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My rig:- I7-4770K, MSI GTX 1080, 16GB RAM, SSD, HTC Vive, 31st Jan stable release SteamVR drivers. Please note I was using the in DCS FPS counter. No clouds in any scenario I tested. I've been trying to figure out - as many of you are - which specific graphical settings influence frame rates. I run a GTX1080 so in theory it should scream in DCS. Non-VR this is absolutely the case - no complaints there. However in VR there is a noticeable drop in framerates no matter what the mission or scenarios are. So to be clear on my statement above I was running 1.5 PD. Most settings were set on high, no shadows, 4X AA, no HDR - basically everything on and off based on other's findings. Steam VR has Asynch Reprojection on. Now with this setup I have never ever seen anything above 40fps. When I hear people saying they run at 90fps I go WTF as technically my rig should at least see 45 fps. So last night I turned every graphical setting down to its lowest settings or off and I set PD of 1.0. I tested this on a MP server to see some network load as well. For the first time I saw my FPS pegged at 90fps (please note no smoke stacks present). So obviously I knew some setting/s had to be the reason for the dramatic drop in fps before. I started turning things up individually, flying, tuning and so on. The only settings in the end that had a real adverse effect on framerates were shadow settings, water and pixel density. Turning up shadows immediately saw my system strain. Turning up shadows saw the fps drop from 85-90 to 40-45. With shadows off and turning up PD to 1.5 (my preferred setting) saw FPS plummet to 28-35fps. So at lowest graphical settings with a PD of 1.5 I get less than 40fps and with a PD of 1.0 I get 90fps. My question is therefore how this is possible? In theory all it is doing is rendering/down-scaling at a higher resolution in 1.5PD compared to 1.0PD, but at such low graphical settings I should not be seeing such a dramatic drop in framerate. I mean a GTX1080 is made for 4K so this should be a breeze right? The second real issue is any type of volumetric rendering (actually I'm not even sure if DCS does volumetric rendering) - lets call is clouds and smoke. With lowest settings at a PD of 1.0 I did also notice than in mission type scenes where smoke stacks are rendered I see a big drop in FPS. Turn away from it the FPS spikes up again, turn towards them the FPS drops. To be honest I have never really seen a sim that does not have a rendering hit when smoke/fire modeling is rendered so no surprises here. However is there any tuning advice for simplifying smoke rendering to have less of a hit on performance? Sorry for the long write-up - perhaps this helps someone - by not feeling alone - who has the same issues and has not yet had the time to test or figure things out. If you have any ideas to help me out please shout. Cheers and thanks.

Unfortunatly I do team events and everything has been moved to 1.5.6 which is not ideal. All because of that bloody Viggen [emoji6] Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

You're not getting the point unfortunately. I do not play at 2.5. as it's completely unplayable at 2.5 where before the latest beta it was playable. I actually always have it set at 1.5. Anyway I'm glad it's working for you as for me I'm feeling miserable. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Using DCS 1.5.6 and the latest SteamVR beta update I have the exact same problem. Blurred textures, everything is "soft". I spent the whole weekend tuning settings in DCS and SteamVR and I can not get anything near what I had in the previous SteavVR update in terms of clarity. This update most definitely for me have caused an overall blurred (soft edges) view - this is across DCS, ProjectCars, Elite, Aerofly 2. It looks to me like the new drivers are sacrificing "sharpness" for frames. Frame rates seem fluid across but fidelity is off. I really hope this is just a "fault" ad not the norm as this will set me back personally in terms of enjoyment. I did roll back to the 31St Jan stable release of SteamVR - two things happens - firstly the definition is clear and crisp but now the frame rates are horrible. I think there may still be remnants of the configuration files remaining from the beta that is causing conflicts. But still the stable release clarity is what I'm after. One last thing. Using the latest SteamVR beta I can no longer set the DCS pixel density to its highest setting (2.5). Even with supersampling set to 0.8in SteamVR, DCS now grinds to a appalling 1fps in menus and in cockpit making it completely unplayable. Prior versions I could crank it up all the way to 2.5 and still get good FPS on a 1080GTX.

So I'm assuming setting Super-Sampling to 1.0 and DCS pd to 1.5 should give me the results I had before the update right. So before I had a pd of 1.5. However now the overall in-aircraft view in DCS is "soft". Defined edges have now become soft (almost as it out-of focus) and the overall visual quality overall feels like a step backwards. Playing with the super-sampling at higher settings did not really bring back the defined edges I had before. I'm not talking about anti-aliasing either. It just feels overall that everything is "soft" - textures, edges, views at a distance etc. Keen to hear if anyone else has this experience.

My bad. I only noticed last night my Steam client was not updating the SteamVR to the latest beta. I'm running 1.5.6 to be clear. A few things I've noticed. Firstly the grey flashed are now dark flashes - they are still there maybe a bit less but there are still occasions where it just sits there in the dark grey world wit the little dialog box with the three lines. If I look at my monitor it is showing the DCS menus fine. I've also noticed when this happens the DCS FPS counter drops to very low rates. Not sure why as its not rendering anything but the menus. Secondly with the SteamVR super-sampling setting. Even at its highest setting DCS in game - as in an aircraft - everything is now "soft" - or "fuzzy". Pre the update I would set pixel density in DCS to 1.5. For me this was the best setting which gave me "as crisp as I could get it". Now this setting in DCS makes no difference - all it changes are frame rates. Changing super-sampling in SteamVR between 0.8 and 2.4 really makes very little difference for me. The overall complaint is that edges etc now seem "soft" rather than clearly defined as before. It seems to totally override whatever DCS pixel density is set at. I would be keen to hear if anyone has the same issue.

