What are the settings for best spotting with the new patch (4.006)

[HunDread]

What do you guys think are the best?

 

Preset?

Shadows quality - Does it matter?

Distant landscape details?

Horizon draw distance?

Landscape filter - Blurred or Sharp?

AA - None - MSAA or FXAA - 2x or 4x?

Gamma?

Sharpen filter on-off?

 

Thank you

 

[Bernard_IV]

The ones that matter:

Draw: as much as your graphics card will take

Landscape filter: Blurred

AA: None or 2x, 4x are good.  MSAA uses a lot of graphics power but looks nice in game.  FXAA blurs distant contacts.

Gamma: .9.  This can vary depending on your headset

Sharpen: on

Dynamic rendering thing: 1 (which is off)

HDR: on (bloom off in the config file)

Clouds: low (this is a preference because the low clouds look  terrible, but I can see better for sure.)

 

I've found those are the ones that helped the most.  

 

 

[FTC_Mephisto]

Stick post got updated for the latest patch:

 

 

I use these setting, but at MSAA x 4 and 110% SS. Good results so far.  

[Alonzo]

I definitely think there's some personal preference stuff and it depends on your headset. Talon, who I respect very much as a pilot, says 4x MSAA is best for spotting, but if you can't use that due to performance, try 4x FXAA plus 1.1 pixel density (SteamVR 120%). He said HDR didn't help spotting, and that landscape filter was personal preference.

 

Fenris said a few interesting things too. A constant high framerate (80hz, 90hz depending on headset) is actually important for spotting, because any frame drops take away from your eyes' ability to spot something amiss against the background. So you want to hit that framerate cap. He also said that Ultra shadows are important and help with spotting (possibly because they cause less weirdness on your canopy).

 

So personally, with a Rift S and RTX 2080, I am running 2x MSAA, 1.0 pixel density (=SteamVR 100%), High preset, HDR off, landscape sharp, High clouds, Ultra shadows. SSAO off.

[VR-DriftaholiC]

Most importantly strive to get as good a frame rate as you can steadily hold. I chose 90 even though I can get 120 or more in the air. When in fur-balls the last thing you want is to be distracted by the frame rate being cut in half. Lower frame rates increase persistence of vision. There is nothing harder to identify then a plane that's doubled from a low refresh rate or re-projection as it streaks across the canopy. Which I also have forced off and I recommend every one does as well. 

 

HDR just decreases available contrast. I think it's miss-labeled and isn't actually a higher dynamic range more of a limited range. I

 

Use the lowest draw distance you can successfully navigate.  I have no problem with 40km and the haze is easier to spot planes against. It's the same reason people recommend blur for the landscape filter. Sharp plane on a blurry background stands out. And so does a plane on a non pixelated texture. Use the 4X LOD setting if you can.

 

I like balanced preset the low preset has to short a draw distance for trees and ground units. Higher only makes more trees to loose planes against. 

 

Sharpen: Yes, gives more contrast.

 

Use as little AA and then SS as possible to be able to Identify the planes you have spotted and not be distracted by the shimmer. Avoid FXAA if you can. in Steam VR advanced SS is sharper for me and has better performance. I didn't see what headset you have so take % of SS with a grain of salt, it really depends on the headset. Reverb I ran at 100% which was almost native, Index at 100% which is actually super sampled, and O+ I ran at 150%

 

Straight from an engineer at team green: Contrast is more of an issue of color frequency differences between adjacent pixels.  Contrast will always be reduced on edges as AA reduces the frequency differences.  Less samples will be better edges when sharper blending.  More samples will result in more blending and reduction of contrast. Different methods give different performance trade-offs for better AA.

 

My balance for spotting and identifying is 2X MSAA. I found far contacts harder to see at 4X MSAA. If you are finding specks OK, but having a hard time identifying a silhouette because it's to jagged then you need more AA and vice versa. If it's closer then silhouettes you struggle with like identifying targets that have their textures rendered and you're trying to see roundels or other markings then more SS will help. Same for in cockpit gauges use SS and sharpen for those to be more readable. 

