DCS hangs on launch when using a resolution lower than native

[icedstar]

This has been happening to me for a while now and just now figured out what is the cause of it. I have been running DCS at 2560x1440 even though my monitor native resolution is 3840x2160 because my 3080 GPU can't handle 4K at a decent framerate. I have been doing this for years without any problems but since a couple months ago I started having issues launching the game, I click launch in the launcher and after the Nvidia image and the DCS image it just hangs in a black screen and doesn't load. There is a rare case every once in a while where it loads all the way to the menu but most of the time it just hangs and I have to close it with the task manager. 

I decided to try different things to figure out what was the cause, I updated my GPU drivers to the current latest drivers from Nvidia 576.88, even updated the BIOS and Armory Crate and no luck, I tried disconnecting my internet cable and load the game offline to see if it was something related to the internet and it didn't work either so I finally tried setting up my native 4K resolution on the launcher and BINGO! that fixed the problem. 

The big issue is that I can't really play DCS in 4K as it runs at 17 fps when close to the ground and I can't launch the game in 4K and then switch to 2560x1440 while on the menu because DCS has to shut down to change resolution. 

If anybody know a fix for this or if anyone from ED can look into this issue I would really appreciate it as I am grounded until either a fix comes up or a better GPU comes up and with the current prices the second option isn't really viable right now. 

My PC specs in case they are relevant for anything are

ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
64 GB DDR4 Gskill 3600 RAM
EVGA GeForce 3080 GPU
DCS is installed in a SSD

Thanks in advance

[silverdevil]

14 hours ago, icedstar said:

This has been happening to me for a while now and just now figured out what is the cause of it. I have been running DCS at 2560x1440 even though my monitor native resolution is 3840x2160 because my 3080 GPU can't handle 4K at a decent framerate. I have been doing this for years without any problems but since a couple months ago I started having issues launching the game, I click launch in the launcher and after the Nvidia image and the DCS image it just hangs in a black screen and doesn't load. There is a rare case every once in a while where it loads all the way to the menu but most of the time it just hangs and I have to close it with the task manager. 

I decided to try different things to figure out what was the cause, I updated my GPU drivers to the current latest drivers from Nvidia 576.88, even updated the BIOS and Armory Crate and no luck, I tried disconnecting my internet cable and load the game offline to see if it was something related to the internet and it didn't work either so I finally tried setting up my native 4K resolution on the launcher and BINGO! that fixed the problem. 

The big issue is that I can't really play DCS in 4K as it runs at 17 fps when close to the ground and I can't launch the game in 4K and then switch to 2560x1440 while on the menu because DCS has to shut down to change resolution. 

If anybody know a fix for this or if anyone from ED can look into this issue I would really appreciate it as I am grounded until either a fix comes up or a better GPU comes up and with the current prices the second option isn't really viable right now. 

My PC specs in case they are relevant for anything are

ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
64 GB DDR4 Gskill 3600 RAM
EVGA GeForce 3080 GPU
DCS is installed in a SSD

Thanks in advance

hello. i suggest you post up your DCS.log from the session that hangs. without seeing the log, i guess DCS is hanging because the resolution you are using is not compatible with the display. post your monitor model too.

[icedstar]

4 hours ago, silverdevil said:

hello. i suggest you post up your DCS.log from the session that hangs. without seeing the log, i guess DCS is hanging because the resolution you are using is not compatible with the display. post your monitor model too.

Here is the log, I opened DCS got stuck in black screen and had to force close it and this is the log that it generated. 

Also refering to the resolution not being compatible, it is compatible as I have been playing that way for years and just a few months ago started having this issues. I haven't changed anything hardware related so I assume is something that got implemented in one of the patches that broke it for me. The monitor model is a Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 4K.

Thanks for the tip on the data log, hopefully someone can understand it and find out why it hangs.

dcs.log

[silverdevil]

6 hours ago, icedstar said:

Here is the log, I opened DCS got stuck in black screen and had to force close it and this is the log that it generated. 

Also refering to the resolution not being compatible, it is compatible as I have been playing that way for years and just a few months ago started having this issues. I haven't changed anything hardware related so I assume is something that got implemented in one of the patches that broke it for me. The monitor model is a Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 4K.

Thanks for the tip on the data log, hopefully someone can understand it and find out why it hangs.

hello. someone will figure it out. my suggestion is to rename the Saved Games\DCS folder to DCS.BAK. then run DCS. a new folder will be created. the folder will be recreated. then copy your inputs from the backup folder.

