do not run as administrator Bug/Freeze erratic behavior after DCS 2.9.14.8222 (March 19 2025 Update)

[bojote]

I rolled back to 2.9.13.6818.2 and everything went back to normal. Computer freezes intermitently after loading DCS. Without doing anything, it will freeze/unfreeze and if you activate the frame counter you will see it spiking like crazy. No track file as this is in the MAIN MENU. 

Only fix I was able to test was to stop HELIOS. For some reason when Helios Control Center is running in my setup I see the erratic behavior. There is clearly some kind of issue with the new version. 

[bojote]

Problem is related to higher resolution being used (not viewports) when you have Winwing or any other viewports that require you to extend your resolution. For some reason this updated version freezes and goes black screen when you use a non-standard resolution. This is EASY to replicate, simply requires you set a resolution (at least in my case) of 3840x2104 (I use ultrawide). If I keep the same viewports (MFDs and RWR for example) in the hornet but change the resolution to 3840x1024 (standard) then everything works fine.

So, this IS a bug and clearly the QA team did not catch it as they are all probably using standard resolutions

[Tengah]

I am also having freezing issues with the latest patch.  I have a decent build, not great compared to many here, but it is a new purchase and DCS wasa positively "flying" (pun intended) until today (21st March 2025) when I ran the DCS update:  

Intel i9 12900KF • RTX 4060 • 32GB 3200Mhz • 1TB NVMe • MSI 240mm Liquid Cooler • MSI M100R Mesh White • WiFi • Windows 11

I am using a Samsung Wide Screen Monitor, 32inch at 2560x1080 screen rez.

I have tried removing ALL mods (I only use the CH Mods, and a few of Admirals Ships) to no avail, DCS continues to freeze.  If I a lot tab to desktop then back to DCS it will run fine for a minute or so then freezes again.

Edit:  I am using Lasso, and have tried with and without.  DCS MT and normal DCS, to no avail.

Any words of advice would be gratefully received.

Edited March 22 by Tengah

[sleighzy]

1 hour ago, Tengah said:

I am also having freezing issues with the latest patch.  I have a decent build, not great compared to many here, but it is a new purchase and DCS wasa positively "flying" (pun intended) until today (21st March 2025) when I ran the DCS update:  

Intel i9 12900KF • RTX 4060 • 32GB 3200Mhz • 1TB NVMe • MSI 240mm Liquid Cooler • MSI M100R Mesh White • WiFi • Windows 11

I am using a Samsung Wide Screen Monitor, 32inch at 2560x1080 screen rez.

I have tried removing ALL mods (I only use the CH Mods, and a few of Admirals Ships) to no avail, DCS continues to freeze.  If I a lot tab to desktop then back to DCS it will run fine for a minute or so then freezes again.

Edit:  I am using Lasso, and have tried with and without.  DCS MT and normal DCS, to no avail.

Any words of advice would be gratefully received.

Attach your DCS log file. DCS is now also all multithreaded, there is no MT and non-MT. 

[rob10]

2 hours ago, bojote said:

Problem is related to higher resolution being used (not viewports) when you have Winwing or any other viewports that require you to extend your resolution. For some reason this updated version freezes and goes black screen when you use a non-standard resolution. This is EASY to replicate, simply requires you set a resolution (at least in my case) of 3840x2104 (I use ultrawide). If I keep the same viewports (MFDs and RWR for example) in the hornet but change the resolution to 3840x1024 (standard) then everything works fine.

So, this IS a bug and clearly the QA team did not catch it as they are all probably using standard resolutions

Not sure that's completely the issue.  Mine is set for 5376 x 2163 and I'm having no issues.

Edited March 22 by rob10

[bojote]

8 minutes ago, rob10 said:

Not sure that's completely the issue.  Mine is set for 5376 x 2163 and I'm having no issues.

Using a single viewport? Or exporting MFDs as well?

 

[rob10]

10 hours ago, bojote said:

Using a single viewport? Or exporting MFDs as well?

Ahh, yes, I'm using a single viewport with the MFD displays off to the right of my main screen as part of it displaying on the WW MFD's.  My apologies, I missed that detail if you're using multiple so my use case isn't the same.

[Flappie]

@bojote You need to update Helios.

[bojote]

4 hours ago, Flappie said:

@bojote You need to update Helios.

nullAlready updated to the latest Helios two weeks ago. I even tried the new DCS update but WITHOUT Helios or any viewports. As long as I use a resolution that matches the main viewport everything works. Problem is when your resolution is HIGHER than the 'CENTER' (main) viewport, thats when the new update starts freezing, going black screen in a very erratic way. I rolled back to the DCS previous update and everything works perfect again.null

[bojote]

5 hours ago, rob10 said:

Ahh, yes, I'm using a single viewport with the MFD displays off to the right of my main screen as part of it displaying on the WW MFD's.  My apologies, I missed that detail if you're using multiple so my use case isn't the same.

