Map Performance

[Holbeach]

5 hours ago, Biggus said:

I've found that after patching, deleting metashaders and fxo and then launching the game, that first session seems to be quite stuttery for me regardless of what I'm doing.  I suspect that there's some weirdness happening where it's rebuilding the files, so my update routine usually includes loading a random instant action and then quitting, then starting the game again.  You've probably tried this, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

I did a little more testing today with both the F1 and the Phantom.  Liberal usage of F10 menu, lots of transitioning through that old 900ft boundary.  The only real performance slowdowns were in the Phantom, where I was holding 45fps at rooftop height at Mach 0.9 over Rio Grande.  I suspect that's more a Phantom performance issue than a South Atlantic performance issue though.  I will test the map with some larger missions using more assets over the next week or so, but my confidence with this map is growing.

I hate to spoil your Sunday, but...

F1. Climb to 26000'. Shoot down a plane with a missile.

Return to sub 900'.

Result. Frame drop from 100 to 20. No change for me.

 

 

 

..

[Biggus]

@Holbeach man that's rough.  I've spent a few more hours since those posts and haven't had the 900ft frame rate decimation happen at all.  I'll play with my settings and see if I can trigger it.

[Holbeach]

32 minutes ago, Biggus said:

@Holbeach man that's rough.  I've spent a few more hours since those posts and haven't had the 900ft frame rate decimation happen at all.  I'll play with my settings and see if I can trigger it.

I don't think it's the settings that are doing it.

I did the same mission with an F4, but without firing a missile and there is no problem.

I'll keep at it..

[demonesque]

Yeah. I did some more testing at different locations with different airframes and in VR at least, it seems that the behavior is still the same as before after this latest patch: Occasionally it will work ok at low altitudes, but most of the time it still has the drastic stepped fps drop when the altitude gets below 500ft. 

[Holbeach]

So I do the same mission again, with an F1 and Matra 530F.

Stanley at 65 fps. Travel at LL up down round and round, through the twilight zone at about 95 fps, then shoot up to 26000', no probs so far, about 115 fps.

Rapid descent to Penguin height, still OK, Then back up to 26000', shoot a Matra and down the big Russian.

Descend through the 900' zone, expecting the big frame drop and nothing. All the way back to Stanley at 100 fps for a dodgy landing.

It's the inconsistancy I find more annoying than the actal frame drop.

I'll keep at it.

..

[demonesque]

I'm finding it happens fairly consistently when using the mossie or the tomcat in VR.

[Holbeach]

F4 same mission, shoot all missiles at Bears.

Return and exactly at 900' radar alt, we drop off a cliff from 74 to 20 frames.

This is my favourite map, but this behaviour is a real spoiler. No other map does this.

A second flight had a slightly different result.

On return, the usual drop occured, but this time after about 20 secs, it bounced back to 70 plus, whilst still at low level.

RTX 2080ti.

Can somebody try this simple mission?

 

Falkland .miz

Edited August 12, 2024 by Holbeach

[Biggus]

@Holbeach I tried your mission.

I'm seeing a performance drop as I pass down through 900ft again, but it's a drop from my 65fps limiter to around 50fps.  If I wasn't staring at the graph, I wouldn't have picked up on it.  So I guess I'm still seeing degraded performance, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be on my system.  This is with a 5800X, 64gb 3800mhz and a very average 3070.

[Holbeach]

9 hours ago, Biggus said:

@Holbeach I tried your mission.

I'm seeing a performance drop as I pass down through 900ft again, but it's a drop from my 65fps limiter to around 50fps.  If I wasn't staring at the graph, I wouldn't have picked up on it.  So I guess I'm still seeing degraded performance, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be on my system.  This is with a 5800X, 64gb 3800mhz and a very average 3070.

I would expect that size of drop as being normal. I use V Sync Fast and unlimited fps, so drop will be more severe.

I've run this training mission dozens of times and sometimes it's OK, sometimes not.

Today I tried Chinook, air start north of O Higgins and the 900' gremlin popped up as I dropped into a valley.

Runway start at OHiggins, heading north, no problem and full frames were available. Chinook is very frame hungry, so you don't get many to start with.

Thanks for your help.

..

[Biggus]

14 hours ago, Holbeach said:

I would expect that size of drop as being normal. I use V Sync Fast and unlimited fps, so drop will be more severe.

I've run this training mission dozens of times and sometimes it's OK, sometimes not.

Today I tried Chinook, air start north of O Higgins and the 900' gremlin popped up as I dropped into a valley.

Runway start at OHiggins, heading north, no problem and full frames were available. Chinook is very frame hungry, so you don't get many to start with.

Thanks for your help.

..

No worries, wish it could have identified the actual problem for you.

I'm not so sure it's a normal drop though, the "theoretical limit" on the fps graph was saying well over 150fps above 900ft.  It's a tolerable drop now for me, but it's still an excessive reduction compared to other maps.

[demonesque]

@Holbeach I used your .miz file and swapped the F4 for my F14. For me the drop starts immediately on the runway ay 11 fps. Once climbed away I run at an average of 45 fps everywhere else till I drop down again. I tried running it several times but it always started at 11 fps on the runway. I tried flying low for some distance to see if it would clear up like you reported but it did not for me. As I had a radar alt. I measured it and got the same 800 to 900 ft agl that you say. 

I am not sure what this all proves but there you go. 

