I think I would prefer it in multiplayer tbh
Does anyone else have a shimmering problem with Il-2 BOS and the Rift? Iâve tried different graphics settings, MSAA options and even tried different shaders with Nvidia Inspector but still get shimmering jaggies and prop spinner artifacts.
Iâm about to take a look, so will report back 
It might help to alter the pixel density in SteamVR rather than the MSAA settings etc. In a way they are doing similar things, although shimmering can often be a anisotropic level thing rather than pure aliasing.
1 Like
Never knew of that menu,Thanks for sharing
No worries - a really handy setting, that should be on by default are the Audio ones. If youâve ever started a Rift or Vive game and forgot to switch the audio from your headphones to the Rift audio, then these settings are really useful to set:
1 Like
I played for an hour to two and if youâre using a Rift then itâs worth turning off ASW mode as it really seems to fight with the prop spinning graphic. On High graphics setting I did ok with a solid 90 fps anyway. If youâre not sure how to do it then the free Oculus Tray tool makes it easy:
You set the AWS Mode to âOffâ before starting BoS (plus try a higher number for Super Sampling if you are reaching 90 fps ok and want a clearer cockpit).
PS Donât forget to set AWS back to âAutoâ after playing (or look at setting a profile for the il2.exe in the steam install) as it helps for a lot of games to leave it on. You can also use numpad keys +1 to +4 to change modes, but I often donât have a keyboard with a separate numpad so never remember them.
Has anyone noticed a definite performance difference between running it on SSD and on a SATA drive?
Excluding load times - I mean, any problems with stutter etc in VR when run from SATA?
Do you perhaps mean PCI Express or M2? Or did you mean a HDD? SSD is a type of non volatile memory while SATA is a type of interface. What iâm getting at is that there are SSD drives that use SATA, so your question is a bit unclear.
I mean on a SATA hard drive or an SSD.
Doesnât matter anyway now - Iâve installed it and will see for myself.
I do have a SATA SSD.
I also have a SATA mechanical HDD.
I guess you meant the difference between those twoâŠ
1 Like
I spent the last 4 days in BoS. I jumped on it because I just could not resist the Ugly Duckling Hs 129. I have loved this plane since I was a kid. It was a lot of fun. I then went into the I-16 last night. That just takes your breath away. It is just so convincing that you are in an open pit fighter. Then look at the detail in the floor! WOW. BoS runs VERY smooooth in VR. Yes, I run it on an SSD and I have a 5950 i7 and a EGVA 1080 so, it better run smooth hahaha.
I had not been in this Sim for a long time. It is an absolute blast.
NICE Advice Fearless! Thanks.
Oh and btw, WE WANT ROF IN VR!!! PLEASE SIM SANTA!!!
2 Likes
I was simply asking if it would run okay on a SATA hard drive or would need to be on an SSD - for performance.
I know now because I put it on a SATA 1 drive and it works just fine in VR, on high settings. No SSD required.
So SATA is the connection between a motherboard and a hard drive. SSDâs are solid state drives and HDDâs are traditional disk-platter drives. Both HDD and SSD can be SATA but, as @sobek and @komemiute note, SSD drives can be M2 drives, instead of SATA (a different protocol between drive and motherboard).
In terms of speed, HDD < SSD and SATA < M2.
SSD drives are faster. M2 drives (only available to SSD drive (I think)) are faster.
In terms of need, performance can be gained by going from HDD to SSD but it is not, necessarily, required. No applications require SSD over HDD.
The new update is great. The ground handling is literally night and day. Flight models feel very good as well. It has always been a beautiful sim but now it is actually fun to be in as well.
Hunting Pe-2âsâŠsteadyâŠ
Heâs hit!
Heâs in trouble!
Oh yeaâŠ
4 Likes
I donât know why people are determined to try and explain the workings of hard drives to me - especially as Iâve been building computers since the '80âs and ran my own PC repair company for a few years, but never mind! 
I was simply asking whether the sim required the increased performance of an SSD over a standard SATA HDD to get reasonable VR performance out of it!
Looks like I need to explain myself a whole lot more so I canât be misunderstood. 
Hey @brix to answer your question, which I understand is superfluous at this point, what Iâve noticed is that an SSD drive helps with game start and loading of large scenery tiles and HD textures at mission launch. But once the mission starts, you could probably run it off of a USB HDD and not notice a difference in speed. At least as long as you have enough RAM.
Actually if Wikipedia is to be believed, M.2 is just a physical form factor that can encompass SATA and PCIe lanes as well as USB3.
1 Like
Yep, I donât think IL-2 BoS is disk throughput constrained when up and running. I think people were just trying to help, and weâre at a funny time where a SATA interface when compared to the newer M2 thingys.
Rather than move it between a spinny and a SSD, while running a game you can just (on Win 10) take a look at the disk utilisation of a process. Itâll tell you if itâs getting saturated or not (plus spikes will coincide with pauses in the render. The âResource Monitorâ (link at bottom of this screenshot) also shows things like disk queue length, which again is another clue that something is disk I/O constrained and a SSD would help out even after loading.
Thatâs true, in that the M is (I think) meant to stand for âmobileâ and it was an internal card expansion design for laptops and the like. A lot of the expensive new SSDâs are PCIe for pure bandwidth reasons and are thrown in desktops internally, so M.2. PCIe SSD is really the accurate way to describe them.
Nicer description here - Understanding M.2, the interface that will speed up your next SSD | Ars Technica
1 Like
I need to give that a shot. I havenât really explored SteamVR yet, and I donât use the OculusTrayTool enough. Thanks!
1 Like