solved Long ME and MP load times

[peachpossum]

Ever since the update on March 5th, 2025 (DCS 2.9.13.6818.2), I've noticed the loading screen progress bar hang on loading into the Mission Editor or when joining the same mission on a dedicated MP server. This long delay has persisted with the latest update from last week (DCS 2.9.14.8222).

My squad mates do not report longer than normal loading times when joining these missions on my dedicated server, so it seems reasonable to suspect my local machine (specs in signature).

I've used the dcs-log-analyzer on Discord and followed the advice given;
1 - Disable Core Parking
2 - Disable Game Mode
3 - Disable Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling
4 - Disable Core Isolation

After a fresh reboot I confirmed that all items above have been disabled.

Steps to reproduce;
1 - reboot PC
2 - start trackIR
3 - start DCS
4 - open Mission Editor
5- open OP-Open-Gulf-1950-1995-CTLD-01.miz

Expected behavior: mission opens in ME within 30 seconds

Observed behavior: mission takes over 2 min to open, it hangs in one spot for 2m 20sec

The same long load time behavior is observed when joining this mission when it is running on my dedicated server.
The same long load time behavior is observed when joining this mission when it is hosted on my local PC.

When loading from the ME, it seems to hang for 2m 20 sec at this point of the progress bar ( see hangSection.png )

In the dcs.log file, there is a similar gap in time (2m 13 sec) between line 872 and 873, indicated by yellow tic marks in dcs-log-ME-PG-1st-load-from-reboot-detail.jpg

I've attached the mission & full DCS log from this example.

Unfortunately, nearly all my missions exhibit this behavior.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be much obliged for your feedback.

dcs.log OP-Open-Gulf-1950-1995-CTLD-01.miz

[silverdevil]

14 minutes ago, peachpossum said:

If anyone has any ideas I'd be much obliged for your feedback.

hello. have you added exclusions for relevant DCS folders in your AV? i had a similar problem. it took minutes to get into a game. now it is about 30 seconds. lots of problems concerning AV and DCS lately.

Edited March 25 by silverdevil

[peachpossum]

hi silverdevil,

Yes, I have the following exclusions for my Antivirus scans;

trackIR program
roaming AppData for NaturalPoint (trackIR)
DCS-SimpleRadio-Standalone program
~\Saved Games\DCS
~\Saved Games\edModelViewer
~\DCS World application
 

Edited March 25 by peachpossum

[The_Nephilim]

2 hours ago, peachpossum said:

Ever since the update on March 5th, 2025 (DCS 2.9.13.6818.2), I've noticed the loading screen progress bar hang on loading into the Mission Editor or when joining the same mission on a dedicated MP server. This long delay has persisted with the latest update from last week (DCS 2.9.14.8222).

My squad mates do not report longer than normal loading times when joining these missions on my dedicated server, so it seems reasonable to suspect my local machine (specs in signature).

I've used the dcs-log-analyzer on Discord and followed the advice given;
1 - Disable Core Parking
2 - Disable Game Mode
3 - Disable Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling
4 - Disable Core Isolation

After a fresh reboot I confirmed that all items above have been disabled.

Steps to reproduce;
1 - reboot PC
2 - start trackIR
3 - start DCS
4 - open Mission Editor
5- open OP-Open-Gulf-1950-1995-CTLD-01.miz

Expected behavior: mission opens in ME within 30 seconds

Observed behavior: mission takes over 2 min to open, it hangs in one spot for 2m 20sec

The same long load time behavior is observed when joining this mission when it is running on my dedicated server.
The same long load time behavior is observed when joining this mission when it is hosted on my local PC.

When loading from the ME, it seems to hang for 2m 20 sec at this point of the progress bar ( see hangSection.png )

In the dcs.log file, there is a similar gap in time (2m 13 sec) between line 872 and 873, indicated by yellow tic marks in dcs-log-ME-PG-1st-load-from-reboot-detail.jpg

I've attached the mission & full DCS log from this example.

Unfortunately, nearly all my missions exhibit this behavior.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be much obliged for your feedback.

dcs.log 118.6 kB · 2 downloads OP-Open-Gulf-1950-1995-CTLD-01.miz 1.68 MB · 2 downloads

Well I loaded your mission and was in the cockpit within a minute or so, it did not seem to hang like you said. seems like it is on your end?

