DCS MT: ***Improve Frame Times Consistently*** with Process Lasso

[Ready]

Ok let's hop over to my thread and talk there, so it can help others as well if you don't mind

 

[July]

55 minutes ago, Flextremes said:

Cool! Ensure DCS in VR mode is started first before you select all in Process Lasso and assign to other cores. Otherwise you will miss processes that are responsible for VR and they will try to use the same cores as DCS.exe.

 

Besides causing the rest of my PC to slow to a crawl and stutter, my frametimes did not go down after setting all process except DCS to run on E-cores only. The graph shown above is setting DCS from P-cores only, back to P-cores + E-cores. The frametimes didn't really go up or down, but as you can see I was seeing many more spikes when set to only P-cores.

From my results, I can't recommend setting ALL OTHER processes to only E-cores, as it'll cause a lot of lag and QoL issues.

Edited March 11, 2023 by July

[Flextremes]

5 minutes ago, July said:

Besides causing the rest of my PC to slow to a crawl and stutter, my frametimes did not go down after setting all process except DCS to run on E-cores only. The graph shown above is setting DCS from P-cores only, back to P-cores + E-cores. The frametimes didn't really go up, but as you can see I was seeing many more spikes when set to only P-cores.

From my results, I can't recommend setting ALL OTHER processes to only E-cores, as it'll cause a lot of lag and QoL issues.

Thanks for the experiment, it really looks like this is not recommended for Intel. Other intel users may thank you.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Flextremes

[July]

8 minutes ago, Flextremes said:

Thanks for the experiment, it really looks like this is not recommended for Intel. Other intel users may thank you.

 

Curious to see what results other users are getting, AMD included.

[Tusk.V]

Is it still beneficial to use Process Lasso?

[RealDCSpilot]

Not on Win11 and a Intel CPU with P and E-cores. Learned it the hard way. Win11 seems to have the much better CPU scheduling ability.

[Gunfreak]

On 3/11/2023 at 1:22 PM, Flextremes said:

My system: Highly optimized Win 10, AMD 5800x3D, 4090, Reverb G2, Native OpenXR, almost maxed out DCS settings with FSR upscaled render resolution 3600x3600.

Scene below is from F18 launch on Carrier in Persian Gulf Mission.

Without Process Lasso:

With Process Lasso:

'rdr CPU' seems responsible for VR frame rendering and is directly affected by scene complexity (like objects, clouds, etc..). A lower 'rdr CPU' will result in a lower 'app GPU'. DCS MT highly optimized 'app CPU', now 'rdr CPU' can have a relatively higher impact. You really want both CPU frame times combined to remain below 20ms to not start rendering at 30 fps and create mild stutters when switching between 45 and 30 fps.

By dedicating cores in Process Lasso (forcing affinity) for DCS.exe and all other processes separately, you are also separating 'app CPU' and 'rdr CPU' execution. 

In short:

STEP 1: First start DCS in VR. Select All Processes in Process lasso: Set affinity, Always, and select the last or first 4 threads of your if you have an 8 core/16 thread or more CPU. If you have fewer cores, maybe assign only 2 threads. (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD)

STEP 2: Then select DCS.exe, Set affinity, Always, and select the other threads (invert selection) (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD):

 

 IMPORTANT!!!! 

• Do not skip STEP 1, It is crucial to separate DCS.exe from other processes, only setting Affinity for DCS does not work. All other processes should be running on different cores than DCS.exe!
• This is tested only with OpenXR. I have not tested this with steamVR.
• Intel CPU users below report different results.  So try and make sure you test.
• Do not worry about excluding system processes, when setting affinity: if it is not possible to change affinity, nothing happens. 
• I also forced 'Always - high priority' on DCS.exe.
• Enable performance mode in Process Lasso.
• I always manually start Process Lasso before I start DCS: I do not want Process Lasso to be enabled during startup and interfere with normal usage. This config is only recommended with VR.
• This also works with other Simulators and games in VR.
• Disable 'Game Bar' - as it easily conflicts with Process Lasso settings.
• Always test and validate these settings yourselves.

