Mr_sukebe

200GB, cue the gnashing of teeth by some. Pre-emoting the noise, if you haven’t already, get yourself at least a 2TB SSD. In the context of the amount of money we spend on DCS, it’s modules and the hardware to control and run it, they’re not expensive.

Yeah, that is a bit weird. Several in Belgium though. I'd love to see some French airfields. One option would be temporary field FARPS on a good sized road. That would work with at least the Harrier, Viggen and maybe F1

That's a great starting point. Other elements worth practicing: Autorotation landing without power Sling loading Landing onto small pads Combat landing (i.e. ingress at high speed, then scrubbing that speed off followed by a fast landing) Landing in tricky windy conditions Landing on a moving pad (e.g. helicopter pad on a ship) Combining the ship landing with nasty wind conditions Flight in poor visibility Landing from high altitude by a fast descent into an LZ Recovery from deliberately induced vortex ring state The Huey was my first DCS module, and I loved learning how to fly it.

In the menu for the AB9, should I be using Direct?

Thanks, didn't know that.

Will they be the same files? Yes Will it perform the same? Not necessarily As I understand it, a clean new install will nicely lay down files into logical groupings, meaning that sequential reads and similar are really quick. As time goes on, and files are replaced with patches and similar, Windows will free up space from the "old" files, and then dump the new files onto the drive. Windows might well place that data in a different area of the drive, meaning that a sequential data read might go 1, 2, 3, oh hang on 4 has been replaced, let me go find it, then back to continue 5, 6. With SSDs, that delay should be massively less than with say a HDD, but it'll still exist.

Can I please suggest that you take a scan here:

Is this only for the F1CE? Apologies, had a quick look yesterday, and couldn't see much about it.

I'm getting a level of FFB with all DCS modules using "telemetry". Ref full support, I did read that ED recently acquired an AB9, which would allow them to start working on "direct". Probably going to be a while before that's not just up and running, but also fully mature.

Can I please suggest that you take a look here:

Not supported? I did think that NL had stated that ED would support going forward. As for the Harrier, you’re missing out by not flying it. It’s still one of my favourite modules.

Nope, running stock, not even with an overclock. According to task manager, my GPU usage is typically under 70% even at 72fps. My view being that having headroom is a good thing, for when things get more busy. If anything, my 7800x3d seems to be more likely to max out. So overclocking only to have even more headroom seems a little pointless. Maybe if I had a 9800x3d

I'm now getting lot of 72fps with a similar setup. Just been out to play in the Apache. Just wow.

is that correct and confirmed by multiple people? If so, that’s both very interesting and awesome

Nice! How much?

+1 I saw a 50% improvement in FPS when moving from a 9700 to a 7800x3d, and that was in VR. It's worth bearing in mind that upgrading the CPU will need a new motherboard. Whilst that adds costs, it does mean that you'll also get faster data transfers through the use of PCIE5 and similar. It all helps.

My guess is that in real life, different pilots will have their own preferences for seat height, and even that may vary inflight, eg higher during landings. Personally I have the move views keyboard buttons mapped for every aircraft such that it’s easy to change.

Spits generally didn’t need to because there wasn’t much left to shoot down. If there had been, chances are that more mk14s would have been built.

Some additional thoughts:

