Dev Blog #81: Virtual Reality

[Husar]

1 hour ago, YoYo said:

But such a survey would be interesting, LOL, and would probably show the way for developers. Here's an example from DCS. I've always wondered why we need such a detailed world in a simulator (I'm writing about combat sim, civil is valid for me)? When I'm speeding, even just above the ground, it doesn't matter much. I will add that these are the Mariana Islands of WWII, interestingly everything works great for me with such detail and I have the highest number of frames, even here in VR (72FPS).

On the other hand, I think 1CGS wants to open the way for a new Tank Crew, perhaps someday. Although I don't have that much detail, in that case it would be quite important to have the groundwork done fairly thoroughly. Perhaps this is the idea and the culprit behind this whole city optimization situation? But again – what happened here to cause such a load on the system? Some of you have probably had some experience with War Thunder. Of course, I'm ignoring the "simulation", but the ground objects look quite good and have an element of destruction (from both air and ground attacks). The game runs in VR very well, yet the gameplay is fluid in and just above cities.

DCS has helicopters and you fly low and slow then you can see those details for much longer time, same with MSFF24.

Edited July 16 by Husar

[Panzerlang]

Kind of on topic but a little off...why does the GPU have to do all the work of making enough pixels to fill two VR panels, rather than it generates one monitor output and a chip in the VR headset does the work of doubling it to the two panels?

Oi, Pimax!

[Husar]

1 hour ago, Panzerlang said:

Kind of on topic but a little off...why does the GPU have to do all the work of making enough pixels to fill two VR panels, rather than it generates one monitor output and a chip in the VR headset does the work of doubling it to the two panels?

Oi, Pimax!

This old presentation can help understand the basic.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19x9XDjUvkW_9gsfsMQzt3hZbRNziVsoCEHOn4AercAc/edit#slide=id.g5790d2a7c_066

 

[=ILS=_Abu_27]

I have read it carefully, and I think it sounds quite sincere.

[YoYo]

8 hours ago, Husar said:

DCS has helicopters and you fly low and slow then you can see those details for much longer time, same with MSFF24.

Of course. Not just helicopters, but also Combined Arms, which allows for driving, shooting, operating sensors, and even acting as a JTAC (although the entire project was never properly finalized, probably due to popularity). Not only do we have such accuracy, but performance is truly superb at low height and slow speeds. The IL-2 Korea presents a paradox: fewer details, no helicopters yet, and no announcements (the last statement was "no plans for now." Personally, I'd like to see a set of H-5, H-13, and H-19), as well as no Tank Crew (and there was never any confirmation that it would be in Korea). Objects are much less detailed, yet generate a much greater load for the system. It has less meaning without it. Even if you will be flying here reconnaissance on Bird Dog (if it ever comes out for IL-2 Korea).

Edited July 16 by YoYo

[Blitzen]

Any recommendations forMeta Quest 2 for or_width and or_height ?

[YoYo]

5 minutes ago, Blitzen said:

Any recommendations forMeta Quest 2 for or_width and or_height ?

Without touching this, you can simply change the FOV in the Oculus Debug tool. This will also add FPS. For me 0,75 is ok.

Edited July 16 by YoYo

[Redeye]

For all those people who point to DCS as the way to do VR I would like to point out that DCS has struggled with it to for many years. There have been several updates that absolutely tanked VR performance and people were in an uproar about it. So if there is one thing I learned in my DCS experience there is no magic bullet with VR and patience is needed, testing and reporting and things will improve, even if it takes years. 
 

In DCS we are still waiting for the Vulkan implementation and oh boy that is going to deliver a massive performance boost. Well we will see. Maybe? But I am not holding my breath.

[Sparviero]

8 hours ago, =ILS=_Abu_27 said:

I have read it carefully, and I think it sounds quite sincere.

yes, basically there is nothing to do that can significantly improve the experience, just waiting 6090.

14 minutes ago, Redeye said:

For all those people who point to DCS as the way to do VR I would like to point out that DCS has struggled with it to for many years. There have been several updates that absolutely tanked VR performance and people were in an uproar about it. So if there is one thing I learned in my DCS experience there is no magic bullet with VR and patience is needed, testing and reporting and things will improve, even if it takes years. 
 

In DCS we are still waiting for the Vulkan implementation and oh boy that is going to deliver a massive performance boost. Well we will see. Maybe? But I am not holding my breath.

But with the best hardwares DCS runs quite good with great visual. Here... mmm... 

