do not run as administrator DCS unplayable todays update (19/3-25)

[Skyracer]

I am experiencing severe stuttering while playing DCS, which makes the game nearly unplayable. The issue occurs during single player and multiplayer, and it significantly affects the gameplay experience. Here are my system specifications:

• Operating System: Windows 11
• Processor: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700F (20 CPUs), ~2.1GH
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3080
• RAM: 65536MB RAM
• Storage Type: SSD

I Run multi-thread if that matters. 

[rob10]

Post your log file.  You'll find your most recent one in your DCS Saved games/logs folder.  If you have file extensions hidden it will be dcs, but likely it will be dcs.log

For the record, DCS has only had multi-thread option for some time now (single thread was depreciated), so that's not going to factor into the issue.

[Skyracer]

13 minutes ago, rob10 said:

Post your log file.  You'll find your most recent one in your DCS Saved games/logs folder.  If you have file extensions hidden it will be dcs, but likely it will be dcs.log

For the record, DCS has only had multi-thread option for some time now (single thread was depreciated), so that's not going to factor into the issue.

Thank you for your swift reply. 

dcs.log

[rob10]

More knowledgeable people than me may spot something that I didn't, but no big red flags I saw.  I'd start with temporarily removing your Mig-21 and A-4 mods.  Mods have been known to cause issues that wouldn't seem like they should be related (i.e. supercarrier wouldn't spawn after one update with a particular plane mod installed).

There is also this repeating at the end of the log which I can't recall seeing before:

2025-03-19 23:04:06.916 INFO    VIGGEN (19436): Custom cartridge file found! C
2025-03-19 23:04:06.916 INFO    VIGGEN (19436): FOLDERID_SavedGames: C

 

[sleighzy]

4 hours ago, rob10 said:

More knowledgeable people than me may spot something that I didn't, but no big red flags I saw.  I'd start with temporarily removing your Mig-21 and A-4 mods.  Mods have been known to cause issues that wouldn't seem like they should be related (i.e. supercarrier wouldn't spawn after one update with a particular plane mod installed).

There is also this repeating at the end of the log which I can't recall seeing before:

2025-03-19 23:04:06.916 INFO    VIGGEN (19436): Custom cartridge file found! C
2025-03-19 23:04:06.916 INFO    VIGGEN (19436): FOLDERID_SavedGames: C

 

I found out recently (ED DCS Discord) that the cartridge message is if you have the Viggen installed. It also creates a file everytime in the Saved Games folder and you need to clean them up manually.

Comment from Discord:

Quote

people tend to forget that the viggen saves every cardridge in Saved Games and never clean it up. but it is loaded at runtime and takes a lot of space at some point

 

Edited March 20 by sleighzy

[sleighzy]

The DCS log analyzer is currently "broken" for some log files due to changes in the logging now after today's patch.

My initial comment at this stage, given lack of that info from the analyzer, is that if nothing else has changed then:

• ensure all custom mods are removed
• run a slow repair of the game, with the option to remove files
• delete your Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 folders. This will then allow DCS to rebuild the shader caches fresh using the new files from the latest patch.

If this was running perfectly smoothly just prior to the patch then try that if you haven't already.

Additionally make sure you have unparked your cores, this message is present in the log file:

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)

[Raffi75]

Awesome update. Not only did Defender detect a virus, but DCS couldn't finish the update because of missing files. I tried to analyze the integrity of the files and fix the errors - 10 times. It ended with uninstalling DCS, formatting the disk and reinstalling the game. I will add that you could finally do something about the F-14 and its corrupted .dll library in the bin folder that didn't allow you to use the paid dlc because it is treated as a trojan and quarantined. Thank you for the advice, add this as an exception in Defender. I'm not the one who has to worry and think about how to fix something. I paid for the product and I want to be able to use it without any problems.
The game client is clean, without any mods.
Thank you ED, you can always count on you not delivering something to the end.

[jojyrocks]

Same with me, but currently it is for me, only rectified by unchecking at least 2-3 cores from Task Manager affinity selection for DCS. Then it works fine. But without..it is slower and choppy than before, need to wait even on the menu screen a long time, to click.

 

Each time you open DCS, you would need to change the affinity from Task manager.

 

The virus thing was there before the update...The F-14.

