BREAKTHROUGH with explosions!

[xracer]

NB! READ FROM TOP TO BOTTOM and don't skip anything!

 

I start this as a new tread for only do research on these files mainly and if no one involve themselves on this topic, i just run my sim more efficiently without sharing anymore findings as it takes time to write this stuff.

 

Remember that to even test out these changes and see what they do, DO NOT start a major inferno mission with all kinds of stuff going on. I'll attach a test.miz below so you can check the response in small scale!

 

Ok, here is the nitty gritty stuff of which affects at least the CBU-97 employments!

 

Directory in question:

 

X:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Bazar\shaders\effects

 

The following files are located here and a description of what i've found about these. If you haven't backed up these, please do now before you mess up the installation!

 

 

Explosions.fx <-- This file CANNOT be removed and may be changed to MAYBE alter the explosion

Fire.fx <-- This file may be changed to MAYBE alter the explosion

FlareTrail.fx <-- Not researched on yet

PFXDust.fx <-- This file may be changed to MAYBE alter the explosion

PFXExplFire2.fx <-- This file may be changed to MAYBE alter the explosion

PFXExplFire3.fx <-- This file removes black smoke from the BOMB ITSELF but not the object it hits!

PFXSmoke2.fx <<-- This file may be changed to MAYBE alter the explosion

Smoke.fx <-- This file CANNOT be removed and may be modified to alter the explosion

 

 

My humble understanding of this explosion part and what the sim does is roughly the following and it may be the way sims usually do this:

 

1. When mission starts, It reads some .FX files and collects settings for injecting later into some .FXO files

2. When you do a mission and an explosion is initiated, that's when the .FXO file spesific for that explosion is loaded and executed. Hopefully it loaded earlier, but i don't know.

3. The execution of the explosion is done by the EFFECTS.DLL file in the BIN directory. The .FXO files are binary files which are used as an resource (maybe executable) by the calling function in EFFECTS.DLL.

 

So to the meat of this:

 

What you can do first as a simple change to get major improvement in FPS stability when the explosion occur is to just rename the file called "PFXExplFire3.fx". You will then get a more visually lighter smokeinferno from the bomb itself. If you hit let say trucks ( attached miz), most smoke left will come from the trucks fire. That is a different matter though.

 

TESTING of test miz:

 

1. When mission starts, press F2 to get a outside view of the AI plane.

2. The plane will do a circle before it drops the bombs so zoom out and accellerate until it nears the shore again and normalize time.

3. Then press F11 continously until you get to Batumi airport.

4. Then rotate to the seaside part of the runway and use "*" on the numeric keypad to move to the end of the runway like 10-15m above ground.

5. Turn around and put the view on the trucks and activate FPS counter. Adjust so you get minimum FPS and can see the counter clearly.

6. When the bombshells land there is no drop in FPS, but later the FPS counter will start to unstabilze and drop and when the explosion accurs the minimum drop will be seen after a few secs.

7. EXIT the sim completely without doing a direct refly! Do the mission again and again with and without the file "PFXExplFire3.fx" included to check.

8. And most importantly reply in this tread if this improves minimum drop for you.

9. Do research on changes in the files above to check for any improvements

 

Notes!

I have 1.2.4 with A-10 and BS2 modules installed.

Doing complex missions and still keep things at an acceptable level is probably something which is just not possible without larger changes...Sorry!

I did change the complexity of the CBU-97 bomb earlier and that did lessen the FPS drop, but with this above change i can still keep the CBU-97 effectivness intakt.

Here is the other change which will lessen the drop even more, but effiecency drops!

