Stutter introduced with OB Update 9?

[BitMaster]

Asus Aura is a nightmare.

 

It's about the fiftyth version they have released now....sigh.

 

Honestly, deinstall and forget about it. That's LED at it's best, not only useless but also hindering.

[Headwarp]

Disable SMT is ghosted out on mine? Odd...

 

IF "select CPU affinity" works under the same options you can specify which cores you want for dcs and can achieve the same results by unchecking all of the odd numbered cores, although, it may take a restart of DCS for Process Lasso to apply them. Might be some bugs to work out in the latest versions, as when the option "Single Threaded Performance mode" was in that list, things seemed a little simpler. Oddly enough, there are commands that could be added to the autoexec.cfg in the saved games/dcs world/config/ folder that could set a fixed cpu affinity when you run dcs.exe but it's a bit more complicated. You could find a thread about it likely if you dig hard enough.

 

I'll have to disable aura myself and see if I notice any difference but the only real time I caught it hogging CPU cycles is when I was letting it run its default rainbow cycle after a fresh install. That immediately went away when I applied a single color pulsing pattern.

 

I think the bigger issue with asus drivers and software is that sometimes conflicts occur when you simply try to update a driver or software rather than first uninstalling the old package.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Headwarp

[Hammer1-1]

I'll have to disable aura myself and see if I notice any difference but the only real time I caught it hogging CPU cycles is when I was letting it run its default rainbow cycle after a fresh install. That immediately went away when I applied a single color pulsing pattern.

Ive noticed that it doesnt hog CPU cycles, it forces DCS to hog CPU cycles. It runs at 5-10% cpu. With this disabled DCS runs at 25% give or take. With Aura on, DCS runs at 75%. Either its the latest version of Aura, or its the latest DCS build.

[DflippinK]

Its all about affinity... desaturate that primary core... spread it out... even if it means inducing thread hopping.. contrary to popular belief,... it will run better than saturating that one core that it does by default.. Process Lasso can work well at times... but i have found that deselecting all cores in task manager and then selecting 3 three consecutive cores will evenly divide the load across the 3.. then re-enabling all cores will yield 4 cores running at half the saturation of the default 2... works very nicely and handles heavy battlefields well... hopefully sooner than later DCS will get properly scheduled to more cores.. but for now, just force it.

[Headwarp]

Ive noticed that it doesnt hog CPU cycles, it forces DCS to hog CPU cycles. It runs at 5-10% cpu. With this disabled DCS runs at 25% give or take. With Aura on, DCS runs at 75%. Either its the latest version of Aura, or its the latest DCS build.

 

This is my lightingservice exe usage at idle (screen snip below) , but I'm still using the previous version 1.06.95, and haven't updated to the version released on 10/25. On the support page for the maximus x hero there are some instructions that might have been critical to follow when installing the latest version if you're using 1.07.22, which could very well be bugged.. but copy and pasted from the download link:

 

Please follow the process below for installation, thank you

- Right click on Setup icon, run as administrator (this will remove old versions and all of their cache data)

- Reboot

- Right click on Setup icon, run as administrator (this will install 1.07.22)

- Reboot

- Right click on desktop Aura icon, run as administrator (this will open Aura)

- If devices are missing from Aura UI, hit the refresh icon

 

I'd change the color pattern to something other to default if it was still more than 0.1% cpu usage. Not trying to insult your intelligence or anything, just know from experience asus driver/software installation packages can be finicky. Often when a driver package comes in a zip file from asus, if I don't first "Unblock" the zip file before extracting, a driver or software installation might be corrupted. Be sure and click "Apply" after checking "Unblock" circled in the screen snip below.

 

 

but this is what your cpu usage from lighting service should look like - 5-10% cpu usage from any rgb lighting software is my definition of "hogging cpu cycles", or any idle background process for that matter. If you have any rgb components that don't use aura i'd also make sure they were up to date as there have been reported conflicts in the past. I mean...if you care about your case candy that is. You might not which is ok.

 

Click to make it readable.. task manager was arranged Memory/CPU/Disk/network. lightingservice (32-bit) 0.1% cpu usage

 

And i snipped this one from process lasso.. ignore that at the same time I decided to experiment with only letting it have that .03% from logical cores.

 

 

On another note - Stumbled upon more confusion with features within Process Lasso like "ProBalance".. for some reason this feature was applying restraints to games with negative effects to performance. I can't say it's worth it to use this feature or not if things are running like they should.

