NEW: Universal VR shader

[Woona]

I tested out SMAA when this first came out. For SMAA to be of real value, I had to combine it with FXAA. This was in the original version of the injector and the two did in fact run concurrently. They complimented quite alright for me at first glance. However, it was still visually less consistent (shimmer on buildings persisted as if there were no AA, and building/runway shimmer is the #1 reason I use AA in DCS) and gave me the same or worse performance than just using MSAA 2x after testing, further emphasizing from a performance standpoint that both were doing something. This was of course in 2.5.6 but I'm assuming MSAA's function hasn't changed between that and 2.7. If you're not too worried about building highlight shimmer and can't afford MSAA, then SMAA as-is might be a good middle ground. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Woona

[Pride37]

I tried SMAA+FXAA while disabling in-game MSAA, not too bad on landscape, but I immediately noticed that my Hornet DDI's became unreadable... Apparently, it is related to those Reshade AA, because once in-game MSAA is on, DDIs are much more readable.

But unfortunatly, after a crash, my in-game MSAA is broken again and this time not only for Open-Beta, but for Stable also!! 

Must be related to my PC drivers, a long repair is not enough to recover it, so I should go for @Woona's DDU trick this time (and I hope I will not have to reinstall W10...)

[Taz1004]

Strange, as soon as I turn FXAA, toggling SMAA does absolutely nothing.  Yet still incurs performance penalty.

 

And 2x MSAA is equivalent to adding 300x300 pixels per eye to supersampling on my end.  So instead of MSAA, adding 200x200 to supersampling and using SMAA is much better use of resource for me.  I like things to be sharper than blurry.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Taz1004

[Pride37]

8 hours ago, Pride37 said:

I tried SMAA+FXAA while disabling in-game MSAA, not too bad on landscape, but I immediately noticed that my Hornet DDI's became unreadable... Apparently, it is related to those Reshade AA, because once in-game MSAA is on, DDIs are much more readable.

But unfortunatly, after a crash, my in-game MSAA is broken again and this time not only for Open-Beta, but for Stable also!! 

Must be related to my PC drivers, a long repair is not enough to recover it, so I should go for @Woona's DDU trick this time (and I hope I will not have to reinstall W10...)

 

Gosh... Actually, my in-game MSAA isn't broken at all, I was completely fooled by the increased clarity of the VR Shader (and the fact that the game does not restart automatically after changing MSAA option and validating)... 

FWIW, I use 50% SteamVR SS, and 1.3 in CAS, so the difference in clarity is pretty massive.

I should have been warned, many of you said shimmering was more obvious with the shader... Well I can confirm: it IS a lot more obvious.

I will have to get used to that, since MSAA x4 is too taxiing for me, and I personally find FXAA and SMAA to be less convincing, visually speaking.

 

[5ephir0th]

I was using SweetFX FXAA (combined with CAS) and now the SMAA provided by @Taz1004 and man, alising is lesser and clarity is far superior with SMAA, thanks!

@Taz1004 can you share the values you have on SMAA?

[Taz1004]

21 minutes ago, 5ephir0th said:

I was using SweetFX FXAA (combined with CAS) and now the SMAA provided by @Taz1004 and man, alising is lesser and clarity is far superior with SMAA, thanks!

@Taz1004 can you share the values you have on SMAA?

 

It really depends on hardware and supersampling setting.  You can get away with less AA if your display resolution and supersampling is higher.

Edge detection threshold seems to be the only value that really does anything.  It affects AA amount and performance.  And I have it set to 0.14

[freehand]

I rather stick with MSAA 2x and take the performance hit.

[Pride37]

20 hours ago, Woona said:

 

Not even the saved games rename trick worked for you?

 

Hi Woona,

As I replied later, my MSAA wasn't actually broken this time, my eyes have just been fooled by the incresed clarity (and shimmering) of the CAS shader...

My bad...

[RED]

The mod introduced incredibly long loading times on my system. Just selecting new aircraft in the ME froze DCS for a minute. Joining a server took more than 5 minutes and it didn't load the cockpit at first. What could be the problem there? With the mod removed and deleted shaders, it took less than 30 seconds to join the same server. 

