Still got the slow motion blues

[AirWolves=CutCut]

Hey Devs,

 

Still wondering if you might have some input on this...

 

After taking a month or so break I came back to a problem with IL2. That problem is the game running in slow motion when playing offline. It happens in the in game campaigns if I set the density to anything but scattered. It happens in PWCG campaigns all the time, and it has made scripted campaigns unplayable. Additionally the slow motion gets even worse if I try to record a track. Oddly enough this doesn't effect the frame rate. My frame rates are fine, it's just the whole simulation is running in slow motion. Also this doesn't happen in multiplayer, only in single player. I have tried adjusting various graphics settings to no avail. I have also done a clean install of the game, with no success at fixing this. I'm basically at my wits end with this one.  This never used to happen so I don't know if it was a windows update, an IL2 update or something else. Any help in fixing this would be greatly appreciated as it is all but killed my ability to play in off line mode. 

System Specs:
i7-6700K CPU @4GHz
16GB Ram

SSD Drive

Nvidia GTX 1660 Super

 

Thanks!

[21.Gr.CT.Ludovisi]

I understand that spend your time with graphics config is a waste of time: just set it using a loneplayer mission as reference. The slow motion is due to the number of planes/vehicles and kind of map, so it is CPU related, and lowering graphic setting don't solve the problem.

[AirWolves=CutCut]

51 minutes ago, 369/22.CT.Ludovisi said:

I understand that spend your time with graphics config is a waste of time: just set it using a loneplayer mission as reference. The slow motion is due to the number of planes/vehicles and kind of map, so it is CPU related, and lowering graphic setting don't solve the problem.

 

Yep, that's what I am assuming. But my GPU only shows about a 25% load even in the areas with the most ground units. And, I never used to have this problem, and nothing has changed in hardware side of my setup. The only thing that has changed is IL2 updates and Windows updates. 

 

[21.Gr.CT.Ludovisi]

Yes, something changed "underskin" in the last patches, so recently IL-2 is more "heavy" even if your GPU is not overloaded. However, I notice slow down/stuttering even if CPU is not overloaded.

[AirWolves=CutCut]

Sorry, I said GPU at 25% in that post, I meant CPU at 25%. Thanks for confirming you're seeing slow downs too. I wish someone from the Dev side would pop in here and give us an idea of what it is. Or even if just to let us know they don't know what it is but are looking into it. I have purchased all of the scripted campaigns, I was even making video playthroughs of the Hell Hawks campaign, and now I am basically dead in the water on playing any of them. It's a bit frustrating to say the least.

 

Thanks again!

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

On 1/23/2021 at 12:51 PM, AirWolves=CutCut said:

Sorry, I said GPU at 25% in that post, I meant CPU at 25%. Thanks for confirming you're seeing slow downs too. I wish someone from the Dev side would pop in here and give us an idea of what it is. Or even if just to let us know they don't know what it is but are looking into it. I have purchased all of the scripted campaigns, I was even making video playthroughs of the Hell Hawks campaign, and now I am basically dead in the water on playing any of them. It's a bit frustrating to say the least.

 

Thanks again!

 

Also seeing slow downs in single player career, scripted campaigns, and PWCG. It typically happens in combat or over front lines. I think it is AI related, but needs to be fixed ASAP. I am running in VR (Riift S) on medium settings with 640x480 resolution. It does not happen online at all. A lot of the people I talk with online also experience this frame timing/warping issue in SP. A few years ago, it was not like this when I played on ultra at 1080p (not in vr) on a much weaker (4 core and only 3.5 GHZ max) system.

 

My system:

Razer Blade

i7-9750H (6 cores/12 threads @max turbo of 4.6 GHZ)--have tried disabling hyperthreading and the result was slightly worse. My cpu clocks look to be about 4 GHZ/core sustained with only 15-30% usage. Setting process affinity has not seemed to help either.