Easy way to validate frame times yourself:

Choose a stable, non-moving, scene (while being parked) in the external view (with loads of objects) that has high but relatively stable 'rdr CPU' frame times. Screenshot before and after enabling Process Lasso, making sure you have the exact same view angle in VR.

Make it easy by enabling screenshots in the OpenXR toolkit companion app, enable the Advanced OpenXR FPS counter, and select CTRL + F12 to create a screenshot create before and after with the exact same view in VR. Wait for frame times to stabilize before comparing/screenshotting 'rdr CPU' and 'app GPU' values.

 

I've tired that, and does give me a few extra fps. But now everything else is like sirup. I even deleted process lasso and still everything feels slow and bad on the pix, even just moving the mouse 

[motoadve]

On 3/11/2023 at 4:22 AM, Flextremes said:

My system: Highly optimized Win 10, AMD 5800x3D, 4090, Reverb G2, Native OpenXR, almost maxed out DCS settings with FSR upscaled render resolution 3600x3600.

Scene below is from F18 launch on Carrier in Persian Gulf Mission.

Without Process Lasso:

With Process Lasso:

'rdr CPU' seems responsible for VR frame rendering and is directly affected by scene complexity (like objects, clouds, etc..). A lower 'rdr CPU' will result in a lower 'app GPU'. DCS MT highly optimized 'app CPU', now 'rdr CPU' can have a relatively higher impact. You really want both CPU frame times combined to remain below 20ms to not start rendering at 30 fps and create mild stutters when switching between 45 and 30 fps.

By dedicating cores in Process Lasso (forcing affinity) for DCS.exe and all other processes separately, you are also separating 'app CPU' and 'rdr CPU' execution. 

In short:

STEP 1: First start DCS in VR. Select All Processes in Process lasso: Set affinity, Always, and select the last or first 4 threads of your if you have an 8 core/16 thread or more CPU. If you have fewer cores, maybe assign only 2 threads. (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD)

STEP 2: Then select DCS.exe, Set affinity, Always, and select the other threads (invert selection) (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD):

 

 IMPORTANT!!!! 

• Do not skip STEP 1, It is crucial to separate DCS.exe from other processes, only setting Affinity for DCS does not work. All other processes should be running on different cores than DCS.exe!
• This is tested only with OpenXR. I have not tested this with steamVR.
• Intel CPU users below report different results.  So try and make sure you test.
• Do not worry about excluding system processes, when setting affinity: if it is not possible to change affinity, nothing happens. 
• I also forced 'Always - high priority' on DCS.exe.
• Enable performance mode in Process Lasso.
• I always manually start Process Lasso before I start DCS: I do not want Process Lasso to be enabled during startup and interfere with normal usage. This config is only recommended with VR.
• This also works with other Simulators and games in VR.
• Disable 'Game Bar' - as it easily conflicts with Process Lasso settings.
• Always test and validate these settings yourselves.

Easy way to validate frame times yourself:

Choose a stable, non-moving, scene (while being parked) in the external view (with loads of objects) that has high but relatively stable 'rdr CPU' frame times. Screenshot before and after enabling Process Lasso, making sure you have the exact same view angle in VR.

Make it easy by enabling screenshots in the OpenXR toolkit companion app, enable the Advanced OpenXR FPS counter, and select CTRL + F12 to create a screenshot create before and after with the exact same view in VR. Wait for frame times to stabilize before comparing/screenshotting 'rdr CPU' and 'app GPU' values.

 

How do I set affinity?

I dont see an option unless I click on a program, I can set affinity to DCS, but cannot find how to set affinity to the All processes tab

[beacon]

how do you set in w11 the affinity for all procesess? by not using Lasso how do you do that?

[freehand]

3 hours ago, beacon said:

how do you set in w11 the affinity for all procesess? by not using Lasso how do you do that?

In widows 10 not sure about 11 >open task manger click details right click the exe look for option.

[Glide]

You might want to try HAGS ON, Low Latency Mode = Ultra in NCP, Max FPS 45 (YMMV).  I have the G2 as well, and I get very steady frames with my settings.

