St4rgun

The new patch with the F-15E is nice, with the following notes (MT, VR, SP only): the automatic exposure control still makes everything outside of the cockpit overexposed which is a pity especially on Sinai which is otherwise a nice desert map. In external view the colors are well defined and the visuals are perfect, but looking from the cockpit it's a washed out mess. I hope this overxposure will be cured really fast (at least turn it off / make it optional at last) the occassional visuals' freezing is still there which can last for 4-5 seconds, including blackout while the sound is playing fine. Very disturbing to experience it prior to a touchdown... Fortunatelly it happens really rare, but this was not existent in ST, looks like the game caches SOMETHING. Dear @BIGNEWY the previous bugs are core related and exist since the introduction of MT. It's really a shame now that we didn't got any usable feedback on those problems. Is this really so complicated? Is it really impossible for the devs to turn off the auto exposure control or make it optional as long as they're trying to fine tune it? Is this issue really so minimal that no one cares about is? I was really patient for months, but now I'm started to get angry...

IMHO the DLSS would be a MUST for VR, I have very high hopes in it. And @BIGNEWY said some time ago that he tested it (I assume in VR) and it was "surprisingly good". So an update on that status is eagerly needed.

The new patch with the Sinai map is nice, with the following notes (MT, VR, SP only): the Sinai map's detail is superb, but the crowded buildings further induce more shimmering when viewed from altitude, I'm now literally CRYING for DLSS... the night lighting is now correct for both eyes, working perfectly the automatic exposure control still makes everything outside of the cockpit overexposed which is a pity especially on Sinai which is otherwise a nice desert map. In external view the colors are well defined and the visuals are perfect, but looking from the cockpit it's a washed out mess. I hope this overxposure will be cured really fast (at least turn it off / make it optional at last) the occassional visuals' freezing is still there which can last for 4-5 seconds, including blackout while the sound is playing fine. Very disturbing to experience it prior to a touchdown... Fortunatelly it happens really rare, but this was not existent in ST, looks like the game caches SOMETHING.

Slow down, not so hurry, we should go step by step. First we should expect that today's patch will be indeed deployed TODAY. Everything else is after that

It's always good to read the fresh friday newsletters. But IMHO it would be nice to have them more structured by different topics like: aircraft module specific news map specific news campaign specific news sales news other server news core system / other module-independent subsystem specific news Now the last one is really missing for me, it would be advisable to have at least once a month (1 of each 4 newsletters) some status report about the ongoing core development (MT, VR optimization, DLSS, Vulkan). Last time the module independent subsystem topic was the report on the voice chat, more than a month ago (28th April newsletter).

Dear @BIGNEWY, it seems that this MT lighting bug is well known, the topic already exists here: You even replied there at 25th April (!), but this problem still persists in MT 2.8.5.40170 (actually it's a MT only bug), which makes MT unusable at night in VR. Would it be possible to iron this and the other freezing stutter bug out in the MT version this time? Thanks.

The problem still persists after the new OB patch (2.8.5.40170).

According to the night lighting: I don't know if it's already reported or not, but with MT version in SP the P51 Caucasus Batumi takeoff instant action (evening time) has weird lighting glitches in VR. The left / right visuals of the lights of Batumi's buildings are not in sync, plus the left eye lighting changes upon head movement. This bug doesn't exist in the ST version. I have no idea if it's plane / map related, I experienced this type of bug only on that map with this plane. Dear @BIGNEWY shall I make a new thread for this bug or is it enough?

For me in VR with the 2.8.5.40170 MT the general performance in SP is really good with nice, crisp visuals, thank you ED! Unfortunately rhe following issues are still persist, I hope they're at high priority to be corrected: very bad freezes (2-3 seconds), even with blackouts - they happen really rare (better than previous version), but this error was simply NOT EXISTENT before the MT version, extremely annoying the automatic exposure correction is the same as before, still ruining the visuals, - at least that should be changed to be optional ASAP if the fine tuning of this method would need much more time. Switch this "feature" off already, it's really bad! the clouds quality are the same as before (aliasing) By the way, any news on DLSS and Vulkan implementation?

This cloud aliasing problem seems to be totally neglected for me. There was some improvement at the end of last year but after that nothing has been changed. In VR some cloud layers are horribly aliased: check out the Mig-21 take off instant action mission on the Nevada map. With that sun position nearly ALL of the clouds are very ugly when flying above them. Really distracting, totally ruins immersion, even induces "cross eyed" feeling to watch them. Dear @BIGNEWY is there any plan to fix this cloud aliasing at once, or the fix is closely related to the incoming DLSS anti-aliasing technique and / or Vulkan implementation? Is there any reason that this massive bug is still untouched for years now?

Absolutely, it should be optional as it seems it can take some time to tune in the right settings. I did not make screenshots but it seems that those russian planes (like Mig21) where the cockpit is lighter blue rather than dark grey are more immune to this overexposure because of the "average" brightness of the whole scene, but in the Mi-8 it's worse because the cockpit is closed not only on the bottom but on the top as well.

That's pretty clear, but it's working worse than that right now. It would be preferable that (at least in VR) the center of the view should be weighted more when determining where we're looking at. Now it seems to be a simple average of the total view while preferring the darker instruments visibility. But in reality your eyes accomodate to the brightest incoming light, so for a better solution the cockpit should be underexposured when it's bright outside. Or make somehow two different exposures for the inside and the outside. Te problem with the current overexposure that it reduces contrast dramatically.

