VR Optimizing

[Xeon]

Hi all,

I have been running DCS in VR now and I have just got round to properly optimizing it. My current issue is whilst flying low I keep getting frame drops from 40 fps to 20 and below. This does not occur high up however. My rig is a Ryzen 5 2600X, 16 GB RAM, RTX 2070 Super and Rift S HMD. I was running at a PD of 1.7 but I have changed it to 1.5 now which was not a massive help and it made the game look significantly worst. My current settings are the same start point as in the VR4DCS Rift S setup guide. So finally my question is what main settings should I look into to get constant 40 FPS and is there anything else I should look into.

Many thanks!

[DeltaMike]

Vis range medium, trees 60%, shadows off, terrain shadows flat. Turn off chimney smoke and clutter/grass. Civ traffic off.

 

Leave textures at high, cockpit displays 1040, should be able to set anisotropic filtering to whatever you want. Should be able to run water at high

 

Start with PD 1.2 and increase it until things start to bog down, then go back to the last setting that worked. Depends on whether you're running MSAA, with that GPU you should be able to do MSAAx2/PD1.2 but probably not much more than that. PD 1.4/MSAA0 should look about the same. One may work better than the other. Load increases exponentially as you go above PD 1.4, small changes can make a big difference.

 

PD and MSAA are strictly GPU, everything else requires CPU power and you're a bit limited there. Should be fine in single player (in fact you may be able to sneak in some shadows in SP) but you're gonna stutter in MP without a RAM upgrade at least (32gb of really fast RAM) and you'll probably need a CPU upgrade at some point

Edited December 30, 2019 by DeltaMike

[Lemming]

Hi there,

 

I must admit I am a little in the same boat,

 

Running Rift S aswell, and have optimized as much as I can with Thuds VR4DCS, and tuned my pc to as much as I can while keeping stable...

 

My system is:

I5 9600K clocked to 4.9ghz

32gigs of 3200mhz ram (diffrent timings, but MB has support of "odd ram")

GTX 1080ti

Asus Prime z370 P-II (iirc)

and running windows and DCS on the same ssd...I could move dcs to another ssd, but that means moving a lot of stuff around...both ssds are around 500mb/s mark.

 

here is a userbenchmark run of my pc : https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/23290661

 

My main concern for dcs is to be able to actually real the labels in the cockpit, and still have good performance, so i have been running 1.6 PD (in OTT), which imo makes it quite passable...but I have noticed when dogfighting, the "enemy" is usually ghosted really bad, looks like 4-5 planes stacked on top of eachother, I've concluded this is due to ASW, which makes everything super smooth, if i turn off ASW, the ghosting goes away...but then i get mad stutters when looking "too the side"....even on 1.0 PD.

 

Compared to others in here with similar systems, I am a little baffled as either I am much more picky about performance then others...or I have some hidden jam in my system, as people state they can run 1.7-1.9 PD and it will be butter smooth.

[Mr. Big.Biggs]

Where can ASW be switched on and off?

Thanks

[Svsmokey]

Where can ASW be switched on and off?

Thanks

 

ASW is Oculus only . Does not apply to your Index .

[Lemming]

Having spent sometime experimenting with this, I feel like i can conclude with the following on the Rift S. This is running 1.6 PD, no AA at all, and other settings high in DCS and VR4DCS settings in Nvidia panel (except for the AA)

 

Option 1:

As High as settings as you can do with still maintaining 45fps (stats as 40 when opening the ctrl+pause in DCS) with ASW on, you will get the smoothest experience when moving your head around, and with the world moving around your "plane" as in looking to the side. There will however be "ghosting" on "objects moving around in the world at a fast pace" which as other fighters in dogfights, or if you try your F3 view, you see your jet being "ghosted" as it's flying by.

 

Option 2, same as above, but without ASW on, that will remove the ghosting from the "moving objects", and apply it to your headmovements, and the world around you, meaning when you look to the side, it will stutter like mad.

 

Option 3 is to lower the settings signficantly, and be able to run it smooth with no ASW on at all, I tested with ASW in Auto mode, and displayed it so I could see when it turned on and off.

I had to go all the way down to 1.2 PD, and most textures on low, and vis range low to make ASW not kick in at all during a strandard "free flight mission on the hornet.

 

Option 4 is basicly trying to lower settings a little and leave ASW in Auto, which means if you are dogfighting really high up or over the water, it will not be enabled, meaning no ghosting.

