VR Shaders mod for better VR experience

[Hammer1-1]

Its working for me too, but Im getting some issues with closing a mission now as it just wants to hang. Doesnt crash, but sometimes I have to force close.

[speed-of-heat]

I am also getting hangs, but also without the shaders mod applied

[Kegetys]

I added another update to the first post that contains the changes from latest patch and a few other compatibility fixes.

 

There is also a new setting to not disable bloom, it seems its performance hit has reduced in the last 1½ years (or it performs better on my current 2080ti than it did with the previous 1080)

 

Another new setting is supersampling for the albedo (diffuse) textures for objects. This is a very performance-cheap way to get improved clarity especially for the cockpit labels and stuff. So instead of having to supersample the entire rendered scene to get more sharpness, it will sample the diffuse texture multiple times. With this I was able to reduce the pixel density a lot without getting a blurry cockpit, which in turn allowed me to turn on 4xMSAA and everything looks better overall with improved performance.

 

It can be controlled from _HMD.hlsl setting ENABLE_DIFFUSE_SS, default is 4x. I posted a comparison sceenshot on my site here: http://www.kegetys.fi/dcs-shaders-perf-mod-update/ (it looks even better in the headset)

[speed-of-heat]

thanks M8 much appreciated!

[speed-of-heat]

Wow great improvement, i cant easily make something that is a IC pass from this though :( need to do some thinking ...

[sigfan86]

I added another update to the first post that contains the changes from latest patch and a few other compatibility fixes.

 

There is also a new setting to not disable bloom, it seems its performance hit has reduced in the last 1½ years (or it performs better on my current 2080ti than it did with the previous 1080)

 

Another new setting is supersampling for the albedo (diffuse) textures for objects. This is a very performance-cheap way to get improved clarity especially for the cockpit labels and stuff. So instead of having to supersample the entire rendered scene to get more sharpness, it will sample the diffuse texture multiple times. With this I was able to reduce the pixel density a lot without getting a blurry cockpit, which in turn allowed me to turn on 4xMSAA and everything looks better overall with improved performance.

 

It can be controlled from _HMD.hlsl setting ENABLE_DIFFUSE_SS, default is 4x. I posted a comparison sceenshot on my site here: http://www.kegetys.fi/dcs-shaders-perf-mod-update/ (it looks even better in the headset)

 

Awesome work as always. I can report that the settings set to 6x works great with my odyssey + headset & 2070 super. Everything is much clearer, especially with the tomcat

My frame times hover around 12.1ms.

Thank you for this update.

[ironk79]

What a fantastic mod! Just recently tried DCS, after years of il2 inb VR (i dont fly 2d anymore) i just couldnt resist the ka50 any longer.

 

This mod checked all the things i wanted.

- Less (smoke) effects > no more stuttering when going in and moving dirt

- shadows seem more "tamed" still no loss in visual quality

- i am always aiming for 90fps, so far i had to settle with PD of 1.2 to stay under 95% gpu in 99% of time, now just tried 1.3 and performace still the same, maybe even lower!

 

 

Grear job sir!

 

 

8086k@4,9Ghz, 2080 Super, 16GB ram, Oculus Rift

[sigfan86]

What a fantastic mod! Just recently tried DCS, after years of il2 inb VR (i dont fly 2d anymore) i just couldnt resist the ka50 any longer.

 

This mod checked all the things i wanted.

- Less (smoke) effects > no more stuttering when going in and moving dirt

- shadows seem more "tamed" still no loss in visual quality

- i am always aiming for 90fps, so far i had to settle with PD of 1.2 to stay under 95% gpu in 99% of time, now just tried 1.3 and performace still the same, maybe even lower!

 

 

Grear job sir!

 

 

8086k@4,9Ghz, 2080 Super, 16GB ram, Oculus Rift

 

Are you using steam? If so, try setting the resolution of your headset to 199% in the steam VR settings and setting the PD in DCS to 1.0, i was able to get more stable frame times doing it this way and the visual quality wasn't affected

[ironk79]

Are you using steam? If so, try setting the resolution of your headset to 199% in the steam VR settings and setting the PD in DCS to 1.0, i was able to get more stable frame times doing it this way and the visual quality wasn't affected

 

 

no sir, steam VR is a performance pig and it induces a lot of stutter - im using "open composite" and Oculus Tray Tool (OTT), PD of 1,3 (it overrides any setting in DCS) in OTT = SS of 1744x2064, thats about the optimum for me for the Oculus Rift, more SS doesnt make any more difference visually, but hits performance

[speed-of-heat]

Or maybe I was wrong.. it seems to make it easier!!! Gimmie a moment

[speed-of-heat]

Nope sorry these dont work for IC pass, swear to god it did, then ... it didn't

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (Clear Water)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass & Clear Water) (the clear water is a little too clear for me... i will do some more digging when i get a chance)

 

YMMV ...

