Multiplayer and single player FPS drop

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

I want to preface by saying that I love DCS, Eagle Dynamics and 3^rd party module makers. Keep up the great work! I have Alienware M15R7 laptop with 64GB DDR6 RAM, RTX 3070Ti (8GB), WD Black SN 850X -2TB, Ryzen 7 6800H CPU (8 Core). There are no mods installed for DCS. Tacview is not running.  I recently changed the hard drive to this WD 850X with a fresh Win 11 Pro install. I am using DCS World Steam Edition. In Single Player, my average FPS is over 100 at 1080P on a barren map. Low flight on Syria in KA50 can bring it down to 40FPS, but this is very stable. In Single player , when next to an enemy chopper, FPS can drop suddenly to 15 for a few seconds.   In multiplayer that is not very populated, with not many enemy units near me, my FPS usually hovers above 80. My issue is intermittent stutters. It happens when I am near enemy aerial units. The game can even freeze for a few seconds. This is much more pronounced on Contention (my ping is under 50) and Heatblur (ping is 100) servers. 

Steps taken – Win 11 Game mode ON or OFF, Disable Firewall and Antivirus, using Ethernet cable at 2 different locations (different internet providers), deleting contents metashaders, FXO folders, all drivers up to date, Win 11, Dynamic Refresh Rate/ ON and OFF, Variable Refresh Rate ON/OFF in Win 11, Hardware Accelerated GPU scheduling ON/OFF, disabled screen saver, themes and background colors,  disabled hibernation, sleep and powersaving features, using powered USB HUB for peripherals. In game DCS settings – VSYNC on or OFF., disabled scanning for hot plug devices. Laptop has a MUX switch – integrated GPU is disabled, only using Nvidia RTX 3070 TI GPU. Connecting to 55 Inch OLED via HDMI2.1 or using laptop screen – no difference. Limiting FPS via Nvidia Control panel and DCS – no difference. Preload Radius does not make a difference.  Tried using Core Parking software and Process Lasso software. That software does not help. I also tinkered with laptops BIOS settings (CPU Offset), to prevent throttling, so the CPU temp does not go above 87C. Turning this offset off makes CPU go up to 103C. No difference.  Changing anything does not make any difference - Proximity to enemy units (sometimes to friendly units, but to a much lesser degree) causes severe stutters and up to single digit FPS loss. This is especially pronounced on a fully populated server.  MSI Afterburner is always running. CPU usage 28-45 Watts, GPU 85- 140 Watts.  When updating Nvidia drivers , i do clean install. I do not bother changing any Nvidia settings now because none of them make a difference.

Most of the time, my VRAM is maxed out (1080P), no upscaling or DLSS, however, stutters happen when the VRAM is not maxed out. Is there anything that can be done, besides getting a $6000 PC? If I did that, and still have stutters, that would be kind of silly for me to drop this kind of money and not get the real benefit out of it.  Do you think the issue is the 8GB VRAM and weak CPU? Or is it an issue with DCS itself and it will be resolved in future patches/optimizations?  Maybe the upcoming Vulcan and Dynamic Campaigns is the solution? Other people on those multiplayer servers experience similar issues. Some people don't experience these issue to such a high degree as I do.  Thank you very much!

Edited February 21 by Skybox 1-1 Noregret

[Flappie]

Please attach this file: "Saved Games/DCS.../Scripts/Export.lua".

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

Thank you! This file seems to be pretty much empty dated Nov 27, 2024

Export.lua

[Flappie]

Your Export.lua is OK.

If you have a "Hook" folder inside "Scripts", rename it to "Hook.bak" in order to disable it temporarily. Then launch DCS and see if that changes anything.