Dear @BIGNEWY, the question is still the same: is this in-cockpit overexposure thing being already reported in any form?

I hope that tuning of this feature will happen much sooner than the fine tuning of the clouds' aliasing...

Dear @BIGNEWY, is this in-cockpit overexposure thing in VR being already reported in any form? It's obvious that as soon as big part of the view (like the bottom one) is "blocked" by the "dark" cockpit the game thinks it's time to increase the exposure level of the outside world, which makes really highly overexposed, washed out outside without contrast. If using F2 external view - as the view is not "obstructed" partially by the dark canopy - the exposure returns to normal. This is very annoying especially on desert maps. Can this be corrected in such a way, that the outside world can be exposed differently as the cockpit?

Nope. For me in VR the best version is the previous (2.8.4.38947), with much less stutter, that's very smooth. This one is absolutely not.

May I ask the obvious: are you using MSAA? Because VR mask works ONLY when at least MSAA x2 is applied... I don't know why this is the case, but this "feature" is pretty old.

Now I managed to fly some free flight missions is SP. The butter is gone, welcome the stutter. Again. To be serious: I don't know what magic the devs did in the LAST OB (DCS 2.8.4.38947), but in VR with my system that was extremely smooth. I mean exceptionally smooth, even when looking sideways. The trees, buildings, everything moved like silk, with well defined, crisp contours. But THIS version is unfortunately back to the "good old DCS in VR" feeling: stuttering (mostly microstutters, which are NOT presented on the frame time graph at all) and the ugly "double vision like" motion of the objects when looking sideways causing a blurred mess. Normandy 2, Nevada, Caucasus, does not matter, the same old style. I even tried to switch off the terrain object shadows and tuned the water to low, but it is the same. Those settings were "DEFAULT" and "MEDIUM" with the previous build and even then was that super smooth. I'm really very sad. Please check out what happened in the deep of the engine between these two builds, because that was the key.

This version is definetely a solid step up from the previous state for me with OpenXR and G2. As I capped the framerate at 45 fps with OpenXR Toolkit now it's (mostly) very smooth at 45 fps even on the ground, which can dip to 35-38 fps when flying low and fast with a lots of buildings (minus Marianas, that map is....). The experience varies by the airplane (ie. the Fw-190 is really smooth on Caucasus instant action take off mission, so as the M-2000C). For me the NTTR seems to be changed slightly somehow, now it's really nice on visuals (maybe the lighting is different), the clarity is very pleasing and the performance is butter smooth. However I still experience some stubborn micro stutter here and there upon head movement in the cockpit, and some rare several seconds blackouts while the sound continues (without crash, the visuals also continues after 6-8 seconds). Overall this version in SP is really nice to fly, thanks ED very much! P.S: please hurry up on DLSS if possible, the shimmering in the distance is very distracting, not to mention the clouds aliasing... :)))

Try to use 90 Hz refresh rate with the G2 and use OpenXR Toolkit to limit the framerate there to 45 fps. It will be much smoother than if you let it go above that (like 60-70 fps i.e) if DCS can't sustain steady 90 fps (as it is now).

Before MT came out I used OpenXR @ 300% (!!!) with my G2. The clarity is MUCH better and the sweetspot is wider with those settings. But of course, that resolution is so huge, that I had to apply OpenXR Toolkit's FSR rescaler with 60%. With this combination the visuals were extremely good. Unfortunatelly this is not the case with the current OB (MT or ST doesn't matter), because these settings would give bad performance. Now I reverted back to "only" 100% and disabled FSR. That's why I'm eagerly waiting for DLSS to be able to properly upscale and have a nice, temporal anti-aliasing at the same time. I already asekd @BIGNEWY about the possibility of the early DLSS implementation, but I think he was too busy to answer.

As others wrote it's obvious that MT's performance graph is incorrectly states "CPU bound" in VR when in fact there's a GPU bound situation. This was misleading me also, but as I reduced my settings with the G2 back to 100% and capped the frames to 45 with OpenXR toolkit the current MT OB produces smooth visuals in SP for me (OK, there're some occassional hiccups as well, but not much). On the other hand I really miss the super crisp visuals and extended hotspot which I was able to get with 300% OpenXR and 60% FSR. This raises the question: @BIGNEWYis there any possibility that DLSS implementation could arrive in the near future? Because that would massively help in VR. I know that the devs are extremely busy with squashing MT bugs, but DLSS seems kinda important...

Nowadays when a new version comes in I only fire up an F/A-18 Marianas free flight mission to test a low altitude flyby over the island at high speed and look at the sides. Usually it takes 4-5 minutes to ensure, that it's still an unusable garbage stuttering mess in VR, so I ditch DCS until the next patch. I have no hopes now, literally months have passed only with the testing of the MT before "this state" which is right now a huge stepback for me in VR. If DLSS and Vulkan will be added at this rate this would take another YEARS to get the new and shiny EDGE which finally DELIVERS the performance in VR everyone's waiting for. It's a pity.

The easiest reproduction is to go into main menu in VR. As long as I get solid 90 fps in ST version and 75 fps with CPU bottleneck (main thread) with the MT version then not even starting any mission is neccessary.

What I simply can't understand that which part of the EDGE resuilts in 2D that only my 3090 GPU is the limit (GPU bottlenecked with 120 fps), while in VR (OpenXR) it becomes CPU bottlenecked on the MAIN THREAD (not the rendering thread) in a simple SP mission?!