DCS World evolution and performance

[doveman]

You're not the first person who's said they don't like Gamebooster but as it lets you set which processes and services will be shutdown when activating GameMode and restarts them for you when exiting, it seems much nicer than having to stop/start them manually one-by-one each time.

[EtherealN]

...or you can keep your system trimmed all the time. :P

 

Personally, i feel Gamebooster is a sort of excuse to let an unoptimised and dirty system remain so instead of fixing the problem, but to each their own.

[doveman]

It's fine if you only use your system for DCSW but for normal people :P we have things like Sandboxie (to protect us when surfing and for testing stuff in case it causes problems), Actual Multiple Monitors (to easily switch display profiles), CCC, USB 3 monitor service (to make our USB3 ports work properly), TVService (part of Mediaportal which handles playing, recording TV and updating the EPG). Other games may also install services (Games for Windows, Steam, Punkbuster) that we don't need when playing DCSW either.

 

I'm not saying any of those do cause problems for DCSW, in fact my recent tests indicate they don't (I don't have GFW, Steam or Punkbuster installed at present, so I can't speak about those) but nonetheless it's handy to have a quick and easy way to stop/start unneeded processes before/after playing either just in case or for testing.

 

Anyway, speaking of my recent tests I think I've found the cause of the stuttering. :D It seems to have been HwInfo64, which is ironic as I was using that to monitor the CPU/GPU usage, etc whilst running DCSW to try and identify what might be causing the stuttering!

 

I rebooted, so all my normal processes/services were running and tried DCSW (from RAMDisk and still got the occasional stutter), so I alt-tabbed out and killed HwInfo64 (just happened to be the first thing I tried) and after that I didn't have any more stutter. I quit the mission and started another one just to be sure that alt-tabbing didn't have anything to do with it, but that was fine too.

 

I'll have a word with the author of HwInfo to see if they can think why it would be causing problems for DCSW.

[Rotorhead]

OK. I must admit, that with the current update, DCSW runs better than ever before. But… only during “regular” flight. As soon as I look at a static helicopter parked near me, or fire few rounds from my .50 cals, there goes my frame rate…

 

Strangely, those fancy effects like shadows, HDR, heat blur or water reflections (known to be FPS-eaters from many games) are working just fine – I can run DCS with all these features on without any horrible FPS loss. But, few static aircraft in my field of view cause my performance to fall like a brick (both with the aforementioned effects on or off).

 

I don’t understand. I know these models have lots of polygons, but still… :huh: And I won’t better even talk about the particle effects… :mad:

 

I really don’t want to sound negative. Actually, I want to say “Thank you” to ED guys for all what they have done for us. DCS is getting better and better, and the auto-updater is really a huge step forward. But ED, please fix these annoying issues. They are breaking this great sim for many of us.

 

We have faith in you. :angel:

[Lange_666]

Anyway, speaking of my recent tests I think I've found the cause of the stuttering. :D It seems to have been HwInfo64, which is ironic as I was using that to monitor the CPU/GPU usage, etc whilst running DCSW to try and identify what might be causing the stuttering!

 

I rebooted, so all my normal processes/services were running and tried DCSW (from RAMDisk and still got the occasional stutter), so I alt-tabbed out and killed HwInfo64 (just happened to be the first thing I tried) and after that I didn't have any more stutter. I quit the mission and started another one just to be sure that alt-tabbing didn't have anything to do with it, but that was fine too.

 

I'll have a word with the author of HwInfo to see if they can think why it would be causing problems for DCSW.

 

Just curious. Did you use HwInfo64 already before you noticed the first stutters? Because this means you would have your mind set in stutter mode already before you run a new version...:smartass:

I would run it only for the first time "after" i discovered that something causes stutter.

 

About GameBooster: Although currently not installed, i never had any problems with gamebooster (i turn quite a bit of not needed services off by default but gamebooster always turns off a few extra). But up until now for all the time i used it, i can't say it boosted much, not FPS nor stutterwise, not in DCS and not in other sims. So that's why i don't see any reason to use it for now.

[doveman]

Just curious. Did you use HwInfo64 already before you noticed the first stutters? Because this means you would have your mind set in stutter mode already before you run a new version...:smartass:

I would run it only for the first time "after" i discovered that something causes stutter.

 

About GameBooster: Although currently not installed, i never had any problems with gamebooster (i turn quite a bit of not needed services off by default but gamebooster always turns off a few extra). But up until now for all the time i used it, i can't say it boosted much, not FPS nor stutterwise, not in DCS and not in other sims. So that's why i don't see any reason to use it for now.