Does anyone know if setting supersampling in SteamVR overrides the DCS in app settings?

Nope I think you're on the placebo :) - grey flashes all over especially in the menus. BTW I've not seen a SteamVR update recently. When was yours updated? What version is it at now?

I was running a GTX980 before. I upgraded to a 1080 about a month ago. Things are more fluid looking out to the side but I don't see anything in VR above 40fps except in the menus where its capped at 90 - this is in multiplayer where I fly mostly formation and where smooth flying is a must. But like you said I'm not going to worry about it as it runs smooth for me. I think they should disable FPS counters as they drive people to paranoia :)

I've asked a similar question elsewhere. With "asynchronous reprojection" on, I never see more than 40fps in DCS in VR using the DCS frame rate shortcut. However flight is smooth and fluid, no judder or ghosting - as you would expect. Turn it off and its a mess. I have no explanation why I'm not seeing the sorts of framerates others are seeing 45+. But mine seems to work ok even if it is showing no frame loss with DCS reporting lower than 45 fps - so happy for now.

Yeah right - no I don't think its a base station issue. I use my VIVE extensively and therefore if its a base station issue I should be seeing this in every app I use. I only get this issue in DCS so for me its a DCS issue or a DCS/SteamVR issue. Do you guys see the same? - when starting up a multiplayer session for example - the screen starts flashing between the light grey VivePort and DCS. Sometimes it remains grey and if I look at my monitor it actually shows the DCS screen but its grey in the headset - keeps on flashing and then eventually settles back to the DCS screen in the VR displays. For me this happens primarily in the DCS menu systems and between loading missions, flights etc. Occasionally I will see a quick flash of it during a flight which is ok I guess. In 1.5.6 this is much much worse than I've had before. So DCS engineers what has changed with 1.5.6 which may be contributing to this issue?

Yep - have the same issue. Almost none in 2.0.5 and 1.5.5 but 1.5.6 I saw a lot of flickering. Not sure what is causing it. I don't get that in any other VR game.

For those who have eye problems like me specifically being cross-eyed, I would like to give my views on using a Vive for a month or so now. I was born cross-eyed, had operations when I was young. My right eye is fine but my left eye "loses alignment" :) when I get tired. I am completely right-eye dominant. Those with this issue will know what I mean. Due to this I have never been able to enjoy 3D movies - basically I saw no 3D effects. So when deciding on getting a VR device I was skeptical on how well it would work for me, if at all. So committing money was very hard. BTW I'm in my 40s now. I finally bought a VIVE after playing for a while with a Samsung GearVR and noticed that somehow my brain was figuring out how to view images through the two lenses without causing any double vision. For me - and it may well be different for you - I'm absolutely comfortable using a Vive for long periods of time. The best part is I get no motion sickness, unlike my wife and son who looks at the thing and starts barfing. So I thought I'd write this in case you have doubts - I certainly had - but it worked out well for me. I love flying formation in DCS and VR allows so much feedback and immersion that I can never go back to a monitor and TrackIR. So my advise would be if you really, really want a VR set and you have doubts, is to try and get hold of a GearVR - not a cheap cardboard knockoff - and have a play with it - at least a number of sessions - and see what effect it has on you. Feel free to ask me any questions on my experience - happy to help.

I think he means to say that the effort the devs have put into the mirror, the same effort will go into developing other neat capabilities like hand tracking etc.:)

Thanks - yes I'm running SteamVR Beta and yes the "Asynchronous Reprojection" setting makes a huge difference. I've noticed you do tune down a lot of settings - some of which I have at higher settings. I'll try some of yours. Also I'm keen to know if setting the Resolution makes a difference. I've noticed you are running at a very high resolution even though you have a 1080 monitor. I've always wondered if mirroring the VR displays on the monitor creates overhead as technically I think they (VR and monitor) would be running at different resolutions so the graphics card is rendering for both?? I'm not certain - does anyone know? Is there a way of turning off the monitor mirror of what you see in VR?

Did you try turning off HDR in DCS settings? This takes care of very bright sun rises etc. Not sure if that is what you are after?

Yep - 1.5.5 had no issues, frames fine. 1.5.6 introduced major flashing between DCS and VIVEport - occasionally it jumps to VIVEPort, SteamVR says DCS is not responding. Switch back to 1.5.5 no problems. Certainly issues perhaps because its still Beta? But I really hope these issues are not brought to the final build.

Hi - not sure if this will help for you but I got similar issues until I uninstalled "GeForce Experience". Since then I've had no crashing in DCS or games like Project Cars and Assetto Corsa using the VIVE. Hope this helps you out as it did for me.

Can anyone please confirm the following for me. When using Vive VR and you have the DCS framerate counter going - what framerates to you actually see going? Some mention 45 locked and also 90. However I get between 30 and 40. Never have I seen more. Last night I set settings to Low then everything turned on - High - and the framerates stay about the same. The flying experience is smooth however - not choppy - so I'm guessing its pumping out frames ok but the counter seems low compared to what others are saying. My rig is running a i7-4770K, SSD's and GTX1080 and my in VR I run at 1.7 sampling rate. I'll be updating the video card drivers tonight but not holding my breath. I'm still keen to understand what others are seeing as far as FPS counter is concerned and if changing display settings makes any difference to frame rates for you. Thanks guys. Always fun flying with you.