DCS APACHE is back in the air with IMPROVEMENTS!!!

[@inVINSONable1]

Retired last year from the same place for the same reasons. Congrats!

[@alexsachse]

Looks like I'm a year late and a dollar short but hope you got your VR issues worked out. I use - and it's absolutely a reco - a 7800X3d / 64 GB DDR5 / 4090 with a Pimax Crystal and the visuals in the Apache are amazing with HIgh / Ultra settings in DCS (DLAA on, DLSS off). VR with this headset (and the appropriate horsepower in your rig) is on a whole different level. If not the Crystal, I agree with another viewer who recommended the HP Reverb G2 which I also have. Couple that with Open XR rather than steam and you're good to go... Anyway, your vids really helped set myself on the right track learning to fly this machine in DCS. Especially your video about hovering, curve setting, and not using trim when going into a hover proved to be invaluable. Thanks very much for posting these vids. They are helping people even after a year or more...

[@StrongHarm]

"I know... I just overtorqued the shit out of it..." ROFL! Great vid, thankyasir.

[@TheStrategos]

That's a great spec. Can run anything you want that's not horrifically unoptimized

[@giovannigiorgio3211]

Thanks for the vids. Learning the 64 for a first Helo in DCS has been more than a handful I must say.

[@ladyruff4333]

I have been using a Valve Index for DCS world and it works wonderfully

[@havoc1861]

Good to see you back! Preemptive congrats on your soon retirement. Gotta be an entirely different feeling flying in 2D, but we appreciate it! I always find myself learning/picking up on new things in your videos.

[@dudehuh5491]

Thank You for Your service Sir

[@Vortex31415]

Congratulations on retirement! No need for an apology. FWIW, recommend you consider the Reverb G2 as an upgrade over the Quest 2. I get really good performance with the G2 and OpenXR in the Apache.

[@thomash.537]

Same here. The HP reverb G2 works like a charm in DCS

[@schoolio64D]

I ordered a Reverb during their 4th of July sale! It arrives tomorrow; can’t wait to check it out!

[@NMFF415]

Great Vid. I believe you said you were retiring soon-all the best and thanks for serving our country. I used to be an Air Force Aircraft firefighter..in Iraq you guys were always very cool about letting us learn shutdown and egress procedures on the 64. Cheers!

[@relfch9296]

3D(VR) good for the man(Schoolio), But 2D(OpenTrack/TrackIR) good for the men(Viewers)! IMHO =) Love your vid's so keep it up

[@alanharrington]

I have a Reverb G2 and a Quest 2 and find the Quest 2 currently much better than the Reverb for DCS (it wasn't always that way) but I'm not recording video. Video recording for viewership is definitely better with 2D and Track IR but I certainly couldn't go back to 2D for personal pleasure. Great to see you back, always appreciate your videos, keep up the good work. Hope they find better solutions for video in VR...

[@schoolio64D]

I got the new G2 and it’s much better for me than the Q2. Hopefully the recordings will look better too. Thanks for watching!

[@baaamakingbaaaa]

I fly this mission almost every night and am getting a little bored with it- yet I watched this whole video lol. It's time we see about adding a FARP to the north where we can grab some gas and boom boom without having to fly back to Nelis.

[@schoolio64D]

Yeah North Vegas is a bit too far. Maybe if we could enable CTLD and drop a FOB somewhere to the north?

[@FuzzyKedama]

Good to have you back. Grats on the retirement. Nevada map... I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@gregpruitt1647]

For VR, you must go with an HP Reverb 2 with Open XR. I have the same machine specs as you mentioned, and DCS looks amazing with the HP Reverb2.

[@schoolio64D]

That's what I have now and it's great!

[@bobt223]

I saw you stopped by the VR4DCS Discord Quest 2 Channel. Hope you get it sorted out! Most of us have managed to get to a pretty good place with Quest2/DCS. The Apache is, unfortunately one of the toughest modules to get good performance with, but I have gotten to a pretty good place with it. VR is such a different experience! For sure recording is a bigger pain. Thankfully I don't have to worry about that aspect! I think I saw some tips on this recently, but I am sure it will never be the quality of 2d recording :(

[@schoolio64D]

Hi! Yeah, I've spent a lot of time looking around in there and trying the various solutions. The only one I haven't done is the downscaled cockpit textures for the Apache, as I just don't want to do that yet. It may be where I end up. I flew a mission in the Huey a few nights ago with the settings cranked up and was still pulling 45fps, so it's definitely an Apache issue, but I'm also having the white bar issue, which is a Link software issue. I really hope that Meta addresses that sometime soon, but I won't hold my breath.

