Anyone else getting constant pauses every minute or so?

[Sholtz]

Hey all,

 

Not sure what happened here but I finally got DCS running really well but had to put it aside for a while. Not even sure when, probably had not touched t for about 6 months or so.

Coming back I let the game update and do its thing, nothing else major changed that I know of other than Windows patches and the like. I tend to keep my system as static as possible once I get everything tamed - and it was. Even after I upgraded my vid card to the 1660, had to adjust a few things but it was smooth as glass.

 

Now - No matter which module or map I choose, DCS is basically unplayable right now. Every 1 - 1 1/2 minutes everything just stops - for a fraction of a second but its very noticeable. Its especially fun when trying to take off or land. I tried everything I can think of:

 

- clean boot, made sure nothing else was running especially Anti virus/Anti Malware and background tasks.

 

- unplugged all USB devices, including TrackIR, sat around in a Huey on the ground and even just looking around I still have the pauses. Fps is at a steady 80-90 on the ground. Flying around it dips to about 40 or so but besides the pauses seems fine.

 

- Deleted the MetaShaders and fxo directories

 

- updated to latest Nvidia driver

 

- opened a case with ED, they had me completely remove the DCS folder from Saved Games so I had a fresh start. After reconfiuring everything (wish I had been warned about that )took a test flight in the Huey and there is no difference.

 

- tried just about every combination of screen resolution/settings I can think of. Odd thing is that FPS doesnt seem to be affected much, but nothing I do will get rid of this pause.

 

Other games run fine; IL2, Elite Dangerous. Subnautica, Fallout4, Doom 2016 etc all at pretty high settings - no other game I have exhibits this behaviour.

 

I could posts tech stats and whatnot but wanted to get an idea first if anybody else has experienced something like this? Or maybe some suggestions on what else to look at, I think ED is just as confused as I am so far.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Sholtz

[Sholtz]

After I posted this went and tried to configure another module, and in the controls screen everything just locked. Can still hear the music but nothing is responsive. Hit the stopwatch on my phone and waited for 20 minutes, finally ended up having to kill the process.

No crash log.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Sholtz

[Sharkh]

Are you using HDD for either for your windows or your DCS install?

 

These strange stops/freezes has happened for me before when one of my HDD in my system reached the end of its life cycle and started to reallocate huge chunk of datas automaticall at random times (in every few minute) to prevent data loss creating huge CPU load on the system. (I have been using PC for about thirty years and this was the first time I have seen this effect of a faulty HDD and its built in smart feature.)

 

 

So if you have HDDs in your system its worth to check their health stat with a diagnostic tool to rule out this possibility.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Sharkh

[Sholtz]

Are you using HDD for either for your windows or your DCS install?

 

These strange stops/freezes has happened for me before when one of my HDD in my system reached the end of its life cycle and started to reallocate huge chunk of datas automaticall at random times (in every few minute) to prevent data loss creating huge CPU load on the system. (I have been using PC for about thirty years and this was the first time I have seen this effect of a faulty HDD and its built in smart feature.)

 

 

So if you have HDDs in your system its worth to check their health stat with a diagnostic tool to rule out this possibility.

 

Hi, thats a good point - I have two SSDs. One has only Windows and its associated stuff on it, the other has my games. Also have a HDD that I keep more static things that dont need the performance boost of solid state but DCS has nothing to do with that one.

 

But its a good idea maybe? Even if the one HDD is not being used by DCS maybe something else is happening over there that I am missing...

[Lange_666]

Other games run fine; IL2, Elite Dangerous. Subnautica, Fallout4, Doom 2016 etc all at pretty high settings - no other game I have exhibits this behaviour.

If it would be the the HD or SSD then your other games would suffer too.

[Thax]

Do you have at least 32Gigs of RAM?

Can you see the activity of resources consumed in your task manager -> performance section and tell us what you see when these spikes happen?

[GunSlingerAUS]

I had the same thing happen a short while ago. I think enabling vsynch while limiting FPS via NVIDIA control panel may have fixed it for me. Or it may have been an online server issue... can’t quite recall!

[Sholtz]

Do you have at least 32Gigs of RAM?

Can you see the activity of resources consumed in your task manager -> performance section and tell us what you see when these spikes happen?

 

16GB. RAM has not been an issue so far that I have noticed and have taken a look at this very thing often and dont see anything jumping out at me in the processes. Besides, this is a fairly recent issue for me.

 

I had the same thing happen a short while ago. I think enabling vsynch while limiting FPS via NVIDIA control panel may have fixed it for me. Or it may have been an online server issue... can’t quite recall!

