WipeUout

Had a 4080 and was getting good results but went to a 4090 and gained about 10-15% more. It all depends on your HMD. I use a Pimax 8kX which has a lot of pixels (4kx2=16.5 MPixels) to render and even with the 4090 I can't get to the maximum possible quality my HMD can provide. If your HMD has less resolution, the 4080 will give you a very good experience at high refresh rate. Your CPU may also be important in the equation, it could be the bottleneck in some scenarios.

There are lots of report out there about the instabilities of the 13th and 14th gen i9 CPU because mobo makers do not follow intel's recommended settings as default in the BIOS. There is less issues reported for the i7 but in any case If you follow these settings, no issue and your CPU will last several years. If intel set max recommended power to 253 watts, set it up in the BIOS. As far as selection of a mobo, it is a good choice to go with a Z790 but do not spend too much, just the basic Z790 is more than enough and provide access to all possible settings for the CPU voltage, power , etc. Overclocking is not a good idea as it will shorten the life of your CPU but the Z790 is required to access important BIOS settings for a K sku.

Sorry @Aapje but this makes sense depending on what you are looking for. There is place for different opinion on this and I never said the X3D was bad, on the contrary. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, no need to bash other's if they are different than yours. I stand by my comment that single core performance is critical for DCS but not so much in other games that fully exploit mutlti-threading. Going to AMD will require new DDR5 RAM which adds to the cost also. If cheap and fast is what you are looking for, then the i7 with a DDR4 mobo is the best choice.

Hi @Ski01 The key metric I use for DCS is single core performance. Allthough DCS went Multi-thread, it still uses very few cores and generally the rendering core gets overwhelmed as soon as there is too much action in a mission. Having a fast single core performamce will help ensure you have most headroom. Having a 3D cache (7800x3D) certainly helps but in the current market, you can get an i7-14700k for the same price with signnificantly more horsepower as far as single core performance. I would say 1st choice is i7-14700K, second 7800x3D. If you need to avoid buying new RAM, you can still find intel mobos that support DDR4 also. All depends on your wallet size and if you also play other stuff than DCS. For other games, the 7800x3D is a better choice.

The missile is nice but seriously, where can I get a ball cap like this? Where's the merch??

DCS now has multi-threading which means CPU tasks run in parallel. There are two pipelines taken care by the CPU, simulation and graphical. Seperating the two pipeline, i.e allocating different cores to tackle each is helping the CPU to keep frametime below the target. If any of the two pipeline takes too much computing power, the result is a frametime too high and stutters. It doesn't matter which pipeline is not keeping up, the result is the same: Stutters. Yes, this means that your GPU is not being used to it's full potential but low usage of the GPU can happen even if your CPU has low usage as well. This means you can crank up your settings until you reach a frametime just below the corresponding value for your HMD refresh rate. Personally, I use 90hz refresh rate. I always try to keep my GPU frametime around 9 to 10ms, aiming to keep it under 11ms 99% of the time. My CPU is not a limiting factor but I make sure only the performance cores are being used for DCS through Process Lasso.

Your wish is granted, the module is usable right now and lots of fun!

Sorry but yes he does. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm only a native french speaker after all...

Not quite right... nullAccording to Galinette, RB did use the DCS SDK to develop stuff for the professional market. Just saying.

Since DCS 2.9.3 there is only the "stable" version, there are no Open Beta version updated anymore. The MT version is in the bin-mt folder yes. In any case, it is better to use the latest version of DCS which is 2.9.5.5518 now. As for WMR and the G2 and how to use OpenXR as your runtine (required to use MT), I don't have much knowledge about this as I am a Pimax guy...

Since your refresh rate is set at 60hz, your FPS will never exceed 60. When you see "CPU Bound" in the DCS FPS counter it can be missleading and not necessarely mean your CPU is not keeping up. You need to use OXRTK FPS counter and see what is the reported frametime for your GPU and CPU. If the frame time exceed 16.67ms then the system component (CPU or GPU) exceeding this value is limiting factor, or the bottleneck in your system. At that point you have two options: Upgrade Hardware or Lower Settings. If any of the two components seldomly exceed the 16.67 threshold, then you are in a good place. If you are using the single thread version of DCS, then you could experience CPU bottleneck more easily. Better to use Multi-Thread to split the load on the CPU between several cores.

