Question on Building for Efficiency/Performance

[SonofEil]

I’ve built a mission with quite a few red and blue “civilian” aircraft on different routes, mostly for the purpose of providing some radar clutter and uncertainty.

Is it better to let these non-players taxi to parking and sit all mission as ‘active’ units or trigger their deactivation to reduce unit count? I know high unit counts are still a big problem in DCS, but at the same time there is the potential for the dreaded trigger stutter whenever a unit blinks out of existence. Are there best practices for something like this that the veteran mission builders follow?

[feefifofum]

By "high unit counts" we're talking hundreds/thousands. Unless you're doing full map scale multiplayer you shouldn't really feel it either way.

[Sierra99]

Use MOOSE RAT script...you can have them appear and disappear as needed.

 

https://flightcontrol-master.github.io/MOOSE_DOCS/Documentation/index.html

[SonofEil]

By "high unit counts" we're talking hundreds/thousands. Unless you're doing full map scale multiplayer you shouldn't really feel it either way.

 

Ah that’s true, most of the problems occur in multiplayer. I’ll have to look again when I get home but last I checked I had 150-200 units. You’re saying I shouldn’t be anywhere close to requiring unit maintenance for performance?

 

Use MOOSE RAT script...you can have them appear and disappear as needed.

 

https://flightcontrol-master.github.io/MOOSE_DOCS/Documentation/index.html

 

Man, I just haven’t had any luck at all with scripts. I don’t have coding experience and I’ve been at a total loss with my meager attempts. Even the YouTube tutorials have left me scratching my head. : (

[feefifofum]

You should be good to go with only a couple hundred. The main thing you need to worry about with respect to stutters is loading a new model into the .miz that hasn't previously been there.

 

I.E. if no MiG-29s are present except a late-activated unit; when this unit is activated you'll see the trademark stutter as the model loads into the sim for the first time. You can circumvent this issue by placing a static object or uncontrolled group somewhere outside of the mission boundaries; this will load the model into memory at mission start and mitigate the stutter when other groups of the same type are activated. :thumbup:

[SonofEil]

Awesome, thanks! There are definitely significant stutters when new units activate, I’d never thought of starting with statics on the map to preload the model. I always assumed it was the trigger itself that caused the stutter. Excellent advice, thanks again!