 

Rather than start fiddling with too many settings I found the best results by Clicking Options>Performance Mode>Designate High Performance processes and just adding game executables to the list, in conjunction with whatever cpu affinity I desire for a given program if not all 12 threads.

 

 

Admittedly, I feel like PLasso was easier to use in previous versions but I still find it very useful. I wouldn't want to recommend it without offering experiences like that, otherwise sorry for the wall of text.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Headwarp

[Hammer1-1]

This is my lightingservice exe usage at idle (screen snip below) , but I'm still using the previous version 1.06.95, and haven't updated to the version released on 10/25. On the support page for the maximus x hero there are some instructions that might have been critical to follow when installing the latest version if you're using 1.07.22, which could very well be bugged.. but copy and pasted from the download link:

 

I think maybe you are misunderstanding. You could be right, and Aura can be running at .01%. Its directly causing DCS to run at 75% or greater, causing the GPU and CPU to max out at 100%. It is literally interfering with how DCS loads into its process, and I noticed this only after the last DCS build went beta. It doesnt do this in GTA5, Prepar3d, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, Crysis 1-3 you name it. That is what I have narrowed it down to. Right now with Aura uninstalled, my frames are 60+ without stutter in heavy missions, and I dont even use process lasso. No use for it. Want to give that a shot instead? Just load DCS up with Aura installed and running. Tell me Im wrong and Ill eat the fat cake.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Hammer1-1

[Headwarp]

I think maybe you are misunderstanding. You could be right, and Aura can be running at .01%. Its directly causing DCS to run at 75% or greater, causing the GPU and CPU to max out at 100%. It is literally interfering with how DCS loads into its process, and I noticed this only after the last DCS build went beta. It doesnt do this in GTA5, Prepar3d, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, Crysis 1-3 you name it. That is what I have narrowed it down to. Right now with Aura uninstalled, my frames are 60+ without stutter in heavy missions, and I dont even use process lasso. No use for it. Want to give that a shot instead? Just load DCS up with Aura installed and running. Tell me Im wrong and Ill eat the fat cake.

 

Hey man you said it was taking 5-10% CPU. That would be a red flag to me that either the version of aura is broken or there was an issue with installation. I run DCS with aura all the time. Instead...let me try without and see if I notice a difference.

 

And my comments about process lasso are for everyone else, because it's a piece of software recommended often in these forums and I'm on board with it, it's helped me in the past.. It makes control of certain features of window easier to manage. There are plenty of people complaining of stutters on these forums who have no RGB lighting at all in their builds, some have suggested disabling hyper threading and I have seen DCS put load on logical cores. PLasso lets me deal with that without disabling hyperthreading, and having mentioned in this thread as others have that it can be useful, at least half of that post was simply offering insight in how to avoid the program applying features that are new to me to your games, and not in response to you directly, I apologize for any misunderstanding there.

 

*edit* I closed lightingservice.exe, ran dcs - cpu usage was about 13-18%. I ran Aura which reran lightingservice.exe, cpu usage remained about 13-18%. I restarted DCS and flew the same mission. 13%-18%. I closed lightingservice.exe mid flight.. 13-18%. Keeping in mind I was using Afterburner, which simply reports all cpu usage, not the usage of any one particular program. Since I limit DCS to 6 physical cores you could see 30-50% usage on any one of them to amount to the 13-18% total usage. At the same time it's hard to compare CPU usage, when I'm using a different display setup and GPU, where playing on my monitor vs my VR headset offer completely different results and resolution, v-sync, g-sync, refresh rates and how much fps I maintain comes into play, dx11 titles where I'm right on the edge of a CPU bottleneck, and other dx11 titles where I never see more than 70-80% usage on a single core. Dx12 titles that want everything my system has to give and again others where I'm all GPU. Not something aura seems to have anything to do with in my case.

 

I've now updated to 1.07.22, unblocked the zip, ran "asussetup.exe" as admin, rebooted, ran asussetup.exe again as admin, rebooted, ran aura as admin and seeing no difference in behavior, with lightingservice.exe running or not running.

 

Unblocking zip files downloaded to at least the C: drive if not other drives on the system is a windows 10 thing. Asus delivers all of their drivers and software packages in zip form, and I have had to reinstall drivers or software on more than one occasion because I forgot to unblock a zip, or, didn't follow advice given like the instructions I pulled directly from the latest aura download on the support page from my board, which when not present there is generally found in the ROG forums.

 

I'm not trying to make you eat the fat cake bro. Just going based off what you said, 5-10% cpu usage from lightingservice.exe indicates a problem to me with the installation of aura. If it's for any of the reasons mentioned above, I'd also double check my system driver installtions.