 

This sounds interesting, do you mean turn off vsync in game (it already is) and turn it on in the nvidia control panel?

[Sholtz]

Well Im still dead in the water here, support has no ideas either. Maybe the stable release addresses whatever this is:

 

"Fixed several hundred bugs, added dozens of new features, improved stability of the game and multiplayer, as well as many, many minor fixes and improvements."

[rinkerbuck]

Do you get a sound glitch or scratchy sound when the pauses happen? I was having an issue like that for the longest time, deleting fxo and metashaders would sometimes fix it, sometimes not. What finally seems to have fixed it permanently was doing a simple cleanup/repair. I also did pretty much every other suggestion I could find but the repair cleanup was the thing that seemed to finally fix it permanently. I also only have 16gb of RAM. DSC is on the same NVMe with my OS, but the stuttering thing happened with the steam version, standalone, and beta, on either the SSD I had it on orginally, or the NVMe

[AFsparrow1968]

Hello,

 

 

 

 

I confirm I have the same stutter lockup every one minute or so. I delete metashader and FXO, add line in autoexec for hotplug issue. Nothing help.

I have and SSD and no issue of this type with previous patched (2.5 and below).

 

 

Devs, please help....

 

 

Thanks in advance for support:cry::thumbup::(:thumbup::thumbup:

[Rudel_chw]

Every 1 - 1 1/2 minutes everything just stops - for a fraction of a second but its very noticeable. Its especially fun when trying to take off or land. I tried everything I can think of:

...

- opened a case with ED, they had me completely remove the DCS folder from Saved Games so I had a fresh start.

 

Or maybe some suggestions on what else to look at, I think ED is just as confused as I am so far.

 

The problem doesn’t seem to be within your DCS, so it should be something within your windows .. add Both dcs folders (Program files and saved games) to the exclusion list of your Antivirus, to discard it as a cause.

 

If that doesn’t fix it, try the suggestions of this video:

 

mWHiP9K8fQ0

[Sholtz]

The problem doesn’t seem to be within your DCS, so it should be something within your windows .. add Both dcs folders (Program files and saved games) to the exclusion list of your Antivirus, to discard it as a cause.

 

If that doesn’t fix it, try the suggestions of this video:

 

 

Thanks, but I have already ruled out Anti Virus:

 

"- clean boot, made sure nothing else was running especially Anti virus/Anti Malware and background tasks."

 

And I dont have Windows 10 so ... :huh:

 

I checked again after the massive update to stable, other than some random keybinds going missing (whats up wit that?) its still there.

 

And as I have mentioned, everything else (literally everything else I play) runs stellar.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Sholtz

[AFsparrow1968]

Hello again,

 

 

 

I tried plenty of settings (in game and on nvidia panel), uninstall last nvidia driver 446.14, test with older ones. nothing work. Enable/disable full screen mode optimization, windows game mode.

 

 

Overal FPS are good with my config (50 fps with GPU 1080TI, I7950 3.2 Ghz, 12 mb RAM, 500 Go SSD) but this heavy stutter every one minute kill the game.

 

 

 

I noticed in flight and i put on screen FPS and several all parameters (keys Rctl and pause) that "video mem" is always equal to 0.00 mb.

I DCS 2.5, I had always a value between nine and ten mb.

 

 

 

I took a screenshot and attached it.

 

 

For me game is unplayable in 2.5.6...

Hope somebody find a solution:(:(:(

 

 

Regards

Edited May 31, 2020 by AFsparrow1968

[AFsparrow1968]

hello,

 

 

I have just add a line in autoexec "disable_write_track = true" and it seem to be a lttle bit better.

 

 

I Continue testing......:smilewink:

[Mr_sukebe]

How much RAM do you have free when running these missions?

Sounds to me that your PC is running out of RAM and it's paging to disk. Even SSDs are significantly slower than RAM and could cause this.

 

My experience with DCS is that I wouldn't chose to run it on anything less than 32GB, and as you can see in my sig, I "future proofed" my RAM requirements by going for 64GB. I'm not convinced that I need it now, but just in case...

[Sholtz]

Do you get a sound glitch or scratchy sound when the pauses happen?

 

Not that I have ever noticed, the sound stops momentarily during these pauses but I dont hear any pops or beeps or anything.

[AFsparrow1968]

Dear all,

 

 

 

 

 

After other tests, I confirm that adding a line in autoexec "disable_write_track = true" solve the one minute or some stutter.

 

 

Hope this help the others pilots

 

 

Regards