VR Performance in 2.5

[Zadren]

Hi there peeps. Today I went to use my Oculus for the first time since 2.5 dropped, and was mortified at the quality and performance. Usually, I'm flying on a monitor and only have to tweak things a little in 1.5 and 2.2 to get decent performance if I decide to fly in VR. (I know, I should do it more.)

 

Could someone please point me towards some recommended settings/tips for both Nvidia and DCS 2.5 to get things moving past 15fps, based on the following specs? :cry:

 

i7 7700k running at 4.8 Ghz

Asus Strix 1080ti

16GB DDR4 RAM

EVO850 SSD

 

Apologies if this has already been answered, but I seem to be tying myself up in knots trying to get decent info.

 

Cheers :helpsmilie:

[Goblin]

Shadows eats a lot of FPS.

MSAA with Deferred shading is also a great FPS hog in VR.

I have textures and water on high. View distance medium. Heatblur, civ. traffic and lens flare off. Shadows off or flat. Msaa off. Deferred shading on. Pixel density 1.5. Anisotropic filtering x2. Trees on 50% grass on 20%. Preload on 100%

[Sandman1330]

For me, the biggest change was when I dropped visibility range from extreme to high. This gave me enough headroom to bring in DS with msaa x8, while maintaining 45 with occasional drops to 30, even in Normandy. Shadows flat, but most everything else maxed, PD 1.5

[Wolf8312]

Hi there peeps. Today I went to use my Oculus for the first time since 2.5 dropped, and was mortified at the quality and performance. Usually, I'm flying on a monitor and only have to tweak things a little in 1.5 and 2.2 to get decent performance if I decide to fly in VR. (I know, I should do it more.)

 

Could someone please point me towards some recommended settings/tips for both Nvidia and DCS 2.5 to get things moving past 15fps, based on the following specs? :cry:

 

i7 7700k running at 4.8 Ghz

Asus Strix 1080ti

16GB DDR4 RAM

EVO850 SSD

 

Apologies if this has already been answered, but I seem to be tying myself up in knots trying to get decent info.

 

Cheers :helpsmilie:

 

Ah dont worry on that rig I'm sure we can get you up and running! Everybody had difficulties at first.

 

Firstly go to your saved game folders and delete the contents of the metashaders and FXo files. Also delete options lua in the config folder.

 

Then put deferred shading on, and reduce MSSA to 2x and pixel density down to 1.2 . You can with your system get away with 4x and it will still run nice and smooth but you will get snappier performance with x2. Good advice actually is to turn MSSA off and fly for a few days without it. After that X2 will look fantastic!

 

As for the rest of the options I imagine you already know them. My guess is you just need to delete the folders mentioned above. Turn off shadows, lower visibility range, maybe lower the tree vis, and the ground clutter a bit. Turn off V-sync.

 

With your system you should get very good performance as the game is actually much better now than it was considering I am able to use both MSSA and deferred shading, and still have things like heavy cloud cover. I have got a bit of a beast myself though and don't think I'd have been to happy were I still on my old rig. The game definitely needs a lot of work!

[=DECOY=]

These settings give me a solid 45fps unless over 10,000ft then goes to 90fps

 

PD set to 1.5, my specs are in my sig

 

[Wolf8312]

For me, the biggest change was when I dropped visibility range from extreme to high. This gave me enough headroom to bring in DS with msaa x8, while maintaining 45 with occasional drops to 30, even in Normandy. Shadows flat, but most everything else maxed, PD 1.5

 

If you drop your settings down a bit dude I'm sure you'll have better performance such a high PD considering you also have MSSA and deferred shading on! It gets choppy on my rig if I go over 1.4 PD though I havent tested it recently, I think there was an update last night, so I live in hope!

 

I cant tell people what works best for them but I would advise the OP to lower his ambitions and expectations!

 

Try lowering them and see what you think! I think too its been proven that 8x MSSA is actually just 4x MSSA!

