danidr

Hello, I had success installing (and running) DCS on a maxed-out MacBook Pro M2 on Parallels, albeit with some nasty artefacts in the clouds and overall lighting, but with FPS ranging from 15 (on the SC deck with the Hornet SC qualifications quick mission) to 50 on high graphics settings and 1440p. I'll mess with the settings, maybe SSLR and DDAO, to see if the artefacts disappear. The x64 platform error only comes up when installing the DCS updater; once you get through that step, it never appears again. I resolved it by installing it via Crossover first, then copying the files in the Parallels VM. From there, in the "bin" folder, you have the DCS_Updater.exe you can launch. I'm impressed I'm getting decent performance through what are basically two virtualization layers and with unoptimized GPU drivers; who knows if, since Microsoft now officially supports Parallels as an alternative on Macs, we'll get proper drivers and better performance. I mean, once DCS moves to Vulkan, maybe it could run on Crossover with almost-native performance, and the latest integrated Apple GPUs are basically 3080s level... This gives me hope, until I can find the courage ( = money, MacBook is mainly for work) to build a proper gaming rig, to scratch the itch of aviation milsim. Screenshots attached - launching from carrier, and graphics settings (was running at 18 FPS in this specific screenshot).

True, but that would mean having two different types of assets on the map: WWII buildings and Modern era buildings. Not to mention necessarily different roads and borders... Also, considering how densely populated Italy is (and how many custom buildings you'd need), this would most likely be a huge challenge for the current engine. This is THE map I would love and buy in a heartbeat, especially considering the Typhoon under development from TrueGrit Technologies, but I don't see it realistically happening any time soon. :cry:

Wait, did 2020 exist? Daniel

To be honest, I’m not sad at all about this. Your module deserves access to the SDKs, and I will gladly pay for this level of quality. Wish you the best with this project, and I’m glad IndiaFoxtEcho will help you guys!! His work is amazing as well. Daniel

A much-needed guide, going through it right now. Thanks guys, you rock!

And don't get me started about all the times the AI was able to get a headshot with guns on me...

Don’t worry! That was a test I had to do myself anyway [emoji4] le’ts hope ED is gonna have a look at it. Daniel

Quick update – disabled full screen under settings, and micro-stuttering seems reduced by much. Getting good FPS overall, with some random stuttering once every few minutes, but with my rig I can't ask for anything better. Performance on SuperCarrier is still subpar (under 30 FPS, even though it's fluid, vs. 45-60 anywhere else), but that's another story.

Very weird indeed; it’s pretty much my situation. My bigger stutters were definitely due to thermal throttling (NOT identified by ThrottleStop - is that even possible?) but I also get those micro-stutters and random, heavier stutters once in a while, even if luckily not every 10 seconds. So do you feel that disabling “full screen” in the settings helps reducing micro-stuttering? One tip I can give is to try and disable the Turbo Boost on your CPU, it seems like DCS will max out at least one core when given the chance, triggering the Turbo Boost and making everything hotter. Disabling it should level everything out, even though it doesn’t like it’s your problem by seeing your graphs. But it’s worth giving it a try. Daniel

A healthy GPU usage would be always at full 100%, because that’s where you get your FPS from visually (unless you have capped your frame rate). If it stutters and doesn’t go to full 100%, it means something else is choking the system, most likely CPU usage. Sorry if I’m telling you something you know already, just covering all the basics. Can you share your CPU graph, maybe with a per-core detail? (There’s an option to see those details on the bottom of the task manager, something about performance). P.S. that thread you linked seems to suggest that, on 2.5.6, performance is better when going borderless window vs. full screen. Will try it this weekend and see if it improves anything. Daniel

That’s so cool! Speaks volumes about the quality of your module. Thanks for releasing it for free! Continuate con l’eccellente lavoro, è un piacere volare con il vostro modulo [emoji6] Daniel

Thanks! I’ll try it. I set it about halfway because I heard that, once in the air, it shouldn’t be rendered anymore beyond a certain radius. But I’ll play with the setting and see what it gives. Yes, 32GB is the optimal amount nowadays with DCS. It’s a good investment overall, even when Vulkan/true multithread comes out in the next months (years?), RAM will always be needed. Happy flying! Daniel

Little update after a 1-hour session today. This time I turned up the thermal pad under the laptop to its full power, and it made enough difference to keep a steady 60fps, without changing any graphic settings. So, yes, it was mostly throttling, probably some low-level protection in the motherboard. I’d say that whoever has heavy stutters should check how their CPU behaves under a typical workload in DCS. I still experience micro-stutters even if the FPS count is almost always at 60, but I guess this is due to the VRAM being full and needing paging, as Squirrelmaster mentioned; I can live with it though. @Robsongois: I’d suggest you to check the CPU graph as I mention above, but keep in mind that my setup is so unusual that I may find bottlenecks in places where normal DCS users wouldn’t. I’ll post my graphics settings for reference. I’ll turn up heat blur to low for the next session and see how it behaves. Daniel

Hello Squirrelmeister, Thanks for your suggestions! Once I start it up under BootCamp I’ll check my graphic settings and post them here. I didn’t think about VRAM because on 2.5.5 even passing the VRAM amount didn’t bring so much stutter, paging was rather quick. What worries me are those CPU spikes, that seem to be the biggest culprit, and I have no idea what may cause it. I actually made a mistake yesterday and the pad wasn’t cooling as it should have, I will try tonight with higher fan settings, it might be some internal BIOS/UEFI throttling that isn’t seen by the OS. If that doesn’t work, I’ll definitely try and lower those settings that are heavy on VRAM. Daniel

Hello everyone, I have updated to the latest 2.5.6 stable on Friday, and I must say that it performs better overall than the old 2.5.5. When playing on the F-18 Case I mission on SC today, though, I started noticing that, close to the carrier, I was getting heavy stutters every 4-5 seconds, about 5 minutes into the mission. Thinking it was a bug/poor optimization in SC, I decided to leave it be for the meanwhile, and set up a quick 2 vs 2 BFM mission in Nevada from cold and dark. Here as well, 5-10 minutes in, I start getting these awful stutters, with no specific events happening (usually still starting up or taxiing). And here is what I see on the Task Manager: With cores acting up like this: I know what you are about to say: throttling. Funny thing is, both ThrottleStop and Intel XTU say that no throttling happened, and temperatures were around 75°C. Still, the frequency of the CPU loading and unloading make me think something, somewhere, is throttling my system. Now, about my computer: it’s definitely not a gaming one. MacBook Pro 15” 2018, i9 2.3 boostable to 4.8 GHz, AMD Vega 20 with 4 GB, 32GB RAM, running BootCamp on an SSD, thermal pad mod (helps reduce temperatures further), cooling pad. But the system could handle constant 60 FPS (capped) on 2.5.5, and it can even on 2.5.6, before this “throttling” occurs. Things I have tried: Pagefile at 32GB on SSD, disabled Turbo Boost, disabled HyperThreading, set affinity on physical cores only (and vice versa), antialiasing from video card driver (not DCS), disabled intelppm.sys, disabled track file and hotplug from autoexec.cfg, fans set to max speed, alt+enter, high performance mode on windows, disabled game mode, made sure CPU Min and Max is at 100% under power settings. I can’t understand if it’s a problem with DCS or my setup specifically, but considering that I can run for several minutes @60 FPS, with no CPU capping, and constant temperature, it makes me think about a DCS leak somewhere. Any suggestions? Thanks. Daniel