Steam: 2.9.8.1214+ FPS performance issue

[MAXsenna]

35 minutes ago, jackd said:

Tip: clean your shader cache files with Windows Disk Cleanup.

Why not just use File Explorer? Does this app actually seek out shaders? I'm curious. 

Cheers 

[jackd]

Now where's that cache folder? BTW i am just having stutters again after several perfect game starts ...

Disk Cleaner showed me a direct x shader cache on my game drive.

Edited October 14, 2024 by jackd

[MAXsenna]

29 minutes ago, jackd said:

Now where's that cache folder? BTW i am just having stutters again after several perfect game starts ...

Disk Cleaner showed me a direct x shader cache on my game drive.

 

Check your FXO and Metashaders folders in Saved Games. 

[scommander2]

1 hour ago, MAXsenna said:

FXO and Metashaders folders

I had deleted two folders, and it did not help in my case.  Thanks.

[scommander2]

I am starting to look at the CPU affinity and priority based on the video made by SP:

Windows 10/11 can set both options through Task Manager and I would like to play around to find out any improvement to my DCS.

 

 

[BIGNEWY]

I would be interested to know if you see any difference with windows game bar enabled and disabled.

Long shot I know but I think worth testing for some processors.

[scommander2]

Based on the ED FAQ tech site:

Steam (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

for the subject "How do I add command line arguments to a Steam shortcut?"

The value "7F" is an example if I would like to make CPU affinity for the first 6 CPUs.

EDIT1: sharing the CPU affinity calculator @ CPU Affinity Mask Calculator (bitsum.com)

EDIT2: Steam launch options @ Steam Support :: Setting Game Launch Options (steampowered.com)

 

 

Edited October 14, 2024 by scommander2

[scommander2]

The following is my testing regarding the CPU affinity with dcs.exe.

My CPU is i9-13900H, and P-cores and total CPUs can be set according to the Intel web site: 

 

** NOTE: my Nvidia Control Panel has limited 60 FPS as well as DCS Max FPS ** (Do not want to overkill my system)

 

Enable Window Game bar for the following tests:

With the affinity of 20 CPUs:

With the affinity of 10 CPUs:

As soon as I do "Task Manager"->"Details"->"dcs.exe"->"Set Affinity"->"All Processors"->"OK", my FPS is back 53 and stable.

 My finding

When I did all core unparking, and it made all P-cores available to the most of processes regardless priorities.  The video that I posted in the previous post was set the affinity to dcs.exe with all P-cores, and not other window processes.

There is my dcs.exe found in the task manager with all core unparking:

The priority of dcs.exe is normal and my AV priority even higher than doc.exe.  I think that I can set dcs.exe priority to high (mentioned in the video also) by doing "Task Manager"->"Details"->"Set Priority" (with selected dcs.exe shown above)->"High" so that dcs.exe can be scheduled into all P-cores in the most runtime possible.

When I set "High", the FPS does not increase and I hope that dcs.exe should better and smooth.  I need to test more to find out.

Thanks.

Edited October 15, 2024 by scommander2

[scommander2]

Priority / Affinity for dcs.exe

I have discovered that "Selected Launch Option" has the limited options and it can't take "-high" for the priority setting.

The following cmd script will make changes for affinity and priority:

: set CPU affinity to the process
:
: Binary to Decimal at https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html
: For example for 20 CPUs (P-Cores)
: Binary  = 11111111111111111111
: Decimal = 1048575
: "1" - select
: "0" - not select
:
powershell.exe "$process = Get-Process dcs; $process.ProcessorAffinity = 1048575"

:
: sets process with the specified priority
:
: Priorities are:
: Realtime     -> 256
: High         -> 128
: Above normal -> 32768
: Normal       -> 32
: Below normal -> 16384
: Low          -> 64
:
powershell.exe "gwmi win32_process -f 'name=\"dcs.exe\"' | foreach-object { $_.setPriority( 32768 ) }"

save the contents into a file with ".cmd" and make sure the permissions to execute the cmd file.

To execute the cmd file after dcs.exe is up and running.

 

Edited October 16, 2024 by scommander2

[scommander2]

I am not sure that "Scale GUI" will cause FPS drops since I have the 4K 3840x2160 monitor and I set it for 1.25.

 

[SharpeXB]

@scommander2 I see you’re using a 13th Gen CPU. Are you aware of this issue here? 

