Hornet optimization in DCS...

How are you guys progressing on making optimizations to the Hornet so that it has less of an impact on PC performance? I know the Hornet is more demanding but I am seeing 30+ drops in FPS when looking out the cockpit at another Hornet and the same drop in FPS when using mirrors. Depending on the situation, my FPS fluctuates from 144 all the way down into the 40's.

Is the power management setting for your DCS profile in nvidia control panel set to "Prefer Maximum Performance?" Are you using SSAA or MSAA?

@ 3440x1440 with no SSAA and MSAA 2x I get a minimum of like 80 fps in the Hornet.

IMO Minimum framerate is the number you should adjust settings to, and will be more evident the closer you are to the ground, especially around areas with tons of trees or the cities with huge buildings around Dubai on the PG map.

Is the power management setting for your DCS profile in nvidia control panel set to "Prefer Maximum Performance?" Are you using SSAA or MSAA?

 

@ 3440x1440 with no SSAA and MSAA 2x I get a minimum of like 80 fps in the Hornet.

 

IMO Minimum framerate is the number you should adjust settings to, and will be more evident the closer you are to the ground, especially around areas with tons of trees or the cities with huge buildings around Dubai on the PG map.

Yes, max performance is set. No SSAA and MSAA 2x, shadows low, civ traffic low, res cockpit display 512 every frame...all other settings maxed out.

Sitting on the ramp at Nellis with my head turned and looking at another Hornet with mirrors down and my FPS will drop into the 40's...mirrors up and FPS rebounds to the 50's to low 60's. I turn my head and look straight without another Hornet in view and my FPS is up around 100. I look straight up at the sky or straight down into the cockpit and my FPS are maxed at 144. The same can be reproduced while sitting on a carrier deck. Flying over downtown Las Vegas, my FPS will be in the upper 60's to 70's while looking down at the ground. This is on an empty map.

Maybe even with a 1080 Ti, 4.6GHz CPU and 32GB RAM, I can't get anywhere near max setting at 1440p and stay above 60 FPS in the Hornet.

Yes, max performance is set. No SSAA and MSAA 2x, shadows low, civ traffic low, res cockpit display 512 every frame...all other settings maxed out.

 

Sitting on the ramp at Nellis with my head turned and looking at another Hornet with mirrors down and my FPS will drop into the 40's...mirrors up and FPS rebounds to the 50's to low 60's. I turn my head and look straight without another Hornet in view and my FPS is up around 100. I look straight up at the sky or straight down into the cockpit and my FPS are maxed at 144. The same can be reproduced while sitting on a carrier deck. Flying over downtown Las Vegas, my FPS will be in the upper 60's to 70's while looking down at the ground. This is on an empty map.

 

Maybe even with a 1080 Ti, 4.6GHz CPU and 32GB RAM, I can't get anywhere near max setting at 1440p and stay above 60 FPS in the Hornet.

Static hornets i think are known to be causing fps drops at the moment.

I've always used just 512 rather than 512 every frame personally as well.

There's something other than F-18 optimizations causing your performance issues. We have similar system specs and in-game settings and I get better performance in VR, with mirrors and shadows on, than you're having on a monitor. When I was on a monitor I had most settings maxed and would only see a performance impact over 3D intensive areas, central Dubai etc. Your system should be doing much better.

I'd look again at power management, NVIDIA Control Panel and drivers, maybe have a look in your BIOS (or whatever it's called now), but I doubt the F-18 is the cause of the poor performance.

EDIT: Also if you're overclocked, CPU or 1080, revert to stock speeds and see what difference that makes. I've heard of overclocks causing similar issues.

Static hornets i think are known to be causing fps drops at the moment.

 

I've always used just 512 rather than 512 every frame personally as well.

Interesting. Looking at a Hornet sitting on the Ramp (Ready on the Ramp - instant mission) causes FPS to plunge in VR as well.

Interesting. Looking at a Hornet sitting on the Ramp (Ready on the Ramp - instant mission) causes FPS to plunge in VR as well.

It's only the static version of the flyable plane that causes the performance issues. I had a boat full of static Lot 20's and any time I looked towards them I'd get the jitters. Changed them all to DCS's old generic F-18C, directly above the Lot 20 on the static aircraft list, and poof, smooth as butter!

There's something other than F-18 optimizations causing your performance issues. We have similar system specs and in-game settings and I get better performance in VR, with mirrors and shadows on, than you're having on a monitor. When I was on a monitor I had most settings maxed and would only see a performance impact over 3D intensive areas, central Dubai etc. Your system should be doing much better.

 

I'd look again at power management, NVIDIA Control Panel and drivers, maybe have a look in your BIOS (or whatever it's called now), but I doubt the F-18 is the cause of the poor performance.

 

EDIT: Also if you're overclocked, CPU or 1080, revert to stock speeds and see what difference that makes. I've heard of overclocks causing similar issues.

Windows and NVIDIA are definitely set to max performance, drivers are up to date and I have never messed with my BIOS so don't know much there but everything seems okay. I only have my CPU overclocked but I will see what happens when I run it at stock.

One thing I did notice though is that when my FPS drops into the 40's, my CPU usage is in the low 70's and GPU usage is in the mid 50's. I would imagine in situations where my FPS drops, the GPU would hit 100% to compensate but that isn't happening so something might be wrong there. On the other hand, in less demanding situations where my FPS is maxed at 144, my CPU and GPU usage nears 100%.

It's only the static version of the flyable plane that causes the performance issues. I had a boat full of static Lot 20's and any time I looked towards them I'd get the jitters. Changed them all to DCS's old generic F-18C, directly above the Lot 20 on the static aircraft list, and poof, smooth as butter!