\Saved Games\DCS.bak\config\Input to the new folder. i feel something is amiss in options.lua.

Edited 9 hours ago by silverdevil

[LucShep]

On 7/3/2025 at 11:39 PM, icedstar said:

This has been happening to me for a while now and just now figured out what is the cause of it. I have been running DCS at 2560x1440 even though my monitor native resolution is 3840x2160 because my 3080 GPU can't handle 4K at a decent framerate. I have been doing this for years without any problems but since a couple months ago I started having issues launching the game, I click launch in the launcher and after the Nvidia image and the DCS image it just hangs in a black screen and doesn't load. There is a rare case every once in a while where it loads all the way to the menu but most of the time it just hangs and I have to close it with the task manager. 

I decided to try different things to figure out what was the cause, I updated my GPU drivers to the current latest drivers from Nvidia 576.88, even updated the BIOS and Armory Crate and no luck, I tried disconnecting my internet cable and load the game offline to see if it was something related to the internet and it didn't work either so I finally tried setting up my native 4K resolution on the launcher and BINGO! that fixed the problem. 

The big issue is that I can't really play DCS in 4K as it runs at 17 fps when close to the ground and I can't launch the game in 4K and then switch to 2560x1440 while on the menu because DCS has to shut down to change resolution. 

If anybody know a fix for this or if anyone from ED can look into this issue I would really appreciate it as I am grounded until either a fix comes up or a better GPU comes up and with the current prices the second option isn't really viable right now. 

My PC specs in case they are relevant for anything are

ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU
64 GB DDR4 Gskill 3600 RAM
EVGA GeForce 3080 GPU
DCS is installed in a SSD

Thanks in advance

What I find interesting is, why would you force a lower resolution, when you are able to use DLSS upscaling in the DCS game options and your GPU supports it?

In DCS options, first set it at the native 3840x2160 (i.e, 4K) resolution, and then use DLSS at a desired setting (the "Upscaling" seting).
- If set at "Quality" setting (=66% upscaling), you're basically running the game at 2560x1440 (i.e, 1440P) resolution, but upscaled through AI algorithm. 
- If set at "Balanced" setting (=50% upscaling), you're basically running the game at 1920x1080 (i.e, 1080P) resolution, but upscaled through AI algorithm.
You'll then find that adjusting the setting "Sharpening" (right below it) will be required, as the image may look a bit too soft (personal taste, from 0.3 upto 0.7 should be good).

It will look incomparably better than manually forcing a lower resolution, while keeping the native resolution and all the big performance benefits.  

- - - 

On a different aspect, about the Nvidia driver selection - you do whatever suits you (it's your PC) but from personal experience with plenty different troubled systems, I'd strongly advise against using latest drivers (any that are post 566.36) on any RTX 30 series GPU (like yours), though there'll be plenty "rubish, it's perfectly fine, ignore that"  comments.

I'd actually urge you to install Nvidia 537.58 WHQL drivers, and even better if it's a bloatware cleaned driver version. These are considered the best drivers for RTX 30 (and older) series, because of stability, latency and frame pacing benefits that none later version was ever able to match (though driver 566.03 is not too bad).

If interested, you can get a 537.58 WHQL "clean version" from here:  https://mega.nz/folder/dQRX3AQI#9RmtXT0cTw45RsWxTQgYiw/file/JJ5kQAAC
Uncompress (unzip) the package, then go to the folder with the extracted files, and run setup.exe to start the drivers installation.

And, while optional, to first uninstal current drivers with DDU (https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/uninstall-nvidia-amd-intel-gpu-drivers) is a good idea.
This will ensure that your system is clean of any display driver left overs (which can cause issues and conflicts) before (re)installing any Nvidia drivers.
 

Edited 5 hours ago by LucShep

[Tango3B]

1 hour ago, silverdevil said:

hello. someone will figure it out. my suggestion is to rename the Saved Games\DCS folder to DCS.BAK. then run DCS. a new folder will be created. the folder will be recreated. then copy your inputs from the backup folder.

\Saved Games\DCS.bak\config\Input to the new folder. i feel something is amiss in options.lua.

This does it. Thx bud. I had this problem for the first time in my life since the last patch, my DCS wouldn´t even start anymore even though my system is absolutely up to date. I do not even want to speculate what might be wrong here since the last patch but your solution does it. You basically made my day, bud. I owe you one...