Max clarity for plane's in VR.. new guy.

[Fingers68]

Just got the Normandy map with spitfire and WWII pack.

Got things running and looking very nice, Native res Pimax Crystal Light. With DCS settings not maxed but quite high on the whole.

Which settings in DCS govern the best quality of planes at a distance? Also are planes viewable at the same distance regardless of settings? LOD not effecting the distance a plane comes into view for eg.

Any tips welcomed thanks.

[ChariotOfFLAME]

That would be the spotting dot setting and visible range setting, I believe

[RoboHackfeld]

Neither, Visible Range nor preload radius nor LOD change anything regarding the visibility of units/aircrafts at the distance. In terms of spotting, imo you have to make sure you push the graphics in terms of clarity. In best case you use no upsampling like FSR/DLSS and a high pixel density but that will all decrease your performance.

Like @ChariotOfFLAME mentioned, you can activate the spotting dots under the main settings menu I guess, not sure if its exactly there. There planes appear like small dots (1px/2px) when they are at a certain distance. It works pretty good but it is not immersive in my oppinion. I think if you are able to see planes at a distance of about 8nm it is realistic and should be enough. I mean, no pilot is able to spot a plane at a distance of 20nm only with his eyes.

 

Not long ago I asked Chat GPT about real conditions of spotting airplanes and it gave me this answere:

 

The distance at which a jet pilot can clearly see another jet with naked eye depends on several factors including:

- Size and contrast of the other jet

- Lighting and weather condistions

- Background (e.g. sky, clouds, sun)

- Movement and speed of the aircraft

 

Under ideal conditions (clear sky, good visibility, good lightin), a pilot can visually detect another aircraft at approximately:

- 10 - 15 km (6 - 9 mi/ 5.2 - 7.8 nm) : The jet appears as a small dot

- 5 - 8 km (3 - 5 mi/ 2.6 - 4.35 nm) : Shape and direction of movement become distinguishable.

- 1 - 2 km (0.6 - 1.2 mi/ 0.5 - 1 nm) and closer: Good visual tracking, also important for tactical maneuvers in dogfights.

In a dogfight, visual detection within a few km is crucial. However, in modern combat, targets are usually acquired at much greater distances using radar and infrared sensors.

 

Edited May 15 by RoboHackfeld

[Fingers68]

Thanks for the replies folks, very helpful indeed.

I have been pushing Visible Range, preload radius and LOD up to near max. I might back those off for a bit of headroom. I've settled on MSAAx4 with about 50% sharpening, at native Res this is providing a nice image. 72hz with quad views which is solid on the whole, bar the very start of the campaigns in The Big Show, drops to about 65hz. Still early days and lots to learn and tweak but very happy so far.

Thanks again

I now need to be looking at upgrading my old thrustmaster joystick, the slider is jumping all over. Being left handed and only room on the left side of my rig is restrictive. But this new Sol-R 1 Flightstick might fit the bill.

4090, 7800x3d, 64gig ddr5.

[Qcumber]

6 minutes ago, Fingers68 said:

Thanks for the replies folks, very helpful indeed.

I have been pushing Visible Range, preload radius and LOD up to near max. I might back those off for a bit of headroom. I've settled on MSAAx4 with about 50% sharpening, at native Res this is providing a nice image. 72hz with quad views which is solid on the whole, bar the very start of the campaigns in The Big Show, drops to about 65hz. Still early days and lots to learn and tweak but very happy so far.

Thanks again

I now need to be looking at upgrading my old thrustmaster joystick, the slider is jumping all over. Being left handed and only room on the left side of my rig is restrictive. But this new Sol-R 1 Flightstick might fit the bill.

4090, 7800x3d, 64gig ddr5.

I have found the best results with DLSS quality preset K. QVFR centre resolution set to equivalent of about 5000 pixels with peripheral about half native. This gives a really sharp image with no ghosting and good AA. 

[Fingers68]

Changing to DLSS has made a big difference thanks, not only to performance but increasing the CAS sharpness to 100% from 50% with MSAAX4, I think it might look a little better.

Performance wise I have a solid 72fps with headroom to spare, flying low around the center of Paris took it down to 65fps, everywhere else its solid.

