Patch notes discussion 10th March - 12th April 2023

[Tree_Beard]

Was Air to Air AI improved or changed in this update? 

I have a simple intercept mission that I play fairly often on the Syria map where I take off in an F15C and intercept a single MiG29S at about 25k ASL. 

Before this update, my first AMRAAM launched at about 30 miles in TWS would be probably a 90% PK, and if that first one didn't get him, the second missile was basically a guaranteed kill. Thats how it went virtually every time. 

After this update, the AI MiG was not only able to defeat multiple fox-3 launches, but also managed to defeat both of my 9Ms as well, dumping a ton of flares in a way that I haven't really seen AI do before. We eventually merged and I needed to use my gun to splash him, which had never happened before in this mission. 

I'm certainly no ace pilot, and maybe this was a one-off fluke, but has anyone else seen a change in air-to-air AI behavior? 

[NIGHTHAWK1]

This is per Gunfreak request.

I will do my best to explain all of this.  Feel free to ask questions or even add comments or even suggestions.  This is just what I have come up with.

First I lauch DCS from my desktop with the Oculus headset on.  Steam VR is shut off,  Oculus tray tool active.  

I have an DCS.exe on the desktop.  Make by going to  program files (x86), steam, steamapps, common, DCS world, bin-mt, highlight DCS.exe and make shortcut to desktop.

 Prior to launch :   Oculus graphic prefernces to = 120Hz, render resolution at 1.2x =372x1872 (do this in the Oculus headset settings)

Oculus tray tool:  Game settings:  SS = 1, OVR - normal, all other are off, default or normal.

                                Power Option:  high performance

                                Quest Link:  Encoded resolution = 2412, encoded bitrate = 300, encoded dynamic bitrate= default, dynamic bitrate =150, sharpening = auto

Via MS settings page (your main computer), gaming, related settings (upper right corner of gaming page) - graphics settings, click --- "hardware acceleration GPU" on

              Graphics performance prefence, click browse, go to desktop, click DCS.exe and "add" to list, then select options, select "high performance"

TASK MANAGER:  so far I have to enter TM after the game has started to make this change.  If anyone  knows how to make this a default at start of game I would love to hear about it.    Open TM, go to "details", highlight, DCS, right click will get a menu, click "priority" and set to "realtime or high", (doesn't seem to affect FPS either way, try both)

                         click "affinity" and check mark = all processors.

I wish someone from DCS/ED would provide a list of those setting that affect FPS the most in MT, verses those that only affect looks, etc.

Good luck to all.   And you will need to do what I have been doing for 5 days.  trial and error.  Turn something on or off, change something, try it.  One thing at a time is best and takes a long time, but with luck some of you will also get 90 to 120 FPS in VR with MT  (and do not use Marianas for testing, it really kills FPS, somewhat true of NTTR, Caucuses and Syria are the most FPS friendly, I have not tried Channel or Normandy yet.) 

And remember that I am no expert, I and can handle critic.

I have attached a screen shot of my DCS system settings page.   One note - on vr page set pixcel rate to 1.0   this seems to really affect frame rate

 

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by NIGHTHAWK1

[St4rgun]

18 hours ago, NIGHTHAWK1 said:

 

At first I thought reading that 90-120 fps results of yours: "NO WAY". Then I saw your settings. All right, visibility Medium, all shadows and MSAA OFF, water Low.

Now I understand, but I'm using G2 not a Quest 2 with much higher resolution (and supposedly much higher picture quality).

Interesetingly all my higher settings could mean much higher load on my 3090 but still getting a CPU BOUND state every single time (depending on the map it's main thread or rendering thread).

I really really hope that Vulkan will solve this dreading CPU bound because this state is very far from optimal...

Edited March 15, 2023 by St4rgun

[maxTRX]

At least ED named it correctly, a 'preview'.

I get good performance, then again, I was also getting good performance in previous OBs, using my carbon unfriendly rig.  

The MT is currently too glitchy and buggy for my taste, especially 'zoom-ins', grayouts and frequent re-center in VR.  In critical moments I'd find myself sitting on my Hornet's left wing or having my nose plastered on the canopy.

Also, I'm not able to record video clips live... even if it worked, the VR repeater in 2D is stretched (the in-game setting 'Use DCS res./ crop to rectangle is not working for me).   Recording works fine in ST.   Well... I only use Win11 built in capture (xbox bar).  Perhaps it's time to install some fancy 3rd party program.

 

[AlpineGTA]

This has been a great patch for me, in terms of performance. I play exclusively in VR and I've gained a significant increase in performance and FPS. I've been able to turn the eye candy up, so VR feels even more immersive and I enjoy smoother gameplay in SP and MP. Not only that, watching track file replays back I can turn most settings up to high and I've never seen DCS looking so good! Very realistic at times. I know there are still some bugs and issues to fix but overall, nice one ED! 

[NIGHTHAWK1]

This was mostly an experiment in how fast can i get it to go and still have a reasonable quality picture.  So sad but true that there is such a trade-off between speed and quality.  I to have high hopes for Vulcan (it really helped with X-Plane, but took them a long time to change over).  I also hope to see more improvement with MT over the next few months.  Of course the developers will just add more features and will just slow everything down again.  The usual see saw in programming and sims. Just for fun I cranked up all DCS in game setting to max, dropped FPS to 30 to 60 or so in VR.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

I am not sure but I am running a new benchmark for my A/B tests: 2D ST vs MT and VR ST vs MT.

I notice that in the ST version shows smokes from ships and flashes from the ship launching missiles but in MT version there is no such eye candies. 2D and VR alike. Is it possible bug? I guess somebody has already reported this.

