DCS Newsletter discussion 22nd September 2023 - 15 Years of DCS Last Chance | A-10C II Development Report | 303rd Fighter Group

[BIGNEWY]

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

Thanks to the great interest in our 15 Years of DCS celebration sale we decided to extend the closing date until the 24th of September, 16:00 GMT. Don’t miss the final days and the opportunity to get something special at an exceptional price.

DCS: A-10C II Tank Killer has undergone updates to its datalink and fixed several bugs for its next Open Beta update. This will form part of the larger DCS 2.9 update that is currently in pre-release testing. Please read the details below.

The Virtual 303rd Fighter Group is a US-based multiplayer group that flies the A-10C II, F-16C, and F-15E. Many of their members served in the US armed forces or are real-world instrument rated pilots and so the level of professionalism is certainly right up there. Join their Discord and a great bunch of guys who are looking to help and challenge you too.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,
Eagle Dynamics

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/newsletters/42217366996c29092c2ee82aafb75902/

[MAXsenna]

You guys are great! But we need more stuff in the store!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[BIGNEWY]

ED Team are working on it, and the third parties  

[MAXsenna]

ED Team are working on it, and the third parties  

Yeah, I know! Thanks!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Snoopy]

Appreciate the shout out for the v303 Fighter Group and the A-10C II updates look awesome.  Looking forward to when the gateway is added to the data link network so A-10s on SADL can interact with others aircraft on the other network formerly known as Link 16 ;)!  Curious what the new functions for the APKWS are, is it HUD symbology or something else? And any updates to the ARC-210s functionality is awesome (hoping for a surprise second one eventually lol)

Either way love that the A-10C is getting some love!!!

[MAXsenna]

DCS 2.9 for the next OB patch? Now that's really interesting.
To those of you that guessed the next patch was 2.9!

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Lace]

[wags] huh, what's that 2.9 doing there? [/wags]

[hannibal]

maybe some love from glowing amraam to hold us over til 2.9?

[Akiazusa]

Realistic SNS+INS for A-10C?!  Finally it's going to be implemented for this old classic.   I'm really looking forward to it!

[St4rgun]

2 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

DCS 2.9 for the next OB patch? Now that's really interesting.
To those of you that guessed the next patch was 2.9!

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

I don't think so, it'll be rather 2.8.9 first.

The exact phrase from the newsletter: "DCS: A-10C II Tank Killer has undergone updates to its datalink and fixed several bugs for its next Open Beta update. This will form part of the larger DCS 2.9 update that is currently in pre-release testing."

For me DLSS would be a must for 2.9, as it was already available back in the first video in January. I'll be very disappointed if DLSS would be postponed after full change to Vulkan in 3.0 which could take at least a year at this pace...

Edited September 22, 2023 by St4rgun

[MAXsenna]

1 hour ago, St4rgun said:

I don't think so, it'll be rather 2.8.9 first.
The exact phrase from the newsletter: "DCS: A-10C II Tank Killer has undergone updates to its datalink and fixed several bugs for its next Open Beta update. This will form part of the larger DCS 2.9 update that is currently in pre-release testing."
For me DLSS would be a must for 2.9, as it was already available back in the first video in January. I'll be very disappointed if DLSS would be postponed after full change to Vulkan in 3.0 which could take at least a year at this pace...

You might be right. I just saw 2.9 and got tunnel vision.
Riddle me this though, (as I have no clue). I was sure DLSS was dependent on Vulkan, or why would they waste time on DLSS for DirectX 11 AND Vulkan? Pretty sure I read it somewhere written by more knowledgeable people than me that DLSS would come for Vulkan only. We got MT in 2.8, so wouldn't be strange at all to jump directly to 2.9 with Vulkan.  

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

Edited September 22, 2023 by MAXsenna

[Snoopy]

I’m assuming “SNS+INS” is referencing EGI Navigation (ENAV)?  Wonder if ED can’t use that terminology the same as they can’t use Link16 anymore.

[SkateZilla]

10 minutes ago, Snoopy said:

I’m assuming “SNS+INS” is referencing EGI Navigation (ENAV)?  Wonder if ED can’t use that terminology the same as they can’t use Link16 anymore.

From someone that produces content for film studios, Licensed trademarks and fees the last 5 years have become ridiculous.
You wanna wear a Slurpee or Jurassic Park T-Shirt in a Monetized YT short?, Fork over $10K or Blur it out.

Fun fact, that scene in Jurassic World, where the operator is wearing the original Jurassic Park T-Shirt, cost the production crew $45K in TM License and Art Fees.

3 hours ago, Snoopy said:

Appreciate the shout out for the v303 Fighter Group and the A-10C II updates look awesome.  Looking forward to when the gateway is added to the data link network so A-10s on SADL can interact with others aircraft on the other network formerly known as Link 16 ;)!  Curious what the new functions for the APKWS are, is it HUD symbology or something else? And any updates to the ARC-210s functionality is awesome (hoping for a surprise second one eventually lol)

Either way love that the A-10C is getting some love!!!

If Snoopy's happy, we're all happy, as for APKWS, maybe it wasn't Advanced enough or Precise enough..

[St4rgun]

25 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

You might be right. I just saw 2.9 and got tunnel vision.
Riddle me this though, (as I have no clue). I was sure DLSS was dependent on Vulkan, or why would they waste time on DLSS for DirectX 11 AND Vulkan? Pretty sure I read it somewhere written by more knowledgeable people than me that DLSS would come for Vulkan only. We got MT in 2.8, so wouldn't be strange at all to jump directly to 2.9 with Vulkan.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

Let's wait for the Developer Q&A to get answers. I'm pretty sure ED could clarify the roadmap with DLSS, Vulkan and versions.

[MAXsenna]

6 minutes ago, St4rgun said:

Let's wait for the Developer Q&A to get answers.

When is that? 

 

 

[SkateZilla]

5 minutes ago, St4rgun said:

Let's wait for the Developer Q&A to get answers. I'm pretty sure ED could clarify the roadmap with DLSS, Vulkan and versions.

Frame Generation Requires DX12 or Vulkan.
DLSS1.0, 2.0, 2.2, 3.0 or 3.5 Libraries can be used on DX11, DX12, or Vulkan.
You will not be able to use Frame Generation or Ray Re-Construction commands unless your on DX12 or Vulkan though.

[Weasel]

Frame Generation Requires DX12 or Vulkan.
DLSS1.0, 2.0, 2.2, 3.0 or 3.5 Libraries can be used on DX11, DX12, or Vulkan.
You will not be able to use Frame Generation or Ray Re-Construction commands unless your on DX12 or Vulkan though.

Quick side question: What exactly is DLSS or what will be the benefit in DCS? Asking for a friend

[SkateZilla]

5 minutes ago, Weasel said:

Quick side question: What exactly is DLSS or what will be the benefit in DCS? Asking for a friend

Deep-Learning-Super-Sampling.

Say you have an Expensive 4K 120Hz Screen or a VR HMD that has a really high display resolution.
And You have a GPU bottleneck and cant render DCS at 4K 120FPS.

With DLSS, The Game is rendered anywhere from 50% (or 1/4 of the pixels) to 85% of the original resolution, and the AI tensor cores filter and upsample them to the native display resolution. w/ minimal visual loss in quality, vs traditional Image Scaling. the work is done using nVidia/RTXs Tensor Cores vs the GPU, and uses AI to construct a vector based pipeline to anticipate what the pixels should look like during the filtering pass.

So you could in theory, run the game at 1080p and upscale it to your 4K screen's resolution, and keep the frame rate of 1080p, with minimal to no VISUAL loss in quality.

Edited September 22, 2023 by SkateZilla

[St4rgun]

47 minutes ago, SkateZilla said:

Frame Generation Requires DX12 or Vulkan.
DLSS1.0, 2.0, 2.2, 3.0 or 3.5 Libraries can be used on DX11, DX12, or Vulkan.
You will not be able to use Frame Generation or Ray Re-Construction commands unless your on DX12 or Vulkan though.

DLSS would essential for VR in two ways: 1. get higher framerates by reducing the rendering resolution while getting clear picture and 2. having DLAA with high quality proper temporal AA to finally eliminate all the aliasing problems which is present in VR right now.

All of ED's trailers on YT are like stellar high quality movies which is how this game really looks like in 2D right now with MSAA. Unfortunately this MSAA doesn't work so well in VR (mainly with transparent textures), so in the headset's the visuals are lagging behind the quality of the trailers (shimmering, aliasing, aliased clouds etc).

If only DLSS can be implemented before Vulkan for this purposes it'd be an instant huge success. Unfortunetely ED did not give any straight answer to date whether DLSS will precede Vulkan or not.

So the question is simple: is it possible to have 2.9 with DLSS, while 3.0 will be Vulkan?

[Snoopy]

7 hours ago, SkateZilla said:

From someone that produces content for film studios, Licensed trademarks and fees the last 5 years have become ridiculous.
You wanna wear a Slurpee or Jurassic Park T-Shirt in a Monetized YT short?, Fork over $10K or Blur it out.

Fun fact, that scene in Jurassic World, where the operator is wearing the original Jurassic Park T-Shirt, cost the production crew $45K in TM License and Art Fees.

If Snoopy's happy, we're all happy, as for APKWS, maybe it wasn't Advanced enough or Precise enough..

Suite 10 has some nice symbology that was added to the HUD for laser rockets.  I’m gonna assume that’s not was is being updated though.

anytime the A-10 gets some love I’m happy, excited for the eventual “gateway” so we can set up to include formerly known as link16 capable aircraft

[draconus]

Quote

We are not just celebrating 15 Years of DCS, we’re also setting the stage for the next 15 years of flight simulation history! 

Strong message - I like it!

 

[dutchili]

10 hours ago, St4rgun said:

DLSS would essential for VR in two ways: 1. get higher framerates by reducing the rendering resolution while getting clear picture and 2. having DLAA with high quality proper temporal AA to finally eliminate all the aliasing problems which is present in VR right now.

All of ED's trailers on YT are like stellar high quality movies which is how this game really looks like in 2D right now with MSAA. Unfortunately this MSAA doesn't work so well in VR (mainly with transparent textures), so in the headset's the visuals are lagging behind the quality of the trailers (shimmering, aliasing, aliased clouds etc).

If only DLSS can be implemented before Vulkan for this purposes it'd be an instant huge success. Unfortunetely ED did not give any straight answer to date whether DLSS will precede Vulkan or not.

So the question is simple: is it possible to have 2.9 with DLSS, while 3.0 will be Vulkan?

Flying vr with a 4090 it seems that the main threat is unable to produce enough frames when taxiing. I expect DLSS and DLAA to help the visuals but not the framerate. I think the main threat(s) need to be further optimized for that. 

[MAXsenna]

On 9/22/2023 at 7:30 PM, St4rgun said:

I don't think so, it'll be rather 2.8.9 first.

What do you think from this? 

[St4rgun]

1 hour ago, MAXsenna said:

What do you think from this? 

Yes, my other tought also was if the silence will be so thick as now I can imagine that no patch will be deployed in September with an incoming huge 2.9 in October (like it was the case with the MT preview). Pure speculation.

Anyhow I'm still more interested in DLSS and Vulkan possibilities in 2.9. Still have no answer on that topic.

Maybe @BIGNEWY can give us some hints...

[BIGNEWY]

It is best to wait and look at the patch notes for added features, as things can change during testing.

For now we keep testing 2.9, and as soon as we can give you all a date for the next patch we will. 

thank you