[Galraak]

DCS has been perfectly playable in VR for a long time, regardless of the HMD or config, if it's set well, that's fine.
IL-2 Korea is not ugly, but it is far from the graphics of DCS, and yet, it is very complicated to play in good conditions, even with my 5090...
If the developers think that you simply have to buy a 5090, they are completely wrong, because you simply have to work to optimize the game, and above all, implement the available technologies.
 

[LuftManu]

Hey guys! Seems like there will be some improvements.

This was a comment by Han on Discord:

 

 

Good news here is that while we have repeated all these tests for preparing all these posts we found that there is a room in optimization of couple tiny but very spreaded graphicsl effects and general issue with mass-formation (simple) B29s LODs. So in most complex cases - low-flying over city and heavy combat there will be some significant improvement in performance in the next update.

 

Kind regards!

[Blitzen]

This has probably been ddressed elaewher,in the past 4 pages ,butI am getting approximately half the FPS than in GB. The sim is playable  at this rate but not like GB.I think that this is being worked on at this stage, but I hope it will be fixed by a hotfix the time of the general release.🤗

[YoYo]

5 hours ago, LuftManu said:

Hey guys! Seems like there will be some improvements.

Fingers crossed! ❤️ This is undoubtedly great news. ⚠️

[brickcommander]

49 minutes ago, Blitzen said:

This has probably been ddressed elaewher,in the past 4 pages ,butI am getting approximately half the FPS than in GB. The sim is playable  at this rate but not like GB.I think that this is being worked on at this stage, but I hope it will be fixed by a hotfix the time of the general release.🤗

In most cases it seems that a lot of performance issues in general can be allieviated with certain settings.

 

Indirect lighting and DLAA are huge resource hogs. Don't use them! An easy 10-20 fps each.

 

VR preset is the worst performaning preset in VR. Don't know why. Balanced looks better and performs several frames better.

 

Everyone gets fps ddops over cities. It os more than it shoild be, but there is the same issue in GB.

 

Optimizing my settings, overal medium in Korea perfoms like Max sertings in GB for me, but looks way better. 

 

And there is room for even more settings with future hardware, which is great. This engine isnt going anywhere for the next decade.

 

What is your setup? Headset? GPU? Maybe we can help you get things running smoothly.

Edited July 17 by brickcommander

[Blitzen]

14 minutes ago, brickcommander said:

In most cases it seems that a lot of performance issues in general can be allieviated with certain settings.

 

Indirect lighting and DLAA are huge resource hogs. Don't use them! An easy 10-20 fps each.

 

VR preset is the worst performaning preset in VR. Don't know why. Balanced looks better and performs several frames better.

 

Everyone gets fps ddops over cities. It os more than it shoild be, but there is the same issue in GB.

 

Optimizing my settings, overal medium in Korea perfoms like Max sertings in GB for me, but looks way better. 

 

And there is room for even more settings with future hardware, which is great. This engine isnt going anywhere for the next decade.

 

What is your setup? Headset? GPU? Maybe we can help you get things running smoothly.

Some I had done already and others I will switch back as per your comments-thanks!

[LukeFF]

13 hours ago, Galraak said:

If the developers think that you simply have to buy a 5090, they are completely wrong, because you simply have to work to optimize the game, and above all, implement the available technologies.

We have never said a thing and would never think of saying such a thing. 🙂 As has been noted elsewhere here (and in the blog entry itself), improvements will continue to be tested and implemented.

[Dash,Polder]

Not every case will every one of these statements be true, I picked up a surprising boost once I had my final test profile done and for giggles tried indirect lighting.  But agree the VR preset is the absolute worst performer with everything off or minimum except mirrors to the max, I keep them on cause no way I'm flying without them, than bench marking each profile.  On my system balanced was slightly worse than ultra, but not by much.  The only chance of 90 FPS is low on my PC Super 57ppd. 

Some things make absolutely no sense, I can scream at rooftop level in downtown Seoul at 90 FPS, but the exact same visible scenery with everything still turned off and looking exactly the same crawls to a slide show in the next higher setting.  Yeah right, something is not jiving.  

[Redeye]

On 7/16/2026 at 9:08 PM, Sparviero said:

yes, basically there is nothing to do that can significantly improve the experience, just waiting 6090.

But with the best hardwares DCS runs quite good with great visual. Here... mmm... 

Yes it does now but it didn’t always. Maybe a year or two ago, can’t exactly remember, I uninstalled it completely because it was unplayable in VR and I am perfectly fine with 40 fps. Didn’t get higher than 25 or 30 fps for me. And that wasn’t the first time DCS tanked in VR. Bottom line, it is unfair to compare DCS performance now with a not even officially released game. Does it need improvement yes and these dev’s have proven themselves to fix issues and have always provided a far more stable gaming experience then DCS ever did. So report issues and wait and see.

