...or should I say a resource hawg. I have a fairly high end system, and it still slows to unplayable on occasion (too tired to late system specs, you'll have to take my word for it).

I know a heck of a lot more is modeled at a hyper-realistic level than in lock on, but these are souped up 2003 graphics. Is the flight model that much of a drain on the CPU?

Please opine.

d.

have you tried DcsMax, a free utility that enables multicore support for balckshark.

Im running 1920 x 1200 all maxed out on vista

Is there a link to DcsMax?

Aviar

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=40037

Nate

Dashavingo, what are your system specs and which operating system are you running?

Looks like the program just shortcuts the process of setting affinity for each core rather than enabling actual multi threading. Still a useful utility though.

"Looks like the program just shortcuts the process of setting affinity for each core rather than enabling actual multi threading."

If this is true, then DcsMax is not really needed for this particular issue, correct? However, just what core setting(s) are best for BS?

For instance, I have a Core 2 Duo. What would I need to do so that BS takes full advantage of my processor?

Aviar

DCS Max does a bit more than switch cores...Take a look.

The problem with affinity is that BS switches from the UI program and then runs the 3D program - They are separate. You can set the UI to run with both cores but the 3D starts on one, hence the use of DCS Max.

Only Vista (not XP) sees any real improvement with DCS Max, BTW.

Of course it doesn't enable multithreading, multithreading can not be enabled and disabled at will, a program is either multithreaded or it isn't. And DCS (as any game) is multithreaded. Setting the affinity is all that's needed.

Ok, so how does one set the affinity?

Aviar

To do it manually, after the mission starts pause the sim, ALT-Tab out and bring up the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and find DCS.exe, right-click on it and choose Affinity, then make sure all CPUs are checked off.

So DCSMax speeds up BS considerably? I didn't realise it wasn't taking advantage of the 2 cores in my Core2Duo.

IIRC, depends on if you have Vista.

Vista = yes
XP = no

Ah, well no then as I have XP.

I think you can still get minor increases with XP but not major increases like with Vista. Although I have yet to try out the utility on my XP based machine.

I've changed the affinity manually on my XP rig, and any performance increase is so slight it's hard to tell if it's there. I think I've seen a 2-3 fps increase, but that's less than 10% of what I'm getting, and it changes based on what's on the screen, so it is difficult to get apples-to-apples comparisons with such slight variations.

Late to return but.... Good info fellahs. I've got XP, so I'll hold off on the utility (DCS Max or whatsit).

My rig is pretty fast, but I've been considering a new muthaboard and CPU. Sounds like Blackshark is pretty heavy on the CPU (hardly surprising), so this should help.

Thanks all-

d.