VR tips and tricks - Improving your VR experience! -Updated 9th/Dec/2020

[coconut]

 

 

Setting the resolution in game settings to a low setting like 1024x768 or even less may significantly improve your performance in VR

 

The problem is that the mouse cursor won't reach all parts of the screen if one chooses a small resolution. The smallest that still worked for me was 1280x1024.

[SYN_Skydance]

Re-center VR headset with number pad key "5"

Edited April 14, 2017 by SYN_Skydance

[peregrine7]

My settings are "everything off" except sharpen. And game quality on LOW. But I use the terrain file to hijack the settings and have 10 LODs at 4096. Grass is at 0. Nicer terrain and good frame rates. Screen resolution for game is 1280×720 on the monitor.

 

 

Could you expand on that? Where is the terrain file. I'd like to add custom graphics to the original post.  Found a good post on it (adding to OP)

 

 

I'll add 3rd party apps to the original post (OTT) and startup.cfg tips.

Edited April 15, 2017 by peregrine7

[hankstr]

My settings are "everything off" except sharpen. And game quality on LOW. But I use the terrain file to hijack the settings and have 10 LODs at 4096. Grass is at 0. Nicer terrain and good frame rates. Screen resolution for game is 1280×720 on the monitor.

 

I changed my settings to be similar and it works great.  Editing the terrain file makes a massive difference in realism.  Thanks for the tip.

[-IRRE-Wibration]

But I use the terrain file to hijack the settings and have 10 LODs at 4096.

 

How do you do that? Have you a tutorial or a link which explain how to do that? Thanks.

 

For Vive user you can use this program (need Java) to change supersampling for each game without editing manually your steamvr file : 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/51jnky/steam_enhanced_vr_launcher_per_app_supersampling/

 

Presentation : http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/apps-software/jon-martindale/steam-enhanced-vr-launcher-opens-up-per-app-supersampling/

Edited April 15, 2017 by -IRRE-Wibration

[Urra]

How do you do that? Have you a tutorial or a link which explain how to do that? Thanks.

 

For Vive user you can use this program (need Java) to change supersampling for each game without editing manually your steamvr file :

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/51jnky/steam_enhanced_vr_launcher_per_app_supersampling/

 

Presentation : http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/apps-software/jon-martindale/steam-enhanced-vr-launcher-opens-up-per-app-supersampling/

I'll post something this afternoon.

[Wolf8312]

My settings are "everything off" except sharpen. And game quality on LOW. But I use the terrain file to hijack the settings and have 10 LODs at 4096. Grass is at 0. Nicer terrain and good frame rates. Screen resolution for game is 1280×720 on the monitor.

 

So do you mean you set SS to high and everything else off?

 

Myself I am on 800x600 everything off except 2x AA which is quite hard to let go (though I know it would be best) SS set to 6 and graphics on balanced at the moment. It looks great and seems to perform great but then it hasnt exactly been taxed yet. On full AA I was getting very occasional steam VR background flashes. The only thing about VR is I spend more time tweaking with the settings than actually playing, I'm not a graphics whore but I do find to many jaggies very hard to put up with in VR.

[Slugga]

My ultilisation is terrible for my GPU when using my Rift.. Only getting maybe 55-65% max.. Cpu is putting along at 20% but its dipping below 90 and going to 45 on ATW.. 

 

strange.. going to compare to my VIVE

[Beazil]

Anyone able to consistently get 90 plus framerates? I can't seem to pass 89. In VR that is.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Beazil

[dburne]

Anyone able to consistently get 90 plus framerates? I can't seem to pass 89. In VR that is.

 

I get 90 fps fairly regularly in my Rift. Don't know that I see 89 fps much at all.

During heavy combat with a few planes  ASW ( 45 fps) will kick in at times .

Edited April 15, 2017 by dburne

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

Anyone able to consistently get 90 plus framerates? I can't seem to pass 89. In VR that is.

I can't. On a AMD 8320 3.5ghz with a R480 and 16 g ram I can get a steady 55 to 60 on the ground on balanced setting with distance at 3 and grass off and using the Vive advanced settings for SS at 1.3 

https://github.com/matzman666/OpenVR-AdvancedSettings/releases

[Beazil]

I'm wondering if the render is locked at 45+ as opposed to 90+. I'm wondering what kind of settings or system would be required for such a result.

