[performance] Trees - huge performance hit especially up close

[Papamiraculi]

For me this has been a problem since forever.

ED, you REALLY need to change something about the trees!!!

It's especially bad in helicopters.

It is the single most impactful factor when it comes to frame times. Trees suck up too much performance, even more so if shadows are involved. For me, too, switching off shadows results in more than 20% more frames and better frame times. It's more impactful than lowering resolution or DLSS settings,or setting view distance to extreme levels. It's crazy.

It is NOT a VRAM issue. I'm running 4090 and 24GB VRAM. I've had the same issues with my 3080 and 10GB VRAM.

Using tree mods (Taz better trees) helps a bit, but does not solve the problem entirely.

 

[Bucic]

3 hours ago, Papamiraculi said:

For me this has been a problem since forever.

ED, you REALLY need to change something about the trees!!!

It's especially bad in helicopters.

It is the single most impactful factor when it comes to frame times. Trees suck up too much performance, even more so if shadows are involved. For me, too, switching off shadows results in more than 20% more frames and better frame times. It's more impactful than lowering resolution or DLSS settings,or setting view distance to extreme levels. It's crazy.

It is NOT a VRAM issue. I'm running 4090 and 24GB VRAM. I've had the same issues with my 3080 and 10GB VRAM.

Using tree mods (Taz better trees) helps a bit, but does not solve the problem entirely.

 

 

 

And all this with forests not looking that good AT ALL.

#bringbacktreeclusters

As you can see daily from footage recorded in Ukraine tree clusters are often not traversable even for infantry units.

Edited December 26, 2024 by Bucic

[davidtsw]

Same here. I flew for the first time today since before the update. The same simple mission I made, the same plane, the same settings. As soon as I took off and was flying over some trees in Caucasus, I noticed the fps was getting lower when looking around. Didn't measure the fps because there was no need. What used to be super smooth was now noticeably less smooth. And I noticed a few microstutters too. Disappointing because I only got back into DCS a few weeks ago after a long break caused by my frustration with the performance and graphics.

[Bucic]

1 hour ago, davidtsw said:

Same here. I flew for the first time today since before the update. The same simple mission I made, the same plane, the same settings. As soon as I took off and was flying over some trees in Caucasus, I noticed the fps was getting lower when looking around. Didn't measure the fps because there was no need. What used to be super smooth was now noticeably less smooth. And I noticed a few microstutters too. Disappointing because I only got back into DCS a few weeks ago after a long break caused by my frustration with the performance and graphics.

Please post a modless track with DCS log and DX Diag. I've got an information that this issue is still under investigation.

[Snuten]

I agree, since the last update the trees at low level half my performance. And I also get a lot of random major stutter when using the new fog, it feels like the computer is loading in heavy assets as it does when spawning.

But the trees is now always creating lots of stutter down low.

AMD 78003DX, RTX 4090.

[TKNARMZ]

On the new Iraq map.  I was flying the F16 and anytime I climbed over 42k ft.  it would start stuttering bad!  Then when I fly low, the trees cause the exact same issue.  I have a powerful system too.  This is in VR.  Hope they figure this out.  I would rather have the system running smoother than any new aircraft or maps.  Just my opinion.

 

[Bucic]

Trees notably absent from the today's update changelog. Could anyone verify by flying up close to trees, pausing and moving the camera?

[slughead]

Has ED acknowledged this as a bug/issue?

[TZeer]

I have seen the same behavior when flying low.

Specially when flying helicopters. If I look straight ahead, it sometimes goes ok. But as soon as I turn my head and look into the trees my frames take a dump. It's not as noticeable on desert maps. But very easy to trigger it if flying low on the Caucasus maps over larger areas with trees.

 

I also get it every time I fly low on Syria in clusters of vineyards. At a certain distance the frame time spikes. 

Edited January 20 by TZeer

[LizardKingYB]

I dont see any changes.

[Darkmerlin]

On 1/20/2025 at 8:02 PM, TZeer said:

I have seen the same behavior when flying low.

Specially when flying helicopters. If I look straight ahead, it sometimes goes ok. But as soon as I turn my head and look into the trees my frames take a dump. It's not as noticeable on desert maps. But very easy to trigger it if flying low on the Caucasus maps over larger areas with trees.

 

I also get it every time I fly low on Syria in clusters of vineyards. At a certain distance the frame time spikes. 

I have exactly the same issues since the last patch..... I was thinking something was wrong suddenly with my PC but as I read here, it also happens to other users too. Hope this issue be solved  soon via an update.

[Bucic]

I have made CapeFrameX captures for  

DCS 2.9.10.4160 - 11.12.2024 

and

 DCS 2.9.12.5336 - 20.01.2025

for both, the trees issue and the F-5E stutter issue. I know the latter is fixed already but for the trees I'm going to load up a comparison tomorrow.

 

EDIT:

Basically, no difference at all. I guess ED is still investigating.

Edited January 22 by Bucic

[Futurecvsh]

Same here

[Bucic]

This bug seems to be alive and well still in late 2025.

I can put a single tree in the viewport, camera pointing down towards ground, where the FPS will be lower than with a panzer battle ongoing with a whole city in view.

benchmark 2024-03-09 marianas f-5-2025-09runRTX2070.trk

Edited 11 hours ago by Bucic

[Flanker35M]

S!

@BucicYour frametime goes crazy with Vsync on at low altitudes, as seen in your picture above(white line). I have this same issue on my AMD RX9070XT since latest patches, if using IN GAME VSync the frame time goes crazy and stuttery at low altitude with trees etc. You run nVidia and why not try GSync without VSync enabled? Or use adaptive sync as nVidia should support it? At least on AMD side with FreeSync I did not need VSync ON for it to work as intended. For me to get rid of that "hacksaw effect" on frametime was to use advanced sync from Adrenalin software. That way the frametime did decrease, but the "hacksaw effect" was gone.

Another issue for me is the green line aka Simulation thread spiking randomly causing a frametime drops accompanied with FPS drops. Frustrating as heck and made me stop flying DCS until finding a solution.

[Bucic]

6 hours ago, Flanker35M said:

S!

@BucicYour frametime goes crazy with Vsync on at low altitudes, as seen in your picture above(white line). I have this same issue on my AMD RX9070XT since latest patches, if using IN GAME VSync the frame time goes crazy and stuttery at low altitude with trees etc. You run nVidia and why not try GSync without VSync enabled? Or use adaptive sync as nVidia should support it? At least on AMD side with FreeSync I did not need VSync ON for it to work as intended. For me to get rid of that "hacksaw effect" on frametime was to use advanced sync from Adrenalin software. That way the frametime did decrease, but the "hacksaw effect" was gone.

Another issue for me is the green line aka Simulation thread spiking randomly causing a frametime drops accompanied with FPS drops. Frustrating as heck and made me stop flying DCS until finding a solution.

Yes, there is a problem with the in-game Vsync. I wasn't much into DCS in 2025 so I didn't notice. Thanks for pointing that out.

But the trees are problematic, still.

In a less dramatic manner, check out the attached comparison. Less objects/world visible (mostly filled with sky) - much less FPS. If that doesn't ring a bell I don't know what will. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Bucic