DeltaMike

Like you, I got into it because of VR. I'd like to give a shout out for the A4e, a community mod that's a free download. Excellent VR implementation, good trainer, fun to fly. Clickable cockpit really helps in VR, the FC3 aircraft are a little more effort to use without being able to see the keyboard.

Not everybody thinks 4k is best for DCS. I have both (Oculus and 4k) and way prefer Oculus. Tend to run monitor at 1080 anyway. Long as you can keep FR over 45 VR is fine, although you're trading detail for immersion any way you cut it. That said you have plenty of horsepower for VR. I'd oc the CPU

Great mod, outstanding VR implementation; cockpit textures look great in VR and I really like that the start sequence doesn't require going to the keyboard. Slider control for wheel brakes (for use with pedals) is on my wish list.

Try the mini-joystick y-axis on knobs. I am not able to manipulate throttle or stick with controller (not in 2.5.3 anyway).

I keep a keyboard with an integrated trackpad in my lap, but I'm using it less and less. I also bought a USB keypad for $12 and glued some beads to the buttons so I could find em blind, use that for gears, flaps, views, and kneeboard. More I use the Oculus controllers the more I like em; I only use the mouse/keyboard when I'm in pause anymore. You can't do two things at once, for example pressing a button while holding like the bittest switch. Biggest problem with Oculus IMO is gear and flaps, love what people are doing with 3D printers and the Warthog throttle but for now the keypad is the el cheapo solution. May just give up and map those to the HOTAS. Other thing is moving the throttle to idle detent, which helps in cold starts. If you look at the A4 for example, I map the comm menu to the com1 switch on the HOTAS, I can do a cold start without touching the keyboard. All I need for the F18 is the ability to move the throttles off idle detent to accomplish the same thing. Takes a little getting used to, but now I have more buttons than I need. I need another hand, but not more buttons.

If you don't have a throttle with afterburner detents, eg the TM TWCS, three options: 1. Set afterburner gates to always off and the afterburner lights up at full throttle. Only way to know for sure from inside the cockpit is to watch your fuel burn. 2. Map "afterburner gates on/off" to a button. One press gives you afterburner at full throttle, another gives you mil at full throttle. Doesn't matter what box you checked in the settings menu. Still gotta watch your fuel burn because there's no way to tell which way the button is toggled. 3. Set afterburner gates to always on, and map "finger lift" to a button. Press and hold the finger lift button, shove the throttle forward and you are in afterburner. Pull throttle back about halfway and AB shuts off. Push throttle to stops WITHOUT holding the finger lift button, and you have full mil power. So you only get afterburner if you are holding the finger lift button while advancing the throttle. The last seems to work for me.

This is one of those situations where it helps to go outside DCS and read up on how to fly IRL. It's been years since I studied this -- in a Cessna, mind you -- but iirc the main thing is, you need a navigational aid like a VOR either on the airport, or near the airport lined up with the runway. You have to be heading toward the VOR -- in this case a VORTAC I guess -- on a certain radial, and then you use the course deviation indicator on the HSI to ride that rail right down to the runway. When you first tune in to the VORTAC, you'll see there are an infinite number of ways to get to it. You could head straight to it, or you could fly around and approach from another angle. But there's only one way to get there and be lined up with the runway, and that's to do two things: 1. Fly toward the VORTAC 2. On a certain course. Which is the runway heading. So if you want to line up with 18, you have to set a course of 180. Let's say you're coming in from the east. You set a course of 180 to the VORTAC. You'll see the CDI needle is pegged at the top of the HSI. You would first fly west -- toward the CDI needle, not toward the bug -- until the deviation indicator lines up. THEN you would turn south, and keep it lined up until you get on the ground. The other part of the approach, if I remember correctly, is there are a series of waypoints you have to follow, where you're supposed to maintain a certain altitude so you don't run into mountains and towers and stuff. Combination of virtual waypoints that are up there in the sky somewhere, and physical items planted in the ground -- "markers" -- that beep when you fly over them on close final. Key is to pop out of the clouds at the right altitude, in one piece, more or less lined up with the runway, and then land like you always do. You just have to practice. Step one is learning how to fly. Level flight is harder than you think, especially when you're going slow. Gotta learn how to keep your eye on the vertical speed indicator and figure out how to keep that at zero using the throttle more than the stick. Practice stalls, know where the break is, learn how to fly right up to that line without going over. Next you gotta pound the pattern, get to where your approaches are consistent. Especially on final, 99% of your work should be done by then. Then learn how to fly a course using the HSI properly. After that, you just gotta hope the mission designer doesn't hate you.

