Hippo

And my latest testing 2.5.0.15365.345 v 2.5.3.24436. All settings the same, same mission, 4xMSAA, PD 1.3., all other settings mostly low. DEFERRED SHADING OFF in 2.5.0. You want > 45 fps - here's a clue (I wish there was some way I could have forward rendering back.)

Anti-aliasing that doesn't cripple performance. Improved night lighting in VR. Improved labels: visibility dependent on size / aspect of object as well as distance, only visible through cockpit canopy. Kneeboard tabs that can be saved permanently.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people suggest this. Maybe our eyes work differently? IMHO, DCS in VR without MSAA is just not acceptable: the shimmering and jaggies are dreadful and completely ruin the experience. I've just gone from a 1070 to a 1080Ti, and still it is very difficult to get 90 fps in VR with 4xMSAA (and that's with very little going on).

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3692087&postcount=37 I apologise to ED and take back my first comment. More a case of it's an Oculus Rift limitation that will require considerable work from ED to minimise. All still speculation from me, btw.

Finally got around to testing this. Note that I am on Rift. I think it is a great improvement. I usually run on a gamma of 1.6 - previous to your mod I had to bring it down to 1.3 to get the sky to "go black". What this meant was that lights on the ground were a lot darker. With your mod I get a black sky at 2.2, which means lights on the ground are much brighter, which is a great improvement. THANK YOU for all your efforts. I also tried turning off SPUD again. It definitely removed the Mura, but also seems to give a pinkish hue to some colours. It's noticeable on the "beams" on the hangar roof in the main menu screen, and also on ground lights at night. It's hard to say for sure, but I also feel that blacks are no longer as black (again seen on beams on hangar roof). The thing about Mura is that it only appears to be noticeable when the entire screen is black, so when looking forward it's not too bad, only becomes awful when looking up or to the sides. Even with all that, there remain problems. Ground textures can still be seen when they should be black; and there don't seem to be enough shades available with the result that they look blocky / banded, which looks terrible. Same thing when looking at the wings. Still, getting there... I suspect that E D would have to make substantial changes specifically for VR to improve the night environment, which is quite a big ask.

Great photo to illustrate the point, although for some reason I'm no longer so fixated on the HUD.

Thank you so much for clearing that up, this has been bugging me for years.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3465818&postcount=6

Er... ahem... yeah... I thought that might be the case after I'd posted. Still, pretty similar procedure. Same difference... or whatever. This results from me: - reading too many threads at once - not being too bright Really, sorry for any confusion.

Once installed, with Rift you'll probably find you get a distortion around the edges that needs correcting: You need to edit the file (in your DCS folder) mentioned above, near the top is has the following line: #define MASKSIZE 0.525f // change this to adjust the size of the mask, 0.525f seems to be ok for the Vive change it to this: #define MASKSIZE 0.6f 0.6 I think worked for me, and I'm going from memory, someone else will advise if I've got it wrong. I think that people have had problems using notepad to do this. I use notepad++ myself - https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.6.html

I'll have a go. Download the file from: http://junk.kegetys.fi/DCS%20VR%20Shaders%20performance%20mod%20for%202.5.3.21107.zip This is the readme from the file, I have expanded on some parts (bold) Install: - Backup your Bazar/shaders directory (but keep the files in place) This is in your DCS main game directory, which you would have chosen on installation. Within it there is a Bazar folder, within that folder there is a folder "shaders" - make a copy of that folder in the same location. - Extract files from this zip, overwriting the existing files From the zip file go into the Bazar folder and copy the shaders folder from there to overwrite the shaders folder in your DCS installation directory. Say yes to overwrite any files / folders. - Remove terrain metacaches. For example: Mods\terrains\Caucasus\misc\metacache\dcs Mods\terrains\Nevada\misc\metacache\dcs Mods\terrains\???\misc\metacache\dcs rename those directories to dcs.old or similar. This ensures the metashaders will be recompiled correctly. The Mods folder is also in your main DCS directory. Just rename the dcs folders as stated above, note that this will depend on which theaters you have insstalled. - Delete files from C:\Users\<user>\Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 I recommend you do this even though it's not specified in the readme. <user> is your Windows user name. - Run DCS World. The shaders will be compiled as they are used for the first time, so first startup and loading of mission will take a while (can be 10 minutes or more). While playing you can also see some stutters when new shaders are compiling for the first time. As stated, be patient as it can take a while - Performance should be better, especially in VR. It was 25% for me (I use MSAA). Uninstall: - Restore Bazar/shaders backup - Restore terrain metacaches - Delete files from C:\Users\<user>\Saved Games\DCS\fxo and metashaders2 directories. I usually undo the changes when a new update is released by ED, just to be safe, update DCS, then reapply the mod again. Since you backed up everything during installation, it's just a case of undoing what was done above. If I've been unclear or you need more help, just post again.