[toutenglisse]

Hi Zadren, "to get things moving past 15fps"! Man ! looks like a trouble !

I would say do what Wolf8312 said about cleaning saved games folder and settings, plus I'd say also do a clean and repair (process in BIGNEWY sig).

[StrongHarm]

Short answer:

VR PD = 1.2

MSAA = 2x

Anisotropic Filtering = 2x

Deferred Shading = ON

Terrain Shadows = FLAT

Cockpit Global Illumination = ON

Preload Radius = lower can be better

 

Long Answer (with test data and additional info):

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=201647

[Gladman]

Jabbers is the man for this. I"ve been using his settings for a while now. He stated somewhere that he never changed anything for 2.5

 

[StrongHarm]

Gladman, I don't disagree with you. Doing nothing is an option. The other options are to either do extensive testing, or use someone else's extensive testing. I like to share my findings so people with similar hardware don't have to spend several hours collecting their own, if they so choose. See link in my last post for full data.

 

I too respect Jabber's opinions, but his advise comes with a caution that he's targeting high alt MP performance over all else. He didn't need to use new settings because the new terrain doesn't really effect high alt MP. I personally like to fly helos sometimes, and with 2.5 I'll often find myself on simple freeflights to enjoy the amazing work ED has done with the new terrain. If you're using Jabber's settings then you're getting a 4 quality and 10 performance (according to my analysis). If that's a persons goal then they're right on target. If you want 8 quality 8 performance, I've found that 2xMSAA on top of 1.2PD not only increases performance and visual quality with deferred shading on, but it also exposes the full beauty of the new terrain. This is not in disagreement with you or Jabber, it's just what I've found.

 

The one essential change from Jabber's settings for old DCS I would recommend is Preload Radius. Having it all the way up as Jabber does, regardless of your system specs or performance goals, will cause issues. 2.5 creates new considerations for this setting.

 

To your point though Gladman, some people aren't interested in spending a lot of time trying to tweak their settings. Even if someone is sharing their test data, they would rather just get to flying. Nothing wrong with that. Enjoy.

 

You'll notice that the quality/performance variations are not at all linear or logical.

Here's the full analytical breakdown:

 

[TABLE]

__PD__

|

_MSAA_

|

_Quality_

|Performance

1|

0

|

0

|

10

1.2

|

0

|

2

|

10

1.4

|

0

|

4

|

10

1.6

|

0

|

4

|

10

1.8

|

0

|

4

|

8

2.0

|

0

|

6

|

6

1

|

2

|

6

|

10

1.2

|

2

|

8

|

8

1.4

|

2

|

8

|

6

1.6

|

2

|

10

|

4

1.8

|

2

|

10

|

2

2.0

|

2

|

10

|

2

1

|

4

|

8

|

4

1.2

|

4

|

8

|

4

1.4

|

4

|

8

|

2

1.6

|

4

|

10

|

0

1.8

|

4

|

10

|

0

2.0

|

4

|

10

|

0

1

|

8

|

8

|

2

1.2+

|

8

|

10

|

0

[/TABLE]

[Sandman1330]

If you drop your settings down a bit dude I'm sure you'll have better performance such a high PD considering you also have MSSA and deferred shading on! It gets choppy on my rig if I go over 1.4 PD though I havent tested it recently, I think there was an update last night, so I live in hope!

 

I cant tell people what works best for them but I would advise the OP to lower his ambitions and expectations!

 

Try lowering them and see what you think! I think too its been proven that 8x MSSA is actually just 4x MSSA!

 

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at, even with the lower frames it runs smooth. Dropping to 4x MSAA makes little difference, and I don’t want to go lower than 4. I like the quality over the FPS.

[Wolf8312]

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at, even with the lower frames it runs smooth. Dropping to 4x MSAA makes little difference, and I don’t want to go lower than 4. I like the quality over the FPS.

 

Yeah I know 4x is perfectly acceptable, but do you find it runs well combined with a PD of 1.5? At least for me the last time I checked it was too choppy like that!

