Option to disable track recording

[RAF_Raven]

It would be nice to have the option to disable track recording, for performance, and so I don't have to delete 1GB+ of tracks each week.

[Johnny_Rico]

+1 this would be nice

[MegOhm_SD]

Begs the question: just what is the performance hit, if any, with this running in the background?

 

I like the idea of being able to switch it off since I forget about it (i.e. Folder full of track files). I never use it anyway.

 

It is broken anyway, is it not?

 

Anyone know if we can edit a file and disable it?

 

Sure an on/off check box would be good if were that simple.

Edited September 11, 2017 by MegOhm_SD

[shonist]

maybe a couple of kb/s or less of disk writting. if u dont care about the track you should be able to unable it. +1

[philstyle]

+1

[Worrazen]

It would also be useful for performance or workaround testing, like the weird camera mouse movement bug I had on Win7, switched DCS to a fresh install of Win10 and I don't get the problem there so I'll keep playing it on there even if it's a slower HDD, works much better overall. +1

 

EDIT: I actually suggested this like 2 months ago and made a thread on russian forums, glad it picked up steam now.

 

The internal tests might be showing not much improvement with the tracking disabled, that's why the option maybe wasn't necessary, it wasn't my point to prove that false or wrong or anything like that, but it could help to test if maybe it does have an impact with other people's environments who do have other problems that aren't found in the internal test facility.

 

I'm not even saying the tracking is problematic, disabling it might be a kind of a workaround for other bugs, that's my hope, it may come handy in some situations.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Worrazen

[Pedro1606688246]

If it will give me even 1 fps gain, give us an option to disable it then :)

+1

[Devrim]

+1 form me too, but not for performance thing.

 

I don't frequently want to delete megabytes or gigabytes that I didn't mostly use from my SSD.

[rogonaut]

+1

[Winston 60]

+1 For all reasons above especially SSD issues in the long haul.

[grunf]

+1

[Precog]

It would be nice to have the option to disable track recording, for performance, and so I don't have to delete 1GB+ of tracks each week.

 

What tracks? And where are these stored? I haven't noticed my SSD filling up.

[RAF_Raven]

What tracks? And where are these stored? I haven't noticed my SSD filling up.

 

1.5 C:\Users\Your Name\Saved Games\DCS\Tracks

 

2.0 C:\Users\Your Name\Saved Games\DCS.openalpha\Tracks

[Svend_Dellepude]

Begs the question: just what is the performance hit, if any, with this running in the background?

 

This!

[Fri13]

Begs the question: just what is the performance hit, if any, with this running in the background?

 

Simply letting player to choose to save the last mission record if wanted. It could be added with option to be set in three settings:

 

• Current, record everything and store everything.
  
• Option 1, record everything but store track temporarily as last track (gets overwritten) in case of crash or if wanted to save it after flight.
  
• Option 2, Ask in begin to start track record, save only that one but otherwise don't record track.
  

 

It would overall to be nice to know what kind a calculations/processing is the DCS doing, why it can't benefit from a multi-threading.

 

Meaning that we are literally wasting 1/4-1/10 (or even more!) of our processing capability!

 

Would there be benefits about having something like track recording in a own dedicated thread (if the thread load is low, it can be swapped often with other low-load threads) so it can be assigned for a own core if wanted.

 

Something with the track recording can be really heavy for CPU when it comes to requirement to record it in specific time and often, and then have many of such that then just start to cause syncing problems with more heavier calculations.

We already know that including active units (doing nothing) on map just makes heavier CPU requirements. Yet we want to record every action those do in a track.

 

Even if a small tiny file, something has needed to be there calculate and check all the units in the whole map and output it to track file.

Meaning, every single calculation from aircraft functions (break fluids to physics etc) should be there in some manner, even if simplified.

 

As we already as well know that scripting the AI units so that once a player comes close enough, only then they get activated and then deactivated when going far enough. This just so the CPU cycles can be saved (like the last campaign upgrade to some WW2 aircraft).

 

Is there information about the load percentage of the world vs player aircraft [flight and mechanic physics, aircraft cockpit functions and logic, aircraft simulated software functions] and what happens when multiple players or multiple AI is added etc?

Edited September 14, 2017 by Fri13

[Frederf]

I tried to deny write access to the folder. Program wrote to it anyway.

[redtail]

I propose a toggle switch in the cockpit of each aircraft that the pilot could switch on and off as desired. Preferably one that's already modeled but it's real world function is not simulated in DCS. That way, we would be able to record only the parts of a mission that we so desired, rather than the whole thing.

 

Such as when practicing...Takeoffs, Landings, Instrument approaches, gun runs, bombing runs, dogfights, etc.

Edited September 16, 2017 by redtail

[Gryzor]

+1;

 

In Lock On Modern Air Combat (2004) you could decide when start recording by pressing a key, I remember that decrease performance (some stuttering) when tracks were recorded

[Dingo_Bob]

from what i can make out (but this maybe old legacy parts of the build that are no longer used so try at your own risk)

the tracks are somewhat controlled by the ModelTimer.lua located here --

 

c:\DCS World\Config\ModelTimer\ModelTimer.lua

you can fiddle around with the ture, flase and other values you can possibly disable what gets recorded by the tracks

 

and in

c:\DCS World\MissionEditor\MissionEditor.lua

you could comment out (add -- in front of each line) or remove the lines that refer to or tell DCS to create a track history temp file and final track file (Lines 82 & 83 and 791 to 822)

 

 

Make backups before changing anything though and repair is your friend for any unwanted issues :D

Edited September 19, 2017 by Dingo_Bob

[Worrazen]

I tried to deny write access to the folder. Program wrote to it anyway.

 

I tried all kinds of things a while back, nothing worked.

 

I think I did try out some lua thing, but I think I didn't finish that, or didn't found anything, so there might be a way that I don't know of. I stopped researching once I tested a fresh Win10 with fresh DCS install that worked really good, now I play only on Win10.

Edited September 19, 2017 by Worrazen

[SharkBaztard]

I propose a toggle switch in the cockpit of each aircraft that the pilot could switch on and off as desired. Preferably one that's already modeled but it's real world function is not simulated in DCS. That way, we would be able to record only the parts of a mission that we so desired, rather than the whole thing.

 

Such as when practicing...Takeoffs, Landings, Instrument approaches, gun runs, bombing runs, dogfights, etc.

 

 

The a10c already has a record switch! Just need to get this set up for tracks lol

 

 

 

 

You guys are talking only for MP right? Mine doesn't save SP tracks.

[discwalker]

+1

i have a small SSD, not enough space for multiplayer tracks

(SharkBaztard: now there is a temporary recording for SP also)

[jonsky7]

Wasn't sure if anyone was aware of this (or if a thread had been started) but it is now possible to stop DCS from recording trackfiles in multiplayer :)

 

Simply add disable_write_track = true to your autoexec.cfg in Users\<name>\Saved Games\DCS\Config on either your machine or server if you're the host (you may have to create the file if you don't have one already)

 

 

P.S a .trk file will still be generated in your Users\<name>\Saved Games\DCS\Tracks\Multiplayer folder but it will only be the mission contents and nothing more, notice the filesize of the .trk does not grow in size.

See https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=208832

Edited June 24, 2018 by jonsky7

[cichlidfan]

They really need to make track recording, for MP, optional since tracks are a waste with the current system.

[Nealius]

This needs to be specified as MP, since in SP you do indeed have the option to save or not save a track.