Performance Guide For DCS World

[uboats]

fps drops after ramp start

 

In 1.2.7, I met a dramatic fps drop when looking from back after ramp start.

This happens with throttle idle w/o blur, if throttle to 80%, with blur visible, fps can be better.

I do not know why.

I am using lenovo y410p w/ gt750m

 

Screenshots are attached.

 

setup

 

before start up, fps is above 50 from both front and back view

fps: 95

fps: 70

 

After start up, but keep throttle idle, I cannot see the heat blur

but the fps drops a lot to less than 20 if I move view at back

fps: 12

fps: 19

fps: 14

 

 

But from front view, the fps does not drop too much and above 30

as well as taking off with afterburning

fps: 57

fps: 56

fps: 30

[camsr]

It's the amount of scene objects that kills fps, even with good GFX card.

[_Dredd]

I don't think it's the primarily the amount of scene objects but something going on at the airports, for instance transitioning towards Batumi airport, as soon as you reach 1 mile or 1000feet to the Airport and land, even starting spawned at the airport my fps go from 40fps to 29-30. There's no major change in objects. I assumed it's something to do with scripting or the world rendering of those objects around the airport maybe...

Regardless, I hope EDGE will have greater improvements on GPU usage, rather than CPU as it is at present..

Edited February 21, 2014 by _Dredd

[doveman]

it's weird cuz the yellow DCS Detailed FPS and Objects Counter show opposite what your overlay is showing.

 

If you mean on those last two screenshots, the DCS FPS counter decreases whilst the MSI FPS increase, then yes it is rather weird. The DCS FPS counter decreasing is consistent with the theory that increasing Scene Objects decrease FPS but we can't just ignore the MSI FPS.

 

A similar issue comes up with the other screenshot I've commented, where the MSI FPS is 39.8 but the DCS FPS is 2.03! All the others seem to support the theory with both the MSI and DCS FPS though.

[Wolf Rider]

I don't think it's the primarily the amount of scene objects but something going on at the airports, for instance transitioning towards Batumi airport, as soon as you reach 1 mile or 1000feet to the Airport and land, even starting spawned at the airport my fps go from 40fps to 29-30. There's no major change in objects. I assumed it's something to do with scripting or the world rendering of those objects around the airport maybe...

Regardless, I hope EDGE will have greater improvements on GPU usage, rather than CPU as it is at present..

 

 

hitboxes on the buildings, etc? (some buildings are collidable/ solid sructures?)

[doveman]

I don't think it's the primarily the amount of scene objects but something going on at the airports, for instance transitioning towards Batumi airport, as soon as you reach 1 mile or 1000feet to the Airport and land, even starting spawned at the airport my fps go from 40fps to 29-30. There's no major change in objects. I assumed it's something to do with scripting or the world rendering of those objects around the airport maybe...

 

Most of uboats screenshots above support the theory that higher objects=lower fps. The only anomaly is the last screenshot, which has lower fps and lower objects than the previous one. I can't explain this but I notice the fps counter shows "29.97(58.61)" so maybe the bracketed number is the average or previous frame and the unbracketed number is just a glitch that happened to coincide with the screenshot.

[SkateZilla]

DirectX9 Docs support that theory too. lol

[_Dredd]

Little naive of me... Back and forwards near the airport, Yes those districts racking up 1300 objects or so ain't helping.. :(

Sure looks scenic though

[Mustang]

Something to add: if you want to grab a few more frames try lowering the lodMult setting in graphics.lua, for example changing to lodMult = 0.50; will make all object .lods appear 50% sooner therefor lowering the poly count onscreen and raising FPS - only side effect is lower quality models popping up at closer distances but this is barely noticable at most times.

[doveman]

DirectX9 Docs support that theory too. lol

 

Well yeah, nothing comes for free ;)

[doveman]

Something to add: if you want to grab a few more frames try lowering the lodMult setting in graphics.lua, for example changing to lodMult = 0.50; will make all object .lods appear 50% sooner therefor lowering the poly count onscreen and raising FPS - only side effect is lower quality models popping up at closer distances but this is barely noticable at most times.

 

Thanks. I'll give it a go. Lower quality models is better than unplayably low fps anyway.

