Version 2.5 Graphics Question

[Gypsy]

Installed and tested. Works ok but I am not shot in the ass with color graphics. Greens seem to have a "minty" flavor to them. I running most things on medium to high,  clocking FPSs in 100-150s, but the overall color of the terrain just looks strange. Cockpit and my P51 look okyt. So I am looking for suggestions/settings to get back to the 1.5.8 look like I had. Now I know my TN  panel ain't gonna get the best color rendition but the mint green in weird looking to me. Monitor is an ASUS VG248QE 144hrz I ms grey to grey running thru the displayport.  Rest of my system specs are in my signature line. Thanks.

[DD_Fenrir]

Hey Gypsy. Can you post a screenshot so we can better see what your looking at? I have my suspicions but don't want to send you on a wild goose chase changing settings etc if I'm wrong.

[Gypsy]

Will do, thanks!

[Gypsy]

17 hours ago, DD_Fenrir said:

Hey Gypsy. Can you post a screenshot so we can better see what your looking at? I have my suspicions but don't want to send you on a wild goose chase changing settings etc if I'm wrong.

Nevermind. It is my monitor settings. A bit back I changed a couple of settings and forgot about them.  The "mint(ish)" green shows up in all games and other than game screens with those changed settings.  I went back to box stock (default) on the monitor and tweaked setting in DCS and IL2 and toned down the colors a bit. At least at a level where I am not distracted (easily done nowadays).  If I want true colors I am going to have to spend the money and get a high refresh rate IPS panel or a VA panel.  I like my high frame rates and pretty smooth operation with the 144mhz. 1ms screen so unless a rich uncle (and I have outlived most of them) leaves me a bundle-o-cash, I will do just fine with what I have.

Thanks for the offer...

[wingflyr]

This is a helpful link that helped my setup alot,

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200906

[DD_Arthur]

Does that renaming the meta shaders file and let the game rebuild another one really help?

I've certainly got the lime-green trees.......

[Gypsy]

Just now, wingflyr said:

This is a helpful link that helped my setup alot,

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=200906

I will try those tweaks, thanks.

Will try and get some before and after screenshots that I have no luck with.

 

[wingflyr]

Yes It definitely help the overall picture Arthur but I had to play around with gamma setting, but lot better than before with awful colors. My green mint seems to be slightly there still but a lot less noticeable.

[wingflyr]

No prob Gypsy.

[DD_Fenrir]

Are you chaps running with "deferred shading" on or off?

[wingflyr]

Mine is on Fen,

I don't know if that is good or bad. I will have to try running DCS both on then off and compare.

I do get a smooth flight with very good graphics when on thou.

But by my lonesome not in multiplayer which I have not tried yet.

[Gypsy]

Well between tweaking and geeking on my monitor settings, using suggestions from all in this thread and others, I have the lime green down to an acceptable minimum. The biggest thing that helped the overall "feel" of the colors was turning off "Deferred Shaders" in game.  Go figure, I guess on or off is a crap shoot depending on too many variables for me to keep up with.  I need to work on the gamma a twitch to brighten up the cockpit without screwing other stuff up, but the game is playable (visually) now. I have never had a problem with frame rates and I do get a smidge of stuttering but nothing that really bothers me at this point. I haven't ventured into multiplayer so I have no idea what awaits me there.  So whenever ED decides to run a sale again, I can start buying some other maps and AC.

Only thing I could not get to take is Reshade.  Guess I am picking the wrong launcher (Run) from the DCS folder, but since this is a Steam App for me, I don't see anything else.  No biggie as I have it working for IL2 BoX and Blitz and don't really need it for HSFX.

Thanks again all.

[DD_Arthur]

Did the meta-shaders and f-something folder delete and the game does indeed run better than before

This is running on deferred shaders off;

On my system it's ok but not a huge improvement visually on 1.5.  Overall performance not as good imo as 1.5 either. 

Combat up high not too bad  but down low looks er.............

Now with deferred shaders on and an approach to landing;

Game looks fantastic at these settings but is noticeably poorer in performance.

Conclusion;  although I think there is considerable room for optimisation of 2.5 - which I've no doubt the DCS team will eventually manage -  I DO need a new system to get the most out of DCS.

[Gypsy]

You can really see the difference in your above vids. The second one looks like my old 1.5.8. Great it worked for you!