That shader mod is the bomb, ain't it? I dialed down the MSAA_mask to 0.1 figuring central vision is only what about 30 degrees in diameter? Three times the size of the full moon, basically. Now I can run MSAA4x and PD 1.2 without stuttering. No real effect on text, but dramatic effect on aircraft. It's weird, you turn your head a little and a fine aircraft dissolves into jaggies. But I think it's a good pass at making the Oculus more... I dunno, natural? To be clear, I now have a choice of shadows or MSAA. Not both. Still. Where there's a will to be a cheapskate, there's a way. ETA: Maybe we should have an el cheapo build contest? I'm entering my $500 Dell workstation. At least one of the CPU sockets still works, and it should have a secret ingredient shortly....

I think the Oculus defaults to 45 if it can't drive at 90. Personally I've found that the gpu render time is more helpful in terms of figuring out how much you have to work with. Once that goes over 22ms I start getting queasy, Oculus does a good job of smoothing things out, up to a point.

Ya know the hornet is a delight to fly. You can jump in and start having fun, learn as you go. Clickable cockpit has advantages. Be danged if I remember the key combination for AP baro hold. There's an argument for clicking a button on the panel labeled "a/p" ya know?

I get the same thing using rift. Looks like the tip is flapping in the breeze right? Looks weird but doesn't affect playability

Wonder the extent to which us mid-level types might be better off upgrading CPU. I figure there's only so much Oculus can do, kinda saving my ammo to see what (if anything) will dive 4k VR headsets. My theory is, there's a point of diminishing returns. You got your AA settings, which I figure is how hard you're flogging the GPU. That leads I think to reasonable compromises in game settings, things like visible radius, that may not make much difference given the limitations of VR, so we can ease up on CPU load. And then finally, tweaks to mission design. All predicated on pixels per degree basically

Ah thanks. Yeah OVH has great specs. I don't think I want to dig in my heels on gpu support, I'm assuming the dedicated DCS server that's in development won't need that...

I've been doing flight Sims since the F16 first came out on the black-and-white Mac but I'm new to DCS having returned to the hobby because of VR, which is pretty amazing IMO. Interested in developing multiplayer missions that are VR optimized and looking for thoughts on best practices for mission design. Much as I love buzzing around in vintage aircraft I'm already getting the feeling that decent radar really adds to the experience, so I guess I'm looking at scenarios that can accommodate gen 4 aircraft. Curious what the VR enthusiasts are looking for. What matters, what doesn't matter, what makes the experience better and what aggravates you.

Thats why im starting up a server, to cater to vr enthusiasts. I have this grand vision of a story driven campaign but the main thing I think will be collaboration on mission design, what kind of missions are the most fun in VR, that leverage The tech the best kinda thing.

I want to start a DCS server, and it ain't gonna be at the house. BTDT with my mining operation not long ago, which I "ran" remotely for a while. It wasn't pretty on several levels. So. There's an outfit in town that'll host my old Dell workstation for a hundred bucks a month. Here's my specs: E5-2643 (3.3Ghz), 16Gb RAM, 120 Gb SSD's in Raid0, Win7, choice of GPU. I can get a VPS for a lot less than that, but with half the RAM, no GPU, no windows, and I think you have to pay extra to get 3+Ghz cores (yes? no?) Leaning toward racking up my own box. I like the CPU, kinda think that SSD raid might be cool. And I'm assuming the extra RAM and GPU will help, although maybe I shouldn't assume that. Note the plan is to specialize in VR, and nobody has enough compute power for that, so I'm figuring Nevada map and keeping a lid on the number of AI objects running around, if that matters... I'm willing to spend the bucks to get the experience I and like-minded players are looking for. Which I think calls for high-speed, low-drag all around. Thoughts?

Brilliant! I don't know squat about computers, know a bit about the brain though. I think we want edge detection in the center of vision, that's what central vision does. Applying MSAA to central vision is the shiznit. Don't need or want it everywhere else. Guy's a genius. The brain models objects and environments. Up to this point computers did a great job of helping us model objects, which is hard. VR doesn't model objects very well, but it models environments very well. Which isn't hard at all, it's the most natural thing in the world. The most direct connection between the 3D model in the machine, and the 3D model we are all trying to build in the mind. Since you mention it, the Nevada map has real potential IMO. I wrote a dystopian/WWIII novel a couple years ago, the Nevada map would be the ultimate sequel. Believe it or not it's the most logical setting given how I left the thing. Like, I think I'm gonna write it chapter-by-chapter in DCS multiplayer missions, Clancy-style. Ain't about rendering grass, ya know? Setting up the server as we speak. Next the website. Next up are the Twitter accounts for CINC WTO, and Radio Free Mexico, and the Chinese Humanitarian Mission (gotta hand it to 'em, they bring assets). The photo contest, because I'm getting reports there are twin-tailed aircraft flying training missions south of Laughlin, and I need to know if those are MIG-29's or SU-33's, and it matters, because that day is coming, and we need to be ready. Follow me? Point being we aren't rendering an image, we are rendering a world model. We need to be looking in the right places to make that happen. It's only sort of about how well you can read the altimeter, you know? We need to knock out the technical stuff and get on with it IMO. We have bigger fish to fry. My theory is, if you set up a server for virtual reality, you'll get it. Anyway yes, thank you. There's a lot of content in your reply and I'm listening.