[Flappie]

@peachpossum Another user with the same issue solved it by changing a BIOS setting:

 

[peachpossum]

Thank you for responding Flappie,

Unfortunately, this information is not very actionable.

 

Quote

I managed to solve it somehow. I remebered I made some changes to the BIOS settings a few weeks ago, rolled them back and now I'm getting less than 20 seconds in the first mission load. I'll try to narrow down the exact setting when I have some time to test since I changed more than one.

 

[Flappie]

Feel free to send him a PM.

Edited March 25 by Flappie

[peachpossum]

I sent @miguelaco a message. In the meantime I double-checked my virus scan exclusions and added the more detailed logging from Flappie's autoexec.cfg file posted in the linked thread. I did notice my autoexec.cfg file had a lot of cruft in it, so I removed it and replaced it with the simpler version with more detailed logging.

Still having the same long load time; hanging for ~2m 20sec.

2025-03-25 14:22:15.595 DEBUG   LuaGUI (Main): Mission C:\Users\myusername\Saved Games\DCS\Missions\OP-Open-Gulf-1950-1995-CTLD-01.miz loaded
2025-03-25 14:24:36.098 ERROR_ONCE DX11BACKEND (22920): texture 'lns_vig_ext_wing_l_s' not found. Asked from ''

peachpossum

[peachpossum]

update: Good news!

After poking around with some more things, I realized I had not updated my nVidia drivers to the 572.83 version from last week's March-18th update.

ME mission load time (hang time) went from ~2min 20 sec to ~5sec, big improvement!

peachpossum

[miguelaco]

I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact setting that might have caused this, but I’m not entirely convinced it’s the root cause, it could still be a false positive. In the meantime, I asked my friend @dariocs to run the same test and send me his log file for review. I noticed that his load time was significantly lower than mine, even though we have similar hardware, if anything, mine should have a slight advantage

My load times now:

2025-03-25 10:56:59.276 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "South_Atlantic_Assets": 0.013
2025-03-25 10:56:59.288 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "AV-8B N/A AI by RAZBAM Sims": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.299 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "C-101 Aviojet by AvioDev": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.325 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "China Asset Pack by Deka Ironwork Simulations and Eagle Dynamics": 0.025
2025-03-25 10:56:59.338 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Christen Eagle II AI by Magnitude 3 LLC": 0.013
2025-03-25 10:56:59.349 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-15E AI by RAZBAM": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.397 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-4E AI by Heatblur Simulations": 0.047
2025-03-25 10:56:59.405 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-14B AI by Heatblur Simulations": 0.008
2025-03-25 10:56:59.417 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "M-2000C AI by RAZBAM Sims": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.429 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "MiG-21Bis AI by Magnitude 3 LLC": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.441 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Mirage F1 Assets by Aerges": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.452 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "OH58D AI by Polychop-Simulations": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.463 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "SA342 AI by Polychop-Simulations": 0.011
2025-03-25 10:56:59.477 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "CaptoGloveSupport": 0.012
2025-03-25 10:56:59.497 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "LeapMotionSupport": 0.020
2025-03-25 10:56:59.513 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "SensoryxVRFreeSupport": 0.015
2025-03-25 10:56:59.531 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "VoiceChat": 0.017
2025-03-25 10:56:59.585 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "jsAvionics": 0.017
2025-03-25 10:57:01.186 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Combined Arms by Eagle Dynamics": 1.600
2025-03-25 10:57:01.737 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Supercarrier": 0.551
2025-03-25 10:57:01.741 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "DCS-SRS": 0.004
2025-03-25 10:57:58.965 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F/A-18C": 7.703

@dariocs load times:

