Guide to Oculus Rift Settings for a readable cockpit.

I have had my Rift for a few days and have had to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of tweaking to get it to where I am fairly happy with it. I want to share what I have found and maybe save some others some time and aggravations.

First of all, you're going to want your sensor pretty much directly in front of you. I had mine off to one side, and it tracks perfectly fine, but I had trouble working the switches on the side consoles. Putting it in front pretty much solved that.

Second, I would make one of your HOTAS buttons Active Pause. Things are not perfect yet in the world of VR, and sometimes you have to come out of the goggles to find a keyboard combo, misplaced mouse, or something.

Next, download and install the Oculus SDK. There are instructions on YouTube, and its pretty simple. This lets you bump the cockpit resolution, but in my experience I still need MSAA set at 16Q along with upping the pixel density via the Debug tool to get a clear cockpit. Also, turning on console lights even in the day makes the labels easier to read in VR.

Here are the settings I am using, I am still experimenting but this seems to be close to where I will end up:

Textures: Medium

Terrain Textures: Low

Civ. Traffic: Low

Water: Low

Visibility Range: Low or Medium

Heat Blur: Low

Shadows: Flat

Res. of Cockpit Displays: 1024 Every Frame

MSAA: 4X

HDR: Off

Depth of Field: Off

Lens Flare

Clutter: 0

Trees: 6000

Preload Radius: 100000

Anistropic Filtering: Off

Flat Terrain Shadows: Off

Note:Edited above for better frame rates!

My startup routine is to start Oculus Home, load the Debug tool, set Pixel Density to 2.0, load DCS World, close the Debug Tool, and then use Alt+Enter to make DCS Full screen. If you don't make DCS full screen you will have troubles with your mouse working properly. There are some people who leave the Debug tool open, but others say it causes judder. (I am now leaving the Debug tool open....closing it seems to nullify changes to pixel density at times).

All the above give me a very readable cockpit. The HUD is clear, the instruments are clear, even most of the smaller labels are very readable.

VR certainly is not perfect as yet.....but after a short time in VR, going back into a 2D cockpit is like stepping back from playing a modern sim to the Atari days. Its that bad. Hopes this helps someone!

Mad Dog

Great post buddy. What's your fps like are you getting a steady 90fps

Thanks for the tips, I will try some of your suggestions. Might I ask what your specs are? Enabling shadows and msaa, plus upping the pixel density to 2.0, would melt my cpu and gpu.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9305 met Tapatalk

System specs are in my signature, nothing extravagant. I don't see over 50% CPU or memory useage, so the limiting factor is certainly the GPU. Not sure of actual frame rates, but its smooth UNLESS I am over downtown Vegas, then I notice some judder. Also, I just confirmed having the Debug tool open causes judder in some other apps, so I suspect it causes a hit in DCS as well.

Everything on Low and Off. Thank you Oculus, but no.

It's sad. :(

Everything on Low and Off. Thank you Oculus, but no.

It's sad. :(

Which the immersion more than makes up for. You're missing out.

Everything on Low and Off. Thank you Oculus, but no.

It's sad. :(

Not really anything to do with Oculus, its a limitation of the GPU. But it is not as bad as it sounds, and its worth it. Once you've flown in VR.....you wont go back. When you find yourself reaching for a knob or switch because your brain thinks its really there.....that's how cool it is. A 2D cockpit is pretty blah after just a short while in VR.

I have Vive but it's an interesting post. Unfortunately I can't increase the pixel density as with the CV1 for the moment but I will try your setup.

Everything on Low and Off. Thank you Oculus, but no.

It's sad. :(

You can't compare the graphics settings using a 2d monitor versus using VR. It's a whole different ballgame. Yes you will notice that details that you used to see are gone. No more heat blur. No more shadows for me on my rig. But the tradeoff is that you're actually in the cockpit. That was excactly my first thought when I loaded up DCS in the rift for the first time: "My god I'm actually inside the cockpit." You can take all the grass, clutter, heat blur etc from me and keep it, as long as I get to be "in the cockpit" rather than looking at a prettier 2d image of a cockpit :smilewink:.

