2.8 update has 20 % fps loss on pimax8kx and 15 fps loss on Varjo Aero (RTX 4090)

[Supmua]

nullAnd this one with soft shadows, notice the difference in the cockpit with more well-defined shadows.  FPS also dropped a bit.  With shadows completely off the FPS was actually very good approaching 90 at times, but the world looked lifeless and bland.

[Supmua]

nullFor lighter missions such as F/A18C Caucasus Free Flight I'm mostly 90.  This is also with soft shadows.

[Supmua]

nullViper Caucasus FF, similar performance compared to the Hornet in general, although pixelated distant clouds (might not show up well in snapshot) were killing me.

[Supmua]

nullThis is the Rising Squall campaign.  A pretty good stress test on the crowded supercarrier with lots going on both on the ground and in the air.  This spot was CPU heavy with frametime around 17-18ms, but GPU frametime was also up there around 15ms.

[Rubber Biscuit]

I running a RTX-2080ti with Vive Pro and my fps has dropped almost in half with 2.8.

is there a easy way to go back to 2.7 ?

[darkman222]

You can go to where your DCS installation is and run in the command line in that directory: dcs_updater.exe update 2.7.18.30765@openbeta

It could look like that:

YOURDRIVEHERE:\DCS World\bin>dcs_updater.exe update 2.7.18.30765@openbeta

 

[edmuss]

I'm back to about the same frametimes I was on 2.7 - 12-13ms typically with highs of 16.

Settings are generally high with flat terrain shadows and MSAAx2, I've dropped resolution slightly to 2500 wide to make up the deficit caused by the new lighting and with the new openxr toolkit CAS sharpening it looks really good

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

1 hour ago, darkman222 said:

You can go to where your DCS installation is and run in the command line in that directory: dcs_updater.exe update 2.7.18.30765@openbeta

It could look like that:

YOURDRIVEHERE:\DCS World\bin>dcs_updater.exe update 2.7.18.30765@openbeta

 

Thanks for the info.

already started the downgrade as above minus the “ @openbeta “ bit, seems to be working

[exil]

55 minutes ago, edmuss said:

I'm back to about the same frametimes I was on 2.7 - 12-13ms typically with highs of 16.

Settings are generally high with flat terrain shadows and MSAAx2, I've dropped resolution slightly to 2500 wide to make up the deficit caused by the new lighting and with the new openxr toolkit CAS sharpening it looks really good

 

I benched the difference between terrain shadows off, flat and default in 2.8 today. 

'Off' to flat was a difference of 1.5ms GPU frametime. 

'Off' to 'default' around 2.5ms.

'Flat' to 'default' around 1.0ms.

So it's really not that huge impact for me. 

Benchmark track was a F16 low level flight overhead Syria. 

[Supmua]

I don’t expect the performance to go back to the level of 2.7, but I do think that the new changes are worth the cost.  We now have updated lightings which provides a step up in image quality, moving cloud layers, improved rain effects especially on canopy, AI enemy jets that can actually kick your butt, etc.

[Rubber Biscuit]

The 2.8 update cut my fps in half making it almost unplayable for 2080ti with Vive pro that ran ok with 2.7 around 70-90 fps with med to low settings.

I am going back to 2.7, would be nice to be able to switch off new weather in 2.8

[Talisman_VR]

On 11/4/2022 at 10:36 PM, Supmua said:

nullIt's still possible to get good framerate, just need to do some finetuning.  This is Apache Syria Hot Start Instant Mission on the Varjo at 3136x2688 pixels per screen, OpenXR, VR preset with MSAAx2, High textures/terrain textures, Flat shadows/terrain shadows (still bugged with soft shadow edges despite flat setting), Anisotropic filtering 4x.  The 4090 and 5800X3D seem like a good combo.  Don't expect this kind of fps on crowded MP server though, as the CPU will bog you down.

 

Regarding MP.  Flight simulation is all about VR, MP and flying with friends for me, so DCS is now gathering dust on the shelf while I enjoy flying other simulations.

Happy landings,

Talisman

[Supmua]

Messing around with Fixed Foveated Rendering, with Wide/Quality setting your GPU FT can be further reduced by 0.5ms.  So, right now with the 2.8beta, OpenXR + FFR is the way to go to help mitigate performance loss.  Make sure Overriding resolution is used for downsampling especially on the Aero, otherwise it will use the highest resolution setting.  FFR allows me to render at higher res (3360x2880) while maintaining the same performance--GPU FT went up a bit by 1ms with res increase but was still around 10.5ms hence fps remains 90.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Supmua

[Supmua]

This is/used to be the most stressful spot in Mariana.  My CPU FT used to be up to 30 with the 9900K/3090 setup, but now around 19ms.  However, note the missing carrier here with floated planes.  Things get much better outside that area.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Supmua

[slughead]

On 11/4/2022 at 11:04 PM, Supmua said:

nullFor lighter missions such as F/A18C Caucasus Free Flight I'm mostly 90.  This is also with soft shadows.

