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Shared Memory Viewports


derammo

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People are having a hard time building larger simulator setups with Helios or other "additional screens" software.

 

It comes down to the limitation of DCS having to render the "exported" viewports itself as part of the giant window that it opens. As a result, spanning many monitors or multiple graphics cards results in horrible frame rate penalties for no good reason, since these additional screens are just showing 2D viewports.

 

If we could get an shared memory API to access the viewports, we could render them ourselves in another process (like Helios for example) on other monitors that DCS does not need to know about. Then we could have large wide FOV setups with many additional displays for instruments and exported views.

 

You would not need to provide any software to do the actual displaying, just an API into a shared memory arena to which you can copy your rendered 2D viewports. We would handle the rest.

 

I am asking this now in case it can be slotted into the graphics development work that seems to be going on continuously these days.

 

An alternative if shared memory is just not good for you would be to open a second window for the exported viewports, so it could be rendered in 2D on a separate card or cards.

 

This may be a dream, but it is my dream and I like it.

 

Thanks for DCS.

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Excellent idea.

My controls & seat

 

Main controls: , BRD-N v4 Flightstick (Kreml C5 controller), TM Warthog Throttle (Kreml F3 controller), BRD-F2 Restyling Bf-109 Pedals w. damper, TrackIR5, Gametrix KW-908 (integrated into RAV4 seat)

Stick grips:

Thrustmaster Warthog

Thrustmaster Cougar (x2)

Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS

BRD KG13

 

Standby controls:

BRD-M2 Mi-8 Pedals (Ruddermaster controller)

BRD-N v3 Flightstick w. exch. grip upgrade (Kreml C5 controller)

Thrustmaster Cougar Throttle

Pilot seat

 

 

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This sounds a lot like what UltraMFCD was doing.... Sgt Baker is the expert who created this gem of an app. Currently I believe he is working on reviving it to work with the latest dcs release....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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overalien

Hog Driver starting to really like the Tomcat

 

System specs:

Intel i7-8700k - OC to 5.0 GHz

| 32 GB RAM 3600 MHz | Nvidia 1080ti SLi | Mixed Storage - Win 10 and DCS on Samsung SSD 970 Pro

Flightgear:

7 Displays (3 x 1440p, 1 X 1080p, 3 X Lilliput Touch) | 3 x Cougar MFDs

| Warthog HOTAS | Thrustmaster TPR Pedals | iBEAM Shaker + Simshaker for Aviators w. Sound Module | Helios | VAICOM Pro + AIRIO | TrackIR 5

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This sounds a lot like what UltraMFCD was doing.... Sgt Baker is the expert who created this gem of an app. Currently I believe he is working on reviving it to work with the latest dcs release....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

agreed, but us stealing it from texture memory or graphics memory is technically illegal reverse engineering that could stop working at any time, whereas if ED does it then its legal and will continue to work

 

Also, it is a crazy amount of work for each individual aircraft the hacking route.

 

[Edit: I am guessing here, as UltaMFCD was also apparently closed source. So it's not like we can share this tech.]


Edited by derammo
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agreed, but us stealing it from texture memory or graphics memory is technically illegal reverse engineering that could stop working at any time, whereas if ED does it then its legal and will continue to work

 

Also, it is a crazy amount of work for each individual aircraft the hacking route.

 

[Edit: I am guessing here, as UltaMFCD was also apparently closed source. So it's not like we can share this tech.]

 

totally with you on this. let us hope ED finds time to consider it. UltraMFCD definitely proved how performance efficient and "simple" (from a UI point of view) this approach can be. kudos to Sgt. Baker for having braved the mountain of hacking effort to get the earlier versions to work and stay working.

