GregP

Confirmed, same (awesome!) result: the 14.4 RC1 drivers give me identical FPS to the good ol' 13.9's. DLL trick finally no longer needed!

I recently upgraded my old Creative 5.1 system to the Logitech Z906, and then after giving up on iVibe, and seeing that Simvibe doesn't seem to support DCS, decided to go with a Buttkicker. I wasn't sure how well it work, but I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. Of course it's not the exported-data-driven wonder that iVibe promised to be, but it's very cool nonetheless: very immersive combination of bass and vibration when firing the gun, during takeoff run over bumpy concrete, on dropping bombs, and due to engine exhaust in external views. So for those who don't want to go the DIY route, I'd definitely recommend a Buttkicker paired with a quality subwoofer.

Since an early DCS beta change, passing modifier from outside DCS into the game has proven problematic. The fix is that discrete 'key down', 'pause', and then 'key up' commands must be available within the external app. For example, with my X-Keys Pro, I found that I had to use a delay of 50 ms in order to have DCS recognize the modifier being pressed and then released. It's been so long since I used TARGET, though, that I can't remember if it allows delays or not. If not, maybe try Joy2Key -- it works brilliantly.

You're right -- definitely a HOTAS Warthog. Not exactly trying to save money on that rig, were they? Very cool!

Awesome work, Ricardo! Looks incredible, can't wait to see them in-game.

I haven't used Nvidia cards in a few years, mostly because I have a 3D monitor that only works with AMD cards. But in DCS at least, I'm having no problems at all with my R9 290, and am able to maintain 20-50 FPS even at 4K resolution. All post-13.9 drivers end up dropping FPS by about 15-30%, but simply dropping some dll's into your DCS folder easily overcomes that and brings FPS levels back up to what they were in 13.9.

Well, I'd disagree on both counts ... but to each his own. I'll be very surprised if there's a 55-inch 4K TV that does 60Hz for under $1000 by the end of 2014.

I do, yes, but the overall improvement through having the entire cockpit visible on one big screen more than makes up for it. I can still zoom out and get a nice sense of motion in my peripheral vision. For me, having one large, hi-res screen where I can size things nearly as large as they'd be in real life, makes it feel much more immersive.

Imagine no longer -- I've already posted screenshots of DCS running on my 4K TV! :) I swapped out a 4-screen, T-shaped setup for my current single 55" 4K TV and couldn't be happier. I should note that I bought the absolute cheapest 4K line I could find (Seiki) and it has the limitation, which is a deal-breaker for many, of being limited to 30Hz refresh rate. I generally see 25-70 FPS in DCS, and at least for me, the 30Hz is really not a problem. Sure I'd love to have 60 or 120Hz, but for a quarter of the price of higher-end 4K TV, I can deal with 30. It really is amazing to see the entire cockpit fit on a single screen but with everything still legible due to the much higher detail possible. I'd wholeheartedly recommend moving to a 4K, if anyone's considering it.

Sorry for the late responses, guys, but it was RadeonPro that I was using to show those stats. Although I've since stopped using RP in DCS because for some reason it wasn't applying SweetFX correctly.

EDIT: SOLD! I've got two XFX Double Dissipation edition 7970 3GB GPUs for sale; I recently bought an R9 290 and thus don't need these anymore. They're in perfect condition with no problems at all. One of them I bought new from Newegg in September 2013, and so has 20 months left of the 2-year warranty, which can be transferred to the new owner. This one I'm selling for $350 plus shipping. The second card was a replacement card, sent to me by XFX, after I had to RMA a reference 7970 I previously owned last September. As such, this card's 2 years of warranty coverage ended just last week. I'm selling this one for $300 plus shipping. I prefer Paypal payment, and can only ship within the US. My heatware is here.

I haven't noticed any latency at all. But then again I'm not looking at it from a Quake-like perspective; there may well be some, but I haven't noticed. You can get screen tearing when FPS drops below 30, and there's occasionally some feeling of the terrain microstuttering, but I think this is due to FPS being too far above 30. Overall, though, the 4k is exactly what I've wanted for years now: a single large monitor of high enough resolution that you can zoom fully out (i.e. such that you can see the entire front panel and parts of the side panels and still easily read everything. It's as close as I've come to really feeling like I'm sitting there in the cockpit.

Reasonable, no -- $600. I rationalized it based on the fact that: 1) MSRP for some R9 290X's now is about $570, and with my card's factory overclock, its performance is nearly that of a 290X. So yes, I'm paying a premium, but not ridiculously. 2) I'm pretty sure I can sell my two 7970s for about $600 (anybody interested in XFX Double Dissipation edition 7970s?), so in that sense it's an even exchange for 30% more FPS in DCS. Other games the opposite is true, though: my Crossfired 7970s got me about 30% more FPS than the single R9 290 does. Oh well.

I'm loving the 4k. So much simpler to set up, and the whole pit fits nicely onto this one monitor -- no bezels getting in the way, no warping on the side monitors, and because the resolution is so high, everything in the pit is still legible even when you zoom out. And because I'm running a resolution that has a total render area about 40% smaller than what I had with the 4-screen, overall (even before upgrading from the 7970 to the R9 290) my FPS is better. I sit about 30 inches from the TV, the same distance I sat from the 4 screens. Any closer and the pixel size would be too noticeable.

A good question, and I have 3 answers: :) 1) My 4K TV was the absolute cheapest model out there, so I'm overall very price-conscious; 2) I have a Samsung 3D monitor that only works with AMD cards; 3) I wanted the 4GB of the R9 290, especially since I'm running at 4K. But it sure was tempting these past few months when I kept seeing 780s for sale all over the net, while R9 290s were (and still are) very difficult to find at reasonable prices.

