Aluminum Donkey

That's not right. 418.81 should work perfectly with your GTX 1080 Ti. It's an excellent driver and does a mighty fine job supporting FreeSync. Did you uninstall the old driver with DDU and do a complete, fresh install of the new driver? AD

Looks like a great system for DCS! Good choice of CPU and graphics card. A couple things: The CPU is a K-type, which can be easily overclocked. Make sure you get a motherboard that supports overclocking. Make sure you get an NVMe SSD, some M.2 drives are only SATA drives (slow) and not true NVMe (very fast). If you've never run DCS from an NVMe drive before, you'll love it, it makes loading times much more merciful :) If by "good" FPS you mean the 200-300+ FPS that shooter gamers like to mouth off about, no, it won't even come close, and nothing will :) Expect maybe 40 FPS minimum at all max settings over very built-up areas, usually higher than that, which is still fine for flight simming. With the new Nvidia drivers out, I *highly* recommend using a FreeSync monitor, because the 418.81 Nvidia driver works great with FreeSync. G-Sync/FreeSync is adaptive refresh, and flight sims are really nice with it enabled--nice, smooth, lifelike motion, even at lower framerates (under 40) instead of the jittery, un-even motion/stutter-fest you normally get, even at higher framerates. Power supply--don't be one of those idiots that buys a 1200W PSU for a one-CPU, one-card gaming rig :) Probably 500-600W is fine and there's no advantage to going drastic overkill just for mouthing-off rights. The new graphics cards use less electricity than older ones. AD

Greetings all, I've noticed that DCS World's ground scenery textures are blurry in the distance and at high altitudes. In other words, they lose detail with distance. I notice that it's worse these days than it used to be in the past. I'm using an 11GB graphics card (1080 Ti) and DCS barely uses half my VRAM most of the time, and only about 8-10GB of my 16GB system memory. I'd like to get more use out of my VRAM and make DCS look nicer :) What files do I edit to increase the detail level of the ground textures? I run all high settings (with Extreme visibility distance) and still find the ground textures blurry. I'm noticing it in everyone else's vids, too. Thanks, AD

It's a simulator. You get rid of them every time you feel like it :) In reality, especially during peacetime, pilots bring the empties back because they're re-usable, and expensive (about 100 thousand bucks just for a bloody gas tank!) When engaging enemy aircraft, you drop the tanks (even if there's gas left in 'em) because the reduced weight and drag improves your flight performance. AD

SSD=good :) You could get more bang for your buck with your existing CPU by just getting a used motherboard that allows overclocking. You also need to double up on your memory (you can buy faster RAM and/or overclock it too.) With the GTX 980 you can run moderate settings and it'll perform rather well. What you mostly need is more memory, not a whole new rig. Time to hit Ebay and look for used stuff--it'll perform much better for minimal bread spent with those two upgrades. Also--put your Windows pagefile.sys on the SSD. Just that one drive, and leave it on System Managed. AD

Sorta a dumb question, but I'm curious. What input device resolution (flight stick, rudder, throttle) does DCS work with? I'm using Leo Bodnar's BU0836A control board with my laboriously overhauled TM Cougar, which has 12-bit (4096) analog axis resolution. What does DCS World make use of with regards to flight control resolution? AD

They call them 'impostors' and they're kinda a classic 3D gameworld feature. If they aren't there, there's no way to tell what's going on at a distance, and turning them on/off should at least be an option. AD

If it makes you feel better, I can't recall a recent time where I've flown ANY combat mission in DCS without getting hosed! :) Now that I have a good rig all working nicely, I often just fly it around like a civilian sim and admire the scenery :) AD

Pull the stick back :)

Your CPU looks good, it's overclockable and might easily go 4.0 GHz or more--good for DCS. You need twice as much memory--16GB is good, some people say more is better. That's a BIG reason why you're getting stuttering. DCS uses lots of memory, especially with only a 4GB graphics card (Windows uses some of your system memory as if it were graphics memory when you run out). The regular GTX 980 is very marginal--not really suited at all for DCS World 2.5+. Get a GTX 1060 6GB as the *absolute bare-bones minimum*. 8GB card (1070 or higher) is best. An SSD is an absolute *must* for DCS--regardless of system specs, it's going to stutter like crazy trying to run off a hard disk. SATA 3 is good, a fast NVMe drive is best, but your older mobo probably won't support one, so SATA 3 it is. AD

Definitely working great with my FreeSync monitor! I can now let my PC sleep, and when I wake it up, G-Sync/FreeSync is still working! Woohoo! It's so nice in flight simming, I wish they had done this years ago. I'm keeping a copy of this driver for old times' sake just in case they break it with a new one :) Anyway, if anyone is having problems, I'm running my monitor with the default Windows 10 monitor driver (says "Generic PnP Monitor" in Device Manager) if that helps any. I suppose I could try the HP Omen driver, but why bother? Everything's working great now, Imma leave it alone for now :) I'm not even sure why monitors have drivers... So it's confirmed, 418.81 is killa :thumbup: Peace and happy warfare AD

