Kunos Assetto Corsa CPU Occupancy > 99% Warning Advice

[Paul Jeffrey]

Kunos Simulazioni respond to recent CPU Occupancy > 99% issue with new advice for PC owners.

Following the popular update to build 1.12 of Assetto Corsa on Windows PC, Kunos Simulazioni have quickly realised a small proportion of users are suffering from a return of the CPU Occupancy > 99% issue that plagued many players during early builds of the game.

The return of the issue, attributed to amendments to the controls.ini file received in the latest build, has been acknowledged by the developers and advice has been issued on how to resolve this problem for the vast majority of players. With the update to the controls.ini file Kunos have brought to the game a more detailed FFB feeling for a number of wheel users, unfortunately this has caused problems for some players, especially those with older or home made wheel solutions. With the below advice issued today by Kunos the Italian team are confident any remaining CPU Occupancy issues will be resolved.

It is advisable to contact the official Assetto Corsa PC support forum if you still experience this issue after following the below steps.

FOR PC/WINDOWS USERS
With the new v1.12 update, we have introduced a new section in the "controls.ini" file located in your "Windows Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg" path called "[FF_SKIP_STEPS]", that manages the force feedback update rate. The default value is now "0" instead of "1" and it overrides the old value located in the "assetto_corsa.ini" file (in the Steam game folder). This brings a more detailed force feedback and a better driving feeling. If you experience "CPU OCCUPANCY > 99%" warnings, please tick "Half FFB Update Rate" in the the UI Options -> Controls -> Advanced and this will bring the value back to "1". Not all the steering wheels can manage the maximum update rate, so no worries.

If you are using a very old steering wheel like the Microsoft Sidewinder or Saitek R440, or other hand-made ones, you need to open the "controls.ini" file, and set the "FF_SKIPS_STEPS" value to "4". It should look like this:

[FF_SKIP_STEPS]

VALUE=4

This should solve any "CPU OCCUPANCY > 99%" warnings related to the force feedback refresh rate.

Please always double check this value if you load controls profiles created before v1.12 update! In case, please create a new controls profile with the proper value!


Assetto Corsa is a racing simulation built for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game is available to purchase now with a number of additional DLC packages available depending on the chosen platform.

The Assetto Corsa sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for Assetto Corsa news and community discussion. We have a whole bunch of mods to download, a specific area for modders to discuss their WIP projects and of course our epic Racing Club and League events. Head over and join in today.

Have you experience the 99% Occupancy issue? Does the above suggestion resolve your issues? What do you think of the 1.12 update? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Joerg Baermann]

Instead of giving an advice they could make a temporary patch that corrects the values upon which wheel the game finds until a permanent solution is found.

 

[JackCY]

It's not an OS thing, 64bit systems that support 64bit on hardware and OS level have been around for over a decade even before owning 4GB+ RAM was needed. AC doesn't use anywhere near 4GB RAM from what I have seen and that's the only major difference difference between x86 and x64. Neither did x64 in AC work flawlessly from the start hence it was better to stay with x86 until issues are resolved, now it has turned the other way around. Sure you can optimize and use specific "hacks" for each variant but in the end the only difference often is that each variant is compiled with either x86 or x64.

And even today x86 is still more compatible overall when you need to mingle applications together. It's getting better for x64 but it has taken over a decade as the need for x64 from a common user perspective is relatively small.

Your CPU is running in compatible mode anyway so that it can run 32 and 16bit applications as well. Plus most/many applications even in 64bit OS are still 32bit, why? Because there is no benefit of using 64bit with it's higher overhead unless you need tons of RAM as web browsers, photo/video/audio editors may need, small utilities? Often have no need for large RAM amounts.

x86 support is here to stay for a long time still, as long as x64=amd64 lives so will x86.

Obviously minimizing draw calls (objects, scene complexity) in AC always helps to reduce CPU single thread bottleneck feeding GPU, but not easy to do as a user with available settings.

 

[Giorgos Kostis]

I don't trust the assetto corsa fps counter.

When i use MSI afterburner, it shows that only 18-20% of my CPU is used while Assetto corsa shows 3x as much.

 

[MaXKiLLz911]

I don't trust the assetto corsa fps counter.

When i use MSI afterburner, it shows that only 18-20% of my CPU is used while Assetto corsa shows 3x as much.

Same here.

 

[aphidgod]

Read the post above yours.

 

[Alex72]

I have it from time to time. But i think that this is a Hardware problem on my side because my cpu really sucks.
Happens only with plenty opponents.

Thats the idea though. When you have more opponents the cpu is more stressed and the FFB calculation will take it over the top and give you a warning. So if you did what the article suggest you might get away with not having the warning even with many AI.

 

[Piero Favretti]

I'm getting the "CPU Occupancy > 99% issue" error using the AccuForce wheel, i7 6800K 8/16 core processor, GTX 1070 and 32gb of RAM. WTH?!

 

[mister dog]

I'm getting the "CPU Occupancy > 99% issue" error using the AccuForce wheel, i7 6800K 8/16 core processor, GTX 1070 and 32gb of RAM. WTH?!