You watched right? Nature of the Oculus is, you just aren't going to get central vision very well. You have a 1080x1200 monitor in there but it's sitting right on your eyeball so you're only getting 10 pixels per degree, and you can see every one of em. The probletunity is supersampling (which I think is what "PD" is). The scene is rendered at a high definition and then downsized to fit into the Oculus. There's more information than meets the eye, you feel it when you're moving your head around, makes it seem like you're looking at a rich world through a screen door. Your brain starts to ignore the "screen door" after a while. But. Edges are fluid. Which is fine for moving objects, your brain stitches that together. When you're staring at something, your central vision wants hard edges. I think that's what MSAA is doing, enhancing edge detection. Near as I can tell, MSAA isn't as costly as supersampling. So you might want to try a touch of MSAA and keep PD at 1.0. You're still getting the default level of supersampling, which is nothing to sneeze at. If your GPU chokes on that, turn MSAA off, get your PD as good as you can get it and work that zoom button. PD is an exponential function, reducing it from 1.2 to 1.1 won't change the image all that much but it may make a big difference to your GPU, so work that slider. For spotting at a distance, get this. Remember to move your head around, just staring at it makes it disappear (for several reasons)

You watched right? Nature of the Oculus is, you just aren't going to get central vision very well. You have a 1080x1200 monitor in there but it's sitting right on your eyeball so you're only getting 10 pixels per degree, and you can see every one of em. The probletunity is supersampling (which I think is what "PD" is). The scene is rendered at a high definition and then downsized to fit into the Oculus. There's more information than meets the eye, you feel it when you're moving your head around, makes it seem like you're looking at a rich world through a screen door. Your brain starts to ignore the "screen door" after a while. But. Edges are fluid. Which is fine for moving objects, your brain stitches that together. When you're staring at something, your central vision wants hard edges. I think that's what MSAA is doing, enhancing edge detection. Near as I can tell, MSAA isn't as costly as supersampling. So you might want to try a touch of MSAA and keep PD at 1.0. You're still getting the default level of supersampling, which is nothing to sneeze at. If your GPU chokes on that, turn MSAA off, get your PD as good as you can get it and work that zoom button. PD is an exponential function, reducing it from 1.2 to 1.1 won't change the image all that much but it may make a big difference to your GPU, so work that slider. For spotting at a distance, get this. Remember to move your head around, just staring at it makes it disappear (for several reasons)