Sounds amazing. :)

Good point, RB. I think there is a bit of an over-emphasis on the "whistles-n-bells" graphical features at times, over the functionality.

I think we will get those details back, with Generation 2 VR and the corresponding GPU's. Just give it a year or two.

Everything on Low and Off. Thank you Oculus, but no.

It's sad. :(

If the rig can't handle it, then it isn't the fault of the display vendor.

Thanks for the great tips!

I just got my CV1 and I totally agree ... even with the stock settings I can see going back to 2D will be a very flat experience (no pun intended).

I'll DL the SDK and give your settings a go.

As far as motion sickness mimic, I use the same techniques as for when riding in a boat or a 'closed from outside view section' of a motrohome on curvy roads, etc.

I eat/drink ginger, and place a rubber band around my wrist.

Not sure why it works, but for me it does. (???)

I understand some folks also take a shot of their favorite hard liquor, or in states like Co. ... a bong hit.

I don't drink alcohol nor smoke anything ... so I haven't tried that, but it might be worth a go in moderation if legal ... and it doesn't effect your play. ;)

What is the debug tool? I'd like to adjust pixel density but I don't have a VR tab in my build. I have a CV1 and am running 2.0.2.52608. What am I missing?

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out eventually. It's the Oculus Debug Tool https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/pcsdk/latest/concepts/dg-debug-tool/

Yea, guys, I do understand that Low settings are not only because of the Oculus, but because of the rig, CPU\GPU and engine limitation. But still. DCS is the only reason for me to wait for VR, and seems like I should wait for another year for Acer VR, engine update (if happen) and THIS is why it's so sad.

I saw Il-2 in anaglyph and indeed immersion is stunning even in red-blue. Until the moment when you realize that you can't read instruments.

Sorry for offtop.

I just got my 1080 the other day. I was sad (but not suprised) to find no real FPS improvement over my 970. However, I can now run 2x pixel density with no frame rate impact. The improvement in visual quality is remarkable, it's nearly like a whole new headset.

Tried my mates out, it's impossible to describe, its really inexplicable. Feeling the cockpit... Unfortunately im in the group that wants to barf immediately. The UH-1 swaying and sideslipping on hover was too much. My neck was also quite sore from staring into the post of my turning circle from the top of the canopy. And looking up and down quick also brought about motion sickness. But even outside of DCS, id get it, if it were only 15 mins every 2 hrs and spending half the day feeling iffy, id still want to go back there... Saving already...

I have 2 weeks long experiance with cv1. System is i7 6600K and 980Ti. All run on standard clock.

My findings.

Pixel density 1.5 up to 2.0

MSAA Anti-Aliasing. Keep it at 4x ! Anything higer will cost extra framerates and dont add more visible performence. OFF and 2x will make jaggies.

Anistropic Filtering: OFF. Any value donˇt improve picutre quality and will slightly reduce FPS.

Textures: Medium

Terrain Textures: Low

Civ. Traffic: Low

Water: Low

Visibility Range: Low

Heat Blur: OFF

Shadows: This is a real frame killer. Flat is ok. Low will reduce FPS a lot.

Res. of Cockpit Displays: 1024 Every Frame

HDR: ON, I say HDR is a must have. Visual effects are much

Depth of Field: Off

Lens Flare

Clutter: anthing from 1-3 half position on slider. Max Clutter will reduce slightly FPS

Trees: 4000-6000

Preload Radius: anthing from 1-3 half position on slider. Max PreLoad will reduce FPS

Flat Terrain Shadows: Off

VR-Hunter, I have tried some of your ideas, and I am seeing much less judder. I am using Medium on Visibility Range and Low on Heat Blur and getting very smooth performance, but I agree turning down MSAA and Anistropic Filtering gave a boost.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=215373

This WORKS!!