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

Thank you very much for your response. I have "Hooks" folder. Rename it to Hook.bat folder? I can't really test it now, i broke my right wrist and it is in the cast. What do you think really causes these FPS drops? I mean, this is not really normal. Should be be looking into buying a new $5000 laptop with RTX 5090 when it comes out with the new CPU, or is it something about DCS and how it handles the multiplayer? I mean, i don't want to spend this kind of money and find that i have minimal improvements. Is a better option to wait it out when DCS implements Vulcan and Dynamic Campaigns and makes more patches to improve performance? Is there anything more I can do about it? I think i have done quite a lot of tinkering with no benefits.  From what i read, DCS was not built to handle these complicated multiplayer servers with so many scripts. When I fly jets, its not that bad, but as soon as i get in a chopper and have a gun fight up-close, its is a disaster, most of the time. I truly respect ED and I support DCS and I vote with my wallet. I bought all maps and over 10 modules in the last year (On Steam). Thank you very much again.

Edited February 23 by Skybox 1-1 Noregret

[Flappie]

Your issue is not usual. It's most probably caused by something in your Saved Games/DCS folder.

Some custom scripts cause such performance issues and I'm checking with you whether that's the problem here.

Get well soon!

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

I renamed the Hooks.bat folder. I actually messaged my surgeon and he said its ok to fly with the cast, so I did LOL.  This is a great commercial for DCS I took out FW 190AB on Contention server and my FPS was 120. As I was passing friendly Gazelle on the taxiway,my FPS dropped to 5 and began to increase as I passed him and went up to 80 FPS after I passed him.What is really going on here? Thank you very much!  My VRAM Usage was 7400 at the time (out of 8GB available and 58GB RAM out of 64GB, 30 watts on CPU and 130 watts on GPU). By the way, Syria, Caucasus, Persian Gulf maps, does not matter, happens on every map.  Also, I changed the hard drive (2tb m.2 SSD, fresh install of Win 11 Pro and everything else this summer. It did not change a thing. Router was changed 3 weeks ago as well

Edited February 24 by Skybox 1-1 Noregret

[Flappie]

Thanks for testing this. I guess we can say, no script is causing this.

Please attach:

• your dcs log file (Saved Games/DCS/Logs/dcs).
• your dxdiag.log file (here's how to get it).

Edited February 24 by Flappie

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

Thank you very much! So it was Contention 80s server. I am using external Soundblaster X3 card connected to Bose 5.1 Surround sound system via optical cable and LG CX OLED via HDMI 2.1. This is how I ran Dxdiag. It does not make a difference If i use laptop screen and no X3 external sound card and no 55 inch LG CX OLED, meaning this FPS drop still persists.  Peripherals connected - Track IR, USB hub (powered with a plug - external power source), Thrustmaster TWCS throttle with Target Software running in virtual mode (Thrustmaster Combined), VKB  NXT EVO stick and Virpil Ace Torq Pedals. All peripherals go though the USB Hub, except the Track IR, which is connected directly to the laptop. Thank you!

dcs.log dcs.log.old DxDiag Skybox noregret.txt

Edited February 27 by Skybox 1-1 Noregret

[sleighzy]

8 hours ago, Skybox 1-1 Noregret said:

Thank you very much! So it was Contention 80s server. I am using external Soundblaster X3 card connected to Bose 5.1 Surround sound system via optical cable and LG CX OLED via HDMI 2.1. This is how I ran Dxdiag. It does not make a difference If i use laptop screen and no X3 external sound card and no 55 inch LG CX OLED, meaning this FPS drop still persists.  Peripherals connected - Track IR, USB hub (powered with a plug - external power source), Thrustmaster TWCS throttle with Target Software running in virtual mode (Thrustmaster Combined), VKB  NXT EVO stick and Virpil Ace Torq Pedals. All peripherals go though the USB Hub, except the Track IR, which is connected directly to the laptop. Thank you!

dcs.log 143.69 kB · 1 download dcs.log.old 235.15 kB · 1 download DxDiag Skybox noregret.txt 142.84 kB · 2 downloads

I've run your log through the DCS log analyser, notes below.

You mentioned you disabled hotplug scanning however the DCS log shows that this is still enabled. This can lead to stutters so turn that off.

I'd also recommend uninstalling TacView completely, i.e. the hooks and exports, as this will also be taxing on your system.