I tried process affinity as well.  The only config that makes sense to me is to keep DCS off CPU 0, and let DCS have CPU 1-7 (or how many you have).  This allows Windows to do its work on CPU 0, and the sim has the rest.  However, I didn't find this to make much difference.  I run vanilla DCS without OpenXR Toolkit. 

[Captain Chuck]

Spudknockers instructions here

 

[Nightdare]

I wonder how things perform if one would assign (a) specific core(s)s to the VR engine as well

[Chipmunk]

Hi, Using Wimdows 11, AMD5800x, AMD6950x and Reverb G2 OpenXR. Installed last version of Process Lasso. I did not find the way to set STEP1 . 

I  go to parameter/set cpu affinty and it asks to choose a proces. Any idea ? 

[cmskinner]

On 3/11/2023 at 7:22 AM, Flextremes said:

My system: Highly optimized Win 10, AMD 5800x3D, 4090, Reverb G2, Native OpenXR, almost maxed out DCS settings with FSR upscaled render resolution 3600x3600.

Scene below is from F18 launch on Carrier in Persian Gulf Mission.

Without Process Lasso:

With Process Lasso:

'rdr CPU' seems responsible for VR frame rendering and is directly affected by scene complexity (like objects, clouds, etc..). A lower 'rdr CPU' will result in a lower 'app GPU'. DCS MT highly optimized 'app CPU', now 'rdr CPU' can have a relatively higher impact. You really want both CPU frame times combined to remain below 20ms to not start rendering at 30 fps and create mild stutters when switching between 45 and 30 fps.

By dedicating cores in Process Lasso (forcing affinity) for DCS.exe and all other processes separately, you are also separating 'app CPU' and 'rdr CPU' execution. 

In short:

STEP 1: First start DCS in VR. Select All Processes in Process lasso: Set affinity, Always, and select the last or first 4 threads of your if you have an 8 core/16 thread or more CPU. If you have fewer cores, maybe assign only 2 threads. (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD)

STEP 2: Then select DCS.exe, Set affinity, Always, and select the other threads (invert selection) (if applicable, only select Intel Performance Cores or cores on the AMD X3D CCD):

 

 IMPORTANT!!!! 

• Do not skip STEP 1, It is crucial to separate DCS.exe from other processes, only setting Affinity for DCS does not work. All other processes should be running on different cores than DCS.exe!
• This is tested only with OpenXR. I have not tested this with steamVR.
• Intel CPU users below report different results.  So try and make sure you test.
• Do not worry about excluding system processes, when setting affinity: if it is not possible to change affinity, nothing happens. 
• I also forced 'Always - high priority' on DCS.exe.
• Enable performance mode in Process Lasso.
• I always manually start Process Lasso before I start DCS: I do not want Process Lasso to be enabled during startup and interfere with normal usage. This config is only recommended with VR.
• This also works with other Simulators and games in VR.
• Disable 'Game Bar' - as it easily conflicts with Process Lasso settings.
• Always test and validate these settings yourselves.

Easy way to validate frame times yourself:

Choose a stable, non-moving, scene (while being parked) in the external view (with loads of objects) that has high but relatively stable 'rdr CPU' frame times. Screenshot before and after enabling Process Lasso, making sure you have the exact same view angle in VR.

Make it easy by enabling screenshots in the OpenXR toolkit companion app, enable the Advanced OpenXR FPS counter, and select CTRL + F12 to create a screenshot create before and after with the exact same view in VR. Wait for frame times to stabilize before comparing/screenshotting 'rdr CPU' and 'app GPU' values.

 

STEP 1: First start DCS in VR. Select All Processes in Process lasso: Set affinity, Always, and select the last or first 4 threads of your if you have an 8 core/16 thread or more CPU.

For step 1 do you mean to set all other processes( there can be hundreds of them) or just DCS . Step 1 can be miss leading. you did not elaborate on this. Is this select DCS and set affinity or set affinity for all other processes (background processes)? this is confusing. 

[coolts]

See my post here for how to fix this until ED patch it.