 

I'm running a 2600k at stock speed, with 32 gigs ram and a 1070. Game settings at ultra, no ssao, no hdr, no a a, renders set to default in advanced steam settings, and playing with settings seems to not have much effect beyond that. I can go low detail but framerates rain pretty consistent. Biggest pusher of frames is shutting off the hud. Ground at 3x.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Beazil

[Wolferl_1791]

Anyone able to consistently get 90 plus framerates? I can't seem to pass 89. In VR that is.

 

Vive user? That's actually 90. No idea why the game shows 89. If you download the Advanced Settings tool for SteamVR you can check how many frames are reprojected. Basically, any frameratate below 90 (89) will have 100% reprojection. However, as long as Async reprojection is turned on, you should not have any issues. There will be a slight blur from time to time, but nothing game breaking, unless you hit the low 40s-50s. 

 

Other than that, the biggest hit on fps seems to come from the clouds. With clear skies you might get a constant 90, but once you put clouds, you might drop a ton of frames.

 

Sharpen also has a bigger hit on performance, with clouds on. But Sharpen is almost mandatory if you use small SS. The good news is that up to SS1.5 it improves clarity A TON. Even at SS1.0 , the game is quite playable. 

 

My settings are:

-ssao off (not sure it does anything anyway)

-hdr off (I don't like it anyway)

- Gamma 1.1 to compensate darkness

- aa off

- distant grass off

- sharpen ON

- dynamic resolution off (1.0)

- High quality (did't really notice much improvement on Balanced, not sure what it changes). I might tweak the ini file later for better ground, but it's not bad anyway.

- SS at 1.5

- resolution 640x480, full screen. I need to press Enter key to log on online, or Tab then Enter to log in offline at the first screen. After that everything works fine. 

 

Tested on cloudy night, above Stalingrad with many artilerry, AAA, fires all around. Dogfight 1 vs 1 into clouds, smoke, near ground. Framerate was usually above 70, sometimes above 85. Anyway, it felt fine, no hickups, no lag, no blur. 

 

Oh, and although HUD has an effect on fps when not in VR mode, in VR mode it doesn't seem to affect framerate at all. No idea why.

Edited April 15, 2017 by karamazovnew

[Wolf8312]

My settings are "everything off" except sharpen. And game quality on LOW. But I use the terrain file to hijack the settings and have 10 LODs at 4096. Grass is at 0. Nicer terrain and good frame rates. Screen resolution for game is 1280×720 on the monitor.

 

I downloaded and used the terrain cfg and it works great already but if you have managed to make one better performance wise for VR is there any chance you could upload the cfg file or be a little more clear on exactly how you edited the cfg file now in the OP?

 

Do I just put a 10 behind all 4096 values? Or do I change the 'lod count' to 10? Also the other values like 2048 and 8192 I am not sure how to change? Sorry for being dense you've already done me a huge favor as I am now able to turn everything off put graphics on low and it still looks fine. The FPS is now much more steady though it remains to be seen how it will handle massive action sequences.

 

 

PixelSize=50        //meters

 

LodCount=5

 

 

[setup]

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=2048,8

    texlod=2048,8

    texlod=2048,8

    texlod=2048,8

 

[end]

 

[setup]

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=2048,8

    texlod=2048,8

[end]

 

[setup]

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

    texlod=4096,8

[end]

 

[setup]

    texlod=8192,8

    texlod=4096,8

[Urra]

How do you do that? Have you a tutorial or a link which explain how to do that? Thanks.

 

For Vive user you can use this program (need Java) to change supersampling for each game without editing manually your steamvr file : 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/51jnky/steam_enhanced_vr_launcher_per_app_supersampling/

 

Presentation : http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/apps-software/jon-martindale/steam-enhanced-vr-launcher-opens-up-per-app-supersampling/

This is the Text inside the file below which is in "C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\terrain.cfg"....essentially you get good terrain at any quality level. Each setup section is the next quality level.  The quality is in game also modifies the draw distance you see trees on the ground which do impact performance quite a bit for VR it seems. But using the file text below at least gives you good ground texture. - Side note: the pixel size doesn't make much difference if it is the regular "50" value or the "01", but "01" doesn't hurt either.

 

PixelSize=01  //meters

 

LodCount=10

 

 

[setup]

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

[end]

 

[setup]

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

[end]

 

[setup]

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

[end]

 

[setup]

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

 texlod=4096,8

[end]

 

 

I also changed the grass to value of 000.00000 in the startup.cfg file in "C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\startup.cfg"

You will see these settings near the middle of the file.