I'm looking at parked FA18s on the tarmac. So I'm thinking it's the same problem?

After some more research, the performance issues are definitely from the static Hornets....specifically with shadows. FPS takes a hit with other static aircraft as well but not anywhere near what I see with the Hornet. With static Hornets present, I see a 30-40 FPS drop. What is strange though it that when I use F2 view to look at my own aircraft, I don't see a FPS drop.

The Hornet's mirrors are another issue that needs addressing as well. With them on, I see an instant 30-40 FPS drop and if you add that to the static Hornet issue then I get severe performance issues with FPS down into the 40's. Another thing I noticed is that when I flip the mirrors back up, the FPS does not recover unless I change to another view and then back to the cockpit.

No static Hornets, mirrors off, shadows low...my FPS will not drop below 100 with all other setting near max (Civ traffic Low, Visib range Ultra, MSAA 2x)

Static Hornets present, mirrors off, shadows off...my FPS will stay around 144 with all other settings near max (Civ traffic Low, Visib range Ultra, MSAA 2x)

The shadows in DCS are not well optimized... i fly with shadows on flat only and it runs perfect no matter what i fly or do, when i change them to low the stuttering comes alive

Shadows on flat only for external object, but shadows on low (at least) for cockpit shadows.

If you choose shadows flat for cockpit you have glitch on the cockpit view in night missions

Has this problem been acknowledged yet by ED? I'm going through the training missions which uses plenty of static hornets and this is quite frustrating.

It's way better now so ED has worked on this issue in my opinion.

Still, if there are many static Lot20 hornets it's overloading ressources, but with only 3 on my side on ramp (for the exemple I think about) I have no drops.

Some times ago a single static Lot20 hornet in your field of view was roughly cutting in half gpu usage and fps, watever they were.

Edit - you can (fairly quickly) copy the training missions in your savegame folder, open them with ME and replace static Lot20 hornets by F/A-18C old statics - I've tried with f.e. cold start training and it completely solve the perf issue. (9 or 10 statics to change for this mission - they look less good for sure but it's an option)

It's way better now so ED has worked on this issue in my opinion.

 

Still, if there are many static Lot20 hornets it's overloading ressources, but with only 3 on my side on ramp (for the exemple I think about) I have no drops.

Some times ago a single static Lot20 hornet in your field of view was roughly cutting in half gpu usage and fps, watever they were.

 

Edit - you can (fairly quickly) copy the training missions in your savegame folder, open them with ME and replace static Lot20 hornets by F/A-18C old statics - I've tried with f.e. cold start training and it completely solve the perf issue. (9 or 10 statics to change for this mission - they look less good for sure but it's an option)

I just got the hornet recently and didn't realize it's been worked on. However, FPS still sinks to mid 40's when looking at a row of 4-6 static hornets in an airfield, and with TrackIR it's very noticeable. Annoyingly, this is the case in every training/instant mission I tried so far. :(

Editing the missions sounds like a good workaround. I'll try that next time. Thanks!

How are you guys progressing on making optimizations to the Hornet so that it has less of an impact on PC performance? I know the Hornet is more demanding but I am seeing 30+ drops in FPS when looking out the cockpit at another Hornet and the same drop in FPS when using mirrors. Depending on the situation, my FPS fluctuates from 144 all the way down into the 40's.

This is perfectly "normal" as of now. I've documented the issue here https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3715100&postcount=9

Windows and NVIDIA are definitely set to max performance, drivers are up to date and I have never messed with my BIOS so don't know much there but everything seems okay. I only have my CPU overclocked but I will see what happens when I run it at stock.

 

One thing I did notice though is that when my FPS drops into the 40's, my CPU usage is in the low 70's and GPU usage is in the mid 50's. I would imagine in situations where my FPS drops, the GPU would hit 100% to compensate but that isn't happening so something might be wrong there. On the other hand, in less demanding situations where my FPS is maxed at 144, my CPU and GPU usage nears 100%.

70% CPU usage.....ehhhh

That is not DCS, 95% sure.

Win File History Backup ?

AV ?

MS Store updates ?

general updates ?

something else is wooseling while you fly I assume. Not 100% sure but I better am, cause if that is indeed DCS, then you need a new CPU with more and best also faster cores.

Again, i doubt 70% is caused by DCS, but have TM open and on top and see what's causing it, we can read it, we dont have to guess !!!

70% CPU usage.....ehhhh

 

That is not DCS, 95% sure.

 

Win File History Backup ?

AV ?

MS Store updates ?

general updates ?

 

something else is wooseling while you fly I assume. Not 100% sure but I better am, cause if that is indeed DCS, then you need a new CPU with more and best also faster cores.

 

Again, i doubt 70% is caused by DCS, but have TM open and on top and see what's causing it, we can read it, we dont have to guess !!!

Hi BitMaster...thank you for the advice.

I made another post about the CPU/GPU usage and ended up finding a solution that you can see here...

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3800251&postcount=15

I am getting excellent performance now in DCS with appropriate CPU and GPU usage.

While the Hornet and DCS in general could you some more optimization, the problem for me was mainly on my end.

Hi BitMaster...thank you for the advice.

 

I made another post about the CPU/GPU usage and ended up finding a solution that you can see here...

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3800251&postcount=15

 

I am getting excellent performance now in DCS with appropriate CPU and GPU usage.

 

While the Hornet and DCS in general could you some more optimization, the problem for me was mainly on my end.

Following your post, I downloaded the newest game-ready driver and selected "clean install". Now performance is perfect! Where I used to get 40-45 FPS (on ramp with static hornets) I now get 60+. Thank you! :thumbup: