Black flickering issue fix

[HR-Crumble]

Hi all,

I have been part of some other posts where people are having a flickering black screen, either all of it or half of it. 

I believe I have managed to resolve the flickering - this has been verified across about half a dozen users of differing PC and DCS setups so we know the issue and fix is global.

I have done some extensive testing on my own PC and within my group and have been back and forth sharing finds with @Flappie

ISSUE:

Black flickering on screen when in cockpit, sometimes external also. 
 

VARIABLES:

After considerable time spent testing the issue is related to smoke logic/effects of varying types: fog, dust storm, missile smoke, engine smoke (F4, Migs, older jets etc), catapult steam, vehicle dust trails. 
 

The issue seems more prevalent to those users on an AMD card and 50/50 if an Nvidia user has the issue. 
 

The issue is module agnostic, map agnostic, time of day agnostic and happens more on MP than SP. 

The issue is also more pronounced when looking through a HMCS into these smoke effects. 

FIX:

 

After hours of testing I/We have found that motion blur is the culprit! 
Please then this off, delete the usual FXO and Metashaders folder and then the issue will stop. 
 

For some reason if the player looks at or has in their FOV any one of the aforementioned smoke physics then users report a flicker. It can be as simple as a Smoky F4 or 29 in the near distance. 

When we all turn off motion blur the issue stops. Many combinations of DLAA/MSAA/TAA/DLSS/shadows/viz ranges/rsin/effects/SSS/ draw distances etc etc have been tried. None of it fixed the issue. 
 

Turn off motion blur and you’re golden. Again this was verified on 6 different systems of AMD/INTEL NVIDIA/AMD 4K/1440 VR and 2D. 
 

Cheers
 

 

[DmitriKozlowsky]

On 3/22/2025 at 1:37 PM, HR-Crumble said:

Hi all,

I have been part of some other posts where people are having a flickering black screen, either all of it or half of it. 

I believe I have managed to resolve the flickering - this has been verified across about half a dozen users of differing PC and DCS setups so we know the issue and fix is global.

I have done some extensive testing on my own PC and within my group and have been back and forth sharing finds with @Flappie

ISSUE:

Black flickering on screen when in cockpit, sometimes external also. 
 

VARIABLES:

After considerable time spent testing the issue is related to smoke logic/effects of varying types: fog, dust storm, missile smoke, engine smoke (F4, Migs, older jets etc), catapult steam, vehicle dust trails. 
 

The issue seems more prevalent to those users on an AMD card and 50/50 if an Nvidia user has the issue. 
 

The issue is module agnostic, map agnostic, time of day agnostic and happens more on MP than SP. 

The issue is also more pronounced when looking through a HMCS into these smoke effects. 

FIX:

 

After hours of testing I/We have found that motion blur is the culprit! 
Please then this off, delete the usual FXO and Metashaders folder and then the issue will stop. 
 

For some reason if the player looks at or has in their FOV any one of the aforementioned smoke physics then users report a flicker. It can be as simple as a Smoky F4 or 29 in the near distance. 

When we all turn off motion blur the issue stops. Many combinations of DLAA/MSAA/TAA/DLSS/shadows/viz ranges/rsin/effects/SSS/ draw distances etc etc have been tried. None of it fixed the issue. 
 

Turn off motion blur and you’re golden. Again this was verified on 6 different systems of AMD/INTEL NVIDIA/AMD 4K/1440 VR and 2D. 
 

Cheers
 

 

Motion blur is not. Or its one of the culprits.

I have no motion blur, no DLSS, no anti-aliasing. I get constant frequent black screen time outs of 4 to 5 seconds. Often during critical flight phases.

I don't know what the issue is. Driver, DCS, drive-DCS interaction. Whatever it is. There is no viable solution. You are deluding yourself if you think you can find it. As issue is deep inside NVIDIA and DCS perhaps DirectX. Who knows? But claiming that its one particular setting is foolish.

[HR-Crumble]

1 minute ago, DmitriKozlowsky said:

Motion blur is not. Or its one of the culprits.

I have no motion blur, no DLSS, no anti-aliasing. I get constant frequent black screen time outs of 4 to 5 seconds. Often during critical flight phases.

