Orion HOTAS F-18 and SimAppPro Performance Drain

[MorrisTheCat]

Hi all, I've been using the Orion HOTAS F-18 since November and have been loving it.  The solid metal handles and bases are just amazing and adds to serious emersion when matched with the Reverb G2.  However, there are a couple issues.  The first, is that the stick recently started acting up and eventually died last night and was not sensing any movements to the right.  I am currently working with WinWing to trouble shoot and hopefully they'll send me replacement parts to get it working again.  They've been quite responsive when I submitted the claim and asked me to try and troubleshoot it which included opening up the base and trying to reconnect wires to ensure it was not a loose connection.  Unfortunately, it didn't help.

The other thing I noticed and have confirmed is that SimAppPro does something that kills performance.  When I first got the Orion back in November, I installed SimAppPro and when I started playing DCS I could tell right away that framerates just tanked.  I always play with the counter to see what my FPS is in my G2.  At that time, I wasn't certain that it was SimAppPro as there were a few other updates to DCS and I was also trying some new mods and so I thought maybe I did something to corrupt my install.  Anyway, I decided to go back to a previous Windows OS restore point and also completely uninstall SimAppPro, and DCS Open Beta and delete my DCS Open Beta saved games folder.  I re-installed DCS and all the modules but I didn't re-install SimAppPro.  After doing this my framerates got back to what they were before.  Unfortunately, when my stick died last night I had to re-install SimAppPro to troubleshoot it with the tech from WinWing.  And in doing so, my DCS performance tanked again.  This time, I just uninstalled SimAppPro and just deleted my entire saved games folder and it addressed the issue. 

So it seems like SimAppPro puts something in the saved games folder that causes issues with DCS.  I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this before and I would be curious to know if anyone found a way to get around what SimApp is doing.  Because of this I have never really used SimApp but it seems from other users that it is a great App.

[MustangSally]

Do you use VR?

[MorrisTheCat]

Yeah, as I noted in my OP I run DCS with a Reverb G2

[firefox121]

It is due to a lines of code that puts simmapp pro in the export lua file, used to sincronize tje lights when you use a/a and a/g switch. Because you are in VR really don't need that, so close the aplication before enter DCS and search for the 

\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Export.lua and then comment out those two lines like so

 

-- local wwtlfs=require('lfs')

-- dofile(wwtlfs.writedir()..'Scripts/wwt/wwtExport.lua')

Or simply delete or rename the export.lua file and check

[MorrisTheCat]

Oh nice!  Thanks for that info.

 

[MustangSally]

Must be VR specific...I run TrackIr in 4k with pretty much everything maxed and see very little FPS drop, even in multiplay.

Edited April 2, 2022 by MustangSally

[MorrisTheCat]

Yeah, I'm assuming it must be related to VR or else there would be many others complaining about this performance hit.  It's quite noticeable

[Hawkeye91]

On 4/1/2022 at 7:53 PM, MorrisTheCat said:

Yeah, I'm assuming it must be related to VR or else there would be many others complaining about this performance hit.  It's quite noticeable

Actually, I have a bad performance hit and I play exclusively 2D. I can run almost a steady 144FPS but when I run SimAppPro, my performance tanks to an unstable 60-80 FPS. That's a 55% FPS hit. That is unacceptable and I'm extremely disappointed with Winwings software. I spent literally thousands of dollars on the Super Taurus, Super Libra, and Take Off and Start Up panels. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Hawkeye91

[Chicki]

It puts a big hit on my frame rates too.  Had to stop running it.  Hope they fix it.  I don't use VR.

[Katmandu]

Someone made a video with CPU frametime graphs in real time. With SimappPro and without. Big difference, even on his top of the line machine (12900K, 32Gb RAM, RTX3090):

Of course, running SimappPro is only needed if one wants to use the rumble feature of F-16EX and to synchronize the lights between physical and virtual panels. Otherwise it can be turned off completely and all the buttons and axes would continue to work fine. The rumble feature is a big one though.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Katmandu

[CaptHawk]

I'll also add I get a  huge performance hit, and no VR here, just Track IR. So much for a rumble feature and synchronized lighting. I'm usually around 120 fps and it will drop on deck to 29 fps while doing a startup. The above works fine for me though. Don't really need a vibrator in my hand while flying

[MarcinQ]

Omg thank you guys for the solution. I was tearing my hair out trying to find out why dcs started working like a s.

[VirusAM]

Apparently there is a fix...vsync to off in sim, and Vsync to fast in nvidia control panel.

Try that

[MarcinQ]

As someone said - fix is simple. Nvidia control panel, 3d settings, choose simappro.exe and turn of fps limits for this app. Solved.

[m005106]

On 5/18/2022 at 7:40 PM, VirusAM said:

Apparently there is a fix...vsync to off in sim, and Vsync to fast in nvidia control panel.

Try that

Any fix for Radeon users?

[Storm_ctrl]

Looking back through the SimAppPro updates.

1.6.27:

1.It can be configured in the settings interface. Whether to reset all lights to 0 by default when starting a mission in DCS (default is off).,2.Fix UI issues for F16 devices.,3.Fix possible program crashes,4.Optimized communication with DCS.Optimized the issue that may cause DCS fps drop.

 

They are now on 1.7.23 .

[prestonflying]

@MorrisTheCatHere is a cross-posted fix to keep the functionality of the export lua scripts and fix the FPS issues.  

Video Here

Steps

1. Open this file in text editor (eg notepad++ , visual code etc)

C:/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Saved Games/DCS.openbeta/Scripts/wwt/wwtNetwork.lua

2. Edit line 18:

 w_net.net:settimeout(.001)

  (By passing a value other than 0, the existing call is blocking the main CPU thread which causes the stutters + CPU spikes).

3. Change line 18 to:

w_net.net:settimeout(0)

(This makes the network call non-blocking, which is what solves the CPU spikes)

4. Save file and ensure the date modified reflects the change. Sometimes Winwing will override this file which undoes the fix, keep an eye out and re-add until this is officially implemented by Winwing.

5. Test DCS by loading up a mission and hitting RCTRL + Pause to see FPS. Ensure it is relatively smooth, or use any other program to track performance and confirm the fix. Your vibration, apu lights, etc will also remain functional with this fix.