Mack

Because I had to go through some gyrations to get SweetFX working in DCS World, and because this thread is the first hit I get when I Google "SweetFX for DCS World," I thought it would be great to post a tutorial on installing SweetFX for 64-Bit DCS World, which was part of my Mack's Quest for 60FPS in DCS World video series. Please note that the tutorial begins at 7:51 if you do click on the embedded video. Text instructions are as follows: "Having looked at DCS World Options and Catalyst Control Center for antialiasing, I now turn to an alternate antialiasing method, specifically SweetFX. This third party solution offers the promise of low-overhead antialiasing through SMAA and FXAA, as well as a variety of post-processing visual options such as sepiatone or technicolor—if you get the right version. There is a rather complicated thread on the EagleDynamics Forums that is confusing because it is so old and tangled, and the root post is not related to SweetFX anyway so in the end, I had to spend some time trying, failing, and wondering what I was doing wrong. I’ll lay out the steps to install and get SweetFX working here. First, go to this forum post ( http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4581604 ) and download SweetFX from the link provided just underneath the image of the folders. Second, unzip the folders into the Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/bin folder like so. The two SweetFX folders will be in the bin folder, and the Sweet_FX readme, preset, and settings files and the d3d9.dll and dxgi.dll files will be out among the loose files in the bin folder. Third, go into the SweetFX_x64 folder, and copy and paste d3d9.dll and dxgi.dll back out into the bin folder, overwriting and replacing the files that you initially put there. This is necessary because DCS.exe is a 64-bit executable, and thus requires 64-bit compatible .dll files for SweetFX to work. This was a major stumbling block for me. Once you have done this, you can go into the Sweet_FX Settings file with a text editor—I recommend Notepad++--and change the settings. As you can see there are two post-processing anti-aliasing options—SMAA and FXAA—and a scad of optical effects to be played with." Since I made this video, I have found that you can also install the more recent Version 1.5.1 SweetFX available at Guru3D ( http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=381912 ), and replace the two files from the SweetFX_x64 folder as shown above. If you want to install it in a JGSME fashion, place the folders in DCS World/_MODS/SweetFX64/bin/ Hopefully this will be of some help.

From the standpoint of wringing every last drop of performance from my system I would appreciate a pointer to any thread discussing methods for running a lean OS like Msalama mentions above. I am doing some extensive benchmarking and would like to see if it does me any good.

Curious about DCS World performance myself, I approached it in a different manner and found some interesting things:

A bit of a necro here, but this issue of resolution not having an effect on performance is not limited just to this newer AMD card, but older ones as well. Armed with an i7 2600K and a pair of HD7970s, I set out on a quest for 60FPS performance. While I saw a marked improvement dropping from 2560x1600, there was limited difference between 1920x1200 and 1680x1050. This tells me that DCS World is CPU-limited, which is probably no surprise to anyone here. I'll address some other strategies for chasing after my performance goals in Part 2, but my initial findings are here:

Just last week I was flying inverted to do BDA for a wingman right over the target and starved my engines, so it still happens.

It's been a while since I have posted, but I got a new setup and am pulling very good framerates with a single HD7970+i72600K at 4.8GHz. About 50-60FPS average at 2560x1600. Settings: Textures: High Scenes: High Civilian Traffic: High Water: Low Visibility: High (modded .lua per Kuky's thread) Heat Blur: On Shadows: High Single Monitor Resolution: 2560x1600 Cockpit Displays: 512 MSAA: 2x HDR: Warm Colors Clutter: 500M Trees: 9964M Preload: Max VSYNCH: On TSSAA: On Mirrors: Off However, what is most disappointing is that like with Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead--the OTHER game that I play a lot of--Crossfire performance is lacking. In my experience, in Kashauri Gap Multiplayer (with three ships): 1. Startup: AVG 57FPS with Single HD7970, 30FPS with Crossfired HD7970s 2. Taxi and Takeoff: AVG 43.5FPS with Single HD7970, 28FPS with Crossfired HD7970s 3. Flight to Fence In: AVG 57FPS with Single HD7970, 33FPS with Crossfired HD7970s 4. Fence In to Fence Out: AVG 54FPS with Single HD7970, 31FPS with Crossfired HD7970s Performance was immediately and noticably better with a single card, so my recommendation is certainly to avoid the expense unless you have titles that have benchmarked very well with a Crossfire setup.

I will never complain about the price of something I bought full price coming down later. If it was worth it then, at the price I bought it, it is still worth it now.

