requested Object rendering bug with large FOV compensation applied - all objects disappear.

[Scaley]

Background

For some time it's been known that DCS has a few issues handling very widescreen monitors as referenced in this thread and described (but no solved) in this thread.  The only known workaround at present is to change the DistanceFactorDefaultFovy setting in graphics.lua to have the (intended, I assume) effect of changing the FOV that DCS considers the "default" from which to apply effects as a result of zooming the view (primarily rendering more or less objects, or altering LODs). 

Bug

In a recent patch a new bug appears to have been introduced where setting the DistanceFactorDefaultFovy to settings above about 110 creates a clipping effect on objects on the Marianas map leading to them disappearing. Further increasing the FOV setting increases the amount of object disappearance.  See attached video which was captured with the DistanceFactorDefaultFovy set at 150. This effect has not been so far observed on NTTR or Syria maps. No other maps have been tested by me so far.

This bug is interacting with the known DCS view distance calculation "feature" where the distance to an object for LOD/rendering purposes is measured as the vector component distance parallel to the observers line of sight, not the total straight-line distance from the observer to the object. This is responsible for the well described effect where objects are visible at greater distances near the edge of the screen vs the centre, and this effect is exaggerated with increasing FOVs due to wider monitors and/or lower zoom levels. This I assume is why the objects in the video disappear based on line of sight as well as distance and zoom.

 

EDIT: This bug is also possible to produce on the Syria map, it just appears very few objects are affected and the range of distances over which they disappear is smaller.  

[Scaley]

A bit more detail in video form.

 

[Scaley]

Still present in 2.7.11.22041

[Scaley]

till present in 2.7.12.23362

 

[Scaley]

Still present in 2.7.14.23966.

Is there any chance of someone from ED maybe seeing if this bug is reported internally? It seems like quite a big deal when massive groups of objects inside your simulated world disappear.

[Scaley]

So it seems the fix (user created) for this was discovered some years ago and involves the lua edit described in this post:

 

 

[BIGNEWY]

Hi Scaley, 

I have made a report to the team, please bare in mind this issue arises due to the edited FOV values outside of the default. 

It is good there is a work around with the edited  terrainoptions41.lua. 

I have asked the team to take a look and see if there is anything we can do for widescreen users wanting to increase the FOV values. 

thanks

[Scaley]

Of note it now looks like in 2.8 a new/interacting/worse version of the underlying problem has been introduced. Exact cause to follow after some investigating but now even with editing FOV settings if you have a widescreen monitor ALL ground vehicles and smoke effects are invisible outside a few miles. LODs for aircraft also demonstrate the same issue where the LOD scales to a distance version far too early. 

[FusRoPotato]

I hopped in trying to find solutions to a similar problem I've been having, only it seems to only affect helicopters. 

I can spot ground vehicles and distant aircraft just fine (at least I think I can), but helicopters pop out of existence if they are > 1nm away and I'm not fully zoomed in. I use the Z axis of my head tracker to zoom, so I can just barely zoom in and out repeatedly and watch helicopters appear and disappear. This is a problem because 1nm of draw distance on helicopters is really bad and I don't know if it's a bug or if I can change a setting somewhere to fix it. This has only been happening since 2.8.

Edited December 15, 2022 by FusRoPotato

[Scaley]

7 hours ago, FusRoPotato said:

I hopped in trying to find solutions to a similar problem I've been having, only it seems to only affect helicopters. 

I can spot ground vehicles and distant aircraft just fine (at least I think I can), but helicopters pop out of existence if they are > 1nm away and I'm not fully zoomed in. I use the Z axis of my head tracker to zoom, so I can just barely zoom in and out repeatedly and watch helicopters appear and disappear. This is a problem because 1nm of draw distance on helicopters is really bad and I don't know if it's a bug or if I can change a setting somewhere to fix it. This has only been happening since 2.8.

 

Yep, 2.8 made widescreen even worse, so now things render at all kinds of odd distances. I've got several lua hacks applied to get my view settings to work correctly:

DCS World\Config\graphics.lua

edit line 269 (or the equivalent in whatever view distance you have set in game - line 269 is for extreme)
        lodMult = 1.7;

 

DCS World\Config\terrain\terrainoptions41.lua

This part is required to help prevent stuff disappearing when you add the line to autoexec.cfg ass below. 
edit from line 340

bufferSize = 50000;
    checkBufferSize = false;

    multiAppendBufferSize = 9524288;
    parentBufferSize = 50000;
    childsBufferSize = 180000;

 

saved games\dcs\config\autoexec.cfg

add a new line

options.graphics.DistanceFactorDefaultFovy=145; (higher numbers = render things at further distance, but eventually you will get the "close things disappear" bug, so you will need to test anda djust)

 

The added line in autoexec/cfg obviously survives an update. the other have to be re-edited after each update or repair. Hope that helps.