[@bobt223]

@@schoolio64D UGH... the WHITE BAR... I get that occasionally, usually after 30 min or so of flight, but it doesn't happen all the time. Have you tried VRPerfKit? That and setting textures to Medium got me decent performance in the Apache. 40 fps @80 Hz with 1.4 SuperSampling, ASW AUTO or 45, Quest Res maxed (1.4x on slider @80 Hz). I took a hit when the Quest 2 updated to 41 version, but now that seems to have returned to "normal". At one point I got up to 90 Hz/45 fps but had to back off on resolution and opted for the higher res and slightly lower FPS. Similar (slightly worse) specs as you: i7-10700K, 32 GB RAM, RTX3070

[@schoolio64D]

@@bobt223 I've tried vvrperfkit in the past and didn't notice any appreciable increase in performance or quality, but I honestly didn't play with it enough to figure it out. Maybe I'll give that a shot again. Thanks!

[@teggy689]

Man I feel your pain on the DCS VR situation, I'm running a computer with almost identical specs but a Valve index and its a bit of a rock show... I have to run pretty low settings for my graphics just so I can keep my MSAA at 4x and view distance high. I usually get around 45 fps per eye but there are times when it laggs out for a while and it drops to a sickening 10 fps, if I'm lucky it settles and comes back to 45 or I'll have to restart my VR headset. I've noticed as well that the Apache MFDs really seem to suck the fps out of the system so I find I get much smoother performance with the older cold war era helicopters. Fly the Huey or the Hind and it's an immediate difference. I really don't think we will see any improvements to DCS VR until they sort out multi threading and the Vulcan stuff, but you know (insert two week joke here). It sucks though, I hate flying 2D after spending so much time in VR, it just isn't the same. I'm already saving cash for a Pimax 12K, maybe.

[@schoolio64D]

Hopefully you've had the chance to try MT. It's a game changer and has made things so much better.

[@teggy689]

@@schoolio64D man I still haven't figured out why but mine gets worse on MT. I don't know if it is the steamVR part or something else within, but without I can keep around 45 fps in single player but with MT I instantly drop to 30 fps and have heaps of reprojection issues

[@Josiah_Trelawny1]

its like Bob Ross playing DCS. i hope there are more videos coming. A question do you trim in Apache while you fly, or do you trim on the start and dont touch it again?

[@schoolio64D]

I hope to get back in to making videos once I get done with airline training. I definitely trim while flying to make it easier to control. When I do, I usually leave my control position indicator up [CTRL+ENTER] to see exactly how I'm trimmed, and then manually zero it out when I need to do so. Thanks for watching!

[@shietnewfeature.delethethis]

you should hop in with ralfidude and teach him how to fly this bad boy

[@StrongHarm]

Take a look at the Pimax. It looks better than my high end monitor, I get 60-120fps in the Apache, and it has a huge FOV. I wouldn't use a Rift or Reverb again if someone gave me one. Growling Sidewinder did a good vid on the Pimax under "I Bought The Pimax 8KX".

[@schoolio64D]

I wish I could! Maybe once I get to second or third year airline pay 😂

[@StrongHarm]

@@schoolio64D I hear you. Transitioning out was really difficult for me. I found good work eventually and everything worked out... but I still can't stand being around civis 25yrs later... which is a challenge. When the 12k comes out, watch for people selling the used 8kx cheap. I find it hard to believe that the 12k could be much better than the 8kx, but they're saying it's significant. 8kx is solid though. I could use it for many years and stay happy.

[@StrongHarm]

@@schoolio64D By the way, if you do get a Pimax, take a look at my reply on ED under "Pimax VR FPS issues (help needed)" to get started with config. It will save a lot of time.