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Redeye said:

it is unfair to compare DCS performance now with a not even officially released game

Of course, this is justified, and I'd even go so far as to say that it's necessary. This is precisely why the title is still in WiP and Early Access, to report on such things, so that developers know the direction they should take and what players are looking for. That's what beta testing and EA are for. None of us are saying, after all, that this is the end of the development of IL-2 Korea and we have the final product, and as you can see, the feedback may have helped the developers diagnose some elements that they can perhaps improve further. Remember that DCS is also still in development, and there were patches that broke some things. The same with the IL-2 GB. Feedback and comparison are absolutely necessary to make it an even better product in the future.

[=ILS=_Abu_27]

On 2026/7/17 at AM3点08分, Sparviero said:

是的，基本上没有什么能显著提升体验的，只能等6090。

但用最好的硬件，DCS运行相当流畅，画面也很棒。给你......嗯......

或许还有很多不足不满意，但是实际上我现在的游戏设置下已经是可以达到几乎稳定90帧，且画面不差的多人对战状态，我觉得他的优化也就比gb稍微差一点，是足以达到了我可以忍受并等待他们进步的程度的。 vr玩家需要自己一点点的测试找到那个帧数画质的甜蜜点。5090现在是刚好可用的.

Perhaps there are still many shortcomings and areas of dissatisfaction, but in fact, under my current game settings, I can achieve a stable frame rate of almost 90 frames per second in multiplayer battles with decent graphics. I think its optimization is only slightly worse than that of GB, which is sufficient for me to tolerate and wait for their progress. VR players need to test a bit themselves to find the sweet spot of frame rate and image quality. The 5090 is just right for use now
 

[=ILS=_Abu_27]

On 2026/7/17 at AM2点54分, Redeye said:

对于那些指出DCS是VR方式的人，我想指出DCS多年来一直在为此挣扎。有几次更新严重导致VR性能大幅下降，大家对此哗然不已。所以，如果说我在DCS的经历中学到的一点是，VR没有灵丹妙药，需要耐心、测试和报告，情况会有所改善，即使需要多年时间。
 

在DCS中，我们还在等待Vulkan的实现，哇，这将带来巨大的性能提升。我们拭目以待。也许吧？但我并不抱太大希望。

是的，而且dcs其实每个不同工作组的模组表现的效果水平并不一致，就我个人来说，我几乎没有正常运行成功过dcs，有的时候游戏界面不正常，有的时候是帧数超低，最近的一次是居然所有的飞机都没有材质。而且就算少数的成功运行期间，在某些飞机某些地图上总是有一种帧数上不体现，但是肉眼可见的一卡一卡的卡顿，更别提dcs的游戏模式决定了它只是个漂亮数字模型搜藏器，它与我们这些好战的实战风格玩家所要求的游戏内容区别甚大。所以，真的是每个人的看法不同，我接受朝鲜，并且在我听到确切的dcs更换整个引擎之前都不再会碰它，他就是一座屎山代码。

Yes, and the performance levels of different mod groups in DCS are actually inconsistent. Personally, I have rarely successfully run DCS, sometimes the game interface is abnormal, sometimes the frame rate is extremely low, and the most recent issue was that all aircraft had no textures. And even during the rare successful runs, there is always a visible stuttering on certain aircraft and maps that is not reflected in the frame rate, not to mention that the game mode of DCS determines that it is just a beautiful digital model collection, which is very different from the game content required by us war-like, real-life style players. Therefore, everyone has different opinions. I accept North Korea and will not touch it again until I hear that DCS has completely replaced its entire engine. It is just a pile of sh*t montain code.

[Dash,Polder]

Well, what I have to say is it doesn't meet it's own specs to run on the hardware they have published, listed, and specified.  You can't go live until you can meet those specs.  It'd be a unmitigated disaster, because I'll want my money back too, and I'm pretty sure I won't be alone.  Great game, I'm hoping for the best, what I can access I'm liking, but it's still not fully accessible nor functional and my hardware meets or exceeds the maximum published specifications.  

[Kust]

When flying over cities with the cockpit view, the frame rate drops significantly. When switching to the external view, the frame rate is normal.

[Kust]

16.07.2026 в 21:09, Blitzen сказал:

Есть ли какие-нибудь рекомендации по параметрам or_width и or_height для Meta Quest 2?

 

[Picchio]

44 minutes ago, Kust said:

 

This person is running a Quest 3 at 64% resolution.

So... CRISP, yeah?