First build for DCS and VR

Iad Alazzhr · 28 Mar 2020 at 23:21

Hi guys , this will be my first build and I've not owned a desktop in over a decade! Laptop yes but even that's about ten years old now haha

So, I mainly want to get a desktop for DCS (digital combat simulator) and will look to buy an oculus rift s if I can find one... I had a quote from an online company but their prices were to high and close to 2k without a monitor.

So after hours of reading and hours of YouTube I came up with my thoughts for a first mid level build, any suggestions would be welcome!

Toshiba P300 2TB 3.5'' SATA High-Performance Hard Drive £56

ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 Gaming Solid State Drive (SSD) - 512GB £71

CORSAIR Carbide Series SPEC-DELTA RGB Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case £60

Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600w Power Supply £91

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C16 Memory Kit - Black £129

MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AMD AM4 Motherboard £104

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X AM4 CPU/ Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler £200

PNY GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB XLR8 Gaming OC Graphics Card £500

Total price £1219.00

CuriousTomCat · 28 Mar 2020 at 23:27

What's your budget? What monitor do you have?

(That company you mentioned are a competitor so it would be best if you edit your post and remove it.)

Iad Alazzhr · 28 Mar 2020 at 23:42

I don't own a monitor yet, I'll look to get one or use my TV via hdmi? As hopefully I'll only use dcs with VR...

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 02:08

Thinking of the i5 9600k, rtx 2070 super, 32gb ram 3200, 2tb hdd, 512 ssd, 750w power supply, cooler master fan, case etc. Roughly £1300

Skiprat · 30 Mar 2020 at 07:02

Iad, I have just got an HP reverb with use with DCS. My 2070s is struggling to keep up, in all honesty I think you need a 2080ti. I’ve reduced all my setting etc but it doesn’t looks anywhere near as good as a flat screen. CPU is a 9700k. Have you factored in a HOTAS, you will need one!

Don’t get me wrong VR is immersive! I’m still trying to get over motion sickness.

hth

sweols · 30 Mar 2020 at 08:12

Hi,

I've just built a rig specifically for DCS although I dont play VR, I do play at 1440p and at high settings on open beta. Open beta isn't ( stable ) yet.

My game runs flawlessly, really immersive experience and strongly recommend it. Instead of using VR, have a quick look at DelanClip(s, they are manufactured in the UK, so continued supply through this epidemic

My system

3700x
2070S
32gb Ram

Ram utilisation is generally 16gb with game and background programs such as discord and SRS, I strongly recommend no less than 32gb of ram.

Regards

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 08:24

Skiprat said:
Iad, I have just got an HP reverb with use with DCS. My 2070s is struggling to keep up, in all honesty I think you need a 2080ti. I’ve reduced all my setting etc but it doesn’t looks anywhere near as good as a flat screen. CPU is a 9700k. Have you factored in a HOTAS, you will need one!

Don’t get me wrong VR is immersive! I’m still trying to get over motion sickness.

hth

Hey thanks for the reply , just wondered what specs your build is if it's struggling with a 2070s?

Also the reverb must need a ton of power to use

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 08:34

sweols said:
Hi,

I've just built a rig specifically for DCS although I dont play VR, I do play at 1440p and at high settings on open beta. Open beta isn't ( stable ) yet.

My game runs flawlessly, really immersive experience and strongly recommend it. Instead of using VR, have a quick look at DelanClip(s, they are manufactured in the UK, so continued supply through this epidemic

My system

3700x
2070S
32gb Ram

Ram utilisation is generally 16gb with game and background programs such as discord and SRS, I strongly recommend no less than 32gb of ram.

Regards

Well I am looking at the 2070s I don't know if there are any better cards for that price point. The i5 9600k again for the price and performance I think it's between that and a 3700x, 32 gb of ram is what I've read from the start, even though at the moment I won't be looking at multi I will be in vr. 512gb ssd, a 2tb hard drive and an Asus mobo...

sweols · 30 Mar 2020 at 08:40

Iad Alazzhr said:
Yeah exactly the base setup I was going for if you look at

https://uk.************.com/list/9CYyQq

Cant see link. However, I'd strongly suggest a 3700x oppose to 3600. 2080 and ti are really overpriced.. I'd settle with delan ( 50 quid ) and 2070S... Make sure you get a 1440p screen though!

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 09:56

Yeah, I was only choosing between the r5 3700x and the i5 9600k....

Not sure what delan is....

And yep the 2070s... But then there are so many variants.. Msi, gigabyte et ...

