Can confirm that many/most stutters coincide with Network activity

Just flew a bunch of missions with Task Manager open in Windows and it seems to me that most of the stutters in DCS, especially major ones lasting maybe a few frames, go together with network traffic spikes.

I haven't been flying online, just SP--but, the sim still 'hiccups' from time to time (quite regularly) and I see a burst of network activity in Task Manager.

What gives ED (or anyone else?) I'm using an Asus Z170-P motherboard, with Realtek RTL8111H Network Controller. I have yet to try DCS either with Ethernet disconnected, or with the network adapter itself completely disabled in Device Manager. Personally, I'd prefer not to have to mess around with ANY part of my system config every time I run DCS!

Anyone have any ideas? How come DCS keeps messing around with the network adapter while I'm trying to fly around, anyway? Yes, all my module keys are legitimate, and no, DCS, I don't need you to confirm this every 30 seconds or a minute while I'm trying to fly a plane. You're certainly not going to find anything interesting to look at online while I'm flying either, so just leave the d@mn network adapter alone and let me fly :)

If anyone else is frustrated blue-in-the-face with stuttering, this might help lead to a solution!

Thanks all!

AD

Time to get wireshark and look what is going across the ether while it happens.

''I have yet to try DCS either with Ethernet disconnected, or with the network adapter itself completely disabled in Device Manager.''

Why don't you do this first so you can be sure and not leave us all guessing that an active inet connection is actually responsible for those lags and stutters? And while you're at it; try the new offline mode as well. If it indeed is happening only when there is an inet connection, you still need to find out whether it is actually DCS that causes this network spike and not some other program or service.

If you have a big home network with various devices, check this thread

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=212325

For me my android-TV was causing stutters in DCS! (by hammering my pc with requests trough dashost.exe in irregular timeframes 30 sek to 5 min)

The Devs havent commented on this, why dashost.exe is taking authority over gpu usage (or causing an interrupt state) when dcs.exe is running....

...and i still bet there are many more users suffering from this without beeing aware... (having various devices on your home network is a common occurance nowadays).

z170 and ethernet related DPCS latency is very common unforuntalelly.

''I have yet to try DCS either with Ethernet disconnected, or with the network adapter itself completely disabled in Device Manager.''

 

Why don't you do this first so you can be sure and not leave us all guessing that an active inet connection is actually responsible for those lags and stutters? And while you're at it; try the new offline mode as well. If it indeed is happening only when there is an inet connection, you still need to find out whether it is actually DCS that causes this network spike and not some other program or service.

First, Imma try reverting to an earlier Nvidia driver... I think someone mentioned 388.71. I'm currently running 398.11 and DCS still stutters even with the Ethernet adapter disabled.

Peace

AD

Ok, I just wiped out my 398.11 Nvidia driver with DDU, and installed 388.71. That seemed to help!

I also tried disabling the Ethernet adapter. That seemed to help too. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do about the supposed Z170 Ethernet adapter latency besides buying a newer more expensive mobo--which, invariably, will introduce its own problems. Perhaps disabling the onboard Ethernet adapter and using a PCI expansion card with a different NIC would do it. Somehow, I doubt it ! :)

So, DCS is running better now, and the 388.71 Nvidia driver seems to have a lot to do with it--and so does disabling the Ethernet adapter.

Despite running much better, and having DCS installed on a NVMe M.2 drive (EVO 960), it still, ocassionally, stutters.

DCS still only uses about half of my 16GB RAM. I pity the foo that forks over extra bread for 32 or even 64GB--and still has to put up with this shiznit :)

I've reached the final conclusion that Windows is crap. I'm running Win 10, but Win 7 did the same thing. So, we can logically conclude that Windows is complete and utter crap for gaming. No matter how insanely powerful desktop PCs have gotten over the years, no matter how much you spend on the best goodies, no matter how much time you spend over the years (and years, and years) trying to sort it all out, you still get stuttering. Flight sim buffs have it the hardest, it seems. Been this way since I got into "serious" flight simming in the late 1990s.

