When switching to another application window, Il-2 performance drastically decreases.

[OPS_Lipas]

 

Hi. Someone could explain to me why in Il-2 during the game, when switching to another application, e.g. Discord, performance drops dramatically (I checked that the graphics card practically stops rendering). A similar situation does not occur in DCS.

[BlitzPig_EL]

For whatever reason IL2 BoX does not like to "Alt Tab" to the desktop, even if you don't open another program.  Get everything you need (Teamspeak, Track IR, etc...) running before you start the Sim.  For now that's just how it is.

[CSW_Tommy544]

I think that is by design. You switch focus to some other app and by reducing framerate in IL2, you have more power available for the other app you want to interact with, which means it will run smoother, and when you switch back to IL2, you get full performance back.

[OPS_Lipas]

 

 

Incorrect assumption. Only graphics performance drops dramatically, and virtually no application, other than games, does not use the graphics processor.

Edited November 24, 2019 by OPS_Lipas

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

Run the Il-2.exe with Admin Powers. It gives Il-2 higher Priority. Generally run all your Games as Admin. Especially with Win 10 this is an Issue.

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann said:

Run the Il-2.exe with Admin Powers. It gives Il-2 higher Priority. Generally run all your Games as Admin. Especially with Win 10 this is an Issue.

This is news to me. Admin is still a user like any other, he just can escalate his priviledges at his discretion. He's not root.

 

If you want to increase the priority of a particular task, then you do it like that:

 

AFAIK by doing so you increase I/O time for a given task. This escalation goes at the cost of the I/O time of other applications, meaning when you're out of bandwith, the other applications get chocked first. IL2 has very little I/O demands, I cannot see changing prorities will help anything unless your "virus scanner" (or whatever) is just choking your system out of pure fun. But then, admin priviledges won't help you as your favorite rootkit runs in kernel mode and does not care about any user's misery and antics.

 

Is there somewhere documented that admin lauched programs take priority over standard user priviledge programs? I'd love to learn about that.

 

I cannot replicate the OP's problem. I run full screen mode, and i can well "Alt + tab" out of the game. It will be slideshow as long as it is in the background, as the GPU is now reserved for the new foreground application. But "Alt + tab" back in the game and all runs as it shoud. Using Win10Pro here.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by ZachariasX

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

It works though. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does. In Win-10 you can't assign priorites like that anymore. So simply go into the Root and set them to run on Admin Rights, even if you are an Admin.

You will find the game to run a lot more stable. Also: Set your Antivirus to Settings for Slow PCs.

Edited November 24, 2019 by 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann

[TWC_Ace]

Because the engine/code of the game and netcode is trash. You are lucky you dont have microstutters online. They focused on content and its OK but If many cant play now it will boomerang and the funding will slowly decease.

Edited November 24, 2019 by =VARP=Tvrdi

[ZachariasX]

24 minutes ago, 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann said:

In Win-10 you can't assign priorites like that anymore.

I can. Just like in the pic, on "Details" tab. Win10Pro, most recent version.

 

25 minutes ago, 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann said:

It works though. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.

I wonder what makes that work. Amazing.

[OPS_Lipas]

 

I tried everything and unfortunately it didn't change. The strange thing is that only with this game it is.

[PatrickAWlson]

I can't help but think that the OS is aware of the current focus and gives that application priority.  If IL2 is the focus then it gets the most attention from the OS.  Whenit is notthe focus it is just another background process.  So the answer might be the reverse: IL2 performs better when it is the focus .... semi edumacated guess  

 

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

On 11/26/2019 at 2:34 PM, OPS_Lipas said:

 

I tried everything and unfortunately it didn't change. The strange thing is that only with this game it is.

Are you actually doing this in the Settings for the Il-2.exe?

[Hypertexthero]

I have the same problem as the original poster. When I alt-tab to another application, IL-2 runs at much lower FPS, visibly so, until I alt-tab back to it. It also sometimes flickers crazily between the pause/stats screen and the in-game view.

This is a problem because I stream the game and often alt-tab to other applications to manage the stream through OBS, use Discord, sound volume mixer, etc, and whenever I do so the visual quality of the stream decreases.