[@svix123]

This is kind of strange question, but just how important is it to centre the trim ball? I understand that coordinated flight is great for reducing drag and such but in anything other than forward flight or gentle banks I find it basically impossible to keep it centred and should I even be trying? For example when doing aggressive manoeuvres like sharp turns is coordinated flight thrown out the window and pedal usage is all about getting the aircraft where you want it within physical limits in a short time possible? Again sorry for the weird probably overthinking question I knew absolutely nothing about aviation at all until I decided to get into DCS earlier this year and have heard people harping on about 'stepping on the ball' and that coordinating turns is important and find the whole thing confusing and everybody online in what discussion I can find does not seem definitive. Thank you for the videos btw, learning the apache has been quite challenging after smooth stable riding in the KA-50.

[@schoolio64D]

Flying out of trim definitely creates more drag and degraded aircraft performance. How important is it? In DCS, unless you’re doing a deep strike with long legs, probably not an issue. I would say that if you’re trying to get better at flying it, keep working on flying with the aircraft in trim. Generally, in forward flight, you’ll need a little left pedal. From there, anytime you turn you’ll need pedal in the direction of the turn, then return it back to the base position (slight left pedal) when you roll out and fly forward. Hope that helps.

[@svix123]

@@schoolio64D I was trying to keep the ball centred in aggressive manoeuvring yo-yoing the pedals creating an absolute shit show, just my lack of understanding. I also wanted to thank you for your CPG seat guide, a friend of mine who has zero interest in DCS was suddenly intrigued that he could use his controller to gun for me :) Take it easy man!

[@FatherCommodore]

Always nice vids, what means lobbing?

[@schoolio64D]

In tennis, a lob shot is where the player hits a high, arcing, almost lazy shot just to get the ball back over the net. So, kinda like that.

[@FatherCommodore]

@@schoolio64D love that, doing with ground jtac, high traj, bye

[@derrickmiddleton6046]

Hey great video, is it realistic to take off from the ramp like that?

[@schoolio64D]

Thanks! It’s definitely realistic to take off from a ramp, but probably not the way I did it there. I would imagine Nellis controllers would get pretty upset if you did it that way. 😂

[@bryce.hooops]

Do you know what that little compass thing is in the bottom left hand corner of the cpg seat and how to erase it?

[@schoolio64D]

Are you talking about the George AI interface?

[@bleeckertb]

wb School, no need to apologize RL before games, noticed lately my Rift S performance isn't as good as it used to be. could use some instruction on single engine i'm still struggling with consistent landings in tight (non airfield) bases

[@schoolio64D]

Thanks! Yeah, single engine is going to be hard - you really need some sort of strip as you're going to need to make a rolling landing. One engine won't have enough power to come to a hover or get below ETL to land. I'll see if I can put together a short video with some single engine rolling landings.

[@stovic1442]

Is it common IRL to just take a full load of hellfires? I've gotten into the habit of not bothering with rockets at all. Great vid.

[@schoolio64D]

No, not really. In order to take more hellfires, you're taking less fuel, and that's a trade-off that most missions don't allow for. In DCS however, it's perfectly fine.

[@FamosoFrosty]

what server is this?

[@schoolio64D]

This is on one of the Wolf Pack US servers. There are two running Red Dawn.

[@ComdrStew]

Quest 2 is not a good headset. I had it for three days and returned it, because it was so bad. Of course I had the Reverb G2 already, so I think it spoiled me. The Reverb G2 is on sale right now for $399 with a three year warranty. Your computer specs are perfect for a G2. I am only using a Asus Rog Strix 1080 and get around 30-40 FPS. There is a way to set the resolution to record at 4k in VR, even if you have a 1080 monitor. Sorry for the link, but Jabbers has a video on how to do it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6qugGuni9t0e68

[@schoolio64D]

I'll have to look in to that. My wife might kill me if I have two VR headsets, so if I suddenly stop making more videos with no explanation....lol

[@ComdrStew]

@@schoolio64D Yeah, but that is why you get the G2, to make more videos, lol. You will be amazed by the clarity of the G2. It is the closed thing you can get to monitor quality, for the price. With the G2 and set it up to record at 4k, I think you will be making more videos.