DCS 2.7 shader edits

[LanceCriminal86]

I believe Mustang hung his spurs up a good while ago. With the constant changes ED were making to shaders it probably was just a lot to keep up with. At this point it would probably be best for someone to start over mostly fresh and try to work through and replicate some of the changes but off the latest versions of ED's shaders, at least those that can still be edited.

[Eldur]

I wish he'd update this still. Was just about right and looked great, getting the pre-Channel map haze and visibility back in VR. The only other option is lefuneste's 3dmigoto mod with the haze setting in it which somehow though looks not as good as Mustang's shader (and it keeps breaking constantly with DCS updates as well), or for the matter of fact, ED's shaders prior to 2.5.6.50321. Sad thing though is that ED never acknowledged that anything was changed back then, but it certainly did. I'm literally unable to make out airfields that I totally know where they are from 20k ft and above or more than 5nm of distance without such mods since even at the CAVOK standard DCS day.

[Fiztex]

19.08.2022 в 13:35, Eldur сказал:

I wish he'd update this still. Was just about right and looked great, getting the pre-Channel map haze and visibility back in VR. The only other option is lefuneste's 3dmigoto mod with the haze setting in it which somehow though looks not as good as Mustang's shader (and it keeps breaking constantly with DCS updates as well), or for the matter of fact, ED's shaders prior to 2.5.6.50321. Sad thing though is that ED never acknowledged that anything was changed back then, but it certainly did. I'm literally unable to make out airfields that I totally know where they are from 20k ft and above or more than 5nm of distance without such mods since even at the CAVOK standard DCS day.

You can edit haze value in any shaders, e.g. take Taz1004 VR shaders and look through the atmosphere.hlsl file for "Taz1004" comment.

[swartbyron]

Can anybody help me adjust the haze using the atmosphere.hlsl file and possibly attach an example? 

I find the haze particularly bad on the Caucasus map since Mustangs mod stoped working.

 

[Fiztex]

23 часа назад, swartbyron сказал:

Can anybody help me adjust the haze using the atmosphere.hlsl file and possibly attach an example? 

I find the haze particularly bad on the Caucasus map since Mustangs mod stoped working.

Look for VR shaders mod from Taz1004 and study atmosphere.hlsl from it. 

[EvMstein]

On 9/23/2022 at 4:36 PM, swartbyron said:

Can anybody help me adjust the haze using the atmosphere.hlsl file and possibly attach an example? 

I find the haze particularly bad on the Caucasus map since Mustangs mod stoped working.

 

Hey man did you found any clues yet? The amount of haze is really annoying...

[swartbyron]

7 hours ago, EvMstein said:

Hey man did you found any clues yet? The amount of haze is really annoying...

There is a  VR shader mod that reduces the haze by recompiling all your shaders but I can't remember off had which one it was. 

I've been having good successes using ReShade 5.8.0 and tweaking [FakeHDR.fx] or [Curves.fx] to my liking. 

Edited May 13, 2023 by swartbyron

[lefuneste01]

7 hours ago, EvMstein said:

Hey man did you found any clues yet? The amount of haze is really annoying...

You can try my mod : https://forum.dcs.world/topic/207154-3dmigoto-vr-mod-for-dcs-label-masking-color-enhancement-sharpen-fxaa-copypaste-of-radio-msg ans setup the amount of haze while in cockpit by using a menu.

 

[bandit648]

Thanks to @Mustang for his work on this. Its mind boggling that ED still hasn't built in better control over view distance but here we are. This mod is needed now more than ever since 2.9.3 brings significant performance improvements.

I removed the shader mods and updated the view distance part of the mod for compatibility with 2.9.3. The mod increases the view distance for all settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra and Extreme). It also adds two additional view distance settings, Ultimate and Insane. I run a 4K/Track-IR setup with a 4090. I'm using Ultimate and it looks amazing and runs great. Sometimes I turn down the tree view distance slider if I need some extra FPS like in Marianas or South Atlantic maps.

This mod also adds a Ultra shadows setting that enables higher resolution shadows.

Disclaimer: NOT recommended VR. 

Install with OVGME or other mod manager into the main DCS install folder.

**UPDATE - I found some glitching with mirrors on Ultimate and Insane settings and fixed it. If you downloaded earlier download it again and re-install.

 

 

GFX_DCS_enhanced_visuals.zip

Edited February 27, 2024 by bandit648
fixed issue with mirrors

[Valium]

20 hours ago, bandit648 said:

Thanks to @Mustang for his work on this. Its mind boggling that ED still hasn't built in better control over view distance but here we are. This mod is needed now more than ever since 2.9.3 brings significant performance improvements.

