reported Shkval Continues to make fps go ALOT lower both ST/MT.

[aaronwhite]

It's super weird.

I usually get a framerate drop when firing the Vikhr, but it's been universal to the Ka-50, and something I experienced before the BS3 release.

Oddly, this morning, I went to fly the Ka-50 in a single player mission I created, accidentally rippled 2 Vikhrs, and it froze my game instead of the usual framerate drop with just a single missile.

It's been about 2 minutes now, but I'm waiting to see if DCS will recover or not. For science. 

Edit: Still frozen. I popped open Task Manager to see what's up, and it looks like the GPU is bouncing between 90 and 100% utilization. Oddly, unlike when the game crashes, it appears that I've still got sound, and DCS doesn't show "Program Not Responding". 

Edit 2: It's been about 5 minutes of no change. I tried hitting pause to see if maybe I could give the game a second to "catch up", but no luck there. 
null

My system isn't anything too crazy. It's got a GeForce GTX 980TI with 6GB of VRAM, an Intel Core i7-4790 @ 4GHz with 8 cores, and then 32GB of RAM. 

Oddly, when I used Task Manager to kill DCS, just before the program exited I saw "Are you sure you want to quit?" or something like that pop up on the screen, so it seems it didn't end up 100% frozen. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by aaronwhite

[FIVE-one]

Same issue, with GTX960M on my laptop, with Open Beta.
Had the issue before while playing BS2 and dropped it for this reason.

I ran several tests and confirmed it only happens while in cockpit view, with Shkval sight on. FPS goes okay when switching to F6 view of the ammunition.

I tryied some tips like reducing the forest rendering, with no effect.

Edited August 13, 2023 by FIVE-one

[Flappie]

4 minutes ago, FIVE-one said:

Same issue, with GTX960M on my laptop, with Open Beta.
Had the issue before while playing BS2 and dropped it for this reason.

I ran several tests and confirmed it only happens while in cockpit view, with Shkval sight on. FPS goes okay when switching to F6 view of the ammunition.

I tryied some tips like reducing the forest rendering, with no effect.

 

Hey mate. It's a rather good news you're able to reproduce this issue. If you're OK with it, we'll do some testing when I get back from vacation.

By the way, could all affected users attach their options.lua, please? (from Saved Games/DCS.../Config)

[FIVE-one]

Thanks for the quick answer. I'm not in a hurry anyway. I already got a lot of work to do with the Strike Eagle.

But really this framerate issue is making it nigh impossible to play solo, so I don't imagine flying it in a multiplayer mission.

options.lua

[Ace5]

options.lua

[Ace5]

Anymore people having this issue? I Still have it... 

[Spanueh]

Reinstalled BS3 this week and I noticed the Vikhr missle induced frame-rate drop.  Did Flappie's track-file and only noticed 1-5 FPS drop.  However, when shooting over land at targets, the FPS would go from 58 frames down to 18 frames.  Randomly, just once, I was able to get 72 FPS while hovering and 68 FPS firing a Vikhr missile.

Attached is the options.lua and dcs.log from Flappie's track-file and I've also provided a log and track-file of my land based test.

 

options.lua 01_Vikhr_Test_Spanueh_dcs.log dcs.log 01_Vikhr_Test_Spanueh.trk

[Flappie]

Thank @Spanueh. I'm able to reproduce the issue. My initial track was all wrong: I was too high, the Vikhr wouldn't show on my Shkval monitor. And the FPS drop is way more important when zooming in (x23).

Issue reported.

[Opal 4-1]

Hi, so regarding this issue I thought I would revitalise this thread rather than make a new one.

I have spent the last few weeks getting DCS to run smoothly in MT both SP & MP. I have got to the point that I can run even the Apache really well. The Gazelle L also runs well now since the Gazelle update and PC are aware of the FPS issue with it.  

However the Blackshark still causes me issues! Everything is fine until I turn on the Shkval and my FPS tanks!  I see the FPS hit when firing Vikhirs has been reported, but not this issue. When I trialled the BS2 I cant remember if I experienced this issue but after buying BS3 I have been unable to play it.

I do run an older setup but as said above I can get the Apache to run with tads on one display and PNVS on and it runs fine both in SP & MP. All my modules run extremely well except the BS3!

The long list of steps I have taken to resolve this;

Removed all mods

Ran slow repair

Deleted fxo & metashaders every time I changed a setting

All settings tested multiple variations in options from low to highest levels

In game Vsync on & off

In game anisotropic filtering on & off

Nvidia control panel anisotropic filtering on & off

Nvidia control panel Vync on & off, Fast Vsync on & off, Adaptive Vsync on & off, max frame rates set just below monitor refresh rate, ultra latency mode on & off

Renamed saved games folder and tried with a fresh one

And countless variations on all of the above!

If this could be investigated it would be appreciated. 

My settings which allow me to run all modules well bar BS3 are;

With the above, Nvidia control panel settings include;

Ultra latency mode/Vsync/Max Frame rate (set just below refresh rate)

I have also attached a simple miz and the associated track file.

BS3 Shkval Miz.miz

BS3 Shkval Track.trk

From my settings investigations and seeing that all other modules I own run well, this can only be an issue with this module. I have even tried Taz's optimised BS3 and although it helps it still doesn't solve the issue. 

Regards

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by Lloyd80

[MAXsenna]

@Lloyd80

Try to turn down the resolution of cockpit displays. You currently has them at 1024.The setting also affects mirrors. Try to turn them off too. 

Cheers! 

