solved DCS consistently crashing to desktop after severe stuttering

[Teamasian]

For the past 2-3 months, I have been unable to run semi-large missions within DCS that are generated by liberation, retribution, or DCC. All missions containing more than 100 units will stutter after a few minutes of gameplay, escalating into a crash within minutes of the stuttering.

Current PC specs: 

   CPU: Core i9-14900KF

   GPU: RTX 4080

   Memory: 32 GB

 

Before the forced integration of multithreading, I was able to run large (400+ units) liberation missions on my old PC with a 2080ti, 32 GB RAM, and a significantly degraded cpu, which leads me to believe that this is an issue with DCS.

 

I have attempted slow repair, clearing fxo and metashaders, log analyzer's recommendations, removing all mods, turning off hardware accelerated GPU scheduling, turning off core isolation, and various adjustments to the game's graphical settings, and reinstalling the entire application from scratch.

 

I attached one of the missions for testing if needed.

dcs.log dcc_mission.miz

[Teamasian]

After additional testing, I've managed to partially solve this issue by deleting a third party antivirus, then re-adding both DCS Saved Games and install folders as exceptions. 

Regardless, using DLSS still freezes and occasionally crashes the game at the start of a mission. Additionally, stutters and freezing for 10-30 seconds still occur ingame, including the main menu. The freezing can be temporarily fixed by clicking anything every time the freeze occurs, but often freezes again immediately afterwards. 

[Flappie]

There's this warning in your log:

2025-01-09 05:08:50.035 WARNING EDCORE (Main): CPU HAS PARKED LOGICAL CORES (this can be source of stuttering and reduced performance especially on hybrid CPUs with P/E-cores)

 

[Teamasian]

Unparking cores seems to be ineffective, and the severe stuttering is still sometimes present, especially if I run DCS as administrator. Selecting a slot in a mission sometimes crashes the game as well.

I have attached a new log in case there are additional problems that can be addressed.

dcs.log

[Flappie]

7 hours ago, Teamasian said:

especially if I run DCS as administrator. Selecting a slot in a mission sometimes crashes the game as well.

Yes, don't run DCS as admin. It's not needed, and not recommended.

Your slot issue makes me think of the issue I discovered very recently:

1. Please make a backup of "Saved Games/DCS.../Config/Input".
2. Then look in its subfolders for old files that you don't use anymore (e.g. if you find two "Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Stick" .diff.lua files in the same folder, remove the older one. Do this for any module that gets stuck.
3. Report back.

[Teamasian]

The cleanup of the input folder seems to speed up loading times quite significantly, which is extremely helpful. Thanks for the help on that!

The stutter to crash issue remains, but if it helps at all, the game will continue to stutter in the main menu and worsen in the encyclopedia after quitting a mission (launcher is disabled, so no problems from there).

[Teamasian]

On 1/11/2025 at 7:08 AM, Flappie said:

There's this warning in your log:

2025-01-09 05:08:50.035 WARNING EDCORE (Main): CPU HAS PARKED LOGICAL CORES (this can be source of stuttering and reduced performance especially on hybrid CPUs with P/E-cores)

 

It turns out that a simple edit in registry editor was insufficient to unpark the cores, and that using e-cores caused stuttering in DCS. I managed to fix that with process lasso, so the problem is gone now. 

 

Thanks for the help!

[Flappie]

You mean you had to used Process Lasso in order to unpark all of your cores?

[Teamasian]

DCS was stuttering more because of the e-cores rather than the unparked cores issue.