I don't know what the issue is. Driver, DCS, drive-DCS interaction. Whatever it is. There is no viable solution. You are deluding yourself if you think you can find it. As issue is deep inside NVIDIA and DCS perhaps DirectX. Who knows? But claiming that its one particular setting is foolish.

I appreciate your feedback - based on your feedback it seems we could be seeing different issues then. 
 

All I can say with certainty is those people (6 and more recently) have the same issue I had and turning off motion blur fixed the issue. 
 

You cannot argue with that data - however I appreciate your issue may be different and I was offering something to try just in case. 
 

Take it steady and good luck with your issue, I understand nothing sucks more than an issue you can’t fix. Hopefully you find it!! 

[DmitriKozlowsky]

16 minutes ago, HR-Crumble said:

I appreciate your feedback - based on your feedback it seems we could be seeing different issues then. 
 

All I can say with certainty is those people (6 and more recently) have the same issue I had and turning off motion blur fixed the issue. 
 

You cannot argue with that data - however I appreciate your issue may be different and I was offering something to try just in case. 
 

Take it steady and good luck with your issue, I understand nothing sucks more than an issue you can’t fix. Hopefully you find it!! 

Many users report black screen timeouts. With many other. I only have DCS. I used ot have X-Plane but delete it, as X-Plane FPS are too low for graphics fidelity offered. I managed to get a personal legal (but creatively bypassed restriction requirements) of Prepare3D which is based on MSFS. But Lockheed got wise, and yanked my Prepare3D desktop faster then F-35 DAS goes out of alignment. Other 3D apps are DCC (Houdini ,  Maya, Mari, NUKE). I only get black screen timeouts under DCS. I tried all sorts of back drivers, Game Ready drivers, Studio drivers. Currently on 572.83 Studio, just switched from 572.83 Game Ready.

Went though more setting adjustments in DCS. Nothing, nothing helps. Eventually black screens and black flickering comes back. It is a curse that ED and Nvidia have been unable to address. As black screen is not a crash, not a freeze, there is no log file. As it happens in all theaters, in all mods, with  or without add ons, its not a mod. Its DCS and Nvidia. I went down from my monitors' 144hz native refresh rate to 100 then to 60. Nothing helps. I do not think there is an answer or solution that is attainable at user level .

[HR-Crumble]

Damn sorry to hear that. 
 

I get black screen of 2-3 seconds when I alt tab out of DCS to say discord or SRS since windows 11 update. It got better when I messed with the PBO and power settings but my only flickering was what I mentioned. 
 

I used to get white strobing and black strobing on my Nvidia card and I eventually had to use DDU to nuke everything and start again and then change the power settings in the Nvidia driver tool. Can’t remember what the setting was called. 
 

I have no doubt you’ve checked but do your logs give you any clue whatsoever of a potential issue?

[DmitriKozlowsky]

42 minutes ago, HR-Crumble said:

Damn sorry to hear that. 
 

I get black screen of 2-3 seconds when I alt tab out of DCS to say discord or SRS since windows 11 update. It got better when I messed with the PBO and power settings but my only flickering was what I mentioned. 
 

I used to get white strobing and black strobing on my Nvidia card and I eventually had to use DDU to nuke everything and start again and then change the power settings in the Nvidia driver tool. Can’t remember what the setting was called. 
 

I have no doubt you’ve checked but do your logs give you any clue whatsoever of a potential issue?

I do not think log files have anything usefull, as there is no crash, no memory error. Even playing back TRK files, the black screens  ay or may not occur. Its random. Or appears to be, Its not reproducible, other then they keep happening.

[SignorMagnifico]

I can confirm I'm also experiencing this black texture flickering issue on objects when motion blur is turned on in the latest DCS version 2.9.18.12722. This has been persistent across multiple patches, and I agree with @HR-Crumble that the issue occurs most commonly with "smoke logic/effects of varying types: fog, dust storm, missile smoke, engine smoke (F4, Migs, older jets etc), catapult steam, vehicle dust trails." Attaching a track file, screenshots, my graphics settings, dxdiag, and a YouTube video of the issue happening in hopes the dev team can replicate this and fix it. Turning off motion blur stops the flickering, but that's a band-aid. @Flappie Are you able to replicate this?

 

 

DxDiag.txt textureflickering.trk