 

[scommander2]

32 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

I see you’re using a 13th Gen CPU. Are you aware of this issue here? 

Thanks for checking.  My CPU is the "H" model, and there is no overclock option on my system.

[SharpeXB]

17 minutes ago, scommander2 said:

Thanks for checking.  My CPU is the "H" model, and there is no overclock option on my system.

Some more info, not sure whether it affects all the 13 and 14 series or not. It looks like it’s just the desktop ones though.

https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/June-2024-Guidance-regarding-Intel-Core-13th-and-14th-Gen-K-KF/m-p/1607807#M73544

Edited October 17, 2024 by SharpeXB

[jackd]

Posted elsewhere too, and for DCS MT version in case of gameplay stuttering

Hyperthreading in BIOS should be off.

disable Vsync and Fullscreen in DCS settings.

clean the FXO folder in Saved Games.

You could use Bitsun Park Control to disable E-cores parking, some times it helps as with my i9 12900K system.

Edited October 19, 2024 by jackd

[scommander2]

Testing With ParkControl and other adjustments

Thanks for @jackd suggestions, and I have tried different settings with my new objectives:

• To obtain 60 FPS (pre-set in Nvidia Control Panel and DCS options) and not over kill my system
• To utilize P-Cores as many as possible.
• To leave E-Cores for other tasks or helpers for P-Cores if too busy to handle.
• Re-test the test case "Test1" for CPU/GPU metrics v.s. FPS

 

ParkControl

Installed Bitsum ParkControl and adjusted options according to my objectives to have the long-life tasks to be assigned to P-Cores possible, other tasks (included all background prcoesses) will be handled by E-Cores:

Affinity/Priority

Re-adjusted my P-Cores affinity with dcs.exe possible, and made dcs.exe priority ("Above normal") a little bit higher most of all processes: 

: set CPU affinity to the process
:
: Binary to Decimal at https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html
: For example for 20 CPUs (P-Cores)
: Binary  = 11111111111111111111
: Decimal = 1048575
: "1" - select
: "0" - not select
:
powershell.exe "$process = Get-Process dcs; $process.ProcessorAffinity = 4095"

:
: sets process with the specified priority
:
: Priorities are:
: Realtime     -> 256
: High         -> 128
: Above normal -> 32768
: Normal       -> 32
: Below normal -> 16384
: Low          -> 64
:
powershell.exe "gwmi win32_process -f 'name=\"dcs.exe\"' | foreach-object { $_.setPriority( 32768 ) }"

 

CPU/GPU metrics

With the test case "Test1", it was about 50-55 FPS at the airfield and 60 FPS in air with the following metrics:

 

Conclusion

Overall, the 60 FPS is possible in the most cases (instant action and multiplayer), and GPU / CPU BOUNDs are based on the views (F2, F3 ..., F10).  I will perform more tests for more findings.

 

 

[jackd]

Weird, my park Control (latest free 5.2.1.4 version) looks different and has for high performance only one preset, no screensaver  ....

With Standard parking it even has Ultimate Performance:

Edited October 22, 2024 by jackd

[scommander2]

@jackd, oh.. sorry not to mention it.

I have created my own power plan for the screen saver if I am away for a while, But the rest of settings should be identical to "high performance", especially processor min/max management.

About the bitsum power plan, I have no ideal.  Is it because of mime is the paid version?! Not sure...

 

[scommander2]

I find "bitsum high performance profile" if I enable it from Settings->Experimental. 

[JohnRedcorn]

10 hours ago, scommander2 said:

I find "bitsum high performance profile" if I enable it from Settings->Experimental. 

There was also a solution to disable the "Power" service. The guy who mentioned it says that even if you set "High performance" power plan, the "Power" service continue to make a lot interupts, so disabeling it completely helps sometimes to make the game much smoothier.

 

Than there is a guy who mentioned that after each mission load, you should open the task manager, go to DCS process affinity option, disable the "0 Core", back to the game, then switch to task manager again and enable "0 Core" and the game starts to be smooth. But you need to do it each time you load a new mission.

[scommander2]

39 minutes ago, JohnRedcorn said:

Than there is a guy who mentioned that after each mission load, you should open the task manager, go to DCS process affinity option, disable the "0 Core", back to the game, then switch to task manager again and enable "0 Core" and the game starts to be smooth. But you need to do it each time you load a new mission.

