Taz1004

Included in the first post.

There's "Button targeting mode reset". I forgot what the default key binding is but you can search for it in Controls. Or you can also use the Shkval Reset button on left panel right next to laser toggle switch.

I have no stutter since I optimized all textures. I don't even use VR shader mod anymore. I don't have to. And my system is 4790K with 1080. Not even Ti. Running consistent 45fps with no stutter in VR. I was talking about many others reporting stutter in bug section. Point being the issues are not just limited to VR and low end systems. And stutters being reported are not all related to pagefile.

There are people reporting stutters with high frame rates in 2D. And many reporting memory leak in MP where it crashes longer you play. All software have memory leak. Even Windows needs to be rebooted once a while. But huge difference between 1GB memory leak and 200MB memory leak. SSD is also a "requirement" in DCS because it has to swap tons of large files. But huge difference between streaming 1GB versus streaming 200MB. The issue doesn't only apply to VR and extremely low end. I'm not so sure about that 99%

It's quite the opposite as trees are instanced. Meaning textures are loaded just once per type of tree. It yields much larger improvement from cockpit and vehicle optimizations. Did you know that destroyed burning vehicles have separate set of high res textures? 1GB of VRAM just from the cockpit. And most have 8GB of VRAM so that's 12%. I don't see how that's small.

I don't understand it either. But the fact is whenever I update any of my mod, even just description change, the download number spikes for about a day. So apparently, there are a lot of people willing to waste time. And the search function needs to be refined. It needs "exclude" option. Heck the whole User Files section needs overhaul.

I'm not sure why you'd buy Index if you already have Cosmos Elite. Cosmos Elite is higher resolution than Index and altho Index has better lens, I thought you already did lens mod on your Elite. Only other advantage of Index over Cosmos Elite would be higher refresh rate which you will not be able to take advantage of in DCS as no one can push to 120 fps in DCS. Maybe the comfort is factor but that's personal. I hope you bought it from somewhere you can return.

+1. It's not problem just for abusers. I as modder am afraid of updating description or tag on some of my mods because I don't want to look like I'm bumping it.

And if the Dev team is looking into this, please don't forget these are everywhere. Not just in A10C-II. 174MB 32bit normal maps for road markings in Caucasus dating back to 2016. I've also seen many in ground units (where surfaces are flat) dating back to 2014 and some in weapons too if I remember correctly. Does it really take an expert to see that this is an oversight?

Is there any sleek rounded shapes with significant broad stroke in the cockpits? The point I keep making is that where higher bit normals can actually make slight improvement, they are not used. Instead, as I illustrated and mentioned many times, where it DOESN'T make ANY difference is where they are used. I'd love to see them. But I'm willing to wager that even if that is the purpose... on broad shapes, you may see slight improvement from 8bit to 16bit but you will not see any difference between 16bit and 32bit. And even from 8bit to 16bit, on large rounded surface, once you put diffuse map over it, it'll be hardly noticeable. Definitely not worth the VRAM which is why it's generally not "practiced" in game industry. Unless it is highly polished shiny surface. But then again, you don't see 32bit normals on racing sims where it's predominantly "highly polished", "large rounded" surfaces. In fact, Assetto Corsa doesn't use any normal maps on car body surfaces. That's because modern graphic cards are more efficient at processing polygons than large texture files. LOD is much easier with polygons than with textures and doesn't affect draw calls. And it depends on the engine but typically, normal maps can also do some "strange" things under certain lighting which are not noticeable on small details but definitely on large surfaces. So in "general", normal maps are reserved for fine details such as cut lines and rivets and screws.

Here's comparison once again as how this affects DCS is only thing that really matters. The mod I installed through OvGME in the screenshot is nothing more than cockpit textures in \Mods\aircraft\A-10C_2\Cockpit\Textures\ with 32bit normal maps converted to 8bit. No other resizing of texture resolutions. Again, this is only on A10C-II cockpit textures. Not including my other optimizations on trees and vehicles. Default 32 bit normals Converted 8bit normals The two numbers per screenshot, the first number is when the game started. Second number when it drops is when I alt-tabbed out to take screenshot of the desktop. And both numbers were affected by the optimized texture. However, here's strange thing I didn't see when I tested this before. Once I alt-tabbed out which lowered the VRAM, then go back into the game, that low number stayed. I wonder if this is Afterburner issue. And for those who are convinced there's quality difference, here's zoomed in shot of gauge with 8bit and 32bit normals as used in DCS. The normal map would be applied to the bevels, edges and screws. Once again, this really doesn't matter to me personally as I already optimized them and everything running smoothly on my age old PC. I really don't need to convince anyone.

