Game hangs and freezes from time to time

[Canuck Lad]

Hi,

 

I'm using a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 16 GB of low-latency RAM and a decently fast NVME M.2 hard drive.

 

Yet from time to time the game stalls, freezes, etc. Just momentarily, a second maybe, just enough to be annoying.

 

Do others notice this? Is the simulator known for it? I'm running no addons, just the basic SU-25T plane.

 

My graphics settings set set to max, 1920x1200 res (my monitor's native), and only have MSAA set to x2.

 

I've no issues in other games I play, and with my hardware I play games at max graphics settings and FPS with vsync on rarely drops below 60.

[draconus]

You might be hitting the ceiling with 16GB of RAM. Depends on the mission.

[Canuck Lad]

You might be hitting the ceiling with 16GB of RAM. Depends on the mission.

 

Free flight, no mission.

[BitMaster]

Maybe a moderator can move this thread to the HW section. We can surely help you but this is the wrong section and most HW Geeks wont look in here.

 

Bit

[BIGNEWY]

Moved to performance.

 

Can we see your dcs log, we may see some clues, my first guess would be pagefile set to low

 

you can find your dcs log in your saved games location

 

C:\Users\yourname\Saved Games\DCS\Logs

 

file called dcs, change it from .log to .txt and it will attach here on the forum.

 

thanks

[BitMaster]

A few things come to my mind that can cause this kind of pausing, yet it will recover and move on in most cases.

 

Open taskmanager and have it in "always on top" mode, start DCS and do some test flights. It could well be that you have a process in your list that kicks in now and then and blocks all others from being processed with full performance. Typical processes could be: Antivirus Updates getting installed ( usually several times a day ), Microsoft Store Updates ( run full autonomous ), Windows File History backups ( default is once per hour, depending on how much has changed and is being backup up..that could be it ), some other software that does sporadic things and blocks your PC.

For example, I have such an issue with my Intel system but it is a known bug for some system configs and I can only avoid it by running a 2year old Intel IRST driver, any newer and my system freezes for 2-5 seconds..and then just moves on, it wont BSOD or reboot, DCS wont kick me from MP, YT vids just go "brrrrrrrr"...and then it just goes on as if nothing ever happened. It took me MONTHS to find out what caused it and unfortunately Intel hasnt fixed the bug for my config/mix of HW I run. It can be very very tricky to find the culprit.

 

If you cant seem to find it, the best way is to start all over with a fresh install of 10 and MINIMAL drivers installed to run DCS. Keep it ultra sleek and clean and test DCS before and after you install new stuff. Once you encounter the PAUSE again, you can easily nail it down to the last few things you installed. That's how I got to the bottom of my problem and solved it for me.

Another thing that might be the culprit is even worse to find, it's a combination of software that does not like to run together on one and the same system. They may run, but not together. Sometimes it is enough to have both installed and you encounter errors, ie Nvidia GFexperience can likely prohibit sleepmode IF you have any kind of controller attached. In my case, my WH throttle and GFE hate each other. Took me also MONTHS to find that bug, also very well documented and known to MS and Nvidia, still no fix available. It does not haunt all installs with GFE and controlelrs, but some.

 

As you see, this is a tricky part of troubleshooting. You cant trigger it but have to wait for it to occur, that makes it very time consuming to get after it.

 

Work methodically, start clean as said above if needed, install 1 by 1 and test DCS in between and hope the error pops up.

 

One thing I'd do immediately is to deinstall ALL software you dont really need, clean & repair DCS ( SkateZilla's DCS Updater Tool is highly recommended ), update drivers, deinstall your AV ( not deactivate, I mean WIPE IT OFF the disk ).

 

And yes, set your PageFile to 32GB fixed size, just to eliminate that source.

 

Good Luck mate

[Canuck Lad]

If you cant seem to find it, the best way is to start all over with a fresh install of 10 and MINIMAL drivers installed to run DCS.

 

I'd like to try the sim reasonably, but there's not way in hell I'm doing a fresh Windows :)

 

I'll try the other tips though.

 

I'm quite disappointed with how the cockpit stretches and deforms when I look around and zoom out using the mouse, so who knows.

[Canuck Lad]

Can we see your dcs log, we may see some clues, my first guess would be pagefile set to low

 

Attached.

 

The pagefile is 16 GB.

 

I see errors in the file, this is a fresh (Steam) install, so missing files seems odd.

dcs.txt

Edited January 10, 2020 by Canuck Lad

[draconus]

The pagefile is 16 GB.

 

I see errors in the file, this is a fresh (Steam) install, so missing files seems odd.

You were told to set 30GB at least for pagefile.

These log errors are common to all users/installations.

I have 16GB RAM too, and have occasional pauses (like 3s once a game) on PG too, even on lower settings. But I know that RAM is full atm.

 

 

I'm quite disappointed with how the cockpit stretches and deforms when I look around and zoom out using the mouse, so who knows.

It's unrelated. Change your fov (zoom) accordingly - if it's too high it gets ugly - common effect for any 3d graphic scene.

[BIGNEWY]

Thanks for the log, I don't see anything that would point to a freeze.

 

go to C:\Users\Daddy\Saved Games\DCS\fxo

 

delete fxo and metashader2 folders and restart DCS and test in single player first, it will take longer the first time while shaders are loaded again.

 

let me know if you notice a difference.

 

thanks

[Sniper34]

Hi,

 

I'm using a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 16 GB of low-latency RAM and a decently fast NVME M.2 hard drive.

 

Yet from time to time the game stalls, freezes, etc. Just momentarily, a second maybe, just enough to be annoying.

 

Do others notice this? Is the simulator known for it? I'm running no addons, just the basic SU-25T plane.

 

My graphics settings set set to max, 1920x1200 res (my monitor's native), and only have MSAA set to x2.

 

I've no issues in other games I play, and with my hardware I play games at max graphics settings and FPS with vsync on rarely drops below 60.

 

Disabled "game mode" in windows setup and test