Raven_Morpheus

Ever since 2.5 was released, just over 5 months ago now I've had nothing but stutters and micro pauses making the game unplayable. I've also got fed up with the 10gb+ updates that keep getting pushed, because I don't have that much room left on my SSD, and they don't seem to do anything to make the game more playable for me, so the other week I switched to the 2.5.0 Stable release... ...That didn't really do much to alleviate the stutters and micro pauses. However, the other day I made one change to my settings, I reduced the visibility distance to Low and I moved my pagefile from the HDD I've had it on since day 0 of owning my PC, to the OS SSD. I also locked the FPS to 40 via the graphics.lua file. DCS 2.5.0 now runs smooth for me, with only the occasional trivial stutter, at least in an A-10C practice mission I have, and the Huey Stray Eagle mission, haven't tried any others yet and I don't fly in multiplayer. Although I don't know which of those three things caused the game to start running smooth, I suspect moving my pagefile was the biggest contributor. This is only on the Caucasus map though, I don't have the Persian Gulf or Normandy maps and I've not yet tried flying on the NTTR as there's nothing really to do there... This is what I'm running the game on - Intel i5 4690K at 3.9ghz - stock clock, I do have an overclock option (to 4.5ghz iirc) but that's a bit iffy these days, tends to BSOD on me where DCS is concerned. Gigabyte Mini-ITX GTX 960 2GB - no overclock. 8GB of RAM at 1333mhz - no overclock. Kingston 240gb SSD with both the game and my OS on it in 2 different partitions. Windows 7 64bit OS 8yr old 22" 1080p LG tv about 2.5ft away from me, connected via HDMI. My in-game settings are attached. These are mostly reduced from what I was running in v1.5.8, which is a downside, apart from trees, grass and clutter which I've been able to increase, I could probably run trees at 100% with no FPS hit but I've left them on 70%. But I'll take performance over shiny graphics any day. Hopefully this info will be of use to anyone with a similar PC spec who is having problems with stutters and micro pauses, although I doubt it will. P.S. - to anyone who's thinking of chiming in and telling me I need more RAM and a better GPU, don't, I'm aware of that and I don't have the $/£/Euro to go buy them. :thumbup: Video example showing what the game looks and runs like with my settings, please forgive my flying and gunnery, I don't often fly the A-10C -

Nice video. Not quite sure I understand your conclusion however. Was it simply this - spend between £700 and £1000 and buy a 1080 ti 11GB? (not much difference in Euros, with £1 currently at 1.139 Euro) If so that's not really a revelation. Given that you already have a capable CPU, and 16GB of RAM, it's a bit obvious that you would see better performance with an 11GB 1080 ti vs a 4gb 960 given that the 1080 ti is the current top end GPU. However, we can't all afford to just go blow £700+ on a top end nVidia GPU - for some of us that's most of a months wages, let alone what's considered disposable after real life costs, especially in the UK. So, the real question is - how little can you get away with spending to mitigate the problems with a game engine that doesn't seem to be optimised for anything but current top end hardware?

+1 I have the same issue. I have space on my normal HDD's, approx. 1049gb, but I don't have room left on my SSD nor any free SATA ports. And due to real life I don't have any spare cash to buy a new SSD, an M2 SSD, a PCI-E card or any other components for my PC, so please don't any one chime in with "buy a new [insert component name here], it only costs...". To workaround the issue I've taken to keeping a backup copy of the beta version and updating the backup copy, which is on a normal HDD, then just moving it to the SSD (making sure I delete the copy on the SSD first). Just run the updater from the bin folder using the command line...