If you are using winwing then you are using multiple viewports, Center is the 'main' one for the cockpit, the MFDs use the following:

    CENTER_MFCD
    LEFT_MFCD
    RIGHT_MFCD

When you setup your winwing you either create a layout to the to the right or BELOW your main 'viewport'. Thats's an interesting detail. My screens are set BELOW the main viewport, yours are set to the SIDE. You can tell this layout by checking windows (see image). Then you 'match' the total resolution of your combined monitors and set that in DCS.

New update might have an issue with screen 'height'. I have an Ultrawide (3840x1080) but with the Winwings is 3840x2104. Notice WIDTH stays the same, as my layout of Winwings is BELOW the Center viewport.

The DCS new update is having issues with this, no idea why, if I set the resolution in DCS to match my CENTER viewport everything works perfect. I don't think this is an Issue with Helios or Winwing, but something with drawcalls and D3D11 and height.

null

[rob10]

2 hours ago, bojote said:

If you are using winwing then you are using multiple viewports, Center is the 'main' one for the cockpit, the MFDs use the following:

    CENTER_MFCD
    LEFT_MFCD
    RIGHT_MFCD

When you setup your winwing you either create a layout to the to the right or BELOW your main 'viewport'. Thats's an interesting detail. My screens are set BELOW the main viewport, yours are set to the SIDE. You can tell this layout by checking windows (see image). Then you 'match' the total resolution of your combined monitors and set that in DCS.

New update might have an issue with screen 'height'. I have an Ultrawide (3840x1080) but with the Winwings is 3840x2104. Notice WIDTH stays the same, as my layout of Winwings is BELOW the Center viewport.

The DCS new update is having issues with this, no idea why, if I set the resolution in DCS to match my CENTER viewport everything works perfect. I don't think this is an Issue with Helios or Winwing, but something with drawcalls and D3D11 and height.

Interesting, thanks.  Since it's one value I assumed it was one viewport.  Shows what I know .  Glad my comment may have twigged someone on the actual issue then.

I wonder if this is a multi-cause issue because there are people reporting updating their Helios fixed it.

Edited March 22 by rob10

[Special K]

Am 22.3.2025 um 01:39 schrieb bojote:

So, this IS a bug and clearly the QA team did not catch it as they are all probably using standard resolutions

A lot of testers use beast setups. I have a 49 inch, 5120x1440 plus full Winwing setup for instance on the 2D side and a 6 DOF motion rig with Pimax Crystal on the VR side. Other testers have similar setups, winwing is a very common option many have.

I haven't seen that and haven't heard that from any testers. I had a user yesterday that has a similar issue. We've not finished investing yet but his issues point to either armory crate or the display link driver. 

For anybody in here, please provide dcs.log files as per usual. Telling you have the same issue as the OP is very likely not happening. There are a ton of reasons for the above described behaviour that have nothing to do with any screen exports. 

[Arcc]

Hi

to try to move the problem forward.

With new version 8222

 

  or

both do not work (with or without mods)

If it helps

Christian

 

dcs.log

[bojote]

6 hours ago, Special K said:

A lot of testers use beast setups. I have a 49 inch, 5120x1440 plus full Winwing setup for instance on the 2D side and a 6 DOF motion rig with Pimax Crystal on the VR side. Other testers have similar setups, winwing is a very common option many have.

I haven't seen that and haven't heard that from any testers. I had a user yesterday that has a similar issue. We've not finished investing yet but his issues point to either armory crate or the display link driver. 

For anybody in here, please provide dcs.log files as per usual. Telling you have the same issue as the OP is very likely not happening. There are a ton of reasons for the above described behaviour that have nothing to do with any screen exports. 

Let's figure this out together. My setup is admittedly complex — I'm running Helios, Winwing, DCS-BIOS, and a multi-screen environment — but I have a firm grasp on my system's behavior. I avoid using mods, aside from those external interfacing apps, and I never touch the core DCS files. If I ever tweak something, it's limited to the Saved Games\DCS directory, which I can easily reset to test a clean vanilla setup. I’ve already done this — wiped the Saved Games folder, ran DCS vanilla — and the issue persisted. That points away from mods and strongly toward a driver, OS setting, or deeper GPU interaction conflict.

Next steps:

1. I’ll reinstall the new update and wipe the Saved Games folder again.

2. I’ll run tests in two configurations: standard resolution (just the center monitor), and extended (full-screen spanned across all displays).

