2.7 performance hit with new smoke / effects

[Gryzor]

I noticed huge fps hit in comparison with 2.5.6 concretely when destroying manu thanks in a row / group... for example with A-10C or Ka-50. Nobody notied it?

 

Appart of it, I´m quite surpress due the low fps impact of the clouds in VR. But there is some issue with new effects, affecting dramatically with many units are affected (much more than 2.5.5). 

[Boogdud]

Has this been acknowledged yet? I noticed it after the latest hotfix (2.7.0.5659).  You can easily see the issue if have PG map and KA50.  Load up the mission "Firing Range", shortly after the mission start one of the SU-25s directly in front of you will fire off a large salvo of rockets, once the rockets hit (causing the explosion/smoke effect) near the ammo dump the framerate will drop by at least half no matter what your settings (chimney at 1, msaa on/off, etc.).  This was not present before 2.7 and the latest fix. It seems that there is something going on with the particle effects either being more dense or incorrectly being rendered.

[BIGNEWY]

please include a track replay example we can directly compare with.

 

Also let us know your system specs and if you are using any shader mods.

 

thanks

[Boogdud]

Thanks NEWY.  I'm including one from the formerly mentioned instant action, as well as one that I think shows the issue even more prevalently (Normandy Close Air Support).  System specs are:

Ryzen 5900X

32GB  GSkill 3200

Nvidia GTX 1080ti

installed on Samsung NVMe 970

 

No shader mods (no mods at all actually).

 

KA50 CAS instant action.trk KA50 Firing Rng shkval fps.trk

[Flappie]

I agree.

I've just tried your first track. I started with a average of 60 FPS, then my fell to 30 FPS when your aircraft was 3.5 km away from your objective.

 

[Boogdud]

After running some other tests in ME, the smoke definitely causes a performance hit, but also destroyed/damaged ground units seems to have giant performance hits as well.  Since they go hand in hand it's a double-whammy.    Talking with a friend he thought it might be related to the fire effect, I think he's onto something.

 

Also clusters... holy moly. Load up some cbu 87/97's and destroy some ground units. It's a huge hit.

Edited May 14, 2021 by Boogdud

[nazradu]

Is there any workaround for FPS hits caused by smoke? When I do the Haifa Dispatch mission in the Huey my FPS are melting whenever I land close to smoke marked LZ. Also when I fire Vikhr missiles in the Ka-50 the fps drop by 20 frames.

Edited May 18, 2021 by nazradu

[Alireza.kh]

smokes are fps killer plus explosions and craters.

recently i noticed that real time playing performance hit is worse than track file records. and track replay won't represent actual performance hit in game.

[Gryzor]

7 hours ago, Alireza.kh said:

smokes are fps killer plus explosions and craters.

recently i noticed that real time playing performance hit is worse than track file records. and track replay won't represent actual performance hit in game.

I suspect track recording are a fps killer in some form (because even putting in autoexect "disable_write_track = true", this only does NOT saving trk and the end, BUT track script recording really are switched on every time. CPU latency / performance it is EXACTLY the same).

 

@Devs Please give us an option to disable track recording completely, like we had in Lock On 1.00 (2004). Maybe this helps with fps.

 

@Anyone: know some file scripting to disable track recording (appart of autoexec, that option does nothing).

Edited May 21, 2021 by Gryzor

[Boogdud]

Any word on this issue? Is it being looked into at this point? 

 

I mean, look at this, the KA52 shows no real framerate degradation when he fires his Vikhrs

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Boogdud

[ironk79]

I made a similar observation. I fly VR got a setting that gives me 90fps 99% of the time (Samsung Odyssey, 8086k, 2080super, 16gb, SSD). i get massive frame drops (single digits) after droping BK90, even without enemies getting destroyed and after the smoke clears. The stutter stays when looking to the "impact site" (even without craters when using HEAT BK90), looking the other way gives instant 90fps again.

I compared to other explosion/crater/smoke effects. Rockets give stutter for a few seconds till the smoke cleared (15ish seconds?), after that i can look to the craters, solid 90fps. RB75, no performance hit at all, can circle above burning units, solid 90fps.

 

[durp]

I am currently looking for a way to reverse the effect that the  better smoke mod (from tazz) was doing for 2.5 to create less smoke for the same reason.

 

Besides, the issue with the  smokepod-toggle-on-ground that is still around since 2.7 release (it doesn't dissipate once triggered on ground, thats why most aerobatic servers have it off) it barely affects the performance as much as.. say... 3 burning tanks on an airfield by just looking in that direction.

 

With the release of 2.7 there were changes to how the smoke is displayed and handled, it got more intense and adjustments were made on the crates display.. however in VR this literally kills it.
Take a multiplayer server with around 20 players and an enemy airfield.. if there is anything smoking or burning on the ground (2-5 units) the game is crawling down to less than 20fps.

AI itself is already consuming a massive amount of performance in dcs, but AI + smoke/fire effects.. makes it unplayable. 

 

( this is the main question, besides the the vague hope for better performance one day:          )

Will ED add options to adjust some of the enforced settings with the smoke/fire/craters/whatnot effects in DCS?

Already running the still unofficial stereo culling options (with the sick left-eye glitches) and most settings to medium  and no MSAA. 

But I am also not super eager to make DCS look like ATF (a game from 1997) and set everything to low(est) ..it's really frustrating. (lowest will still not help on the AI performance hits, just a good meant hint..)

 

 

cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by durp

[Gryzor]

any fix or edit that minimizes this??

[ACME_WIdgets]

Zoom level on my system (incredibly slow, underpoewered) has a HUGE impact on FPS in 2.7 when smoke is displayed. 

When I am zoomed in to look at MFD for F16 Maverick targeting and fire a Maverick my fps drops under 5 fps.   If I'm zoomed out, or "normal" zoom/view and fire a Maverick I see only a small fps drop.

[JasonJ]

I am experiencing same issue

I lose 95% Frame rate in VR and about 60-70% frame rate in 2D mode when flying through smoke from gun fire hitting the ground (Huey)

 

SET UP:

DCS Stable 2.7.7.15038

GPU-2080ti / CPU-8600K@4.8GHZ / RAM-32GB / game installed on SSD, HP Reverb Pro (G1)

Game settings on MED-LOW settings, shadows, grass, smoke, SSAO, SSLR, SSAA off etc. (pictured)

Track saving off.
No Tac view installed,No SRS Radio installed
Power mode max performance
Nvidia setting - off
Latest windows 10 updates / nvidia drivers (496.49)
No Antivirus installed (dedicated gaming rig, not for any other use)
CPG/GPU Temps normal
Not runninf screen recording software / No Nvidia experience installed

 

I can get pretty stable 45FPS (motion smoothing locked) in VR flying around normal, but any dust flies up it's gone down to near 3FPS. Doesn't help even reducing Steam VR resolution to 70%.

Tried in to replicate in 2D mode - getting 150FPS-180FPS normally, and going into smoke/dust 56FPS

 

Cheers

 

2D screen shots

Edited December 20, 2021 by JasonJ

[durp]

I don't want to add any confusion, but similar seems to happen on the high AOA vapor trails, as soon as they render I get literally <10fps in VR. 
But I do recall this was an issue ever since....
It could be something else, but it's not far fetched to believe it's the rendering of the vapor trails. Maybe there are too many sprites spawned (dense) or whatever. 

criteria is to have some planes on high AOA, more common in aerobatics than in combat...watching at them on single aircrafts does nothing noticeable.
replay not available because.. not working. (and certainly not happening in the first '10 minutes', I can be lucky to be just in air in that time)

 

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by durp