VR and DCS - How to make it nice and smooth

[TOMCATZ]

Hello,

 

with this short article, I would like to briefly describe how I make DCS "flyable" in VR for me. Maybe the following text can help beginners. But maybe there will be more ideas and suggestions from the community that will help me to further optimize my settings.

So- here we go:

DCS delivers many effects and visual highlights right from the start that make this simulation look so fantastic. Unfortunately, virtual reality is still in its infancy and these beautiful effects are a source of frustration.

 Basically, one could say: All effects that are created by post-processing drastically slow down the VR user.

 These post-processes are typically processes such as vertical correction, anti-aliasing, but also post-processed light effects and reflections.

 

Another problem is the temperature of the graphics card. My card gets quite hot very quickly. It reaches its peak performance very quickly; the system recognizes the temperature peaks and starts to throttle the performance.

 

So before going into DCS, I turn off all the anti-aliasing filters in all the programs and make sure the graphics card is sufficiently cooled: 

- In the graphics card settings, switch off all FXAA, MSAA, etc. or set to "application controlled".

- In the VR application (in my case Oculus Rift) switch off MSAA! (Otherwise Oculus will render with MSAA all the time).

- Manually control the fan of the card (in my case Nvidia Control Panel - Lalt+Z : Fan on 80 % - (Yes- it is loud, but I have a headset on and only hear the engines when flying anyway, the temperature stays at a decent 54 degrees Celsius during the whole session). 

https://www.nvidia.com/de-de/geforce/geforce-experience/

In the DEBUG TOOL of Oculus you should deactivate most of the settings. Especially "Adaptive GPU Performance Scale" and "Asynchronous Spacewarp."

 

In DCS itself you can only do 2 things:

Either:

Use a high resolution (Pixel Density) for the VR goggles and do without all post-processing (pixel density 1.5 or higher).

or:

Use a low resolution and allow certain post-processing.  (Pixel-Density 1.2 plus SSAA 1.5 plus MSAA 2 as an example).

 

Textures:

HIGH - looks fantastic. However, there can be considerable judder in online mode. The problem is that not all textures from all modules fit into the RAM. So, if you want to land your FA-18 on the carrier after a long flight and at the same time a new player spawns on the carrier with his F-14 and chooses a new skin, the landing becomes a stutter orgy. Lighting calculations of the bump-maps can slow down the system.

MEDIUM - looks acceptable and allows fast loading in online mode. You no longer recognize every single screw and rivet on your fellow pilots.

LOW - fonts and labels in the cockpit are usually no longer legible - unusable setting in my view.

 

Terrain Textures:

HIGH: The terrain has bump maps textures which have to be calculated depending on the incidence of light. The resolution is high (pixel-per square meter) and there are reflections.

LOW: No bump maps (relief which gives the textures depth) and the resolution is lower.

I try to keep the HIGH setting whenever possible and performance allows. But if you set it to HIGH then it will effect all terrain textures: Houses, Trees, Cars and so on. If I just want to see high resolution ground textures and low res. houses (don't want to read every house number) I rename the LOW texture files in the terrain folder- I just delete the ".min" part of the files by hand and copy them back. So I can speed up the Map a little bit. 

 

WATER:

Water is displayed and calculated over the entire map even when flying over the desert. Therefore, this setting has a high value!

HIGH: Waves and whitecaps are highly resolved textured. Waves are displayed in 3 dimensions. Very high influence on the overall performance - not recommended.

MEDIUM: Waves and whitecaps are low resolution textured. Waves are displayed in 3 dimensions. Still very high influence on the overall performance- Not recommended.

LOW: Water is flat and without whitecaps. But looks acceptable. Highly recommended for VR! 

HEAT BLUR, DEPTH OF FIELD, LENS EFFECTS, COCKPIT GLOBAL ILLUMINATION and MOTION BLUR are post-processing effects and should UNCONDITIONALLY be switched off! These effects are very performance-intensive and only something for filmmakers and photographers.

 

SSAA:

Personally, I love this option. SSAA renders the resolution in a higher setting (resolution x 1.5 or resolution x 2) and can scale it down again.

The trick is that the pixels are only calculated once and not twice or four times as with MSAA. This means that this post-processing mode is faster.

I can recognize just as much with a pixel density of only 1.2 with SSAA 2 as without SSAA but a pixel density of 1.8. However, the image with SSAA is much softer and not as pixelated.

