reported Multithreading: Flipping between F10 and F1 Causing intense, and lasting screen-tearing in VR

[Toga10]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person with this image. one of the biggest problems with dcs right now 

[winghunter]

I had the same issue, so I created this mod to fix it. I believe its caused by the hangar scene loading in background on the F10 map. Which seems to cause some memory leaks after switching forth and back. Disabling this scene fixed the issue for me.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3319867/

[Schwarzy]

I have the same problem, but I dont play in VR, I use a track ir and a screen. Sometimes (not each time), after using the F10 map, when I press F1 I have a black screen during sometimes 10-20-30 seconds... If I am not with autopilot on, my planes is crashed on the ground when the screen come back. I have only this problem with the MT, and it appears on any server, like our private dedicated server with only a few players.
I have a RTX 3080, 64 gb ddr5 RAM, i712700KF.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Schwarzy

[MoleUK]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:50 AM, winghunter said:

I had the same issue, so I created this mod to fix it. I believe its caused by the hangar scene loading in background on the F10 map. Which seems to cause some memory leaks after switching forth and back. Disabling this scene fixed the issue for me.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3319867/

Ah this might explain why I've not run into it. Been using the mod for over a year now, definitely recommend it.

[Trison]

so do i have to install that into every aircraft?

[MoleUK]

15 hours ago, Trison said:

so do i have to install that into every aircraft?

Nope, it's universal. Gets rid of the hanger background with a plane in it when bringing up F10 and switches it with a blank/black screen background.

Edited September 19, 2023 by MoleUK

[Trison]

Well I did something wrong cause I still have a hanger in my f10.

 

[Trison]

yeah I've put in my main Mods folder and my saved games (Openbeta mods) folder both have same result. I still have hanger on map and still FPS goes from 60+ to 8fps.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Edited September 19, 2023 by Trison

[Trison]

got the mod to work but same issue going from map to F1. Tried it in the non MT as well even worse:) any ideas?

 

[Qcumber]

I've just started getting the same thing but so far only with the f-16 on the Syria map over Cyprus (twice now) and f-14 over Marianas (three times). I've had to restart DCS to get rid of the massive decrease in frame rate. I was running msi just now and it recorded a massive increase in VID usage at the time it happened. From about 30% to 100%. I'm wondering if mine is being caused by an unstable GPU overclock. Maybe I should back off a little. 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Qcumber

[PLUTON]

alutations to all
I also noticed a problem of massive loss of fps after using the F 10 key and returning to F 1 with the F15E on all cards my fps goes from 60 to 16/20 fps and I am forced to stop my mission because this do not change.
the change is made and everything returns to normal by starting my mission again and above all no longer touching the F10 key;
Will ED fix this?

Bien sur tout ca se passe qu en MT pour ma part.

[fisadev]

Hi! I wanted to share a very useful discovery that at least in my setup, helps me fix the F10-map-related FPS drops when they happen. This doesn't prevent the FPS from dropping when using the map, but fixes it when that happens.

 

Most of you are probably already aware that doing alt-tab can get your original FPS back, but it's unreliable at best, and sometimes it just won't fix it at all no matter how many times you do it. Well, I think I found out why: even if you alt-tab, if any screen (including the VR headset) is showing any pixels from DCS, there's a high chance the drop in FPS isn't fixed. So you have to make sure absolutely no screen is showing any part of the game at all, including the VR headset if you are using one, to get your FPS back reliably.

In my case, that means doing two steps:

1) Alt-tabbing to another full screen app. Not just any app, but a full screen one. I just use a cmd.exe window in full screen mode with F11, which I always have opened anyway when flying because of some home made scripts I use for a button box.

2) Switching to the desktop mode of Virtual Desktop (which I use for the VR headset), getting out of VR mode, so DCS isn't rendered in the headset anymore. In the case of VD, you can do that with a VR controller or with the Shift+Windows+D keyboard shortcut (while DCS isn't in focus, otherwise DCS "eats" the key presses. But after step 1 DCS is already out of focus, yay).

Those two steps guarantee that no screen, desktop or VR headset, is trying to show any pixels from DCS at all. And that seems to do the trick, I get my high FPSs back every time when doing this, 100% reliable in my case at least. Hope that's the case for others as well!

[profetadelmus]

This problem is recursively. Not only occurs in F10 map but in "standard" game too. I have constants 70-72 fps normally but when this behavior occurs, the frames goes down to 30-40 and the the game goes unresponsible. Sometimes alt-tab works (sometimes are seconds, sometimes you have to wait one or two minutes,...) but clearly was a problem in dcs engine.