 

I've only recently set it to auto-load at boot so I'm sure I would have tried DCSW without it, although probably only from HDD, not RAMdisk so I could find the stutter comes back when I test from HDD!. I also recently found a gadget for HwInfo, so I started running that on my second monitor so I could see it in real-time whilst flying but for the last test I didn't have the gadget loaded or the second monitor on, just HwInfo running in the background.

 

I can't say I've found shutting down services with GameBooster has made a noticeable difference to me either. I guess it's possible shutting down TVService might help, as otherwise that could update the EPG data whilst I'm flying and writing that data to HDD might cause a glitch in DCSW. I guess it's handy to kill stuff to avoid the chance they might try to check for updates/auto-update whilst flying as well.

[Lange_666]

OK. I must admit, that with the current update, DCSW runs better than ever before. But… only during “regular” flight. As soon as I look at a static helicopter parked near me, or fire few rounds from my .50 cals, there goes my frame rate…

Strangely, those fancy effects like shadows, HDR, heat blur or water reflections (known to be FPS-eaters from many games) are working just fine – I can run DCS with all these features on without any horrible FPS loss. But, few static aircraft in my field of view cause my performance to fall like a brick (both with the aforementioned effects on or off).

 

Same here. As test mission i currently run "Free Flight - Black Sea - Air Start" most of the time.

The moment i enter the aircraft i hit CTRL Pause to bring up the FPS counter, push the throttle forward, roll into an inverted flight and then pull back on the stick until i can see the airport and dive towards it. The moment i get close enough, FPS drops quite a bit only to go up again when i'm past the airport. It stays up even when flying over (and through) the nearby city with all it's trees. Even with settings at max, the FPS doesn't drop here but the moment i look at the almost empty airfield (with only a few static vehicles and a static airplane), FPS rate goes down by 25-30%.

[doveman]

Same here. As test mission i currently run "Free Flight - Black Sea - Air Start" most of the time.

The moment i enter the aircraft i hit CTRL Pause to bring up the FPS counter, push the throttle forward, roll into an inverted flight and then pull back on the stick until i can see the airport and dive towards it. The moment i get close enough, FPS drops quite a bit only to go up again when i'm past the airport. It stays up even when flying over (and through) the nearby city with all it's trees. Even with settings at max, the FPS doesn't drop here but the moment i look at the almost empty airfield (with only a few static vehicles and a static airplane), FPS rate goes down by 25-30%.

 

Same here. Flying towards Mozdok, it drops from 40-50fps to 23-30fps and returns to 40+ as soon as the runway and vehicles are behind me.

 

Seems Smokin Hole has the same problem http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=95380

[doveman]

Well I tried running from HDD and mostly didn't get any stuttering with HwInfo not running. I still got some quite bad stuttering (on Shooting Range) with the Shvkal activated/scanning when I was flying near the enemy units though. I'll have to try and test in the same conditions running from RAMDisk to see if it makes any difference.

 

The author of HwInfo pointed me to the Known Issues, which says:

 

"3. Higher system load or latency during sensor monitoring.

Description: When performing sensor monitoring, on some systems (depending on sensors present), the user might experience higher system load or latency (including DPC). This can be caused by certain sensors, especially sensors of the "EC" type, "DELL SMI", or disk SMART sensors (depending on controller and disk driver used).

Workaround: Disable monitoring of particular sensor items (right-click and "Disable monitoring") until the latency/load is reduced."

 

I'm not sure this was my problem as I checked my latency before and did so again and it's mostly 15-25 with the occasional spike to 50, 80 or 120 but those happen whether HwInfo is running or not. I also tried disabling monitoring on all the sensors apart from my GPU one and I noticed stuttering in DCSW (running from HDD) that seemed to no longer happen after closing HwInfo, which I don't think was related to the Shkval but I'll have to double-check that.

[Erforce]

Look, the game just needs to run better. It's a simulation, it's about flipping switches in the cockpit, reading the manual and living the dream that one day we'll be able to steal an A-10 and get away with it. Then you tell normal people about your hobby and everyone looks at you in a strange manner.

 

Man, you'd better steal a Ka-50. It's RARE, and it can land anywhere :-D

Plus, the GPS has traffic survey, and the bird can hide in tropical areas.

 

I've read all the posts,

Guys which are saying : My perfs are awesome, please say your settings are what you're doing.

Mine are awesome in High, until someone start shooting or if things gets numerous.

 

Remember we're not playing X-Plane, we have nasty Insurgents with top-quality russian stuff under here.

 

It's a sim game, but if things goes on, ED will rush in a dead end.

 

More fancy stuff = more cycles. Best machines will not run, and the code more and more complex to update, with huge bugs numbers.

Nothing more = F4 community. shrinking. even with new maps (lol there's so much unused thing in this map already sur i would like Ukraine, Turkey... but...)