RTX 2070

16 GB 2666 ram

512 GB SSD

Edited January 26, 2021 by drewm3i-VR

[AirWolves=CutCut]

Honestly I don't think it has anything to do with graphics cards, GPU's, video settings etc... I think this is a CPU issue. But it would sure be nice IF A DEV WOULD POP IN AND SAY SOMETHING!!!! Even if it is "We don't know what it is but we are working on it" All the silence says is that they don't give a damn!

 

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

32 minutes ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

Honestly I don't think it has anything to do with graphics cards, GPU's, video settings etc

 

"Time dilation" is a known issue in Great Battles that's primarily associated with high mission complexity and weaker CPUs. I'm not aware of any recent changes in this area.

 

Most official missions and campaigns are optimized to avoid excessive slowdowns on typical hardware. Usually, the time dilation should be almost unnoticeable unless you compare the in-game clock to a stopwatch.

 

If you experience extreme time dilation in official missions, it's possible that your system is performing unusually poorly or that something is indeed wrong in the mission/game.

 

It's difficult to comment without knowing the specifics of the mission and the magnitude of the effect you're experiencing.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Mitthrawnuruodo

[AirWolves=CutCut]

1 hour ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

 

It's difficult to comment without knowing the specifics of the mission and the magnitude of the effect you're experiencing.

It's difficult to give you the specifics you require with out know what specifics you require. What information would you like from me to help solve this problem? I would be more than happy to provide them. BTW, Are you a DEV or just a helpful forum citizen?

 

Thanks,

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

35 minutes ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

It's difficult to give you the specifics you require with out know what specifics you require. What information would you like from me to help solve this problem? I would be more than happy to provide them. BTW, Are you a DEV or just a helpful forum citizen?

 

I'm speaking purely unofficially, but I have joined other testers in an effort to quantify time dilation across various hardware and game versions, so I'm familiar with discussion.

 

The key information here is 1) the mission that you're playing, and 2) the amount of time dilation, i.e., the real-world time elapsed per minute of time on an in-game cockpit clock.

 

I doubt there is anything I can "solve" myself, but the best way to attract attention to a problem is to gather clear evidence. For example, if multiple people were to measure unplayable time dilation in an official campaign mission, it would be a strong indication that something is wrong.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Mitthrawnuruodo

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

2 hours ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

 

I'm speaking purely unofficially, but I have joined other testers in an effort to quantify time dilation across various hardware and game versions, so I'm familiar with discussion.

 

The key information here is 1) the mission that you're playing, and 2) the amount of time dilation, i.e., the real-world time elapsed per minute of time on an in-game cockpit clock.

 

I doubt there is anything I can "solve" myself, but the best way to attract attention to a problem is to gather clear evidence. For example, if multiple people were to measure unplayable time dilation in an official campaign mission, it would be a strong indication that something is wrong.

I will test as well. Not sure an i7-9750h with 6 cores/12 threads capable of 4ghz each and 4.5 single thread is "weak" at all (stable -135 mv undervolt too). In fact, this set up runs rpcs3 ps3 emulation with the newest ps3 games easily at well over 30 fps. IL2 should be a walk in the park compared to emulation. CLoD runs at 100+ FPS on my system with 100 units including bombers on screen. 1946 runs over 200 FPS in heavy, heavy battles modded to the max. Warthunder runs at a locked 80 fps in vr on ultra. My cpu is a beast and newer ones are only marginally better in single thread performance. This game does run smoothly online though, but ghosting does occur in furballs. For the record, I'm willing to dump far more money into this series if they keep improving it.

Edited January 26, 2021 by drewm3i-VR

[AirWolves=CutCut]

17 hours ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

 

I'm speaking purely unofficially, but I have joined other testers in an effort to quantify time dilation across various hardware and game versions, so I'm familiar with discussion.

 

The key information here is 1) the mission that you're playing, and 2) the amount of time dilation, i.e., the real-world time elapsed per minute of time on an in-game cockpit clock.