Even before switching from my T-shaped, 4-screen setup to a single 55" 4K TV, I had been wanting to upgrade my GPU. I finally caved in and bought an R9 290 over the weekend to replace my 7970 and it arrived today. To my pleasant surprise, it bumped my FPS up in DCS by about 30% depending on a few setup details. Since I'm always interested to see before-and-after comparisons when others upgrade, I thought I'd share mine too. When I use just the single 55", my resolution in DCS is 3940x2160. I also sometimes run Helios on a 27" side monitor, making a total DCS resolution of 3840x3240. For FPS testing I use a simple A-10C sitting-on-the-runway mission I created; it's not necessarily representative of what kind of FPS I'll see in the average mission, but it's what I've been using for years now and therefore provides an easy comparison for me. I also use SweetFX running through RadeonPro, which generally costs about 2-3 FPS. Lastly, I'm using the 14.1 drivers but with the 13.9 DLLs as explained here. The R9 290 model I bought is the Asus DirectCU II OC which has a 5% overclock; in some tests, this shows up to 10% FPS increase over the stock speed of 947 MHz, putting it nearly even with a stock R9 290X. Here's the numbers: 4K: 7970: 42-45 R9 290: 54-58 Difference: 29% 4K + Helios: 7970: 37-39 R9 290: 46-51 Difference: 24-31% Of note, even at 3840x3240, my VRAM usage generally doesn't top 3300. So for now, with a 30% bump, I'm pretty damn happy. Since my 4K TV only has a 30Hz refresh rate, I think the 50-60 FPS range is where you start to see diminishing returns from adding more GPU power, i.e. for example going Crossfire by adding a second R9 290 might push my FPS higher in EDGE, but the increase might not be perceptible on my 4K. I probably still will go Crossfire in a few months though, as most other games are more graphically demanding than DCS and can very much benefit from a second card.

Yep, was just about to come back and update my post but you beat me to it.

Just tried it and it works for me too! Using those two files gets me right back up to 13.9 FPS levels in DCS! Nice find, guys. Now I can finally stop having to always go back to 13.9 whenever a new driver comes out and I try it, only to then be disappointed.

I'm seeing a 20% FPS drop in DCS with 14.1 compared to the 13.9s, which is consistent with every other driver since 13.9.

My friend, are you serious? You haven't seen RICARDO's weathered pit mod? He did an absolutely incredible job and it's a must-have for A-10C: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=101656

Ah yes, I recognize that setup. :) Looks great. I do miss the four screens, but definitely loving now using my single 55" 4k screen along with my 27" touchscreen for Helios. I feel like I'm trading the organic feel of the 4-screen setup (in particular the ability to directly interact with the instruments rather than via Helios) for the organic feel of having the whole pit fit on one screen while everything remains sharp due to the high res. Using your fantastic Helios profile in A-10C, of course.

Well that one's easy -- can't you just hit 'escape' and then 'pause' rather than click 'Fly'?

I've never heard of not being able to click on Fly -- you're talking about on the mission selection screen, right? As for the 2nd problem -- being able to start the mission but unable to click on anything in the 'escape' menu -- this is, as far as I know, an unsolvable problem, and I suffer(ed) from it too. Very, very frustrating. When not using SoftTH, a quick alt-tab out and then back in usually solves not being able to click on the menu. However, SoftTH prevents you from alt-tabbing out, meaning you're often stuck in a situation where you can't alt-tab out and basically have to reboot the computer to regain control. The only partial solution I ever found was to ctrl-alt-del, choose 'switch profile', choose your same profile, Windows will flash the screen a few times, and then you're able to click on the menu again. It's annoying, and slow, but seemed to work pretty reliably for me. Sorry I don't have a better answer. This problem drove me absolutely insane, leading me to sink many hours into testing various fixes, none of which ever worked.

Yeah, I realized afterward that was what you were doing (re: vertical res of 1000) but then forgot to go back and change my post. Right, so you need a total res of 1920x2300. The reason it doesn't appear as an option in DCS is because DCS can't auto-populate odd resolutions like that. You have to either manually specify it in the options.lua file or I believe you can even just type it into the GUI box.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. In order: - I did try moving the screens around within Windows' 'Screen Resolution' menu but this didn't seem to solve anything in terms of getting Helios to see the TS as something other than monitor #3. And I can't change the 'primary' monitor without DCS then displaying on that screen alone. - Swapping where I plug each monitor into the GPU didn't affect the Windows monitor number -- only the order in which I plug them in does that, and even after doing that I found that Helios ignores the Windows monitor numbers. - Yes, I have tried 'Reset Monitors' within Helios, but I don't see any way to manually specify which monitor should have which number. After some more testing, I found a solution that I have to admit to not entirely understanding: 1) Within Windows' 'Screen Resolution' menu, I arrange the primary (55-inch) monitor on top, 27-inch touchscreen on the lower left, and 2nd 27-inch on the lower right (similarly to how I have them arranged physically in my cockpit). 2) I open Helios and it tells me that the TS is #3. I then arrange my Helios buttons on monitor #2 (the 2nd 27-inch). 3) Back in Windows, I swap the positions of the 27-inch monitors. This is disorienting when I move the mouse, since the monitor that is physically on my left appears to Windows like it's on the right, and vice versa. But somehow, Helios now works correctly: the buttons appear on the TS and they work within DCS. So, rather than spend any more time trying to figure out why it works, I'm just going to accept it and move on.