View (draw) distances

[Laithar]

Since the seventies, I've enjoyed flying various simulations on various computers built by Commodore and then finally migrating to the PC. When I first bought DCS World, I had a feeling it was going to be the biggest and best to date and Eagle Dynamics have not disappointed. I love the A10-C, AV8B and now the F/A18-C (I even enjoy flitting around in the Huey).

I'm more interested in the flying than blowing things up and shooting things down and for that alone I am well happy with the simulation. That said, whenever I find a problem, despite knowing things are in early access and are continuously being developed, I trawl through the forums to see if I can find an answer. I often hope that it is an easy fix but that's not always the case.

 

 

With regard to draw distances, I have everything turned up to max but still distant objects seem to pop out of nowhere. I'm sure many of you are aware of the problem. It doesn't seem to matter whether I am using a 4k setting or tune the screen down to 1080, objects seem to be hidden behind an invisiblity cloak until you get a certain distance away and then bam, they are as large as life in front of you. Case in point, the thick black plume of smoke emanating from the Tarawa. As you fly towards the Tarawa using TACAN as a guide, there is no gradual fade in...it just appears. Obviously this happens with trees and buildings too as they have a tendency to grow out of the ground quite rapidly. And I guess it is what governs spotting targets too, to a degree. I can zoom in and they appear sooner, which seems to suggest that the draw distance is zoomed too but relying on zoom is not the way to go as that introduces the necessity to keep your head completely still or have TrackIR view bounce all over the screen especially if what you are looking at is not central on the screen. I also notice that if using a targeting pod or such like, I can see further into the distance and there is a definite 'fog' where beyond the line you see scenery but no ground objects and as the line moves in the the general direction of the aircraft, objects pop in and out of view instantly.

 

 

I realise that sometimes, to get software to run on certain computers, decisions have to be made to 'tone' down certain settings but I consider myself lucky in that I have a very powerful computer with a decent amount of RAM so I wonder if there is a setting hidden in a lua file somewhere that governs the draw distance so that I can see things from further away? Something that will move that fog line further into the distance or eliminate altogether? At the very least it would be nice to be able to see objects smaller so that there is more of a gradual introduction.

[DflippinK]

in the main DCS folder:

 

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Config

 

 

you can open the graphics.lua and tweak some of the settings in there and also edit the distance factors for each visibility range setting (Low, Medium, High, ect..) at line 330.. just be sure to backup the original graphics.lua so you can easily revert any changes.

[Nick_17]

Thx for the tip, just pulled extreme from 1.5 up to 6... huge change...looks awesome!

The performance did not even suffer that much.

[DflippinK]

Thx for the tip, just pulled extreme from 1.5 up to 6... huge change...looks awesome!

The performance did not even suffer that much.

 

 

Wow!!.. up to 6!!... or 1.6??.. figure 6 would cause some issues!!

[Nick_17]

Wow!!.. up to 6!!... or 1.6??.. figure 6 would cause some issues!!

 

Yea...up to 6. I...ehh...just saw what you mean. Nevada was working great, but the Caucasus and PG map had some weird issues and less performance.

I'll test some other settings.

[Nick_17]

2 seems to be working great for me so far

[bandit648]

While we're on the topic of lua editing, does anyone know if there are any settings that affect the brightness and view distance of runway lights?