 

I was tweaking settings a little every flight and contemplate the changes but this is where I have settled for the past few days. I fly several hours a day and feel like I've got a good handle on spotting though it still is a challenge despite what anyone will tell you. 

 

Spoiler

[KEY = graphics]
    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 0
    desktop_center = 0
    detail_rt_res = 1024
    draw_distance = 0.00000
    far_blocks = 0
    fps_counter = 0
    fps_limit = 0
    full_height = 2240
    full_width = 2016
    fullscreen = 0
    gamma = 1.00000
    grass_distance = 0.00000
    hdr_enable = 0
    land_anisotropy = 2
    land_tex_lods = 3
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 2
    msaa = 1
    multisampling = 1
    or_ca = 0.00000
    or_dummy = 0
    or_enable = 1
    or_height = 2240
    or_hud_rad = 1.50000
    or_hud_size = 0.75000
    or_ipd = 0.06495
    or_sipdc = 0.00000
    or_width = 2016
    post_sharpen = 1
    preset = 1
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = -1
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 3
    ssao_enable = 0
    stereo_dof = 5.00000
    vsync = 0
    win_height = 1080
    win_width = 1920
[END]

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by VR-DriftaholiC

[VR-DriftaholiC]

I should say the best setting for spotting is: Alternate Plane Visibility ?

[Daisy_Blossom]

Any index users here able to weigh in on the current state of using steamVR's motion smoothing?

[MrBlindspot]

On 6/1/2020 at 11:13 AM, VR-DriftaholiC said:

Most importantly strive to get as good a frame rate as you can steadily hold. I chose 90 even though I can get 120 or more in the air. When in fur-balls the last thing you want is to be distracted by the frame rate being cut in half. Lower frame rates increase persistence of vision. There is nothing harder to identify then a plane that's doubled from a low refresh rate or re-projection as it streaks across the canopy. Which I also have forced off and I recommend every one does as well. 

 

HDR just decreases available contrast. I think it's miss-labeled and isn't actually a higher dynamic range more of a limited range. I

 

Use the lowest draw distance you can successfully navigate.  I have no problem with 40km and the haze is easier to spot planes against. It's the same reason people recommend blur for the landscape filter. Sharp plane on a blurry background stands out. And so does a plane on a non pixelated texture. Use the 4X LOD setting if you can.

 

I like balanced preset the low preset has to short a draw distance for trees and ground units. Higher only makes more trees to loose planes against. 

 

Sharpen: Yes, gives more contrast.

 

Use as little AA and then SS as possible to be able to Identify the planes you have spotted and not be distracted by the shimmer. Avoid FXAA if you can. in Steam VR advanced SS is sharper for me and has better performance. I didn't see what headset you have so take % of SS with a grain of salt, it really depends on the headset. Reverb I ran at 100% which was almost native, Index at 100% which is actually super sampled, and O+ I ran at 150%

 

Straight from an engineer at team green: Contrast is more of an issue of color frequency differences between adjacent pixels.  Contrast will always be reduced on edges as AA reduces the frequency differences.  Less samples will be better edges when sharper blending.  More samples will result in more blending and reduction of contrast. Different methods give different performance trade-offs for better AA.

 

My balance for spotting and identifying is 2X MSAA. I found far contacts harder to see at 4X MSAA. If you are finding specks OK, but having a hard time identifying a silhouette because it's to jagged then you need more AA and vice versa. If it's closer then silhouettes you struggle with like identifying targets that have their textures rendered and you're trying to see roundels or other markings then more SS will help. Same for in cockpit gauges use SS and sharpen for those to be more readable. 

 

I was tweaking settings a little every flight and contemplate the changes but this is where I have settled for the past few days. I fly several hours a day and feel like I've got a good handle on spotting though it still is a challenge despite what anyone will tell you. 