Not to be a d!ck, but I'll actually PAY MONEY for Windows when they can get it to run my stupid video games without stuttering ;) (that last one was a hint, MS... No, you shouldn't copy any copyrighted software. Especially after it's been released years ago and still doesn't improve anything!!!!! Oh, sorry, MS... I need a "high-end Modern PC" for video games, my archaic poor-boy rig just won't do...)

Whew! I've had enough for now.

Best of luck everyone. ;)

AD

I'm not quite sure how you arrived at blaming the entire operating system for this, there are so many moving parts to explore for this problem, hardware and software, each moving part is from separate companies and people which'll make it a lot harder to narrow blame, and sometimes it is down to a combination rather than one single thing.

Traffic spikes apparently correlating with frame-drops in-game is the interesting avenue to explore if it's happening to a big enough sample of people. I've not experienced any of these issues, though; I have my rig behind a second NAT with a router I built from an old Thinkpad, in small part because I was annoyed at seeing so many packets coming from smart TVs not belonging to me, perhaps compartmentalizing the issue would help in this case, not suggesting you build your own router, but maybe just a cheapo SOHO off the shelf, then firewall any unwanted noise triggering dashost or whatever else it might be.

any CPU activity interupts frames because the processing is done between the frames, that's been known for years and it's no different from any of the other imaginative ways you can cause frame loss.

My new favourite is zooming in and out on the F10 map on the server whilst folks are refueling, that's hilarious fun.

But seriously, nothing new here.

In Unix you can nice processes so they take different levels of priority, I see there's a Windows equivalent at the command-line too, with start; though I'm not sure exactly how similar it is, but it could be worth exploring in this case, something along the lines of;

START ["title"] [/Dpath] [/i] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/sEPARATE | /SHARED]

[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]

[/WAIT] [/b] [command/program] [parameters]

Ok, I just wiped out my 398.11 Nvidia driver with DDU, and installed 388.71. That seemed to help!

 

I also tried disabling the Ethernet adapter. That seemed to help too. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do about the supposed Z170 Ethernet adapter latency besides buying a newer more expensive mobo--which, invariably, will introduce its own problems. Perhaps disabling the onboard Ethernet adapter and using a PCI expansion card with a different NIC would do it. Somehow, I doubt it ! :)

 

So, DCS is running better now, and the 388.71 Nvidia driver seems to have a lot to do with it--and so does disabling the Ethernet adapter.

 

Despite running much better, and having DCS installed on a NVMe M.2 drive (EVO 960), it still, ocassionally, stutters.

 

DCS still only uses about half of my 16GB RAM. I pity the foo that forks over extra bread for 32 or even 64GB--and still has to put up with this shiznit :)

 

I've reached the final conclusion that Windows is crap. I'm running Win 10, but Win 7 did the same thing. So, we can logically conclude that Windows is complete and utter crap for gaming. No matter how insanely powerful desktop PCs have gotten over the years, no matter how much you spend on the best goodies, no matter how much time you spend over the years (and years, and years) trying to sort it all out, you still get stuttering. Flight sim buffs have it the hardest, it seems. Been this way since I got into "serious" flight simming in the late 1990s.

 

Not to be a d!ck, but I'll actually PAY MONEY for Windows when they can get it to run my stupid video games without stuttering ;) (that last one was a hint, MS... No, you shouldn't copy any copyrighted software. Especially after it's been released years ago and still doesn't improve anything!!!!! Oh, sorry, MS... I need a "high-end Modern PC" for video games, my archaic poor-boy rig just won't do...)

 

Whew! I've had enough for now.

 

Best of luck everyone. ;)

 

AD

I call big BS on that, most users arent experienced enough to find their culprints... so its always easy to blame something they dont understand.