Edited April 19, 2020 by speed-of-heat

[Hammer1-1]

what does the clear water do?

[speed-of-heat]

in 2.5.6 they introduced some tech that made the water more realistically transparent, the mod natively disables/borks that. The Clear Water variants removes the water.fx file from the mod, which unfortunately seems to be "too clear" and so some of the rivers look invisible..

 

a sort of half way house option is to change the water to medium in gfx settings... YMMV

[imacken]

I don’t have that issue. I just remove water.fx from the mod before applying and the water is perfect showing all the shallows etc.

[Hippo]

Thank you, as always, for all your efforts.

 

However, for the first time, with 2.5.6.47224, I am not seeing the improvements in performance I have come to expect. There is an improvement, but it is maybe 1/3 of what I've been used to from your mod.

 

This is probably down to something I'm doing, or to my limited testing, and please don't think I'm complaining, but I just thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone else agrees.

[speed-of-heat]

I don’t have that issue. I just remove water.fx from the mod before applying and the water is perfect showing all the shallows etc.

 

that works fine in the PG, try caucuses free flight in the 18 and you will see ehat i mean

[CaptYosi]

that works fine in the PG, try caucuses free flight in the 18 and you will see ehat i mean

 

 

Hello Stuartaston: By modifying three parameters in the original "water.fx" file of the sim I managed to reduce transparency in a certain part of rivers and lakes.

Using Notepad ++ I have modified in the original DCS file the following 3 lines, in highlighting in bold what I have modified:

 

 

 

line 885: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, PS_REFRACTION(true)));"

line 894: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, PS_REFRACTION(false)));"

line 903: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, psFilterRefraction(16)));"

 

I still haven't upgraded to the latest OB and I don't know if it will still work. But you can make a copy of the file and modify to see if the change convinces you ...The water no longer looks so transparent and takes on a greenish hue that I don't dislike.

[imacken]

that works fine in the PG, try caucuses free flight in the 18 and you will see ehat i mean

 

Water looks fine in Caucasus and NTTR!

[speed-of-heat]

Nope sorry these dont work for IC pass, swear to god it did, then ... it didn't

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (Clear Water)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass & Clear Water) (the clear water is a little too clear for me... i will do some more digging when i get a chance)

 

YMMV ...

 

These do work but they seem very sensitive to other mods and even the order some in game settings are applied in ... if you have issues try turning off shadows and terrain shadows , restarting DCS and turning each feature on again.. it worked for me ..

 

 

Hello Stuartaston: By modifying three parameters in the original "water.fx" file of the sim I managed to reduce transparency in a certain part of rivers and lakes.

Using Notepad ++ I have modified in the original DCS file the following 3 lines, in highlighting in bold what I have modified:

 

 

 

line 885: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, PS_REFRACTION(true)));"

line 894: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, PS_REFRACTION(false)));"

line 903: "SetPixelShader(CompileShader(ps_5_0, psFilterRefraction(16)));"

 

I still haven't upgraded to the latest OB and I don't know if it will still work. But you can make a copy of the file and modify to see if the change convinces you ...The water no longer looks so transparent and takes on a greenish hue that I don't dislike.

 

This works really well nice compromise! Thanks! I will update the files with this tomorrow ! after i sleep :)

[Hammer1-1]

I just got this working this evening and they seem pretty good at stabilizing my FPS. Honestly cant believe Ive been flying with the rift all these years, I thought the reverb was going to be a pig...and this mod absolutely helps.

[speed-of-heat]

I have updated the water file (for the clear water versions) with the suggestions from @CaptYosi's Post

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (Clear Water)

 

DCS Shaders 2.5.6.47224 (IC Pass & Clear Water)

 

I can't get IC Pass to work with Mustang's Shadow mod

 

Hope this helps!

Edited April 20, 2020 by speed-of-heat

[Bog9y]

Awesome work as always. I can report that the settings set to 6x works great with my odyssey + headset & 2070 super. Everything is much clearer, especially with the tomcat

My frame times hover around 12.1ms.

Thank you for this update.

 

What SS setting have you got in the SteamVR setting?

[speed-of-heat]

on the reverb i just dropped to 108

[imacken]

What SS setting have you got in the SteamVR setting?

 

I run 150%.

[Bog9y]

I was asking sigfan86 because he is running MSAA x6 with a 2070 Super. I got a 2080 Super and have MSAA OFF with 130 SS in SteamVR. If I turn the SS to 96 and put MSAA x2 I get a similar image but with more stutters and ghosting.

 

Was just curious how he is getting good performance on MSAA 6x with a slightly weaker GPU.