 

I doubt there is anything I can "solve" myself, but the best way to attract attention to a problem is to gather clear evidence. For example, if multiple people were to measure unplayable time dilation in an official campaign mission, it would be a strong indication that something is wrong.

 

I posted this in the referenced thread, but posting my numbers here too. I ran the bench mark both with and without recording a track, as recording seems to slow my system down even more.

 

Not Recording a Track:

1 Min.    1:26
2 Min.    2:52

3 Min.    4:17

4 Min.    5:39

5 min.    7:06

 

While Recording a Track

1 Min.    1:45
2 Min.    3:22

3 Min.    4:57

4 Min.    6:34

5 min.    8:12

 

[[DNKN]GoNuts4Donuts17]

I'm seeing a lot of slowdowns as well. Never experienced it before. Usually my PC will run the sim around 100-144fps and very smooth. I took a few weeks off from the sim while moving and finally got my PC and peripherals all set up at the new place, bought all the scripted campaigns with the current sale going on and every single time I try to play career, SC, or even quick mission, I'm seeing a huge drop in fps down to 35 and literal slow motion.

 

PC specs

i9-9900k CPU @3.6ghz

32gb DDR4 RAM

2080Ti GPU

 

It's something within BoX as DCS, ClOD, Rise of Flight, MSFS and every other game I own all seem to run just as they did (buttery smooth, high FPS) before packing up my PC.

[Praetorious]

I have a older rig 6/7 years old that i put together, 16gigs of ram,Sapphire nitro and a 8350 processor,never have had a problem playing anything or any of the scripted campaigns (i dont play online though)  however about 3 weeks ago i bought the Hellhawks campaign and on that first mission i was playing all of the sudden i was like "whats going on here?" because it had been that  long since i had experience any slowdowns playing any Sturmovik games that i had forgotten what that was like so i kinda decided to keep this PC as a "browsing the net" PC and probably will build me a new one with the current goodies, i know this doesn't help you but just wanted to throw out my latest  experience out there.

 

All the other scripted campaigns play like butter,that Nitro card did help quite a bit when a few years ago i was getting some micro stutters, nothing major but they were there, once i got that card they were gone.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

Just to add to this, I have been monitoring and tweaking my system to try to eliminate the time dilation. With hwinfo64, I am seeing some disturbing information.

 

I am in VR with Rift S on my Razer Blade 15 with an i7-9750h (6 cores/12 threads) and RTX 2070 Maxq. What my system monitor is telling me is that I am only getting approximately 60-80% GPU usage. My cpu usage is ever more alarming as I am not getting more than 45-50% on a single thread. I have tried with and without hyperthreading and performance is worse with it off. CPU clock speeds are holding a steady 4 GHZ on each core. I am seeing effective thread speeds of 2-2.5 GHZ. Physical ram usage is only about 8 GB of 16. The page file is not being used. My system is not even close to thermal throttling (CPU around 75-80 C, GPU around 70). The game and oculus programs are using all cores, but why is the game not taking advantage of all available resources with such low usage rates?

 

In these scenarios, I am seeing reprojection kicking on and off and the framerate flipping back and forth between 40 and 80. On campaign missions I am seeing slight time dilation when there are AI units on screen (scattered selected in career), but the frame rate is constant. I think this is a game engine problem.

Edited February 8, 2021 by =AW=drewm3i-VR

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

Well, I reinstalled the game and now on the Spitfire IX Rheinland "airbase defense" mission there is no time dilation and I can achieve 4/8x time compression. I think the last update broke my game somehow. This may be something to try for those having issues.

[-DED-Rapidus]

12 hours ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

Well, I reinstalled the game and now on the Spitfire IX Rheinland "airbase defense" mission there is no time dilation and I can achieve 4/8x time compression. I think the last update broke my game somehow. This may be something to try for those having issues.

Ideally, if the VR is used, the processor frequency is recommended at 4.5-4.8 GHz.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

9 hours ago, -DED-Rapidus said:

Ideally, if the VR is used, the processor frequency is recommended at 4.5-4.8 GHz.