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=107951

 

 

Hope this helps you guys!

test.miz

Edited June 10, 2013 by xracer

[msalama]

Thank you for sharing, this is extremely interesting and definitely of value to anyone suffering from explosion-related FPS drops. As for me however, single explosions don't affect my frame rate at all and I only get a slideshow when cluster munitions are going off, so personally I don't think I'd want to eliminate the effect completely. But please do continue presenting your findings to us still, because I'm positive these will be of tremendous help to folks with aging / subpar systems! So thanks again Sir, and keep up the good work :)

[Darkwolf187]

Messed about with this - seems to have a pretty good effect. I still get the temporary grey smoke from the submunition strikes, but no orange flashes from them. Framerate holds steady even when they're going off right in my face.

 

Without this, framerate dips to ~40ish on the same test mission.

[Mustang]

I have a less than powerful system and i manage to keep FPS just above 30 at minimum with 1920x1080 res. I also have 16x AA which i thought would kill my card, but it works very well.

 

I think 16x AA is way overkill for a 5850, hell my 6850 struggles with that!

 

I think you should try using 2xMSAA in DCS options and forcing Super Sampling from within your CCC, it looks and runs amazingly well :)

[xracer]

I think 16x AA is way overkill for a 5850, hell my 6850 struggles with that!

 

I think you should try using 2xMSAA in DCS options and forcing Super Sampling from within your CCC, it looks and runs amazingly well :)

 

Thanks for the tip, Mustang but I have a faster comp too, but used for other things and it has a 6870, which is hotter and slower than this 5850. There are quality differences between XFX and HIS... I wanted to start doing changes to those kind of settings later on, Now i got a boost to start doing something with this sim to make it playable in a medium to low scale kind of scenario, That would be the goal. So now am gonna make myself a list slowly by slowy to see if i can do tricks to with the real bottlenecks which in my opinion is FPS stability :)

Maybe am lucky maybe not!

 

Btw. If there are any guys reading this which has directly with the creation of the sim to do, i wanted to say that this is an amazing sim at heart, but for the moment its not possible to enjoy it cause of a generally way to high requirements for hardware. It's a shame...

Edited June 10, 2013 by xracer

[xracer]

My quick guide to playability (updated)

 

My Quick Guide to good playability (In this context more stable fps)

 

Let me first start to say that there is a guide on this forum (by Dredd) which is far superior than this and which also explains stuff about improvements, so that should be your primary guide.

 

This guide is short but effective (i think) and instead of focusing on minor adjustments to gain a few frames/s overall and often in areas of gameplay which there is little action, i've tried to be focused on certain "gamebreakers". So on to the meat of it all:

 

Note! These changes below are made to provide better stability to gameplay, meaning more stable frames/s not the highest or lowest, but still totally superior from default on my system. I've tried as hard as i can to keep eye candy intact, but there are limited possibilities for me on my setup.

 

I will correct and add to this very short list later if i find someting else which i guess is not too obvious in the settings or files.

 

Here goes:

 

Changes in graphics.lua:

 

Section "Camera" subsection "LOW" : set LodMult = 0.3 // not 0.2 or 0.4 or something else

Section "Camera" subsection "MEDIUM" : set LodMult = 0.3 // not 0.2 or 0.4 or something else

Section "Camera" subsection "HIGH" : set LodMult = 0.3 // not 0.2 or 0.4 or something else

 

Rename one or both of the following files:

\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Bazar\shaders\ -> PFXExplFire3.fx

\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Bazar\ParticleEffects\effects\ -> FireVehicle.lua

Other changes:

 

Fire and smoke from objects (Size)

 

\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Scripts\Database\Vehicles\xxxx

In each of the files for each object you can change the following line:

 

GT.visual.fire_size = x.x

 

To a number around 0.2-0.3 which will shrink the size of the fireball from the hit object. If you put it at 0.1 you will probably have just a very short flash drop in framerate. There will still be smoke and fire there for the same default time, just less.