Yeah but that's all low grade material, you need beefier specs.

 

[Tobiman]

I'm getting the "CPU Occupancy > 99% issue" error using the AccuForce wheel, i7 6800K 8/16 core processor, GTX 1070 and 32gb of RAM. WTH?!

That's a 6core/12thread cpu btw. Regardless, that's really wierd. My i5 @ 4.5ghz is usually in the 60s even with a huge grid.

 

[PicoBp]

If it's FFB related, the problem is not the game, but your wheel driver. If it can't process FFB refresh at full rate, it will bog down your CPU by constantly waiting for the driver to send data to the wheel.

 

[Terra21]

i had the same question asked a while ago "may 2016" when my dated setup i5 3570,gtx680,16gb ram could run road america fine with 30 ai on the grid at 60 fps.and a fellow seeing my yt vid commented he could not get the same 60 fps results with better hardware a GTX 970 a, AMD 8350 OC and 16gb ram without the 99% warning always showing and the game slowing/stuttering.the solution i asked him to try which in the end fixed the problem was to manually enable multicore processing in windows 10.his reply was...
"Wow, thanks. No one ever told me, or even mentioned on the forums that you have to "enable" multi core processors in Windows? found a video telling "how to enable multi core processors in Windows 10." Kind of begs the question though. Why do my other games work fine, and report all 8 cores being used in MSI Afterburner? 36 AI on road America now work smooth as glass.thanks However only in AC was it a problem?"

so its just a suggestion to try out which has worked for someone in the past.. not sure if it was just because he had an 8 core amd or not..
...

 

[McM]

"Wow, thanks. No one ever told me, or even mentioned on the forums that you have to "enable" multi core processors in Windows? found a video telling "how to enable multi core processors in Windows 10."

WOW thanks from me to, didn't know that either... does that mean AC (and other games) can now use all 4 cores? Does that mean that having 4 cores enabled and I am just in windows, all 4 cores are running too and will kill my CPU faster? Some more explanations would be nice, very hard to understand what google is showing me as results. THX

 

[Joerg Baermann]

WOW thanks from me to, didn't know that either... does that mean AC (and other games) can now use all 4 cores? Does that mean that having 4 cores enabled and I am just in windows, all 4 cores are running too and will kill my CPU faster? Some more explanations would be nice, very hard to understand what google is showing me as results. THX

Windows 10 detects all cores by itself, just check the performance tab in task manager, msconfig's advanced boot option is only there to disable core detection at boot.
If anything you can disable core parking in Windows: https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/ , and you can align their clock speeds via BIOS by letting them run synchronized at the expense of power-saving.
I would recommend the whole process lasso suite, there is a free version for both 32 as 64 bit systems, it is advised to read the manual since not all settings are meant to be tweaked on a regular PC.

 

[Tobiman]

The 911 GT3 Cup used to be really chatty and skippy which I really liked. This new update has smoothened out the handling of the car. Could that be as a result of the now symmetric ARBs?

 

[Cesar Mello]

Thank you very, very much! It solved my problem. Since I upgraded my PC from a Core2 Duo to an i5 7570, this problem always happened. The frame rate was OK but the simulation seemed to be in slow motion. I have an old steering wheel (Microsoft Sidewinder FFB wheel). Changed the FFB_SKIP_STEPS setting to 4 as suggested and it solved the problem perfectly. Thank you very much!

 

[playmobil_10]

I have the same issue here, I did the things described here but the CPU values are still between 74 and 90 percent, I think if I keep playing in this way my CPU life time will be reduced.

 

[HypoToad]

It happened to me a little while back, it was caused by some program running in the background hogging the CPU, look at Task Manager and see if there is anything else hogging it.

 

[Terry Rock]

Did those guys do something with the tire modeling during the last build?
I took what is usually a great combination in AC... the 458 out to Mugello last evening and it just felt really, really bad.
I then took a few laps in the GTR and it just 'pushed' like crazy, even at 30 kph the car was sliding.
It was actually difficult just to keep the car on track...even at those very low speeds.
One of the benefits of VR seating, is the ability to more accurately compare vehicle movement directly with vehicle speed since the speedometer is easier to see and read.
A 458 or GTR will not slide at those speeds...heck! my Saab 9-3SE on regular Sumitomo road tires doesn't do that.
I'll have to try again today to see if it was just a fluke.

 

[Monstro]

Did those guys do something with the tire modeling during the last build?
I took what is usually a great combination in AC... the 458 out to Mugello last evening and it just felt really, really bad.
I then took a few laps in the GTR and it just 'pushed' like crazy, even at 30 kph the car was sliding.
It was actually difficult just to keep the car on track...even at those very low speeds.
One of the benefits of VR seating, is the ability to more accurately compare vehicle movement directly with vehicle speed since the speedometer is easier to see and read.
A 458 or GTR will not slide at those speeds...heck! my Saab 9-3SE on regular Sumitomo road tires doesn't do that.
I'll have to try again today to see if it was just a fluke.

drop psi mate (about -5), you will see they're too high
have you checked that ?