 

[seven10]

This has been happening to me as well and at first I thought it was just issues brought on by running very close to the limits of my previous CPU and GPU in multiplayer servers. It would mostly show up in the 14 and 15E, especially after switching between the F10 map and cockpit or opening the jester menu. However, I upgraded my system to a 7800X3D with 64GB of ram this past week and I unfortunately am seeing the same issues, especially on the 14. I have turned off ASW in the Oculus Debug Tool and tried the Ctrl+Num 1 method that was posted here to no avail. When looking at the frame times in OpenXR Tool kit I'm consistently under 13ms combined CPU and GPU latency so I should be able to maintain a solid 72fps without tearing. I'd be glad to provide any other info needed to replicate.

Operation_Scarlet_Dawn-20231002-015020.trk

[seven10]

Upon recommendation of the DCS Discord I tried ST tonight in MP and did not have the issue, however I did bump up against CPU limits down low. I can post the server tracks if they'd be helpful, but where should I put them since they're over 100MB each?

[seven10]

Recent DCS log and DxDiag output on SpecialK's recommendation.

dcs.log DxDiag.txt

[niru27]

I've been facing this issue since Feb 2023. Sometimes after flying for a few minutes, when I press F2, my FPS drastically drops. Seems the CPU frame time for "Present" is spiking in F2 and GPU usage spikes to 100%. If I switch to F1 view, I get normal, stable FPS.

A few observations:

• The issue occurs in both ST and MT
• FPS drops + 100% GPU usage whenever I switch to F2/F6/F10 views AFTER a random duration. Initially there is no issue switching views
• Normal FPS + normal GPU usage when returning to F1 view
• Happens no matter the graphic settings. Have tried with Low/Med/High presets, always occurs
• Not a VRAM issue: tried with low textures and monitored VRAM usage in MSI Afterburner, happens even with VRAM <90% full
• Not a e-core issue: I have a 12400 with no e-cores
• I've tried with a clean copy of DCS with no mods/scripts. Still occurs.
• The moment it starts to occur is random: I've tested with the same mission/campaign. Sometimes the issue occurs, sometimes it doesn't

Attached below is the ST log from today.

dcs.log DxDiag.txt

Edited October 4, 2023 by niru27

[niru27]

And here is a log from a clean DCS install + fresh Saved Games folder, to rule out problematic mods/scripts.

dcs.log

[seven10]

This is all running on a Quest Pro at 72Hz, 4480 x 2256, ASW Off, and Adaptive GPU Scaling off

dcs.log VR F10 Test.trk

[Flappie]

@niru27 Your "Saved Games" folder is stored on a HDD. You should definitely move it to another, faster drive. Also, your system drive is almost full (17 GB left when your DxDiag log was made).

However, the F10>F1 freeze problem does not seem to be caused by a slow drive, since @seven10 stored his Saved Games folder, his Temp folder and his core DCS files on a NVMe drive.

A friend of mine is affected. I've tried to reproduce this issue on a server we were playing on, but my PC is fine (even though I'm affected by the long texture loading time symptom in MP). I'll try to mimic the NVCP + DCS settings above and see if it makes any difference.

[Flappie]

@seven10Can you please share your NVCP "Image scaling" global setting? It's not shown in your screenshot (only says "Use global setting").

Edited October 6, 2023 by Flappie

[xmudroller]

Did you guys check your Virtual memory, I put at least 16.000gb on my, And it runs very smooth i also used smart game booster.

[profetadelmus]

hace 2 horas, xmudroller dijo:

Did you guys check your Virtual memory, I put at least 16.000gb on my, And it runs very smooth i also used smart game booster.

I have 32gb of RAM and i verify that Windows assigns 12gb more in virtual memory (automatic settings) i doubt that the problem was related to virtual memory, but i try it.

[seven10]

On 10/6/2023 at 5:12 PM, Flappie said:

@seven10Can you please share your NVCP "Image scaling" global setting? It's not shown in your screenshot (only says "Use global setting").

 

Sure, here you go

On 10/7/2023 at 1:19 AM, xmudroller said:

Did you guys check your Virtual memory, I put at least 16.000gb on my, And it runs very smooth i also used smart game booster.

Yep, I've tried 32GB, 64GB, and system managed all with no change to this issue. Unfortunately the only thing that seems to work for making things run smooth between multiple F10 to F1 switches is to use the non-MT exe.

[xmudroller]

Remember the unwanted processes' software, it's called smart game booster it will help disable processes running in the background