(I am using vr, open composite, pimaxXR runtime, openxr toolkit, quadviews enabled, ParkControl CPU management. Any common factors there? But as the other maps work as per normal I dont see why it should be that)

I also love the look and flying in the the mountains in the SA map and wish it worked properly. Your mission makes the Maldivas look really pretty. (But landing in a slide show is terrible. And forget dogfighting in a warbird after spiraling to the ground.)

[Holbeach]

My frames won't compare to yours in VR, but I changed the F4 for F15 and started on the runway at 65 fps. Good start.

Overland LL at 85 fps. Still good. Shoot up to 26000' and chase Bears 105fps. Couldn't fire missiles as I'd forgotten how to.

Back to Stanley LL at 85fps. Still good. Downwind at 75fps, turn base OK.

Then turn final and the ball drops to 20fps. Bugger.

Lose concentration and the will to live. Crash onto the runway.

 

 

 

 

..

 

[Slippa]

3 minutes ago, Holbeach said:

Bugger.

Lose concentration and the will to live. Crash onto the runway.

 

 Nice to know I’m not the only one.

[demonesque]

@Holbeach oh I thought you were vr as well.

I'm quite happy with 35-45 fps but 11 has me sliding off the runway and feeling vertigo.

No other map does this, not Marianas either. So as we all note, there is something going on.

[Holbeach]

21 hours ago, Slippa said:

 Nice to know I’m not the only one.

I could write a developer response right now.

'Unable to reproduce'.

..

[Slippa]

8 minutes ago, Holbeach said:

I could write a developer response right now.

'Unable to reproduce'.

..

[demonesque]

So in the spirit of working without developer responses....

Are you guys by any chance using Reshade? Or ParkControl? Are either of those common factors?

[Biggus]

14 hours ago, demonesque said:

So in the spirit of working without developer responses....

Are you guys by any chance using Reshade? Or ParkControl? Are either of those common factors?

No and no.  I do have priority set to high for DCS.exe in task manager, though.

My system is a 5800X, 64gb DDR4 3800mhz, a 3070 and my DCS install is on a pair of Crucial MX500 SSDs (savegames on one, everything else on another).  Power plan set to high performance.

[demonesque]

Well that doesn't seem to have anything in common cause my next question was were we all using older GPUs. But you are using 30 series architecture. Now I'm stumped again. 

[Wali763]

Hi.

I was not able to replicate that problem. I started the Falkland.miz, took off and shot down both of them Bears (1 Sparrow, 2 Sidewinders) at around 26500ft, then instantly turned to the ground and flew at 200ft about the ground. Had no framerate drop whatsoever.

Have a 4090/7800x3D with a G2 with moderate settings so I almost never drop below 90fps.

Anyway, it was my first kills in the F-4, since I bought it presale, but did not have the time/will to get to know it right now. Doing A-10C 99% of the time.

Also like the SA-map. But unfortunatly, only a few airfields and not too many trees... 

[demonesque]

Ok. So maybe only happening on 30 series and earlier GPUs. Anything else we can conclude?

[Biggus]

Today's hotfix has cost me around 10fps on the F1EE take off instant action.

I wonder if it's something obscure like shaders being rebuilt badly because of something random?

[Holbeach]

7 hours ago, demonesque said:

Ok. So maybe only happening on 30 series and earlier GPUs. Anything else we can conclude?

You can add 40 series, as this event had been reported since the map came out .

[Holbeach]

19 hours ago, Wali763 said:

Hi.

I was not able to replicate that problem. I started the Falkland.miz, took off and shot down both of them Bears (1 Sparrow, 2 Sidewinders) at around 26500ft, then instantly turned to the ground and flew at 200ft about the ground. Had no framerate drop whatsoever.

Have a 4090/7800x3D with a G2 with moderate settings so I almost never drop below 90fps.

Anyway, it was my first kills in the F-4, since I bought it presale, but did not have the time/will to get to know it right now. Doing A-10C 99% of the time.

Also like the SA-map. But unfortunatly, only a few airfields and not too many trees... 

This event is random.

Today I left Stanley at varying low levels between 100' and 1000' and 75 fps to attack the 2 MB339. They easily outturn the radar missile, but I got then both with Sidewinders.

Back to Stanley at LL and 70 fps, passing the town at rooftop height and 65 fps to zoom for a landing.

Jester calls 2 Bears within 11 miles, so I go up to meet them and shoot them both down. Frames are still good.

Back for a landing and at 900' the ball drops from 70 to 19 fps. Bugger!

But after a few seconds it bounces back to 65fps. Landed at Stanley for a nice cup of tea.

As I say, the event is annoyingly random.

Settings are High, on a 1440 screen.

..

 

[Holbeach]

OK, after a week at it, I have a solution to the 900' ball drop, (for me).

I bought, SA, Kola and Afghanistan, the last 2 of which I can run at High settings without problems.

SA is different.

I also bought F4, F1 and Viggan at the same time, all of which work on Kola and Afghan at High settings without probs.

SA is different.

Aircraft type and settings are crucial in getting an aircraft from a high altitude interception, back down through the 900' barrier.

Viggan and Harrier will work OK with a High - setting, but F4, F1, F15 won't.

They need a Medium + setting which gets them through the barrier but still looks good. 

VSync fast. VRam 9800. Ram 1100. GPU temp 70C. CPU 62C.

This:-

 

I'm gradually increasing settings until it stops working.

..

 

Edited August 25, 2024 by Holbeach