This time dilation occurred whether in VR or not. In my testing last night after reinstall, it was gone. My CPU is no slouch: 4.5 GHZ single core and 4 GHZ over all 6 cores. I'm also not the only one having this issue...people have the issue whether they have a far better or worse system than I. There is something wrong with the game engine as I have never encountered this issue in any other game or sim. I suspect it has to do with how the AI is coded as this does not happen in small skirmishes without many  units. It also does not happen in multiplayer.

Edited February 11, 2021 by =AW=drewm3i-VR

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

On 2/11/2021 at 8:11 AM, -DED-Rapidus said:

Ideally, if the VR is used, the processor frequency is recommended at 4.5-4.8 GHz.

Just to add to this:

 

I have now played multiple SP missions today, both in career and one in the Tempest campaign (mission 6 I believe). The results after reinstall have been remarkable: yes there may have been very slight time dilation in the Tempest campaign while circling the enemy air base with many AI units and lots of flak/aa, but heading to and from the mission I was able to achieve 8x time (when I could barely get 2x before) compression. Same in career, except there was no time dilation in battle with the scattered preset on either the Moscow or Rheinland map. In HW monitor, I was seeing higher thread usage rates on multiple threads of around 60-65% for the first time ever in IL-2 (PS3 emulation uses over 90% on multiple physical and logical threads and performance is excellent because of that). The moral of the story is the game engine struggles to use all available cpu resources and reinstalling helped this. Perhaps this is due to a shader or update cache error? I'm not sure, but @AirWolves=CutCuttry a reinstall and report back. It really improved my experience. Multiplayer is also smoother again.

Edited February 13, 2021 by =AW=drewm3i-VR

[AirWolves=CutCut]

 

13 hours ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

@AirWolves=CutCuttry a reinstall and report back. It really improved my experience. Multiplayer is also smoother again.

I did this once with no change, but I will give it another try. At this point I'll try anything to get it working like it used to.

 

[AirWolves=CutCut]

I reinstalled from Steam. Clean reinstall as I wiped the IL2 folder. Still the same dismal results as far as time dilation. I am hoping that todays update will change that, but I haven't had a chance to test yet. 

[AirWolves=CutCut]

Tested with the new version today and the results are the same. Time dilation numbers are the same and get worse when recording a track. I was really hoping this would fix that.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

2 hours ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

Tested with the new version today and the results are the same. Time dilation numbers are the same and get worse when recording a track. I was really hoping this would fix that.

Have you tried the scattered setting in career?

[AirWolves=CutCut]

1 hour ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

Have you tried the scattered setting in career?

Yes, it will work fine with scattered setting in career mode, and everything set to Low in PWCG. However this unfortunately doesn't help me in scripted campaigns. 

Thanks for the suggestion though!

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

34 minutes ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

Yes, it will work fine with scattered setting in career mode, and everything set to Low in PWCG. However this unfortunately doesn't help me in scripted campaigns. 

Thanks for the suggestion though!

Ah, sounds like a cpu bottleneck due to a combination of an older system and a poorly optimized game engine that only uses one thread primarily.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

1 hour ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

Yes, it will work fine with scattered setting in career mode, and everything set to Low in PWCG. However this unfortunately doesn't help me in scripted campaigns. 

Thanks for the suggestion though!

My recommendation to you is to pick up Torbuk next times it's on sale as it's very good and performs amazing.

[AirWolves=CutCut]

47 minutes ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

Ah, sounds like a cpu bottleneck due to a combination of an older system and a poorly optimized game engine that only uses one thread primarily.

 

Agreed, my system is getting a little long in the tooth. Now if only work would pick back up so I could afford a new system!

 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

5 minutes ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

 

Agreed, my system is getting a little long in the tooth. Now if only work would pick back up so I could afford a new system!

 

Just pick up desert wings tobruk, you wont be sorry! I would also add the game engine is getting long in the tooth as well so it needs more brute force to get the same performance as of a few years ago.

[AirWolves=CutCut]

17 minutes ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

Just pick up desert wings tobruk, you wont be sorry! I would also add the game engine is getting long in the tooth as well so it needs more brute force to get the same performance as of a few years ago.

I've actually been messing with DCS a bit more these days. The performance there is quite good so far. However the player base for the WWII birds is a bit sparse. I do own CLoD but haven't put much time into it. 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

1 minute ago, AirWolves=CutCut said:

I've actually been messing with DCS a bit more these days. The performance there is quite good so far. However the player base for the WWII birds is a bit sparse. I do own CLoD but haven't put much time into it. 

Good to hear! I may have to try DCS, but have heard the vr performance is terrible (not that it's great here). CLoD Blitz flight models, system modeling, and damage models are second to none. The AI is very good too. The game is just quirky. If it had vr, it would be my go to sim.

Edited February 17, 2021 by =AW=drewm3i-VR

[AirWolves=CutCut]

 

1 minute ago, =AW=drewm3i-VR said:

Good to hear! I may have to try DCS, but have heard the vr performance is terrible (not that it's great here).

Yeh I play it in 2D so I don't know what the VR is like. I like the flight model better as it feel less like your aircraft is on rails. It does require more trimming because of that. I started messing with it due to my extreme disappointment in the P-47 in IL2, and basically any 50Cal armed aircraft in general in IL2. I'm not sure it's good enough to justify the additional expense of DCS when IL2 has so much more to offer in the likes of plane set, maps etc... If you like modern air combat it's a no brainer, but for WWII I think IL2 is still the best bang for the buck!

[AirWolves=CutCut]

Update on my situation with this time dilation nonsense. I upgraded my system yesterday so now I am running the following...

 

B450 Tomahawk Max Motherboard

Ryzen 5 3600 (6 Cores)
16GB of DDR4 3200 Ram

Nvidia 1660 Super

2TB SSD drive 

 

Here's my new numbers after another fresh install of IL2
 

Not Recording a Track:

1 Min.    1:07
2 Min.    2:14

3 Min.    3:19

4 Min.    4:27

5 min.    5:35
About 1:07 for every minute in actual time

 

While Recording a Track

1 Min.    1:23
2 Min.    2:40

3 Min.    3:55

4 Min.    5:11

5 min.    6:30

About 1:16 for every minute of actual time

(For reference here's my old numbers)
 

Not Recording a Track:

1 Min.    1:26
2 Min.    2:52

3 Min.    4:17

4 Min.    5:39

5 min.    7:06

 

While Recording a Track

1 Min.    1:45
2 Min.    3:22

3 Min.    4:57

4 Min.    6:34

5 min.    8:12

 

While these numbers are an improvement from what I was seeing with my old specs, this is still far from stellar performance in my book. I'm going to spend some time running some scripted campaigns, career mode and PWCG campaigns and see what the perceived impact on playability is. All in all though I would say this doesn't speak highly of the ability of IL2's code to take advantage of CPU power. I play DCS as well and can load the shit out of a mission with ground objects, bombers, fighters etc... and there is no noticeable slow down. In my humble opinion what I just threw at IL2 should have solved any problems that were CPU related. The only thing left is to assume that there's some code issues that aren't allowing the game to fully tap into the resources it's given.    

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

Yep, I have been monitoring my performance and have found that even when TD occurs, no single thread has higher than 50-55% usage in HWInfo, which is very unimpressive re: the game engine's optimization. In loaded situations, I have found THE USAGE ACTUALLY DIPS and so does the frame time. The game won't even draw the full 45W from my cpu because it isn't taking advantage of available cpu resources. For reference, other games and sims use up to 95% of individual threads and run smooth so I know this isn't a "system monitoring issue" as has been asserted. For the record, my GPU usage is also only around 60-65%. I am going to try MSFS 2020 in VR soon and that will be interesting to see the result as I have heard the game uses 4 threads (I have 12).

Edited February 23, 2021 by =AW=drewm3i-VR