[StrongHarm]

Not only does 4x decrease my performance, but it also introduces visual trails on edges when I turn my head, especially on cockpit objects. I try to avoid this effect at all costs. It will decrease your immersion and cause a lot of eye strain in VR. I've never seen this happen when using 2x, even when turning my head fast in a graphically intensive situation.

[btaft]

Hi Zarden,

 

I was struggling with settings for a good bit. Basically, it was a stuttering mess. I tried all sorts of settings but none of them made much difference. Next I decided to set the affinity for the application by getting it off cores 0,1 and restricting it to 2,4,6,8,10 on my 6850K (1080 GTX). Now everything runs smooth and I can get meaningful results by adjusting the other graphical parameters to increase or decrease the quality vs. performance. Performance is now around 45-60 the majority of the time, higher at high altitude and sometimes dipping into the upper 30's in congested areas. But at least it runs smooth

 

Hope this helps

[Wolf8312]

Not only does 4x decrease my performance, but it also introduces visual trails on edges when I turn my head, especially on cockpit objects. I try to avoid this effect at all costs. It will decrease your immersion and cause a lot of eye strain in VR. I've never seen this happen when using 2x, even when turning my head fast in a graphically intensive situation.

 

Yes this effect is why I too use x2 over 4 as well, and I fly helicopters mostly so I'm sure its not as bigger problem for me, but the ghosting effect is especially distracting if want to get into a dogfight. For another well known sim I also make sure PD is lowered for this very reason (dogfights) although many people on similar rigs as mine bump theirs up as high as possible.

 

I find although it might look better with higher graphics, in the end a better performance makes for a more immersive realistic experience.

[Sandman1330]

Yeah I know 4x is perfectly acceptable, but do you find it runs well combined with a PD of 1.5? At least for me the last time I checked it was too choppy like that!

 

It’s pretty good. Even when FPS gets low, it’s still smooth.

[Jabbers_]

Gladman, I don't disagree with you. Doing nothing is an option. The other options are to either do extensive testing, or use someone else's extensive testing. I like to share my findings so people with similar hardware don't have to spend several hours collecting their own, if they so choose. See link in my last post for full data.

 

I too respect Jabber's opinions, but his advise comes with a caution that he's targeting high alt MP performance over all else. He didn't need to use new settings because the new terrain doesn't really effect high alt MP. I personally like to fly helos sometimes, and with 2.5 I'll often find myself on simple freeflights to enjoy the amazing work ED has done with the new terrain. If you're using Jabber's settings then you're getting a 4 quality and 10 performance (according to my analysis). If that's a persons goal then they're right on target. If you want 8 quality 8 performance, I've found that 2xMSAA on top of 1.2PD not only increases performance and visual quality with deferred shading on, but it also exposes the full beauty of the new terrain. This is not in disagreement with you or Jabber, it's just what I've found.

 

The one essential change from Jabber's settings for old DCS I would recommend is Preload Radius. Having it all the way up as Jabber does, regardless of your system specs or performance goals, will cause issues. 2.5 creates new considerations for this setting.

 

To your point though Gladman, some people aren't interested in spending a lot of time trying to tweak their settings. Even if someone is sharing their test data, they would rather just get to flying. Nothing wrong with that. Enjoy.

 

While i do have many reasons for my settings (MP, Streaming, etc) I do not feel they are a 4/8... lower PD makes things look way worse to me, but to each his own. Also no issues here with preload radius at max on 2.5. I would like to point out that in all of these "Performance" discussions, machine spec is of 100% relevance, and generally 80% of the time left out of the conversation sadly. Having done extensive testing in VR prior to the release, I can personally say that for my machine specs and situation the settings stayed relatively the same, except I actually upped trees, grass and shadows a bit since there was extra room FPS-wise for me.

