A lot of things on the go this week for DCS World following the release of DCS World 2.8. This release has brought with it some new features, enhanced visuals, and its share of bugs and issues which has prompted Eagle Dynamics to do a hotfix to solve some of them. There’s additional chatter about VR performance, lighting, and the extension of the Halloween sale. Oh and Baltic Dragon has a nice little update about the F-15E too!

Hotfix implemented

First up, DCS World open beta is now up to version DCS 2.8.0.32235.1. This is essentially a hotfix to solve a few problems that have been identified and solved in the immediate aftermath of the DCS World 2.8 open beta release.

Some of the items that were solved include some weird shadows overlapping objects which I never saw but some users reported. There’s a bunch of crashes and other bugs solved.

Check out the complete changelog here.

DCS World 2.8 performance, VR, and other comments

As part of the update, Eagle Dynamics did have some commentary regarding DCS World 2.8 which special mention of VR. As many have noted, VR users seem to be seeing a 20% decrease in frame rates versus the prior patch. Eagle Dynamics is reporting that they are investigating the issue.

Because the 2.8 update introduced moving clouds that require additional calculations some of you may have noticed a change in your VR performance. We are investigating this and will strive to address this as soon as possible. 

Hopefully this issue will be sorted out soon.

Also mentioned are the new lighting systems for the DCS: Persian Gulf map which has been used a few times to test lighting across the rest of the sim. Light sources such as flood lights are now casting light and shadows on objects in their sphere of influence – something that wasn’t previously done in DCS. Now they do and apparently the initial tests are good so we’ll be liable to see this spread out to other areas of the sim over time.

Halloween sale extended

Eagle Dynamics has extended their Halloween Sale until the 7th of November at 23:59 GMT on both Steam and on the DCS World eShop.

Interactive F-15E Manual

Baltic Dragon, having already announced involvement in creating a manual for the DCS: F-15E project has further elaborated that the new manual will be more interactive with the ability to click on an area of the cockpit and be taken to the section about it. Nice!

The upcoming F-15E manual will be fully interactive. You’ll be able to click on any of the panels and you’ll be immediately taken to its description, and then you can get back to where you were with one click. #F15E #DCS @RAZBAM pic.twitter.com/3LF9L7gJkW

— Baltic Dragon (@BalticDragonDCS) November 3, 2022

People have also been asking about the Harrier manual which has been a work in progress for quite some time. Baltic Dragon did reply to that question with a bit of news that there is an overhaul coming to the Harrier and that the manual is waiting for that. This may explain why we’ve seen a bit of a pause in this area.

not full, but covering all the major things that will be included in Early Access. Harrier is going to go through overhaul soon, so I put the manual on hold until that is done.

— Baltic Dragon (@BalticDragonDCS) November 3, 2022

So there you have it. Be sure to check out the latest DCS World Weekend and keep an eye on DCS news over the next little while because I think we’re liable to see some things heating up with the F-15 and with follow on updates for 2.8 over the next few months.