 

We can't compare DCS to BF3 yes, in marketings terms we have something console lovers will never have.

We have some nice switchs to flip, but the world is kinda boring. transparents forests, 3 buildings cities, tanks playing sitting ducks...

 

Those things will never be updated if, the base can't support this.

Unless ED claims they will support AV-X 2 from intel Haswell+, Haswell, Broadwell will not enhance DCS.

 

We will end by hitting same switch over and over again. low perf guys enjoying fights in cities, because none of the buildings are displayed (same for forests)

And High settings guys, well guys who seeks perfection will discover than other companies are creating wonderful detailed worlds, that you would love to fly in, but which never happens.

 

Code rework is not an easy stuff, for sure. But it has to be done, it will enlarge the community and allows much more upgrades in the future.

[statrekmike]

Before World came out (version 1.1.1.1 of both A-10C and Black Shark 2), I was getting very good framerates on mostly medium settings (with some at high) on my AMD 9950 Black edition X4 (2.6Ghz), 8 gigs of ram and a aging Geforce 9800 GT (512 MB), sure it stuttered on the ground but once I took off, it ran like butter.

 

When I installed World (the first version), I was shocked, it barely ran and often would turn into a slideshow (below 10 FPS) for no reason at all, I immediately posted about it on this very subforum and was told that "at least a 2gig video card is practically required" by another user, this did not feel right to me.

 

Fast forward to two weeks ago, I managed to get a 7770 2GB card, I slapped it in and did notice a immediate improvement but it still stuttered a bit, it did not feel like framerate issues, it kinda feels like the stuttering you get with Cliffs of Dover, yeah, that kind of problem.

 

With the latest patches, it seems to run better, I get overall smoother performance but it still is not enough, if you get a severe framerate hit when you deploy weapons or destroy targets in a COMBAT sim, then something is wrong and it needs to be fixed.

 

 

I know that many on this forum have all kinds of money to throw at top of the line components for their rigs, I don't and I am sure that many on this forum don't either, my computer should be able to handle this sim at the settings am using without massive framerate drops during explosions and other such effects.

 

What makes this very silly to me is that the new effects don't even look that good, I mean, they still look pretty basic (not that it bothers me, I personally don't need Michael bay effects), the cost in overall performance is simply not worth the quality of effects at this point.

 

I know they are fixing things as we speak, I hope that they continue to make performance a priority, I just hope that they iron all this out and make it playable on a variety of systems and not just for those with enough money to throw at a monster rig.

[Riemann]

You're definitely right.

Do you remember what Wags announced for the latest patch update:

 

3- Frame rates returned to 1.2.0 levels. This was done through a combination of adjusting building LoDs, optimized performance on some graphics cards, and adjusting water rendering.

 

Although, even past versions suffered from several graphic issues, ED is istill not focusing on graphic optimization and related bugs.

Perhaps they have money for monster rigs but not enough time to make the customer game time pleasant.

 

I appreciate the hard work done so far by ED, anyway, : )!

[Ralph2]

Hey guys, I have a 1GB GTX560 (18 month old tech but just got it) running on an economy system I built almost three years ago and I'm not experiencing your issue (zero fps problems ever).

- 1900x1200

- 512 cockpit

- High all round, but medium water and no civilian traffic

Obviously no idea what your cause is, but thoroughbred Intel (+Nvidia) based systems seem to be fine.

[Riemann]

Hi Ralph,

do you mean you don't have any frame slow down when there are explosions, smoking wrecks ecc. in an almost crowded battle or when you pass nearby harbors or airports?

What a luck, what system specs do you have?

[Erforce]

Meh, the water is so beautiful that we should ALL play with high setting and fight over sea !

 

Fact is almost no-one play with water High, and civ-trafic ON, Birds, and anything looks closer to reality. this should be a standard at least. no need trafic jams (but can be designed in ME) The fact is you can enjoy the game, but even with a top rig, you can't go nuts with options.

Next annoucments are FC3 / UH-1 / CA Final

it'll add more and more complexity for code change/ update.

Maybe we'll run this great with 2025 CPUs, but by this time, the engine will be completely outdated (as it's already mixed)

 

Come on, today, start a Falcon 4.0 (original) game, it will run great, but you won't play because it's utterly outdated.

[Cyb0rg]

Birds?

[cichlidfan]

Birds?

 

The birds in the 'bird strike' option are not visible so they would not have an impact on graphic appeal.

[con3para]

same here FPS drop

 

i still get stutters in DCSworld with explosions air and ground , i drop down to 15+ Fps ...when there is a battle or i drop cluster Bombs ...any ideas , :lol:

[con3para]

Roger still BetA fase ,..thx