Affinity Tool questions to improve performance

[airjocky2]

Hey all,

 

I have an i7 920 Overclocked to 3.8 Ghz with a GTX 295. The game runs pretty smooth but from what I've read using an "affinity tool", since the game is so CPU dependent, will help it perform better. I have a few questions since I've never used/heard of an affinity tool before getting DCS.

 

1. What is an affinity tool? Where do you get it?

 

2. If there is more than one type of affinity tool what one is recommended for this game?

 

3. What is the best way to configure and use the tool to maximize performance for the i7?

 

Thanks for any feedback

[Maximus_G]

First of all, you don't need it if you're using Windows XP. It's useful only in Vista and Win7.

 

1. Basically it's a tool that applies multicore affinity to DCS.exe process. You can do it manually in Windows, and the tools just make it more convenient.

 

2. Tastes differ, while i'm personally fine with DCS Max. Though it could be an overkill if you're just into affinity trick.

 

3. Just make it use 2 cores. (no need to set 4-cores affinity).

[Safari Ken]

How come only two cores? Don't you get anything extra from the other two?

[Maximus_G]

Performed a series of tests to figure it out.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=668163#post668163

[Distiler]

They key to make i7 play smooth and real fast seems to be disable hyperthreading (4 virtual cores) in the bios and set all 4 physical cores in DCSMax.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Distiler

[NismoRR]

I was blown away yesterday when I set affinity to four cores on an i7-920. With shadows turned down and far terrain off, I was getting 31-33 fps in cockpit on the tarmac. When I set affinity to four cores, 54-55 fps. AMAZING!!! Turned far terrain on, 25 fps without affinity, 40 fps with four cores. VERY smooth and in the country I'm maxxing out at 60 fps with vsync. I really can't believe how much better it runs.

[EtherealN]

What do you mean by "far terrain"?

 

I've had an issue with the terrain not loading for really far away things, but airports and such over there do load, leading to it looking like there's far away airbases floating in thin air. :( But I do have everything (I think) on maximum. Is there further editing possible in lua files?

[NismoRR]

Just in the basic system settings (I think) where you have the graphic options, there is a box for far terrain. I'm not even close to editing lua files yet. I have everything on except full shadows, using the middle option there.

[EtherealN]

Ah, ah well. Yeah, I have the distance setting there at maximum but would like to increase it a bit more.

 

Btw, if you have water on full, bump that down to medium. It makes very little difference visually but can give massive boosts in FPS.

[NismoRR]

Yeah, water is on medium. Looks very good to me. I really enjoy flying over the lake approaching the airfield on the shooting range mission at sunset. Very nice. That's were I'm doing most of my practice/training. Looking to fire a weapon, any weapon, today. That and figure out auto-hover.

Great stuff!

[EtherealN]

To be honest, I don't ever use auto-hover. I did some extra practice with the trimming to let myself achieve stable hovers without it, and I feel safer in a combat zone knowing that I can do evasive maneuvers real quick without having any autopilot stuff to argue with.

 

But I'm also a bit of a control freak when in the air. :P

[Skydoc]

Also note that when autohover is used, altitude hold gets switched automatically on as well - BUT when you disengage hover mode, alt hold stays ON. That has caused me lots of trouble in the past.

[Baldy]

Yeah i also noticed that alt hold stays on after auto hover, my question is if this is in a real ka-52 too or if its a bug? I think its annoying anyway since i want it in same state as before hovering and cant find any reason why i would like to have it on suddenly after hoover.

[EinsteinEP]

To be honest, I don't ever use auto-hover. I did some extra practice with the trimming to let myself achieve stable hovers without it, and I feel safer in a combat zone knowing that I can do evasive maneuvers real quick without having any autopilot stuff to argue with.

 

But I'm also a bit of a control freak when in the air. :P

Ditto! I use auto-hover only when I know I'm going to be hanging out for a while and there's no reasonable chance that I'll need to maneuver or evade: like waiting for other members of my flight to takeoff or catch up, or, if I gooned up my ABRIS and need the chopper to hold steady while I un-goon it.

 

In addition to honing your homing skills (pressing the "autohover" button is not a skill, IMHO), you can also scootch around, left and right, forward and backward, while "hovering", presenting a more challenging target to the enemy that you don't see who's targeting you. Can't do that with autohover!

[ZaltysZ]

I think, advocates of no-auto-hover should try to hover in gusty wind without auto hover :D

[EtherealN]

Well yeah, if it becomes impossible to maintain a stable hover manually I'll have to do something else.

 

But I have yet to run into a mission, player-made or in the campaigns, where I have not felt better off with a manual hover. In fact, I find it to be more work to ensure that it's doing what it's supposed to do rather than just hover myself.

[ZaltysZ]

Fly, stop, engage auto hover - bad. Fly, stop, trim to hover, engage auto hover - good. :)

 

If you simply engage auto hover after stopping over some point, you won't get any good results as it will drift sometimes slightly, sometimes wildly. You need to trim the helicopter for hover and only then engage auto hover mode.