Thanks, I just looked through A4E-C textures. No 32bit. They actually used some in 4 bit to save resources.

I agree but also want to mention that VRAM optimization is not just performance optimization for lower end systems. Framebuffer for example also uses VRAM. MSAA, Screen space reflections, and hopefully, Ambient occlusion.

You bring up a good point. Canopy glass would be a surface where 32 bit normal map "MAY" be used to refine it's fake reflection. But canopy glass in A10C-II doesn't have 32 bit normal map. If the reason Pikey (and an unknown texture artist from Heatblur) is giving the actual reason and this is all done on purpose, shouldn't the canopy glass have 32 bit normal map?

I never actually used the term "industry standard". I just said it is not "practiced" in game industry. Are you looking for us to provide you with a rule somewhere? Look at the link YOU provided. One of the most popular game engine Unity doesn't even support it. I haven't used Unity for 2 years but even until 2018, Unity didn't support 32 bit normal maps. Also the link I provided said... once again. Also. That link you provided. It's comparing Maya with Unity. It's comparing Professional 3D render program versus a game engine.

You're not even understanding how the normal map is used in that link and how they're used in DCS. In that example, normal map is used to refine reflection of large surface. Which exactly is same example I showed in the link I posted which you never seemed to have read or understand. Here is that link once again for your reference. It's really the shortest, most easy to understand explanation. https://polycount.com/discussion/148303/of-bit-depths-banding-and-normal-maps In DCS, normal maps are used for bevels, cut lines, and rivets. I said before and I say once again, no surface in DCS is such reflective. It IS cut and dry. It can't be any more dry than this. I think you should relax more And please. I still would like to see 3rd party module that has 32 bit normals.

Which 3rd party module? I haven't checked all 3rd party modules but I've seen none in F14 or Syria. Tell me which and I'll check them out on next free trial. Or perhaps have that Heatblur texture artist actually chime in here for productive discussion? What you're saying is entire game industry other than ED are hallucinating.

Yea, you're right. I got those two reversed. I was thinking one thing and wrote another.

Yes, this is very obvious even for non experts. I can't imagine how ED or experienced texture artist wouldn't understand this. It's like having to explain to engineers at General Motors why regular oil change is important. Which is why I said this has to be an oversight. If this was intentional, then all normal maps should be 32 bit. But it's always a portion of a full texture pack. I see them in Viper too. But I do not see them in HeatBlur or Ugra textures. I almost want to guess that someone at ED has wrong export setting as default. It's obvious that few textures got exported with wrong setting and they didn't think it mattered. And it didn't matter. But over the years, those got piled up. And still getting piled on. I want to clarify it tho that when I said this is easy to do with batch process, I meant converting 32bit normal maps to 8bit. Not resolution. And for that, you don't even need to test them. I did optimize resolution of textures for myself too and yes, that is slightly more involved process because that does affect visual quality and you have to look at what you're actually resizing. Whether if it's for instrument gauges or seat belts and seatbacks you never look at. That is why I did not suggest optimizing "resolution" on this thread. Only 32bit normal maps.

As said above, it's not the money.

I don't think anyone's questioning that. Doesn't need to be repeated. Question is... that's a big jump from GTX 760 to GTX 1070. 3 generations jump. And the question on everyone's mind is... is the 2.7 performance hit relative to that jump. I'm guessing it's not the chipset but the 8GB VRAM that became the minimum requirement.

What was the final resolution output with PD 1.0 and SVR at 150%? And what was final resolution output with PD 0.5 and SVR 250%? The latter is much lower resolution. Going from 1.0 PD to 0.5 PD is 50% reduction in number of pixels (Width x Height). Whereas 50% in SVR is in linear resolution (Width or Height). Always calculate using actual resolution. Not % value. It doesn't matter what combination you use. As long as the final resolution output is same, the performance and quality is same.

This is not really a complaint but reality. All their programmers are working on Hornet. I assume for few months until release. 2.7 will be released and they'll be busy fixing that bug for few more months. Then they may look at Blackshark and deem it's not worth their time especially since BS3 is "supposedly" planned. Then they'll move on to Viper. Then Apache. So there's really no point wasting time making tracks for Ka-50 bugs. What I hope is that with 2.7 release, they go back and revisit all the modules.

Upload the mission file?

If you're referring to NVG part, it doesn't work by itself. You have to install this mod first.