 

would a poll of user demand help to get ED's attention I wonder? I'll be a happy supporter being the owner of an Ueber-Export rig... ;)

__________________

overalien

Hog Driver starting to really like the Tomcat

 

System specs:

Intel i7-8700k - OC to 5.0 GHz

| 32 GB RAM 3600 MHz | Nvidia 1080ti SLi | Mixed Storage - Win 10 and DCS on Samsung SSD 970 Pro

Flightgear:

7 Displays (3 x 1440p, 1 X 1080p, 3 X Lilliput Touch) | 3 x Cougar MFDs

| Warthog HOTAS | Thrustmaster TPR Pedals | iBEAM Shaker + Simshaker for Aviators w. Sound Module | Helios | VAICOM Pro + AIRIO | TrackIR 5

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People are having a hard time building larger simulator setups with Helios or other "additional screens" software.

 

It comes down to the limitation of DCS having to render the "exported" viewports itself as part of the giant window that it opens. As a result, spanning many monitors or multiple graphics cards results in horrible frame rate penalties for no good reason, since these additional screens are just showing 2D viewports.

 

If we could get an shared memory API to access the viewports, we could render them ourselves in another process (like Helios for example) on other monitors that DCS does not need to know about. Then we could have large wide FOV setups with many additional displays for instruments and exported views.

 

You would not need to provide any software to do the actual displaying, just an API into a shared memory arena to which you can copy your rendered 2D viewports. We would handle the rest.

 

I am asking this now in case it can be slotted into the graphics development work that seems to be going on continuously these days.

 

An alternative if shared memory is just not good for you would be to open a second window for the exported viewports, so it could be rendered in 2D on a separate card or cards.

 

This may be a dream, but it is my dream and I like it.

 

Thanks for DCS.

 

Excellent suggestion. T-configuration sufferer here so I would welcome any API relief possibilities.

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People are having a hard time building larger simulator setups with Helios or other "additional screens" software.

 

It comes down to the limitation of DCS having to render the "exported" viewports itself as part of the giant window that it opens. As a result, spanning many monitors or multiple graphics cards results in horrible frame rate penalties for no good reason, since these additional screens are just showing 2D viewports.

 

If we could get an shared memory API to access the viewports, we could render them ourselves in another process (like Helios for example) on other monitors that DCS does not need to know about. Then we could have large wide FOV setups with many additional displays for instruments and exported views.

 

You would not need to provide any software to do the actual displaying, just an API into a shared memory arena to which you can copy your rendered 2D viewports. We would handle the rest.

 

I am asking this now in case it can be slotted into the graphics development work that seems to be going on continuously these days.

 

An alternative if shared memory is just not good for you would be to open a second window for the exported viewports, so it could be rendered in 2D on a separate card or cards.

 

This may be a dream, but it is my dream and I like it.

 

Thanks for DCS.

 

+1 to this idea

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600

MB: B450M Pro4

RAM: 16Gb DDR4

SSD: 500GB

GPU: MSI GTX 1070 8GB

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Adding my support for this issue.

 

This would be a huge quality of life improvement for many of us. Please give this strong consideration ED. This change would do more for my in-game performance than any other graphical change/fix on the schedule right now.

 

Great suggestion Ammo!

Hangar: A-7 | A-10C | AV-8B | F-14B | F-15C | F-15E | F-16C | F-18C | KA-50 | Mi-8 | SA342 | UH-1H

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  • 4 weeks later...

+1

 

 

 

cockpit builders really need such a solution!!!!

 

 

that would make things so much easier...

CockpitPC1: R9 5950X|64GB DDR4|512GB M2SSD|2TB M2SSD|RTX3090|ReverbG2|Win11Pro - PC2: PhnIIX6 1100T|32GB DDR2|2x2TB HDD|2x GTX660 SLI|Win7Pro64
ComUnitPC1: R9 3900XT|32GB DDR4|2x2TB HDD|RTX2070|Win11Pro - PC2: PhnIIX6 1100T|16GB DDR2|2x2TB HDD|GTX660|Win7Pro64
ComUnitPC3: AthlnIIX2 250|2GB DDR2|2TB HDD|5950Ultra|2xVoodooII SLI|WinXPPro32&WinME - PC4: K6-2+|768MB SDR|640GB HDD|Geforce256DDR|VoodooI|Win98SE

DCS - Modules - 1.jpg

DCS - Modules - 2.jpg

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