 

I could use an example of a time I didn't realize my 2500k in my previous build was overheating and throttling due to a neglected and dirty heatsink, and how such and such game and this other game run fine, but refunded another game because it ran poorly despite my system being above spec. Ended up buying the game back and having fun with it after replacing that heatsink. Even got a few more years out of that rig by OC'ing it. You have a beastly rig, and DCS might respond more dramatically to a faulty program using more cpu than it should than other titles. Issues like that don't always make themselves apparent in every peice of software. And hey, I don't blame you if you'd rather just live without case candy. I'm just sharing my experiences in dealing with asus software and I'm kind of OCD about ensuring my rig is functioning correctly, i.e. I paid for shiney things. I've taken steps to ensure they work with out conflict. Hope my experience offers some insight, nothing more.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Headwarp

[Hammer1-1]

Hey man you said it was taking 5-10% CPU. That would be a red flag to me that either the version of aura is broken or there was an issue with installation. I run DCS with aura all the time. Instead...let me try without and see if I notice a difference.

 

And my comments about process lasso are for everyone else, because it's a piece of software recommended often in these forums and I'm on board with it, it's helped me in the past.. It makes control of certain features of window easier to manage. There are plenty of people complaining of stutters on these forums who have no RGB lighting at all in their builds, some have suggested disabling hyper threading and I have seen DCS put load on logical cores. PLasso lets me deal with that without disabling hyperthreading, and having mentioned in this thread as others have that it can be useful, at least half of that post was simply offering insight in how to avoid the program applying features that are new to me to your games, and not in response to you directly, I apologize for any misunderstanding there.

 

*edit* I closed lightingservice.exe, ran dcs - cpu usage was about 13-18%. I ran Aura which reran lightingservice.exe, cpu usage remained about 13-18%. I restarted DCS and flew the same mission. 13%-18%. I closed lightingservice.exe mid flight.. 13-18%. Keeping in mind I was using Afterburner, which simply reports all cpu usage, not the usage of any one particular program. Since I limit DCS to 6 physical cores you could see 30-50% usage on any one of them to amount to the 13-18% total usage. At the same time it's hard to compare CPU usage, when I'm using a different display setup and GPU, where playing on my monitor vs my VR headset offer completely different results and resolution, v-sync, g-sync, refresh rates and how much fps I maintain comes into play, dx11 titles where I'm right on the edge of a CPU bottleneck, and other dx11 titles where I never see more than 70-80% usage on a single core. Dx12 titles that want everything my system has to give and again others where I'm all GPU. Not something aura seems to have anything to do with in my case.

 

I've now updated to 1.07.22, unblocked the zip, ran "asussetup.exe" as admin, rebooted, ran asussetup.exe again as admin, rebooted, ran aura as admin and seeing no difference in behavior, with lightingservice.exe running or not running.

 

Unblocking zip files downloaded to at least the C: drive if not other drives on the system is a windows 10 thing. Asus delivers all of their drivers and software packages in zip form, and I have had to reinstall drivers or software on more than one occasion because I forgot to unblock a zip, or, didn't follow advice given like the instructions I pulled directly from the latest aura download on the support page from my board, which when not present there is generally found in the ROG forums.

 

I'm not trying to make you eat the fat cake bro. Just going based off what you said, 5-10% cpu usage from lightingservice.exe indicates a problem to me with the installation of aura. If it's for any of the reasons mentioned above, I'd also double check my system driver installtions.

 

I could use an example of a time I didn't realize my 2500k in my previous build was overheating and throttling due to a neglected and dirty heatsink, and how such and such game and this other game run fine, but refunded another game because it ran poorly despite my system being above spec. Ended up buying the game back and having fun with it after replacing that heatsink. Even got a few more years out of that rig by OC'ing it. You have a beastly rig, and DCS might respond more dramatically to a faulty program using more cpu than it should than other titles. Issues like that don't always make themselves apparent in every peice of software. And hey, I don't blame you if you'd rather just live without case candy. I'm just sharing my experiences in dealing with asus software and I'm kind of OCD about ensuring my rig is functioning correctly, i.e. I paid for shiney things. I've taken steps to ensure they work with out conflict. Hope my experience offers some insight, nothing more.