 

Anyway, long post on this.

TL;DR : A choice between two evils, ASW on, gives you ghosting on enemy planes and dogfighting, ASW off gives ghosting/Stutters moving your head around and "when the world moves around your plane".

 

Hope this helps anyone.

[SmoglessPanic]

I am having the same issue, I upgraded my graphics card (980ti - 2080 Super) and I see the ghosting issue less in single player but I still struggle in multiplayer. (Current CPU - 6700K)

 

Would upgrading processor help and if so which route? AMD 3700/3800/3900 or Intel 9700/9900K?

 

I've looked all over the forum but there isn't really a consensus for VR. If I can get my VR to run smooth in multiplayer servers which are taxing I would be over the moon.

[Lemming]

I don't do multiplayer yet, but from what I have gathered the main bottleneck in DCS at the moment is the CPU, as it doesn't have good support for multi core usage yet, this will likely change in the future, with the introduction of the VULKAN API which as far as I understand is a godsend for sims, look at this comparison video.

 

 

I notice an big performance increase when going from my stock CPU at 3.8ghz to 4.9ghz, so since you have a 6700k, is it overclocked, or running at the stock 4ghz?

[The Falcon]

Perhaps the best way to use VR is to wait for Vulkan!!! we hope it arrive soon

[SmoglessPanic]

I don't do multiplayer yet, but from what I have gathered the main bottleneck in DCS at the moment is the CPU, as it doesn't have good support for multi core usage yet, this will likely change in the future, with the introduction of the VULKAN API which as far as I understand is a godsend for sims, look at this comparison video.

 

 

I notice an big performance increase when going from my stock CPU at 3.8ghz to 4.9ghz, so since you have a 6700k, is it overclocked, or running at the stock 4ghz?

 

Thanks for posting that Vulkan video that pretty damn impressive, I feel like going AMD to stay ahead of the curve and be ready for Vulkan but that's probably at least two years out at this point. By then the CPU market will have changed considerably. I wonder if it would be worth it to got to AMD for now or wait until Zen 4?

 

As for my 6700K I was using the motherboard utility to OC it to 4.4ghz and up to 4.5ghz, I also used the Intel tool but when I upgraded to the latest BIOS I lost the ability to go to 4.5ghz and never went back to try it. For some reason the MOBO utility will not save the setting on reboot so most of the time I forgot to run it and OC, I will try again when I get home today and check it out.

[wasizyayo]

GeForce Game Ready Driver, Version 441.87-Variable Rate Super Sampling (VRSS) has been newly added from WHQL. I'm still thinking about buying a VR, and I'm watching VR technology become more familiar with these technologies.

 

I want to hear the opinions of those who used it

Edited January 7, 2020 by wasizyayo

[Mking]

I have the driver installed . Not with exporience. In the 3d manage setting find not the line vrss ...... not for wkndows mixed reality ? Hmm

[coldViPer]

DCS not supported, this setting should be visible?

 

https://uploadvr.com/how-to-enable-nvidia-vrss/

[dburne]

VRSS:

 

Supported only with RTX Graphics Cards (Turing).

Setting available only in the game profile settings in Nvidia Control Panel.

Setting available only if the game has already been tested/approved by Nvidia to use this feature.

Currently only around 20 games have this feature available. I am sure they will add more as time goes on.

DCS is not one of them, at least not yet.

 

From the 441.87 Release Notes:

 

Variable Rate Super Sampling

Variable Rate Super Sampling (VRSS) is a new technique to improve image quality in VR games. It

uses NVIDIA Variable Rate Shading (VRS), a key feature in NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, to

dynamically apply up to 8x supersampling to the center of the VR headset display, where the eye is

typically focused. It intelligently applies supersampling only when GPU headroom is available in

order to maintain the VR headset’s fixed FPS and ensure a smooth VR experience. Enable the

feature for over 20 supported VR games from the NVIDIA Control Panel->Manage 3D Settings-

>Variable Rate Super Sampling.

Edited January 7, 2020 by dburne

[TripRodriguez]

VRSS:

 

Setting available only if the game has already been tested/approved by Nvidia to use this feature.

Currently only around 20 games have this feature available. I am sure they will add more as time goes on.

DCS is not one of them, at least not yet.

 

From the 441.87 Release Notes:

 

All RTX owners and prospective RTX owners please join me in emailing Nvidia requesting that DCS World be added as soon as possible.

 

There are lots of us, and we flight simmers need it more than anyone else!