Windows 10 is fine

I call big BS on that, most users arent experienced enough to find their culprints... so its always easy to blame something they dont understand.

 

Windows 10 is fine

You're probably right, I just wanted to vent :) I'll be danged though if they can't make this stuff easier to diagnose since they spend so much developing Windows--and this is a common, if not universal, complaint.

Here's an interesting one: I just discovered that DCS World reports "TrackIR disconnected" when I disable my Ethernet adapter.

What's up with that?!

AD

 

Traffic spikes apparently correlating with frame-drops in-game is the interesting avenue to explore if it's happening to a big enough sample of people. I've not experienced any of these issues, though; I have my rig behind a second NAT with a router I built from an old Thinkpad, in small part because I was annoyed at seeing so many packets coming from smart TVs not belonging to me, perhaps compartmentalizing the issue would help in this case, not suggesting you build your own router, but maybe just a cheapo SOHO off the shelf, then firewall any unwanted noise triggering dashost or whatever else it might be.

Speaking of weird hardware-related quirks, I just discovered that disabling my Ethernet adapter while DCS was running causes "TrackIR Disconnected" to appear in DCS!

I don't have a TrackIR; I have, however, used Opentrack with a webcam and homemade 3-LED clip. I haven't used it recently. I always wondered why TrackIR shows up in my Controls page, since I don't have it!

Anyone have a clue why the Ethernet adapter is showing up as TrackIR?

AD

What method are you using to disable the ethernet device?

What method are you using to disable the ethernet device?

I disable it either in Device Manager, or in the Network & Internet Settings page. It does the same thing--shows up as disabled in Device Manager.

I haven't actually uninstalled the driver for it, although I recently updated it to the latest one from Realtek a couple days ago.

AD

Perhaps there's something funny going on with the software used for turning the webcam into DIY TrackIR, conflicting in some way.

Perhaps there's something funny going on with the software used for turning the webcam into DIY TrackIR, conflicting in some way.

That's what I guessed... But I haven't blitzed Opentrack yet. Not that it's a big deal to set it up, but I hardly ever use it because although it worked really well, I've been busy chasing down stutters. So, it's kinda been neglected.

Still, I think having the Ethernet adapter show up as TrackIR in DCS World is a bit over the top. It's just crazy. Wish I knew exactly how to chase it down, I like to play with Opentrack once in a while and don't want to delete it just yet. I'm not seeing any device conflicts in Device Manager.

AD

Alluminium Donkey please try to updated your ethernet drivers and Z170 chipset drivers directly from Intel website and not from Asus, asus support page does not include updated drivers.

Alluminium Donkey please try to updated your ethernet drivers and Z170 chipset drivers directly from Intel website and not from Asus, asus support page does not include updated drivers.

Imma do that now! Thanks for the heads up, this simple little fact escaped me for a while.

Actually I got my recent Realtek Ethernet driver from the official Realtek website and it says it's up-to-date in Device Manager, so now I'm off to look for the newest drivers for the Z170 chipset.

I guess Z170 is archaic by today's standards, but the hardware it supports still performs very well.

AD

Imma do that now! Thanks for the heads up, this simple little fact escaped me for a while.

 

Actually I got my recent Realtek Ethernet driver from the official Realtek website and it says it's up-to-date in Device Manager, so now I'm off to look for the newest drivers for the Z170 chipset.

 

I guess Z170 is archaic by today's standards, but the hardware it supports still performs very well.

 

AD

I updated some days ago ethernet drivers with Intel latest ones, and there was no difference.

Also tweaked the Intel ethernet settings following some recommendations I saw on nVidia´s forums, and all was the same.

Only disabling the ethernet device I was able to have stuttering free flights.

Still searching for a solution...

:cry:

I updated some days ago ethernet drivers with Intel latest ones, and there was no difference.

Also tweaked the Intel ethernet settings following some recommendations I saw on nVidia´s forums, and all was the same.