Greetings! For those of you using Freesync monitors, I'm having much better luck now with 418.81. The old version (417.71) was buggy and G-Sync would disable when the monitor went to sleep; this one seems good :) It doesn't seem to disable G-Sync by itself anymore, and has kept working overnight. Still testing but so far so good. Woohoo! :thumbup: Couple things in mind, I disabled all the goofy Nvidia trash in Task Scheduler, such as the 5 or so Nvidia Telemetry tasks. I'm also using the default Windows 10 monitor driver, not the HP one that's for my monitor (HP Omen 32") so it just shows up in Device Manager as "Generic PnP Monitor". All's good so far--give 418.81 a try! DCS World is delightful just to fly around with adaptive refresh--no little stutters, just nice fluid movement. AD

You can just use any cheap old USB game controller and cannibalize it for the circuit board. Graft your rudder pedal axis (and toe brakes if equipped) in place of the game controller's stick axes/triggers/levers/etc. etc. etc., other end goes into USB port, and you're good to go. Might even have some axes and buttons left over for other stuff :) AD

Yep, seems to work well with DCS World (and other stuff too.) AD

Awesomeness :) So glad it worked for you. Does your G-Sync always stay working, or does it quit when your monitor sleeps? I don't like leaving the backlight on all the time when I'm not using my machine, so I let the monitor sleep after 10 mins. or so. When I wake it up, G-Sync doesn't work and I either have to change resolutions back and forth or restart the GPU to get it working again. Pain in the arse! Actually, I had a 'real' G-Sync monitor a few years ago that did the same thing! Advice from Nvidia was "don't let the monitor sleep"!! As you can guess, I was right bloody miffed about that! AD

Possibly, the Proland videos look just like DCS World, complete with 3 zillion identical trees :) AD

100% in-house, IIRC. AD

I've noticed this a lot with the battle.miz mission for the Ka-50, which has a huge number of both allied and enemy ground units zipping around busting caps at each other like a "ground furball". Neither my CPU or graphics card are at full load, but the framerates stink and there's lots of hitching :) It also doesn't use up anywhere near all of my VRAM (11GB) or system RAM (16GB). So, it's probably a simulation engine limitation, or a DirectX11 limitation. AD

You have to enable it in your monitor first. Hunt through the monitor's settings with the buttons and make sure FreeSync is turned on, sometimes it's hidden in there somewhere. Mine was a little obscure. Then, you can enable it in NVCP. For DCS World, enable VSync in the NVCP. I find it works better than using VSync in the sim Options menu. It only clamps your framerate--that's it, it doesn't do anything below the max refresh rate. That's what G-Sync is for. When it's working right, the motion in DCS World is *incredibly* smooth and fluid--like real flight :) It's a real delight and nothing else is quite like it. That's why I think it's a shame that G-Sync is so finicky, usually turning off when the monitor goes into sleep mode and not turning back on unless you restart the graphics card, or switch resolutions back and forth in NVCP. But, so be it. Peace :pilotfly: AD

No. DCS World 2.5.x is only DirectX 11. ED is working on implementing Vulkan. Give it, oh, maybe 1 to 3 years, maybe more. It's a whole re-write of the core graphics engine and all the shaders, and that kind of thing takes forever and a week. AD

If bang for the buck is what you need, stick with AMD stuff. Get the best AMD card you can afford. Nvidia & Intel = better performing AMD = better value (CPUs and graphics cards) Been that way for years. AD

I doubt it has anything to do with your airspeed. The F/A-18 probably has more triangles to render and more "stuff" going on under the hood, being a much newer module, and hasn't been refined as much as the A-10C, which is a highly-developed, mature module. So, the F/A-18 is harder on your gear because your machine has more to chew on to get it to run :) AD

That's good, Starforce has been a pain in everyone's arse for as long as I can remember. Dang, change the brand of socks you wear or try a different kind of beer, and the stupid shyte detects a hardware change and starts acting up. AD

Are you running it off a hard disk? Or are you using an SSD? SSD is an absolute must for DCS World. A fast NVMe drive is great, although a SATA SSD should still be pretty good. I fairly recently got an NVMe drive, and loading times are merciful in 2.5.4 OB, but still no screaming hell. I guess DCS just has an awful lot of shyte to shovel when loading missions. I remember when I got my cheap SATA SSD and DCS 1.5 would load in the blink of an eye :) AD

Gotta try that with the cows, time for a barbecue :) AD