Within this thread/post, I'm hoping that we can collate a set of thoughts/guidance/advise for DCS users to assist with their system optimisation. Such that instead of having to repeatedly state the same things to people with questions who were unable to find guidance using the search, that we can direct them to a single thread. In particular, the opening post will collate things, and I'm hoping that others will add useful recommendations that I can merge into the opening post, so please do assist. DCS Systems requirements, when compared to other apps and managing your expectations: Most of the flight sims out there work best with well above average resources, when compared to say your average games. This is very much true of DCS, which is at the bleeding edge of what is currently possible DCS does seem to attract users who are highly engaged, both with the amount of time to invest in playing and also their focus for how to spend their hard earned spondoolies Players want the best eye candy possible, and that's what ED are trying to provide. Taking into account that DCS probably has some of the highest investment in PC equipment capabilities, that's a lot of eye candy. When scaling into VR, that same PC has to work MUCH harder than with a monitor. So as part of managing your own expectations, be aware that you're never going to be able to run DCS in VR with the same levels of eye candy as someone using a monitor If you want the "best" kit for DCS, as of April 2025, look here: Fastest CPU for DCS = AMD9800x3d Fastest GPU for DCS = Nvidia 5090 GPU recommended VRAM = 16GB. DCS can now show the level of VRAM usage, as well as the amount reserved (which is what is shown in Windows Task Manager). I've yet to see above 13GB of VRAM Recommended RAM for DCS = 64GB. In single player I've seen usage of up to 50GB in total. I've yet to see a requirement above 64GB. Having said that, we now have 96GB becoming an option. If I were looking to help with future proofing, I'd personally now buy 96GB Nvidia vs AMD. Right now, IMO, advantage sits with Nvidia, primarily because DCS supports the updated DLSS super-sampling and DLAA capabilities, as introduced within DLSS4. It's a big help. AMD may catch up with their recently introduced hardware capability that provides something similar to DLSS, but it's not yet supported by DCS we don't know how it will compare to the Nvidia solution Storage. A full install of DCS (i.e. all terrains and modules) requires just over 1TB of space. In addition there is space needed for the Saved Games folder, which can be pretty big if you have a lot of liveries and mods. The Saved Games folder does not need to be on the same drive as the DCS install. My current recommendation is a good NVME2 SSD of at least 2TB Motherboard. You may wish to ensure that any new motherboard supports at least PCIE4 and possibility PCIE5. This influences the data transfer between the CPU, GPU and storage External power for USB. If you have or intend to use a number of USB controllers, be aware that they'll all suck power. Individually, might not be much, but it WILL add up. My recommendation is to buy an external USB powered hub. It's quite easy to find ones that support upto 60w each System Configuration: Windows Try to minimise bloatware. There's plenty of guides around, but a good starting point is to look in Start Up and disable anything that you don't need in DCS Familiarise yourself with the use of Taskmanager. Be aware that you can for example drill into CPU usage by core. By default that simply shows a summary of all cores and their usage. DCS is multi-threaded and sometimes uses some cores more than others. If one of your cores is maxed out, you have a CPU bottleneck. It's also a reasonable way to identify if your GPU is maxed out Mouse polling rates. High mouse polling rates can seemingly influence micro-judder (i.e. little stop/starts, regardless of a good frame rate). The impression I was given being that a high mouse polling rate loads the PC, and especially so if there's a lot of USB devices connected. For my Logitech G502, the default polling rate was 1000/second. Reducing that to 125 made a significant improvement to smoothness As per normal with Windows, using it, or leaving it running for a number of hours can result a build up of peripheral tasks that suck up resources without being obvious. If you're intending to go for a long flight after a hard days work at the same PC, it's prudent to conduct a system restart Anti-virus. This is clearly going to be dependant upon which AV you use. A number of DCS users (me included) have at points experienced issues with our AV either: Calling out certain files as trojans. I've yet to see an issue with a file distributed by ED Insisting on checking files before using them. This can turn into a big issue if the files in question are say textures which need to be loaded from your NVME SSD. If your AV decides that it's going to run a check on said texture file, that can result in massive cuts to FPS. My solution for both of the above was to deliberately exclude my AV from sanity checking the folder that has DCS installed into. GPU drivers. Keep an eye on driver releases, but also check in the forums. New drivers can sometimes improve visuals/frame rates, but not always for DCS. Check in the forums for feedback is my recommendation USB Hubs. By default, Window's have these configured for "power saving". In practice, that means that some USB hubs on your motherboard will go sleep if not used for a while. This can include the USB hub that you might have a VR headset linked to. If you have issues, open Device Manager, navigate to the USB Hubs and disable power saving mode Nvidia DLSS4. DCS does NOT as yet support frame or multi-frame generation. DCS does support DLSS upsampling and DLAA (anti-aliasing), which were both introduced on RTX20 series cards. If you have an RTX20 series or newer, your GPU supports the current DCS enabled functionality. Be aware that by default, the Nvidia GPU drivers currently use a fairly old "preset" for DLSS. Newer versions are being introduced and presets from "K" onwards had some serious Nvidia magic sprinkled on them. To action, there are guides around on how to use NVPI (Nvidia Profile Inspector) to take advantage of this Related Applications: You may be using MSI Afterburner, or Tacview. Both make calls to retrieve data within Windows, or DCS respectively. It has been identified that both of these can result in stutter as a side-effect of the calls. Disabling of these and re-testing is a way of checking if they are causing impact DCS install: Do download the Skatezilla DCS App. Above all, it facilitates very easy updates to DCS, along with Repairs (both simple and full) Ensure you have enough storage space (see earlier) DCS updates. I consider it good practice to empty both the FXO and Metashaders folders (both in the Saved Games folder) after EVERY DCS, or GPU driver update. Apparently, post a DCS update, the files in those folders are recreated and simply added to the existing files. The result can be a folder with a LOT of files that are not being used. This can slow DCS down. Be aware that when you first next jump into a map/aircraft, that DCS will need to create them again, so will chug a little for a few mins. Post that, it'll run much better DCS Settings. Key settings that standout