Lag problem when DCS has focus

[djib]

Hello,

 

I'm having a strange problem: DCS lags at very regular intervals (about 2 or 3 seconds) when it has focus. When I focus on another window, DCS seems to be running smooth.

I have tried disabling the antivirus, setting the process affinity, and killing most useless processes, I keep on having same the problem.

 

Any idea where that could come from?

[Panzertard]

Sounds like a classical symptoms with:

Disk activity? Not enough memory available? Swapfile usage?

Or graphics drivers outdated?

 

What kind of components do you have with your system? Disks, CPU, mainboard, memory, OS?

[djib]

I agree, but what could explain that I only have the problem when the application has focus?

 

Anyway, I have a Pentium E6420, 2G RAM, a Geforce 8800 GTS with 380MB memory. OS is Windows XP. My disk is a Samsung HD403LJ.

Also, I have a Saitek X52 and a TH2GO.

What else would you need to know?

 

Oh, by the way, my graphic drivers are up-to-date, I tried very low resolution (1024x768) with low details, and I only use about 1GB of memory when running the game.

Edited June 17, 2009 by djib

[Panzertard]

The reason it it may stutter when it has focus may be how Windows handles applications.

 

I wonder if you might be pretty close or below the minimum recommendation. Technically it may run fine - but this Sim may eat 1.6gb memory very quickly.

 

 

In that case you would need to optimize your system further to be able to play smoother.

Simple things *may* help - or not, but the total of all actions may be enough;

• Defrag your harddrives.
  
• Ensure that you have more than 20% freespace on all drivers - windows and your games needs to "breath" - diskwrites may be quicker, and less stuttering while in games.
  
• Lower texture settings - water - and remove mirrors. As a test set everything to minimum.
  
• Disable all non-essential software - or even better, uninstall some of it. Some software leaves "services" running in the background, which also eats memory and cpu while providing it's services.
  Alternative - you may create alternative profiles / startups, where you have more of these disabled (you need to study and learn what this is about - way beyond this post).
  
• If you can stay offline from internet while you play, you should be safe to disable antivirus while playing.
  

The sum of those changes might push you in the right direction.

 

There's a few other tricks as well, but it gets more complicated from here - but if you know how to handle changes with pagefiles you may attempt that - but beware, setting this improperly may render your system unbootable.

Edited June 17, 2009 by Panzertard

[djib]

I find it hard to believe that it is a matter of specs. The game has exactly the same kind of lag in 3840x768 medium graphics than in 1024x768 low graphics with antivirus disabled and many other useless process (and services) killed.

Also, the lag I'm talking about is there however complex the map is.

 

I have my hard drives defragged. All my disk have at least 30GB of free space.

[beugnen]

hmm tricky...maybe:

 

* cpu throttling due to overheating (which is activating more when BS has focus)

 

* when the game does NOT have focus, do you still hear sound from the game. if there is no sound that might be the reason for no stutter. that there is some issue with sound?

[djib]

Thanks beugnen, you've guided me to the right solution!

 

I have used DPC Latency Check (suggested by a friend) to look for problems related to the sound card. In fact, it's not the sound card itself, but the game port that causes latency! I have disabled “Microsoft SideWinder Autodetection” in the device manager and now DCS is running perfectly.

 

Thank you so much.

[beugnen]

anytime buddy, happy simming!