Aluminum Donkey

I had the same problem the first time I loaded the sim, but subsequent loading times are very fast even on my older machine. My system specs are below, but I'm using a 64GB pagefile. I have Windows 10 and the pagefile.sys on C drive (960 EVO NVMe) and DCS itself is on a separate SATA SSD. AD

There are many new options for upscaling now that are a lot better than SSAA, which was a major performance hog. If you use an Nvidia graphics card try DLSS at the highest quality setting, but there are others. Personally, I find that MSAA at 4x is really the only thing that takes the annoying jagged edges out. Make sure Multi-Frame Antialiasing (MFAA) is set to ON in your graphics driver--it will work better. All of the AA and Upscaling features cause clouds to appear rough and nasty near the horizon, though. It's too bad because that was something I was really hoping they'd fix, but I guess not. AD

Hakami, It's often the case that DCS will crash with factory overclocked graphics cards. If you're using a GPU that is overclocked, downclock it and see if it helps. It used to do it with my 1080 Ti at ~2000 MHz.

Wow, I haven't posted to this thread in a while. Surprised to see that the Typhoon hasn't been released yet. My new RTX 3070 will probably be obsolete when it gets released AD

I remember buying my 240GB SSD just for DCS. That oughta to be enough! Pffffft AD

Woohoo! I poked around with changing the time zone and now it works again! Oh man, 2.8 Open Beta is just too gorgeous with my new RTX 3070. Runs nice and fast with ALL details cranked up! No stutters, no BS. Sheer badassery! I have yet to try a heavier mission with a lot going on, but I bet it will rock AD

I reset my time, and STILL can't log in. What a pain in the arse. AD

Ok, I know there are faster used cards out there but I got a 3070 today. So far it's a screamer in just about everything compared to the 1080 Ti, although reviews and such claim otherwise. It's really nice! Unfortunately I can't log in to DCS! I updated to 2.8, and it won't let me log in. Error, cannot find saved login (500) or something like that. Looks like it's gonna take some muffing around. Oh well... AD

Greetings everyone, My 1080 Ti (11GB) packed it in on me a while back, and I'm wondering if anyone has luck with the RTX 3070 (8GB). I like to run DCS at 60 FPS constant, and have all the graphics detail maxed out. The 1080 Ti was barely capable, but did the trick. The 3070 looks much more capable (5888 CUDA cores!), but has 3GB less memory. The memory is fast though, it's GDDR6 with almost the same bandwidth as the 1080 Ti. I'm running a single screen at 2560 x 1440. I don't want to have issues with stuttering due to insufficient VRAM. Does 8GB seem like enough? I guess I could just buy it and try, but I'd still like to hear from other people using these rather powerful cards with 8GB. Thanks! AD

Good luck getting any sleep with all those crazy mofos flying MiG-29s up and down the street all day and night AD

RTX 3080 Ti is an absolute monster. If that doesn't do it, nothing will. Enjoy your crazy electric bill and stifling-hot gaming room AD

Thing about DCS is that even beast GPUs are really marginal. No, I wouldn't expect good performance from a 1080 Ti while running 3440 x 1440. It's decent for 2560 x 1440, but not 3440. If you're going to go with a higher resolution than 2560 x 1440, you'll need a much heftier graphics card, maybe an RTX 3080 or better--IF you can find one, much less afford it AD

Looks good except for the graphics card, the GTX 1080 is pretty marginal for DCS. It's not half bad, but I wouldn't call it mid-range. By today's standards, a 1080 Ti (11GB) can be considered mid-range for DCS. AD

This is a TERRIBLE time to buy computer hardware, especially just for gaming. The new CPUs and motherboards look decently priced, but graphics cards and DDR5 prices are beyond insane. My trusty old GTX 1080 Ti just crapped out a couple months ago, so I'm not flying any DCS for a VERY long time now--possibly many years, if at all. Big waste of money for the software, but I certainly am not in a position to drop $2,000 just for a graphics card! Just use your old hardware, the new stuff is ridiculously expensive for what this stuff is--it's just consumer products for entertainment. AD

I'm still think 2.7 is down-scaling the resolution as you get closer to the horizon, making things look chunky with MSAA. I'm sure there's a workaround, I just haven't stumbled across it yet. Until then it's SSAA. AD

It's not a patch, it's already in the sim and always has been. Options==> Special==> Ka-50==> Customized Cockpit AD