 

  Hide contents

[KEY = graphics]
    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 0
    desktop_center = 0
    detail_rt_res = 1024
    draw_distance = 0.00000
    far_blocks = 0
    fps_counter = 0
    fps_limit = 0
    full_height = 2240
    full_width = 2016
    fullscreen = 0
    gamma = 1.00000
    grass_distance = 0.00000
    hdr_enable = 0
    land_anisotropy = 2
    land_tex_lods = 3
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 2
    msaa = 1
    multisampling = 1
    or_ca = 0.00000
    or_dummy = 0
    or_enable = 1
    or_height = 2240
    or_hud_rad = 1.50000
    or_hud_size = 0.75000
    or_ipd = 0.06495
    or_sipdc = 0.00000
    or_width = 2016
    post_sharpen = 1
    preset = 1
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = -1
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 3
    ssao_enable = 0
    stereo_dof = 5.00000
    vsync = 0
    win_height = 1080
    win_width = 1920
[END]

 

 

Well thx anyway. i was totally lost with my setting with the new patch.  For the sake of game I copied your settings 1 on 1. And now i have something to work with again.

 

 

[VR-DriftaholiC]

8 hours ago, Daisy_Blossom said:

Any index users here able to weigh in on the current state of using steamVR's motion smoothing?

Last I tried I preferred 80 straight fps to 72 smoothed to 144. However I want to spend some time testing that again. If you can barely maintain 80-90 fps you definitely don't want motion smoothing to turn on at 40-45 fps, it makes recognizing even close planes difficult with how blurry they are when moving across your FOV quickly. Like what happens constantly in a dog fight.

 

4 hours ago, MrBlindspot said:

Well thx anyway. i was totally lost with my setting with the new patch.  For the sake of game I copied your settings 1 on 1. And now i have something to work with again.

Yep! Keep in mind my system is stronk. But even so I have things that hit the CPU turned way down.

Edited June 2, 2020 by VR-DriftaholiC

[ACG_Orb]

I've had a really frustrating week or so faffing with settings. I simply can't find a sweetspot in performance and 'spotting suitable' graphics

 

The main issue I'm experiencing is my frame rate counter is displaying a consistent 60-70fps but my HMD judders with fast head turns and close moving aircraft. These seem contradictory and was fine before the big patch. I also kept one eye on the CPU performance graph and it was running at about 35%.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

 

My system should be capable of running mid to high range settings.  Reverb/i7 8700/1080Ti/32gb RAM

 

 

[J5_HellCat_]

Just now, ACG_Orb said:

I've had a really frustrating week or so faffing with settings. I simply can't find a sweetspot in performance and 'spotting suitable' graphics

 

The main issue I'm experiencing is my frame rate counter is displaying a consistent 60-70fps but my HMD judders with fast head turns and close moving aircraft. These seem contradictory and was fine before the big patch. I also kept one eye on the CPU performance graph and it was running at about 35%.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

 

My system should be capable of running mid to high range settings.  Reverb/i7 8700/1080Ti/32gb RAM

 

 

 

 

I Feel your pain ...I'm in the same boat...

[VR-DriftaholiC]

2 hours ago, ACG_Orb said:

I've had a really frustrating week or so faffing with settings. I simply can't find a sweetspot in performance and 'spotting suitable' graphics

 

The main issue I'm experiencing is my frame rate counter is displaying a consistent 60-70fps but my HMD judders with fast head turns and close moving aircraft. These seem contradictory and was fine before the big patch. I also kept one eye on the CPU performance graph and it was running at about 35%.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar issues?

 

My system should be capable of running mid to high range settings.  Reverb/i7 8700/1080Ti/32gb RAM

 

Take a look at your advanced frame timing. It's likely those nasty dips are CPU late starts. CPU performance graph won't tell the whole story since the game only uses a few cores. So drop settings that hit the CPU hardest:

 

Preset: Low or Balanced

Horizon draw Distance: 40 km

Grass Quality: Off

Distant Buildings: disabled

 

Finally in Nvidia Control Panel set virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to: Application Controlled or even try 3 or 4. This will help a little with the 1% lows at the expense of a little latency.

