Kegetys

I added an update to the first post for DCS 2.7.0.4625. Everything else is the same, except the HMD mask feature is removed since DCS now has a correctly implemented mask. I didn't do much testing with this yet except that both the performance and visual improvements appear to still work. I also changed the topic title as this new forum seems to allow that.

I added an update for the latest DCS beta version to the first post: 2.5.6.50321: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.50321 (6.6.2020) - Fixed tree AToC in TGP This DCS update had quite many shader changes, hopefully I didn't miss anything. :)

You can also set the values to 0 to remove the rendering of the specific shadow cascade(s) completely which will reduce CPU overhead. Here is the shadows.lua I use: http://junk.kegetys.fi/shadows.lua With that, all shadow settings use the same resolution (4096x4096 pixels, most GPU's should be fine with that) but the different settings have different amount of cascades instead. 'Low' setting has only one cascade, so you get shadows only in the cockpit, medium has two cascades and high has 3. The DCS default has 4 cascades on every setting and only the shadowmap resolution is different. When you use terrain object shadows with that you still get shadows drawn as far as before, just the overhead is less and at least in VR the visual difference is quite small.

Maintaining multiple versions would be too much work. It would be best if ED would just allow signing of mods. ED's MSAA mask should function identically to mine (given they almost certainly even copied the line that does it from the mod). Though the implementation is also slightly different, but it would be odd for them to not even check it works. :)

Another update added to the first post for the latest DCS version. Full list of changes: 2.5.6.49314: - Renamed the mod to 'DCS World VR shaders mod' - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.49314 (23.5.2020) - Removed MSAA_MASKSIZE setting as ED "cloned" it to DCS itself - Added multi-sampled terrain shadow sampling (less aliased shadows with MSAA) - Added alpha-to-coverage support for trees and tree flat shadows (less aliased trees with MSAA) - Fixed ship wakes being permanently "burned in" with high water detail - Simple transparent objects rendering setting (off by default - not well tested) - Fixed some issues with NVG especially with NVG_GAIN_ADJUSTS_POSITION enabled I renamed the mod since it does more than just performance improvements nowdays. AToC and terrain shadow multisampled reading are new features. With them and MSAA enabled, shadows and trees should appear much less aliased. Also tree shadows with "flat" shadows enabled should do the same. Comparison screenshot here: http://junk.kegetys.fi/atoc.jpg (its more pronounced in motion). There is also a new optimization setting ENABLE_SIMPLE_TRANS which simplifies shading of transparent things like propeller in most propeller planes and smoke/dust effects. Its off by default though as I haven't had time to test it properly. This version is slightly rushed as I have been busy with real flying, hopefully I didn't screw anything up. :) Also, it seems DCS nowdays correctly picks up changes in the metashaders and deleting/renaming the metashader directiores for terrain is no longer necessary so I removed that part from the install instructions.

I added another update to the first post that contains the changes from latest patch and a few other compatibility fixes. There is also a new setting to not disable bloom, it seems its performance hit has reduced in the last 1½ years (or it performs better on my current 2080ti than it did with the previous 1080) Another new setting is supersampling for the albedo (diffuse) textures for objects. This is a very performance-cheap way to get improved clarity especially for the cockpit labels and stuff. So instead of having to supersample the entire rendered scene to get more sharpness, it will sample the diffuse texture multiple times. With this I was able to reduce the pixel density a lot without getting a blurry cockpit, which in turn allowed me to turn on 4xMSAA and everything looks better overall with improved performance. It can be controlled from _HMD.hlsl setting ENABLE_DIFFUSE_SS, default is 4x. I posted a comparison sceenshot on my site here: http://www.kegetys.fi/dcs-shaders-perf-mod-update/ (it looks even better in the headset)

I added an updated version in the first post that hopefully fixes the crash since last DCS version, and includes a few other shader changes that came in the last patches.