Like you (check join date), I have been around a long while. Regrettably, I have now decided that, for me, the answer is NO, and have removed DCSW from my hard disk for the foreseeable future. The severe performance reduction (50% for me) experienced with MSAA / deferred shading is the main reason for this. Before this was done I had a VR experience I was very happy with, and that has now gone. That it was done without warning or explanation just added insult to injury. I'm pretty sure I could get a reasonable experience on 2D, but I've tasted (90 fps) VR now, and can never go back... For the past few months, I've tried and tried to get results I'm happy with, (Kegetys's mod helped), but in the end, it's just all become way way too much hassle and too little enjoyment. I've installed a popular WW2 sim, and am enjoying that. Gutted though, as modern is much more my thing.

It seems to me that the time to have done this was BEFORE the change was made to remove the option to use forward rendering. I think it's not a stretch to suggest that adapting all the old cockpits to look correct with deferred shading will be a lot of work. Also not a stretch to suggest that the decision to remove the forward rendering option was made because the F-18 and PG terrain were designed and developed only to work with DS. Of course this was never stated before release of those modules. I feel rather sorry for 3rd party developers who pre-released modules designed to work with the old engine and now find themselves forced to update all their textures to work with the new one. The unplanned work and expense must be considerable.

In answer to OP's original question I would simply say it is a DCS issue in VR. Banding was always absolutely appalling in VR in 1.5 (but not in monitor flatland) and remains a problem. See this post and following discussion for what is very likely the cause, and even a mod to improve things. IMHO, VR at night should be the ultimately engrossing VR experience, such a shame that in DCSW it's just so very, very poor. You only have to look at a recent popular space sim to see that it doesn't have to be this way.

When I tried this I found the results unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, I can't now recollect WHY. I think it was because it made everything more washed out, like turning up the brightness on a TV, and it was no longer possible to get deep black. It did get rid of (or minimise) the mura though. Discussed here.

You are a god. Please can you now get on with delivering world peace.

Other opinions are available... here's mine: VR without MSAA has appalling aliasing artifacts (jaggies). They are so distracting to me that I refuse to run DCS without it. I would really like MSAAx4, but could live with x2. Increasing PD I find increases clarity, but doesn't do as much for jaggies. To see this, load the A-10C mission "Free Flight - Black Sea - Runway Start". Looking at 2 o'clock observe the taxiways (especially the "thin" one) and four light towers. In cockpit check the edges of the compass and accelerometer casings, and the buttons around the MFDs and UFCP. An atrocious shimmering mess without MSAA, much much better with it turned on. Unfortunately, MSAAx4 with the new engine causes a severe fps drop. If your thing is the A-10C, one option is to try 1.5 and see how that goes. You will get much improved fps. Unfotunately, the terrain looks worse, and the trees are a horrible lime green colour. Also, you will be missing out on any new features. Night is horrible. Shadows are another fps killer, you might try to see if you can live without them. IMHO (and Oculus's), proper VR should be at 90 fps. Very hard to achieve without lowering settings to minimums. You can try running something like MSI afterburner and calibrate setting based on GPU and CPU % performance. You need to look at the specific CPU core that's doing the work (on my system, for some reason it's always 12). What I do is load a mission with very little going on and configure settings so that neither go over around 70% with 90 fps. This gives some headroom for when things get busy - as soon as either gets close to 100% ASW will kick in and you'll be down to 45 fps - CPU and GPU will also (obviously) reduce at this point. I try to aim for 90 fps most of the time, whilst having a fall back to ASW when things get busier. I wouldn't recommend turning ASW off, or running below 45 fps. The people who can tolerate this are obviously mutant supermen, and are frying their brains. The Kegetys mod definitely works, and gave me a 25% improvement in fps. I just got a bit bored with having to uninstall and reinstall it every time an update was released. *** After enjoying DCS (and predecessors) for more years than I care to admit, I'm afraid I've just reached the limits of my patience with all this faffing about, and have, just now, decided to wipe it from my hard disk. Until recently I was perfectly happy with DCS in VR, until ED decided to remove the forward rendering option.

I also wish they had a better system in place, however... it's possible to left click and hold to "hold" rotaries (then look away) and use the mouse wheel at the same time to turn them. This may help in the situation you describe above.

This will give you an fps improvement, the downside is that the visuals then look like sh1t.

Or... ASW is kicking in?

I've found night in VR to be very troublesome. The mura fix (I'm on Rift) did not give me results that I liked, so I went back to default on that. In the end, the following gave results that I found to be pretty good (albeit very dark): https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3533927&postcount=23 Better, I thought, than 1.5 VR with its terrible banding.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3617450&postcount=180 ASW working again for me. Can't comment on the other issues, though.

Latest patches (> 2.5.3), have given me the lowest fps I have ever recorded (for a specific situation and settings). I run VR with Oculus Rift.

Hmmm. So I went back to try and find the post I was referring to. At the time I had received an "official" response from a mod to this post, stating what I posted above. That post has now vanished. I smell fish.

OK, I'll rephrase: "was there ever a further official response from ED providing an update on the matter?" (last I remember reading was that it had been fixed in an internal build).