How are you achieving 90fps? Could you post your game settings (screen shots please) and OpenXR tookit settings (screen shots in game) please?

 

[Supmua]

Not sure how to grab OpenXR floating menu, but the overriding Res is 3360x2880.  DCS setting is basically a modified VR preset with high textures and MSSAx2, low shadows and rain droplets.

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Supmua

[slughead]

14 minutes ago, Supmua said:

Not sure how to grab OpenXR floating menu, but the overriding Res is 3360x2880.  DCS setting is basically a modified VR preset with high textures and MSSAx2, low shadows and rain droplets.

 

 

Thanks. You can use the screenshot option from the OpenXR Toollkit. null

[Burt]

Nice ! Yeah I turned off secondary and terrain shadows off until shadows gets fixed. I have just the regular shadows/ cockpit shadows on flat and it made a very nice perf deference. Gonna try the FSR preset and maybe use the new cas for alittle bit of sharpening. One thing I learned today is that it doesn’t matter what gpu you have being he has a 4090 doesn’t mean you can just slide every thing to the right especially with all the awesome improvements E D is doing to the sim. I’m gonna retune !

Edited November 6, 2022 by Burt

[Supmua]

I switched back to OpenVR again for now.  I can still hit 90 fps in missions like this but the framerate fluctuations are more frequent compared to OpenXR.  FFR with OpenXR also helped shaving off GPU frametime by 0.5ms which may or may not be needed in missions like this, but every little thing does help.  But as you can see, it's not too bad and it's all about knowing how much you can push your PC and knowing what to do to get the targeted frametime numbers for CPU and GPU, given the current software's limitation.

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Supmua

[exil]

42 minutes ago, Burt said:

Nice ! Yeah I turned off secondary and terrain shadows off until shadows gets fixed. I have just the regular shadows/ cockpit shadows on flat and it made a very nice perf deference. Gonna try the FSR preset and maybe use the new cas for alittle bit of sharpening. One thing I learned today is that it doesn’t matter what gpu you have being he has a 4090 doesn’t mean you can just slide every thing to the right especially with all the awesome improvements E D is doing to the sim. I’m gonna retune !

 

Depending on what you want. 

If you want steady 90FPS you're right. If you're okay with 45 FPS reprojection, you can basically tune everything up to high an a HP reverb. 

I use the high preset and have no problems so far. 

[Burt]

Yeah I just tried these setting and you thing I hate is the tree growing out of the ground when diving down from 15000 ft, hate it. Your right I’ll stick with 45fps repo and high settings I guess it’s what this machine likes.

@exil are talking about the DCS VR preset setting ? 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Burt

[exil]

4 minutes ago, Burt said:

Yeah I just tried these setting and you thing I hate is the tree growing out of the ground when diving down from 15000 ft, hate it. Your right I’ll stick with 45fps repo and high settings I guess it’s what this machine likes.

@exil are talking about the DCS VR preset setting ? 

 

Nope, there is the low, medium, high and VR preset. I am talking about the high preset. 

So basically, everything on high, msaa x 2 and terrain shadows to default. The only time I am struggling to keep 45 FPS is low level with the F16 overhead Beirut in Syria. 

[Burt]

Got it

[lj0076]

So yeah, now I've had time to do a bit of testing and tinkering with different settings.
There is not much difference between OpenXR and SteamVR as far as the resulting performance is concerned, OpenXR comes out a little better. I was surprised by the stability of SteamVR, in previous versions the performance was problematic, frequent crashes, blue screens... now it is not at all.
Overall, I came to the conclusion that the loss of performance in version 2.8 will probably be irreversible, the hotfix did not solve anything. I've tried different settings for DCS itself and both shadow settings and MSAA make a difference of only a few insignificant fps.
Also, the weather setting has no significant impact on performance, tested both bad weather with rain and clear blue sky.
But the performance graph shows high load and frame time with the new version, but I haven't figured out what's causing it. None of the DCS settings will make a significant difference, it's something hidden that the GPU struggles with and can't be seen.
I agree the new version 2.8 is a feast for the eyes in 2D, a visual delight, ED really did an excellent job on this one. Unfortunately, most of those effects are not visible in VR, but a noticeable load remained. There is still the problem with the clouds, some horizontal blurred part where it looks more like Minecraft and you can have MSAA 4x but it doesn't affect it.
It is what it is, I've come to terms with it... only tried in SP and some missions, all Channel map. I get mostly 45 fps, sometimes 50-60 fps.

[Rubber Biscuit]

Being a VR user of a mid power system 2080it Vive Pro 1 and trying to get decent fps would be standing on a big soap box jumping up and down if there was a update that would jive me a boost in VR performance.

I do appreciate that DCS is moving forward with game improvements but improving game performance would be a huge help to all users.