Ive seen it run 5-10% with DCS running. Ive seen it run .1% without DCS running. Something is amiss. Ill test it later like you mentioned, I dont expect any differences. Dont take this as a slight at you, but just understand that I know what Im seeing. This IS a brand new rig; I built it personally not even 2 months ago. Its definitely conflicting somewhere, and it has/had something to do with the latest DCS update. I cant exactly pinpoint what is happening because Im not a software engineer. I merely saw DCS running at max CPU/GPU cycles after the last update. Took me a week to figure that Aura was running at 5-10% alongside DCS after lowering my overclock to almost stock speed and not seeing a difference. Anywho, I can do without the fancy lighting stuff that I have installed, it just keeps me up at night while I watch Rick and Morty.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Hammer1-1

[Headwarp]

Ive seen it run 5-10% with DCS running. Ive seen it run .1% without DCS running. Something is amiss. Ill test it later like you mentioned, I dont expect any differences. Dont take this as a slight at you, but just understand that I know what Im seeing. This IS a brand new rig; I built it personally not even 2 months ago. Its definitely conflicting somewhere, and it has/had something to do with the latest DCS update. I cant exactly pinpoint what is happening because Im not a software engineer. I merely saw DCS running at max CPU/GPU cycles after the last update. Took me a week to figure that Aura was running at 5-10% alongside DCS after lowering my overclock to almost stock speed and not seeing a difference. Anywho, I can do without the fancy lighting stuff that I have installed, it just keeps me up at night while I watch Rick and Morty.

 

No qualms man. I'm not saying you aren't seeing issues. :) Just sharing my best guesses at how to fix it should you have the desire. It's really the only negative I have for asus when it comes to motherboards is that their software can be very particular about the installation process. I only know what I know about it from running into issues myself and having to fix them.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Headwarp

[Hammer1-1]

Well I just tested this and it looks like you are correct. Ill test more later on after work tomorrow, but installing it like you suggested actually produced some positive results. Im surprised....

Scatch that, I cant even reproduce it now. It looks like that fixed it permanently (or until a later version comes out).

Edited November 28, 2018 by Hammer1-1

[Headwarp]

Well I just tested this and it looks like you are correct. Ill test more later on after work tomorrow, but installing it like you suggested actually produced some positive results. Im surprised....

Scatch that, I cant even reproduce it now. It looks like that fixed it permanently (or until a later version comes out).

 

:thumbup:

[Hammer1-1]

Hows that 2080Ti working for you in DCS anyways?

[BitMaster]

Tho I thought I did it exactly that way as described above last time I upgraded Aura I did it once more, deinstalled/reinstalled/opened Aura all with "Run as Administrator".

 

The outcome is, it still uses 2 - 2.5% CPU of a 12 Thread machine, which is pure nonsense and rubbish. 2% is a visible notch in Task manager, you can visually see Aura working, what a joke.

 

To compare, I opened HWinfo64 that reads out even more info from the system and that stays way below 1%, all the time, it's 0.1 - 0.2 % to be precise !!!

 

I will later tonight set my LED in Bios or turn them all off and deinstall Aura 51

[Hammer1-1]

Theres this box you have to tick in order to get it right, Bitmaster. Its unblock, and you see it on the general tab. After you unblock it, that tick box disappears forever until you redownload it. I have never seen that tickbox before...not in Windows 7, 8, XP, Vista...or up until now either. Its new to me.

[BitMaster]

Theres this box you have to tick in order to get it right, Bitmaster. Its unblock, and you see it on the general tab. After you unblock it, that tick box disappears forever until you redownload it. I have never seen that tickbox before...not in Windows 7, 8, XP, Vista...or up until now either. Its new to me.

 

I forgot to mention, I also did "uncheck" that box in file details. Still, CPU is way too high

[Headwarp]

I forgot to mention, I also did "uncheck" that box in file details. Still, CPU is way too high

 

I'm a little confused. You want "Unblock" to be checked in the zip file properties and click apply before you extract it. Once done the "Unblock" option will disappear. Neglecting to do so might cause certain files within the zip to not be extracted. That goes for any zip afaik and may only apply to maybe .dll files contained within zip files. I am not certain which files it blocks without first unblocking however. This could still apply when using winzip or 7zip afaik, but I personally have just been copy and pasting from the default windows zip folder method to a new folder I've manually created for the task.

 

Replace my Beatbuddy zip file with your aura zip file

 

 

Check Unblock

 

 

Click Apply

 

 

Then extract all files and run asussetup.exe as admin, reboot, repeat if this was over a previous aura install, if not run aura as admin, choose pattern, close aura, shouldn't have to run it again until a future update unless you want to change patterns.