That sounds all right. I get better framerates with MSAA 2x, or even 4x, than I do with SSAA 1.5. But, the MSAA options give me 'chunky' clouds and blocky features near the horizon, and that sucks. MSAA 4x actually does a better job of removing the crawlies from ground features than SSAA, which is what I want--but, the chunkies suck. Hooted if you do, hooted if you don't AD

SSAA *and* MSAA on a 4K display? Are you getting 13 FPS with an RTX 3090? Kidding aside, DCS 2.7 seems to drastically reduce graphical detail as you look closer to the horizon. This means that near cities, airports etc. the "crawling" effect on edges of roads, buildings etc. gets really, really bad no matter what your display resolution is. It seems to be a desperate attempt to claw and scratch for higher framerates. I use a 2560 x 1440 display and the crawling is awful without MSAA. It really sucks, because everything else looks so good now and runs well even on my older rig (spex 'n sig) and on the few occasions I actually fly a mission in DCS anymore, it's a distracting drag. I'm certainly glad they fixed the yellow/black flashing bug and the propeller flickering, though. That *really* sucked. Unfortunately, the smoke/fire effect flashing & glitching seems to be back, and firing cannons at ground targets or using cluster bombs is giving atrocious framerate drops again. It's how DCS has always been-fix one thing, break a few others AD

You're asking a bunch of stuff the answers to which are probably classified out the wazoo, so if anyone on this gaming forum could answer them with any meaningful accuracy, they'd probably have to kill you afterward DCS World is for the entertainment of the unwashed masses. It's safe to say that it's a pretty convincing representation of what you're up against when trying to fly a military aircraft, but worrying/speculating about how "accurate" it is, especially with regards to very fine, specific details, is little more than groping in the dark. GPS guided weapons such as a GBU-38 seem to get within a few meters of the targeted location most of the time when using the pod. That's probably all right for a game. Laser guided ones do better than that, which they certainly should, just as in real life. DCS is an absolutely insanely complex piece of software for a bloody video game, it's a convincing representation of military aircraft for those who will never fly the real thing never mind become intimately familiar with its systems, and it's an incomplete, buggy mess and probably always will be. But a military-grade training simulator, it is certainly not! AD

F/A-18 Hornet is highly recommended! The targeting pods are fun, it can use a wide variety of weapons, and it's modeled in great detail as far as systems go. Unlike the A-10, it doesn't fly like a slug and has great handling when it's light--but, it's not nimble or even supersonic when heavily loaded with weapons for A2G missions. Keep in mind that all these modules are a perpetual work-in-progress, but if you want to try your hand at a really cool module that shows what DCS systems modelling is capable of, check out the Hornet! The A-10C II is also a great module as far as systems and weapons go, but it flies like a lead cow AD

Airacobra, I had this exact thing happen, here was the only real fix for me: 1) un-install graphics driver with DDU 2) reboot and allow Windows Update to choose and install a graphics driver (if you have auto-updates disabled, then use Windows Update to select and install a graphics driver--don't download one and install it yourself!) 3) Reboot again, and install the newest Nvidia driver if you want over the old one, without using DDU (highly recommended.) Use a "clean install" in the graphics driver itself (check box.) 4) Reboot and try sim. There are only certain graphics drivers that can be installed first on a clean system. You have to use Windows Update to choose them for you--you can't just pick any one and expect it to always work right when you install it. Only after it has been installed can you then reboot and install the latest one on top of the old one (no DDU.) Worked well for me, my performance in DCS is now great! It was a stubborn booger to sort out, and this is how I did it. Remember: Use Windows Update to install the first driver after cleaning out your system with DDU, and THEN install the latest driver. AD Doing all that will drive you bananas. Check my previous post to see how to take care of it. AD

I don't use Geforce Experience, but I've had really good luck with 471.96. It runs great and has no crashes, and I got pretty used to crashing with 471.68! Highly recommended driver update! Just make sure you delete your fxo and metashaders 2 folders, as well as deleting your DirectX cache (in Disk Cleanup) after updating your graphics driver. It's just a good idea. Both Windows and DCS will re-generate the required files with the new driver. AD

I've noticed it with Mavericks as well, especially the IR Maverick. The IR version absolutely will not lock on anything. I wonder if it's something that somebody else has solved? C'mon ED, it's a big-time module, fix all this already! How hard could it be? AD

Anyone else finding it hard to locate much of anything with the pod? I find the display gives very poor contrast. Even in white or black mode it's almost impossible to find tanks etc. because the display is very washed out. Know issue? Work in progress? Thanks AD

I have my paging file (32 GB) on my NVMe drive as well. That probably helps. What graphics settings did you change to get a large improvement in FPS? AD