I did rename both the metashaders and fxo  first. First launch  the game tried to rebuild them during the next reboot but I got an error message about the compiler failing during the rebuild and crashed to desktop. So I renamed them to original and all was okay except I was back to original look. So I just took a shot at turning off Deferred Sharers and got rid of 90% of the lime green look. Of course, now I can't control gamma in game.

What I am going to try next is renaming one file at a time (metashaders then fxo) with a test between to see if I get the same compiler error. Not smart enuff to figure how much Steam is gumming up the works but it does make me wish I had got DCS straight from ED. If I knew I could get away with it and I wouldn't lose my P51, I would get DCS from ED directly and overwrite the Steam version. But that's just too much "geeking" and not enuff flying ?!

BoX, Blitz and 1946 are fine although I can't get Reshade to work on anything I got off Steam. Thank goodness I got BoX direct from 777. No biggie!

All this reminds me of another time in my early life crunching assembler code/machine code on ancient mainframes, punching cards, making tapes, compiling  the code, running a test, wash, rinse, repeat, until the result complied with what my bosses wanted ?!

[Gypsy]

Tried renaming megashaders and fxo individually. Got the compiler error on megashaders so then I tried fxo rename and game would freeze at splash screen.  This is either launching from Steam or from my desktop shortcut with only Steam runtime in the background.. No go.  I'm done. I can live with what I have now and this is taking to much time from having fun :-).

And truth be told, this is almost like I am trying to pad my post count here anyway !

[Gypsy]

Funny coincidence. Watching a Smithsonian channel episode about Stonehenge and all the foliage shown is kinda lime green. Is it something in the water in that part of the world that makes it look like DCS 2.5 Caucasus map ?? Asking for a friend ?.

[Sid]

On 09/04/2018 at 7:22 AM, Gypsy said:

Installed and tested. Works ok but I am not shot in the ass with color graphics. Greens seem to have a "minty" flavor to them. I running most things on medium to high,  clocking FPSs in 100-150s, but the overall color of the terrain just looks strange. Cockpit and my P51 look okyt. So I am looking for suggestions/settings to get back to the 1.5.8 look like I had. Now I know my TN  panel ain't gonna get the best color rendition but the mint green in weird looking to me. Monitor is an ASUS VG248QE 144hrz I ms grey to grey running thru the displayport.  Rest of my system specs are in my signature line. Thanks.

I had the blurry image and also not so good colours when I updated the 2.5.0 beta to the new version. When installing the new version I allowed the new one to import settings from the beta and I think that was the problem.

I carried out the simple instrctions here https://stormbirds.blog/2018/01/31/what-to-do-if-your-dcs-world-2-5-doesnt-look-right/  and now have a lovely shiny new game. Just a case of deleting old imported settings and letting the new installation sort itself out with new ones. I know it refers to installing the 2.5 beta but it works going from beta to new 2.5.

Cheerzen

[Gypsy]

3 hours ago, Sid said:

I had the blurry image and also not so good colours when I updated the 2.5.0 beta to the new version. When installing the new version I allowed the new one to import settings from the beta and I think that was the problem.

I carried out the simple instrctions here https://stormbirds.blog/2018/01/31/what-to-do-if-your-dcs-world-2-5-doesnt-look-right/  and now have a lovely shiny new game. Just a case of deleting old imported settings and letting the new installation sort itself out with new ones. I know it refers to installing the 2.5 beta but it works going from beta to new 2.5.

Cheerzen

Thanks, I will give the above a try. I did try earlier deleting the metashaders and fxo and had problems getting the files to rebuild (got a compiler error) but I may have done something out of sequence. Worth another try!

[Gypsy]

Sid, that seems to have made a big difference. My screw up earlier in thinking I was working on the correct metashaders and fxo.  I was in the wrong directory. The stormbirds link got me to the correct one on my C: drive not the ones on my D: drive where I have steam and all the games.  Looks like the game looks in two places to operate correctly.  Anyway the coloring is better although I dropped a few FPS but I can work on my graphics settings if that becomes a problem.  Right now without doing much and everything pretty well maxed out with just one aircraft sight seeing I am still getting 65-80 fps depending on the terrain.  I was getting 90-130.  I am happy with it as I can now turn Deferred Shaders back  on and can control the gamma again...  Many Thanks..