I added an update on the first post for 2.5.6.43503. A bit more than usual has changed in this version, so I made some other changes too: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.43503 (16.2.2020) - Restored original sun flare - Added simplified version of histogram calculation (previously it was removed completely) - Above can be turned off with ENABLE_SIMPLE_HG setting (disabling it will do the "full" histogram the game defaults to, which is quite heavy) - Removed the sRGB fix as the game seems to have some other workaround for it now - ENABLE_SIMPLE_SHADOWS now limits the sample count to 10 instead of 16 Some of the new water improvements in 2.5.6 seem to rely on the removed GBuffer so those likely will not be visible with this mod. But since the that buffer has also grown in 2.5.6 to 4 instead of 2 channels you might see even better performance with the mod now, though its partially offset by having to restore the histogram calculation to get the new lighting working right... The lighting changes seems to have done something to the NVG too, but it seems the 2.5.6 lighting is quite wonky anyway and you can see fine without NVG even at moonless nights. With the original sun flare being restored the simplified glass also has the fake "flare" removed which should improve issues with gauges readability. Similarily there has been changes in the shadows in DCS which now by default use only 16 instead of 32 samples. So I changed the ENABLE_SIMPLE_SHADOWS to reduce that even further to 10 which now seem to look fine still. The sRGB fix was also removed as the game has some other workaround for it (oddly still using wrong sRGB conversion method). Because of this you no longer need to use as high gamma as before. With 2.5.6 being a bit of a mess its difficult to test this version well but it seems to work in a few scenarios I tested it with :)

I was told the mod got broken again, I did a quick update for the latest DCS beta (2.5.5.41371, link in the first post). Not tested much but looks like it works with a simple merge of the changes.

Quick update to DCS version 2.5.5.34644 added in the first post. Didn't have time to test it almost at all, hopefully it works ok :)

I updated the mod on the first post for compatibility with latest DCS version (2.5.5.33184). This version also comes with new features: - Included my sRGB gamma fix (blacks are black so increased contrast, you need to increase the gamma from video options a bit since it behaves slightly differently now) - Options to disable some of the optimizations in _HMD.hlsl (simple shadows, grass, canopy) - Fixed the haze and fog issues (restored resolveDepth, could bring some small performance degradation but that seems unavoidable) - Improved the NVG goggles, made the scope smaller so you can look under the goggles at instruments, made the gain do something and changed the noise. There is also an option to make the gain control to instead move the goggles up/down (set NVG_GAIN_ADJUSTS_POSITION to 1 in _HMD.hlsl, also other NVG options there) - Added dithering to the HDR tonemap to smooth out banding visible especially at the sky. Can be disabled from _HMD.hlsl as it can also result in some moire effects. - Made the 3D mouse cursor less bright at night time I haven't done extensive testing with this version so there may be some bugs with the new features, but hopefully it works pretty much the same as before. I am also not sure how the NVG scope size works with more "unusual" headsets like Pimax, you may need to adjust the settings for those to get something that works best.

This comparison should hopefully be done with my sRGB gamma fix, as otherwise the black levels will be elevated: http://www.kegetys.fi/srgb-gamma-fix-for-dcs-world/

I have reported the issue in the bugtracker here: https://leatherneck-sim.mantishub.io/view.php?id=817 It seems to be caused by something in the engine simulation (if you remove the engine device it runs a lot better but you lose afterburner and other stuff), but so far it has not been fixed.

I updated the mod on the first post for DCS version 2.5.4.25729 compatibility.

While looking at something else, I noticed a problem in how the game applies sRGB color space conversion that almost certainly is causing this issue (or at least making it much worse). I made a mod that should fix it, see my site for some more info & download. With that, using the HTC Vive, the nights look much better and properly dark :).

I updated the first post with a link to a new version that should work with latest beta as of now (v2.5.3.21107). I also fixed a problem with the moon illuminating the cockpit glass too much which was making it difficult to see anything at night with full moon. There are quite a lot of shader changes in the latest betas that are not mentioned in the changelog and I didn't test this version too much yet so its possible there are some bugs. But at least with a few quick missions with the Harrier everything seemed to work as before. :)

The reason for removing the precompiled metashaders is that the metashaders do not seem to automatically get recompiled when making changes to shader files that are outside the metashaders directory (Bazar\shaders\metashaders), ie. GBuffer.hlsl which is changed by the mod. So the only way to get them recompiled seems to be to remove the compiled files. That is at least how the game behaves for me, if you want to make sure you can test it by making some change to 'Bazar\shaders\deferred\GBuffer.hlsl' and see if any files get changed under 'Saved Games\DCS\metashaders2' when you run DCS (the shaders under 'fxo' do get recompiled correctly). If the metashaders are not recompiled then anything using them, like trees and terrain, will still be writing all the five GBuffers rather than just 4.