I use two monitors, and it happens whether I have both on, or only one. Here are my PC specs.

Any advice to resolve the problem is much appreciated.

[Lombra]

The answer was given and declined by OP who obviously knew better; the game is designed to limit FPS when running in the background. (ie not in focus) Many games do this. Some of them have options to control the behaviour, though.

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

20 hours ago, Hypertexthero said:

I have the same problem as the original poster. When I alt-tab to another application, IL-2 runs at much lower FPS, visibly so, until I alt-tab back to it. It also sometimes flickers crazily between the pause/stats screen and the in-game view.

This is a problem because I stream the game and often alt-tab to other applications to manage the stream through OBS, use Discord, sound volume mixer, etc, and whenever I do so the visual quality of the stream decreases.

I use two monitors, and it happens whether I have both on, or only one. Here are my PC specs.

Any advice to resolve the problem is much appreciated.

Checklist:

1. Full-Screen Windowed of Course

2. Run game as admin, always. Do it in the .exe for all users.

3. Turn off Vsync EVERYWHERE, Ingame, global, graphics card, wherever you can find it. You can try out later what works, but off for now.

4. In the Nvidia Control Panel 3D Settings there is a Shortcut to Windows Graphics Settings Right next to the little Information Bubble. In there, find the Game .exe and set it to high Performance.

5. Some Router Firewalls hate Il-2 and can cause this, use Port Forwarding for Il-2 if that is the Case.

 

I'll try and think of more.

Edited August 26, 2021 by 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann

[Hypertexthero]

2 hours ago, 6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann said:

Checklist:

1. Full-Screen Windowed of Course

2. Run game as admin, always. Do it in the .exe for all users.

3. Turn off Vsync EVERYWHERE, Ingame, global, graphics card, wherever you can find it. You can try out later what works, but off for now.

4. In the Nvidia Control Panel 3D Settings there is a Shortcut to Windows Graphics Settings Right next to the little Information Bubble. In there, find the Game .exe and set it to high Performance.

5. Some Router Firewalls hate Il-2 and can cause this, use Port Forwarding for Il-2 if that is the Case.

 

I'll try and think of more.

 

In item 1., do you mean have the Full Screen checkbox checked in the in-game graphics settings? That is the only place I see the setting, unless perhaps I can set it to Fullscreen Windowed or Fullscreen Borderless with a special variable in the startup.cfg configuration file?

I tried with both Full Screen checked and unchecked, and also checked each of the other items in the checklist above, including forwarding ports in my router, but the problem persists, unfortunately.

Here is a clip of it happening in my stream (you can visibly  see the FPS dropping both in the image and on the top-right, from 70fps while IL-2 has focus to 10fps when I alt-tab out). I have tried Window Capture, Game Capture, and Desktop Capture in OBS and the problem happens with all capture modes, and whether I have OBS running or not (the lowered framerate happens whenever I alt-tab out of IL-2).

Thank you for your help!

Edited August 26, 2021 by Hypertexthero
Grammar

[dburne]

Would this behavior ( game performance reduced when game window is not focused) be the case with all games?

I don't know but seems to me it might - makes some sense anyway.

[Hypertexthero]

15 minutes ago, dburne said:

Would this behavior ( game performance reduced when game window is not focused) be the case with all games?

I don't know but seems to me it might - makes some sense anyway.

Sure, but IL-2 is the only game that has this issue for me.

I also stream MSFS2020 and other resource-intensive games without having this problem, i.e., I can alt-tab to other applications and the game keeps running smoothly in the background.

If it is a feature of the engine, that is fine and I will live with it. I just want to know if it is a problem at my end only, and fix it if so.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Hypertexthero
Link and grammar

[6./ZG26_Klaus_Mann]

7 hours ago, Hypertexthero said:

In item 1., do you mean have the Full Screen checkbox checked in the in-game graphics settings? That is the only place I see the setting, unless perhaps I can set it to Fullscreen Windowed or Fullscreen Borderless with a special variable in the startup.cfg configuration file?

Full Screen unchecked + all the other items.