Taz1004

Posted here.

I wasn't planning on sharing this as it's too big but there were some requests so here it is. Please read all instructions and notes. Many of DCS textures are needlessly large. Wasting VRAM and drive space. This mod reduces those textures at no reduction in quality. Benefits of this would be: Reduced DCS install size. (By about 26GB with all optimization) Reduced loading time. Reduced chance of running out of VRAM. Possible performance benefit Performance benefit will depend on your graphic card and mission. It will save more VRAM on heavier mission. Average VRAM reduction I've experienced is between 1GB to 3GB. With 1 - 4 FPS gain on my 16GB VRAM. May benefit more in VR. Or you may not see any FPS gain if you already have enough VRAM. YMMV. INSTALL with Mod Manager (Recommended): Place the folder into your Mod Manager Mods repository. (Keep correct folder structure per your Mod Manager) INSTALL without Mod Manager (Not recommended): Copy and overwrite files in DCS main install directory. Backup your files. NOTES: This is texture mod. It will not pass "Pure Texture" IC check. I only optimized cockpits for modules that I own. If you want to optimize modules I don't have or optimize more aggressively, I posted simple instruction HERE In order to maximize the drive space of your DCS install drive, I highly recommend putting your Mod Manager repository on different drive than your DCS install drive. For OvGME, make sure to also set "Custom configuration backup folder" to the slower drive. DOWNLOADS: These are Google Drive links because files are too large. You will get virus warnings. You can check for virus after download. Links are folders you can BROWSE. You should download the entire folder the first time but after that, browse and only download files that are updated. Updated files will be listed at the bottom of this post or you can sort by Date Modified. My Google Drive has bandwidth limit. Please don't download the entire folder each update. Optimized Core (10GB) Optimized Liveries (7.2GB) COCKPITS: Optimized A10C-II (412MB) Updated 4-13-2023 Optimized F-16C (150MB) Optimized FA-18C (133MB) Updated 10-26-2023 Optimized Ka-50-3 (200MB) Optimized AH-64D (478MB by lefuneste01) Optimized Mi-24P (81MB by lefuneste01) Updated 5-03-2023 UPDATED: 12-22-2023 CoreMods/aircraft/FA-18C/Textures/FA-18C.zip CoreMods/aircraft/AH-64D/Textures/AH-64D.zip CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/rapier_fsa_launcher_radar.zip CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/rapier_fsa_missile.zip CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/rapier_fsa_optical_tracker_unit.zip CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/rapier_fsa_selector_engagement_zone_box.zip Bazar/World/textures/b-13l.zip

I might once I'm done with it. Keeping it updated scares me tho.

Need to see your Per Application SteamVR setting and DCS VR options. Also OpenXR setting.

On the first target, they tell me "No joy" even before my JSOW impacts. About 30 seconds too soon. I thought I missed so I got the coordinates again and assigned Little Nicky to it. He fires. And then my JSOW hit the target. No mods, no VAICOM.

Then you must be doing something else wrong with the file. This is with just fabric.afbmarking.tif.dds changed to 1024. You can open full size and check the file size. Dark runway. This is with all files in fabric.zip changed to 1024. Again, check that all files are 1,366KB. Runway normal.

Right click, copy link, paste link, change V9 to V8.

Not aware of that bug. Mine isn't full screen in VR.

10-22-2023: Updated for 2.9 This is based off of Kegety's mod. I made sharper NVG version for his mod a while back and this adds vertical position, size, and noise amount adjustments. ADJUSTMENTS: All 4 values (Blur amount, Position, Size, and Noise amount) are fully adjustable. Just search for "Taz" in the two files. NOTES: Does not pass IC as of DCS 2.8.5 on 5/18/23 Works in 2D and VR INSTALL: Recommend using Mod Manager or extract to DCS main install directory. DOWNLOAD

Raising min frequency doesn't mean your graphic card will always run at that frequency during idle or browsing. It just prevents your frequency from dropping below that under 3D load only. I've had DCS drop in frequency and cause stutter.

Only setting that really makes real difference for me is Min Frequency. All others seemed to do very little at the cost of stability. I tried all kinds of tweaks and now I just raise the Min Frequency to 2200 and that's it. What you have looks fine as long as you have no stability issues.

That is gone in default MT without the mod too. Even after 2.7 when ED implemented new smoke system, there were some remains of old particle system like the ones you mentioned. Another example is some vehicles explode in 2 phases and first phase still used the old smoke. These are now gone in MT. Not replaced, just gone. But I'm sure ED is working to replace these old smoke with new smoke. Even smoke marker was using the old smoke and is now "replaced" with new smoke system in MT.

That's because that one file is part of layered material. And you need to increase resolution of all the layers. I can't tell you which ones in that zip are the part of the layered material without spending some time but if you raise all textures in the zip to 1024, black should go away.

Just remember. No texture mod passes full IC check.

Works just fine with MT.

Just as a reference, one of developers of VAICOM Community also confirms this behavior.