[VirusAM]

All RTX owners and prospective RTX owners please join me in emailing Nvidia requesting that DCS World be added as soon as possible.

 

 

 

There are lots of us, and we flight simmers need it more than anyone else!

 

 

 

Dcs world cannot be added....it uses deferred shading while as I understand the game need to use forward rendering which dcs abandoned when did the switch to 2.5

[SkateZilla]

Dont get your hopes up.

 

Eagle Dynamics doesnt make it a habit of Coding GPU Vendor Specific Features into their Engine.

 

ie PhysX, Anything from nVidia Gameworks, or AMD GPUOpen.

[dburne]

Dont get your hopes up.

 

Eagle Dynamics doesnt make it a habit of Coding GPU Vendor Specific Features into their Engine.

 

ie PhysX, Anything from nVidia Gameworks, or AMD GPUOpen.

 

True but if I am reading this stuff right sounds like this would be more of an Nvidia thing to do rather than an ED (or game developer) thing to do.

If the rendering technique though is the deal breaker not much can be done about that.

[Wali763]

Stupid question: a rtx2080ti gives according to many benchmarks about 25% more fps than my rtx2070super.

 

When I up my settings, so I get 32fps instead of my (min) 40fps I aimed for, will this give me the same imagequality I can expect of a rtx2080ti at 40fps?

 

That would be very little like going from PD 1. 3 to PD 2. 0 (2x MSAA on).

 

Generally I have so say, that I dont see a real difference between PD 1.3 Im using right now and PD1.7 or 2.0. Its marginally sharper but has actually no impact on legibility for me.

 

Im very new to VR and the imagequality for me is pretty shitty compared to 2D so those tiny differences from different PD-settings dont bother me much.

 

I did already do quite some testing and I cant do without ASW and therefore accept the ghosting. Looking outside and everxthing stutters is way worse for me.

 

Still the biggest complaint I have is the (partly massive) shimmering (aliasing). Trying as PD 2.2 also did not change that. MSAA helps, a bit but still not satisfactory.

 

But Im slowly accepting those shortcomes and cherish VR more and more.

[Gunnars Driver]

Stupid question: a rtx2080ti gives according to many benchmarks about 25% more fps than my rtx2070super.

 

Generally I have so say, that I dont see a real difference between PD 1.3 Im using right now and PD1.7 or 2.0. Its marginally sharper but has actually no impact on legibility for me.

 

You really shouldnt compare it like that.

VR sets hard demands on your harware. DCS in VR, that means a exponent of ^2 for hardware.

 

For DCS you need a CPU at high clocks.

 

You should worke the way ahead to the best settings for your hardware and also your own preferences. When testing settings, you are get much help knowing what part of the H/W that is the limit. For Rift CW1 I had the CPU as the main limiting factor, making me overclock it to a higher freq than initially.

I dont know for the Rift S and I dont know what CPU you run and @ wich clock. It might be the CPU that is holding you back and then a better GPU wont be able to perform as per spec.

 

With the Rift I used the task manager and resource monitor for CPU, and RAM, and GPU-Z for the GPU.

 

The PixelDensity /Supersampling was more needed with older gens of VR like my old Rift CV1 to sharpen the pixture to compensate for the low resolution.

I just got the HP Reverb and with these I dont notive any difference in picture quality between PD1.0 and 1.2 or 1.4. It sure loads the hardware a lot though. I run PD 1.0 with Reverb.

 

Rift S may be in between Old Rift and HP Reverb, I dont know but there should be info on the net.

Try vr4dcs.com https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/15/rift-s-setup-in-dcs/and the Rifts S giude.

PD will bog down your FPS so keep it as low as acceptable by your means.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Gunnars Driver

[Wali763]

You really shouldnt compare it like that.

VR sets hard demands on your harware. DCS in VR, that means a exponent of ^2 for hardware.

 

For DCS you need a CPU at high clocks.

 

You should worke the way ahead to the best settings for your hardware and also your own preferences. When testing settings, you are get much help knowing what part of the H/W that is the limit. For Rift CW1 I had the CPU as the main limiting factor, making me overclock it to a higher freq than initially.

I dont know for the Rift S and I dont know what CPU you run and @ wich clock. It might be the CPU that is holding you back and then a better GPU wont be able to perform as per spec.

 

With the Rift I used the task manager and resource monitor for CPU, and RAM, and GPU-Z for the GPU.

