solved Occasional black screens? Fix for DCS

[jackd]

Tip from a friend:  go to PC settings, system, display, Graphics settings ....

for DCS turn off 'Hardware accelerated GPU scaling', (looks different in windows 11), fixed it !

[scommander2]

Hi @jackd, will it be kindly to let me know when/how DCS will go the black screen?  Thanks.

[Pilotasso]

I have this too except the workaround from the OP doesnt even work for me either. the black screen It happens after pressing "launch game the game from the new start menu. Once the game loads the screen goes black, or rather my monitor goes to standby mode as it stops detecting the signal from the graphics card.

 

EDIT:

System specs:

OS Windows 10 22H2 OS build 19045.5247

CPU: AMD RYZEN 5950X (Stock BIOS sertings except for the timings of the RAM to match their specs exactly)
RAM: 64 GB 3600Mhz (two 2x16Gb kits of P/N F4-3600C14D-32GTZNA  @3600Mhz CL 14 CR=1T, geardown enabled)
MOBO: ASUS CROSSHAIR HERO VI AM4
GFX: ASUS ROG Strix 4090 (non OC), drivers 566.36 WQL (there seems to be no difference by switching drivers)
Cooler: Corsair H115i Capelix 280mm AIO
Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2+6GB WD 6Gb red

 

Edited January 3 by Pilotasso

[jackd]

2 hours ago, scommander2 said:

Hi @jackd, will it be kindly to let me know when/how DCS will go the black screen?  Thanks.

Spontaneous, not always ... but haven't had it since turning off the above.

45 minutes ago, Pilotasso said:

I have this too except the workaround from the OP doesn't even work for me either. the black screen It happens after pressing "launch game the game from the new start menu. Once the game loads the screen goes black, or rather my monitor goes to standby mode as it stops detecting the signal from the graphics card.

Sometimes it seems to help to clear the fxo folder in saved games, but mostly with stutters, this after a second game start without re-boot.

Maybe remove all MODS and do a full repair?

I have windows 10 LTSC 21H2, i9 14900k, and 64 GB DDR5. Latest NVIDIA driver is 566.36.

Edited January 3 by jackd

[Pilotasso]

I have no MODS whatsoever, as you said I cleaned the FXO files and preformed file repair twice. I also switched off Vsync both in NVIDIA DCS profile and inside DCS itself.

This had limited success, I Hope ED fixes this so we dont have to go around changing windows settings specifically run this software. Rmeinds of my old booot disks I had for running diffferent games in DOS 6.22 back in the day.

[jackd]

Been always sh*t with windows as they keep messing around too much. Windows 11 is worse it seems than 10 at that user-friendly -mess.

Wonder if Linux and DCS work together for a more stable setup.

[scommander2]

10 hours ago, jackd said:

Wonder if Linux and DCS work together for a more stable setup.

Unfortunately, the answer is "No"  

[jackd]

Stutter and black screen fix tip from @Mork: turn off your e-cores only when DCS runs:

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After the ProjectLasso trick I think i found the final stutter solution from Mork. ProjectLasso i don't use for this anymore.

For more permanent fixes with i7 and i9 intel users only? You will need to disable all the the E-cores.

Alas they vary for the various Intel types a little, i have an 14900k now, and i used as suggested this script in the target line of my DCS.exe desktop shortcut:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "DCS" /affinity FF "F:\- DCS World Openbeta\bin\DCS.exe" Seems to work fine.

Leaves only my 8 P cores running when starting DCS. Affinity Calculator: https://bitsum.com/tools/cpu-affinity-calculator/

Example: For a 12 P core it would be: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "DCS" /affinity FFF "F:\- DCS World Openbeta\bin\DCS.exe"

When you quit DCS all cores are active again, guess the problem with DCS is that it cannot handle E-cores?

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[scommander2]

FYI: just in case that the power management may cause the stutter happened sometimes due to some of P-Cores are parked...  

[Slippa]

Thought I was alone having this happen.

My screen cuts to black, shows my desktop, flickers a bit then takes me back to where I was. Does it at random times. Flying along, taking off or landing usually, just when you don’t need it.

I’ll have a look later at little fixes but wouldn’t know how to turn cores off and all that, I’d have to look it up.

DCS. I Don’t have any of these kinda problems with anything else. Too much fiddling about just to make it run and then it’s fingers crossed on the stutterfest. Deleting everything in the fxo and metashaders folders has become a habit.

[silverdevil]

6 hours ago, Slippa said:

Thought I was alone having this happen.

My screen cuts to black, shows my desktop, flickers a bit then takes me back to where I was. Does it at random times. Flying along, taking off or landing usually, just when you don’t need it.

I’ll have a look later at little fixes but wouldn’t know how to turn cores off and all that, I’d have to look it up.

DCS. I Don’t have any of these kinda problems with anything else. Too much fiddling about just to make it run and then it’s fingers crossed on the stutterfest. Deleting everything in the fxo and metashaders folders has become a habit.

another thing to try, maybe already done, since you did not share a log, make sure DCS is running in Full Screen. it sounds like you have an external program trying to take over.

[jackd]

Another tip from the person above for a NVIDIA 40 series card:

If you have 2 monitors etc, set both to the same frequency and unmark 'use variable renewal (?) frequuency".

Latter i could not find on my Windows 10 laptop right now, not sure where to find it.

[scommander2]

1 hour ago, jackd said:

Another tip from the person above for a NVIDIA 40 series card:

Wow... thanks!!