 

Individual object Lod changes:

 

Below type of change will have an positive effect on overall fps in large battles, with lots of air units not too far away. I put up 8 A-10C's in the parking area, put my A-10C on the end of the runway and looked toward the planes. Before the change of the file for the A-10C i had rock steady 13 f/s when they started moving. After changing on these i was up to 21 f/s. Also when adjusted correctly you wont notice any degraded visuals as its too far away anyway. So the more units the more this will inflict. Remember that this can mostly be done with air units and they are considerably more resource hungry than ground objects in most cases.

 

 

\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Bazar\World\Shapes\xxx.lods

 

(Example)

 

model = {

lods = {

{"ch-47d.edm",17.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod1.edm",30.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod2.edm",80.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod3.edm",150.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod4.edm",800.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod5.edm",7000.000000},

{"ld_tec.edm",50000.000000},

},

collision_shell = "ch-47d-collision.edm",

}

 

Change to:

 

model = {

lods = {

{"ch-47d.edm",17.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod3.edm",30.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod5.edm",80.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod5.edm",150.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod5.edm",800.000000},

{"ch-47d_lod5.edm",7000.000000},

{"ld_tec.edm",50000.000000},

},

collision_shell = "ch-47d-collision.edm",

}

 

If you absoultely want to use CBU's you can lessen the fps drop from the explosion by degrading its effectiveness (not a good thing though)

 

\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Config\Weapons\bomb_table.lua

 

local function make_CBU_97_105_DATA()

 

line:

 

count = 5, -- number of BLU-108 << Change between 1-5 based on what your system can handle.

effect_count = 5,

 

--------------

 

This i not the way i would have liked to do it and it will degrade eyecandy and effectivness.

 

 

Happy flying! Hopefully...

Edited June 12, 2013 by xracer

[tintifaxl]

I guess the number of bomblets will decrease by 80%, if you remove 4 of the BLU-108s containers, rendering the weapon impotent. Or am I wrong?

[xracer]

I guess the number of bomblets will decrease by 80%, if you remove 4 of the BLU-108s containers, rendering the weapon impotent. Or am I wrong?

 

That's alot of truth in that, but then again adjust as high as your comp can handle...OR jagg around in a slideshow if you want :-) Try to optimize spacing, dropdelay to make it better. On my system if i skip ANY of the changes above its back to square one!

[zaelu]

Making bombs useless, objects display like boxes and turning all graphics down (sorry... scenes low means LOMAC graphics) but keeping antialiasing up is not a breakthrough... imho.

[xracer]

Making bombs useless, objects display like boxes and turning all graphics down (sorry... scenes low means LOMAC graphics) but keeping antialiasing up is not a breakthrough... imho.

 

There is no boxes in my changes! That pic was just to show what makes the random fps jumps in the sim cause when their dressed thats what gonna happen. And plz dont be so damn negative. There are next to none other options to fix this for us! Also just use medium the improvement are substansial anyway.Obviously i want the eyecandy too and its still there Just try it out. The point is that if you have a mission with quite a few units on the map and they can be quite far away you will get major drops in fps unless you have a very powerful system. That is even if their not doing anything. Thats what my LOD change do improve alot on without sacrificing eyecandy noticibly. The EDM files are just too resource hungry. Anyway this improves gameplay on all systems if the changes i've done are finetuned for each spesific system.

Edited June 11, 2013 by xracer

[Feuerfalke]

I must confess I'd rather use other weapons than downgrading another.

[xracer]

Yeah but sometimes its better with 4 or more in one shell than one even if their less powerful. Try and see if your comp runs better with the smokemods and leave the bomb original. These are just options but seems like the CBU's arent too important by the looks of things.

[Miro]

Xracer, look at my PC config, is similar yes? I fly with maxed out details + Own High.lua (extended visibility range) AAx4 with... Always 30+ FPS :huh: Try mess up with Your hardware mate.

[xracer]

Xracer, look at my PC config, is similar yes? I fly with maxed out details + Own High.lua (extended visibility range) AAx4 with... Always 30+ FPS :huh: Try mess up with Your hardware mate.

