Specs: Intel Core i7-4790k 4GHz, GTX 960 8GB, 16GB ram.
Tried 2.5 briefly on day one. General framereate boost of about 10-20 fps in most circumstances. Really appreciated the subtle undulations of terrain flying low in the huey. Dogfight range spotting also seemed to have improved in my single test of the F5 Air to Air instant action.
However, currently these improvements are rendered moot by the huge FPS drop I get at low altitudes in forested areas. Any nearby concentration of trees consistently drops my FPS from 60 or better into the mid 20's or lower. It is only the high detail trees at close range that seem to be a problem.
Tried messing with the tree visibility slider but because it is only the close, high detail trees that are an issue. I have to turn the slider down to 50% or more for even a minor improvement in FPS. This causes horrible pop in for trees and and is a worse solution than turning them off entirely. Really I find anything between 0 and 80% horribly distracting with the pop in.
Would really appreciate an additional graphics setting to reduce the maximum LOD on trees.
Bottom line: Still positive about 2.5 on day 1 of beta but my biggest problem in the game has gone from spotting aircraft to simply being able to fly low over trees.
Edit: Largely alleviated this problem by changing Terrain Object Shadows to flat. Took Huey out for a test flight and found myself on a zen-like, Wags style flight up a wooded river surrounded by gently rolling hills with trains passing by on the river bank. Truly idyllic. Combat gives DCS its teeth but many of its best qualities have nothing to do with blowing stuff up.
