spotting in VR is pretty bad in 3.001

[Guest deleted@134347]

so the subj..

 

in version 2 spotting in VR was bad, however, dropping the MSAA to 0 in-game it became pretty feasible and I could make out contacts via strange shimmering/artifacts. However in 3.0 everything is just so darn blurry it's impossible to spot anything against the ground anymore. Even spotting against the sky got much much worse, it all just blends in..

 

what do you say, guys?

 

Edit:   enabled MSAA x4 in-game, blurry landscape, High settings -  spotting is much better now. I think MSAA actually was completely re-worked for 3.001 !!.

Edited March 26, 2018 by moosya

[BeastyBaiter]

It isn't an issue for me but I did have to play with settings some. Key things:

Clouds: High

Shadows: High or Ultra

AA: 2x

PD: 1.3 or higher

 

Reason for the above: anything less than high clouds makes planes simply vanish when viewed against them, even at close range. The 2x AA largely gets rid of the weird distortions, and though it doesn't make planes easier to spot, it does make it easier to see what they are doing when viewed against a cloud. Shadows at high or ultra make the terrain lighting a lot less flat, it also boosts plane reflections dramatically. End result is it's a lot easier to see planes as they tend to stand out more when well lit. Having the sun to your back helps a lot, planes are super easy to see in that case. PD 1.3 or higher makes everything look better obviously. 1.7 would be even better, but not even the mighty 1080 TI can pull that off with the above settings while also holding mostly 90 fps.

[A_radek]

Have to contradict you a wee bit here beastybaiter.

That sprite per contact that gets drawn at say 6-10km distance, the size of it is dependant on the resolution your running. A built in game mechanic to not give those with high resolution monitors an unfair advantage. For us VR folks, running any amont of ss works against us. While our default resolution is so low that spotting is actually slightly easier than on a monitor. The 1.3 steam SS mentioned does not make much of a difference, but once you reach ~1.7 it really does affect your spotting ability. So if multiplayer and spotting is your thing I would sacrifice image clarity for easier spotting.

I also really recommend the "Fenris" trick: Run blurred landscape filter, 4x ingame AA, no SS and then sharpen on. This way the landscape and textures will render very smooth without any micro flickering and your brain picks up any contact much easier against the solid non-flickering background. 

While the increased horizon draw distance is gorgeous this also hampers spotting, for the same reasons as above, so I find 70km a good compromise.

I agree running clouds on high is the way to go. But I run shadows on low as they eat fps.

Overall I don't notice spotting being more difficult since 3.01.

[BeastyBaiter]

Fair point on the PD, but when combined with higher lighting effects, not even a 1080 TI can manage much more than 1.3 anyways. The other thing you have to keep in mind is instrument readability. At 1.0 and 4x AA, I simply can't read any of the text at a glance. I have to zoom in for that or lean super far forwards cause it's a pixelated mess. With 1.3 PD and 2x AA, it strikes a really nice balance of readability, looking good and relatively easy spotting/tracking. The other side is identifying targets, which a bit of extra PD certainly helps with. It's all a balancing act in the end, not saying my settings are best, but they are the best I've found so far.

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

Definitely harder to spot and ID targets after 3.0. The blur is making it harder to identify targets and my ability to even pick a 109 out as a friend over terrain has diminished quite a bit.

 

I used to pride myself on my ability to correctly ID planes in VR.  Now I'm struggling. I'd rather a positive ID than seeing dots,  but both are harder now.

[A_radek]

I agree beasty. At 0 pd instruments and even map/text are definitely hard to read. And for anything other than semi-competitive multiplayer I'd rather sacrifice some spotting ability for the sake of Ss and it's image clarity.

 

I suspect we are talking about different SS settings though. I'm referring to steam vr ss where a 1.7 is far less than in the tray tool. Or at least used to be, haven't checked, heard steam uses some kind of percentage now.

 

For me it used to be a balance of id'ing vs spotting. Higher Ss values would make spotting more difficult especially against ground. While allowing me to easier identify friend from foe. But now with Lefunestes mod identifying is as easy as with a 4K monitor even at 1.0 pd.

[BeastyBaiter]

I don't have OTT or any mods installed. I'm using steamVR settings for PD/SS. The thing is, I'm not using anything even remotely like our benchmark settings. I run much higher detail and still expect 90 fps most of the time, hence I have to run a relatively low 1.3 PD value. But this value does have the added benefit of making things relatively easy to spot while still making most things readable.

[Guest deleted@134347]

thank you, guys.. It seems everyone is trying to solve this new puzzle to find the best settings for spotting.. I guess I have to do the same..

 

btw.. after using the word "spotting" so many times I'm glad my wife doesn't read my posts.