Best Graphic settings for DCS

[SharpeXB]

3 hours ago, draconus said:

No, no card ever needed that in DCS. It's just for those who have too much free time and excite about every % of performance gain.

Funny because there’s a thread in the VR section where someone seems to spend more time tweaking their $1,600 graphics card than they do playing the game. I wonder if they realize that such threads will scare most people away from using VR including me. Such stuff has convinced me to never go there.

The trouble with VR compared to a monitor is that in 2D it’s easier to have some performance headroom whereas in VR even the strongest machine will be at it’s limits. Plus VR is less tolerant of lower frame rates compared to 2D where they don’t creates sickness or artifacts. And besides just graphic settings there’s a bewildering amount of settings related to the headsets and runtimes. 

There are two kinds of players IMO. Players and users. Players just play the game. Users use the game to play around with their hardware. I’m certainly just a player. I want to set it and forget it. VR probably never gives you that luxury. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by SharpeXB

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

2 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Funny because there’s a thread in the VR section where someone seems to spend more time tweaking their $1,600 graphics card than they do playing the game. I wonder if they realize that such threads will scare most people away from using VR including me. Such stuff has convinced me to never go there.

The trouble with VR compared to a monitor is that in 2D it’s easier to have some performance headroom whereas in VR even the strongest machine will be at it’s limits. Plus VR is less tolerant of lower frame rates compared to 2D where they don’t creates sickness or artifacts. And besides just graphic settings there’s a bewildering amount of settings related to the headsets and runtimes. 

There are two kinds of players IMO. Players and users. Players just play the game. Users use the game to play around with their hardware. I’m certainly just a player. I want to set it and forget it. VR probably never gives you that luxury. 

 

VR enhances the experience of the sim 10 fold though. People wouldn't bother with it (and yes it can be frustrating) if it wasn't totally worth the experience. 

[SharpeXB]

Just now, HoBGoBLiNzx3 said:

VR enhances the experience of the sim 10 fold though. People wouldn't bother with it (and yes it can be frustrating) if it wasn't totally worth the experience. 

Yeah I get that VR is compelling but that just seems to feed the tweaking insanity. It’s debatable whether that’s worthwhile spending so much time on that vs the game. 

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

1 minute ago, SharpeXB said:

Yeah I get that VR is compelling but that just seems to feed the tweaking insanity. It’s debatable whether that’s worthwhile spending so much time on that vs the game. 

I think that would ultimately but up to the individual. Some people get it where they like it and as long as the performance is good then they are happy. I'm that way. The problem is DCS updates might ruin performance, and to get it running smooth you need to tinker a bit (at least until they have all the performance options available as stated before). Like right now, I get 70fps with a reverb G2 at 100% res and on most servers 50. However, GS server I was just getting 30 and it frustrated me.. but that could be the server... the update.. who knows. At least I have it when i have the itch!

[SharpeXB]

16 minutes ago, HoBGoBLiNzx3 said:

to get it running smooth you need to tinker a bit (at least until they have all the performance options available as stated before)

You do realize the game will always continue to evolve and demand more and more from hardware no matter what “performance options” get added. So there will be no end to the eternal tweaking.

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

7 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

You do realize the game will always continue to evolve and demand more and more from hardware no matter what “performance options” get added. So there will be no end to the eternal tweaking.

That is the same with 2D... 

[SharpeXB]

9 minutes ago, HoBGoBLiNzx3 said:

That is the same with 2D... 

But not nearly to the degree VR requires, again because the hardware is generally not at its limit and lower frame rates are more tolerable. You don’t see the obsessive compulsive tweaking in 2D like is seen in VR. And the VR players are tweaking $6k machines not some bargain basement PC. The level of graphics in DCS simply wasn’t intended for VR. All VR-specific games have very simplistic graphics so they’ll run on the headsets. Look at VTOL VR, that’s what a VR flight sim looks like. 

I get it that some VR players have never run a 2D game so they don’t get how easy this is all supposed to be. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by SharpeXB

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

2 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

But not nearly to the degree VR requires, again because the hardware is generally not at its limit and lower frame rates are more tolerable. You don’t see the obsessive compulsive tweaking in 2D like is seen in VR. And the VR players are tweaking $6k machines not some bargain basement PC. The level of graphics in DCS simply wasn’t intended for VR. All VR-specific games have very simplistic graphics so they’ll run on the headsets. Look at VTOL VR, that’s what a VR flight sim looks like. 