 

P.S. @StrongHarm using a 1-10 scale for performance numbers is completely relative to you, and not anyone else. If you wanna do a test like that in the future, use a number that matters, like avg FPS (this is all anyone cares about, highest settings possible to have 45+ or more FPS) 1-10 is not helpful, i have no idea what a 6 or 8 look like to you in terms of quality and performance.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Jabbers_

[metzger]

Testing environment is also of high importance. Try test the same mission with f-86 and mig-21 and you will see a drastic difference. Time of the day also matters, number of units dropping shadows and being rendered.. dcs is very inconsistent in fps and the variables are countless.

 

Sent from my Redmi 4 using Tapatalk

[StrongHarm]

Jabbers, I'm a Business Intelligence Architect so I like to use weighted measures. Scale of 1-10 is something simple that most people can relate to. I didn't want to disable ASW to get literal FPS values as I thought it might alter my tests. I'm not on the ED test team anymore, so I don't put these together often, and I really try to avoid the DCS boards these days because of all the contention, but next time I put one together I'll better consider my analysis scale. Good advice.

 

You're right about system specs creating a huge number of variables. In my full analysis I mention this. My system is very well maintained. I'm usually high on the 3DMark and BOINC lists as I've been in tech for 30yrs. Even with my system power though, I find that MSAAx4 cuts my performance in half, but MSAAx2 with PD1.2 looks and performs better than 1.8 MSAAx0 for me. You're right though, perception and system fitness can create different results.

[Sniper175]

Now add in the factor of each individuals eyes as what looks best per person will vary. But it's great fellas like you take your knowledge and apply it for the community benefit.

After hotfix 3 I have noticed performance improvement plus rolling back to 388.59 made major improvements for me

 

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Jacks]

Is anyone else getting micro-stutters (every few seconds) when flying helos close to the ground?

 

An upgrade to an 8700k and a fresh install of both Windows and DCS has not got rid of this problem for me!

[Wolf8312]

Is anyone else getting micro-stutters (every few seconds) when flying helos close to the ground?

 

An upgrade to an 8700k and a fresh install of both Windows and DCS has not got rid of this problem for me!

 

Well first what are your settings and on what terrain/map/area?

 

It's hard to know if by stutters people mean the re-projection or ghosting effect or actual stutters. I cant say I get stutters but with 4x MSSA when I turn my head or look to the ground I guess you could call it a stuttery effect. That's why most use 2x MSSA and 2 PD at the moment.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Wolf8312

[StrongHarm]

Jacks, post a screenshot of your DCS video settings. What's your PD at?

 

When you upgraded to the 8700k, did you get new RAM or stick with the same 1600mhz DDR3? The older RAM with the 8700k can cause a bottleneck.

.

 

Here are some fixes I've seen for micro stutter. I'd try them one at a time so you'll know which one solved your problem. Replying with this information might help someone else. If you find a solution that's not in the list, be sure to reply with that too.

• Make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest version. I know this sounds trivial, but I assure you that it can cause some seriously weird issues if you're on an old BIOS version while using newer drivers for components that are plugged into your MB.
  
• Perform a clean install of the nVidia drivers. When you're doing the install you'll see a checkmark at the bottom of the screen for 'Clean Install'. Be aware, this will delete any 3d profiles you have set in the nVidia control panel, but it also refreshes all DLLs and gets rid of files from previous driver versions.
  
• Make sure that your Rift Sensor is connected to a USB 3.0 connection rather than a 2.0. This can cause stutters and edge bleed.
  
• Reinstall the Rift Drivers.
  
• If you're using Windows 10, make sure you turn off Game Mode in the OS settings. **This is a common one
  
• Download and install Razer Cortex. This app has a database of known 'unneeded tasks and services' that may be running on your system that could interfere with game performance. When you left click on the tray icon and engage 'boost' it automatically ends task and stops services that aren't required, freeing resources for games. After you're done flying, simply left click on the tray icon and select 'Restore Now' and it will restart all the tasks and services it stopped. This is a safe application that has never stopped a service that I actually needed, and has never caused me any issues. It frees up system resources. I recommend this because you may have something running in the background that is causing your issue, but why search for a needle in a haystack when you can burn the haystack down.
  
