Extremely long startup times

[Voodoo 1-1]

I have been experiencing this now for approx. 6 weeks or so, initially I was on steam however I have moved to standalone yet the problem continues. Interestingly, after a repair (that wont let me download the files because of a lack of disk space) the game starts quickly.

I am on an SSD, have updated all drivers, allowed through DCS through virus and firewall protection...

I have uploaded the log for when the game hangs, and a log for post repair 

Cheers 

dcs.log successful dcs.log

[silverdevil]

both of these are unusually short logs. for example here is mine from start to mission spawn.

Quote

2022-10-02 13:51:27.288 INFO    APP: Command line: "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\bin/DCS.exe"

2022-10-02 13:52:50.678 INFO    APP: options.graphics =

2022-10-02 13:53:00.759 INFO    APP: gDescription: "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090" gVendorId: 4318 gDeviceId: 8708 gMemory: 24348 MB

2022-10-02 13:53:19.780 INFO    APP: Screen: MainMenu

2022-10-02 13:54:52.768 INFO    APP: Screen: MissionEditor

2022-10-02 13:58:50.358 INFO    APP: Screen: MissionEditor

2022-10-02 14:01:52.116 INFO    APP: MissionSpawn:spawnLocalPlayer 1038,F-16C_50

3 - 4 minutes. are you waiting long enough?

[Voodoo 1-1]

This is the loading time to start DCS... After 15mins I stopped it as nothing appeared to be changing. 

[Mr_sukebe]

Have you cleared out your FXO and Metashader folders?  If not, please do so.  They're in your saved games area.

[Voodoo 1-1]

Deleting the contents has shortened the time, now about 10 minutes.

Thank you for that its a start.

[Mr_sukebe]

Be aware that the first time you load a new map after clearing those folders, that DCS has to rebuild a new set of metashaders.  That will result in a slow load time for that first event.  Post that, it'll be much faster.

 

Sounds like you've not cleared them out in a while.  After every update, DCS will create a new set, and add them into the same folder.  As time goes on, that folder is going to be rather full, and when DCS is looking for a specific file, the amount of files will slow it down.

Good practice is to clean out those folders after every patch update.

[BitMaster]

You say your SSD is near full ?  Some SSD's firmware render the drive abnormally slow when near full.  You might want to look into that as well.

[Voodoo 1-1]

I have 219Gb free on the SSD.. why is the download for the repair require so much space?

This morning I have had 2 x almost instantaneous load followed by 4 x delayed (>10 minutes). Why would this occur? 

[Flappie]

Have you added DCS main path as an exception in your antivirus/antimalware software yet?

You should give it a go.

[Voodoo 1-1]

Yeah have done that already for no change. 

[Flappie]

Please open a support ticket: connect to DCS website, log in, click Support, then Create a new ticket.

[Voodoo 1-1]

Support could not find anything wrong and recommended the following

Please try running a drive check for errors.

More information is available at the link:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-error-checking-windows-8

Also try running the tool to check and repair all important Windows files - sfc / scannow

For more information, see paragraph 5 of the FAQ by clicking on the link:
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/support/faq/startup/#2472333

I found multiple errors that were repaired and now DCS startup is back to 60-90 seconds.

Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions and advice.

[Flappie]

Great! Thanks for your feedback.