r/dcsworld

Just trying to get my first HOTAS to get into DCS. I want the F-18 WinWing one but I'm trying to save money. Is a second hand Warthog worth it?

Hi all,

I've been working on a small free Windows app, DCS Control (formerly DCS VR Control, now supporting 2D and other headsets so anyone can try the optimizations), and I'd love some testers to tell me whether the performance gain holds on PCs other than mine.

DISCLAIMER: This is all AI picking and profiling the shit out of DCS for a couple of days. Bugs could be expected. But all seems in working order during my limited testing.

What it does, for every pilot (monitor, Quest, Varjo, Reverb, Pimax…)

• Engine Optimizations: a small module DCS loads by itself from Saved Games. It takes CPU work off DCS's render thread and leaves the image exactly the same.
• CPU Boost (optional): DCS gets priority and its fastest cores, plus a fix for a terrain loop that wastes CPU.
• Once applied, the engine optimizations stay on every time DCS starts, also from Steam. Back to stock DCS removes everything in one click.

Not on a Pimax? Pick Optimizations only: DCS runs exactly as you set it up and only the optimizations are added.

Extras for Pimax headsets: Quad Views foveated rendering, DLSS 5 on the area you look at, frame generation, all set up with one button.

ADDENDUM: Shader optimizations might be specific to NVIDIA hardware and gain on AMD could be less.

The main optimizations (gain of each one on its own, same test scene)

• Multi-threaded G-buffer: DCS draws every model into its G-buffer one at a time on the render thread. The module records those draws on worker threads in DCS's exact order and DCS replays them. +22–24%.
• Multi-threaded shadows: the same for the shadow cascades. +3–5%, p95 −4 to −7%.
• Model allocator per thread: the threads that prepare models no longer queue on one shared allocator. +6%.
• Streaming timer cache: DCS reads a high-resolution clock on every texture bind (tens of thousands of times a frame) just to timestamp streaming; it now gets a value refreshed every millisecond. +5–6%.
• Culling tuned to real cost: the visible-object search is split into more, evenly sized tasks, so DCS doesn't wait for the slowest one. +2–3%.
• Less redundant work: constant buffers and graphics state that DCS sets again although they are already set are skipped (~200k calls a frame). Repeated texture-streaming requests are deduplicated, and a statistics counter no longer makes threads wait on each other.
• Terrain prefetch fix (CPU Boost): two terrain threads call a Windows prefetch function ~840k times a second on the same memory ranges, about 1.7 CPU cores of kernel time. Repeats are dropped (it's only a hint to Windows).

How it was measured

• Built-in A/B test: the in-flight switch (Alt+Shift+F11) turns every optimization off (stock DCS) and on in alternating blocks, 24 blocks per run, with 95% confidence intervals.
• Same scene, same view: busy airfield, external view held still.
• The number of rendered objects is identical in OFF and ON blocks, so it's not drawing less. The multi-threaded paths were also compared to stock pixel by pixel in the same frame: 0 differences.
• After a DCS update each optimization checks DCS's code first and turns itself off if it isn't what it expects.

My numbers (Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RTX 5090, Pimax Crystal Super, VR): 37 → 59 FPS (about +60%, ±3.6%), p95 frame time −39%. With everything on, my GPU became the limit. If you're GPU-bound, expect much less. That's exactly what I'd like to find out.

How to test (5 minutes)

1. Download the win-x64 ZIP: Releases · NIGos/dcs-control
2. Run it, choose Optimizations only (or Pimax), tick Engine Optimizations, press Launch DCS.
3. In a busy scene, press Alt+Shift+F11 to switch the optimizations off and on, and compare your FPS.
4. Please post your CPU, GPU, headset or monitor, resolution, the scene, and FPS off vs on.

Please note

• Early beta, single player only so far (multiplayer and integrity checks untested). Use Back to stock DCS before joining a server or updating DCS.
• Everything it changes is backed up and listed before it's applied.
• Built with a lot of help from an AI coding assistant; the source is on GitHub.