3. I’ll submit both log files for analysis (previous vs current DCS version).

Right now, I suspect the issue might stem from a combination of:

• DisplayLink drivers (I use them for extended displays)

• NVIDIA settings, particularly DLSS or G-SYNC modes

• A bug in the rendering pipeline of the latest DCS update

Release notes from the patch mention:

• Fixes to model element visibility through dust for ground units

• HUD symbology distortion from engine heat blur

• A black screen issue tied to manual fog settings

These hint that something changed in how the engine handles post-processing, transparency, or depth layers — all of which can severely impact multi-monitor, high-resolution, or mixed driver setups.

Will report back in the next hour or so

[bojote]

Here's a ChatGPT analysis of BOTH log files (also attached to this post)

Here’s the deep-dive analysis comparing your bad (extended resolution) and good (center-only resolution) DCS logs. The core DCS build and hardware are identical — the only changes lie in resolution, aspect ratio, and DLSS settings. Here’s what stands out:

---

Key Differences in Graphics Config

Setting	Good Log	Bad Log
Resolution	3840 x 1080	3840 x 2104 (ultrawide/stacked)
Aspect Ratio	1.33 (standard 16:9)	1.825 (ultrawide 32:9 or multi-screen)
DLSS_PerfQuality	0 (Off)	1 (Likely “Quality” or “Balanced”)

---

Probable Cause: DLSS + Extended Resolution Conflict

The combination of:

• High horizontal resolution (3840x2104) +

• DLSS enabled (DLSS_PerfQuality = 1) +

• NVIDIA RTX 4090 on new drivers

…is likely triggering a render pipeline crash. DLSS introduces a temporal reconstruction step based on resolution scaling, and with non-standard aspect ratios and multi-monitor setups, it can break badly — resulting in:

• Black screens

• UI render target errors (render target 'uiTargetColor' not found)

• GPU driver timeouts (which would not show in the log but matches your symptoms)

---

Additional Supporting Evidence

Both logs include this:

ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND: render target 'mainDepthBuffer' not found

However, the bad log shows more unusual texture-related errors later and several rendering target misses — indicating a more severe GPU-side failure in that config.

---

Recommendation / Fix Plan

1. Turn off DLSS: Set DLSS_PerfQuality = 0 in options.lua

2. Disable Upscaling and Sharpening:

   ['Upscaling'] = 'OFF';
['Sharpening'] = 0;

3. Test with standard aspect = 1.33 — try locking this manually, even if running extended resolution.

4. Run with multiMonitorSetup = "1camera" only, avoid custom configs unless absolutely needed.

dcs-bad.log dcs-good.log

[Callsign Munch]

9 hours ago, Special K said:

A lot of testers use beast setups. I have a 49 inch, 5120x1440 plus full Winwing setup for instance on the 2D side and a 6 DOF motion rig with Pimax Crystal on the VR side. Other testers have similar setups, winwing is a very common option many have.

I haven't seen that and haven't heard that from any testers. I had a user yesterday that has a similar issue. We've not finished investing yet but his issues point to either armory crate or the display link driver. 

For anybody in here, please provide dcs.log files as per usual. Telling you have the same issue as the OP is very likely not happening. There are a ton of reasons for the above described behaviour that have nothing to do with any screen exports. 

I was that guy.

Armorcrate was uninstalled to test. Clean saved games folder, slow repair, Drivers rolled back, BIOS rolled back, updated drivers, GYSNC, DDU, etc all the usually culprits.

Core parking disabled. Hot plug disabled. DIMMs swapped, exchanged, XMP disabled, overclocks disabled. Just to name some of the big ones. I tried a lot of less likely things too.

It still present.

The common thread is extending the resolution to USB monitors and CPU usage spiking locking up the PC. You can unlock DCS moving the mouse around returning the CPU usage to normal. Stationary mouse, it locks up. Changing mouse polling rate has no effect.

I'm keeping track of all the similar cases since this update.

Rolling back to 2.9.13.6818.2 and it works perfectly and game runs super smooth.

Edited March 23 by MeatServo
Clarity

[bojote]

I basically did EVERYTHING @MeatServo just said and some:

1) Did a Full repair (Slow option) but also selected the option to check for aditional files. At the end of the repair it shows you WHAT FILES are not part of a default install so I choose the option to Move and Backup (They were mostly renamed log files and renamed files, but still, choose to MOVED them out for my testing)

2) Did a CLEAN install of Nvidia Drivers using NVClean and removed all profiles

3) Updated DisplayLink drivers to the newest ones (Feb 25) I had the Nov 24 version. 