[Snacko]

Minty green tree colors can be caused my old shaders if you did an DCS update and not a clean/new install.  Just delete the ...Users/xxx/Saved Games\DCS\fxo and ...Users/xxx/Saved Games\DCS\metashaders folders.  The game will rebuild those shader folders for each Theater.  So, then fly a quick mission in each theater and wait for it to load..  and wait... and wait..  Once they are built it will load faster.

If you are getting 100-150 fps you can turn your graphic settings up much higher.  Try to match your refresh rate of your monitor.  My monitors are 60mhz..  So, I shoot for 60fps on average, and turn my graphics up until the fps are hitting around that range.

Cheers!

[Gypsy]

Just now, Snacko said:

Minty green tree colors can be caused my old shaders if you did an DCS update and not a clean/new install.  Just delete the ...Users/xxx/Saved Games\DCS\fxo and ...Users/xxx/Saved Games\DCS\metashaders folders.  The game will rebuild those shader folders for each Theater.  So, then fly a quick mission in each theater and wait for it to load..  and wait... and wait..  Once they are built it will load faster.

If you are getting 100-150 fps you can turn your graphic settings up much higher.  Try to match your refresh rate of your monitor.  My monitors are 60mhz..  So, I shoot for 60fps on average, and turn my graphics up until the fps are hitting around that range.

Cheers!

Yep, did it. Works. Thanks. Luckily I haven't gone far with DCS, only Have the Caucasus map. Was waiting for a "stable" 2.5 before committing to more.

I am going to half my 144hrz refresh rate in the NVIDIA menu. I've done this before but somewhere along the line in all my fiddling I turned that off.

[T_O_A_D]

You are probably talking about the Vsync setting to 1/2 setting but I don't remember why you need too.

[Gypsy]

You are probably talking about the Vsync setting to 1/2 setting but I don't remember why you need too.

Dunno. Did it during one of my "fiddling" phases [emoji28]!

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

[DD_Arthur]

On 4/18/2018 at 12:22 AM, Gypsy said:

Funny coincidence. Watching a Smithsonian channel episode about Stonehenge and all the foliage shown is kinda lime green. Is it something in the water in that part of the world that makes it look like DCS 2.5 Caucasus map ?? Asking for a friend ?.

It's Spring! This morning my lawn is indeed lime green!!  Lets see,  Stonehenge is about seventy miles up the road from me, the Caucasus must be around three and a half thousand miles from me - and possibly in another continent - about the same distance as St. Johns, Newfoundland - so yes;  it could be something in the water lol!!

I had to drive past Stonehenge twice last week.  It stands on a chalky meadow on the southern part of Salisbury Plain overlooking the A303, the main road to the west.  Grass was...well, greeny as usual

Thirty-two years ago I was at University in London.  I did a spot of part time motorcycle courier work to keep the cash coming in too.  In my second year I had a couple of lectures on a Thursday morning and then zilch until a tutorial on Monday afternoon.

My mum lived in Devon - about one hundred and fifty miles away - and had recently been widowed.  She was struggling with this; we all were and I was the nearest and most available of her sons.

I discovered the courier firm I worked for had a job no one wanted to do - which made it a very lucrative job;  pick up a wages tape from the offices of Barclays bank in west London before five o'clock on a Thursday afternoon and deliver it to a block house type building on an industrial estate just outside Exeter - in Devon - by midnight.  By the most direct route this was one hundred and fifty-seven  miles and you'd end up on the other side of the country late on a Thursday night with the prospect of a long and unpaid trip back to London.  Thats why no one wanted to do it.  However,  for me it was perfect; a nice little earner and a long weekend at home with mum and seeing friends.

I had a Suzuki GS850 with shaft drive, fixed panniers, a howling Yoshimura four into one and a nice big five gallon gas tank.  The worst part of the business was the trip down to west London for the pick up and out onto the M3 motorway during afternoon rush hour traffic.  After a couple of weeks I discovered the bank office was manned twenty four seven by their security staff.  I could ignore the afternoon deadline for pick up and scoop it up around seven p.m. and avoid the evening traffic.

As you leave the M3 motorway and join the A303 you pass a large green traffic sign that says 'The South West'.   I love this sign.  To me it says beaches, sunshine, rolling green hills, friends and family.

It was also the point where I really opened the taps on my big GS and settled in for my own personal TT race across southern England.  These days the A303 is largely a straight piece of anonymous dual carriageway but back then it was mostly a hundred and twenty miles of sinuous two-lane black top snaking westwards across the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon.

