VR load time of DCS suddenly very long

[jonfog]

Hi, so sometime after the latest patch (DCS 2.9.11.4686) I found that the startup of DCS World has been very slow:

From the DCS.log I can see that the line after "DCSScene initialized" is written 8 minutes  later.

2025-01-06 15:56:31.235 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND (22784): texture 'KevinWakePattern812x1024.dds' not found. Asked from ''
2025-01-06 15:56:31.266 INFO    VISUALIZER (23328): DCSScene initialized
2025-01-06 16:04:31.326 INFO    VISUALIZER (23328): [17:04:31.587][Info   ] OpenXR: Available reference spaces: 3

If I disable the  VR it takes less than 0.5 s to go to the next entry from "DCSScene initialized".

Using a utility called "Process Monitor" I can see that it looks like DCS is entering som form of debug mode, with entries like:

CreateFile C:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\bin-mt\symbols\dll\AIFM.pdb PATH NOT FOUND

As far as I know there are no directories below "bin-mt". The word "symbols" and file extension ".pdb" looks to me like something that has to do with debugging (CreateFile I guess is a call to set up a file handle, not actually creating a file in the general sense)

There are tons of these entries with the result of either PATH NOT FOUND or FILE NOT FOUND

 

Here are som other funny entries to paths used with CreatFile that obviously are not part of any directory or user on my computer.

C:\Users\rspse\CMakeBuilds\e4d18293-5d1f-4412-b392-e89d5096585a\build\x64-Release-prev\bin\C101Core.pdb
C:\repo\build\Codebase\F14AI\F14-AI.pdb
E:\Razbam\M-2000C\M-2000C-Source\vs2022\source\AI\Release\M2KC_AI.pdb
C:\gitlab\builds\xsp1w_sx\0\leap-v5-platform\libtrack\build\bin\LeapC.pdb

I just wonder what has triggered this behaviour. In no VR mode there are no such entries.

I'm running a Varjo Aero with the latest base software. I have also done a clean and repair of DCS.

When DCS finally is up and running, everthing runs fine in VR. The same performance as before and mission load times are about the same.

dcs.log

[draconus]

Lots of mods, 0 page file, if you ask for troubles you eventually get them.

[gonvise]

A developer recently said that it's not a good idea to have a zero pagefile, if you have a lot of RAM, like 64GB, you should let Windows manage it, but never zero.

[LOW_Hitman]

32gb of ram in my rig - w11 set to system managed - never had any issues

[gonvise]

40 minutes ago, LOW_Hitman said:

32gb of ram in my rig - w11 set to system managed - never had any issues

This is ok

[jonfog]

 So this is how it went.

I made a home made haptic solution and went for the SimHaptic software. This was a huge improvment to the JetSeat I have which was just ... vibrating.
 

The mini amp that drives the speakers is a Fosi ZK-1002D bought on Amazon. You can connect it via an audio cable, USB or Bluetooth.

In short if I run it  as a USB audio device i get problems. Now I'm using Bluetooth and it seems to work well.
 

Not what I thougt it would be. Hopefully someone else will benefit from this info

[Dirty228]

And now your loading times are fast again in vr?

i have the same problem: in Vr it takes 3 minutes to get into DCS.

In 2D it takes about 20-30 seconds.

 

[pierscockey]

Don’t know if this is related, but for the longest time my loading into the game has taken forever.  If I shut the game down and reload it’s much quicker the second time around.

The recent F14 DLL problem with Windows Defender, made me make an exception for the DCS folder, and since then I’ve got loading time back to times not seen for years! 15s or so versus much much longer.  

[draconus]

12 hours ago, pierscockey said:

Don’t know if this is related, but for the longest time my loading into the game has taken forever.  If I shut the game down and reload it’s much quicker the second time around.

The recent F14 DLL problem with Windows Defender, made me make an exception for the DCS folder, and since then I’ve got loading time back to times not seen for years! 15s or so versus much much longer.  

Both are normal. If you run the game and exit most of the data is cached in memory so the next loading is faster. Scanning while reading and running files takes time so if you won't allow the AV software to scan your game it'll load faster.

[Dirty228]

Interesting, i will try it in the next days and will report my results.

[Dirty228]

I checked my AV and DCS as well as the DCS saved games folder were already excluded from scanning.

So i did a new windows and dcs installation, due to the reason that the AV always crashed when doing a full scan.

After new installation, with AV on nothing changed, loading times 2:45minutes. With AV completely off loading times after first PC start about 30 sec.

So I excluded the DCS folders and loading times again at about 30sec.

It seems, that you have to exclude these folders after every patch again. 
Next time i will try to exclude them again instead of a fresh install….3 days of setting everything up again…

But happy that this has been solved for me

[Rufuz64]

Exclude the core folder AND the Saved Games\DCS

[draconus]

16 hours ago, Dirty228 said:

It seems, that you have to exclude these folders after every patch again. 

No, it's one time job. No patch changes DCS folder name.

[Dirty228]

Am 14.4.2025 um 11:32 schrieb Rufuz64:

Exclude the core folder AND the Saved Games\DCS

That is what i wrote: DCS and the DCS saved games folder.

Am 14.4.2025 um 14:24 schrieb draconus:

No, it's one time job. No patch changes DCS folder name.

Yes, that is also my understanding, but as i discovered after a few updates it didnt work any more for me. Maybe it was a windows update „problem“.

but nevertheless now its fine and maybe it will help some other guys.