Multicore CPU performance improvement

[forlorn]

The latest release from Dec 9th tells it can work with 8 cores. Did you update?

[McVittees]

I have Set Affinity II and It doesn't auto set DCS.exe either. I have it set as a favorite but still have to Alt-Tab out and set it manually.

 

Did you tick the 'Auto Set Affinity' box. Seems to have done the trick for me.

[Glowing_Amraam]

Ok, my pc will get an extreme makeover in January, but my goal is 4 gig ram, and the latest intel dual core (E8600) with Geforce GTX 280...

 

But should i go for Vista 64 bit or XP 64? I know that i need one of them to support 4 gig ram, and also take best advantage of my dual core..

[mattpeckham]

Ok, my pc will get an extreme makeover in January, but my goal is 4 gig ram, and the latest intel dual core (E8600) with Geforce GTX 280...

 

But should i go for Vista 64 bit or XP 64? I know that i need one of them to support 4 gig ram, and also take best advantage of my dual core..

 

If you're looking to apply the "core affinity" trick, I believe Vista's the only place it works at the moment. The difference is astonishing. I'm running an i7 at 3.3GHz with a GTX 280 and DCS chugs at 1440 x 900 on max detail in the Winter Attack demo when panning around the Ka-50 and facing toward the rearward mountains. Enable a second core under Vista, however, and it rarely drops below 30 fps! :thumbup:

[Groove]

XP64 is a no go GA!

 

Go for Vista64bit.

[Glowing_Amraam]

Thanks for the tip fellas ;)

 

Vista 64 it is!

Bout time i made some HD movies!

[crazysundog]

Please do!!

[TwoLate]

Vista 64 bit here. when I start a mission I get 27 fps. Tab out and set both cpu go back in and get 44 fps. Thanks

[Mxyzpylk]

Did you tick the 'Auto Set Affinity' box. Seems to have done the trick for me.

 

Yes, I have that set. I have DCS.exe set up as a favorite. I have it minimized to the task bar with "auto set favorites" ticked. I even tried

un-ticking it and clicking "set favorites now" I don't do this until I see the box with the pilot with the red star on his helmet appear. After the sim loads I Alt-TAb out and go into task manager right click DCS.exe and click "set affinity" and it is only set to core 0. I don't get it.

[mattpeckham]

Yes, I have that set. I have DCS.exe set up as a favorite. I have it minimized to the task bar with "auto set favorites" ticked. I even tried

un-ticking it and clicking "set favorites now" I don't do this until I see the box with the pilot with the red star on his helmet appear. After the sim loads I Alt-TAb out and go into task manager right click DCS.exe and click "set affinity" and it is only set to core 0. I don't get it.

 

Same problem here Mxyzpylk. I've tried variations (0,2,4,6 vs 1,3,5,7) without success. Curiously, if you watch when it first starts to load the DCS engine, you'll see the utility in fact auto-set the multicores, then just before the final loading screen comes up, I see that switch back to just '0'. So the issue seems to be that PriFinitty auto-sets as soon as it detects DCS.exe, then some internal routine in the program makes a processor check *after* that and resets it 0.

 

You almost need a time-delay setting on PriFinitty so it waits to do its business until DCS.exe is finished loading you into the sim.

[Mxyzpylk]

Well I solved my problem by installing Prifinity instead of Set Affinity II. After installing Prifinity. I loaded BS. When in the cockpit I Alt-Tabbed back to the desktop went into task manager and Voila! My affinity was set to all cores as I wanted. Now I'll go back and just set cores 0,1. Tested again with cores 0,1. I'm happy to report it now works.

Edited December 13, 2008 by Mxyzpylk
added info

[Talon]

Glad to hear you got it worked out Mxyzpylk. I haven't tried the Prifinity product yet, but I might as well. Thanks.

[mattpeckham]

Well I solved my problem by installing Prifinity instead of Set Affinity II. After installing Prifinity. I loaded BS. When in the cockpit I Alt-Tabbed back to the desktop went into task manager and Voila! My affinity was set to all cores as I wanted. Now I'll go back and just set cores 0,1. Tested again with cores 0,1. I'm happy to report it now works.

 

I think you found the fix Mxyzpylk. I just tried setting 0,1 and it holds, whereas anything set above core 1 sequentially seems to result in a total multicore wipe to 0.