Thanks! Any result is useful, including "no difference on my PC".

Edit: Just fyi, I discovered that in some situations (apparently many - aircraft/something on some maps) the optimizations get disabled if the hook encounter certain conditions , limiting the performance gain greatly. I am already improving this so please make sure to try latest releases to hopefully make a more meaningful test.

Screen Capture from dekstop viewport of VR with QuadViews on (Speed&Angels Mission 02)

https://reddit.com/link/1x2ibl5/video/l3jlkh8fhvuh1/player

Hello guys , in am new to this game and actually playing military flight sim for the first time . I am facing issues with the radar of the f16 .. cause sometimes i see that even thought if the player is in front of me and at the same level the radar wont pick the contact , and other cases when in bvr fights they get a lock on me quickly but i cant seem to know where they are if i dont look at my RWR . Looking forward to your opinions and help .

Thank you all

Lately for some reason when I try to join servers it’ll either:
A. Load me in until I get into a jet, and then freeze and crash. Sometimes takes down background programs
B. Load me in until post net sim world (if I remember correctly) and then black screen and crash everything.

I’ve updated to windows 11, cleaned a ton of stuff off my windows drive and am reinstalling DCS to be safe. Any help is appreciated as I am running out of options I feel.
My specs are:
RTX 3060 12GB
Ryzen 7 5800x
32GB DDR4 Corsair vengeance pro RAM
750W Corsair power supply
MSI B550 GAMING PRO mb

EDIT: I have 32gb of ram total, I’ve been typing in searches 2x 16 my bad

EDIT 2: adjusting page file size helped. There’s a YouTube video linking the replies that helped me.

the buttons work but i cant escape and i don't wnna buy anything

https://preview.redd.it/5m3p9tx5lvuh1.png?width=1175&format=png&auto=webp&s=1301767ff765f3b4eea9275454357bf5ab2f58ee

Apologies if this is the wrong place, please point me in the correct direction if so.

Im mostly flying the F-14 right now, dabbled a bit with the F-4 and Apache, a little overwhelmed by the DCS squadron forums and not sure what to be looking for over there (not very well caregorised for searching it seems).

Im PvE focused and would like to get involved in more missions and such with other people. I figure i will need a lot of training as well if that's a possibility. Current skill level with the F-14 is very basic, worked on the practice missions a lot but gaps here and there. I have the F-14B(U) but not touched it yet whilst learning with the F-14B.

UK based generally my availability is weekday 18:30pm GMT onwards and then weekends im available.

Edit: Thanks for the responses all, I'll make sure to check out the suggestions.

Hi I saw some YouTube videos people can climb out of the cockpit has searched everywhere on the key bind but I failed to find it

Anyone know what is the right key bind ?

Hi. I just received my steam frame VR set. I was very excited to use it with DCS but I found a couple of issues.

First - I got sick after using it, and I mean really sick. I thought it was going to go away after a while and I kept playing. Turns out you have to stop immediately. I was playing like for 1 hour and it took me 24 hours to recover. This never happened to me before and I was not really expecting these kind of side effects. I have done some reading after and it is truly amazing what the brain can do.

Second thing - the cabin resolution is truly excepcional, but I find two issues. First is that I find hard to read the numbers. I need to get close to the number to read it properly. The second thing is that outside the cabin is like the landscape has a granula feeling, buildings as well. I was not expecting this since I have all the parameters set to high or ultra, and pixel density up to one.

I know steam’s frame resolution is not the best, but I don’t think is bad at all? Also, I tried Alyx and it looks way much more better.

Do you have any idea of what could be happening? Or am I just supposed to see what I am seeing, and that is the best I can get. The granular feeling does not feel great and I think it contributes to get that sickening feeling.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all, had a bash at rotorcraft earlier this year. Loosely managed the very basics in the UH-1H but definitely needed more guidance.

Coming back to the sim next week when I have some new hardware arriving. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any communities/Discords that are welcoming to new players?

Would love to learn the Huey but open to grabbing other modules if required.

Thanks in advance :)