DCS

After the wife gave me an 8TB SSD for my birthday, I have about 10TB of free space.

So why no try some DCS? :-)

Said 300GB on Steam, but the download is only 85GB - should unfold to 142GB, so no big deal.

I'm ready for some flying in a few hours - I mean how hard can it be to control a plane, got my male intuition (and did play Sega Afterburner a lot) - I'll figure it all out in a minute or two!

I'm way out of my comfort zone, hope there's a free plane to pilot - I don't plan on buying anything, Steam says the game is free... Just wanted to experience graphics and performance etc. 

Hope it works with VR controllers too - not fond of having to set up hotas, but can do that if required... 

Can't be worse than Elite Dangerous VR, lol - after some years I'm able to get the ship out of the hangar - and sometimes I find the right key to pull up the landing gear :-) 

DCS is now installed, I'll try it later tonight - looking forward to crashing planes - that is, in the fortunate event I get them off the ground... 

Just tried the game - it's very impressive. Thinking that DCS would make me cry for a faster gpu, I was very surprised by the great performance (it seems to be using native SteamVR drivers for Index, not OpenXR, also I got the DCS Steam version). Surely, it's not like 144 fps with Index res 400%, but it really felt close to 80 fps with Index res 200%. And the game has the best use of motion smoothing I've seen for long - really turns 40 fps into 80 fps so greatly that the difference to real 80 fps is minimal and often will go unnoticed. Not sure I've seen any other game profit this perfectly from motion smoothing - it's my new reference for that.

I ended up using 80 Hz with motion smoothing and an insane Index res 350% (about 30 million pixel per frame combining both eyes) - and I upped many settings:



Motion Blur caused severe ghosting, I don't think it works properly in VR, better leave it off. SSAO and SSSLR does make the towns and tree look better, and cost much performance - and really isn't worth it. Any settings you'd recommend or avoid?

Now using res 350% really clears up the image - I've seen many blurry images from Index in DCS, and image quality is very poor using Index res 100% - but it's really good using Index res 350% (could use Index res 400% too, but now performance started tanking, even with motion smoothing):

Examples of image quality - taken while wearing the Index hmd:





Everything is very sharp using Index res 350%. The above image is reduced in res to make it faster to load - this is the real image sent to one Index panel 1:1:



This is not through the lens, but it looks much the same in the hmd - also because you got full 3D in the hmd, and your brain turns two images into one. Image quality was much better than I had hoped for - more dials and instruments:











Of course no match for the Aero - but still I'm very impressed by the Index image quality and for being able to experience this in what looks like true 80 fps (ok, can see it's not perfect with fast hand movements, but is with the landscape passing by - I only tested free flight, so not much going on). 

The sun/lighting effects, clouds and view distance are impressive too:







I've only been using the sim for about an hour, and have not been engaged in battles. Maybe I'll need to turn down settings more in big battles...

Also - very impressive - you do not need HOTAS for the game, you can use your VR motion controllers to control the stick and throttle (just like in VTOL). Well, at least for now - I only tried the free flight where you start airborne :-)

Btw - I'm so proud, my first landing!

The Steam version is free - I can just uninstall it and install the other version - but the Steam version does have awesome performance, so not sure I'll gain anything by going OpenXR. OpenXR is set to the Oculus Desktop App on my rig right now - that's why I'm sure native SteamVR drivers are used. 

I'm compensating for 4xMSAA by using Index res 350% - maybe better with lower res and more MSAA - I'll test it later :-)

Some dude said the main advantage of getting DCS outside Steam is 50% lower prices on planes - I have not checked that out. Currently prices are up to 60% off on Steam. 

If you just wanna use some free flight to enjoy some pacific islands and the sun - are there any planes you'd recommend?

Just paid for some F15 - the cheap one, only 5 bucks with 60% off - and downloaded the Marianas map (6GB), it's free right now on Steam - looks very big, I've probably seen like 5% of it...:



Not sure I'll want to pay $60+ for the best planes if I'm only going to take some free flights... 

Avoiding HOTAS may not work in the long run - but some dude used voice commands and only Index controllers: 



You can fly the planes just fine using only VR motion controllers - but you cannot land or shoot/fight, lol. 

For now it's a great experience just flying an airplane, feels very close to being in a real airplane - or at least close enough for me. 

I just saw that MSFS 2020 for the first time ever is on sale due to Steam's 20 years anniversary, might grab that one too while I'm at it - seems MSFS 2020 has full controller support and does not requires hotas. 

I have hotas, but need to set it up every time, included unfolding a small table - so hotas does create some friction. Only used it for SW Squadrons so far - but in that game all buttons are already mapped for my Logitech X52. Not sure DCS is that easy to set up...  

I just asked on the Steam DCS forum which plane has the most buttons for VR motion controllers, but maybe you already know that - the SU-25 and F15 seem too old models and do not have any buttons in the cockpit to press using VR controllers... 

PS. Fun thing, but DCS also support native Oculus drivers, I tested it with the CV1 last night - maybe my 11 year old can try sitting in a plane :-) Using CV1 Touch controllers the left joystick works and there is a button for zooming in on the dials on the right controller - you do not have these functions using Index controllers. I'm getting the feeling Rift was the devs primary focus when implementing VR support many years ago - Rift CV1 controllers are also shown as pictures under options even if you use Index controllers. 
But even with native Oculus drivers, performance is less smooth compared to using Index motion smoothing - and of course the res is much better too with the Index. Still impressive how good DCS currently works with very old hmds.  

Nice - enjoy!

Thanks - but I guess you have bought it all? All planes, terrains, campaigns?