BravoAlpha

You Sir really made my day, thank you very much!! Turning off HAGS really solved it, it now runs buttery smooth. This should be made a sticky in the FAQs concerning performance optimization. Why is it that every time Microsoft introduces game modes it in fact sabotages your setup... - phew, really am relieved that there's no bigger technical issue here.

So... I took a break from DCS due to RL stuff to take care off. Today I went back to setting up my rig, connected the 8KX to my PC, launched SteamVR and DCS. While still in the menus everything is smooth. Once I get into the plane I get a serious stutter when moving my head. PiTool and Firmware are updated to the latest versions, SteamVR as well (and drivers as well). Fiddled with Smart Smoothing alternating in PiTool and SteamVR - did not really improve. In addition there are short black frames (like missing frames). So, here's my heartfelt sigh since I'm now compelled to check every screw and bolt. The setup has not changed except Windows was upgraded to W11 . Anyone with a guess where to start here? I suspect that W11 has some hidden quirks to cause this. Thanks in advance!

Mate, I had also issues with lagging / stuttering / ghost-like images when turning my head and / or camera view, the overall performance was really bugging. If you run 2.7.1 revert to 2.7.0 if you can, it really solved by itself that way. Something in the latest beta built is not working as intended I'm afraid.

So, a quick update on my ongoing troubleshooting: I fiddled with a multitude of settings, inside and outside of DCS. So 2.7.1 was still showing the same symptoms i.e. freezing on second flights being loaded and the ominous stutter / ghost images when turning my head, all while motion smoothing was enabled with SteamVR (beta). The short cut: I reverted to 2.7.0 beta (selected via Steam/DCS World settings) and it all vanished. So something in this update seems to itch quite badly. It is within the DCS built and not related to W10 updates (for me), because 2.7.0 runs rocksolid and very smooth (even smoother now because the tweaking seemed to grease the gears a tad more...).

So, the following happened (or not, depends): I reinstalled DCS completely, also SteamVR (because that behaved edgy as well) and got the latest nVidia update (Game Ready). DCS runs marginally better. The first Quick Mission created is no issue, the mission generation briefly gives me a short freeze / CPU peak, then I can launch the flight. This also works normally and quick. I complete the flight, quit to menu and reselect the given quick mission. I generate it with the same airfield to start at, it will also allow that but loading the flight then freezes the game solid. I've sent the readouts via the crash reporter several times now, also with more or less the same explanation as above. Mind that this is without the 2H21 patch for W10 ! Also after restarting DCS I experienced the stutter / half-image issue when rotating the camera in F2-view or when turning the head in the cockpit. Very strange. To me it seems like some improper dump of the previous data set, some memory leak maybe since it only occurs after one flight is completed (which is most probably still cached). Hopefully this can be resolved easily until the Hind goes live. Not only because the constant restarts are a hassle, also the performance is deteriorated.

I experienced noticeable performance drop, stuttering in VR and repeated freezing while loading the flight (2 out of 3 missions Ioaded). Drivers and Windows Updates were current, system is normally perfectly smooth, also after the initial 2.7 OB update it was running stable and issue free. Running DCS on Steam, 64GB RAM, RTX 3090 with a Pimax 8KX. Whatever has been changed lately it should be rolled back as soon as feasible. Thanks to all who are concerned!

Same for me, in addition the water keeps flickering i.e. the lighting is changing at high frequency. Totally annoying, appeared with the new lighting update.