Extreme DPC Latency & FSX.cfg neverending circus

[Pe11e 812]

I had extremely high DPC Latency only in FSX. Tested. In other games latency is minimal.

And IN FSX that looked something like this, in extreme situations, like view panning:

 

 

Sounds were distorted awfully, crackling, popping, and FPS lower than 5fps when extreme latency happens. I tried everything not related to fsx.cfg, including disabling sound card, changing sample rate, removing entries in dll.xml, removing nvidia power management for lap tops in registry, tweaking nVidia Inspector settings, installing Creative Alchemy and enabling OpenAL in FSX, and so on. I've lost whole day yesterday on this issue.

And of course, I left bufferpools win tweak for the end, Murphy's law! This entries fixed the extremely high latency:

 

[bUFFERPOOLS]
usepools=1
Poolsize=200000000
RejectThreshold=256000

 

Now the latency is mainly in green, tends to be in yellow sometimes, but no problems in FSX, that's important.

 

And now the story about FSX.cfg circus. I had NO bufferpools entries in fsx.cfg before the above entries, so bufferpools was on default? This latency problems I had started suddenly some time ago, when I how exactly I can't remember, no way. Maybe the latency appeared because I tweaked fsx.cfg to the extremes and back. I had my FSX working perfectly with completely smooth performance week ago, then I found some miracle tweak with a thought "maybe FSX will work even better?", inserted it, and I found only stutters. And that was the story with 90% of the tweaks I played with. Never tweak something that works good, never, ever!

After all this fiddling with tweaks, I have a feeling that every tweak I inserted than removed, stayed active. For example I've tried TextureMaxLoad=12, and after removing I had same stutters. Also with FTFF tweak I had that feeling. I had FTFF=0.15 active in FSX.cfg, removed it, saw same parformance like it is active still, inserted FTFF=0.33, and performance was normal. So now I strongly believe that you must change the tweak values to default (TextureMaxLoad=3, FTFF=0.33, etc) before removing them, as FSX will not revert them to the default, unless you delete fsx.cfg. And that brings me to another issue!

 

I tried to delete fsx.cfg few days ago, and when FSX loads opening screen, it hangs without displaying chosen aircraft (Trike), and crashing. I opened that newly created fsx.cfg, I found that only 30% of entries are there, few lines only under GRAPHICS and DISPLAY. I've tried to delete dll.xml and exe.xml, same issue, fsx.cfg wasn't complete. Anybody had that issue before?

I know that deleting FSX and installing it again is the best way, but I have SO MANY custom files and tweaks in my FSX folder, taht I may finish with few days bringing it to the current state, and I don't have the time.

 

So, at the end of this journey, with a bittersweet taste in my mouth, I must keep my current fsx.cfg as the best solution right now with lower dpc latency. I tweaked so much in the past months, I'm sick of it. But the issues are appearing constantly, it drives me nuts.

 

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any help in advance!

 

Take care and keep the tweaks at the safe distance!

 

 

[JordanChin 24]

It's the strangest thing, I was saying to my fiance up to two weeks ago about how FSX is the nuttiest piece of software that I've ever come across in my time. She, not being amused by me randomly crowbarring that into her conversation about her adventures in Sims 3, agreed. There are so many variables with each PC that can make FSX perform amazing on one and horrid on another, even with similar hardware. I've wasted a good amount of time tweaking FSX (Even making it the last thoughts before I go to sleep) and I'm sure there are others who've done the same. But strangely enough, the bufferpools tweak makes MY FSX experience worse. It causes way too many stutters on my system. With it removed, FSX is smooth throughout. I haven't touched my fsx.cfg in months since!

 

I've never had any crackling with FSX, I've had that issue however with my digital audio workstations though when I had the audio buffers set too low. Just for good measure I ran the DPC checker during the default flight on my system. I let it run until landing at Friday Harbor in the Trike. I panned around, switched views, and even changed the time of day too. Didn't see anything above the 1000 microsecond mark.

 

Here's the result:

 

[Pe11e 812]

It's the strangest thing, I was saying to my fiance up to two weeks ago about how FSX is the nuttiest piece of software that I've ever come across in my time. I've wasted a good amount of time tweaking FSX (Even making it the last thoughts before I go to sleep) and I'm sure there are others who've done the same.

 

This!

The sad part is the ratio between tweaking vs. flying, which is about 80:20 percent in my case. I didn't started a flight with fscaptain for weeks now.

I guess I'm done with tweaks for now. But you gave me idea that Creative ASIO low latency can cause this, mmmmmmmust investigate arrgghhhhhhhhh, can't help it.

[Anthony25368 5]

I had the dpc latency problem also. I found that my hard drive was plugged into the wrong connector on the motherboard, I switched it and dpc was gone. Not sue why that made a difference but I didn't build my rig just payed someone to do it.

[Pe11e 812]

I had the dpc latency problem also. I found that my hard drive was plugged into the wrong connector on the motherboard, I switched it and dpc was gone. Not sue why that made a difference but I didn't build my rig just payed someone to do it.