The monitor I'm not sure yet, it might have to come a couple months after, I'll start by hooking it up to my 47" TV (lag and refresh rate I know)

Uther · 30 Mar 2020 at 11:10

Unfortunately for VR in DCS you're going to need a very powerful computer. A lot of people are running overclocked 9900k's with 32gb fast ram and 2080Ti's which means silly amounts of money.
A delan clip is a much less costly alternative, basically cheap head tracking.

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 11:19

Ah it's head tracking, gotcha! Haha

Skiprat · 30 Mar 2020 at 18:57

Iad Alazzhr said:
Hey thanks for the reply , just wondered what specs your build is if it's struggling with a 2070s?

Also the reverb must need a ton of power to use

i7 9700k oc to 4.9
32gb ram
Nvme drives
2070s (ASUS evo oc)
Noctua d15
Fractal design r6
TMWH HOTAS

also have trackeIR ( expensive but great, definitely try a Declan clip). I think for DCS I’ll be going back to trackIR. The 2070s can run DCS very nicely but just can’t cut it for VR in my opinion.

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 23:34

i'm trying to look into the issues you were saying, a couple of things i read were the reverb requires a minimum i7 (so maybe an i9) people reccomended the shader pack to improve vr performance ... the steam optimisation page, the nvidia graphics options, running at 90hz max , theres so many variables ... the main one seeming to be that dcs isnt optimised very well .... yet performance is meant to be 50 percent better now on 2.5.6 ?

Iad Alazzhr · 30 Mar 2020 at 23:40

and lukas s. /wolta video on youtube DCS vr optimisation 2.5.6 if you've seen that?

Skiprat · 31 Mar 2020 at 07:05

Iad Alazzhr said:
i'm trying to look into the issues you were saying, a couple of things i read were the reverb requires a minimum i7 (so maybe an i9) people reccomended the shader pack to improve vr performance ... the steam optimisation page, the nvidia graphics options, running at 90hz max , theres so many variables ... the main one seeming to be that dcs isnt optimised very well .... yet performance is meant to be 50 percent better now on 2.5.6 ?

I’m not CPU bound the GPU is the bottle neck. I’ve not tried the shader pack but doubt it would improve significantly. I’ve followed the following which is good https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/10/reverb-settings-for-dcs/

sweols · 31 Mar 2020 at 07:57

2.5.6 is unstable ( open beta ), although 90% of pilots use it.

If you really want a VR experience, I'd wait until prices come down and new 3xxx GPUs

Iad Alazzhr · 31 Mar 2020 at 10:27

prices have gone up again on parts the last couple weeks it seems ... could've got a 2080 super for 630 at the start of march ...now they're pushing over 680

Iad Alazzhr · 31 Mar 2020 at 13:25

Skiprat said:
I’m not CPU bound the GPU is the bottle neck. I’ve not tried the shader pack but doubt it would improve significantly. I’ve followed the following which is good https://vr4dcs.com/2019/09/10/reverb-settings-for-dcs/

Give this a go when you get time ..

Textures & Terrain Textures: High
Civ Traffic: Off
Water: Medium
Visib Range: Extreme
Heat Blur: Off
Shadows: Low
Res of Cockpit Displays: 1024
MSAA: 4x
Depth of field: Off
Lens Effects: None
Motion Blur, SSAA, SSLR: off
Clutter/Grass: 0
Trees Visibility: 100%
Preload Radius: Max
Aniso: 16x
Terrain Object Shadows: Flat
Cockpit Global Illumination: Off
Raindrops: On

SteamVR

Refresh Rate: 80
Motion Smoothing: On
Resolution: Custom, 150%
Advanced Supersample Filtering: On

Running Kegetys' VR Shaders 4.5.6.43503 stripped to be MP / IC Compliant. I've also pulled these three NVG items out of "bazar\shaders\deferred\_HMD.hlsl" because it felt like cheating:

//#define NVG_GAIN_ADJUSTS_POSITION 0
//#define NVG_NOISE_STR 0.075
//#define NVG_HOTPIXEL_THRESHOLD 0.99982

You can delete those lines or comment them out with // at the beginning of the line.

*Edit: I also deleted TacView but this alone didn't change anything so I'll probably try adding it back as I like having it.

-

i've got too much time on my hands i think ! lol

Iad Alazzhr · 2 Apr 2020 at 22:47

latest revision, for DCS and VR

I5 9600k 216
EVGA 2080 super XC ultra gaming 781
MSI mpg Z390m Gaming Edge mATX 158
Alphacool Eisbaer L240 Liquid cooler 85
Corsair Vengeance 2 x 16 gb ram 145
Crucial p1 500gb m.2 70
[possible second drive]
Corsair 650w Gold psu semi mod 70
Corsair iCUE 220TRGB Airflow mid 80

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