Install process lasso and you will see all programs and process that are using your CPU during your sim session. (https://bitsum.com/?inproduct)

Depending on the severity of the stutter you are experiencing. Lock Half frame rate from PimaxPlay does not work with the 8kx, I have to set 45 FPS cap in DCS settings. It is ok but not ideal. If you have GPU frametimes over 20ms, then it is much better than a stuttery experience at 90hz with FPS jumping up and down well below the target 90FPS. If you can tolerate ghosting, then you are better off with smart smoothing (Pimax "reprojection" equivalent). Below is a graph I did to explain what we try to achieve by tweeking settings with some explanations: Analyzing your frame times for both CPU and GPU for a specific level of details/quality will help you see if the CPU is the bottleneck. When setting graphics quality level, we all try to stay within an acceptable framerate for most of the time. In order to achieve this, we set things up in order to have the CPU frametime average at a certain level that will be equal or bellow what it takes to generate the target FPS. The GPU generate frames from data provided by your CPU. Ideally, you need the CPU frametime to be the same or lower than the GPU frametime in order to fully use the potential of your GPU. In this situation, you are GPU limited and it is what most of us experience in VR as it is very demanding to pump out all those pixels in such large amount. We tweak settings for countless hours in order to be in this situation where our GPU is being used to the maximum. At one point, you may increase the performance of your CPU by overclocking or upgrading but eventually, it is the GPU that will not keep up. At that point, not matter how low your CPU frame time is, the average FPS will not change much. If you experience very high peaks in your CPU frametime, then it might be helpful to consider an upgrade but It will not increase your GPU`s performance. It might give you a more stable framerate though. You have to analyze what is your particular situation by monitoring your CPU and GPU frametime. OpenXR toolkit (or fpsVR if using SteamVR) is a great tool for this. Understanding where your bottleneck is, will guide you as to where to tweek or adjust settings. Detailed framerate datad displayed by DCS can also help understand which setting or aspect of a particular mission is consuming too much CPU resources.

Can both parties come up with a joint statement that ED and RB actively work towards that destination or goal? Or better, that both organization see a path towards this goal? That would help to cool the situation nicely.

High refresh rate is useless unless your GPU can keep up. If not keeping up then you get stutters. Much better to select a refresh rate you can sustain by keeping your FPS matching and still have a bit of headroom. Why not set refresh at 90 hz and set "lock to half frame rate", this will provide a smoother experience. If you have a crystal and do not use the DFR, you are missing a good performance increase! If you are using sharpening in QVFR, using CAS in OXRTK is useless and just takes a bit of performance away. Only sharpening in QVFR, not the other way around. Also consider using QVRF to increase your resolution instead of using Pimax Play, you will get better performance and even can increase resolution higher in the focus area. Back to the subject, the idea is good but there are so many variations and hardware combinations, add to that all the different modules and terrains. Neverthelss, I am willing to participate. I already did a bit in the Pimax section : 8KX, 4090, i9-13900K, 64GB RAM DCS MT Textures High/Terrain texture High for Caucasus, Nevada and Middle-east Textures High/Terrain Low for other maps DLAA + DLSS Performance Shadow low or med for Caucasus, Nevada and Middle-east, else flat Water Med Clouds Ultra for Caucasus, Nevada and Middle-east, else standard. Keep off: Traffic, Heat blur, Lens flare, Secondary blur/shadows, SSAA, SSLR, SSAO, Aniso Filt., Cockpit Global Illumi., V-synch Forest visibility 100%, detail factor at 1.0 in Caucasus, Nevada and Middle-east, else 0.1 Scenery detail at 1 in Caucasus, Nevada and Middle-east, else 0.5 Preload at max LOD keep at 1 Gamma 1.3 (To reduce haze, must be used in conjunction with max backlit in pimax client) but for night mission, crank up. PD =1.0 Pimax Client Refresh 90hz Backlit 100% FOV Normal Render Quality 1.0 FFR off OpenXR Everything at off/default PimaxXR Enable quadviews Quadview I use the following config file: # These settings are for all headsets and applications smoothen_focus_view_edges=0.2 sharpen_focus_view=0.0 Turbo_mode=0 [Pimax Vision 8K X] # These settings are specific to Pimax 8K X devices. peripheral_multiplier=0.3 focus_multiplier=1.8 horizontal_focus_section=0.20 vertical_focus_section=0.25 Process Lasso For DCS, only use P-Cores + High priority class Pi_server, High priority class Additional tips and notes: Setup two saved settings in DCS: "Setting 1" for low demand maps, "Setting 2" for high demand maps. Acceptable AA option varies quite a lot from person to person. For me, using DLAA/DLSS combination is great and I do not mind the small smearing. Shadows can be improved a lot with mod "https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3329503/". Quadviews high res box (20% x 25%) may seems small but with the wide FOV of the 8KX, this will give you a resonable size with tremendous uplift in performance. In VR, clouds are a significant performance hit and horrible at any setting except tolerable at ultra setting. If you play a mission that has lots of clouds, you must keep ultra setting compromise elsewhere such as the "focus_multiplier" down to 1.4. in quadviews or lower HMD refresh rate. You always have to option to lower the HMD refresh rate to 75hz or 60hz and keep same settings on any scenario but for me, 75hz and 60hz cause some flickering sometimes. With these settings, you should get a super smooth experience with excellent clarity. If not, then your windows/BIOS/NVCP maybe the issue. A windows fresh install, though requiring lots of work, can cure a lot of performance problems. If you use 4 x memory sticks on an MSI mobo, make sure your BIOS is up to date as it can cause crashes because of the stress imposed by DCS on the memory controller. Keep overclocking low, the i9 13th gen will not be the bottleneck in your system.