for me as being most important in VR: Textures - These are for the aircraft. Set them high if you have VRAM available. If you're struggling on VRAM, set to medium or low Terrain Textures - Set them high if you have VRAM available. If you're struggling on VRAM, set to low Civ Traffic - Off (these use a lot of CPU) Heat Blur - Off Shadows - Flat Res of Cockpit displays - 1024 (lower looks awful) Upsampling - If your card supports DLSS Quality, give it a try Anti-Aliasing - My opinion is that DLAA is awesome. Sorry can't comment on the AMD equivalent Lens Effect - Off Clouds - Ultra. Lower seems to result in weird artefacts in VR Scenery Details Factor - This influences the detail that you see on say a building. Personally I've maxed it out Pre-load radius - I tend to run it at around 45%. I used to have issues with performance on cranking that up. Turning this setting from 45% to 100% can add circa 1GB of VRAM usage Vsync - Off Full Screen - Ticked VR - General: OpenXR is now the preferred format. I'm unaware of any use cases that would now support the use of OpenComposite Some users prefer using Virtual Desktop, which supports connection to the headset via Wifi. Personally I use link cable, which eliminates the potential for wi-fi interference Virtual Desktop does seem to have advantages in reducing "smear" of moving objects within VR, and has "similar" visual quality overall to a link cable. Do ensure that if you're going to use Virtual Desktop that you have a fast Wifi router somewhere nearby. There's plenty of guides on using VD, so I won't repeat detail here The initial view you get on loading into DCS in VR is of the inside of a hangar. That's very nice, but also takes up circa 2GB of VRAM that is not released. If you're a bit short of VRAM (and for those of us without a 5090, that's not many of us), there is a solution in a mod called Empty VR Hangar, which is available via the DCS user files. Install that, and the hangar is replaced with ...nothing, just blackness. Very easy way to recover some VRAM. I'm hoping that at some point, there will be a tick-box within DCS to select the option of nothing Quad views. A chap clearly a lot smarter than I (Mbucchia) created an App called Quad Views, which I believe works with a number of VR headsets. It's a VERY clever piece of software that retains full resolution of the centre of your display in VR, whilst deliberately lowering the visuals outside of that central area. This can make a SIGNIFICANT saving in PC resource usage and therefore enhancement to frame rate. There's plenty of guides around on where to find it, how to install it etc. If your VR headset has Eye Tracking, that's even better as it facilitates reducing the area at full resolution even more Oculus: By default, Oculus show a "home" on powering up their headset in PCVR mode. This also happens to use circa 2GB of VRAM. Within the menu options of your Oculus software there is a option to disable it. It's worth doing Oculus Tray Tool (OTT). This is tool created several years ago, that for a while I thought was defunct. It's not. It allows the easy setting of: Supersampling in VR. I've seen all sorts of recommendations. I'm currently using x1.25, but play to your hearts content Bandwidth usage via Linkcable. The max = 960bps and is what I use Setting resolution. This is the upscaling used. In rough terms, the recommendation I've read that seems to work is to set the horizontal to double the resolution of each eye screen for your VR headset. For example, my Quest Pro has a resolution of 1800 pixels per eye, so my resolution is set at 3600 (it'll auto-calculate the vertical resolution) Pimax/HP: Please see Marky's thread, which has some good recommendations. Please do add recommendations/updates as you find them and I'll try to maintain this opening post. Troubleshooting: There's a reason why this troubleshooting section is at the bottom of this post, i.e. that it's prudent to have investigated the above BEFORE digging around further, as some of these may well rectify your performance issues. VRAM. All GPUs have a finite level of VRAM. Right now, 16GB is a good minimum figure to aim for if you're buying a new GPU VRAM is used by several applications within Windows. Note the points earlier that the Oculus home uses up some, as goes the VR hangar in DCS. Neither of these are really needed and disabling them will give you more headroom Some of the key variables within DCS that seem to eat VRAM are: Textures (the aircraft) Terrain textures (i.e. the ground) The F10 map. Opening that seems to use up around 1GB of VRAM. If you're already short on VRAM, quite unsurprisingly, that will create issues Newer maps and aircraft will tend to use more VRAM, that's just the nature of progress. We all want "better everything" in DCS, and ED have to assume that we'll keep improving our PCs, as that's the nature of us as consumers There's an option in DCS to see how much VRAM it's using. Open the Show FPS, and it'll do that. Hit the Show FPS again and it brings up a box of info. Near the bottom of that box of info, DCS now shows the VRAM reserved and used Note that if you now open Windows Task Manager, that it will also show VRAM used, however, it's measuring everything, rather than just DCS. If there's a big difference between the amount that DCS has reserved and Task Manager is showing as being used, then you probably have an "area of opportunity" for optimising your PC, that sits outside of the remit and control of ED/DCS RAM (both VRAM and normal). When you're getting to the point where your RAM is saturated (i.e. fully used), your PC will starting paging (saving) some of the less used data from RAM into storage. On a PC, that will be on your SSD/HDD. Read/write speeds to and from storage is basically rubbish, when compared to access speeds from RAM, so be aware of how much RAM and VRAM are being used CPU. The multi-core update to DCS did (in my opinion) make a big improvement to performance. On my PC, it seems to primarily spread it's load across 4 cores, though I do get some load on the other 4 CPU cores, but it's much lower. If any of those cores are fully loaded, yep, you've guessed, it'll result in frame rate issues and stutter The reason I've specifically called out the above is that once you've done the basic optimisation, if you're still having issues, it's important to understand where the bottleneck is. DCS heavily loads everything, the GPU, VRAM, RAM and CPU. It doesn't really matter which of those is maxed out, but if any truly are, that on it's own can cause issues. Identifying the culprit then means that you have 2 options: Throw money at the problem Back of on some of the settings You may think that the easy solution is to simply complain about the performance of DCS. It is, but IMO it's wrong. I own most of the big flight sims, i.e. the alternative combat sim and the 2 biggest Civ Sims. For me, I do genuinely believe that DCS is a better solution and have confidence that their work will continue to lead the rest. The unfortunate point is that we have some big spenders within our community with bleeding edge PCs, who are always looking to keep improving. ED by their nature are always going to be looking to see how they can take advantage of that capability. As such, hoping that a 4 year old PC will run DCS on "max" settings is simply not realistic.

