Constant stuttering in VR. I gave up.

[Alexified]

I've tried absolutely everything and can't get any further.
i9-13900K - 4090 - 64GB RAM - Meta Quest 3
My log file is attached. I've already run it through the log checker in Discord dozens of times.
I have a great connection to DCS via Virtual Desktop with low pings and very stable FPS.

The entire scenery stutters during flight. Consistently. Slight, almost constant stuttering.

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

Thanks for your help.

 

dcs.log.old

Edited April 13 by Alexified
wrong log file

[speed-of-heat]

without knowing what you have already tried so i may be covering old ground 

according to this log file you still have core isolation enabled and you have hyper-v active...  so lets start with this recommendation from Microsoft on gaming Options to optimize gaming performance in Windows 11 - Microsoft Support

Your page file is too small, it should be about the same as your ram

and 572.83 the current nvidia driver is known to cause stutters on some installation... so try DDU and rolling back to 566.36 

you might also check and see if core parking is enabled ...

I really wouldn't recommend MSAA i would strongly recommend DLAA as way more performant and DLSS as well , and i would turn of the max FPS that you have set in game ... i dont know what your settings are in VR in game ... i cant really help you with the Meta side of the VR house.

as quick test at the desktop with nothing else running what is your CPU utilisation like ?

[Qcumber]

2 hours ago, Alexified said:

I've tried absolutely everything and can't get any further.
i9-13900K - 4090 - 64GB RAM - Meta Quest 3
My log file is attached. I've already run it through the log checker in Discord dozens of times.
I have a great connection to DCS via Virtual Desktop with low pings and very stable FPS.

The entire scenery stutters during flight. Consistently. Slight, almost constant stuttering.

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

Thanks for your help.

 

dcs.log.old 84.81 kB · 9 downloads

To follow on from speed-of-heat, and with regards your headset, could you please post details of you VD settings? Ideally a screen shot of the in-game overlay so we can see your latencies ect. 

What do your CPU and GPU frametimes look like? Are you using QVFR? 

[MoleUK]

3 hours ago, Alexified said:

I've tried absolutely everything and can't get any further.
i9-13900K - 4090 - 64GB RAM - Meta Quest 3
My log file is attached. I've already run it through the log checker in Discord dozens of times.
I have a great connection to DCS via Virtual Desktop with low pings and very stable FPS.

The entire scenery stutters during flight. Consistently. Slight, almost constant stuttering.

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

Thanks for your help.

 

dcs.log.old 84.81 kB · 9 downloads

Unfortunately there are a LOT of potential causes for VR stutters. It's one of the most frustrating issues DCS has.

When you say the entire scenery, do you mean ONLY the scenery? Are the planes and everything else smooth in movement, but only the scenery jitters, as shown in the video here? If so, I have some suggestions you can try, they have worked to reduce or eliminate terrain stutter/jitter for some users but not all. Let me know.

 

As for more general stutter problems that don't appear the same as shown in the video: roll back nvidia drivers to 566.36 due to recent nvidia issues. Be sure to do a proper DDU process for that rollback.

Make sure mouse polling is at 125hz or less. This issue never entirely went away, and I think might have re-appeared for some users recently.

Make sure CPU core parking is disabled, and potentially you may want to disable low power states in BIOS.

Exclude the DCS install folder and savedgames folder from your antivirus.

Make sure programs that cause issues are either not installed or not running. MSI afterburner, iCue, armory crate, Nvidia app (the new one) and anything that monitors CPU usage can/will all cause issues with DCS. As can any program with overlays. Then there is also DCS specific stuff like tacview, and various mods that even when deleted can leave leftover files in various folders (the Loach AI gunner file in the hooks folder in particular).

If it's more like the terrain jitter shown in the video: Try using an external FPS cap and limit DCS to 71 frames (if running the headset at 72hz), I would suggest either nvidia control panel or RTSS. If that doesn't work, try running keeping that FPS cap and also using nvidia control panel to set DCS to vsync fast and low latency ultra. Let me know if it does anything, you may notice the FPS stats in DCS also start showing you as GPU limited when hitting your frame rate as well after those changes, rather than listing it as CPU render threat limited.

The terrain jitter problem is years old and actually isn't limited to just VR, it's just either a lot more prevalent or a lot more noticeable in VR. Or both. I have 0 experience in game dev or coding, but I assume it's something to do with poor frame pacing or a mismatch between the CPU thread handling terrain rendering and the others, but that's just a guess. But it might explain why external FPS caps seem to help alleviate it for some users, if not all.