 

I've found this step to be a "Must do" for all asus drivers/software since they all come in zip files. If I'm misunderstanding and that was done then I'd suspect a conflict with perhaps other software, especially that might control LEDs. Chroma, logitech gaming software. I know older versions of corsair link or icue (cuz i have a h100i, which I aim to eventually get all corsair stuff out of my rig just to lessen the amount of background software running) have caused issue with aura in the past, and usually is fixed with patches/updates. But as stated to PingPong, no harm done if you're fine without your shineys.

 

Also - just stating again that behavior MAY change between aura's default lighting pattern and selecting one for yourself. Was not the case with my current install of Aura, however, in the past I have definitely had questionable CPU usage upon installtion of aura until I selected my own pattern. At this point I'm repeating myself and apologize for that. Just a measure of double checking, nothing to do with my thoughts about anyone personally. IME if lightingservice.exe is showing more than 0.1% cpu in task manager something somewhere can be fixed. YMMV. I know Bit's a tech savvy guy. I'm most likely responding to a typo :)

 

Regardless, lol, if anybody's experiencing stutters not caused by RGB software I think there are probably more recent threads that weren't taken over by asus motherboard owners. And I'll leave this one be.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Headwarp

[Neil Gardner]

Please stop worrying about your hardware configuration it really isn't anything to do with that. At least I really don't think so. after my last re-install and everything was back to smooth, I only loaded about half my modules. I've now loaded the other half and BUM!! stutters are back. I'm going to eliminate one at a time but it seems like it might be one of the models that is the problem.

[BitMaster]

Regarding Corsair Software...my findings are about the same as for Asus Aura.

 

The "i" devices from Corsair are not worth the money because it always drags in some bad stuff too. I have deinstalled Corsair and disconnected the USB plug internally.

 

No Asus Aura and no Corsair stuff anymore for me until they fix them properly, which I sincerely doubt.

[Neil Gardner]

There we go, happened again. In my last mail I said that the stutters were back. So, I steadily and carefully uninstalled everything until, at last things were smooth again. I have now reinstalled, again slowly and carefully and singularly. I suspect that most people chasing problems with hardware are 'barking up the wrong tree'. I have about as powerful a home PC that you can get (there are always more powerful machines somewhere but I'm speaking about what is true for the most part), and I've had really infuriating stutters. This is for the most part a software matter.

[Headwarp]

There we go, happened again. In my last mail I said that the stutters were back. So, I steadily and carefully uninstalled everything until, at last things were smooth again. I have now reinstalled, again slowly and carefully and singularly. I suspect that most people chasing problems with hardware are 'barking up the wrong tree'. I have about as powerful a home PC that you can get (there are always more powerful machines somewhere but I'm speaking about what is true for the most part), and I've had really infuriating stutters. This is for the most part a software matter.

 

Don't get hung up on the discussions between myself, pingpong, and Bitmaster. They were experiencing real issues with aura sync using too much cpu that I myself am not experiencing. Pingpong at least seems to have gotten himself sorted out and Bitmaster's solution of foregoing said software works too.

 

I'm finding that any stuttering I'm experiencing in the game seem to be stemming from the weather engine. Try a mission with heavy clouds, then try a mission with clear skies. For me the difference is night and day and indicates something within the game that could be fixed.

 

If even on clear skies you're experiencing stutters, first make sure dcs.exe is set to "prefer maximum performance" in nv control panel 3d settings, then I'd double check system and gpu drivers, or even try process lasso configure DCS to only run on physical cores.

 

Also running "dcs_updater.exe repair" or using the shortcut from the start menu after a patch should be all you need, rather than reinstalling everything in most cases.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Headwarp

[Neil Gardner]

Oh I see now. I just didn't want anyone to think that their rig is inadequate unnecessarily and go buying expensive upgrades. I've done that myself many times and it is an expensive mistake. Thanks for the pointers. I will try that if I get the same again.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Neil Gardner

[Hammer1-1]

The weather engine is outdated; at least the clouds anyways. The rain and haze are awesome now as-is, but how often do you see thunder showers and lightning on a partly cloudy day? And I dont recall seeing it lately, I dont fly through heavy clouds much...but they look like ripples instead of clouds when you fly through the upper layer. They should ditch the legacy stuff altogether, as some of the buildings and what-not have been in the simulator since Flanker 2.0. How many nuclear power plants are really needed in a 5 sq mile radius in the Caucasus map? How many POL tanks are needed in the Caucasus map? This simulator is both brand new and outdated at the same time.