The compiled shaders go to your user home folder, under Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2.

If you want to use MSAA or not is up to you, even with the masking it still has quite large performance impact so I ended up not using it anyway myself, and rather use a higher pixel density.

I did a quick update to the mod to fix the compile error with DIFFUSE_UV (thanks to Flighter). I also slightly clarified the install instructions, everything else is otherwise the same. Updated link is in the first post.

I was slightly frustrated with poor performance when playing in VR with the new deferred rendering engine, so I had a look what would be possible to remove/simplify from the shaders to improve the framerate without too huge sacrifices in image quality. Focusing on anything that has a potentially high memory bandwidth cost (which is usually a big problem with deferred renderers + high resolutions) I was able to do some seemingly decent "optimizations". The mod nowdays also does visual improvements. Full list of changes/options: Performance optimizations: - Simplified canopy glass shader - Simplified histogram calculation - Disabled bloom & color grading - Simplified grass rendering - Reduced shadow PCF maximum sample count from 16 to 10 - Simple transparent objects rendering, ie. propellers and smoke - Disabled atmosphere for things close to camera - Removed one GBuffer entirely for bandwidth savings - Removed water refractions shader as it doesn't work with the above Visual improvements: - Albedo texture supersampling, for sharpening object textures. Visible especially with cockpit text labels. - Multi-sampled shadow sampling in terrain with MSAA enabled (less aliased shadows) - Alpha-to-coverage support for trees and tree flat shadows with MSAA enabled (less aliased trees) - Improved night vision goggles, useable in VR with smaller, properly positioned scope and new noise effect. - Optional NVG scope raise/lower feature with gain control (fixed gain) - Added dithering to HDR tonemap to smooth out banding, visible especially at the sky - The 3D mouse cursor is less bright at night time - Slight mip bias adjustment for text rendering (sharper text) Many of these can be toggled/configured from the config file. Info about albedo texture supersampling here: https://www.kegetys.fi/dcs-shaders-perf-mod-update/ AToC & Multisampled shadow sampling comparison here: https://junk.kegetys.fi/atoc.jpg Dithering comparison here: https://junk.kegetys.fi/dit.png ('off' is a bit worse in the shot than it is in-game) Example scenes: Stock shaders in Hornet, 65fps: https://junk.kegetys.fi/xzy/carrierlanding_orig_ssaa.jpg With the mod, 98fps: https://junk.kegetys.fi/xzy/carrierlanding_opt_ssaa.jpg Stock shaders in Harrier, 61fps: https://junk.kegetys.fi/xzy/readyramp_orig_ssaa.jpg With the mod, 94fps: https://junk.kegetys.fi/xzy/readyramp_opt_ssaa.jpg (These are taken in non-vr mode with some SSAA to get accurate FPS numbers) Download for DCS World 2.7.0.4625: https://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS VR Shaders mod for 2.7.0.4625.zip (latest) Download for DCS World 2.5.6.50321: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20mod%20for%202.5.6.50321.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.6.49314: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20mod%20for%202.5.6.49314.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.6.47224: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.6.47224.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.6.45915: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.6.45915.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.6.43503: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.6.43503.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.5.41371: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.5.41371.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.5.34644: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.5.34644.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.5.33184: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.5.33184.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.4.25729: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.4.25729.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.3.21107: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.3.21107.zip (old version) Download for DCS World 2.5.2.19273.411: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.2.19273.411(b).zip (old version) See the readme for install instructions. Its very likely it will break with future DCS versions that change the shaders... It works in non-VR mode too, but likely the performance gain is not that huge unless you play in very high resolution. FAQ Does the mod work in multiplayer? Only on servers with disabled integrity check. My game freezes at startup with the mod? It just takes a long time to compile the shaders at first run, be patient. If you want, you can monitor the progress with SysInternals DebugView. Game freezes when starting a particular mission? Likely you have loaded a new terrain for the first time after installing the mod and metashaders for the terrain are getting recompiled. Just wait as above and it should be fast the next time. Plane cockpit is missing/transparent? This seems to happen randomly when the shaders for the cockpit were just compiled. Re-entering the plane/restarting the mission or DCS should fix it and it should not happen any more when the shaders are already compiled. Changelog 2.7.0.4625: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.7.0.4625 (15.4.2021) - Removed the ENABLE_HMD_MASK & MASKSIZE settings as a correct mask is included in DCS now 2.5.6.50321: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.50321 (6.6.2020) - Fixed tree AToC in TGP 2.5.6.49314: - Renamed the mod to 'DCS World VR shaders mod' - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.49314 (23.5.2020) - Removed MSAA_MASKSIZE setting as ED "cloned" it to DCS itself - Added multi-sampled terrain shadow sampling (less aliased shadows with MSAA) - Added alpha-to-coverage support for trees and tree flat shadows (less aliased trees with MSAA) - Fixed ship wakes being permanently "burned in" with high water detail - Simple transparent objects rendering setting (off by default - not well tested) - Fixed some issues with NVG especially with NVG_GAIN_ADJUSTS_POSITION enabled 2.5.6.47224: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.47224 (19.4.2020) - Fixed some potential issues with GBuffer decoding - Fixed simple glass albedo color - Added ENABLE_NO_BLOOM setting to keep bloom enabled (appears to perform better nowdays) - Changed HMD mask outside area to write black rather than discard to be compatible with bloom - Added albedo texture supersampling (ENABLE_DIFFUSE_SS setting) 2.5.6.45915: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.45915 (3.4.2020) 2.5.6.43503: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.6.43503 (16.2.2020) - Restored original sun flare - Added simplified version of histogram calculation (previously it was removed completely) - Above can be turned off with ENABLE_SIMPLE_HG setting - Removed the sRGB fix as the game seems to have some other workaround for it now - ENABLE_SIMPLE_SHADOWS now limits the sample count to 10 instead of 16 v2.5.5.41371: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.5.41371 (4.1.2020) v2.5.5.34644: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.5.34644 (14.8.2019) v2.5.4.28615: - Restored resolveDepth as it was causing problems with haze and NVG depth effect - Fixed fog not being visible near the camera - NVG effect improved for VR goggles (smaller scope, correct positioning, new noise) - NVG gain now does something proper rather than just brightens up the sky - NVG parameters configurable from _HMD.hlsl - Included the sRGB gamma fix in the mod (fix elevated black levels, visible esp. at night) - Added simple dithering to HDR tonemap to smooth out banding, visible especially at the sky - Made the 3D mouse cursor less bright at night time - Some optimizations can now be turned off from _HMD.hlsl (simple shadows, grass, canopy) v2.5.4.25729: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.4.25729 (20.12.2018) v2.5.3.21107: - Compatibility with DCS World version 2.5.3.21107 (31.8.2018) - Fixed moonlight illuminating cockpit glass too much v2.5.2.19273.411(b): - Fixed compile error with DIFFUSE_UV v2.5.2.19273.411: - Fist version