  Through the Spring I'd do the trip non-stop.  As long as I dawdled down and out of London I had enough gas in the tank for the whole trip.  If you wound the big GS up through the gears and then held it at around one hundred mph you'd get 'er down to around twenty - twenty five to the gallon!.

After the summer break I took this job up again and as autumn set in I fitted a bikini fairing from a GS1000S which surprisingly helped with fuel consumption,  the small screen helped to deflect wind blast too. 

  I also fitted an (illegal) 85w halogen bulb into the big headlight for the onset of winter.  I took to taking a thermos flask of coffee and some sandwiches with me and breaking the journey.

 A GS850 is not the lightest nor most nimble of motorcycles at around 550lbs but that sheer mass gives a certain planted feel to front and rear tyres.   If you know the road you can get into the groove of things...if you know what I mean.   No speed cameras and no radar back then either. 

 Stonehenge marked the midway point on my journey.   At night, and at speed you would come off that short section of dual carraigeway called the Amesbury bypass and follow that white line into a fast right-hand bend before the road briefly straightened out over the crest of a hill.  Then at the moment you started to lean it into the following down hill left-hander you'd get a brief glimpse of the stones on the rising meadow a couple of hundred yards away.  A minor road branching off to the right went up a gentle hill to make the northern field boundary.   I ignored Stonehenge.   I'd usually stop for coffee and a cigarette in a protected layby a couple of miles further up the road. 

One bollock-freezing, crystal clear night in late October I came hammering westwards past Amesbury at around a hundred and twenty.  There on the left was a reflection of tail lights which rapidly grew into a  blue and white Rover SDI of the Wiltshire Constabulary parked up at the side of the road.

Oh shit.    Sure enough, as I howled passed  his lights came on and I knew he'd want to pull me.  There is simply no point in trying to outrun the rozzers on a motorcycle.  It can only end in pain of one sort or another.

Much better to hide!  As I crested the hill I knew they'd only just got their Rover going so  I went straight on up the minor road to the stones on the right, switched my lights and engine off and coasted into the Stonehenge visitor centre car park.  There was no other traffic around but I got to see the headlights of a fast moving car heading west along the A303 away from me.  Phew.  I broke out the coffee, sarnies and had two cigarettes.

From then on I always stopped at the stones for a break.  The visitor centre was surprisingly grotty and closed.  If the car park was empty I'd climb over the chest high fence and have my little picnic in the dark,  sitting amongst the stones and watching the occasional passing traffic below and listen to the slumbering sheep that also occupied the field.  

Christmas came and with it a three week break at home.  The second Thursday evening in January saw me pull up as usual in the car park.  I noticed the fence now had a length of barbed wire running along the top but since it was still chest high it hardly presented an obstacle.  The sheep were gone.  I'd just sat down amongst the stones when I saw a pair of headlights come on directly to the south by a stand of trees.  Around a half a mile away.

 It was just after nine at night and I watched these lights trundle leisurely towards me along a track in the fields.  They crossed the A303 and headed up the minor road and did a sweep of the car park.  I thought about the new barbed wire on the fence, the absence of sheep and realised I was about to get nicked.  Sure enough,  the headlights belonged to a little white van marked 'Department of the Enviroment Security' from which emerged what turned out to be a nice man in uniform who escorted me off the premises.  Luckily thats all he could do as he had no powers of arrest!  

He also explained that when I jumped the fence I'd set off an alarm and by walking over to the stones I'd triggered two  pressure pads.

  Ah well,  all good things must come to an end.   Infact,  not long afterwards the job itself came to an end when they started sending the contents of the tape down a telephone line.

 

 

Apologies for this rambling nonsense having bugger all to do with DCS.

 

[Gypsy]

Just now, DD_Arthur said:

It's Spring! This morning my lawn is indeed lime green!!  Lets see,  Stonehenge is about seventy miles up the road from me, the Caucasus must be around three and a half thousand miles from me - and possibly in another continent - about the same distance as St. Johns, Newfoundland - so yes; 

<edited to save disk space> ?

 

 

Apologies for this rambling nonsense having bugger all to do with DCS.

 

Now that had to be the absolute best off topic, non answer I have ever received. Sir, you just took me on a tour of your part of the world that I never had a chance to make. I have been to England on several occasions visiting friends when I was stationed in Germany in the 80s, but seeing it in the real almost doesn't compare with your dissertation and flavoring it with motorcyle tales is a bonus. Thank you for that!