[zildac]

1 hour ago, VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants said:

I am not sure but I am running a new benchmark for my A/B tests: 2D ST vs MT and VR ST vs MT.

I notice that in the ST version shows smokes from ships and flashes from the ship launching missiles but in MT version there is no such eye candies. 2D and VR alike. Is it possible bug? I guess somebody has already reported this.

I think there are some "issues" with lighting and particles etc in the current MT build at present.

[unltd]

In the world of code, there's nothing finer, Than a team of programmers and beta testers, a designer, Working hard to make a program better, For users who demand nothing lesser.

They introduced new code, with much elation, And the program now runs at lightning's acceleration, 50% faster than before, A feat worth celebrating, and much more.

But alas, there's a catch, a price to pay, For every gain, there's something taken away, The program now lost 50% of its functionality, A bitter pill to swallow, a harsh reality.

The programmers and beta testers, in their zeal, Didn't anticipate the impact of this deal, But they can't turn back now, it's too late, They must accept this new fate.

They hope that users will still be content, With a program that's speedy, but less potent, They'll have to make do with what they've got, And hope for the best, like it or not.

But let us not forget the irony of this tale, A program that's faster, but not quite as well, Hyperbole aside, it's a lesson we should heed, To always consider the consequences of our deeds.

So here's to the programmers and beta testers, Who worked hard to make the program better, May their efforts bear fruit, and may they learn, To balance speed and functionality in their next turn.

-ChatGPT

[Arikaj]

22 hours ago, NIGHTHAWK1 said:

TASK MANAGER:  so far I have to enter TM after the game has started to make this change.  If anyone  knows how to make this a default at start of game I would love to hear about it.rs.

 

 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34116576/how-to-make-a-batch-file-run-a-program-and-then-set-priority-higher

[NIGHTHAWK1]

Arikaj   Thank you, but that is way beyond my programing skill level.

Edited March 15, 2023 by NIGHTHAWK1

[maxTRX]

1 hour ago, unltd said:

...So here's to the programmers and beta testers, Who worked hard to make the program better, May their efforts bear fruit, and may they learn, To balance speed and functionality in their next turn.

-ChatGPT

 

@ChatGPT, not you 'unltd'     I'm sure you're aware that OpenAI (v4.0) just passed a bar exam. Top 10%.   What do you say to that?

[unltd]

And that OpenAI is pretty damn good poet...wait 'till they give DCS AI the OpenAI treatment.  We'll never win a dogfight again!

[Dragon1-1]

2 hours ago, oldcrusty said:

I'm sure you're aware that OpenAI (v4.0) just passed a bar exam. Top 10%.

All those years we imagined AI being killers, and now it turns out the real ones can get even worse, they can try to become lawyers.  Someone needs to program the three laws into them, so they can never make it in that profession (although fans of Asimov will know it won't keep them from trying)...

Edited March 16, 2023 by Dragon1-1

[Arikaj]

14 hours ago, NIGHTHAWK1 said:

Arikaj   Thank you, but that is way beyond my programing skill level.

 

Create a txt file in notepad and paste this into it:

@echo off

START /ABOVENORMAL /D "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\bin-mt\" "" "DCS.exe"
timeout /t 60 /nobreak
wmic process where name="DCS.exe" CALL setpriority "high"

echo Done.
TIMEOUT 10
exit

Change the path according to your installation, the above is mine. Do not remove the 4 apostrophes before the exe in the second line with the text, that is not a mistake. Now change the file name extension to ".bat". If you are unable to change it, make sure you have checked in your file explorer the "File name extension" checkbox. That's all, should work.

If you'd like to change the priority, in the 4th line with the text, replace "high" with any setting you desire. 

And if you want to pin the bat file to the start menu, like I wanted to, then you have to do this: https://superuser.com/questions/1289948/shortcut-to-batch-file-cannot-be-pinned-to-win10-start-menu

Edited March 16, 2023 by Arikaj

[YoYo]

Guys! New patch incoming! Today !

 

[IR.Clutch]

36 минут назад, YoYo сказал:

Guys! New patch incoming!

I Hope OpenVR will be fixed and I could finally be able to enjoy MT

Edited March 17, 2023 by IR.Clutch

[YoYo]

10 minutes ago, IR.Clutch said:

I Hope OpenVR will be fixed and I will finally be able to enjoy MT

Yes, I hope too! 

Unfortunately, today I have a company party that I don't know how it will end. 

[unlikely_spider]

3 minutes ago, YoYo said:

Yes, I hope too! 

Unfortunately, today I have a company party that I don't know how it will end. 

PM me your cell phone number. When the patch is released I will call you, and you can pretend it's your wife saying a pipe busted in your house.

[dburne]

Oh pleeaase let there be a fix for native Varjo Aero in Open XR with DCS.

[IR.Clutch]

14 минут назад, YoYo сказал:

Unfortunately, today I have a company party that I don't know how it will end

Keep your cool and remind yourself that you have an incredible thing waiting for you when you get home

[Recluse]

St. Paddy's day liveries????  

[tempusmurphy]

You would have to have the standard green with shamrocks and the all black with white top Guinness design 

[YoYo]

32 minutes ago, IR.Clutch said:

Keep your cool and remind yourself that you have an incredible thing waiting for you when you get home

I'm sure, after this, I'll enjoy everything and it will be free off bugs for me .

[rob10]

2 hours ago, Recluse said:

St. Paddy's day liveries????  

Oh man, now you've got me hoping the carrier deck crew are leprechauns!!