I get it that some VR players have never run a 2D game so they don’t get how easy this is all supposed to be. 

 

Hence why we are waiting for the tech I just reffered to.. Vulkan and DLSS will make a lot of mid range cards run it fine. It's no different than people will older cards trying to run new titles. People are tweaking DCS because they have the options to see if they can get the best visual fidelity out of it while still maintaining performance. In 2D people do the same thing. Trying shadows vs AA techniques etc. Yes we have already came to the conclusion that you do it more in VR.. It's understandably more to fiddle with.... So is a PC vs a Console.. not a reason to get a console now is it?

[SharpeXB]

14 minutes ago, HoBGoBLiNzx3 said:

Hence why we are waiting for the tech I just reffered to.. Vulkan and DLSS will make a lot of mid range cards run it fine.

For now. Then the game will evolve and become more elaborate and demand more and you’ll still need to upgrade. The game will grow to use up the performance overhead created by Vulkan etc so in the end you’ll still struggle. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by SharpeXB

[diego999]

12 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

I want to set it and forget it. VR probably never gives you that luxury. 

 

 

It does, but after a month of trying settings in my case.

[draconus]

18 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Funny because there’s a thread in the VR section where someone seems to spend more time tweaking their $1,600 graphics card than they do playing the game.

It's his own decision to do so. You won't see any thread from those that just set it and fly. There are defaults and gfx presets that lets you just click play and it works. The threads you will see from those who have troubles either with performance or with running it but it's the same for 2d.

[SharpeXB]

4 hours ago, draconus said:

it but it's the same for 2d.

VR requires way more work than 2D, they aren’t comparable. The whole VR sub forum is posts from people screwing around endlessly with their hardware.  

[draconus]

26 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

VR requires way more work than 2D, they aren’t comparable.

Yeah, like you know anything about that.

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, draconus said:

Yeah, like you know anything about that.

It’s pretty obvious. I’ve used the VR headsets, everyone has. It’s funny today to imply that people don’t “know anything” about VR. It’s not new. I’ve used them at work, although the use of it in my industry seems to be dying off, the hype is sorta gone. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by SharpeXB

[Sr.]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:52 AM, SharpeXB said:

Why both?

And I’m not sure any system is bullet proof when it comes to VR. Apparently a 4090 still needs 10 pages of tweaking

Glad I went with the 4080 then... slapped it in, moved some sliders up. Heaven. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Sr.

[unlikely_spider]

5 minutes ago, Sr. said:

Glad I went with the 4080 then... slapped it in, moved some sliders up. Heaven. 

 

What did you have before?

[Sr.]

48 minutes ago, unlikely_spider said:

What did you have before?

RX6900XT

[ouseler]

I have an AMD 5950X CPU, AMD 7900XTX GPU, 32GB RAM, On-board Samsung EVO970 Plus 2 TB SSD, and am currently running at 1440 resolution on a 40" Visio TV, but can go to 4K.  I use TIR, no VR.  I downloaded the latest GPU drivers prior to starting up 2.9. 

Game Settings: All terrains, water, traffic, etc. are set to HIGH.  The clouds are set to ULTRA.  The visibility range is set to EXTREME.  I have shadows set to HIGH, but SSS is OFF.  Most of my sliders for Grass, Trees, etc. are set to the right of center.  

When I downloaded 2.9, I tried my res at 4K and turned on the FSR (for the AMD GPU) upscaling and adjusted it to fit my screen to my liking.  Got on to a dogfight server and noticed that my cockpit instruments were not clear and MFDs were almost unreadable.  The HUD and HMD were clear, but when I engaged another aircraft, the aircraft were ghosting terribly and even fading in and out at close range. It made dogfighting very difficult. 

I tried changing the res back to 1440, but the ghosting and blurry MFDs remained, basically no change.  I turned the FSR off and still the same conditions.  I then turned on the anti-aliasing to MSSA 4x.  The ghosting went away and the cockpit cleared up.  I tried the other anti-aliasing options, but only MSAA would eliminate my issues.  The MSAA does not seem to impact my PC performance so far.

