Awful overexposed graphics

I have been away from DCS for some time (concentrating on Beta testing with P3D).

I have installed the latest updates, but since moving to 2.5 I am so disappointed in the lighting within VR.

Sitting in the cockpit, everything has a yellow/over exposed glow to it. The colours used to be lovely and natural, now they are over saturated.

I have played with the Gama setting and turned on/off the cockpit lighting checkbox, but the results are still completely unrealistic.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to make this better? (again, P3D is miles behind in VR implementation, but at least the lighting/exposure is very natural)

Thanks

Neil

Maybe try to adjust gamma when there is no canopy to look through some canopies can have high glare. I find a gamma of about 1.8 to be pretty good.for my Rift. Some of the DCS models have seemingly different glare effects as well.

Thanks,

I mainly fly the Mig-21 and the Huey. I do find the Mig-21 worse than the Huey, but both still have this overexposed lighting. I first noticed it when I bought Normandy (flying the BF-109 and the FW-190), but now that they have updated the Caucasus, this now has the same problem.

The lighting might look dramatic and exciting, but it is just so far away from reality.

Well that doesn't seem correct, Rift colour might seem a little cartoony compared to my monitor but it's acceptable and kinda close enough.

Maybe first base clean the lenses of your HMD with purposed lens cleaning wipes.

Go through the vendor setup procedure.

Check your graphics settings don't also adversely effect display in the HMD.

Thanks,

My rift is in pristine condition (and looks fantastic in P3D, XPlane, etc.)

As I said, it is the cockpit lighting in the new version of DCS (new to me, but been out for a while for everyone else as I have been away from DCS for a bit).

It is like the sun is 10 times too powerful and gives a lovely golden tint to everything.

I'll keep playing!

That's the "Deferred Shading" setting that we used to be able to turn off. As someone who reluctantly got into 2.5 a while ago, I can tell you I feel your pain. Things are gradually getting better though, and the textures on ground objects in 2.5 are a major improvement over 2.1. In the mean time, my eyes have become accustomed to the new world, so the colors aren't quite as offensive as they used to be. Keep in mind that this sim is in constant development, and one thing that was introduced in 2.5 that really annoyed me was overly-bright strobes and beacons that would bounce off of everything in your cockpit in the middle of the day. That has been fixed.

Thanks,

Glad I wasn't just imagining it.

Just looking forward to a realistic representation (not one that looks like your'e playing a game - which ironically I appreciate that I am).

Neil

To be honest much prefer how it is now, than how it used to be with awful washed out graphics. Guess its just personal preference, but I agree it is a bit garish especially normandy. For the love of god fix those luminous green trees! Normandy is great but even in the screen shots, I don't know what they were thinking with the colors, especially of trees and buildings.

Decrease the gamma in the settings menu.

delete FXO and Metashaders from "Saved Games\DCS" see if that helps

Just note that on first load it will take ages.

to the point windows will yell at you the program is not responding.. Just hit "Wait" when that happens.

delete FXO and Metashaders from "Saved Games\DCS" see if that helps

 

Just note that on first load it will take ages.

to the point windows will yell at you the program is not responding.. Just hit "Wait" when that happens.

I see this a lot on this forum, what does this actually do when you delete these files and when and how often do you need to do this?

You don't need to do it often. Only when you see something that doesn't make sense, or after a massive upgrade, like 1.5 to 2.5.

In rough lines, these folders contain a precomplied cache for all the shaders. So it's a cheat sheet for the code, to speed up things.

When the folder does not exist, the game regenerates the cache again from scratch, which take a while (5-15 minutes)

That "overexposure" is the new graphics engine which uses very modern shaders.

In fact I know exactly what you are talking about and it can indeed make some things look worse, especially the cockpits. And it takes time to get used to.

But perhaps with time you will realize that it also creates some of the best lighting in a computer game you can get right now. Fly over Nevada on a sunny day and you should see there is a difference like "night and day".

The new graphics engine has very natural lighting (I would go almost as far as my mood goes up a little when I fly in sunshine). The old looked ok but when you compare them it's like you see through a sepia filter, or as if there was a partial solar eclipse. That's how bad computer graphics have been until the advent of natural light shaders (IF they work, shaders in most games don't do any good but that's yet another topic)

Light makes everything brighter so you can't have only the benefits, but while I consider the new graphics took also some steps back in general it is much better and I would never go back.

I hope that helps you somewhat in making your peace with the new look of DCS.

You don't need to do it often. Only when you see something that doesn't make sense, or after a massive upgrade, like 1.5 to 2.5.

 

In rough lines, these folders contain a precomplied cache for all the shaders. So it's a cheat sheet for the code, to speed up things.

 

When the folder does not exist, the game regenerates the cache again from scratch, which take a while (5-15 minutes)

OK, thanks for that just wondered, good tip on allowing it time to load, it would probably make most think that the sim had crashed it takes that long!!

That "overexposure" is the new graphics engine which uses very modern shaders.

 

In fact I know exactly what you are talking about and it can indeed make some things look worse, especially the cockpits. And it takes time to get used to.

 

But perhaps with time you will realize that it also creates some of the best lighting in a computer game you can get right now. Fly over Nevada on a sunny day and you should see there is a difference like "night and day".

 

The new graphics engine has very natural lighting (I would go almost as far as my mood goes up a little when I fly in sunshine). The old looked ok but when you compare them it's like you see through a sepia filter, or as if there was a partial solar eclipse. That's how bad computer graphics have been until the advent of natural light shaders (IF they work, shaders in most games don't do any good but that's yet another topic)

 

Light makes everything brighter so you can't have only the benefits, but while I consider the new graphics took also some steps back in general it is much better and I would never go back.

 

 

I hope that helps you somewhat in making your peace with the new look of DCS.

yes and no.

there is a problem when you upgrade from 1.5 to 2.5. it looks overexposed and unnatural. (i.e not as intended).

deleting metashaders fixes it.

it's a very specific issue, and not a generic "rant" like most of the time.

Decrease the gamma in the settings menu.

This!

Something that helps me a lot is using only 2x SSAA and MSAA off (also all AA off in NVIDIA settings).

This has become my preferred setting for ALL airplanes because it generally improves cockpit readability, and this certainly helps the dazzling L-39 instruments a great deal.

Still a shame that this cockpit does not look like the other planes, there is definitely something broken for quite a while (eg no instrument glass)

You could also try Kegetys

sRGB gamma fix for DCS World

Delete your saved games fxo, and metashaders folders beforehand.

Gamma cannot correct what happens within shaders. All you can do with gamma is make the image appear darker, but I'm quite sure that's not what you want. An image does not get "better" by making it darker and the sky and a lot of other things are perfect WITH 2.1 gamma (imo).