General impressions after nearly two years away

[Mars Exulte]

  Due to complicated real life drama, my stuff has been in storage for the better part of two years. Last week, I was able to get moved into stable livin' again and get my cockpit arranged. The following is my experience, to whomever may be interested (presumably nobody, but I'm bored so screw it)

 

TLDR version : Across the board visual, UI, and gameplay improvements with actually a mild increase in FPS stability.

 

Specs :

I7 6700k @ 4.6 w/ water cooling

Aorus 1080ti w/ water cooling

32gb 3600mhz DDR4

NVMe dedicated to DCS

Oculus Rift S

 

Settings mostly high to ultra across the board, 2x MSAA, high clouds, high view range, etc. Shadows on low, terrain shadows on flat. Most other stuff high to max, as mentioned. I have disabled wake turbulence, as it seems to add relatively little (usually) but hits performance pretty hard when numerous aircraft are present.

 

Avg FPS on test flights is a stable 40, dropping into the 30s around dense cities at low altitude. The new prop effects have completely eliminated the stuttering and distortion when flying prop planes and generally fps is higher and more stable in them. I haven't messed with other helos much yet, but I did fly the Hind for a bit and really, really appreciate the absence of flickering cockpit shadows and the more stable looking rotor disc, again, eliminates most the erratic fps and distortion I used to experience.

 

The new clouds, weather, and lighting look fantastic and give me the same feeling when going up in a real plane!

 

I noted numerous UI changes in the controls configuration screens that were long overdue, such as being able to easily clear commands from selected aircraft and categories.

 

Shout out to VKB customer service. Key point : I did not have to contact them in any way, because they provided plenty of spare parts and when I discovered one of my springs broke while the stick sat in storage I merely installed a new one.

 

Final note, unless I think of something else, regarding the Hind again. Oi. What a bastard. I died repeatedly attempting to fly it like a helicopter, before realising you're not really supposed to do that.

 

[Mikeck]

If nothing else, the new clouds man!

[Gunfreak]

Since you have a modest graphics card. I recommend trying out AMD FSR, just a couple of files dropped in the correct folder and you get 10-30% FPS boost,works on none AMD cards.

[Exorcet]

While DCS is ever evolving, I feel like it is in a decent state right now. There are certainly great things on the horizon, and a few things that could be improved, but there aren't any game breaking issues or major omissions that I've run into in the current versions. DCS is certainly the most fun I've had on a PC, whether I'm flying combat missions or just free flying to experience flight. ED has done a great job bringing numerous improvements patch after patch and I look forward to things only getting better as the year goes on.

[Mars Exulte]

20 hours ago, Exorcet said:

there aren't any game breaking issues or major omissions

 

  AI isn't game breaking, but it's damn sure mission breaking. Easily the game's weakest point.

[Exorcet]

9 hours ago, Mars Exulte said:

 

  AI isn't game breaking, but it's damn sure mission breaking. Easily the game's weakest point.

It is surely in need of work, but I can still have fun with it in most cases. I guess it might be an advantage of flying my own content 99% of the time. I can balance AI performance and limitations to always suit my needs, and from spending so much time in the ME, I know what to expect.

 

I have to admit though that I've recently poked my head online after a really long absence. Human intelligence in adversary aircraft is refreshing even if most missions are just overly simple deathmatches.

[ratherbegliding]

Please can someone explain how to install and use the AMD FSR files?

Thanks 

[Rex]

On 9/2/2021 at 8:01 PM, Mars Exulte said:

 

  AI isn't game breaking, but it's damn sure mission breaking. Easily the game's weakest point.

AI is usually everything's weakest point, which makes sense because it's hard as hell to code a brain.  That said, I've had a blast this week dogfighting AI on Ace skill level.    A/A and SAMs are pretty solid, IMHO.

[silverdevil]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:15 PM, ratherbegliding said:

Please can someone explain how to install and use the AMD FSR files?

Thanks 

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/radeon-software-fidelityfx-super-resolution

[ratherbegliding]

Thanks #silverdevil, but where is the file to download?

In the meantime I came across this:

 

I downloaded the Magpie english version and I'm getting on average a 5 fps increase on a 1070.

[ratherbegliding]

 

Now getting on average a 10 fps increase on a 1070 by running at 1440p in DCS and then upscaling.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by ratherbegliding