At the risk of getting suspended again I have to share in the OP's frustrations. Admittedly since starting to play DCS in 2013 my PC's have seemed to be between the stated minimum and recommended requirements for DCS when it comes to hardware, so not top notch but neither are they an Intel 80386 from the 90s. Framerates were never good on my original PC however with the release of 1.5.8 something changed (probably also coinciding with a change from an all AMD PC to an Intel/nVidia PC) and I was getting reasonable framerates for the most part and I started to enjoy playing DCS. However, since 2.5.x was released I am one of those who has encountered problems each and every time I've fired up DCS. Ranging from low FPS and micro stutters, to full on pauses - always in empty misisons or misisons with very little going on because I daren't start a campaign or play missions with lots of stuff going on in them. I don't play multiplayer so I have no experience of the issues that is suffering with. I barely get 40fps on average and suffer frequent drops in framerate, and I've had to reduce my settings from those that I was comfortably using in 1.5.8. And to be honest the game, on the Caucasus map, doesn't look orders of magnitude better than 1.5.8. In fact there are aspects that look worse. I've also tried all the panaceas such as clearing out my fxo and metashader folders. It's been 4 months since 2.5.x was released, not a lot seems to have been done about the issues, and the only answer to any of the optimisation problems seems to be to throw £2k+ at getting a new PC. However, and hopefully I am not in a minority, I simply am not in a position where I can throw £2k+ on a PC that dwarfs the "recommended" specs in a gamble to mitigate the problems in the game engine. I never have been in such a position nor do I imagine I ever will be. Due to "life" I struggle to spend £1k on a PC every few years. I feel there is little will to optimise the game for those of us with PCs that aren't way over the top for everything other than playing DCS. I also feel that I have invested money in modules for a game that is largely unplayable and I certainly won't be buying any further modules if the basic game engine continues to give me so many problems. And I don't want to feel like that about DCS, whilst I am more of a casual player I enjoy flying around in a Ka-50 and blowing stuff up and you can't do that anywhere else to my knowledge.

I've found the sun to be "problematic" at times, especially as I mostly fly the Huey and Ka-50. Would a real pilot not pull down a visor or put on a pair of sunglasses? Would be a nice feature that could be done in the same way as NVG is...

Ah OK thanks. I managed to free up some space by moving my =>100GB IL2 1946 install to an external drive temporarily. Still a PITA though, as I've run out of SATA ports on my motherboard (Asus Z97-P) and I can't really afford to buy a new/larger SSD at the moment. Oh well.

Hey all I'm currently on 2.5.0 and would like to update to 2.5.1. Have a slight problem though, in that the SSD where I have DCS World installed only has 2.5GB free space. I'm guessing that needs to be >11GB because I see from the updater that the download is just under 11GB. And I am assuming the download will fail because of insufficient space on the SSD. I don't have anywhere to move DCS World to though (too big), but I do have enough space on other drives to store the update files. Can I tell the updater to store the files somewhere other than on the drive DCS is on?

That'll be the depleted uranium in the GAU-8's rounds causing that...

Yeah, I spoke to soon. About 30 minutes after having done what I did with the IPA and pencil graphite the "sticktion" returned. Presumably because everything had dried out. Using IPA seems to have cleaned out what was there though after I had applied Vaseline and before that a bicycle chain Teflon spray (called GT85 here in the UK). The "sticktion" was worse before I cleaned the shaft with IPA. I might try some silicone grease instead see how that goes. It's really rather frustrating because I recently bought a 2nd hand Saitek X-45, only the joystick (to replace my old one which was suffering with really bad "sticktion") and it's as smooth as silk despite it being a used item. But the X-45 doesn't have as many buttons and I was only using my X-45 HOTAS because my X-52 joystick was suffering so bad with "sticktion"...

Yes it is that mission. I wouldn't worry about updating it though as it seems to be working fine. I've just flown it again and located all 3 Leopards, although due to the increased tree cover from 1.5.8 (where I couldn't have trees on max due to the fps hit) I've had to scoot to the right hand side of that area to look almost directly down the road, rather than hover over the buildings at waypoint 2. I do need to improve my flying though, I ended up drifting towards the soldiers at the 2nd target area and started taking small arms fire!!

@Skatezilla - I have the gamma at 1.5 because otherwise the game starts to look too bright/washed out. I have an i5 4690k @3.9ghz, 8gb of RAM at 1333mhz, and a 2gb GTX 960. The game is on an SSD. I run windows 7 64bit. And I know that you will come back and tell me that I have an inferior computer for DCS and that I should upgrade. Thing is my computer runs every single other game I have, including other sims, just fine - and DCS 1.5.8 runs adequately also. EDIT - The black glass issue I think is isolated to the Huey because I don't get it in the Ka-50, that loads into the mission just fine, although the auto pilot buttons don't look lit up properly, related to the same issue with the radar altimeter digital readout in the Huey afaik. Haven't tried my other modules (the TF-51, Su-25, A-10 and Mi-8 ) yet though, but I'd put some money down (if I had any spare) that the black glass is a Huey issue only. @razo+r - I already have the trees slider set to the maximum. @Ramsay - thanks, your trees look just like mine, so at least it's not just me with the issue, if it's even an issue. I'll try adding a static Huey and see what happens with the glass texture loading.

