Could CPU occupacy 100% be wrong?

[Alen Pecanin]

Hey guys,

need some help and adviced from my fellow AC sim racing enthusiasts. I've got a weird fps slowdown and need feedback.

I've done a fresh install of AC, which I havent played in 4+ months. So now Im back and have time for sim racing, so I downloaded content manager, got the full version too, and did some nice downloading of high quality tracks and cars. I love the game and the experience is great.

I play in VR and have a pretty OK computer I believe, but after installing content manager, SOL, all the extras and pluggins, setting everyhing on high and something on ultra, and enabling all extra effects, the FPS goes down. Before I give you my horror story, here are my rigs specs:
CPU: i7 6700k
GPU: GTX Titan X 12GB (1st gen Titan X/Maxwell)
RAM: 16GB 4000mhz
PSU: 750w
cooling: Corsair h110i-something
storage: 500GB SSD, 250GB SSD, 1TB HDD (This is where AC is installed)
VR: Rift CV1

I loaded up Kyalami 2016 version in practice mode and played for maybe 1 hour to make a setup for my GT4 AMG GT Mercedes from Guerilla mod.
After this I loaded up a race weekend with 23ish opponents on the same track. 25min qualifying and 25 laps race.
The qualifying was playable, but when the race started, 2 laps into it the game got into slow motion and was unplayable, with the message "CPU Occupacy 100%" showing up. I got out of the race and exited the game to desktop.

So I went to check the pc and what was wrong, but the CPU never went over 32 degrees according to the logs on my software even on full load. But the GPU went to the maximum degree limit which is set on 83 degrees. I understand that all these extra mods with SOL and crazy shaders and all require extra, but shouldnt it show "GPU occupacy 100%" if the GPU is the bottleneck here? As I dont see the CPU dying on my monitoring software, but the GPU is.
I didnt have time to set the settings to medium and play again, but will test next time how it goes.
Also, would the 1080TI be better performing than my 12GB Titan X on VR, should this solve my problem? Or does one need to fork out for the 2080 RTX or 2080 Ti card to play with everything on max in AC now, in VR?

 

[xRusty_Chest]

Funny that the real biggest contributors are the nicest people imaginable. Paradox.

I think Mascot would disagree with the statement that I'm nice, for various reasons.
But I would suggest y'all don't hijack this man's thread for commentary on the community, just doesn't seem right does it?

 

[xRusty_Chest]

If you want actual advice on how to improve framerate across large AI races, you shouldn't turn off the patch as it's doing a lot to keep your framerate up (namely switching to low res cockpit interiors on your opponents). It's likely that Mascot forgets that WeatherFX is hooking Sol into your game and that SOL is a bit heavy.

To increase performance with the patch you can enable these options in Settings -> Custom Shaders Patch - General Patch Settings

Pair that with these settings in Settings -> Custom Shaders Patch -> Graphics Adjustment

and make sure you have 3D Clouds enabled in your Sol Config App (it's on Page 6), alongside CPU Split on page 1.

 

[Sascha Guenther]

I would strongly recommend NOT to enable merge meshes and force UAV flag since both settings cause severe crashes on WIN 10 or lead to non-loading tracks. Better not to advice the community to enable these settings since they are disabled by default for a good reason. And furthermore I wonder why I should enable that AC should not have an influence on threads affinity and enable CPU split in SOL config which is the same setting but vice versa? You shut it off in CM and enable it again in SOL?! Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[jkn87]

Someone said that we shouldn't activate GPU optimization cause it will increase the CPU bottleneck

 

[Deleted member 197115]

It"s constantly changing mod, with new features and bugs introduced every time.
Out of all optimizations that constantly bombs for everyone it's only DXGi flip buffer.
Rusty do not recommend merge meshes, me personally never had issues with it.
In the end there are no official "recommendations", just combination of settings that worked for some people. It may or may not work for YOU, but does it really make it wrong if it does for others?
Don't take it for granted, make your own.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

CSP CPU affinity and SOL CPU split are unrelated.

 

[bsmooth]

I've had the CPU warning pop up a lot, but I have aPC that can just about run it with say 10-15 car fields at the most. About 2 months ago I shut replays off. Maybe my settings but on single (non-race) time trialing the replay is on, but after a race there is no replay to be viewed.
But I haven't seen the CPU warning since I shut replays off. Not sure If that helps, but it sure makes AC run more smoothly at least for me.

 

[onearmedbandit46]

I would strongly recommend NOT to enable merge meshes and force UAV flag since both settings cause severe crashes on WIN 10 or lead to non-loading tracks. Better not to advice the community to enable these settings since they are disabled by default for a good reason.

I have them both enabled. I run Win10. Never had any issue with running them at all. So your advice is not entirely correct.

 

[Sascha Guenther]

I have them both enabled. I run Win10. Never had any issue with running them at all. So your advice is not entirely correct.

OK, then try to load Lausitzring by TMM or Maple Valley with these settings enabled. Just to name a few. They won´t load.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Poorly done Forza rip, it has lots of issues.
Some, like Bathurst and LeMans are pretty good, do you have problems with them too?

 

[xRusty_Chest]

The most important thing is to test with a baseline of Kunos content to make sure the benchmarks aren't polluted by oversights by mod authors who threw all concerns for optimization out the window.

It"s constantly changing mod, with new features and bugs introduced every time.
Out of all optimizations that constantly bombs for everyone it's only DXGi flip buffer.
Rusty do not recommend merge meshes, me personally never had issues with it.
In the end there are no official "recommendations", just combination of settings that worked for some people. It may or may not work for YOU, but does it really make it wrong if it does for others?
Don't take it for granted, make your own.

I'm not saying you're wrong, optimization varies on a hardware-hardware scenario but there are things that are objectively better performing across all demonstrable platforms and if they cause any issues can be turned off individually. Are you suggesting that Mascot's "solution" of turning THE ENTIRE SHADERS PATCH off is valid?

"Sol CPU Split" and "Don't alter threads Affinity" are inherently related as they both use power from your CPU, if the latter option isn't ticked you may suffer degraded performance on the former as Sol will only use the available CPU cores for acs.exe. The Optimizations I use are a collection of what I have seen to be safe for most users in the #troubleshooting channel of the patch Discord, Merge Meshes and Optimize Draw Order used to be very problematic on certain track and car combos but it's x4 and henter's vision that we patch the tracks and cars instead of just not using features. It's pointless to have this many features which work fine but people don't use because a handful of tracks can't handle them.

 

[Sascha Guenther]

Poorly done Forza rip, it has lots of issues.
Some, like Bathurst and LeMans are pretty good, do you have problems with them too?

Nope, there is a huge improvement done on MV so this has no issues any longer. Anyway that´s not the point. Check TMM´s Lausitzring mod - they even advise not to activate merge meshes since the track won´t load then. But I don´t want to exceed this topic any longer. If it is fine for you just leave it as it is. I just wanted to bring in my own experience here.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I'm not saying you're wrong

Wasn't even responding to you, Rusty. I think we are on the same page as far as optimization goes.
On CPU stuff, two settings solve different things, but yeah in the end all that happens is CPU related, unless it's GPU.
Stay safe.

 

[onearmedbandit46]

OK, then try to load Lausitzring by TMM or Maple Valley with these settings enabled. Just to name a few. They won´t load.

Fair enough, but as I said it works for me, that was my point. I have 57 tracks (not a huge number but plenty for me) and none of those fail with my current settings. So for me and no doubt plenty others your advice is still not correct.