I do not see the quality preset K setting you have.null

[Qcumber]

13 minutes ago, Fingers68 said:

Changing to DLSS has made a big difference thanks, not only to performance but increasing the CAS sharpness to 100% from 50% with MSAAX4, I think it might look a little better.

Performance wise I have a solid 72fps with headroom to spare, flying low around the center of Paris took it down to 65fps, everywhere else its solid.

I do not see the quality preset K setting you have.null

You need to download NVIDIA profile inspector and then you can select to automatically use the most up to date DLSS release and can select preset K. 

https://github.com/Orbmu2k/nvidiaProfileInspector/releases

Check out this thread too:

 

 

Edited May 15 by Qcumber

[Fingers68]

Thank you for both those links, there's lots to be gleaned from that performance post.

I am guessing the Nvidia DLSS is better than the DCS native I am using. I will have a dive into that, but what I have got set so far is definitely performing better than MSAAx4. I have not yet compared in detail but on first look I am impressed at the visuals also.

Headroom around 25% bar rooftop flying centre Paris is putting a smile on my face.

[Qcumber]

2 minutes ago, Fingers68 said:

Thank you for both those links, there's lots to be gleaned from that performance post.

I am guessing the Nvidia DLSS is better than the DCS native I am using. I will have a dive into that, but what I have got set so far is definitely performing better than MSAAx4. I have not yet compared in detail but on first look I am impressed at the visuals also.

Headroom around 25% bar rooftop flying centre Paris is putting a smile on my face.

DLSS in DCS is an older version so using DLSS 4 and preset K will give you much better visuals. Sharper and much less ghosting. 

[Fingers68]

On 5/15/2025 at 8:54 PM, Qcumber said:

DLSS in DCS is an older version so using DLSS 4 and preset K will give you much better visuals. Sharper and much less ghosting. 

 

After more testing things are great till other planes are on the scene. I am getting really bad tracers from them. 

I have tried preset K and others, maybe I need to edit the reg to display the DLSS version to make sure it's forced correctly.

Are the tracers something that can't be completely eliminated with DLSS?

I've got it running good with MSAAx4, it doesn't quite look as good as DLSS but there's zero tracers.

Edit

Checked, and it is using the correct DLSS version. I guess the tracers/ghosting is a bit of a trade off. All seems fine when there's loads of spare headroom but in a 16 squadron it starts to struggle.

Edited May 17 by Fingers68

[RoboHackfeld]

Explain what you mean with tracers. Do you mean like seeing the Plane which is moving fast is displayed like doubled? If thats what your talking about it should be normal as long as you are using any kind of reprojection like ASW, SSW etc. in combination with DLSS, DLAA....

Only with MSAA and no AA the reprojection modes are able to display fast moving objects clearly.

Edited May 19 by RoboHackfeld

[Qcumber]

On 5/17/2025 at 5:10 PM, Fingers68 said:

 

After more testing things are great till other planes are on the scene. I am getting really bad tracers from them. 

I have tried preset K and others, maybe I need to edit the reg to display the DLSS version to make sure it's forced correctly.

Are the tracers something that can't be completely eliminated with DLSS?

I've got it running good with MSAAx4, it doesn't quite look as good as DLSS but there's zero tracers.

Edit

Checked, and it is using the correct DLSS version. I guess the tracers/ghosting is a bit of a trade off. All seems fine when there's loads of spare headroom but in a 16 squadron it starts to struggle.

Ghosting can be minimized/eliminated by increasing resolution. I do this by using QVFR so that I can push the foveated resolution up to about 5000 pixels (equivalent). It really depends on how much your GPU can handle. With a 4090 you should be able to do ok. 

[Fingers68]

Cheers folks, will do more testing with the DLSS.

Another can of worms uncovered at the weekend. I have got a good headroom (OpenXR toolkit) in the free flight and dogfight on Normandy, about 20% to 30% and about 10% when tree top flying.

The big show campaign has been fine, a little drop of fps at the start but once in formation all is ok. Then mission 5, protecting US bombers, a lot of bombers!! There must be about 70 to 80 planes plus our squad, when they came into view my FPS was round it's ankles at 35fps at times.! Not sure if there's a caching thing as I've not seen these bombers nor land area. Maybe this is something you have to just live with when the sky is just so full of assets.

Edited May 19 by Fingers68