I removed the shader mods and updated the view distance part of the mod for compatibility with 2.9.3. The mod increases the view distance for all settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra and Extreme). It also adds two additional view distance settings, Ultimate and Insane. I run a 4K/Track-IR setup with a 4090. I'm using Ultimate and it looks amazing and runs great. Sometimes I turn down the tree view distance slider if I need some extra FPS like in Marianas or South Atlantic maps.

This mod also adds a Ultra shadows setting that enables higher resolution shadows.

Disclaimer: NOT recommended VR. 

Install with OVGME or other mod manager into the main DCS install folder.

**UPDATE - I found some glitching with mirrors on Ultimate and Insane settings and fixed it. If you downloaded earlier download it again and re-install.

 

 

GFX_DCS_enhanced_visuals.zip 16.47 kB · 19 downloads

 

How to turn it on?

[bandit648]

44 minutes ago, Valium said:

How to turn it on?

After installing the mod, just select your options in the dcs settings menu under visibility range. There are two new ones called Ultimate and Insane but I increased visibility range for all of the other visibility settings so you can find what works best on your system.

There's also a new shadow option "Ultra" under shadow options.

[Valium]

On 2/28/2024 at 2:30 PM, bandit648 said:

After installing the mod, just select your options in the dcs settings menu under visibility range. There are two new ones called Ultimate and Insane but I increased visibility range for all of the other visibility settings so you can find what works best on your system.

There's also a new shadow option "Ultra" under shadow options.

Thanks, it works.
How far changes are for extreme?
Ultimate seems interesting, insane is to more for my computer.

I can feel difference here but in case of shadows I don't see it.
Can you show some comparisment?

 

What would be worth to turn off from standard dcs settings to improve fps, which doesn't make a huge difference in game?

Edited March 1, 2024 by Valium

[bandit648]

1 hour ago, Valium said:

Thanks, it works.
How far changes are for extreme?
Ultimate seems interesting, insane is to more for my computer.

I can feel difference here but in case of shadows I don't see it.
Can you show some comparisment?

 

What would be worth to turn off from standard dcs settings to improve fps, which doesn't make a huge difference in game?

 

 

Extreme has a distance factor of 3.5 vs the default that is 1.5. I don't recommend Insane other then maybe to take some screenshots. One problem I found is that on Sinai map there's a issue with buildings popping in over Cairo when using any setting above Ultra. All other maps are fine. Syria looks great and I can go up to Ultimate without issues. If you like the higher view distance setting but need a little bit better performance, simply lower the forest view distance slider in the options menu and this will give a significant performance boost.

For ultra shadows I believe it enables a higher resolution so you should notice sharper shadows. I recall seeing some comparison screenshots on the forums in the past. 

This is the code in graphics.lua that affect the view distance. You can modify these to suite your needs.

MOD graphics.lua:

distancFactor = {
        Low = 1.2;
        Medium = 1.5;
        High = 2.0;
        Ultra = 2.5;
        Extreme = 3.5;
        Ultimate = 5.0;
        Insane = 6.0;

Default graphics.lua:

distancFactor = {
        Low = 0.5;
        Medium = 0.7;
        High = 1.0;
        Ultra = 1.2;
        Extreme = 1.5;

 

 

 

[Valium]

Thanks. In my case Extreme is the best way. No fps loss at all and it's 2.0 times better than default extreme.

Ultimate (1st photo)

Extreme (2nd photo)

In both cases Elbrus well visible which wasn't possible in default extreme.

 

I didn't change forest visibility but it seems it also increases it. Because I see more distance and I see forest there.

Love it

 

Edited March 6, 2024 by Valium

[Valium]

On 3/1/2024 at 3:20 AM, bandit648 said:

 

Extreme has a distance factor of 3.5 vs the default that is 1.5. I don't recommend Insane other then maybe to take some screenshots. One problem I found is that on Sinai map there's a issue with buildings popping in over Cairo when using any setting above Ultra. All other maps are fine. Syria looks great and I can go up to Ultimate without issues. If you like the higher view distance setting but need a little bit better performance, simply lower the forest view distance slider in the options menu and this will give a significant performance boost.

For ultra shadows I believe it enables a higher resolution so you should notice sharper shadows. I recall seeing some comparison screenshots on the forums in the past. 

This is the code in graphics.lua that affect the view distance. You can modify these to suite your needs.