Hello I have a Saitek X52 Pro. It was suffering from the well documented and known "sticktion" so I set about trying to find a fix for it... After watching a video by Frooglesim, about solving the same/similar issue on the X-55, I used Vaseline to lubricate the joystick's shaft. That has made the "sticktion" worse. Does anyone here have any tips on how to clean that area completely and hopefully restore the stick to new? Or a disassembly guide so that I can get at that area easily? Thanks in advance. EDIT - please disregard this. I have resolved the issue by taking IPA 99.9% and some q tips, and generally cleaning around the inner spring area, I also very carefully holding the stick horizontally drizzled a little IPA over that area to "flush" it. It started to stick again, but I went back at it with IPA and q tips and I also rubbed a 4B graphite pencil against the shaft, seems to have fixed it so far, the movement is nice and smooth now. Don't know how long that will last for though before I get "sticktion" again.

So, I mostly fly the Huey and to begin with 2.5 was unplayable for me, massive micro stutters (even when just sitting idle on the ground), general low fps compared to 1.5.8, and the game would cause massive lag on my PC after exiting. An update patch or two ago the issues I was experiencing with the game seem to have been mitigated somewhat and after the most recent update patch I can now play 2.5, at least I can cruise around the Batumi airport area in an empty mission with an unarmed Huey, don't know about anywhere else, haven't tried Vegas recently or rescuing Stray Eagle... There are still a couple of things that I notice frequently that I'd like to get resolved though. I've had these issues since 2.5 was released, however I don't recall raising the black glass issue, so I'm raising it now. 1. Attached is a screengrab of what I get when the missions loads on the ground at Batumi airport. The black glass eventually loads and turns into clear glass, after what seem like about 30 seconds to a minute, it's probably less than that, just seems like a while. I don't know if this happens in other aircraft that I have (I only have the freebies, the Ka-50, A-10 and Mi-8 anyway) as I've not tried any others recently. 2. Attached is another screengrab showing my tree quality. Not the best example but you can see that the trees generally look fuzzy and blobby. I have deferred shading on, I also have the trees visibility set to maximum. The trees looked far better in 2.2.x and 1.5.8 imho. 3. As you can also see in the screengrab where I'm flying I also cannot see the digits on the radar altimeter unless I zoom in on the dashboard, as I recall all cockpits have this type of issue currently (especially not helpful in the Ka-50). A screengrab of my settings is also attached. Can anyone tell me what I might be able to do to fix these issues? Thanks in advance.

I have an Air America skin for the Huey in my game. However it's not shiny like the F-86 Sabre is (or was in the screenshots I've seen), and it should be. I can't recall if I downloaded the skin or if it's a default one though. Is there anyway to make what is supposed to be duraluminium on the exterior shiny like the F-86 is in the newer versions of DCS? Thanks in advance.

OK, so I'm going to hazard a guess I'm not the only one having similar issues but I thought I'd add my voice to the discussion of similar issues. Load times are ridiculous, vastly inflated from 1.5.8.x and even 2.2.x. Missions seem to hang during loading, and also when I go to click on "Fly". When I exit the game I get massive lag on my PC for a period, a minute or two, and the game itself sits at a black screen for about a minute also before finally exiting and giving me my desktop back. This only happens with DCS, no other game I have (including the one that is most recent, Sniper Elite 4) does this. Oddly when the game "stops responding" and I choose the option to close it I have no such issues... Just in case, although I don't see how it's relevant as my PC isn't exactly a budget workstation and I had no such problems with 2.2.x or 1.5.8.x, my PC specs are - Intel i5 4690K at 3.9ghz. nVidia GTX 960 2GB 8GB RAM SSD for OS SSD for game.