Edited April 13 by MoleUK

[Mr_sukebe]

Can I please suggest that you take a look here:

 

[ROCKET 1-1]

10 hours ago, Alexified said:

I've tried absolutely everything and can't get any further.
i9-13900K - 4090 - 64GB RAM - Meta Quest 3
My log file is attached. I've already run it through the log checker in Discord dozens of times.
I have a great connection to DCS via Virtual Desktop with low pings and very stable FPS.

The entire scenery stutters during flight. Consistently. Slight, almost constant stuttering.

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

Thanks for your help.

 

dcs.log.old 84.81 kB · 11 downloads

nullTweak the affinity of your DCS.EXE : unchek the 10 last cpu. This reduce the amount of E-core used . DCS need P-core and only 1 one or 2 E-core.
I have donde this for my 13600K  :  now it's butter smooth an zero stutter.
you can adjuste  the power management: you change 15 to 500 : it reduces the frequencies interruptions of the cores for windows task. you will need  PowerSettingExplorer tool : 

null

[onib89]

13 hours ago, Alexified said:

I've tried absolutely everything and can't get any further.
i9-13900K - 4090 - 64GB RAM - Meta Quest 3
My log file is attached. I've already run it through the log checker in Discord dozens of times.
I have a great connection to DCS via Virtual Desktop with low pings and very stable FPS.

The entire scenery stutters during flight. Consistently. Slight, almost constant stuttering.

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

Thanks for your help.

 

dcs.log.old 84.81 kB · 11 downloads

I have the same issue with a top end system. I'm done. I tries every single thing.. nothing changes.  The scenery jittering . Waiting new Nvidia driver than may fix it. I'm done with dcs.  7k system to have all of this. No thanks...

[Czar66]

11 hours ago, MoleUK said:

Try using an external FPS cap and limit DCS to 71 frames (if running the headset at 72hz)

I'm sorry to intrude, but 73 instead of 71 for 72hz. 1 fps lower than refresh rate will produce an uneven frame per second, making a frame jump effect. 1 extra frame above refresh rate will induce a moving tear on the screen but the frames will be even. I don't know how it is in VR as I don't own it, but it is like that for 2d.

11 hours ago, MoleUK said:

I have 0 experience in game dev or coding, but I assume it's something to do with poor frame pacing or a mismatch between the CPU thread handling terrain rendering and the others, but that's just a guess. But it might explain why external FPS caps seem to help alleviate it for some users, if not all.

It is poor frame pacing indeed what's on the video, and it is shown the 'CPU bound (rendering thread)' blinking in red on the video when the stutter happens. Looks like the CPU being unable to queue all frames smoothly. That's why the frame capping might be beneficial on that situation, where the CPU needs to queue a smaller amount of frames to push to the GPU making all smoother.

I cap my frames everywhere for this sole reason. Uneven frames are highly distracting and they will often happen when the CPU is overwhelmed.

Edited April 13 by Czar66

[Alexified]

Oh man, it seems like it's a problem with the wifi connection. First of all, thank you all for your fast help and support. Ordered a dedicated wifi 7 6GHz router today and will test if that fixes the stuttering.

I will keep you updated if that eliminates the latency spikes and bad performance.

 

[MoleUK]

11 hours ago, Czar66 said:

I'm sorry to intrude, but 73 instead of 71 for 72hz. 1 fps lower than refresh rate will produce an uneven frame per second, making a frame jump effect. 1 extra frame above refresh rate will induce a moving tear on the screen but the frames will be even. I don't know how it is in VR as I don't own it, but it is like that for 2d.

It is poor frame pacing indeed what's on the video, and it is shown the 'CPU bound (rendering thread)' blinking in red on the video when the stutter happens. Looks like the CPU being unable to queue all frames smoothly. That's why the frame capping might be beneficial on that situation, where the CPU needs to queue a smaller amount of frames to push to the GPU making all smoother.

I cap my frames everywhere for this sole reason. Uneven frames are highly distracting and they will often happen when the CPU is overwhelmed.

I would start with 71, then 72 then 73 to see if there is a different impact here, as you don't want the other limits (VR software, headset, then VR specific mods) kicking in before the NVCP limit. VR just adds layers of extra problems on top re: frame pacing.

And yeah capping frames is generally good advice, but I have never seen the same behavior exhibited in any other game. It's not stutter, it's literally like the frames are being rendered out of order. So you see the frame jump forward then back. But ONLY the terrain, the rest of the game will be rendering perfectly smooth.