It does, but it is missing quite a lot of functionality. The other 3 are pretty much ready to rock and roll, which is why I refunded the F15E and am very happily using the other three.

Have you lowered the polling rate of your mouse? If not, try it. It made a definite difference to my system.

?? The evidence that I've seen suggested that: MW50 wasn't used until mid-44, by which time The Luftwaffe were struggling to fuel their aircraft The Luftwaffe had already been pretty much shot to pieces, and whilst it was building plenty of aircraft, didn't have well trained pilots, or the fuel to train them The Luftwaffe fighters had mostly been pulled back in defence of Germany, hence why there was virtually no Luftwaffe involved in DDay (2 aircraft IIRC) Luftwaffe pilots were encouraged to avoid combat with allied fighters and focus on the bombers The planes in question were often loaded with weapons to try to damage bombers, at the expense of their weight and ability to dogfight allied fighters

The positive take that I think we have is NL stating that support will continue. Sure, the unit's probably won't be enhanced, but at least they'll continue to work. If you exclude the F15E, the other 3 seem to be in a pretty good condition (I fly all of them and don't have any issues with them). That to me seems to guarantee ongoing usability, which is cool. Yes, it would be nice for the F15E to finished, but that's something for further down the line. Pretty much anything else seems to be purely speculation, so I'm staying out of that.

Is there a specific budget?