 

Only disabling the ethernet device I was able to have stuttering free flights.

 

Still searching for a solution...

 

:cry:

What other devices are on your network?

What other devices are on your network?

Well, wired, NAS, XBOX One X, Home alarm, Samsung TV, .... and Wireless, countless. From 3 AppleTV, to PS4, more TVs, iphones, Ipads,....etc.

Connected to my main router, I have an ASUS RT-AC5300, managing all connections. I tweaked this "gamer" router just in case I could find the solution for DCS, but no luck.

I know its a lot connected, but only DCS seems to be affected. No stutters at all on the rest of my sims (IL-2 BOS, X-Plane 11, Prepar3D v4.3, FSW...) or even the FPS, like Battlefield 1, Squad, or Ghost Recon.

Also, I´m not using all my devices at the same time. The connection hiccups are caused by DCS, as measured on other thread. WTF is DCS downloading ?? I´m always flying offline. Disabling the network makes stutters disappear. How is this possible?

I´ll do more tests today on weekend.

UPDATE: I disabled internet connection from ethernet (Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-V) and enabled it with my PCI ASUS PCE-N10 Wireless card, and made some flights over Normandy, Nevada and Caucasus with Spitfire and FW190 (Full dogfights with lots of movements and shoots). NO stutter. Nada.

With ethernet I usually got terrible pauses specially over Normandy, but this time all was smooth. I´ll keep testing. Wireless is better than no connection.

Well, wired, NAS, XBOX One X, Home alarm, Samsung TV, .... and Wireless, countless. From 3 AppleTV, to PS4, more TVs, iphones, Ipads,....etc.

Connected to my main router, I have an ASUS RT-AC5300, managing all connections. I tweaked this "gamer" router just in case I could find the solution for DCS, but no luck.

 

I know its a lot connected, but only DCS seems to be affected. No stutters at all on the rest of my sims (IL-2 BOS, X-Plane 11, Prepar3D v4.3, FSW...) or even the FPS, like Battlefield 1, Squad, or Ghost Recon.

 

Also, I´m not using all my devices at the same time. The connection hiccups are caused by DCS, as measured on other thread. WTF is DCS downloading ?? I´m always flying offline. Disabling the network makes stutters disappear. How is this possible?

 

I´ll do more tests today on weekend.

 

UPDATE: I disabled internet connection from ethernet (Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-V) and enabled it with my PCI ASUS PCE-N10 Wireless card, and made some flights over Normandy, Nevada and Caucasus with Spitfire and FW190 (Full dogfights with lots of movements and shoots). NO stutter. Nada.

With ethernet I usually got terrible pauses specially over Normandy, but this time all was smooth. I´ll keep testing. Wireless is better than no connection.

For me my Android TV was causing my stutters in DCS trough "dashost.exe" in win 10. And i can confirm only DCS.exe was affected, no other sim/game far more demanding than dcs had this issue.

See

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=212325

9# Post

Maybe one of your other devices has similar functions :huh:

PS.: Be aware it also occured while my TV was on standby.

For me my Android TV was causing my stutters in DCS trough "dashost.exe" in win 10. And i can confirm only DCS.exe was affected, no other sim/game far more demanding than dcs had this issue.

 

 

See

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=212325

 

9# Post

 

Maybe one of your other devices has similar functions :huh:

 

PS.: Be aware it also occured while my TV was on standby.

I was aware of your post, but disabling "dashost.exe" does nothing for me. Exactly same stutters. Also, just in case, I disabled several nVidia services, like Telemetry, cause I readed somewhere "dashost" is used by nVidia to send data. Also, fail. Same results.

For now, only using WiFi solves the problem. And "dashost.exe" is present with wifi (even two instances of it !?!!) and does not seem to affect gameplay.

Thanks.

Maybe a silly question, but have you guys perhaps enabled "Collect Statistics" under DCS->Options->Misc?