[speed-of-heat]

if you join the same server with the same aircraft do you have the same load time

[RED]

2 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

if you join the same server with the same aircraft do you have the same load time

Yes, same server same aircraft but very different load times.  It's the same with missions in SP. MP is what i tried twice. I'll try again with the new update.

[Goffik]

I kind of wish I hadn't found this thread. I gave it a go to see if the difference really was as big as people are saying, and it is. The ability to enable/disable the effect in real time shows just how much sharper the image is with this simple Reshade. And being able to tweak the brightness/contrast/saturation individually was also a welcome feature. The result was a much better looking DCS on my Rift S.

 

But therein lies the problem... Rift S. Reshade does not work through Oculus alone, so to use this at all requires running DCS with SteamVR instead. Not only is performance worse on a Rift when using SteamVR rather than native Oculus mode, but it's even worse still given that I normally use OpenComposite too with it's accompanying performance boost. So now I have to choose between a nice clear view with crap performance, or what now feels like a horrible blurry view with reasonable performance.

 

I was content with how DCS looked before I tried this, so I wish I could un-see the effect this tweak has! 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Goffik

[freehand]

I stop using it I just use Kegetys shaders with my G1 shimmer is to much for me.

Edited May 26, 2021 by freehand

[USAF-Falcon87]

Hopefully someone can answer a couple of questions I have about this:

 

1) With a Reverb G2, I see the changes occurring in the monitor window but not in the HMD.  Do I need to tell Reshade where/what my headset is?

2) There are dozens if not hundreds of options to choose from.  Anyone have the "Cliff Notes" version for which ones to use?  Primary trying to get rid of the standard VR fuzziness and maybe make the color pop a bit more.

 

Thanks!

Ric

[Harlikwin]

5 minutes ago, USAF-Falcon87 said:

Hopefully someone can answer a couple of questions I have about this:

 

1) With a Reverb G2, I see the changes occurring in the monitor window but not in the HMD.  Do I need to tell Reshade where/what my headset is?

2) There are dozens if not hundreds of options to choose from.  Anyone have the "Cliff Notes" version for which ones to use?  Primary trying to get rid of the standard VR fuzziness and maybe make the color pop a bit more.

 

Thanks!

Ric

 

Sharpness, also play with saturation to fix colors. 

[USAF-Falcon87]

1 minute ago, Harlikwin said:

 

Sharpness, also play with saturation to fix colors. 

Which of the sharpness options?  I have LumaSharpen, prod80_05_LumaSharpen, and SmartSharp

[Harlikwin]

5 minutes ago, USAF-Falcon87 said:

Which of the sharpness options?  I have LumaSharpen, prod80_05_LumaSharpen, and SmartSharp

 

i'm on the original version I guess. but I bet its smart sharp. I use 1.5 for that, 1.2 for color depth, and some tweaks to bright/contrast. 

[A2597]

I get the loading shaders text, but then I can't turn. It on or off, or open the menu. (Home and End) anyone else have that issue?

[USAF-Falcon87]

1 hour ago, A2597 said:

I get the loading shaders text, but then I can't turn. It on or off, or open the menu. (Home and End) anyone else have that issue?

Are you  looking at the desktop window or the headset?  The settings only display in the desktop window.

[A2597]

Desktop. What are people downloading to install now?

[Wes910]

I can see the changes on my desktop mirror but not in my oculus headeset????

[Topo]

This shader work only with SteamVR; i think you must start in SteamVR mode (adding DCS in Steam VR Games)

[speed-of-heat]

41 minutes ago, Topo said:

This shader work only with SteamVR; i think you must start in SteamVR mode (adding DCS in Steam VR Games)

that's simply wrong, it will also work in 2d... the menu is only present in 2d, but the effects are visible in both

[Topo]

16 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

that's simply wrong, it will also work in 2d... the menu is only present in 2d, but the effects are visible in both

 

Ah, ok.

I assumed that the author was referring to VR.

Now i've a Reverb G2, and this shader work perfectly.

Previously with a Rift S (an Oculus device, like Wes910 said), i remember that in order for it to work I had to start the sim with SteamVR; however, I can certainly be wrong.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Topo

[Lange_666]

On my Rift S they don't work, i'm not using Steam VR.  But they work in 2D.