could do that. I guess if I just delete or rename it, it will be replaced when the auto-updater updates anyway :)
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OK, I tried IMdisk and that was much better but then I tried DCSW from the HDD again and it was much the same so it seems the latest update can take the credit and it no longer sticks when looking left or right at the start of Cold Start in Mozdok. I think the stutters when flying are probably less as well but they still occur too often and at the most inconvenient moments, like when I'm in the middle of a tight turn not very high off the ground, when I need to be in complete control and not having the game freeze on me momentarily.
With both the RAMdisk and HDD, I still got much the same amount of stutters, although less than before, so obviously they aren't being caused by the HDD being unable to stream the data fast enough. I've benched the IMDisk and the HDD with Crystal DiskMark and the screenshots below show how much faster the IMDisk is than the HDD and if it still stutters running from that, a SSD (which is much slower than a RAMdisk) isn't going to help.
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Try turning off your pagefile, with 16gb you'll be fine and you'll notice that alot of the stuttering will vanish.
I don't think that's a solution. Firstly, I might not keep 16GB and go back to 8GB (and put the other 8GB in another machine) and last time I tried disabling the pagefile with 8GB, my system went nuts and I had to reboot.
Secondly, it shouldn't really be using the pagefile much anyway with 8 or 16GB, so I doubt it's accessing that that's causing the stutters.
I actually just tested running from a RAMdisk (IMDisk) and got the stutters just the same. I tested from the HDD again straight after and it was much the same, so obviously the stutters aren't being caused by the HDD being unable to stream the data fast enough. I've benched the IMDisk and the HDD with Crystal DiskMark and the screenshots below show how much faster the IMDisk is than the HDD and if it still stutters running from that, a SSD (which is much slower than a RAMdisk) isn't going to help.
I will say that the latest update has helped a bit though and whether running from HDD or RAMdisk, it no longer stutters/freezes when looking left or right in the cockpit at the start of Cold Start in Mozdok. I think the stutters when flying are probably less as well but they still occur too often and at the most inconvenient moments, like when I'm in the middle of a tight turn not very high off the ground, when I need to be in complete control and not having the game freeze on me momentarily.
The framerate doesn't seem to drop as much when looking at the helos on the left in Mozdok now either, so it's around 27 whereas before it was about 23. I've noticed that the GPU usage still drops off though, so that looking ahead is about 42fps for 72% GPU and looking left is 27fps for 63% GPU, so it would be nice if it could use some of that spare capacity to keep it above 30fps at least.
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Can't say I'm seeing much, if any improvement here with the latest patch. It still stutters from time to time and particularly when I crash, or am about to, there's a very noticeable pause. I'm not sure if it's the transition to the explosion 3rd-person view that's causing it or if I'd have a chance to recover the helo if it wasn't for the stutter throwing me off.
Also still see a major drop in fps looking left at the helos on the ground in Cold Start in Mozdok.
I've got 16GB and DCSW was only using about 2GB of that on the last test, even though I've got preload on max, so it seems that it could be better utilising my RAM to buffer data to avoid the stuttering (if that's what the problem is).
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Good to know sylkhan. I was flying around very low the other day and it went into a 10fps slideshow. I can't be sure this was the cause (I was testing Radeon Pro's Double Vsync at the time) but if it happens again I'll see if this is my problem.
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I got fed up with RAMdisk Enterprise as there's no easy way to save/load RAMdisk images or stop/start the RAMdisk, so I'm looking for an alternative to try.
DataRAM RAMdisk only allows a 4GB RAMdisk and I haven't had any luck with SoftPerfect RAMdisk so far (errors out copying files to it in NTFS and BSOD when mounting an image, seems that it's trying to use part of the RAM that it shouldn't be). I tried Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130 but couldn't get that to work (error code 19 in Device Manager I think) so does anyone know of another free alternative that is suitable (or how to get Gavotte working under W7 x64)?
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Can you change the file system from "FAT32" to "NTFS"?
Yeah, I'll give that a go.
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As I've got 16GB, I installed RAMdisk Enterprise http://ramdisk.tekcities.com/RAMDisk/ramdiskent.htm
and created a 10GB RAMdisk, copied the DCS World folder to it and updated the shortcuts and registry to point to the RAMdisk (S:\Games\DCS World).
I'm not sure if it loads any quicker, maybe a bit but the stuttering/freezing is even worse, which doesn't seem to make much sense. In Cold Start in Mozdok, if I rotate the view at the start in the cockpit by holding down Num4, it sticks at one point (the point varies) every one or two rotations and when flying along it keeps freezing constantly.
I thought when running from HDD this was being caused by not being able to stream the data from the HDD quickly enough but this shouldn't be an issue with the data on the RAMdrive. I've still got about 3GB free even with the 10GB RAMdrive and Black Shark loaded, so it's hasn't run out of RAM.
This is what my RAmdisk Enterprise settings are:
On the Image File Processing sub-page, I've just pointed it to F:\DCSW.img, clicked Save RamDisk content and ticked Load RAMdisk content from Image at Driver Start.
With my browser open, which does have 34 tabs open at the moment, there seems to be a lot more HDD activity than before I installed the RAMdisk, even though I've still got 3GB free so it shouldn't be needing to use the swapfile any more than before.
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First off, those interactive missions were created by me and have to go into the folder that is specified in the read me in order for the menu integration to work. As for any of the other single/ mulitplayer, you can just navigate to it on your HDD and it will load up fine. Campaigns must go into the appropriate campaign folder for them to be found by the game as a campaign.
Oops, sorry about misattributing your work :poster_oops:
As for the campaigns, as there's one in Saved Games and one in the install folder, does it matter where I put them?
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Nope, got lucky and found it though thanks, it was Avionics_AC_400Hz.wav. Lovely not having to listen to that any more ;)
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OK, I tried feeding.ogg and it's not that. The only files named gyro I can see are in the P51 subfolder.
DCS World evolution and performance
in Game Performance
Posted
Yeah, W7 x64 and DCS x64. Maybe it would use more memory later on if I played the mission all the way through. I can see why you'd be running out of RAM with 4GB though if you're running W7, as that uses about 2GB and DCS uses the other 2GB!