4) Removed the ENTIRE Saved Games DCS folder so that it will be rebuilt from scratch.

tried running DCS standalone, NO background software or apps (and since Saved Games/DCS folder is brand new there is absolutely not a single add-on). I tried with my displays connected but choosing a resolution in DCS to match ONLY my physical monitor (3840x1080) and It works, but if I change the DCS resolution to ALSO include my USB Displays (3840x2104) so that I can use viewports and export screens then hell breaks loose.

My guess, is that somewhere in the lines of code of this complex program a programmer incuded a feature that was supposed to be LOCAL to the GPU accelerated viewport or physical screen but forgot to constraint it and when applied to the USB screens it messes up things. Perhaps post-processing, transparency, or depth layers related to the heatblur setting in the hud? it would be nice if one of the beta testers would point the developer to this post so we all work constructively in fixing the issue. While I understand MOST of the problems you see reported in this forums are user error and misconfigurations, I can assure you thats NOT my case, I know my PC, config and DCS inside out. DCS is probably one of the most (if not the most) stable software program I run. I probably have not see a SINGLE stutter or hitch like in the past year, so when something is off, I can spot it immediatly.

[silverdevil]

@bojote do you have the opportunity to use USB C to USB C connection for the displaylink aspect? i had a recent issue at the office with a multi-monitor setup. a laptop on a dock could not run two 4K displays. turned out that if only one DP or HDMI for one display and the other using USB C it would work. just an idea.

[rob10]

1 hour ago, bojote said:

tried running DCS standalone, NO background software or apps (and since Saved Games/DCS folder is brand new there is absolutely not a single add-on). I tried with my displays connected but choosing a resolution in DCS to match ONLY my physical monitor (3840x1080) and It works, but if I change the DCS resolution to ALSO include my USB Displays (3840x2104) so that I can use viewports and export screens then hell breaks loose.

I get where you're coming from, but unless that specific ratio or size is the problem it shouldn't be related to that.  Mine with WW screens is 5376 x 2163 (so bigger both ways) and I'm not seeing any issues.  Are you on Win 10 or 11?  I'm on 11.  Maybe there's a difference there

[bojote]

12 minutes ago, rob10 said:

I get where you're coming from, but unless that specific ratio or size is the problem it shouldn't be related to that.  Mine with WW screens is 5376 x 2163 (so bigger both ways) and I'm not seeing any issues.  Are you on Win 10 or 11?  I'm on 11.  Maybe there's a difference there

How many winwing screens you have, 2 or 3 screens? Are you running latest DisplayLink and nvidia drivers? is Windows 11 completely up to date as of today? can you share your options.lua file? Do you use HAGS? Nvidia Inspector specific settings? You might be the key to solving this. Are you also 100% positive you are running DCS version 2.9.14.8222?   

[bojote]

5 hours ago, MeatServo said:

 

I'm keeping track of all the similar cases since this update.

I think I might have fixed it. Can you confim that your shortcut or DCS.exe file is NOT flagged/checked to run as administrator?

If DCS is run as administrator (option checked in the shortcut for ALL users or in the exe) DCS goes crazy. If unchecked everything works great. 

Please test when you have a chance. This might explain why some users do not experience the problem (they simply don't run DCS as administrator) and will also explain why full repairs or re-installs wont fix it. As that option sticks and stays over updates.

Also, for those running Helios, you might have noticed Control Center runs as Administrator. This is not an issue UNLESS you use Helios Process Contorl to launch DCS automatically. Why? because any child processes launched by Control Center will inherit the privileges and DCS will RUN as administrator and cause the problems we are seeing.

Can the developers check why running as administrator creates the issue? (fairly easy to replicate on their end)

Edited March 23 by bojote
Aditional info

[MAXsenna]

@bojote nice catch!

[rob10]

Interesting.  I DO NOT have it running as admin (and no problems).  Will be interesting to see other responses.

[Callsign Munch]

40 minutes ago, bojote said:

I think I might have fixed it. Can you confim that your shortcut or DCS.exe file is NOT flagged/checked to run as administrator?

If DCS is run as administrator (option checked in the shortcut for ALL users or in the exe) DCS goes crazy. If unchecked everything works great. 

Please test when you have a chance. This might explain why some users do not experience the problem (they simply don't run DCS as administrator) and will also explain why full repairs or re-installs wont fix it. As that option sticks and stays over updates.

Also, for those running Helios, you might have noticed Control Center runs as Administrator. This is not an issue UNLESS you use Helios Process Contorl to launch DCS automatically. Why? because any child processes launched by Control Center will inherit the privileges and DCS will RUN as administrator and cause the problems we are seeing.

Can the developers check why running as administrator creates the issue? (fairly easy to replicate on their end)

Probably the one thing I didn't think of trying and can confirm that's the fix.

[Arcc]

Actually everything works in NOT administrator mode.

it's a good thing. I’ll close my two other topics.

Christian