 

You may ask "Why to bother with auto hover, when trim is sufficient?". Well, in gusty wind you won't be able to hover just by using trim (you will have to use auto hover or constantly fight the drift with stick). Even in still weather it is good idea to always use auto hover mode or you may get a bad habit (or lack of good one). Usage of auto hover requires some practice, especially in environment, where you need to change position frequently: you have to quickly disengage auto hover, move, stop, trim, engage auto hover, wait, disengage auto hover, move a little, engage auto hover and so on. It should be transparent to you, but it won't be, if you don't use it constantly.

[EtherealN]

That's not what I was saying ZaltysZ.

 

What I'm saying is that I have yet to run into a situation where I can't hover it myself with a gentle trimming, and I have never found myself stressed by having to do it manually while performing tasks such as target acquisition.

 

You'll want to note a key word in my posts: "manual".

 

I'm not saying you are better off trimming and then pretending that it'll stay in an indefinite perfect hover no matter what.

 

I'm saying that I prefer trimming it to a hover and then maintaining it manually. That is my personal preference, and it is such due to the fact that it allows me to maintain absolute and full control of the aircraft - there is less risk of systems fighting my inputs if I have to suddenly conduct some violent evasive maneuvers, and if that happens and I am (as per usual) between 10 and 30 meters above the ground I definitely want the chopper to just do exactly what I'm telling it to do with absolutely no risk of other system interference. (Excepting the standard damper channels obviously.)

 

That all may or may not be a "bad habit", but it is my preference.

 

EDIT:

I think I found where the confusion entered:

In fact, I find it to be more work to ensure that it's doing what it's supposed to do rather than just hover myself.

 

That might introduce the impression that I'm having real issues with it. That's not what I meant, so I'll elaborate a bit on it: when using the auto-hover there is a big part of what's happening with the helicopter that has nothing to do with my own inputs, so it is more difficult to judge what's happening with it. If I have my hand on the stick and full authority there is "only me", and thereby anything that happens in it's movement will be directly correlated to me doing something - if it isn't then I know I need to check it out. This is not the case with the auto-hover, so I end up checking it more often "just in case". If the game could simulate the actual feeling you get in your rear end when an aircraft does small adjustments in attitude this might not be as big of a thing for me, but IRL I am accustomed to having feedback that you just can't get in a simulator.

Edited April 12, 2009 by EtherealN

[EtherealN]

Oh, and I think we are getting rather violently off-topic. >.<

[Safari Ken]

when using the auto-hover there is a big part of what's happening with the helicopter that has nothing to do with my own inputs, so it is more difficult to judge what's happening with it. If I have my hand on the stick and full authority there is "only me", and thereby anything that happens in it's movement will be directly correlated to me doing something - if it isn't then I know I need to check it out. This is not the case with the auto-hover, so I end up checking it more often "just in case".

 

Although I am not a good enough pilot (yet) to do that full time, I heartily agree with you in principle. Better to have full control as often as possible. :thumbsup:

[Yskonyn]

OK, I can see why you want to have full control, but how do you manage to keep the heli in a manual steady hover when, for example, you're turning your view away to look at the ABRIS or operate the Shkval from the TV screen?

You got a pretty steady hand if you can keep the heli in its hover spot while scanning for targets.

 

I find it hard most of the time to scan with the TV let alone control the heli at the same time. That's when I definately use auto-hover.

 

Besides if you're afraid you'll get under fire and might have to do violent evasive maneuvers you're clearly not in the right spot to be hovering anyway! ;) :P

 

Indeed 'violently off-topic', but I couldn't resist this one.

I refrain from more off topic input.

[AlphaInfinity]

They key to make i7 play smooth and real fast seems to be disable hyperthreading (4 virtual cores) in the bios and set all 4 physical cores in DCSMax.

 

This is only true on certain motherboards. This does not seem to be true on ASUS boards. I have tried this with mine and there is 0 performance degredation when using hyperthreading on an i7 processor.

[EtherealN]

You got a pretty steady hand if you can keep the heli in its hover spot while scanning for targets.

 

I find it hard most of the time to scan with the TV let alone control the heli at the same time. That's when I definately use auto-hover.

 

What can I say, I spend waaaay too much time practicing with this sim. :P

[Cyb0rg]

Yeah, same here i dont use auto-hover anymore. :music_whistling:

 

Edit: only if the phone rings or when go to the fridge get a beer :D

Edited April 13, 2009 by Cyb0rg

[NismoRR]

This is only true on certain motherboards. This does not seem to be true on ASUS boards. I have tried this with mine and there is 0 performance degredation when using hyperthreading on an i7 processor.

 

Alpha, I'm using a P6T Deluxe as well, and I'm getting great results with affinity set to four cores and hyperthreading off. My results are on the first page of the thread, but briefly, I was getting 31-33 fps in cockpit on the tarmac, no affinity. When I set affinity to four cores, 54-55 fps. With a 920 not clocked at all yet.