[BJ55]

@Skyracer : what's your RAM clock? After the recent updates I've noticed a big drop in performance due to RAM usage, in high density areas it goes from a stutterfest with 2400MHz to a barely usable simulator with XMP1 3000MHz. Since they introduced the new fog and volumetric lights there's also more system load, so it's better to reduce preload radius to 50000-60000, visib range to high, disable shadows blur and heat blur... With the hope that they fix the rendering core stuck at 100% https://forum.dcs.world/topic/368620-one-or-more-cores-reaching-100/  

Lots of "ANTIFREEZE ENABLED" even in your log.

There's no virus, only false positives due to how current malware detection works.

 

Edited March 20 by BJ55

[sleighzy]

@Skyracer, log analyzer back online so some further info.

As per my previous comment, disable core parking. Additionally disable core isolation.

Tuning Tips

• Enable Full Screen mode.
• Set Water to Medium or Low.
• Turn down Anisotropic Filtering.
• Turn off SSLR.
• Turn off SSAO.

SSLR and SSAO are a performance hit with not a huge amount of benefit.

I also note that your preload radius is set to the max of 150000. Drop that down to 60000 to save a bunch of VRAM and RAM.

Check also the following:

• Game Mode is disabled
• Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling is disabled

[rob10]

10 hours ago, sleighzy said:

I found out recently (ED DCS Discord) that the cartridge message is if you have the Viggen installed. It also creates a file everytime in the Saved Games folder and you need to clean them up manually.

Comment from Discord:

Thanks.  I wondered if it was a "normal" Viggen thing.  Flagged it since it was repeating at the end of the log so seemed like it might have been an issue.  Glad to have a real answer on it!

[MAXsenna]

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

Awesome update.

Absolutely! 

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

Not only did Defender detect a virus,

Nah, it didn't. False positive! 

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

but DCS couldn't finish the update because of missing files.

Because Defender waa snagging them.

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

I tried to analyze the integrity of the files and fix the errors - 10 times.

And Defender was working against you. Shocking!

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

It ended with uninstalling DCS, formatting the disk and reinstalling the game.

That must have been a waste of time. 

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

I will add that you could finally do something about the F-14 and its corrupted .dll library in the bin folder that didn't allow you to use the paid dlc because it is treated as a trojan and quarantined.

If it was corrupted, it would be still broken, that's correct. While it's not.  

 

10 hours ago, Raffi75 said:

Thank you for the advice, add this as an exception in Defender. I'm not the one who has to worry and think about how to fix something. I paid for the product and I want to be able to use it without any problems.

I agree, in a perfect world, it would work this way. But why are you blaming ED, when it's your Anti-Virus solution that broke it. 

Unfortunately, you probably haven't seen all the messages on this forum regarding this subject the past year, and Defender has been behaving better than other solutions. I'm sorry you wasted so much time, instead of adding the exclusions first, then performing a repair/integrity check, then getting the update going. That's like five minutes. Now, that you've added the exclusions, you probably won't be bothered again. 

Cheers! 

[Hiob]

That sums it up perfectly. I don’t get why people have so little hesitation for blaming ED or Heatblur and are even willing to wipe their entire system but so much trust in Antivirus solutions which, for the most part, are essentially snake oil.

[AndyJWest]

1 minute ago, Hiob said:

That sums it up perfectly. I don’t get why people have so little hesitation for blaming ED or Heatblur and are even willing to wipe their entire system but so much trust in Antivirus solutions which, for the most part, are essentially snake oil.

I wouldn't describe most AV software as 'snake oil'. The issue is that people clearly don't understand how it works. It isn't infallible. No legitimate supplier of AV software claims it is. It inspects code, and if it doesn't already match known bad data, then applies heuristic analysis to see whether it has characteristics similar to malicious software. If the code looks questionable, it blocks it, and informs the user. It is up to the user to decide whether the code is in fact malicious, or whether it is a false positive.

 

[Skyracer]

9 hours ago, sleighzy said:

@Skyracer, log analyzer back online so some further info.

As per my previous comment, disable core parking. Additionally disable core isolation.

Tuning Tips

• Enable Full Screen mode.
• Set Water to Medium or Low.
• Turn down Anisotropic Filtering.
• Turn off SSLR.
• Turn off SSAO.

SSLR and SSAO are a performance hit with not a huge amount of benefit.

I also note that your preload radius is set to the max of 150000. Drop that down to 60000 to save a bunch of VRAM and RAM.

Check also the following:

• Game Mode is disabled
• Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling is disabled

I tried the solution mentioned above, but now its even worse!

All mods are disabled I tried Viggen and F-16, both I experience the same amount of stutters. Honestly I no idea what to do.

