Switch F10 -> F1 views

[tomeye]

I mostly fly in VR using a 3080ti as egpu via thunderbolt. Performance and visuals are quite nice and small benefit was seen from the recently added multi threading.

However, one issue I am facing quite some time now is when I switch from F1 to F10 view and switch back to F1 the GPU time gets 60 or 100+ ms and this causes huge shuttering.

Could this be because of the egpu and data transfer over the thunderbolt? Sometimes it will recover performance but timing seems really random and sometime it just doesn't

[Hendry30]

I have the same problem!!!...my specs: i711700,rtx3080ti,64gb ram,g2 reverb,openxr.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Hendry30

[Nuggetz]

Same for me (F16), specs below. 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Nuggetz

[M-Flux]

@tomeye, I'm curious what your VRAM usage is saying. Could it be that when you hit F10 it gets saturated and system RAM needs to fill in? Maybe you can check with some tools?

I'm currently trying a new Lenovo T14s AMD Gen3 + eGPU enclosure (Razer Core X Chroma) + Radeon RX 6650 XT here (but on Linux - so take any of my experiences/issues with a grain of salt, might be unrelated) and run into the following issue: Everything runs smoothely and with nice, detailed graphics until my 8GB VRAM gets saturated. Then depending on the amount of overallocation the FPS gradually decreases.  And the VRAM gets saturated in the following two cases for me: A) High presets/textures + detailed map (like Syria), even more VRAM seems to get used when I hit F10. So with some settings F10 just brings me over the 8GB VRAM edge. Also Firefox takes 1GB of VRAM for me (so closing it helps a bit for me)... Or B) a multiplayer map, then even with low presets/textures DCS requests 12 GB of VRAM. Or ~16GB of VRAM with high presets/textures.

When overallocating VRAM, I guess that would be particularly hurtful for us with an eGPU. If everything that needs to be rendered is already in VRAM, then Thunderbolt 3 is no bottleneck, I guess. Otherwise it frequently needs to copy stuff from RAM over the "slow" Thunderbolt link (slow compared to a direct PCIe link).

I'm also curious if when you join one of the busy multiplayer maps if you get heavy stuttering (high VRAM usage?) immediately, too.

[tomeye]

I am using the OXR toolkit on-screen menu which shows CPU/GPU and VRAM utilization. When switching I see no big change in VRAM usage but when going back to F1 I can see and feel the GPU time going to 70ms or even more higher values. It feels like an issue of thread handling and prioritization from the dcs.exe process but I need more data to understand.

I will try to collect some statistics using the OXR toolkit and come back.

[Nuggetz]

I continue to experience lagging and wobbling headset visuals despite recent software update. Given the FPS is 75 @ 75hz it appears that moving one’s head gives the impression the headset tracking can’t keep up resulting in the laggy stuttering views inside and outside the cockpit. I have turned the textures down and MSAA off (Pitool 1.75) which has helped in general but the main issue persists. 
 

As long as I don’t touch the F10 key performance and visuals are very good. 
 

Has anyone found a solution yet? 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Nuggetz

[Nuggetz]

SOLUTION: 

I appear to have found the solution, at least for me. 
 

I have switched from Pitool (V.277) and now use Pimax Client 1.10 all the problems experienced when switching between F1-F10-F1 appear to have been resolved with a much smoother experience and high FPS. Hope this helps other Pimax users. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Nuggetz

[tomeye]

As far I understand Pitool is specific to pimax headset. I am using a G2, so not sure what can be done on my side. Although recent patches seem to have helped with fps, not completely but now it jumps back to normal quicker.

[Flappie]

Possible solution here:

 

[tomeye]

1 hour ago, Flappie said:

Possible solution here:

 

Thanks, I will try it and update the thread.

[tomeye]

Removed most of mods and it seems to have worked

[Wizard1393]

Still having this issue myself. Started a long time ago. I avoid using the F10 map alltogether.

Most times (not always) the issue can be corrected when alt-tabbing out of the game for 5-10 seconds, then back again.

This tells me there should be something that can be done code-wise how the game unloads recourses loaded when bringing up the map...

[tomeye]

I feel it got better with removing mods but still I see some lag when switching f1-f10. As you mention there is some load/unload when switching which affects performance.

 

[Teleblaster]

I have the same issue and it’s horrible. I don’t use any mods so I don’t think the above fix will do anything for me, but I will try it if things don’t improve soon. 

[tomeye]

It happened again to me

Not sure if it is related to some mods I had to enable because of multiplayer server I joined. It seems that GPU loses priority from DCS to something else and I am not sure what can be done to revert.

[Checkmate]

Having same issue whenever I just hit the F-10 key to look at the map. The sim feels like it freezes for about 10 to 15 seconds before returning back to the F-1 view. 

[tomeye]

@BIGNEWY any chance the dev team is aware of the discussed issue?

[BIGNEWY]

We have a report open for performance issues when there are lots of drawings on the F10 map, it maybe related. 

I would suggest if possible adding the dcs log from the session and the track replay so we can take a look at specifics. 

It is difficult for me as I dont seem to be seeing the issue on my rig. 

thank you 

[AhSoul]

On 4/8/2024 at 12:34 PM, BIGNEWY said:

We have a report open for performance issues when there are lots of drawings on the F10 map, it maybe related. 

 

Interesting. We pretty much mostly have been playing Pretense, which has a lot of labels etc added to the F-10 map. I'll see If I notice a difference in behaviour between Pretense Syria and a different Syria mission without all that extra text.

Though given how much else is going on in Pretense I'm not sure if that's exactly a fair test.

Edited April 9 by AhSoul

[AhSoul]

No idea if this helps, but I just loaded up Pretense Syria in the mission editor and sat in both the Huey and the Apache on the ramp at Hussein.

I could swap back and force between F10 and F1 no issues in the Huey. I did have issues in the Apache. So maybe it's module specific?

However I also noticed that I'm basically using all my 32Gb of RAM, all of the time. I'm using most of the 16Gb of VRAM on my 4080Super, but that doesn't seem to max out. RAM usage didn't seem to change moving in and out of F10, though GPU load did.

So is 32Gb simply not enough? It never seemed as bad as it sometimes is when I play the same mission online with a couple of friends.

 

Edited April 9 by AhSoul

[AlienAlien]

Same issue here.

Seems to be VR related, as I don't have the issue when playing 2D version.

dcs.log