I'm having this issue and the problem seems to be Vaicom. With Vaicom on, Psycho just joins the formation after the smoke bomb. Doing the fake run like others suggested triggers her bombing run dialogue but she doesn't actually drop the bombs. And the mission doesn't continue and dropping mine doesn't trigger anything. Turning off VoiceAttack seems to have solved the issue. Tried twice and both times it worked. A lot of issues I've been having in this campaign seems to be caused by Vaicom. EDIT: I've been testing this some more and I can reliably say VAICOM is the issue. VoiceAttack alone is fine. Turning off VAICOM plugin from VoiceAttack resolves all the communication issues I've been having in this campaign.

Updated 3/22/23: For compatibility with DCS 2.8.3.37854

I had it updated on my end but didn't upload it because it doesn't make any difference. But now uploaded it anyway. By the way, shadow on the glass is removed by default now. If you want to restore the shadow, remove the comments (//) at beginning of line 88 and 89.

I see. BS3 is still in development and I believe Shkval being in color is listed as a known issue? So that may also have something to do with it.

I am referring to texture size, not in-game setting. I made a short guide here

I don't use gimp but anyone can do it with MS Visual Studio Community which is free. Unzip the texture file first. Sort by file size. Start with the largest file. Roughmet files should say "Roughmet" and Normal files should say "Normal" or "_N" or "Nrm" or "NM" so you can also search by name. I don't optimize diffuse or color textures (unless they're really unreasonable like 4K texture for pilot's face) but you can if you're really starving for VRAM. But this would reduce image quality. I usually make Roughmet and Normals half (1/4 actually) of diffuse. So if diffuse is 4096x4096, I reduce Roughmet and Normals to 2048x2048. (Refer to image below). If diffuse is 1024, I make Roughmet and Normal 512 etc. All resolution must be power of two (512, 1024, 2048... etc) If it's 32 bits per pixel as in the image below, then change the format to "BC3_UNORM" or "BC7_UNORM". It should automatically convert to 8bpc If the texture is for ground unit, search for FLIR and reduce them to 1024x1024. There's also separate FLIR.zip file in /Bazar/World/textures/ Then just save, re-zip the files and make sure zip file name matches original. Make it into a mod and install using mod manager. Roughmet are for defining surface finish. Whether it's glossy, matte, metallic, etc. They really don't need to be 4K nor 32bpc. Normals are for bumps. Usually used for rivets, bevels and grooves. Imagine 8bpc as 3D printer that prints the rivet in 256 layers. And 32bpc would be printing the rivet with 16 million layers. Original (65MB) Optimized (5MB) Currently, I optimized texture files in: /Mods/aircraft/(aircraft name)/Cockpit/Textures/ /Bazar/World/textures/ /CoreMods/aircraft/(aircraft name)/Textures/ /CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/ /CoreMods/tech/USS_Nimitz/Textures/ Starting with the largest ones.

It's for my own as it's too large to share. Currently over 4GB. Plus, I can only optimize the modules I own and I don't own everything. Below is one of the zip file from the mod as an example of what I changed. Removed Original is 335MB with 32bpc textures. My optimized version is 105MB. File exists in /CoreMods/tech/TechWeaponPack/Textures/

This may be shelved in Wishlist like last time but I really believe this needs to be considered a bug. If an unnecessary line of code costs 10% of VRAM, that'd be considered a bug. I don't see how this is different. I mentioned this in another thread looong time ago and looks like nothing has changed. In fact, has gotten worse it seems. I optimize most of the textures and below is comparison between my optimized textures and default. VRAM usage is at bottom right corner. There is absolutely zero quality difference. Different shade of glass tint is just my personal preference. Black Shark 3 Syria Shooting Range Instant Mission A10C-2 Operation Piercing Fury Mission 1 FA-18 Supercarrier PG Cold Start As you can see, newer the module, bigger benefit there are from optimization. I don't have Apache but its textures look huge. All I did to optimize is reduce all RoughMet and Normal maps from 4K to 2K. No change to Diffuse maps. And converted ALL 32bpc textures to 8bpc. And all FLIR textures, I downsized to 1K. I'm not sure why something you see in small MFD screen needs to be 4K textures.

I mentioned this in another thread looong time ago and looks like nothing has changed. In fact, has gotten worse it seems. I optimize most of the textures. Below is comparison between my optimized textures and default. VRAM usage is at bottom right corner. There is absolutely zero image quality difference. Different shade of glass tint is just my personal preference. Black Shark 3 Syria Shooting Range Instant Mission A10C-2 Operation Piercing Fury Mission 1 FA-18 Supercarrier PG Cold Start As you can see, newer the module, bigger benefit there are from optimization. I don't have Apache but its textures look huge. All I did to optimize is reduce all RoughMet and Normal maps from 4K to 2K. No change to Diffuse maps. And converted ALL 32pc textures to 8bpc. And all FLIR textures, I downsized to 1K. Have no idea why something you see in small MFD screen needs to have 4K textures. I thought about releasing this optimization as a mod but it's too large and it depends on the module. I don't have all the modules. But it's fairly easy to do if you download the MS Visual Studio Community which is free. But then it wont pass IC so we only have to hope ED listens.