AhSoul

Yeah this stuff is not cheap!

I've got a 42" OLED, but since getting a Quest3 have moved full time to VR. Yes the visual quality isn't as good (but that'll be solved over time as better hardware like the 5090 comes out) but the immersion is simply worth the effort (for me). Formation flying in all aircraft is easier due to the depth perception (as is heli flight in general), and flying through buildings and trees is exhilarating. And then you get a missile streak past your window, or a mate buzzing you down a valley.... I don't think I'll be going back to 2D.

I generally play DCS co-op with a few friends, mostly playing the excellent Pretense dynamic campaigns. I've recently found myself flying helicopters a lot more and when we play I'm often in the Apache or ferrying capture squads about in the Huey. I love the look of the Kiowa, but I'm trying to justify to myself when I'd end up flying it.... As far as I'm aware there's no datalink to other aircraft, so if I go off reconning how is my lovely targeting data going to end up in the hands of my friends? Am I going to have to read out coordinates for them to enter into their TPODs? Am I going to end up trying to convince them to let me buddy lase when they could just use their own TPODs? I could do both of those things from the front seat of my Apache. I don't want to buy another module that ends up gathering dust - I've got enough of those already. So what will make the Kiowa the preferred choice? How would I integrate it best into our gameplay? Thanks!

Marianas seems to be the least optimised map, so you might see issues there your don't see elsewhere.

I think it's a lot better with that mod, though after 3-4 hours I start to see it again. Definitely nowhere near as bad though.

I've found a separate 20 page thread of people having issues like these with MT, so a lot of people are suffering from something. Whether it's all the same issue I'm not sure. Shifting to 64GB and removing the VR hangar scene does seem to have possibly fixed my F10 issues though.

I could of course use Process Lasso to force DCS to never use 2 logical cores on the same physical core if I wanted.

Actually tried in-game now. Performance flying around in the Apache seems no different. Same amount of GPU headroom as normal. Same microstutters looking out the sides of the cockpit etc. Swapping to the F-15E still gives me a minute of so of terrible FPS. Then it sorts itself and back to stable again. So doesn't feel like it's hyperthreading that's the issue. I don't seem to be suffering from the leaving F-10 thing much these days though. Might be upping to 64GB of RAM, might be since I installed https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3336353/.

ok HT is now off. I now have 2 physical cores instead of 2 logical cores pegged at 100% with DCS at the main menu. Will play this evening and see if it feels like it plays better though.

Yeah I know DCS doesn't use all of them. But for all I know other applications or games I play might. I'm going to try it though and see if I still have 2 cores stuck at 100%

Doesn't turning off hyperthreading halve my available threads for non-DCS applications and games though? Would be pretty annoying if I had to keep turning hyperthreading on and off. I might as well at least try it and see what it does. Seems like there's also some issue where DCS gets locked to one thread I'm currently sat at my desktop with DCS running at the main menu in the background. Threads 8 & 10 at 100% and virtually nothing else being used. If I remove those from DCS cpu affinity the load just moves to threads 9 & 11.

Being discussed here currently

Thanks for the write-up. From a quick look at HWinfo while DCS is running, I notice that one thread is maxed out pretty much all the time (on a 14700KF running MT). This might be totally normal for DCS - I'm not sure. It's like this literally sat at the main menu so I guess it's unlikely to be the issue, but it's interesting. The F-10 issue in this thread sounds pretty similar to this (and I get this also).

And thank you for yours! There's definitely a bunch of things in play here and people's specs and settings is definitely one of them. I noticed that I was maxing out my 32GB of RAM 3 or 4 weeks ago. For the first 15 or so mins in DCS it was maxed, then it would drop to around 28GB. I upgraded to 64GB and it's often sat higher than 32GB, which proves to me that at my settings and with the modules I play DCS needs more than 32GB at times. I think I've had less overall stuttering as a result. So tuning your settings and system is definitely something VR players need to be able to do. However the F-10 thing is still odd. Some times it's fine, sometimes it's not. Same with changing modules. I jumped in the F-15E after having flown the Huey for a bit, and my system was unstable for a good couple of minutes. Lots of FPS fluctuations which made it pretty much unusable. Then it just sorts itself out and I can fly that module fine for the next 2 hours.

I think we're confusing general stuttering with the weird thing that happens coming out of the F-10 map though (which is what this thread is supposed to be about). My system can run the Apache on Syria with headroom to spare at 72+ FPS all day long, but sometimes can't cope with exiting the map. This feels a bit strange.

It sounds like the VR hangar is always loaded - isn't it there in the background when you F-10 during a mission? - so simplifying it reduces VRAM and therefore helps performance at all times. Could be a placebo, but I'm going to give it a go.

Oh also no idea if this actually helps, but https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3336353/ removes the aircraft from the VR menu hangar and claims to help performance.

Marianas is by far the worse map for me. I don't even bother trying to use it. I'm targeting 72FPS with MSAA 2x and no ASW/SSW, and with reasonable quality of graphics I can't keep above that on Marianas with a 4080Super. Which module you fly seems to make a massive difference as well. I have way more GPU overhead free with say the Hornet than I do with the F-15E or the Apache. But given I change modules a lot I have to tune for the worst module/map I use.

Thanks! Shame we have to manually hack files to be able to do this though

Damn

Is there a way to do this in reverse for VR? The messages are way too big...

I've used Process Lasso to pin DCS to my p-cores, but that doesn't seem to have fixed the F-10 issue for me. I guess there might be some other things I need to set in PL.... Just seen a video suggesting you should use PL to set CPU Priority to 'High' for DCS, not just setting the p-core affinity. I've done that so will see if it helps.

ok the way he worded it though suggested to me 'if you have cards with a low amount of VRAM total' not 'a low amount of free VRAM'. makes sense that it would be an issue if the VRAM fills completely up though regardless of amount

Doh mixed up my units

I get that issue on a 4080Super with 16Gb of VRAM - I hope that's not considered 'low'. I don't seem to get it every time I leave the F-10 map either. It happens sometimes, and not others.