On this sort of subject, the DCS VR Shaders Mod (now with instructions!) are unexpectedly broken with 2.7 but it does look like some of the things it does (like nicer VR mask size) have been added into the product.
3 Likes
I tried Reshade again with your preset, and it looked better. Then, I tweaked it a little bit in the console to lower the saturation and lighten a tiny bit. Looking very good now. 
But 2.7 in VR is a slideshow for me in a furball. It’s fine with a few aircraft, but add a dozen on each side and it begins to crawl. Probably expected at this stage.
I also see quite a drop in performance in VR in 2.7 
Some of it can be attributed to the fact that the VR shader mod is not working but I do not recall such low performance without this mod in 2.5. Hmmm…
What I have done:
- installed 2.7 with all mods disabled
- installed the newest nvidia driver
- enabled all mods
- run DCS - error due to the DCS VR shader mod - removed
- run DCS - bad performance in VR
- went back to the previous nvidia driver 457.30 - a bit better… but still…
I will try to repair DCS and check again without any mods.
Any idea perhaps what else to try? Of course I can go down with settings but the performance was great before in 2.5 so I want to go this way as a last resort only (though some trade-off to offset the new clouds will be necessary in the end, I know).
1 Like
Try deleting shader cache and Fxo
The metashader2 folder and Fxo folder both situated in saved games/dcs
Thanks @Cib for the tips. I have done both - still the same result.
I am reading the thread on ED forum - apparently some people report better performance, some the same and some worse performance.
I am still investigating. The drop in performance is indeed quite significant.
EDIT: When I force motion reprojection always on in WMR SteamVR settings, the problem disappears (as well as the few moments where I am able to run DCS at 90 fps).
I posted the details in this thread on ED forum: DCS 2.7 VR performance - Page 2 - VR Bugs - ED Forums
Curious if anyone else has tried launching DCS through Steam VR and the Oculus software in order to use the Reshader?
I got it working tonight, but I’m seeing a ~10-14 FPS drop, regardless of whether the reshade is active. The coloration and sharpness is amazing, but I unfortunately don’t have the FPS to spare.
I have a Reverb G2 and saw that the first time that I ran DCS. But closed and tried it again with the VR settings profile in DCS and it ran fine.
This works great for MSFS and VR. You’ll need the UWP injector if you have the Microsoft Store version:
Some details instructions here -
The CASv2 modded Shaders from here work well - Reshade in VR - #53 by fearlessfrog
Just put the VR_CAS_Color.fx in your C:\Users(you)\ReshadeInjectUWP\Shaders directory and then press Home once in the game, find/activate it in the shaders list and give them some default values - my values from DCS above work ok, with sharpness 1.9 making it crisper in VR allowing you to lower in-sim rendering a bit to improve performance. Don’t forget to run the created bat file as admin for this to work.
(sorry for the eye chart, 4K capture, but wanted to show my settings without typing them all)
4 Likes
Not VR specific, but a concise and easy primer for those wanting to use Reshade in 2D. Haven’t tested in VR yet, other that how we are using it already. Hopefully someone hasn’t posted this yet.
2 Likes
Since I mostly fly in VR, but occasionally fall back to 2D to capture screenshots video, I tried this version of Reshade discussed in the video above. IMO, the results are excellent, the fine tuning of which being a matter of personal taste. But there is no doubt that it is easy to get beautiful screens and video with minimal mouse clicks.
Since @fearlessfrog made us aware of FSR/NIS upscaling for SteamVR, which also allows sharpening of the image, while gaining a substantial performance gain, I’ve stopped using the Reshade for VR, that we’ve also discussed here. It’s output is closer to Reshade above, but without the performance gain.
Are you confused yet? I know that I had to read everything five times before it was absorbed. Just to summarize, we’ve discussed 3 tweaks here, Reshade (2D), Reshade for VR, and FSR/NIS for SteamVR games. The first two are for image enhancement and the last is for performance improvement via upscaling.
But just because the kids went to bed early tonight I tried to see if Reshade and Reshade for VR would play well together, but couldn’t get them to coexist. In reality, if you fly VR and weigh the image improvement of Reshade VR over the performance gain and sharpening of FSR/NIS, you might as well just install Reshade for VR, because it also seems to work in 2D.
To reach my happy place in DCS, I installed the original Reshade from the video above and then FSR/NIS for SteamVR. That gives me fantastic images in 2D and great VR performance.
Unedited screens of 2D mode with the regular Reshade.
Reshade On
Reshade Off
Reshade On
Reshade Off
5 Likes
Very nice! What is your steamVR resolution set to?
I’m still getting a lot of shimmering unfortunately. I guess I need to bite the bullet and upgrade my processor (7700k).
Hey WarPig. I guess that I should have clarified that those images above are from 2D using the regular (2D) version of Reshade. So they are maxed out at 3440 x 1440. I set SteamVR image resolution to 100%, or whatever that is for the Reverb G2.
I too see shimmers, even with MSAA 2x enabled in DCS. The developer of FSR/NIS for SteamVR states in the readme that the upscaler can’t fix shimmer, so if you have it before, you will still have it with FSR/NIS enabled. I’ve tried MSAA 4x and you get a little sharper HUD symbology. But shimmers are still there so not enough improvement to lose precious fps. So using MSAA 2x. IMO, shimmer seems to be slightly worse with the NIS upscaler than FSR, but they are pretty close. I’d be curious as to what others think about the differences between NIS and the FSR upscalers on their system. AMD R5 5600X / RTX 3080
1 Like
Gotcha! I was wondering how it looked so good, lol!
I’ve gone down the same road, and am using FSR with the sharpening turned off, and ReShade VR for sharpening. Seems to be okay.
2 Likes
Yeah, I thought about just leaving Reshade VR installed and toggling it off when in VR using NIS upscaling. Would that be a paradox? I guess that would give you the most options. I do like the way that it looks compared to FSR/NIS w/sharpening. But, because the FSR/NIS developer’s notes mentioned making sure that post processing took place after upscaling, my Barney level brain took that to mean something like Reshade VR. Was I wrong? Anyway, the fps gain in either FSR or NIS is tangible. I am getting a low of 45 fps in the Hornet low level on the Syria map, to a steady 90 fps at medium altitudes in the Hornet on the Caucasus map.
Funny I watched the same video and also started messing with Reshade again. It’s amazing how a little bit of sharpening makes the textures in DCS look so much better. I started using a shader called BloomingHDR as well. It auto adjusts bloom, saturation, etc. depending on where you’re looking. What it does for night lighting in DCS is stunning. I’ll post some screenshots of it later.
2 Likes
That would be great will2360. Sounds like a winner and probably deserves its own thread.
Reshade 5.0 with native VR support has been released. Anyone try it out yet?
3 Likes
Yes! It works, and BloomingHDR is amazing, DCS has never looked so good.
5.0 and VRPerfKit can still be combined and work together fine if you rename dxdiag.dll from VRPK to d3diag.dll.
Correction, don’t do that, do this:
I was in bed typing on my phone from memory and got it wrong. Sorry to muddy the water/break your game if you did what I suggested!
Just wish I didn’t have to use the vr controller to change settings with 5.0. Now the 2D/3D are separated, so changes get made in Steam VR in the headset. Might as well turn off ReShade in the 2D mirror.
3 Likes