DCS 2.5 Update Thread (2018)

fearlessfrog · February 17, 2018, 2:23am

Ok, I am going to install DCS 2.5. Wish me luck. I think I am a bit late.

near_blind · February 17, 2018, 2:52am

Hop on when you do! I should be around

fearlessfrog · February 17, 2018, 8:26pm

Ok, old news for a lot of people, but findings so far:

Snow looks purdy.
Nvidia drivers beyond 388.13 cause frame waits. Going to roll back.
Shader cache seems a bit broke. Manually clearing out DCS.openbeta/fxo and metashaders seems to help.
Trees are impressive. Maybe a bit scaled wrong? They seem really big compared to the buildings.
I’ve got a strange grid on the NTTR landscape, but looking on the ED forums that’s been reported.
Deferred Shading and MSAA happens over two frame passes, so that needs to be off for me now.
VR performance seems similar to 2.2, as in ok, but not great. A thousand knobs to fiddle with, but turning of shadows seems to be the thing to help.
VRAM usage is up. I am using a 1070 GTX 8GB and it needs it.
CPU profile is a bit different, maybe a bit more work off of core0. Perhaps the speedtree? No big performance improvement, as still core0-centric (which is to be expected).
Gamma in VR using Deferred Shading is a bit of a battle. Cockpit illumination on seems to bleach out a bit, while 1.1 gamma works inside the cockpit but then the landscape is not right. Still lots of beta work to do on the lighting in 2.5 I think (which is pretty much expected as it was this way in 2.2 for a while as well).
Sunsets/Sunrises is the new midday. It seems the deferred shading is at it’s best with long shadows (which it gets for free as part of the clip algorithm) but it does mean contrast/gamma need to be topped out a bit during bright parts of the day.
New Georgia is nice, although a curious mix of old and new textures sometimes. I love the seasons.
Night time lighting and FLIR in the AV8B needs some tweaks. City lighting at night and ambient values past sunset seem a bit out of whack.
Tried a server very late last night, and as expected saw my 16GB memory fill up and then fault out after about 40 mins.Single player seems ok so far.
Lots changed in the Harrier in terms of TPOD etc. Will be fun to try that, although need to get into the mood of trying to find a good gamma/contrast and framerate friendly bunch of settings. In VR it seems to be much more variable than 2.2, even in NTTR.

Anyway, fun to take a look at the beta. Hopefully lots of progress over the next couple of weeks as the release gets closer.

Gunnyhighway · February 18, 2018, 4:15am

good write up. The memory issue is the biggest hang up for me. I’ve decided to put DCS away until the Hornet is out. 16gb at the settings I’m used to doesn’t cut it on a multiplayer server, which is what I fly on 90% of the time.

Maico · February 18, 2018, 7:21am

Try the instant mission F-5E Free flight Nevada. It looks amazing on my tv. Beautiful desert sunset.

schurem · February 18, 2018, 7:37am

I rolled back to 388.13 after your post. Nevada now has these weird gridlike patches of shiny stuff. The game does seem to look better than before. Perhaps I need to rebuild shaders again… Not so sure about the gain in framerate. It does not seem more fluid than the driver I rolled back from (390.something)

Phantom88 · February 18, 2018, 6:15pm

The time of day/Gamma value has a HUGE impact visually with Deferred Shading on,When the Sun is low in Nevada is my favorite time to fly.

Andrew116 · February 18, 2018, 6:19pm

My two biggest laments at this point in time…

NEVO · February 20, 2018, 8:52am

Regarding the trees I am also under impreson that the scale is bit off. But maybe it is one of the dev tricks - biger trees means less trees for particular area what means beter performance, maybe.

Regarding MSAA I gave up on it. My new AA is nVidia DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution). Is controled via nVidia control panel. I am runing now 2880x1620 on FHD TV.

schurem · February 20, 2018, 8:56am

Yeah tree scale is off. Or building scale is. I think perhaps the latter. Someone park a Hip next to a tree to see.

BeachAV8R · February 20, 2018, 1:52pm

Someone found some interesting bone animations of what looks to be carrier or ground crew doing their thing…that’ll be sweet…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX1DYbBVfv4

SkateZilla · February 20, 2018, 3:30pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tejqAjCenAg

near_blind · February 20, 2018, 4:20pm

NSFW (language)

https://youtu.be/2vfGPGhH03Q

schurem · February 20, 2018, 4:32pm

that had me in blippin stitches

Aginor · February 21, 2018, 10:34am

Has anyone checked this yet?
I know it is a bit silly that this is so important for me, but I like night flying, and I like flying low with helis, and that bug has always been a huge immersion breaker for me.

Cib · February 21, 2018, 11:26am

Sorry I tested and thought I had posted the results. No light effects on water. Sorry it is pants that they cannot overcome this yet.
Only tested rivers in the Caucasus with a huey though not the sea or any other maps

also the NVGs are blurry and make night flying hazardous

Aginor · February 21, 2018, 11:37am

Nooooooooo!
This is getting really ridiculous now.
Well, thanks anyway.

JediMaster · February 21, 2018, 2:39pm

You mean during night hours water reflections omit light sources?

Cib · February 21, 2018, 2:52pm

Specifically the searchlight/landing light from choppers. I am unsure about light reflections from towns or boats

JediMaster · February 21, 2018, 2:59pm

I’ve not done any night missions with the Su-33 recently to see if its lights were reflected. I should do that when I get a minute.