Micro Stutters - Direct Input

[MajorMagee]

I've been questioning Google AI for suggestions on reducing the repeating stutters I've always had in CFS3. It is most noticeable when you're low and fast, looking at your airplane from the side, so the scenery is moving laterally across the screen. They occur like clockwork, and AI helped me progressively extend the period between glitches from 6 seconds (annoying) out to 30 seconds (liveable). The single biggest improvement on my system came with installing a direct input dll file that translates all legacy direct input commands into their dx8 version. It is compatible with both AnKor's Shaders d3d8.dll and Reshade's d3d9.dll.

I've checked the file and it's harmless. As far as it's effectiveness, your milage may vary.

To install it, just place the dll in the same location as your main program file for CFS3 (similar to AnKor's and Reshade's dlls).

 

[Frosty]

Thanks, gonna try that out!!

Talking about AI and games: I learned today that people have used AI to merge two games, to turn a single player game into a multiplayer version etc. It made me wonder whether AI could be used to 'activate' unused but (partially) present functions in CFS3 or even add additional stuff and more...

 

[gecko]

Interesting! What does it actually do?

I think AI offers some serious possibilities for our sim. I've been trying some of my own experiments lately. I'm awfully tempted to go for a Claude subscription. Especially for what has been the very slow process of building my own interface.

 

[MajorMagee]

If you can believe AI

It is a custom dll file that intercepts legacy DirectInput 1–7 API calls from late-90s and early-2000s games and translates them into modern DirectInput 8 (dinput8.dll) calls on the fly.

Why You Would Use It

• Fixes Stutters & Freezes: Many older games poll controllers, mice, and keyboards using obsolete methods that cause severe frame stutters or crashes on Windows 10 and 11.
• Bypasses Mouse Acceleration: It is heavily used in older engines (like early Unreal Engine titles) to disable forced legacy mouse acceleration and restore raw mouse precision. [1]
• Enables Stackable Input Modding: Once the game is successfully routed through DirectInput 8, it allows you to easily chain the game into modern gamepad tools like x360ce or XInput Plus to make modern Xbox or PlayStation controllers function flawlessly.

 

[gecko]

For me I found it caused some screen tearing issues. May need to look at my v-sync settings.

 

[Pat Pattle]

Thanks Andy. I tested it on a like - for like basis and adding the .dll lost me around 3-5 fps. I didn't notice any less stuttering.

It's probably my ancient PC that's the issue.

 

[MajorMagee]

After trying dozens of different proposed solutions, I still have stuttering on a repeating basis, just less frequently. I'm now convinced that it is tied to how the base code manages the memory usage, in that it lets things accumulate and then flushes everything at once, and starts over. That inefficient memory clearing routine from 2002 causes the cpu to stall, and the gpu starves waiting for data to process. Every approach I've tried to fill in the gap has been unsuccessful. My current compromise it to tax the GPU with 8x SGSSAA, and limit the CPU load with a 77 FPS speed limit. Both my CPU and GPU are capable of churning out hundreds of FPS in CFS3, but this at least makes the shudder less jarring.