It is not, but PBR is also not any specific technique but rather a design philosophy and you can implement it pretty much any way you wish. It involves using real physical quantities in the renderer to ensure that, for example, your materials do not violate the law of conservation of energy. In a "traditional" approach you'd often have factors like "diffuse" or "specular" that the artists sets for a material based on not much else than what looks good. In a PBR approach you design everything to use true physical quantities and do not allow any arbitrary factors. You can well do it with or without deferred shading, but the exact approach used by ED may require it. Overall I was personally a bit disappointed to find out DCS has gone deferred-only. The trend in the last few years seems to be to move away from deferred renderers and rather use forward+ based approach. Deferred rendering does not usually scale that great to high resolutions due to memory bandwidth requirements and also does not work with "true" MSAA, both of which are a problem especially for VR. Clustered forward+ does pretty much everything deferred rendering does in terms of lights without those downsides and its surprisingly easy to implement to an existing forward renderer too (it does have some negatives ie. for implementing screen space reflections). But ED must have a reason to pick deferred rendering so I hope they have a plan to make it perform better than the old forward renderer.

I am in this reward level and I'd much rather have the shirt than the manual because I have a printed manual already (it costs something like 8 euros to have it printed in lulu) and because I think the MiG-21 manual overall is not that great to be honest. It lacks the in-depth detail that ie. the A10C manual has and its just 183 pages so it even looks rather thin when you print it. A MiG-21bis shirt on the other hand I could wear every day ;)

I get this as well, my logs attached. Interesting bit is this: Possibly the file BinocularCameraDialog.lua is missing from the distribution? Logs.zip

My GSH-6 works fine with it: http://junk.kegetys.fi/dcs_valmius.jpg :D ;)