Glide

After the update, I thought I would give Smart Smoothing another try. I settled on a very simple set of settings. Nothing in PimaxXR. Headset 120hz, Maximum, Smart Smoothing Enabled. Very important, set the Max FPS to 60 in Game Settings. Also, the only thing in the NCP setting is Low Latency = On. With these settings below, on my 3080Ti, with DLSS Ultra Performance, I got an absolutely perfect mission in the Viper. My VRAM usage was about 66%. I still have to test my Apache missions. Just to add, this worked great with the Apache and Night Vision. There is another way to achieve the 60fps lock, and that's Compulsive Smoothing in PimaxXR. I played around with both, and it seems stable with both. I then enabled Quadviews again, and I did see some strange "vsync-like" flashes across the screen now and then, but otherwise, very stable fight. Still, I came back to: Headset: 120hz, Balanced, No Smart Smoothing Nothing in NCP. DLAA in game settings. Turbo Mode On, Eye Tracking and Quadviews On in PimaxXR.

I don't seem to have a problem with QuadViews over cities. Not sure what I'm doing right, but it's smooth as silk for me. I have Turbo Mode, Compulsive Smoothing, Eye Tracking and QV enabled in PimaxXR. No Smart Smoothing in the headset. 120hz, Maximum resolution, DLSS Performance.

Yes, high resolution is great. Strangely, I ran my Pimax without any AA when I first got it. It was super fast, and not very aliased. However, DLSS cleans it up so nicely. I also keep my frames small. That means Textures Medium, Terrain Textures Low, Shadows Flat, Terrain Shadows Off, AF off, Visibility Range Medium. This is just enough eye candy to make the terrain look real without wasting any resources on it. The cockpits look great too. There are "mistakes" as that fellow from Digital Foundry, in DLSS/TAA, and you just have to live with them until Ray Tracing comes out.

I could actually run my Crystal at Maximum with DLAA with my 3080Ti with great FPS and only one or two hiccups. I've gone back to my earlier strategy of keeping the FPS as high as possible, so I don't mind DLSS Performance. It's always tempting to make the terrain look beautiful, but I want all my compute cycles going to flying. The Viper is an absolute hoot now. I actually managed to get a legit gun kill on a Mig-29S yesterday. Usually I can't catch them until they quit and head for fuel. That's a huge improvement too.

@Qcumber Pimax Crystal Sim with the 3080TI. I turned up textures, shadows, and filtering, and it didn't even blink.

Me too. I'm still shaking my head. Those terrain processing improvements are awesome. It seems the only thing limiting my settings is my VRAM. Still testing.

Wonderful update! Thanks so much!

Cleaning out unused modules. The Maps are the big ones.

Not enough disk space in _downloads for the update. Guess I have to start from scratch.

I'm not sure that's correct. According to Digital Foundry, with TAA/DLSS, the more frames the better because AntiAliasing will be better. I've had my Crystal for about a week now, and I've had a few kicks at the graphics settings. Today, I tuned my settings to get me 90 frames in the menu, and even 90 fps in game. Headset 90hz, Balanced, no Smoothing, but no Quadviews. Then I enabled Quadviews, and I got a solid 72ish FPS. See Below. It was really solid. 3080Ti with i7 11gen. One more thing, I noticed the odd stutter with Low Latency Mode = Ultra. Smooth as silk with Low Latency = On.

DLSS is binary compatible. This means that you can replace the executable, but you don't get the new features. There's another video from Digital Foundry on YT that covers DLSS 3.5 in Cyperpunk 2.0. Check it out. The newer, cleaner DLSS will not be available until the Dev's add the new features to the DCS engine.

I love my Crystal Sim. I've had it for a week. It is almost perfect for me. i notice the image of the cockpit moves ever so slightly now and then when I stop moving for a short while. I believe the inside out tracking is just resort itself when this happens. Otherwise, it's perfect. I love how the head-strap grips the top of your head and does not squeeze your face. I love how I can use my peripheral vision with the headset. I love how I can keep my head forward, but just glance down at a switch. Mine came with the basic earphones, but that's okay because i use in-ear wired buds that sound great. Overall, my DCS experience has been transformed. Well done.

I tried it with the latest Crystal Sim, and there was ripping and tearing when I panned the headset. Something like vsync errors. Perhaps the latest firmware through things off.

Try mine. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3335686/

@sirrah Got a nice Beta version of the mission up if you are interested. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3335686/ Working on the screenplay now.

The details of the checkpoints and outposts are great! You will note the bright white spotlights just above the REDFOR T72 off my 1 o'clock. If you can see these lights, you are spotted. I'm not sure if that's something that can be triggered, but I'm putting that in the briefing. Working on the insertion point today. It's quite dramatic. You follow the fence at the top of the hill, and then just when you would turn left, you hop over the little town with the trees, and dive into the canyon on the other side. Fun stuff!

You might want to try HAGS ON, Low Latency Mode = Ultra in NCP, Max FPS 45 (YMMV). I have the G2 as well, and I get very steady frames with my settings. I tried process affinity as well. The only config that makes sense to me is to keep DCS off CPU 0, and let DCS have CPU 1-7 (or how many you have). This allows Windows to do its work on CPU 0, and the sim has the rest. However, I didn't find this to make much difference. I run vanilla DCS without OpenXR Toolkit.

Thanks! It's turning into the beginnings of a campaign. This is a great area to fly helicopters in DCS, and a great area for flying helicopters if you have the civilian sim as well.

I find that VR needs frame rates that don't drop. I can get by with 35fps as long as it doesn't go lower. This is a tough call because a building or complex airfield will come into view, and you get a spike in frame rates. I go for just enough eye candy to keep the sim looking correct, but not enough to allow me to notice any drops. I want to keep the size of the frames small because larger frames take longer to create and process. I have max fps set to 45 even though I know I can get 60. Max FPS 35 also works, but the probability of getting a noticeable drop at 35 is higher. Once I have things smooth for my hardware, the key is to resist the temptation to reach for higher settings. Oh, if it was only a bit sharper. There be dragons here.

Yeah, a lot of folks get stuck in the "must have highest settings with highest FPS" trap. I chased that white rabbit for many years as well. Now, I have all my sims set to lower graphics settings resulting in smoother flight experience. My goal is to completely forget about the FPS counter. My millennial son plays all his games on the lowest settings, and even I find that too extreme.

BTW, really fun mission if you are looking for excuses to train in the AH-64D. I'll upload when it's finished.

Is there a way to utilize the heliports along the UN Blue Line? There seems to be a buffer around them to prevent placing unit on them. I thought maybe an invisible FARP would work, but no.

I find Textures = Medium, Terrain Textures = Low takes the pressure off the ram/vram with very little loss of visual detail. Terrain Shadows and Anisotropic filtering can be Off. I use High Shadows, but if you wan to shrink the load even more set Shadows to Flat Only, No secondary shadows, no screenspace shadows., no ambiant occlusion, no screenspace refrections. Give that a run. Visibility Range = Medium is as high as you want to go.