Well this sounds pretty good. It is an indication that negociations are ongoing at least, and there is a path to solving the issue.

I used HWiNFO64, very good application to monitor system. It's free on top of it! (https://www.hwinfo.com/). To flash your firmware, got in your pimax client install directory in C:\Program Files\Pimax\Runtime, find and run dfu.exe. BTW, my blackouts came back and still haven't find what is causing it. I did find a way to get rid of it for a while by switching to upscale mode and back to native, then I have about 2-3 hours free of blackouts but it comes back eventually.

This is called banding. Try playing with your Gamma setting within DCS to find a sweet spot. I will not go away completely unfortunaltely. For me it is worst in low light or night missions.

Same issue, short and long distance plus astigmatism. I used to sim with my myopic and astigmatism correclted glasses, not short or pregressive, and thought it was fine. Then I got a pair of VR rock and the imporvement was significant both for comfort and sharpness. My HMD is pretty big and with a 15mm foam there is sufficient space for glasses but with the VR Rock it is so much more comfortable on long sessions. VR Rock was a good 130 bucks investment for me.

You should be using OpenXR instead of SteamVR but you will need to replace and possibly add a few things. First, you need to add OpenXR compatibility by using PimaxXR (https://github.com/mbucchia/Pimax-OpenXR/wiki). Next you should use OpenXRtoolkit, OXRTK for short, as it has plenty of features to enhance performance. Of note, Foveated rendering will not work from Pitool settings when using OpenXR but with OXRTK, you have that option and it works good. (https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/) For even better Foveated rendering performance, you can also use Quad Views rendering (https://github.com/mbucchia/Quad-Views-Foveated/wiki) instead of the OXRTK implementation. Quad views runs in the background along side to OXRTK. Read and follow cerfully all instructions and for settings, you can have a look at the Pimax section in the top of VR Forum for tips and recomended settings.

Finaly found the issue after noticing PCIe bus errors poping out. After geting some help from HWiNFO64, found out that the GPU was causing the bus errors. Truns out the card was ok but my riser cable was the issue. After plugging the GPU directly in the PCIe slot, no error anymore and no blackout in the 8KX, riser cable was damage.

After about 4-5 hours of sim, back to same problem with random blackouts. I will revert to 75hz and raise another ticket I guess.

I did test with an extra cable from my 5K Super to no different result. I installed the debug version, created a log and Raised a ticket. In less than 24hrs I received another firmware to flash. So far so good, 90hz is working fine and blackout free. Will test for a few more days...

A day later the issue was back Can't pinpoint the cause, might be a cable issue as suggested. Today it is working fine, plugged the two USB cables in my USB 3.2 Gen 2 sockets, might be a solution. Man, this is killing me!!! If it comes back, I will raise a support ticket.

I think I found the solution. Having the blackouts only at 90hz got me thinking it was somehow related to the increase demand to render at the refresh rate. My GPU can pump the frames pretty good and after monitoring power drainage from the GPU, it was still well below max capacity. Next was the HMD, could it be that it did not have enough juice? I then installed a powered USB 3.0 hub and connected the HMD USB 3.0 cable to it and Eureka! No more blackout! Played for several hours and no issues at all I can't say if it is my mobo that is not supplying enough to the HMD through its USB ports or the HMD having some losses because of a bad cable or deteriorating component but the problem went away.