 

Summary: Use PriFinitty under Vista 64, only check cores 0,1, make sure there's a tick mark in auto-set, and you're golden!

 

Update: Hmm, looks like 0,1 isn't providing the same frame boost as 0,2... Note that I have an i7 940, so YMMV on an older Core 2 Duo. Unfortunately I'm still not able to use PriFinitty with my i7 without alt-tabbing out to manually set to 0,2.

Edited December 13, 2008 by mattpeckham

[wombat778]

Guys,

 

I had the same problem using both prifinity and set affinity II. In short, it seems unreliable, where sometimes it would automatically improve performance and sometimes not. The strange part is that in some cases, it seems that the affinity would be set properly on multiple cores, but that there would be no performance increase until I manually went to the task manager, unset the affinity, and then reset the affinity. Weird. Anyhow, I think I figured out that the problem is that both prifinity and set affinity try to set the affinity of DCS.exe too soon after it is launched.

 

To get around this, I made my own little batch file to set the affinity automatically, which is attached. To use it you will need to download the command line process utility here: http://www.beyondlogic.org/consulting/processutil/processutil.htm

 

Put process.exe in the same folder as the cmd files. Then run either the 2 core or 4 core version as appropriate beefore you start black shark.. The batch file will keep checking for DCS.exe and if it finds that its affinity is only set to one core, will set it to multiple cores. The batch file should will automatically exit when you quit black shark. It will also quit if you don't launch black shark within a minute or so of starting the batch file.

 

Please note that to make sure that it does not bog down the system, I set it to wait for 30 seconds between each polling. This means it may take a little time after starting a mission before you see the performance improvement. So far though, it has worked 100% for me. Hope someone finds it useful!

DSCAff.zip

[mattpeckham]

To get around this, I made my own little batch file to set the affinity automatically, which is attached.

 

Fantastic work Wombat! Just verifying that the utility works great on an i7 940 (overclocked to 3.85GHz) running Vista 64!

[fallenangel]

I have a question...do you think it is worth it to switch from XP to Vista 64? Also, will someone make a step by step tutorial for setting up your cores correctly using Vist 64 for us non-pc gurus.

 

Thanks

[mattpeckham]

Put it this way: I was toying with the idea of switching back to XP for performance reasons until I discovered the multicore trick. As someone else put it, Vista < XP < Vista 64 multicore. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure you need Vista 64 for the multicore trick.

[Prophet]

Guys,

 

I had the same problem using both prifinity and set affinity II. In short, it seems unreliable, where sometimes it would automatically improve performance and sometimes not. The strange part is that in some cases, it seems that the affinity would be set properly on multiple cores, but that there would be no performance increase until I manually went to the task manager, unset the affinity, and then reset the affinity. Weird. Anyhow, I think I figured out that the problem is that both prifinity and set affinity try to set the affinity of DCS.exe too soon after it is launched.

 

To get around this, I made my own little batch file to set the affinity automatically, which is attached. To use it you will need to download the command line process utility here: http://www.beyondlogic.org/consulting/processutil/processutil.htm

 

Put process.exe in the same folder as the cmd files. Then run either the 2 core or 4 core version as appropriate beefore you start black shark.. The batch file will keep checking for DCS.exe and if it finds that its affinity is only set to one core, will set it to multiple cores. The batch file should will automatically exit when you quit black shark. It will also quit if you don't launch black shark within a minute or so of starting the batch file.

 

Please note that to make sure that it does not bog down the system, I set it to wait for 30 seconds between each polling. This means it may take a little time after starting a mission before you see the performance improvement. So far though, it has worked 100% for me. Hope someone finds it useful!

 

Awesome work wombat. I editted the script files for an i7 with HT on.

 

One is for 4 cores of 0,2,4,6 which are the physical. And then one for all 8.

 

Now, how do you create a batch or command file to open this script, and then either the SP or MP shortcuts? I tried what limited I know, but none of it worked.

DSCAff_i7.zip

[Becks]

[..] Someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure you need Vista 64 for the multicore trick.

 

no you dont need to..

setting the processor affinity via task-manager is possible from xp-sp2 through xp64 up to vista

 

btw. I am using xp64, but as for the others, there is no other way than waiting for DCS.exe to be spawned and then manually setting the proc-affinity to dual+ core.. I hope the programmers will fix this soon..

[Prophet]

No Becks..... read the thread.

