DCS FPS drop, possible from anomalous shader recompilation?

[Aernov]

Sometimes (usually when relaunching DCS or after playing something other) I get consistent and pretty significant frame drops (28-38 from usual 57-60 with VSync), decreasing graphics settings does very little (only decreasing preload radius seems to have slight effect), while GPU usage sits at around 40%-50% and all of VRAM (11 Gb) used up completely, regardless of map and number of objects in the mission. Also during such framerate drops I have noticed a significant increase in disc usage from DCS (high write rate and total write volumes of around 200 Gb after a few hours of flying). Attached is a log file from last occurrence of this "anomaly", and it contains this line:

"2021-01-29 09:43:39.112 ALERT   DX11BACKEND: Error: Can't find precompiled shader for effect enlight/radar.fx:DIRECTX11=true;USE_DCS_DEFERRED=1;.
Recompilation process will take some time, please wait
(this situation should not occur on end user PC, if there is no manual shader editing)"

All shader editing I did was deleting "fxo" and "metashaders2" folders (and I have launched DCS a lot of times since this deletion, first launches had no issues), now "fxo" folder contains less than 2 Mb of stuff and metashaders2 is empty. This framerate/disc usage behaviour is fixed by reloading PC, just restarting DCS helps inconsistently.

dcs.log

[Snakedoc]

hi Aernov,

 

Old shaders in the "fxo" and "metashaders2" folders are known to cause stuttering, frame loss and texture corruption (e.g. FLIR view broken, over-exposed). It's a good habit to delete these folders once in a while, especially after a game update/driver update or if you've experienced any anomalies in game.

 

The first time you'll reload a mission or flight it will take longer as it needs to recompile all the shaders, but after the first load it will be back to normal.

There are also other folders where the map cache/shaders are stored which you can delete if you experience any weird glitches. Can't remember the location right know but I'll update the post later 

 

*edit* 

 

Drive:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\terrains\*Terrain name*\misc\metacache\

 

delete/rename the "dcs" folder. Repeat for each terrain module you own

 

Edited January 29, 2021 by Snakedoc
added path info

[speed-of-heat]

have you tried a repair ? 

[Snakedoc]

Here's the path:

 

Drive:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\terrains\*Terrain name*\misc\metacache\

 

delete/rename the "dcs" folder. Repeat for each terrain module you own

 

Hope this helps

[Aernov]

I have tried repairing, but I'll do it again for good measure. Should I delete metacache and then repair, or it will be created automatically on in-game terrain load?

[Snakedoc]

delete the folders then run a repair.

 

Shaders will recompile once loading the game

[speed-of-heat]

also delete fxo and metashaders2 from your saved games directory ... hail mary 

[Aernov]

Fxo and metashaders were deleted by me countless times, last time - after latest update a day ago. Also, after cleaning metacache and shadercache, repairing and launching DCS without PC reboot the issue did not occur. I somewhat doubt it's the end of it though. We'll see. Thanks for suggestions.