Edited September 17, 2023 by MAXsenna

[okopanja]

6 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

@Lloyd80

Try to turn down the resolution of cockpit displays. You currently has them at 1024.The setting also affects mirrors. Try to turn them off too. 

Cheers! 

 

I did not change my settings (or used mirrors), and also observed this multiple times. Most likely to reproduce is when flying blueflag, eg. 80s and trying to use the shkval near airports. The FPS which was quite high until this moment, turns into the slide show and it is very difficult to maneuver and fly (hover).

[MAXsenna]

2 hours ago, okopanja said:

I did not change my settings (or used mirrors), and also observed this multiple times. Most likely to reproduce is when flying blueflag, eg. 80s and trying to use the shkval near airports. The FPS which was quite high until this moment, turns into the slide show and it is very difficult to maneuver and fly (hover).

Was just a suggestion. I have an old computer too, and need to turn down certain settings.

[Opal 4-1]

Thanks Max,

I tried all the settings from low to high including the cockpit displays and I have mirrors OFF permanently.

21 hours ago, Lloyd80 said:

All settings tested multiple variations in options from low to highest levels

But I do appreciate your input, many thanks!

Edited September 18, 2023 by Lloyd80

[Flappie]

I was able to reproduce the issue, which has been reported internally.

[Lord_Cricket]

I had the same issue from the start with the SU-25T.  My setup is not great but all other weapons worked fine - only the Vikhrs create a noticeable FPS drop.

However, when I got to a specific campaign mission it got worse to the point of severe lag ending up in complete freeze of DCS.

I tried to mission several times just to get "stuck" on a missile run - sometimes the first, other times after a couple of passes...

 

When game freezes I can open Task Manager and it says it is running fine. Like reported here before, if I use the manager to "kill" the program DCS displays the message are you sure you want to Exit, before being shut down. I found after the 3rd time that if you Do Alt+Tab show your open tabs and try and force the DCS to shut down by clicking on "X" it displays the message and lets you open the game menu. If you get back to the game it is still stuck, but at least you might end the mission if you had the objectives completed and not lose everything.

 

Now, after looking at this thread, I did the following changes:

 - Changed to FullScreen - I thought it was but option was not selected

 - Changed Internal Displays from 1024 every frame to 512

 - Changed map icons from All to Fog of War - This because for me it disables the F6 "Missile Camera" so one less thing for the PC to render (I'm guessing....)

 

I tried again - crappy and laggy images on the mirror, but the Vikhrs no longer created a FPS drop like they used to, at least nothing noticeable. Almost depleted the 16 missiles without a single freeze.

Not sure which of the above changes did the trick, but for me it solved.

Hope this helps

 

 

[Flappie]

2 hours ago, Lord_Cricket said:

- Changed Internal Displays from 1024 every frame to 512

This is the one that helps. The FPS drop goes from 50% to 20% which is indeed better. I'll add this discovery to the internal report.

Thanks.

[BJ55]

Any news on this issue? On simple scenarios my FPS drop from 60 to 40, tested with 1024/512 displays, high/med textures, MSAA 2x/DLSS, default and flat shadows, on heavy scenarios it becomes a nigthmare. (Both Ka-50 and AH-64 are heavy on my system, GPU usage goes from 50% with AC to 90% with choppers, so it takes little to exaust resources)

 

Edited January 4 by BJ55

[Flappie]

The internal report was bumped a week ago.

[Lixma 06]

The Vikhrs barely emit smoke now - which is a bit of a drastic fix, but it works fine - no more Vikhr FPS tanking.

[Flappie]

3 hours ago, Lixma 06 said:

The Vikhrs barely emit smoke now - which is a bit of a drastic fix, but it works fine - no more Vikhr FPS tanking.

Not for me (from 83 to 41 FPS, a half). You won't see much FPS loss if you're using VSync. You also need to use a Resolution of Cockpit Display of 1024 to see the max FPS drop (1024 -> -50%, 512 -> -20%).

Edited January 3 by Flappie

[Lixma 06]

Yep, you're right - I have the Cockpit Display thingy at 512 every frame which was hiding the FPS drop.

(was the smoke reduction un-necessary?)

Anyway, here's what happens when you turn off the TV during the Vikhr's flight.

 

 

[FusRoPotato]

I imagine they did something sneaky, like reduce the smoke sprite size by some large % or reduce its count, not fixing the problem but making the symptoms a lot more tolerable. The Harrier exhaust smoke in FLIR on the other hand is still a massive FPS tanker. I have a 5800x3d with a 7900XTX that will still drop to less than 1 fps while viewing in the aft direction. It's so bad that it can sometimes just cause a complete lockup. I've learned to just switch IR off while overflying stuff to compensate but it's not fool-proof. It's probably reasonable to remove that smoke effect altogether as a temporary solution if this rendering issue can't be solved.

[Flappie]

5 minutes ago, FusRoPotato said:

I imagine they did something sneaky, like reduce the smoke sprite size by some large % or reduce its count, not fixing the problem but making the symptoms a lot more tolerable. The Harrier exhaust smoke in FLIR on the other hand is still a massive FPS tanker. I have a 5800x3d with a 7900XTX that will still drop to less than 1 fps while viewing in the aft direction. It's so bad that it can sometimes just cause a complete lockup. I've learned to just switch IR off while overflying stuff to compensate but it's not fool-proof. It's probably reasonable to remove that smoke effect altogether as a temporary solution if this rendering issue can't be solved.

Is that reported somewhere? It's the first time I hear about it.

[FusRoPotato]

Yes, it has been reported here many times.

The replication requires seeing buildings or trees behind exhaust gasses while in the AV-8's TPOD in thermal mode.