 

The PixelDensity /Supersampling was more needed with older gens of VR like my old Rift CV1 to sharpen the pixture to compensate for the low resolution.

I just got the HP Reverb and with these I dont notive any difference in picture quality between PD1.0 and 1.2 or 1.4. It sure loads the hardware a lot though. I run PD 1.0 with Reverb.

 

Rift S may be in between Old Rift and HP Reverb, I dont know but there should be info on the net.

Try vr4dcs.com https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/15/rift-s-setup-in-dcs/and the Rifts S giude.

PD will bog down your FPS so keep it as low as acceptable by your means.

 

Thx for you input.

 

I used the setup-guide from Thud but that did not help. He is always talking of frametimes in the low teens. Well, if I have those I dont need ASW anyway. Because, then Ill have 80fps all the time. My frametimes are usually 20-25 fps, just that I stay below 25ms most of the time to get smoothing from ASW.

 

About the CPU Im pretty sure, Im ok there. On the tools you mentioned and also on Afterburner or AorusEngine I have always low overall CPU-usage like 50-60%. But if I crank up PD (which is a GPU-task), fps goes down, so Im pretty sure, my system is GPU-bound.

 

My reasoning is, that if the 208oTi increases my frames by 25%, than I could use that to set a higher PD. But as I said, 1.7 vs 1.3 for me makes no difference. I could also "invest" that higher GPU-power into more fps with my current 2xMSAA and PD 1.3 and therefore "iron out" the rest of my sub-40 drops and maybe get more time with 80fps.

 

Still both instances for me would not be worth the extra money to be spent. Better to wait for the new generation later this year.

[dave-uk]

Sorry for my ignorance, but reading Thuds write up it mentions installing Steam VR, i'm using DCS stand alone not on steam, do i still follow the guide?

 

https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/10/reverb-settings-for-dcs/

[Gunnars Driver]

About the CPU Im pretty sure, Im ok there. On the tools you mentioned and also on Afterburner or AorusEngine I have always low overall CPU-usage like 50-60%. But if I crank up PD (which is a GPU-task), fps goes down, so Im pretty sure, my system is GPU-bound.

 

Which CPU at which clock? 20-25 FPS is very low. I have used Rift CV1 for 3 years with GTX1080, and never really seen anything below 45fps. The CPU Clock is really important! Cant stress that enough...

 

The overall CPU value says more or less nothing.

DCS can only use about two cores and only one for the graphics.

 

My i9 9900KS shows 8% load, but if I look at each core I find the one and only core that actually do the job is somwhere around 70-100%. Look at this:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4163309&postcount=288

 

Id say you have to check that core and you have to find out what hw is bottlenecking in different situations.

 

I recently upgraded from a i7@4.7ghz to a i9@5 to 5.2ghz and GTX1080 to RYX2080ti, 16Gb RAM to 32, game directory from classic SSD to a fast NMVe-stick.

With the same old settings and the old Rift I maybe got 15-20% more FPS( that’ll say, 15-20% more of the time reaching 90fps.)

 

I didnt use the rift much with the new hardware, did get a HP reverb that has much higher resolution than the Rift S. After doing a proper setup, I newer see less than 45 with the ASW-equivalent setting. At altitude, over sea or looking up always 90fps.

 

With my old setup the CPU was the limiting factor, @4.7ghz. I guess in most systems, if below that 4.7 the CPU will be limiting.

In my current system, the GPU is the main limit, but not in all situations.

[Gunnars Driver]

Related but Worth an own post, I think:

 

After tweaking my system(I had a lot of help from fpsVR, but I dont Think it works with oculus)

I have the following usage:

 

-CPU 70-90% on the most loaded core( less than 10% total)

-GPU 70- Close to 100%

-Somewhere around 9.5 to 10.7Gb of the 11 available on the 2080ti

-Around 16 to 26 Gb of RAM

 

Ive tried to get the max out of the system, as much quality as possible without seing it go below 45FPS. I didnt Think that I needed more than 16gb, nut I do. I didnt Think the GPU would go that Close to the 11Gb RAM available.

 

[Gunnars Driver]

Sorry for my ignorance, but reading Thuds write up it mentions installing Steam VR, i'm using DCS stand alone not on steam, do i still follow the guide?

 

https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/10/reverb-settings-for-dcs/

 

Yes, You need the steam even with stand alone DCS(I have it also). And you need it exactly as per the thud guide for getting a good setup in the beginning. Follow the guide just as it says.