[sleighzy]

24 minutes ago, Skyracer said:

I tried the solution mentioned above, but now its even worse!

All mods are disabled I tried Viggen and F-16, both I experience the same amount of stutters. Honestly I no idea what to do.

With DCS running open Task Manager and on Performance tab go to your CPU tab which displays all your cores. Do you have a single one (or maybe 2) that are pegged at 100%?

[Skyracer]

27 minutes ago, sleighzy said:

With DCS running open Task Manager and on Performance tab go to your CPU tab which displays all your cores. Do you have a single one (or maybe 2) that are pegged at 100%?

I don't know if this information will help you. 

[sleighzy]

13 minutes ago, Skyracer said:

I don't know if this information will help you. 

Looks like slightly different than my Windows 11 task manager but yeah looks like a couple of cores pegged. You've said you're on Windows 11 which is good as the task scheduler should be better than Windows 10. Is that screenshot taken when flying, or just in the menu? In task manager for the Details tab can you right-click on the DCS.exe process and choose the affinity option. Toggle off the affinity for those cores that are pegged, see how it goes and then toggle them back on again, keep DCS running the entire time. See if they (and the others even) remain pegged at 100% on those once affinity is toggled back on again.

In response to things being worse with the previous changes you could try reverting each one at a time, e.g. hardware accelerated graphics scheduling, etc. to see if DCS goes back to the previous state you had (or improves) to identify which one of those made it worse for you.

Also make sure you're not running other performance monitoring tools, e.g. MSI Afterburner, or overlays in Nvidia App / Nvidia GeForce Experience.

[Skyracer]

14 hours ago, sleighzy said:

Looks like slightly different than my Windows 11 task manager but yeah looks like a couple of cores pegged. You've said you're on Windows 11 which is good as the task scheduler should be better than Windows 10. Is that screenshot taken when flying, or just in the menu? In task manager for the Details tab can you right-click on the DCS.exe process and choose the affinity option. Toggle off the affinity for those cores that are pegged, see how it goes and then toggle them back on again, keep DCS running the entire time. See if they (and the others even) remain pegged at 100% on those once affinity is toggled back on again.

In response to things being worse with the previous changes you could try reverting each one at a time, e.g. hardware accelerated graphics scheduling, etc. to see if DCS goes back to the previous state you had (or improves) to identify which one of those made it worse for you.

Also make sure you're not running other performance monitoring tools, e.g. MSI Afterburner, or overlays in Nvidia App / Nvidia GeForce Experience.

Menu or flying does not matter for me I still have severe lag spikes. 

[Skyracer]

The game is totally unplayable at this stage. Just starting and Idling at the menu gives me severe lag spikes

[Hiob]

10 minutes ago, Skyracer said:

The game is totally unplayable at this stage. Just starting and Idling at the menu gives me severe lag spikes

Which would indicate though that there is something else going on in the background.
Did you do the usual maintenance, like clearing the shader-caches e.g.? Have you checked in task manager which process is hogging resources?

[Skyracer]

What seem to the solve problem is to turn off/on (cycle) affinity in task manager

[maks]

Dear ed team, facing same problems, system shut downs, cannot enter taskmanager, black screens, slow to even nil fps suddenly after patch! Tried prior patch again, and then no issues , smooth as butter! No hardware changes , no system changes…..no mods….. get even black screen when start up then able to get into a mission and then complete standstill , …..very strange, never had issues like that? Cannot attach log file for the moment but will asap

Brgds maks

[Adie]

18 hours ago, Skyracer said:

I don't know if this information will help you. 

Apparently you have multiple cores parked. Win11 likes to mess with it still, I use ParkControl (free, clean app) to make sure it doesnt do this. Try it, i think it will solve your problem 

[keisentraut]

On 3/20/2025 at 12:23 AM, Raffi75 said:

Awesome update. Not only did Defender detect a virus, but DCS couldn't finish the update because of missing files. I tried to analyze the integrity of the files and fix the errors - 10 times. It ended with uninstalling DCS, formatting the disk and reinstalling the game. I will add that you could finally do something about the F-14 and its corrupted .dll library in the bin folder that didn't allow you to use the paid dlc because it is treated as a trojan and quarantined. Thank you for the advice, add this as an exception in Defender. I'm not the one who has to worry and think about how to fix something. I paid for the product and I want to be able to use it without any problems.
The game client is clean, without any mods.
Thank you ED, you can always count on you not delivering something to the end.

Here's the fix.  Youtube vid made by my flying partner: