A personal opinion after update 5.101 and from the last announcements

[Guest deleted@83466]

22 hours ago, percydanvers said:

It's a bummer to me that TC seems to have gone by the wayside. I've honestly had quite a lot of fun with TC and the various collector vehicles. There's not a lot that's quite as satisfying as landing a clean hit on a difficult target in a tank. 

 

I'm probably going to buy FC III to support the faintest hope of BoX not being dead, but so help me I just can't get into flying WWI planes. 

 

If you don’t want it then don’t buy it.  The willingness to buy things that you don’t want in the hopes that it will encourage a company to make things that you do, is probably part of the reason that we got FC in the first place, and unfortunately, for the people who would prefer maximum resources remain focused on WW2, why there will be more of the same.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by SeaSerpent

[RossMarBow]

On 4/3/2023 at 2:46 AM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Based on what?

And which are those issues according to you?

 

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On 4/3/2023 at 2:00 AM, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

Never had fps drops because server overload, you could experience slowing the  time or warping/ lagging planes, damage not registered etc all this ---- at 100 plus fps.

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I can't disagree with your statement as factually its possibly correct. 
But considering the biggest multiplayer server suffers from this issue I highly doubt you.

 

Read the end of the sticked multiplayer stutters thread
and my continuation more in-depth explanation of the problem here: 

 

Also regarding DCS MT update.
DCS servers cause client lag also, just on an incomparably larger scale.
Anyone who says DCS has acceptable performance in multiplayer should not be taken seriously. 
On a half fill server, a 6 ship dog fight, will cause the server to induce sustained and massive drops in fps into the 30-40 fps range (give or take 50%).
Which like I said is on a whole new level of bad compared with IL-2s blips.

 

If you're not familiar with video game net code basically the original counterstrike is probably the most popular example of a game that has the server induced client lag problem. Modern games with modern netcode solved this issue a long long time ago. 

 

Combine this with average fps that is between 1/2 and 1/3 of what you get in IL-2. With gameplay that is done better in every regard by the big snail. It's a big yikes from me.

 

Enough with the "bro" comments. You can address his replies without being snarky. This isn't a bar.

Edited April 5, 2023 by LukeFF
removal of "bro" replies

[PatrickAWlson]

On 4/3/2023 at 5:46 AM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Based on what?

And which are those issues according to you?

 

It is not an unreasonable suspicion.  The SP load spikes seem to be related to the number of Ai entities.  You get a spike when the entities (things that need AI) are realized and then a generally heavier load thereafter.  

 

I don't do MP so I don't know what a spike on MP looks like, however, assuming that the server state has not changed (i.e. no players entering or leaving) then it is probable that the spike is caused by something in the way  the mission is playing out.  That would make it likely to be something that can affect both SP and MP.  One concern that MP has is the fact that multiple players might trigger more check zones in a short period and more check zones overall, causing more entities to spawn than a single player. 

 

[BlitzPig_EL]

On the missions that I build and host for the BlitzPigs, I have a fair number of AI flights, friendly and enemy, plus large numbers of ground and sea units, both moving and static.

I have pretty obvious time dilation issues, that get better as more AI units are eliminated from the map as the mission progresses.  So yes, the AI loading effects multiplayer as well.

[Lusekofte]

We run Patric Wilson campaign generator for coop. And these problems variate a lot seen from a user pow. 
two seemingly identical density can give totally different experiences. But of course there is an explanation for it. 
I welcome and do understand developers choice. They want to stay relevant for the years to come, and judge the current platform to be insufficient in that ambition. 
The more people keeping their patience and stick with this franchise the better. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Lusekofte

[RossMarBow]

If you read my threads you will see the main issue is caused by the player selectable spawn points.
As they are all updated at the same time.
Basically because they all update at the same time, they cause a big problem.

 

Your server could have a ton of AI and be getting occasional overloaded messages
And while that will be bad for client performance, it won't be that noticeable because it will just be a mostly flat reduction in client fps
Its the spawn points that cause the massive spikes
As demonstrated in my analysis of one of combat boxes more extreme missions
But even if your server has no load on it - like berloga - having a ton of spawn points cause spikes

 

Basically your server could be spitting out constant overloaded messages but its how many spawn points you have that cause the real issue
Theirs probably a few things I missed I investigated this awhile ago so might have forgotten some things

 

I didn't really investigate single player performance or patwilsons generator 
But in multiplayer the player selectable spawn points with their radar each cause a set amount of client fps drop (lets say 5fps for 1 frame)
so if you have ten of these points they all stack perfectly and you get a big lag spike (-50 fps for 1 frame)
never used patwilsons but I imagine theirs only one of these spawn points on the map or maybe none 
so if the "server" is overloaded in single player it will just be an overall reduction in fps which is much more acceptable than being hit with lag spikes every 10s or whatever it was

 

If your average frame time is 10ms and you get a 30ms spike it might sound crazy to you reading this. 
10ms or 30ms is such a short time you must be super human to notice it.
But on a flat screen or in VR its manifestation is bad, it's like someone flicking your ear every 10s, none ever died from getting their ear flicked but its incredibly annoying.    
Now imagine someone putting a strobe light in your room, but setting it to go off every 10s like a broken fluorescent light.
On modern gaming monitors basically everything that isn't a basic office monitor it will drop you out of your VRR range which causes dimming/flickering, so your screen ends up basically strobing.
Now I'm not sure if the dimmed frame lasts longer than 30s or what but its extremely noticeable, because its so repetitive.  

The only fix I found was fixing refresh rate to above the spike, so if its a 30ms spike, set your refresh rate to 20fps or something awful 
Of course you could turn off VRR but then you get screen tearing which is awful in this game as then the terrain is constantly tearing as you look around
Not 100% sure how it works on VR as I personally never tested it and I'm not a VR expert, but other people did for me and the spike still happens, but I believe it will turn on reprojection which will drag out its effect much longer than 30ms, but at least the screens won't flicker. But it that causes motion sickness. 

TLDR
Reduction in average FPS is ok and manageable 
Big spikes is not fun (as I explained in my thread you get nasty physical manifestations of this such as display strobing on flat screens)

Edited April 6, 2023 by RossMarBow