• If you've 'Set Affinity' to specific CPU cores, remove it and choose all cores. Setting affinity can be a good thing if it's done right, but removing it will eliminate affinity as root cause.
  
• Delete the files from "..\Saved Games\DCS\FXO and .\metashaders"
  
• Bring Preload Radius all the way to low. Test in 10% increments until you receive desired performance
  
• I know it sounds crazy, but try hitting ALT+ENTER to make the mirrored view on your monitor go full screen. I know it shouldn't have an effect, and I don't understand it, but I've seen this fix stutters for more than one person.
  
• Read this post for ver2.5 VR tweaks https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=201647
  

 

Does anyone have any other potential fixes to add to this list?

[hannibal]

does anyone know if the new oculus home beta causes performance hits on DCS 2.5?

 

StrongHarm.. razorcortez is the shizzzz... thanks for putting me on to this.

 

also i did the Nvidia control panel settings,

max performance for power and quality on high performance, via use advanced settings

Edited February 18, 2018 by hannibal

[Jacks]

Jacks, post a screenshot of your DCS video settings. What's your PD at?

 

When you upgraded to the 8700k, did you get new RAM or stick with the same 1600mhz DDR3? The older RAM with the 8700k can cause a bottleneck.

.

 

Here are some fixes I've seen for micro stutter. I'd try them one at a time so you'll know which one solved your problem. Replying with this information might help someone else. If you find a solution that's not in the list, be sure to reply with that too.

• Make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest version. I know this sounds trivial, but I assure you that it can cause some seriously weird issues if you're on an old BIOS version while using newer drivers for components that are plugged into your MB.
  
• Perform a clean install of the nVidia drivers. When you're doing the install you'll see a checkmark at the bottom of the screen for 'Clean Install'. Be aware, this will delete any 3d profiles you have set in the nVidia control panel, but it also refreshes all DLLs and gets rid of files from previous driver versions.
  
• Make sure that your Rift Sensor is connected to a USB 3.0 connection rather than a 2.0. This can cause stutters and edge bleed.
  
• Reinstall the Rift Drivers.
  
• If you're using Windows 10, make sure you turn off Game Mode in the OS settings. **This is a common one
  
• Download and install Razer Cortex. This app has a database of known 'unneeded tasks and services' that may be running on your system that could interfere with game performance. When you left click on the tray icon and engage 'boost' it automatically ends task and stops services that aren't required, freeing resources for games. After you're done flying, simply left click on the tray icon and select 'Restore Now' and it will restart all the tasks and services it stopped. This is a safe application that has never stopped a service that I actually needed, and has never caused me any issues. It frees up system resources. I recommend this because you may have something running in the background that is causing your issue, but why search for a needle in a haystack when you can burn the haystack down.
  
• If you've 'Set Affinity' to specific CPU cores, remove it and choose all cores. Setting affinity can be a good thing if it's done right, but removing it will eliminate affinity as root cause.
  
• Delete the files from "..\Saved Games\DCS\FXO and .\metashaders"
  
• Bring Preload Radius all the way to low. Test in 10% increments until you receive desired performance
  
• I know it sounds crazy, but try hitting ALT+ENTER to make the mirrored view on your monitor go full screen. I know it shouldn't have an effect, and I don't understand it, but I've seen this fix stutters for more than one person.
  
• Read this post for ver2.5 VR tweaks https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=201647
  

 

Does anyone have any other potential fixes to add to this list?

 

Thanks StrongHarm, I have tried all of the above (except reinstalling the rift drivers as I can work out how to do that and using razor cortex as used to used it a while ago and found no performance gains) and no improvement. I am hoping that this is a dcs issue that will get sorted rather than a wider software or hardware issue that will persist as it ruining the experience for me.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Jacks