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by VR-DriftaholiC

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

The Reverb screens behave very ungrateful when frames drop. I hunted spots with it for 3 days, and found a very good mix - that let me spot better earlier and more consistent than folks in my outfit at the time - but it's based on an RTX2080ti. It's the old static background vs popping object.

 

I write from my mobile while sipping a coffee at a gas station, so I'll return tomorrow evening, will update my post then. Generally I can say ahead running the Reverb at native resolution at 60Hz with no motion repro and one step of MSAA gave the best results. Two steps, as Alonzo mentioned, is too much performance wise. Canopy reflection are off, HDR on, bloom off from what I remember. I put these things in separated cfgs, see everyone tomorrow

[ACG_Orb]

Thanks guys... will experiment with your suggestions.

 

I'm so disappointed about the update. You don't realise what you had until it's lost

[FTC_Mephisto]

On 6/2/2020 at 4:12 PM, Daisy_Blossom said:

Any index users here able to weigh in on the current state of using steamVR's motion smoothing?

 

Still no from my perspective. Every time it is engaged quickly moving objects (yes, the guy your are chasing) start to create artifacts which makes spotting and following much harded.

[ACG_Orb]

19 hours ago, VR-DriftaholiC said:

 

Take a look at your advanced frame timing. It's likely those nasty dips are CPU late starts. CPU performance graph won't tell the whole story since the game only uses a few cores. So drop settings that hit the CPU hardest:

 

Preset: Low or Balanced

Horizon draw Distance: 40 km

Grass Quality: Off

Distant Buildings: disabled

 

Finally in Nvidia Control Panel set virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to: Application Controlled or even try 3 or 4. This will help a little with the 1% lows at the expense of a little latency.

 

 

These settings have helped a little, but not resolved it.  Thanks for the help though.  

I'm getting really strong sun reflection on the cockpit instruments/pedals - any idea which setting can reduce this?  Ive tuned bloom off.

 

Spoiler

    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 0
    desktop_center = 1
    detail_rt_res = 1024
    draw_distance = 0.00000
    far_blocks = 0
    fps_counter = 1
    fps_limit = 55
    full_height = 480
    full_width = 640
    fullscreen = 0
    gamma = 0.80000
    grass_distance = 0.00000
    hdr_enable = 1
    land_anisotropy = 1
    land_tex_lods = 0
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 1
    msaa = 1
    multisampling = 1
    or_ca = 0.00243
    or_dummy = 0
    or_enable = 1
    or_height = 2168
    or_hud_rad = 1.50000
    or_hud_size = 0.75000
    or_ipd = 0.06489
    or_sipdc = 0.00000
    or_width = 2220
    post_sharpen = 1
    preset = 1
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = 155
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 0
    ssao_enable = 0
    stereo_dof = 5.00000
    vsync = 1
    win_height = 480
    win_width = 640

 

[VR-DriftaholiC]

1 hour ago, ACG_Orb said:

 

These settings have helped a little, but not resolved it.  Thanks for the help though.  

I'm getting really strong sun reflection on the cockpit instruments/pedals - any idea which setting can reduce this?  Ive tuned bloom off.

 

  Hide contents

    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 0
    canopy_ref = 0
    desktop_center = 1
    detail_rt_res = 1024
    draw_distance = 0.00000
    far_blocks = 0
    fps_counter = 1
    fps_limit = 55
    full_height = 480
    full_width = 640
    fullscreen = 0
    gamma = 0.80000
    grass_distance = 0.00000
    hdr_enable = 1
    land_anisotropy = 1
    land_tex_lods = 0
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 1
    msaa = 1
    multisampling = 1
    or_ca = 0.00243
    or_dummy = 0
    or_enable = 1
    or_height = 2168
    or_hud_rad = 1.50000
    or_hud_size = 0.75000
    or_ipd = 0.06489
    or_sipdc = 0.00000
    or_width = 2220
    post_sharpen = 1
    preset = 1
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = 155
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 0
    ssao_enable = 0
    stereo_dof = 5.00000
    vsync = 1
    win_height = 480
    win_width = 640

 

Turn shadows on.