Hi @JohnRedcorn, thanks...

I have the CPU affinity for dcs.exe with all of P-Cores to ensure that all of threads (included the DCS main process) are running the best loads as possible.

[JohnRedcorn]

1 minute ago, scommander2 said:

Hi @JohnRedcorn, thanks...

I have the CPU affinity for dcs.exe with all of P-Cores to ensure that all of threads (included the DCS main process) are running the best loads as possible.

You are welcome.

I just made my own tests and I have noticed that ED changed something to AI. At least it looks like this. I have a mission set on "Syria" map which I have created a long time ago when there wasn't MT yet. The mission have a lot of moving ground units columns which are also very long columns. So even when MT was introduced, this mission worked well for me both in MT and ST, but after a couple of last updates (especially after the last one), this mission is just working very bad. I even noticed that when one of the AI planes drop the bombs or when I drop the bombs. The microstutterings starting right away. Then they are stops but after the bombs impacts to the ground the microstutterings starts again for a couple of seconds.

Then I have tested a mission with less ground units on the same map, and it runs much better. Then I have tested a mission without ground units at all and it runs smooth.

So I think that the change in AI targets spotting algorithm which was mentioned by ED in one of the previous updates has impacted performance a lot. It is only my thoughts, but it looks like this. The algorithm has become much complex and it stucks CPU.

 

I'm honestly don't know why ED has divided the main game process to so many threads. I have found an interesting article from NVidia where their devs explains why it is doesn't good to divide the main game process to a lot of threads. They actually explains that there has to be a balance and if you start to open to many threads you are signifficantly reducing the game performance.

You can read it if you want, here is the link, it is NVidia site: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/limiting-cpu-threads-for-better-game-performance/

[scommander2]

50 minutes ago, JohnRedcorn said:

So I think that the change in AI targets spotting algorithm which was mentioned by ED in one of the previous updates has impacted performance a lot. It is only my thoughts, but it looks like this. The algorithm has become much complex and it stucks CPU.

Yes, I concur, and it is an excellent observation. 

My test case "Test1" for F-14 take off from Afgh airfield is very heavy load of the AI objects (alive or static) on the ground, and air (higher) is the best FPS I can have.   

When CPU BOUND is kicked in the FPS gets drop because of E-cores is part of it and I do not want my cockpit is running with CPU BOUND with E-cores.  Therefore, P-cores have to dominate the entire dcx.exe execution time because I have no idea when DCS will make GPU BOUND or CPU BOUND based on the dcs algorithm.  

Ideally, the first view (what I see currently) should be GPU BOUND (foreground with the best view and FPS) and whatever objects (background) behinds my view should be CPU BOUND so that the entire system will be balanced and not waste any resources rather than context switching between GPU/CPU (speaking from the UNIX multitasking standpoint).

[jackd]

5 hours ago, scommander2 said:

Hi @JohnRedcorn, thanks...

I have the CPU affinity for dcs.exe with all of P-Cores to ensure that all of threads (included the DCS main process) are running the best loads as possible.

Just had a mail from support that affinity for the 8th core should be off, and it seems to work at least for my staggering problem.

Pity is that you have to set it off for each new game start with DCS (MT) 2.9.8 running.

[scommander2]

1 hour ago, jackd said:

Just had a mail from support that affinity for the 8th core should be off

Wow... thanks because of the bitwise issue due to the most significant bit?

I will give a try tonight.

1 hour ago, jackd said:

Pity is that you have to set it off for each new game start with DCS (MT) 2.9.8 running.

Right.  I think that bitsum Process Lasso can make the CPU affinity adjustment in real time when dcs.exe is launched according to SP's video, but I have not tried it yet.

[scommander2]

CPU8 Affinity on/off Testing

For one minute testing

Before turning off the CPU8 affinity, I took the the resource screenshot:

nullAfter turning off the CPU8 affinity, I took the the resource screenshot again:

 

For ten minutes+ testing

For "Before turning off the CPU8 affinity", I found that FPS went up and down very often sometimes.

For " nullAfter turning off the CPU8 affinity", it seemed that FPS was more stable in the most of time.

It is very interesting finding.  Is it the implementation issue in DCS? 

Hi @jackd, "Support" is the ED tech support?  Thanks.