2025-03-24 18:58:33.061 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "South_Atlantic_Assets": 0.017
2025-03-24 18:58:33.076 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "AV-8B N/A AI by RAZBAM Sims": 0.014
2025-03-24 18:58:33.090 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "C-101 Aviojet by AvioDev": 0.014
2025-03-24 18:58:33.123 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "China Asset Pack by Deka Ironwork Simulations and Eagle Dynamics": 0.032
2025-03-24 18:58:33.139 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Christen Eagle II AI by Magnitude 3 LLC": 0.016
2025-03-24 18:58:33.154 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-15E AI by RAZBAM": 0.014
2025-03-24 18:58:33.215 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-4E AI by Heatblur Simulations": 0.061
2025-03-24 18:58:33.227 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F-14B AI by Heatblur Simulations": 0.011
2025-03-24 18:58:33.241 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "M-2000C AI by RAZBAM Sims": 0.015
2025-03-24 18:58:33.257 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "MiG-21Bis AI by Magnitude 3 LLC": 0.015
2025-03-24 18:58:33.272 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Mirage F1 Assets by Aerges": 0.015
2025-03-24 18:58:33.287 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "OH58D AI by Polychop-Simulations": 0.014
2025-03-24 18:58:33.301 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "SA342 AI by Polychop-Simulations": 0.014
2025-03-24 18:58:33.318 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "CaptoGloveSupport": 0.016
2025-03-24 18:58:33.347 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "LeapMotionSupport": 0.029
2025-03-24 18:58:33.367 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "SensoryxVRFreeSupport": 0.020
2025-03-24 18:58:33.389 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "VoiceChat": 0.021
2025-03-24 18:58:33.469 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "jsAvionics": 0.021
2025-03-24 18:58:34.477 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "Supercarrier": 1.008
2025-03-24 18:58:35.038 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "NS430": 0.561
2025-03-24 18:58:35.046 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "DCS-SRS": 0.008
2025-03-24 19:01:08.237 INFO    WorldPlugIns (Main): loading "F/A-18C": 0.995

As you can see, the times are quite similar, except for the player's aircraft module (F/A-18C), where I'm getting more than 7 seconds compared to less than a second. I’ll continue my tests when I have more time to see if I can replicate those minute-long times by reverting to the previous BIOS settings, just to confirm whether they are indeed the cause.

dcs-dariocs.log dcs.miguelaco.log

[miguelaco]

9 hours ago, Flappie said:

@peachpossum Another user with the same issue solved it by changing a BIOS setting:

 

Looks like the original thread where I was posting was closed. May I ask why? I think the issue is far from solved and it is not clear to me we're even talking about the same problem.

[Flappie]

The previous thread was locked because the issue was global, it was well identified by devs, and the fix they issued proved successful. And also because a user answered the thread with a completely different issue.

Feel free to open a new thread.

(but you told us your issue was fixed)

[miguelaco]

For the most part, and I also said I was going to further investigate to determine, if possible, the BIOS setting (even though I'm not convinced it is the cause). Anyway, it's fine by me, but as you can see in my previous post, there's still a noticeable difference in load times.

[silverdevil]

On 3/25/2025 at 1:57 PM, miguelaco said:

For the most part, and I also said I was going to further investigate to determine, if possible, the BIOS setting (even though I'm not convinced it is the cause). Anyway, it's fine by me, but as you can see in my previous post, there's still a noticeable difference in load times.

i think what @Flappie is trying to say is, that unless your answer to a solved topic is, "it fixed my problem too", is to start another topic about YOUR issue specifically. 

[miguelaco]

It's not my intent to start a discussion here, but with all due respect, I don’t understand the reasoning behind closing the previous thread. The proposed solution aligns with my findings, and I don’t believe it’s my specific issue. I’ve shared two different sets of logs, which show delays that are inconsistent, ranging from less than a second to 7 seconds. While this isn’t a critical issue, I believe it might be indicative of something else. Furthermore, the last post from the OP in that thread reflects the same findings.

Additionally, I don’t find this approach efficient. Opening a new thread closely related to an already closed one and losing all the comment history doesn’t seem ideal. That said, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not a major issue, and I’ll continue investigating. If I uncover anything new, I’ll create a new thread.

[Flappie]

1 hour ago, miguelaco said:

Additionally, I don’t find this approach efficient. Opening a new thread closely related to an already closed one and losing all the comment history doesn’t seem ideal. That said, as I mentioned earlier, it’s not a major issue, and I’ll continue investigating. If I uncover anything new, I’ll create a new thread.

Analogy:

1. A lot of people complain about unexplainable car crashes. A thread is created. The issue is reported internally with a link to this thread and fresh user logs.
2. Car makers scratch their head, then they find an explanation: there is no pressure in the brake system. They issue a fix, and the fix works for the guys who test it. Car makers publish the fix and the fix works for most people who were complaining about the car crashes.
3. Now, a few people still complain about car crashes even though they received the fix. Since their problem was not solved with the fix, it certainly has a different root cause. A new thread is opened, the issue is reported internally with a link to the new thread and user logs.