Unfortunately, you have to test whether you prefer a high resolution in the VR glasses or whether you accept a lower resolution in exchange for a somewhat softer image.

SSAA 2 plus MSAA 4 will unfortunately melt every system. What just works is a pixel density of 1.2, MSAA 2, and SSAA 1.5. 

In short:

High resolution - no post-processing

Low resolution - low and specific post-processing

The card driver is also important. In my case, the latest driver from Nvidia (526.98- November 2022) was a total disaster. I had to reset it to a version from September this year. The best thing to do is to ask Google which version is the best (that means not the newest) for your graphics card.

Example for today:

·         Nvidia driver 399.24. For the Pascal series of graphics cards. ...

·         Nvidia driver 466.77. Added support for 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti. ...

·         Nvidia driver 471.11. Added support for the latest Windows 10 version 21H1 released in May 2021.

 

So much for my experience. If you have any further tips and tricks, please feel free to share them with me. I like to learn from your experiences.

 

Cheers

TOM

[Go2Matt]

Thanks Tom
Currently running Reverb G2, 64gb DDR5 @5600 and a 7950X/4040 Gpu. but still getting some stutter. Thats with everything on HIGH/ULTRA but with MSAAx4 and all the others turned off Pixel Density at 1. So i'll have a play. But its dang pretty right now. And seeing stuff waaay in the distance is great.... I can now see runways before I get to 2 miles out

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Go2Matt

[fagulha]

For those who use SteamVR as i do (Valve Index user) set Throttling Behavior to Fixed 120.0. It gives me smoother performance (not the holy grail of fps but it helps).

I don´t know how it works with other headsets using SteamVR but for the Index it helps performance.

Regards,

F.

[Bulldog_1]

On 11/25/2022 at 6:55 AM, TOMCATZ said:

Manually control the fan of the card (in my case Nvidia Control Panel - Lalt+Z : Fan on 80 % - (Yes- it is loud, but I have a headset on and only hear the engines when flying anyway, the temperature stays at a decent 54 degrees Celsius during the whole session). 

Is your graphics card liquid cooled?

[Ephedrin]

There is currently no point in desperately tweaking the VR performance. 2.7 was performing really nicely, 2.8 broke it down to approx. a third of my previous FPS. downgrading to 2.7 resolves the issue.

 

I use the Reverb G2 and a really fast PC, in 2.7 I can fly at 60 FPS without any stutters in the F16 and F18, 40ish FPS in the Ka50 and a bit more in the Hind. No problems in the A10 either, around 60 as well. 2.8, as I said, brings me down to 20 FPS in VR. That's neither a matter of tweaks nor is it acceptable to keep it this way and by the reaction of ED or their testers it seems they agree on it.

So before you make dramatic changes to your systems hold on a while and wait for the next updates.

[Dangerzone]

On 11/26/2022 at 12:55 AM, TOMCATZ said:

with this short article, I would like to briefly describe how I make DCS "flyable" in VR for me. Maybe the following text can help beginners. But maybe there will be more ideas and suggestions from the community that will help me to further optimize my settings.

Thanks for the tips - but the #1 tip for SteamVR users is missing....

Ditch SteamVR and use OpenXR instead. 

Seriously - if you haven't tried it you need to - you may be pleasantly surprised. (And if you do - DONT look at the FPS counter - look at the smoothness/experience). 

- 2080S user with HP Reverb.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Dangerzone

[MADLOU1]

1 hour ago, Dangerzone said:

Thanks for the tips - but the #1 tip for SteamVR users is missing....

Ditch SteamVR and use OpenXR instead. 

Seriously - if you haven't tried it you need to - you may be pleasantly surprised. (And if you do - DONT look at the FPS counter - look at the smoothness/experience). 

- 2080S user with HP Reverb.

 

I agree. I have an old weak system and the changing to OpenXR made a huge difference in smoothness.

[Fangs]

This worked for me

https://nickrroberts.com/a-beginners-startup-guide-to-dcs-world-in-vr/

[SharpeXB]

On 11/25/2022 at 7:55 AM, TOMCATZ said:

Manually control the fan of the card (in my case Nvidia Control Panel - Lalt+Z : Fan on 80 % - (Yes- it is loud, but I have a headset on and only hear the engines when flying anyway, the temperature stays at a decent 54 degrees Celsius during the whole session). 

A graphics card can actually operate at higher temps with no problems. 70-85 for an Nvidia card is optimal.

https://www.gpumag.com/optimal-gpu-temperature-gaming/