System: Ryzen 7, 16Gb RAM, Vega 56 on stock settings (should be about equivalent to a GTX1070) Question: does the Oculus tool, and the ability to set supersampling, accomplish anything? Findings: 1. I want a 1080ti 2. Oculus tool vs in-game settings is pretty much a wash Endpoint: Today I'm mainly looking at the cockpit. How easy is it to read numbers, gauges and labels For this test, I used the Oculus tool HUD and monitored App frame rate and App GPU render time. What I'm shooting for is a solid 45fps, no stuttering and no puking. Oculus wants to lock the frame rate in at 45; it seems the GPU render time is a more granular measure. For me, keeping that number less than or equal to 20 is the key to a smooth flight. I dunno what "0.5" or "1.3" means when it comes to supersampling. I think it depends on what the developer wants it to mean. From what I've been able to surmise, the Oculus needs just a touch of supersampling at baseline. So fractions like "0.5" or "0.8" *probably* mean the app is rendering native resolution. "1" means the default level of supersampling, like you see in your little Oculus house. And anything greater than 1 is some multiple of default. Pixel density in DCS and supersampling in the Oculus interact. Probably because it's the same thing. Near as I can tell, they multiply. So for example, if you set PD at 1.2 and SS at 1.5, your GPU bursts into flames. Just kidding! But your jet will, as it lawndarts into the ground while you're staring at the hourglass of death. I'd do one or the other meself. Other settings: ASW auto Textures high Terrain texture low (kinda looks the same thru Oculus) Water high (why not) Shadows off (Still undecided on this one) Vis range medium Anisotropic filtering off. Can't see that it does anything. Setting: I'm flying the A4 in "free flight" over Caucasus. So, no other units on map. Procedure is to check performance up high, dive down over the city, and fly across town at rooftop level, and see if the fps holds up. Data: MSAA PD Supersampling FPS GPU Comment off 0.5 0 too terrible for words 2x 1.0 0 up high: 45 15 gauges are readable but blurry down low: 45 19 nice and smooth 2x 1.2 0 high: 45 19 looks about the same low: 35 22 terrible stuttering 4x 1.0 0 high: 45 20 looks gorgeous low: 35 29 severe stuttering, uncomfortable 4x 0.5 1 high: 45 19 looks OK, not as good low: 42 22 some stuttering, not too bad off 0.5 1.5 high: 45 18 looks almost as good as 4x/1.0/0 low: 42 19 some stuttering off 0.5 1.3 high: 45 15 acceptable graphics low: 45 19 smooth as silk off 1.3 0 high: 45 15 see comment below low: 45 20 smooth as silk Tell ya this game looks awesome with MSAAx4. Instruments seem sharp, colors seem to pop. But adding in "stock" supersampling -- and Oculus needs a little -- just flogs the daylights out of my GPU. I could live with it flying around up high all by myself. But what's the fun of that? On the other hand, if you take away MSAA, it doesn't take much supersampling to make up some of the difference, and for whatever reason that seems to go down better than the combo. Not as pretty but functional. Between working the in-game settings and letting the oculus tool do it, I think the oculus gives me a slightly sharper picture for the same cost. In other words I get the feeling it's just a tad more efficient. But it's darn close. If I can figure out how to take screen shots in Oculus, I'll post up a comparison of those last two settings for ya. And I guess 2x/1.0/0 which is also a workable combo. So bottom line is, MSAA 2x with default PD, or running MSAA off with PD or SS at 1.3 all seems to run about the same, and all seems to look about the same too. Not sure the Oculus tool adds much, maybe a little. I will say that you can make finer adjustments with either PD or Oculus tool than you can with MSAA, so it should be easier to find the sweet spot. For example to make room for those darn shadows. Or other units even. At any rate. If you're breaking in a mid-level card, I'd try one of those combos to start with.

Yeah it really helps to have a HOTAS. I have a T16000 and it's barely adequate, it needs a fricken gear lever and flaps switch. You can map combo strokes but that didn't work for me, the combo key works like numlock, it stays on till you hit it again and it's too easy to get twisted up imo. A clickable cockpit, Touch controllers and a decent GPU helps a lot. For autopilot, messing around with the DDI's and the radio, external lights, HUD brightness, a lot of that stuff it's easier and more intuitive to just press the button or flip the switch. Even then you'll want at least a few keys, not everything is mapped. Views, kneepad. "U." "Esc." That kind of stuff. I keep a USB numpad next to the throttle and a logitech K400 keyboard/trackpad in my lap. Map em right and they aren't hard to use without looking.

I've been flying sims since F16 first came out on the black and white mac, and have about 50 hours of real flight training. Flying a computer doesn't feel like flying. This does. Tuning image quality in VR is a different kettle of fish, the whole supersampling thing makes it feel like you're looking at the world through a screen door. That the resolution is there behind the screen. It's kinda weird but you habituate to it pretty quickly. Looking around outside is fine. In the cockpit, it is possible to set it to where the gauges look quite clear but after a point it really starts to hammer your framerate. So you give up some detail and roll with it. Lean forward or hit the zoom if you really need to read the fine print. Thing is, stutter breaks immersion. Do what you have to do to keep f/s at 45 or better and your brain will do the rest. Look, the whole reason you're going for the resolution on your monitor is to make it seem real. You're looking in the wrong place, brother. It's not that it's easier to see the runway in 4k than at 800x600. It's that you can look over your shoulder and *know* where it is.

Kicking around the idea of repurposing my old Dell workstation as a DCS server... Just to be clear, it does help to have a gpu even of 3d rendering is turned off, right? I have a choice of slapping an r9 290 in there, a pair of 290x's, an RX 470 or I might buy an old Quadro if there would be an advantage of using Nvidia and 2gb of vram would be enough .. kinda leaning toward the 290, wouldn't be my first choice for rendering but that sucker will compute... Thoughts? Am I on the right track?

Kicking around the idea of repurposing my old Dell workstation as a DCS server... Just to be clear, it does help to have a gpu even of 3d rendering is turned off, right? I have a choice of slapping an r9 290 in there, a pair of 290x's, an RX 470 or I might buy an old Quadro if there would be an advantage of using Nvidia and 2gb of vram would be enough .. kinda leaning toward the 290, wouldn't be my first choice for rendering but that sucker will compute... Thoughts? Am I on the right track? So that'll be prob e5-2653, 16Gb, win7, 120Gb SSD, and whatever GPU I slap in there