MOD graphics.lua:

distancFactor = {
        Low = 1.2;
        Medium = 1.5;
        High = 2.0;
        Ultra = 2.5;
        Extreme = 3.5;
        Ultimate = 5.0;
        Insane = 6.0;

Default graphics.lua:

distancFactor = {
        Low = 0.5;
        Medium = 0.7;
        High = 1.0;
        Ultra = 1.2;
        Extreme = 1.5;

 

 

 

Any forest suggestions according to extreme and ultimate?

[AstroEma]

amazing! Thank you so much for this mod! 

[swartbyron]

Extreme and Ultimate look superb and run well on my system but unfortunately causing buildings to flicker on the Normandy Map and it's particularly bad over London.

Looks to me as if its cant decided what lod to use and flicks between both? 

[bandit648]

3 hours ago, swartbyron said:

Extreme and Ultimate look superb and run well on my system but unfortunately causing buildings to flicker on the Normandy Map and it's particularly bad over London.

Looks to me as if its cant decided what lod to use and flicks between both? 

I first noticed this issue on the Sinai map over Cairo. No issues anywhere over Israel. Its strange, it only happens over some very large cities. No issue on the Syria or Persian Gulf maps.

I'll share a fix if I can find one.

[swartbyron]

2 hours ago, bandit648 said:

I first noticed this issue on the Sinai map over Cairo. No issues anywhere over Israel. Its strange, it only happens over some very large cities. No issue on the Syria or Persian Gulf maps.

I'll share a fix if I can find one.

It appears to be directly related to the distancFactor as lowering any of the other settings has no effect.

A distancFactor of 2.5 seems to be the highest I can go before some buildings around London start to flicker.

2.5 is not bad being twice that of the default extremes 1.5 and I could live with that but after seeing how the world looks set at 5.0 its a bit of a let down.

For now, I will probably use Extreme at 2.5 for Normandy, Sinai and the South Atlantic with its FPS hungry trees, Ultimate for the the other maps.

 

[bandit648]

On 3/12/2024 at 6:38 PM, swartbyron said:

It appears to be directly related to the distancFactor as lowering any of the other settings has no effect.

A distancFactor of 2.5 seems to be the highest I can go before some buildings around London start to flicker.

2.5 is not bad being twice that of the default extremes 1.5 and I could live with that but after seeing how the world looks set at 5.0 its a bit of a let down.

For now, I will probably use Extreme at 2.5 for Normandy, Sinai and the South Atlantic with its FPS hungry trees, Ultimate for the the other maps.

 

I couldn't find a solution for the flickering buildings on those maps either. Its only certain building types that do it. On Normandy for example, London has flickering buildings but Paris doesn't. Even at 2.5 my GPU is running 30-50% utilization in most cases. Oh well, we can still crank up the view distance on Persian Gulf, Syria, and Caucasus Maps. 

[swartbyron]

5 hours ago, bandit648 said:

I couldn't find a solution for the flickering buildings on those maps either. Its only certain building types that do it. On Normandy for example, London has flickering buildings but Paris doesn't. Even at 2.5 my GPU is running 30-50% utilization in most cases. Oh well, we can still crank up the view distance on Persian Gulf, Syria, and Caucasus Maps. 

Thanks for having a go anyway. 

I've done some more testing and it still seems a distancFactor of 2.5 is the setting that will work with all maps. No flickering and good performance for twice the defalt view distance. 

I've kept the all default presets as they come with the game and lowered the distance for the extra presets to 2.5 for Ultimate and 5.0 for Insane.

For comparison, some screenshots below for anyone interested. The difference is more apparent when you flick back and forth between them.

Defalt Extreme at 1.5

Distance at 2.5

Distance at 5.0

 

graphics.lua

Edited March 14, 2024 by swartbyron

[Valium]

3.5x is the best setup for me. Good looking, no major fps loss although Ultimate is beautifull.

[Auxiliary]

@bandit648 Do you know how to do this, but for lights (static and moving on planes/helis) and contrails only?
I'm happy with the object view distance in VR, but having the lights fade in at 40-50nm is so unrealistic.

[bandit648]

1 hour ago, Auxiliary said:

@bandit648 Do you know how to do this, but for lights (static and moving on planes/helis) and contrails only?
I'm happy with the object view distance in VR, but having the lights fade in at 40-50nm is so unrealistic.

Contrails, yes. Simply edit the smoketrail.lua file and increase the values for LODdistance under the contrail preset. I also like longer contrails so I increase the Length value.

For lights its not that simple. I'm not sure its possible through lua or shader edits.

 

Edited July 1, 2024 by bandit648

[Auxiliary]

Thanks! I'll try that.

 

I tried your files, and lights (and of course all other things) show up at a longer range, but I'm only interested in the lights due to the performance impact of just turning everything up.

I found many values relating to lights in the luas, but none of them seem to change anything.