MSI Afterburner is also known to cause issues, are you using this for something specially, e.g. overclocking? Uninstall it. (I'd have to locate the info but if being used for overclocks then there is a way to run it for that without introducing the other problems...)

Some additional performance tuning tips it called out.

Tuning Tips

• Set Shadows to Medium.
• Set Clouds to High.
• Set Water to Low.
• Consider using DLAA.
• Decrease Terrain Textures.
• Turn down Anisotropic Filtering.

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

Hi, I tried those Tuning Tips before our conversation, I even set everything to LOW and it does not make a difference. You are right - USB Hot Plug was ON, i turned it off. Tacview has never been installed after I changed the M.2 drive and put a fresh install of Win 11 Pro. I stopped using MSI Afterburner. The only reason I used it was to see the FPS and CPU/GPU/RAM utilization. I see some improvement. I am uploading 2 DCS log files. First is named Apache - I was flying KA 50 and the first pass on the Apache, there was a severe FPS drop, but no stutter. (Not using Target Software) This was all on Contention server. I asked Apache not to shoot me and I flew along side him - no FPS drops after the initial FPS drop. The second LOG file named KA50 , I experienced freezing for 5 seconds - the game did not crash and resumed. It happened twice, no enemy units where around to the best of my knowledge.(Using Target Software - TWCS Throttle in virtual mode - it is unlikely that Target Software is doing the freezing part, but maybe?) There was no stutter or FPS drop when flying FW190 with Target Software - I was dogfighting the Mustang and there was no FPS drops or stutter - however, at this time Contention server was not populated. This is all on Contention server. Not using MSI Afterburner has definitely made it better. Thank you very much ! I really appreciate the info and help. I suppose the most likely explanation is the netcode on the Contention server with so many scripts and people playing on it and my relatively weak CPU and 8GB of Vram. I can't think of anything else.

PS I forgot to mention Alienware Command Center is always running in the background. I suppose, i will not run it anymore and continue testing. I cannot uninstall it since it controls the fans and lighting

dcs Apache 1.log dcs KA50.log

Edited March 2 by Skybox 1-1 Noregret

[sleighzy]

17 hours ago, Skybox 1-1 Noregret said:

Tacview has never been installed after I changed the M.2 drive and put a fresh install of Win 11 Pro

You must still have lines in your export.lua file and the script for this in the Scripts\Hooks directory as Tacview is still present based on what is in your log file. As to the extent of what it is doing I'm not sure, but you should probably clean that up as well to make sure it's not exporting stuff etc.

2025-02-28 22:33:31.387 INFO    TACVIEW.EXPORT.LUA (Main): Starting [C:\Users\Deckard\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts/TacviewGameExport.lua]
2025-02-28 22:33:31.387 INFO    TACVIEW.EXPORT.LUA (Main): Loading C++ flight data recorder from [C:\Users\Deckard\Saved Games\DCS\Mods\tech\Tacview\bin\]
2025-02-28 22:33:31.396 INFO    TACVIEW.EXPORT.LUA (Main): Tacview 1.9.4.200 C++ flight data recorder successfully loaded.

Glad to hear the nod towards MSI Afterburner helped a little there as well

Edited March 3 by sleighzy

[Skybox 1-1 Noregret]

Thank you very much for the response, i truly appreciate it. Before I upgraded to the new Hard drive, i saved the SavedGames/DCS folder and copied and pasted it to the new hard drive for my keybindings. This is why I think it shows up. I will delete those files now. I have been having a pretty good experience in the past 2 days on Contention server in terms of stutters and FPS drops. With a lot of human players present around me, I did have FPS drops (single digit) by  no stutters/freezes. Another thing i did is that I start Alienware Command Center, set the fan speed to the max and then close the Alienware Command Center. This is the only Dell piece of software that is installed. I just deleted everything with SRS and Tacview from DCS Folder - I do not use them anyway.  None of those programs installed on my laptop. I think ED should look more into multiplayer performance. On Contention server, I talked to quite a lot of people in chat and they say they do experience stutters when next to human players. I hope that ED has this on their to do list. Thank you very much !