My question is:

Why would upscaling degrade my graphics?; I thought the purpose of upscaling was to improve the graphics.  And why does only MSAA work to clear up my graphics issues, when I didn't need any anti-aliasing before 2.9?  Is it simply a settings issues or something else?

There is the jittering F2 views which is a known issue.  But I am not getting the clarity and detail and I am seeing others getting.  

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by ouseler

[rob10]

1 hour ago, ouseler said:

Why would upscaling degrade my graphics?; I thought the purpose of upscaling was to improve the graphics. 

Upscaling REDUCES the load on your computer and allow higher framerates, BUT that comes with the trade-off of REDUCED graphics.  You may get enough performance increase to bump your graphics settings to overcome this, but you may not.  Upscaling doesn't miraculously make the game performance better, it changes the way that it does things to reduce the load but the side effect is reduced graphical quality at the same settings.  Which also explains your MSAA question.

Of course, my explanation is somewhat superficial because I haven't dug into the details of exactly how all that works.

[SharpeXB]

2 hours ago, ouseler said:

am currently running at 1440 resolution on a 40" Visio TV, but can go to 4K

Have you tried just running 2160x3840 native? Your GPU should be able to handle that without resorting to FSR upscaling. Like mentioned above, upscaling results in reduced quality but higher fps since you aren’t pushing as many pixels. But for a strong graphics card like you have, it shouldn’t be necessary to use. 

[draconus]

11 hours ago, ouseler said:

And why does only MSAA work to clear up my graphics issues...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisample_anti-aliasing#Advantages

Quote

Since multiple subpixels per pixel are sampled, polygonal details smaller than one pixel that might have been missed without MSAA can be captured and made a part of the final rendered image if enough samples are taken.

As pointed above - best to use native monitor resolution in your case.

[ouseler]

Thanks for the information.  I'll try going to 2160 x 3840 and see how it goes.

[Ghostmaker]

Jumping onto this thread, im new to pc's and DCS so excuae me for any daft answers. 

My first and new system is a scan 3XS system with a rtx 4090, 7800x3d, 32gb corsair, 3440 x 1440 monitor. HP Reverb G2.

In the cockpit thisng are good but could be better and when flying the ground and trees look good but not realistic enough, i had a f15e next to me earlier and it didnt look realistic / clear. Is it the vr or the settings? Im also running openXr toolkit but not sure what settings will be the best.

So far ive maxed settings out in DLSS and backed some off. In Vr settings i put the sharpness to 1.5 

 

Please help if you can

 

Thanks

Arron

[Rex]

On 4/4/2023 at 8:19 AM, SharpeXB said:

Yeah I get that VR is compelling but that just seems to feed the tweaking insanity. It’s debatable whether that’s worthwhile spending so much time on that vs the game. 

 

You can debate all you want how I use my free time and how "worthwhile" (to whom?) it is, but then again, if you're averse to wasting time, you may not want to. 

Why?

Because regardless of how your debate turns out, you'll still have no say in the matter.

If you enjoy DCS on any level, then you should thank the tweakers, because your experience would be far inferior to what it is today without them.  If you disagree, and if the way I spend my free time makes you not want to use VR, then don't use VR.  It's not for you.  It's not difficult by any means, but it does require a level of commitment not so easily dissuaded, and it doesn't sound like you have it.  I think you've made the right choice sticking with 2D.  You can thank the tweakers for making that clear, and for saving you that effort.

See, the system works.

[draconus]

On 11/20/2023 at 9:44 PM, Ghostmaker said:

In the cockpit thisng are good but could be better and when flying the ground and trees look good but not realistic enough, i had a f15e next to me earlier and it didnt look realistic / clear.

Show us some screenshots and point us to what is wrong with them.

What can be better in cockpit? Was something missing? Maybe the pilot?

Models of trees, ground and buildings are a bit old, esp. on older maps like Caucasus or NTTR, that's understandable.

F-15E model otoh is top notch - what was not realistic about it? Did you have antialiasing and shadows turned on? Try with DLAA and don't sharpen it too much.