 

You of course can change the affinity of a process in XP, but it just provides no benefit with regards to DCS-BS.

 

It has already been explained that it has something to do with how Vista handles DX or some such thing.

 

Becks, there is no real reason for them to fix it soon. Wombat has provided an excellent solution. But then again, there are lots of people who dont come to the forums to find these fixs.... I wonder if they would find the patch then?

 

And like I said in my first post, I understand why ED decided to use single core considering the problems there was at first when dual cores were coming out. But that was fixed with a Windows patch as it was just a load balancing problem.

 

So hopefully in the first patch it gets changed back.

[mattpeckham]

I editted the script files for an i7 with HT on.

 

Just what I needed, thanks Prophet!

[Becks]

No Becks..... read the thread.

 

You of course can change the affinity of a process in XP, but it just provides no benefit with regards to DCS-BS.

 

It has already been explained that it has something to do with how Vista handles DX or some such thing.

 

Ok I apologize.. It is highly likely that for xp32 you wont get any real multi-core-cappable DX-drivers.. I remember of hidden experimental driver switches..

 

Becks, there is no real reason for them to fix it soon. Wombat has provided an excellent solution. But then again, there are lots of people who dont come to the forums to find these fixs.... I wonder if they would find the patch then?

 

Sure they would (I highly guess).. normally every game (excuse me) gets one or more patches/updates.. it is a typical thing and everyone knows that..

 

And like I said in my first post, I understand why ED decided to use single core considering the problems there was at first when dual cores were coming out. But that was fixed with a Windows patch as it was just a load balancing problem.

 

So hopefully in the first patch it gets changed back.

 

And maybe it wasnt just a load-balancing problem on OS-side?

 

I've seen a lot of programs crashing or having poor performance on multi-core machines.. the main problems are mutual-exclusions and synchronisations in case of resource-accesses (like data-structures or APIs/drivers) and lack of "real" parallism.. its easy to create a new thread, but splitting up the big thing into pieces is quite difficult..

 

Anyway, BS is running great on multiple cores.. :D

[wombat778]

Now, how do you create a batch or command file to open this script, and then either the SP or MP shortcuts? I tried what limited I know, but none of it worked.

 

 

Glad it worked! Its actually pretty easy to do what you are looking for.

 

1) For single player, add the following line after :init in the command file:

 

start bin\stable\Launcher.exe --console

 

2) For multiplayer, add the following instead:

 

start multiplayer.bat

 

3) Then put the edited cmd file AND process.exe into your Eagle-Dynamics\KA-50 folder

 

4) Either create a new shortcut to the cmd files or edit your existing Black Shark shortcuts to point to the cmd files.

 

Now, when you start Black Shark from those shortcuts, it should run the affinity fix at the same time. If it would be easier, let me know and I will put together a new set of batch files to do this and post them.

[Prophet]

Sure they would (I highly guess).. normally every game (excuse me) gets one or more patches/updates.. it is a typical thing and everyone knows that..

 

'Every' other game is rather simple in comparison. I dont doubt that if they see the benefit it would get patched, I just wouldnt expect it to be any time soon.

 

 

And maybe it wasnt just a load-balancing problem on OS-side?

 

I've seen a lot of programs crashing or having poor performance on multi-core machines.. the main problems are mutual-exclusions and synchronisations in case of resource-accesses (like data-structures or APIs/drivers) and lack of "real" parallism.. its easy to create a new thread, but splitting up the big thing into pieces is quite difficult..

 

Anyway, BS is running great on multiple cores.. :D

 

There was a specific issue when dual-cores started coming out, that people would get this aweful stuttering. It was eventually narrowed down to the affinity being on multiple cores. This issue was resolved when I believe AMD first released a processor batch to fix load balancing, and then MS made their own.

 

As it is now, you can run LOMAC just fine on multicore.

[TwoLate]

Ok I went to this post

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/153125-boot-advanced-options-number-processors.html

 

When I did this after reboot, started a mission I no longer have to exit out and force the affinity. I now have both cpu's running all the time.

 

I do not know if this will be a program that hates 2 cpu's at the same time but gonna try this.

 

Basically go to msconfig and tell sytem to boot two cpu's not one.

 

 

Edit I have a e6600 so I changed the cpu boot to two not one. This is for Vista 64 bit.

Edited December 13, 2008 by TwoLate
Clarification