Performance Issue when adding AI units

[Derrick006]

Hi all,

First my rig:

I5 9400f

32Gb ram 2600mhz

Rtx 3080ti

Quest2

Well here is my concern :

i can fly the Apache with Pd 1.3 msaax4 shadows off on the syria map empty or with a very few other units at 45(x2) fps stable and an awesome experience.

As soon as i try to add more units or scripts or to play a mission (Scud buster for example) when i get close to the target fps drop a lot (down to 15fps x2). 

i have the feeling that i m not the only one to have the issue, do you have any tips ? do you think that my CPU is bottleneking ? 
i use OTT and vr perf kit.

Even lowering video options does not solve the problem....

thanks chaps in advance...  

 

 

[speed-of-heat]

your cpu is absolutely bottlenecking , try turning msaa down to x2 and pd down to 1 and see if you get the same impact ...

[Derrick006]

Actually even turning msaa off and pd 1 gives me the same problem… 

as soon as there is too much units it’s unplayable 

[silverdevil]

5 minutes ago, Derrick006 said:

Actually even turning msaa off and pd 1 gives me the same problem… 

as soon as there is too much units it’s unplayable 

Some folks have been getting through this by running the mission in their own local MP server. Just an idea.

[Derrick006]

I ll give it a try 

[speed-of-heat]

53 minutes ago, Derrick006 said:

Actually even turning msaa off and pd 1 gives me the same problem… 

as soon as there is too much units it’s unplayable 

yes thats my point if it was GPU problems you would have gotten some relief 

[Derrick006]

so definatly for you cpu is bottlenecking ?

[speed-of-heat]

Abscent any actual gpu and cpu frame time data, yep.

I see similar behaviour with campaign missions where the scripts directly impact cpu frametime

 

As can ai logic

Also bear in mind that cpu upgrade, *may* not fix it as this is an architectural limitation on the way dcs is designed today, I'm running an oc'd 12 series i7  and I still have this problem

As silver devil said this might be a good reason to run a server.. For the Mission which you can't so easily do for a campaign.

[Derrick006]

Thanks for your feedback I will try to launch mission on a server.

Otherwise  I will just play rapid simple missions that I will make. Or even revert to 2D. But it s quite disappointing.

in few month I will try to upgrade my cpu…

[dutchili]

It is really time for a performance upgrade of the game as we can't simulate proper missions . Multi-threading, multi-core.

Come on ED, hold the features and focus on the core. @Flappie @BIGNEWY

VR could have the same performance as 2D if the hardware is used properly.

And 2D could be much smoother too.

[Derrick006]

I can imagine that improving those features is a difficult task for the devs, and ok I just have a i5 9400f which is not brand new cpu but it should be able to handle standards missions. I will give another try today with différents options and eventually put some screenshots of my perf in game if it can help others of dev.

DCS is an awesome sim don’t get me wrong but it needs optimization at least a bit concerning cpu usage.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Derrick006

[stormrider2]

23 minutes ago, Derrick006 said:

I can imagine that improving those features is a difficult task for the devs, and ok I just have a i5 9400f which is not brand new cpu but it should be able to handle standards missions. I will give another try today with différents options and eventually put some screenshots of my perf in game if it can help others of dev.

DCS is an awesome sim don’t get me wrong but it needs optimization at least a bit concerning cpu usage.

 

Don't forget to provide tracks.

[Mr_sukebe]

The issue you're experiencing is almost certainly caused by your CPU being maxed out on the primary core as used by DCS.

In short, DCS uses roughly 1 and a bit cores (the "bit" is as I understand it for audio calculations).

As you add more AI, it increases the workload on the CPU core until it's maxed out.  At some point, we'll have out of the box multi-core, and that's planned, but we don't know when we'll get it.

The good news is that if you have sufficient RAM available (about 6GB), then you can solve the issues for your home made missions.

In short, you can install the dedicated server, and run that in addition to the DCS client.  It can happily be run on the same PC at the same time, just as long as you have roughly 6GB of RAM free.  You then run the mission you want on your dedicated server, and login to your own server/mission, using the multiplayer option.

By doing this, you offload the AI calculations to the server, which will be running on a different CPU core.

There's a number of threads around and some video guides on how to run a dedicated server on the same PC.  Hope that helps. 

[BIGNEWY]

use a PD of 1.0 see if it helps, you maybe trying to push to many pixels and your cpu is bottlenecking. 

Also do you overclock? if you do try defaults. 

 

[Derrick006]

Well did few tests….

haven t had the time to screenshot.

but I realized that performances was acceptables until I get shoot at…..

when bullets are flying around to get stutter and fps drop.

any tips to help ? 

13 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

use a PD of 1.0 see if it helps, you maybe trying to push to many pixels and your cpu is bottlenecking. 

Also do you overclock? if you do try defaults. 

 

Hi !

i use pd 1 in dcs and OTT but I use 1.3 in the oculus app….

[BIGNEWY]

Just bare in mind any value over the default will require more cpu / gpu workload

If possible take a screenshot of your dcs settings and attach it here 

[Derrick006]

here are the screenshot i got...
the one at 45 fps is flying to the objective
the one at 38 fps is when i start yo get shot at and decrease to 25ish...
concerning the dcs setting msaa is 4 here which is huge i jnow but changing to off or 2 doesn t change anything...

Thanks to all again

Edited September 2, 2022 by Derrick006

[BIGNEWY]

Thanks, the only thing I can suggest here is to reduce your resolution changes. Try Oculus at its native resolution and see if it helps. 

[Derrick006]

Unfortunately it doesn’t… I started there.

so cpu bottleneking ? 

[Mr_sukebe]

14 minutes ago, Derrick006 said:

Unfortunately it doesn’t… I started there.

so cpu bottleneking ? 

It’s fairly easy to check.

open windows task manager and the drill into the CPU usage, such that you have graphs for each of the CPU cores.  If one of them is around 100%, the your CPU is bottlenecking.

whilst there, also check your RAM usage to see if it’s full and needing to page to disk

[dutchili]

It's is not your CPU. It is the amount of work your request one core to do, which is too much.

So lowering the settings, number of AI etc will help you getting more FPS.

But still, you entire CPU (all cores) can do much more, so hopefully ED will priority multi-theading/multi-core to get the most of our CPU's and delivery excellent VR performance.

[Derrick006]

Meeeeen i gave a Quick try to the dedicated server option..

and guess what I m running 45fps msaa x4 all the way even during engagements.

I will have to confirm but… it’s 

looking like we have a solution to share the work between cores. Now all 6 cores are working instead of one !

 

[silverdevil]

49 minutes ago, Derrick006 said:

Meeeeen i gave a Quick try to the dedicated server option..

and guess what I m running 45fps msaa x4 all the way even during engagements.

I will have to confirm but… it’s 

looking like we have a solution to share the work between cores. Now all 6 cores are working instead of one !

 

That's what I was inferring with my post. One core MP. One core client. Running server will most definitely help the core usage by AI since the MP core is being used.

I did this with my previous computer which had lower specs. It helped a lot.

[speed-of-heat]

now if this could just be the default way missions are run ... 

[Mr_sukebe]

Just now, speed-of-heat said:

now if this could just be the default way missions are run ... 

Look in the Wish list for DCS and you'll see that I've added it: