Questions about graphics from a new player.

[Mibarri]

Hello All,

I have finally taken up DCS after playing over 40 in game days  of War Thunder in SIM. I have a few questions regarding some of the graphics and figured this might be the place for it since the game for someone reason, lacks luster compared to some game play I've seen of this game/sim. I really couldn't find a general game discussion forum.

PC Specs and FYI: AMD Ryzen 7950x, Geforce RTX 4090, 32g of RAM. Really only interested in single player at the moment. I have purchased both the F-18C & Super Carrier Mods. All "System" settings are maxed out for the most part and run at about 180fps during game play.

So I've been doing a ton of research into making this game look great, Settings, Reshade, etc. I Picked up the F-18C and am really enjoying it. However I am currently learning to fly a Case 1 Carrier Recovery using Bankler's Case 1 Recovery Trainer and am really disappointed with how some of the ships look and especially how the water looks. It honestly looks like I downloaded a demo of DCS and not the whole game. I have managed to make the plane and interior look pretty decent, but the terrain, water and ships look awful. That being said, here are my questions.

The videos I've seen of people doing the Case 1 Recovery Trainer look SO MUCH BETTER than the game I'm playing. Most of the better looking ones are from 2 years ago. The water is choppy w/ whitecaps, the carrier it's self is lit and you can see the meatball lights etc. All ships have a wake.

Are these mods/texture add ons, actual game play, post production videos, or is there a more "Full" version of the game I need to download?

The other thought I had, though I don't know if it's a thing. If you purchase a module that has more updated terrain, would there be a change in graphics in the game overall?

If there are mods for better terrain and water or models of ships. Where can I find them?

 

 

[freehand]

You can change the look feel of dcs if you learn to use the mission editor time of day weather e.t.c  and will look completely different.

As for the ship models & so on DCS is more intended to being realistic which comes before pretty looking GFX not an arcade game such as War thunder. 

also some maps look nicer than others.

[Mibarri]

So there's nothing I can download to make the game look better other than reshade? No mods?

Any suggestions?

Genuinely curious.

[freehand]

Which map are you on ? the videos you see on line are using the mission editor so look great the default look of DCS is bland for learning if you was to add some weather  your the case1  would put you in a load of pain because of difficulty windy choppy seas but look good.

Edited November 12, 2023 by freehand

[Mibarri]

I honestly don't know the map. I don't even know how to find that out. But I can name a few cities that are on it. Gudauta, Sukhumi-Babushara, Senaki-Kolkhi, Batumi. I think it might be Caucasus. Since I haven't bought any maps I'm assuming that's it.

[Art-J]

It is Caucasus then. It's the oldest and thus the least detailed map in DCS (albeit the most framerate friendly for the same reason). There are custom mods available to make it prettier. For example Barthek's mod or CGTC mod offer general terrain textures overhaul (which one of them is nicer depends 100% on subjective preferences), while Taz1004 trees mod offers much improved trees. All of them can be found in this section of the forum. Keep in mind, if you're into multiplayer (which I believe is the case if you're coming from WT), you won't be able to use them anyway as they will break file integrity check used by major servers. That appplies to most of the custom mods really.

As for comparison with YT vids - the guys who make them just know how to set the mission up for best visuals on the vid - after all that's what their goal as moviemakers is. For example, as in real life, everything looks somewhat flat and oversaturated in DCS when sun is directly above, but adjust mission time to morning or evening ("golden hours"), then add some clouds and the scenery starts to look like million dollars. It's pretty much the same as in every other flight sim, race sim, first person shooter etc. About the sea - add some hefty wind in the editor and there you'll get your choppy surface with whitecaps and all. Throw in some rain for a good measure to get wet flightdeck surface effects. While we're at it, I'd hazard a guess vid makers also mostly use payware Supercarrier module, which I believe features more detail, lights and general eyecandy compared to free Forrestal unit. Latest payware maps also offer better detail than good ole free Caucasus, but that's a given. Free Marianas map is recent and quite good-lookin' though (even for work-in-progress product).

As for other naval units or AI planes - DCS, being a 10+ yrs old game, is just a mixed bag here. Some units are old and poorly detailed, some others are new and greatly detailed. All the rest is somewhere inbetween. There are bunch of cool community AI unit mods available as well, but again, they're not really usuable in multiplayer.

To sum it up, mission time and weather conditions affect the looks the most. I don't bother with Reshade, when I'm in the mood for scenic hollywood'ish flight I just set the mission up accordingly.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Art-J

[KrazyPilot]

On 11/11/2023 at 8:03 PM, Mibarri said:

Hello All,

I have finally taken up DCS after playing over 40 in game days  of War Thunder in SIM. I have a few questions regarding some of the graphics and figured this might be the place for it since the game for someone reason, lacks luster compared to some game play I've seen of this game/sim. I really couldn't find a general game discussion forum.

PC Specs and FYI: AMD Ryzen 7950x, Geforce RTX 4090, 32g of RAM. Really only interested in single player at the moment. I have purchased both the F-18C & Super Carrier Mods. All "System" settings are maxed out for the most part and run at about 180fps during game play.

So I've been doing a ton of research into making this game look great, Settings, Reshade, etc. I Picked up the F-18C and am really enjoying it. However I am currently learning to fly a Case 1 Carrier Recovery using Bankler's Case 1 Recovery Trainer and am really disappointed with how some of the ships look and especially how the water looks. It honestly looks like I downloaded a demo of DCS and not the whole game. I have managed to make the plane and interior look pretty decent, but the terrain, water and ships look awful. That being said, here are my questions.

The videos I've seen of people doing the Case 1 Recovery Trainer look SO MUCH BETTER than the game I'm playing. Most of the better looking ones are from 2 years ago. The water is choppy w/ whitecaps, the carrier it's self is lit and you can see the meatball lights etc. All ships have a wake.

Are these mods/texture add ons, actual game play, post production videos, or is there a more "Full" version of the game I need to download?

The other thought I had, though I don't know if it's a thing. If you purchase a module that has more updated terrain, would there be a change in graphics in the game overall?

If there are mods for better terrain and water or models of ships. Where can I find them?

 

 

1. Research and Watch or Read some Mission Making Tutorials so you can actually learn how to use the Mission Editor Properly. You can as well always Buy/Download other Missions that people have made. Same for Campaigns. You can also go through the included Quick Missions or Training Missions especially for the F-18C.

2. Like stated above there are mods available which you can find in this forum and downlaod and implement. You may even get better FPS with some. Although Caucasus Map is Older as stated it actually has recently been improved and brought up almost to the New Gen standard. If you want the Best "Eyecandy" then use the included free Marianas Map which uses the latest and greates Map Generation. Syria and Sinai are Incredible as well but you will need to buy those. 

3. As for Ships you can easily find in the Assets Mods section of the Forums TONS of very Beautiful ships from Admirals thread. He is probably the most skilled in this category of DCS as of now. Here is a link to his Ship Mods https://sites.google.com/view/admiral189dcsworldmods/warships You can also download different Livery's for most Vessels and even Vehicles that are included in DCS and some of these Liverys really improve the look of everything.

4. DCS is not in same category as WT in anyway.. DCS is a very unique and the Learning Curve is big. It takes most users Years to really learn to utilize everything DCS has to offer and the Mission Making abilities are second to none in my opinion. But, if you take a little bit of time to Learn it makes all the difference. Some videos are heavily edited to and refined post production to make DCS look even better but DCS is on its own fairly beautiful for what its built for and offers. You are meant to be spending more time Above the Map then actually on it and the size of the Maps in comparison to something like WT is magnitudes larger just go check out the South Atlantic map for yourself or the Marianas even... If these maps were detailed to scale perfectly no PC in the world would get above 5fps lol but as the game evolves and the Tech available gets better things will continue to improve and change. Come back in another 2-3 or 5 years if you like..