[BBQ]

Very informative post --

 

I did want to mention that when comparing FPS - we have to be careful to make sure we are using the exact same level of zoom in the cockpit -- notice that in the initial post, under the part where there is a column of armor in the HUD - the screenshot with higher FPS is zoomed in a little farther than in the screenshot with less FPS.

 

I'm not saying this is the reason for the extra FPS -- just a note to those who are doing their own benchmarking, to be careful of this issue - as in certain situations, zoom out can increase the load on the system since more objects have to be rendered (if there are more objects present when zooming out).

[TZeer]

Zoom level is the same on both pictures, only difference is that the A-10 is a little closer to the tank columns on the last one.

 

And there are 2 different vehicles. 1 with optimized model and one without.

 

FPS increase is due to less objects on the optimized model = less workload on the CPU.

[camsr]

2 Questions that have been on my mind:

 

1) What do the near clip and middle clip variables do? I know what near clipping is in relation to far clipping, but I see in JayPee's config it is set to 0, which negates the known idea of near/far clipping being a ratio.

 

2) The distances things are drawn at vary with Field of View, so when zoomed in things further out are drawn. Where is the basis viewpoint for these distance values? Is it the default starting perspective, or the "normal" perspective after having used NumPad Enter?

 

Anyone know?

[JayPee]

For what its worth i would not have tampered with the clipping values if not for a bug with intel onboard graphic chips. I had to set it to 0 to prevent major see-throughs and artefacts and to increase fps by at least 30%.

[msalama]

...and to increase fps by at least 30%.

 

All three values?

 

EDIT: Ach, obviously not far_clip, but the other 2?

Edited March 5, 2014 by msalama

[JayPee]

Performance Guide For DCS World

 

I shouldve expressed myself a bit better. Users of an onboard intel IGP and a dedicated nvidia GPU might suffer from a bug which 1) gives you a severe FPS penalty and 2) gives you major clipping issues and artefacts.

 

Setting DCS to use either one of the chipsets and not the other does not help. You will need to set the near clip value to 0.0 to overcome both symptoms. Downside is if you zoom in too far in external view your model will start to clip, but that is a very minor annoyance compared to the initial problem, trust me on that. Also, you must really want to read the MFDs from outside the ACFT before you encounter this.

[msalama]

Right, thanks for the clarification.

[SkateZilla]

I shouldve expressed myself a bit better. Users of an onboard intel IGP and a dedicated nvidia GPU might suffer from a bug which 1) gives you a severe FPS penalty and 2) gives you major clipping issues and artefacts.

 

Setting DCS to use either one of the chipsets and not the other does not help. You will need to set the near clip value to 0.0 to overcome both symptoms. Downside is if you zoom in too far in external view your model will start to clip, but that is a very minor annoyance compared to the initial problem, trust me on that. Also, you must really want to read the MFDs from outside the ACFT before you encounter this.

 

Backfaced Polygons is a Intel IGP Glitch.

 

You shouldnt have to set Clipping to 0.0, just Make a NVidia Profile and set it to use discrete.

[JayPee]

Performance Guide For DCS World

 

Backfaced Polygons is a Intel IGP Glitch.

 

 

 

You shouldnt have to set Clipping to 0.0, just Make a NVidia Profile and set it to use discrete.

 

 

If by discrete you mean a setting that forces DCS to use the dedicated chip and not the onboard one, then no, merely setting this does not fix it. Not quite sure what you mean by discrete tho...

[Wolf Rider]

Lucid doesn't play nice with DCS

[Mango]

I'm getting the same issue as doveman and others here.

 

50-60 FPS with only a few objects, 2-5 FPS when engaging tanks in the Georgian Hammer campaign.

[PFunk1606688187]

Anyone got any idea if turning any settings up or down affects the visibility or apparent brightness or size of other aircraft's external lights?

[zhivkob]

The game engine is terrible. You will have to compensate for this crappy old excuse of an engine with super ridiculous PC configuration that is not justified in any way... It is a damn shame because the idea behind this game is awesome but it is very poorly implemented.

[CAMERAMAN]

Can you provide a path to this file?

Hey Blooze - Can you assist me with these settings?