DCS 2.5 VR settings...

I’m toying with different graphics settings in DCS, to see what my 1080TI can handle.

First of all, MSAA and deferred shading is a performance hog. Increasing the PD seems to have almost the same effect, but is not as demanding, and has the added benefit of making the picture clearer.

There doesn’t seem to be such a big difference, performance wise, between low and high shadows.

Anisotropic filtering has very little performance effect.

The greatest discovery I have made, is forcing 45FPS without ASW. This seems to be smoother than using ASW in auto, and creates less artifacts.

Any thoughts on this?

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what PD stands for?

Pixel Density

Isn’t the PD option basically some form of super sampling?

If yes, MSAA with PD>1 would be redundant.

I haven’t tried 2.5 yet, but with 2.2 I experienced bad shimmering without MSAA. From what I read, this is still the case in 2.5.

This leaves a hard choice for us VR users. Since MSAA + Deferred Shading is basically incompatible in VR due to the performance hit, we either have to pick MSAA (where the new maps looks very poor without DF) or Deferred Shading (which looks poor due to shimmering).

ED needs to address the Deferred Shading + MSAA performance hit as soon as possible.

I run 2.5 in VR without MSAA and I have zero problem with shimmering in the Caucasus. Havent flown much in Nevada lately :wink: I run PD at 1.2

It might depend on other factors, like what a/c you are flying and your hardware, but with the VR preset and PD of 1.5, my GTX1080 seems to prefer ASW on, at least in the AV-8B.

When panning without ASD, there is a short focus adjust as my head stops without ASW. FPS seems to be locked in at 45 regardless of ASW setting. Going to try some higher PD.

I’ll take a little bit of shimmering (it really isn’t terribly obnoxious) to have deferred shading on. DCS 2.5 looks absolutely stunning in VR. The lighting wonderful.

Yes, it is. And yes, it would. But it’s just that MSAAx2 reduces the shimmering of distant objects better, but at a great loss in FPS when using deferred shading.
I think that leaving MSAA off and increasing PD is a good compromise.

Really? I find that distant object shimmer quite a bit, without MSAA. But like I wrote earlier, upping the PD improves the shimmering too, and has a less FPS hit than MSAA.

Absolutely! YMMV.

Exactly. I have found a compromise by increasing the PD.

I wholeheartedly agree! I tried without it, to save some FPS, but I couldn’t live without… :slight_smile:

Are you guys still using the Oculus Tool in 2.5, and if so what settings pls? Edit Steam VR is not loading but I see that it’s an option in Skate’s DCS Updater GUI. Is that also a preferred thing to be running while in DCS? Feeling like a noob again. Thanks.

I don’t think the OTT works with the latest Oculus software. The author is working on a new version.

Thanks Troll. I’m very much of the KISS line of thinking, so less is more IMO. I answered my own question concerning whether or not to run Steam VR. It did nasty things in DCS.

After about 2 hours of testing in the AV-8B free flight mission in the Caucasus, what works consistently best for my rig is to use the VR preset, MSAA on 2x, PD on 1.2, and ASW enabled. My rig: i74790 @4.0, GTX1080.

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Ok, I think I have landed on PD 1.2 and MSAA x2, as opposed to PD 1.5 and no MSAA.

I’m really just fine tuning things. Getting to where I almost can’t decide which option to keep or change.
Guess that means I’m done.

Even if settings must be dialed down for good VR performance, DCS 2.5 still is one good looking sim…!

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What I like about choosing the VR preset, and then switching MSAA to 2x, is that I know that I can get to a happy place pretty quickly. I split time pretty equally between 2D and VR, so whatever settings I use needs to be a quick configure. WIth the VR preset, MSAA 2x, and leaving PD at 1.2, 45 fps is pretty much locked in no matter ASW on or off. I think that distant objects look just a little sharper with ASW enabled (CTRL+NP4).

Which brings me to the question, is there a utility that will let one switch between graphic settings? Probably could save a LUA, but I don’t have a clue as to which one(s). We need to be able to save custom graphic settings, IMO.

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I second that!