 

Hmmmm, I've just tested DCS World demo, it's on the same hard disk as FSX. It seems that also in DCS World DPC latency is higher than usual.

[JordanChin 24]

Honestly I do get the itch sometimes and I do mess around but I've done my fair share tweaking and If you've seen my config now, you'd see it's very minimal. I've tested pretty much all the tweaks out there and I've determined what actually works from what is just absolute garbage. The only tweaks that actually affect performance are the BP and FFTF tweaks. The others just affect texture loading but don't directly influence fps. So you can rest easy after trying those two xD. The rest is just up to your system and how you have things set up. Just ensure that your drivers are up to date, especially the sound and video drivers.

 

High amounts of AA can also cause stutters and bad performance if your GPU can't handle it. On my system I have AA set to 4x MS and transparency supersampling off. Anything above that and my fps tank in cloud intensive weather. Sure it doesn't look as great as 4xS AA or 8xS AA but FSX is smoother during bad weather situations (You can try that one and see for yourself).

 

Here's a suggestion, open up your fsx.cfg and under the [sOUND] section replace the values of PrimaryDevice and VoiceDevice to {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}. Make sure you plug in any USB device before you start FSX once you change those values, otherwise it'll reset those values. Report if you have any stuttering/popping/etc.

[BillW 210]

It is a good idea to save your current config  before tweaking. I learned this the hard way.

[Pe11e 812]

Here's a suggestion, open up your fsx.cfg and under the [sOUND] section replace the values of PrimaryDevice and VoiceDevice to {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}. Make sure you don't plug in any USB device prior to starting FSX once you change those values, otherwise it'll reset those values. Report if you have any stuttering/popping/etc.

 

I already have those values in my FSX.cfg, didn't make any difference. And how to use my yoke when I can't plug it in prior to starting FSX, if it will change these values? I plugged my yoke into usb, and those values are still there, unchanged.

 

 

It is a good idea to save your current config  before tweaking. I learned this the hard way.

 

I always backup my most current working config, and after some time, that config is not good anymore. Frustrating.

[JordanChin 24]

And how to use my yoke when I can't plug it in prior to starting FSX, if it will change these values? I plugged my yoke into usb, and those values are still there, unchanged.

 

Sorry I meant plug in your usb devices BEFORE you start FSX. If plug in anything after you start fsx that's when it changes the values.

 

Tried selecting your actual sound device from the fsx gui? Any difference?

[Pe11e 812]

Sorry I meant plug in your usb devices BEFORE you start FSX. If plug in anything after you start fsx that's when it changes the values.

 

Tried selecting your actual sound device from the fsx gui? Any difference?

 

Hehe, I always plug in usb devices before starting FSX, of course. I selected sound device in fsx option numerous times, no difference. I think it is the problem with some SATA settings for hard disk where FSX is (Hitachi 7200rpm SATA).... so...

 

 

... I must investigate!

 

Right now I'm fiddling with various bufferpools settings, trying to bring down the latency into green area.

 

Thanks for the help mate!

[JordanChin 24]

No problem! I should note that I'm not using the default windows drivers for my HDD. I'm using the drivers (you can disable the application on startup) from the Intel Rapid Storage utility. It gives better performance for disk drives than the windows default ones. Maybe that'll help your sata drives. You can also update your chipset drives while you're at it. Make sure you do a force install on them using the -overall switch.

[Pe11e 812]

No problem! I should note that I'm not using the default windows drivers for my HDD. I'm using the drivers (you can disable the application on startup) from the Intel Rapid Storage utility. It gives better performance for disk drives than the windows default ones. Maybe that'll help your sata drives. You can also update your chipset drives while you're at it. Make sure you do a force install on them using the -overall switch.

 

What, that was an information overload! :lol: Intel Rapid Storage utility you say, will check that. And I must google about that force install using -overall seitch (where to insert it).

[JordanChin 24]

Yeah just google "Intel Rapid Storage" and download the setup application from the Intel download center.

 

Regarding the chipset drivers, all you need to do is:

 

1. create a shortcut to the setup file

2. right click the shortcut and click properties

3. In the part that says "Target", append -overall to the end of it. eg. "C:\setup.exe" -overall

4. run the shortcut

 

Done.

 

The reason you need to do a force install on the chipset drivers is that the installer thinks that the windows drivers are up to date (which they aren't) and then skips over them. So you're forcing it to install the ones from installer. 

[Pe11e 812]

The reason you need to do a force install on the chipset drivers is that the installer thinks that the windows drivers are up to date (which they aren't) and then skips over them. So you're forcing it to install the ones from installer. 

 

Working with windows instalations and hardware more or less for over than 10 years, and I didn't knew for force install. Thanks for the info.

[JordanChin 24]

No worries man. It's a known bug with the intel chipset installer that they wont fix. You can find people all over the internet talking about it.