 

Thanks for info, Miro. My system is also working quite well now, but really there are things still in the sim which brings it to the knees :-) I do know very well that i can do other changes to those files to improve more, but not so important for the moment.

 

Take care!

[Feuerfalke]

Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate the work you put into optimizing the game and finding what makes a difference and what does not.

 

The altering of weapons is just a step too far, for me.

[TimeKilla]

thank you :thumbup:

[xracer]

thank you :thumbup:

 

Thanks Timekilla! you know when you mess around with the sims files. At least i don't have the brains to see what they've done mostly. Brilliant programmers and designers thats what they are. This is complex stuff! As of the problems we have apart from maybe the use of cores it could be that they choose the ACAD/Electronic Design Managment type of files (totally guessing here) for the units etc, and i guess its a hell of a code which need to be made to see the total impact on the sim, and then its already too late to change. They used something else before or?? Anyway it looks like these will be our pain for a while lets see.

 

Anyways, hope you have tested this before you thanked me?? If its not working i give up i think. Changing in the advanced lua files is too risky for me i think, Easy to get totally lost. I wondered what would happen without that file and i've just tested briefly. HOPEFULLY what will happen is that we loose the visuals from the weaponpart of the explosion, but as long as you hit something which "burns"and gets destroyed am ok visually. I could not se any difference at impact. Its important to try this out in a small scale scenario. In a big one you will probably ramble along as usual with random slidshows. What needs to be done i think is to use this technique to remove the problems we can without loosing visuals/gameplay quality. So its up to you guys to start to fiddle too with this. I've used quite a few hours on this just to find that it could be a very easy fix.

 

Anyway with my usual luck it could even be that it doesnt work for most, but i've enjoyed it bit so its not wasted for me.

Edited June 11, 2013 by xracer

[Miro]

Xracer, try decrease "Preload radius" to 30.000, try to find out any difference ;)

 

That's FPS killer :D

 

I don't know how big screen you have, but in 1920x1080 AA x4 is enough.

 

Then put Scenery on High, trees on max, i think FPS will be good ;) if yes... Turn Clutter Bushes and Enjoy Sim.

 

In my opinion playing on Low is like playing Falcon, no VFR, green desert. People reporting tank behind "this" building but no building out there...

Edited June 11, 2013 by Miro

[xracer]

Xracer, try decrease "Preload radius" to 30.000, try to find out any difference ;)

 

That's FPS killer :D

 

I don't know how big screen you have, but in 1920x1080 AA x4 is enough.

 

Then put Scenery on High, trees on max, i think FPS will be good ;) if yes... Turn Clutter Bushes and Enjoy Sim.

 

In my opinion playing on Low is like playing Falcon, no VFR, green desert. People reporting tank behind "this" building but no building out there...

Actually i have set it high now. As you say 4x should be enough, but seem to get a bit of shimmering if i go below 8x. You have a different card also. I will try 30000, but need to sort out some other stuff first. Thanks fot the tip! Its a joke to play with the major slowdowns sometimes and i will try and and do stuff with that first. Edited June 11, 2013 by xracer

[xracer]

To all who have renamed the file "weapon_collision.edm", it may not work the way i thought. As i tested this on bombs it seemed ok, but when i did some tests on the A-10C's damage system by renaming the file related to that it seems like the weapons dont hit the object or at least not destroy it. Problably as of the name of the file :-) So its not like just removing a building EDM...

Edited June 12, 2013 by xracer

[Buzpilot]

You should try a better Graphics card, it's only ranked #55 on the benchmark.

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Edited June 12, 2013 by Buzpilot

[xracer]

You should try a better Graphics card, it's only ranked #55 on the benchmark.

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

Yeah am going to buy a GTX-780 soon and a 3770k, but for the moment it doesnt help alot on what am hunting for...sudden framedrops! Even the card i have is ok in 90% of the games i play. DCS is more or less the big problem.

Edited June 12, 2013 by xracer