I thought that might be the case, just wondered. Not even sure the tank is there, to start with when I arrive "at the scene" I can only spot 2 of the 3 Leopard tanks placed by the mission creator, despite there being 3 labels. I played the mission the other week in 1.5.8.x and found that 1 tank was labelled but not actually there (no trees in the way that time either), it was possibly buried under the terrain. Will try again later and see if I can't see all 3 tanks on external views (I'm guessing I can cycle through enemies in external views?) if not and I can only see 2 I'll run the mission through the editor and see if I can fix it. EDIT - all 3 Leopards appear to be there at the start of the mission so I guess I just have to approach a bit more "stealthily" and be in a position where they can't seek cover once I've fired my 1st Vikhr...

Ok thanks. I have deferred shading on. I'll leave it as is then for the moment, as I'm not too keen on setting my trees to max due to fps hits. They looked fine in 2.2.x and 1.5.8.x though. Another thing for ED to fix then...

Hey all Just wondering if it's possible to see targets behind trees at all on the Shkval (FLIR or something?)? I was playing a mission just now (the how to blow stuff up mission that someone made), had the labels on so I knew there was a tank where I was looking but I couldn't seem to see it on the Shkval monitor due to a tree or two being in the way. Thanks in advance.

So, around Batumi (I've not flown around anwyhere else yet), I'm finding the trees look quite poor. See attached screenshot. Anyone know why this is and how to fix it? Thanks.

I had the trimmer working in 2.5, then I deleted my Options.cfg as it was from v1.5.8.x and now the trimmer does nothing. I can see the button is pressed in the cockpit on the cyclic but it does nothing. I've tried using the keyboard, the mouse and my joystick button. Rudder trimmer works fine. I've tried all 3 settings in the options, default, central position trimmer etc. Anyone any clue on if there's a fix? EDIT - I have fixed this myself. I found out that Force Feedback in the Misc tab was set to on by default. Turning this off restores the Huey's trimmer...

So, I've got 2.5 running as good as I think it'll get for me (probably need a newer GPU as I'm only running a GTX960) and I fired up my test mission set at Batumi. Flying the Huey I noticed that I cannot see the digital readout on the radar altimeter. It is working, if I zoom in or use a snap view I can read it, but the display is not bright enough to be seen from a general view. It doesn't seem to be cockpit shadow related because it's the same no matter which way I'm pointing and if there's a shadow in that part of the cockpit or not. Anyone here have a solution to this? I don't think I ever had the same issue in 2.2. flying over Nevada. Screenshot attached.

Thanks that would be immensely helpful. Thanks. Unfortunately my approach is the one I best learn with. I find it difficult to read large amounts of text and learn something from it, however if someone provides me with a "To do X press A, then press B, then press C" type of guide I can follow it and remember it after a few goes. That's why I like the "how to take off and blow stuff up" mission for the KA-50 - the pdf or web page I read was concise and straight to the point, no waffle, it just tells you precisely what to do and which buttons to press or switches to flick. Anyhoo it seems I can fire THE gun. That seems to be the easiest thing to learn. Just need to know how to drop bombs and fire missiles... ...and I need to learn how to aim THE gun, I just did a practice mission and it seems I'm a terrible shot, although I did manage to hit some stuff. :D

Hey all I usually fly the KA-50. There's a fantastic "how to take off and blow stuff up" mission with an accompanying PDF that gives you all the basic key/switch commands you need to be able to learn how to take off and blow stuff up - it only includes the very basics, which is actually very helpful. Just wondering, and apologies because I think I've asked this before, but is there a similar mission/guide for the A-10? Whilst I know how to take off and blow stuff up in the KA-50 and can go back to it at any time and do so successfully, every time I go to fly the A-10 I can get airborne, that part is easy, but I get befuddled by all the keys/switches that need to be pressed to use the weapons and I just want to know what I need to know for firing the gun, bombs and missiles - surely the A-10's weapon systems are not more complicated to use than the KA-50's? Thanks in advance.

Hey all I use a Saitek X-52 Pro. Long story short I live in a box room and don't have room for a proper chair, stick, throttle, rudder pedals setup (I game from my bed with my TV's on a monitor stand on my bedside drawers). I mainly fly the Huey, and one thing that has always bugged me is I can't achieve fine control with my rudder axis (the twist axis). I've never really found a good concise 1d10t proof in layman's terms guide for making axis "optimal" in their response. And I guess this applies to all axis really but how do I make my rudder axis so that I can put in small movements without a jerk on the in-game rudder and smooth movement in small increments all along the axis so that I can more easily control the rudder axis? TIA