Same here on using the Nevada terrain as SWA. I know there has been discussion about how boring those theatres can be but if you go to YouTube you can hear some totally not boring radio chatter that gives the lie to that estimation.

First off, that is an amazing video made in the ARMA 2 game engine. Second, if zombies show up, I'm doing a gun run. That is all. :lol: Zombies are really the last demographic you can really hate without worrying about political correctness. Though there are problems there too...

Can you map keystrokes to buttons in the controller dialogue in windows? I notice your JASDF signature. If you're in Japan we should fly a sortie. I'm in Tokyo.

Well, Frostiken, if nothing else I drew out this information about how to try it more efficiently from MHE. I've been seeing that sometimes the patches change things--making some new methods possible, and other methods not.

You should be standing near one of those things (the ground based CIWS) when they go off. It's unreal. Then you get popcorn in the sky.

We're getting into the weeds here, but for sake of conversation, I'll throw in. In the game, If you can reasonably bring the ship home, why wouldn't you? If for nothing else to practice landing in adverse conditions. The hog has a zero zero ejection seat so even if things turn bad you have a chance of escape. In real life, ditching a ship involves paperwork and explaining yourself. Very distasteful business I bet.

Had a chance to try Excessive Headspace's tutorial on multiple JDAM drop, and I'm happy to say it still works with the new patch. Targets served!

I'm good with LGBs, and CCIP is good as long as I do it right. Next up, CCRP with dumb bombs. Talk like this helps.

Well put. :lol: The environmental officer would probably still prefer an environmental impact estimate first, though, in any case.

I've seen a bird in that same condition flying with both engines on fire leaving a smoke trail miles long. Of course a MP server bug where the platform was not depopulated but still fun to take a screenshot of. Or maybe the flying Dutchman of the DCS universe?

I can't see fuel jettison, or much less ordnance jettison, as accepted practice short of major problems.

My brakes haven't lit up yet! :)

I actually started hitting the brakes harder once I saw how short the AI hogs stop on landing.

I mean, yeah, jeez, if it replicates the C2 functions of a modern US Army Brigade or Division Current Ops complete with Blue Force Tracker, Shadow or other UAV feed, etc, and the ability to direct land forces, and share information with A-10s, that would be an incredible addition to the experience. I was just thinking of a relatively simple set of eyes on the ground. That addresses another leg of the triangle: Air platforms, ground platforms, C2 node. Kylania: That's good news. I haven't seen what you're talking about yet but it's good to know that it's out there. There's a particularly great mission of that sort being discussed over at SimHQ, bit ultimately that's scripted, not actual.

Yeah, being able to put out marks on the deck would seem necessary. Then you could say "East of my yellow smoke" or whatever. Add to that basic function lasing and uploading target data to SADL and I think that would be enough. Then, the JTAC has to have mobility to get line of sight on targets. Preferably in an environment where enemy platforms are actively pursuing their own goals and can kill the JTAC if they can. Against character I'm allowing myself to be hopeful. I just noticed the bad typing on the last message I wrote. Doing this from a phone is tough.

I hate getting into discussions about future products and considered myself lucky to have come upon A-10C as a release product because there's always so much anticipation. That said, I have to say I'm excited about the prospect of human JTAC. My feeling is that--and this is based on personal experience, having been a customer for CAS (attack helicopter not fixed wing) and having heard the air-ground piece a time or two on the net--our experience is quite sterile. In the sim the JTAC gives us a red triangle, we execute, then after that we orbit and look for targets and call the JTAC again and get a target which we prosecute--if we have the means, from 20,000 feet. That's one reality of modern air to ground. The other reality is a rather difficult to simulate affair. The A-10 is about CAS. And CAS ultimately has a human factor in it that involves an Army or Marine element requesting effects to support an operation or get an element out of danger by eliminating a threat. All this in a world where ground units are in play. Until that can happen the experience will be somewhat lacking. So, I'm excited about the prospect of human interaction with the environment in a movable platform that can find and send target information. I remember my first time seeing elements on the battlefield attack each other by rocket artillery. It was especially exciting.

Performance in certain multiplayer environments seems spotty as regards stability. During the 104th Fly In, both the Stallturn server and the 104th server were highly susceptible to crashes, whether with 6 ships or 20, seemed to crash very often. In single player, no issues. I can't say whether there's a better or worse FPS output.

P-38. I have loved the idea of a P-38 as a WWII era A-10. But really, from the standpoint of platforms for the modern battlefield, I'd like to see either an Apache (overdone, I know), or the Toad.