Much of the time this jittering can occur without showing any sort of movement on the frametime graph, unlike all the other various stutter issues DCS can have.

Edited April 14 by MoleUK

[speed-of-heat]

does NVCP frame rate have an impact in VR ... huh ... learn something new 

[speed-of-heat]

nope

it doesn't

null

[Hiob]

On 4/13/2025 at 8:49 AM, Alexified said:

I've tried several settings and I've given up. Am I the problem, or is it DCS VR?

 

Well, all the tweaks are already mentioned, so I can't add to that. But to answer the last question above. VR is demanding and sensitive to any adverse settings, so tweaking is a must. That is not unique to DCS. However, I have the same GPU, RAM and VR HMD as you (a different CPU though) and I can attest that DCS can run butter smooth with this hardware. 

[Qcumber]

4 hours ago, Alexified said:

Oh man, it seems like it's a problem with the wifi connection. First of all, thank you all for your fast help and support. Ordered a dedicated wifi 7 6GHz router today and will test if that fixes the stuttering.

I will keep you updated if that eliminates the latency spikes and bad performance.

 

Have you tried using the meta link app instead of VD? 

[MoleUK]

22 hours ago, speed-of-heat said:

nope

it doesn't

null

Are you even hitting apply? Or just pointing it at the wrong exe? When properly frame capped with NVCP, you should also see the frametime graph list the game as GPU limited as shown in mine, not CPU limited as shown in yours.

Edited April 15 by MoleUK

[speed-of-heat]

yep apply is hit 

and its pointing at the right exe, you can see that 

[MoleUK]

16 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

yep apply is hit 

and its pointing at the right exe, you can see that 

Tried restarting the game? I haven't tried seeing if it works to change the FPS cap without restarting.

No idea why it wouldn't work on your system, but it may also mean no other NVCP tweaks are applying correctly for you atm.

Edited April 15 by MoleUK

[speed-of-heat]

yes it doesn't have any effect if the cap was working it would have reduced the FPS to 55 which it does in 2D but not VR ... CPU Bound in Yellow is kind of the default state so thats not a measure you should concern yourself with if its in red thats a different matter.

 

 

[MoleUK]

8 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

yes it doesn't have any effect if the cap was working it would have reduced the FPS to 55 which it does in 2D but not VR ... CPU Bound in Yellow is kind of the default state so thats not a measure you should concern yourself with if its in red thats a different matter.

 

 

I have no idea why the cap isn't working for you then, I can set it to anything on NVCP and it caps it properly both for VR and flatscreen for me. I'm using VD on a QPro, so perhaps the software/headset comes into play. But if it isn't capping the FPS for you, it might mean no other NVCP settings are working for you either. You will have to test that out if it's a problem.

I always thought the CPU bound in yellow was the default state and meant nothing, but I am more convinced it's actually flagging a slight issue now. Once it's green bound when running at full refresh rate, the terrain jitter goes away. Could be coincidental.

Edited April 15 by MoleUK

[speed-of-heat]

I sort of did this to death when i had G2 (

) ... there aren't many settings that actually impact VR play in NVCP... now as you are going via VD that might have some different impacts as windows i wll see that as a desktop app rather than VR

Edited April 15 by speed-of-heat

[MoleUK]

3 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

I sort of did this to death when i had G2 (

) ... there aren't many settings that actually impact VR play in NVCP... now as you are going via VD that might have some different impacts as windows i wll see that as a desktop app rather than VR

If NVCP settings aren't changing much for you, it might just not be applying any of them.

I did a quick check, I do have to reset the game after changing the FPS cap in NVCP but it works fine.

You can also do some very significant tweaks with nvidia profile inspector as well. These things do have an impact.

 

[MoleUK]

I've been advising people to cap their FPS in NVCP to fix the terrain jitter for ages now, with mixed success. I'm wondering how many of those failures were due to NVCP not applying the FPS cap correctly in some instances, will have to keep that in mind going forward. Might be easier just to recommend RTSS or something.

[speed-of-heat]

RTSS has its own "issues" especially on nvidia cards at the moment

[MoleUK]

6 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

RTSS has its own "issues" especially on nvidia cards at the moment

Most of the issues I've seen recently have been related to MSI Afterburner far moreso than RTSS. Typically the voltage/power monitoring causing CPU issues.

But yea ideally you'd want NVCP to do it.

[speed-of-heat]

RTSS can also cause issues especially if monitoring those voltages