 

[KEY = graphics]

 3dhud = 0

 adapter = 0

 bloom_enable = 0

 desktop_center = 1

 detail_rt_res = 1024

 fps_counter = 1

 fps_limit = 0

 full_height = 720

 full_width = 1280

 fullscreen = 1

 gamma = 1.00000

 grass_distance = 000.00000

 hdr_enable = 0

 land_tex_lods = 0

 mgpu_compatible = 0

 multisampling = 0

 or_enable = 1

 or_height = 2064

 or_hud_rad = 1.50000

 or_hud_size = 0.75000

 or_ipd = 0.06385

 or_width = 1744

 post_sharpen = 1

 preset = 0

 rescale_target = 1.00000

 ssao_enable = 0

 vsync = 0

 win_height = 1800

 win_width = 3840

[END]

Edited April 15, 2017 by TunaEatsLion

[Wolf8312]

So are those settings better perfomance wise than the link in the OP? Or will they be more demanding but nicer looking? If the later I'll prob still with what I have at the moment, as I'm finding the perfomance is so much more steady now. You gave me exactly what I needed a way to get rid of AA but without everything looking like a jagged blury mess!

 

Just flew up near stalingrad in a 109, the amount of books I've read about that battle! I could suddenly see for myself where it all took place. Looked cold out there! I mean I flew the winter maps on track IR and never much liked them. But in VR somehow I kind of prefer them to the summer maps! 

 

This VR experience gets better every day, I very recently bought the M2000C and cant for the life of me now think when I'll ever want to fly it! Normandy is going to have to be pretty damned excellent to beat this experience.

[Urra]

The link in OP was preVR and assumed you wanted best graphics so was only worried for the most part about the very bottom section of the terrain file as it was assumed that you ran at Ultra quality setting in game. Hard to compare.

[Wolf8312]

I think I'll stay with what I've got then and wait and see what people say as things develop. Thanks again!

[das_bubba]

SYN_SKydance - Thanks for the info.

[Slugga]

There is something funny going on with VR implementation

 

on both my rift and Vive, i am gtting FPS drops and only 40-60% GPU utilisation and around 20% CPU, how ever it will still dip to 45 and kick in ATW (i have disabled in steam VR and in Oculus tool)
 

it runns well most of the time, just when closer to the ground. I get some jumping or microstutters on the vive.

 

How ever , with only 60% GPu usage i would imagine it can do better

 

Win 10, Gtx 1080, i7 3820

[Intrud3r]

After setting the super sampling to 1.6 the other planes seems to be quite small compared to 1.0 - is the modelenlargement related to the resolution?

[-IRRE-Wibration]

This is the Text inside the file below which is in "C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\terrain.cfg"...

 

Thank you very much! :D

Edited April 16, 2017 by -IRRE-Wibration

[Urra]

Thank you very much! :D

No problem but it is not there by default. It was removed some time ago during development. People have been putting it back manually since then.

[neofightr2]

One things for sure, you must absolutely turn the hud off whenever you can, it dramatically boosts clarity due to less impact on FPS. For me the difference was night and day.

[dburne]

One things for sure, you must absolutely turn the hud off whenever you can, it dramatically boosts clarity due to less impact on FPS. For me the difference was night and day.

 

Agreed, this one is huge for VR.

 

You can still toggle icons on/off without the HUD as needed ( I have assigned to a toggle switch on my throttle).

[The_Ant]

Any one else having problem to get blue ring chaperone and false traking too work,have edited the config file with the codelines on this forum and nothing seems to work.Most interested to get false tracking to stop..

[peregrine7]

Any one else having problem to get blue ring chaperone and false traking too work,have edited the config file with the codelines on this forum and nothing seems to work.Most interested to get false tracking to stop..

 

 

Did you verify it via jsonlint.com? Just copy paste the text in there and hit validate. It'll make sure there haven't been any errors introduced by the copy pasting.

After setting the super sampling to 1.6 the other planes seems to be quite small compared to 1.0 - is the modelenlargement related to the resolution?

 

 

Yes, I believe so. On 1.0 planes are huge and very easy to spot. Going much higher than 1.3 made them near impossible to see. Hence not going to 1.5 (which is about peak visual quality with no AA)

[T_oll]

I can't get rid of that blue chaperone ring. i have tried the tip in the OP, but the config file is reset every time.

 

I have Steam VR beta... Could this be the problem?

 

Edit: Turning off beta updates in Steam VR seems to have fixed the issue. Chaperone ring is gone!

 

For the record; Man, this is one beautiful VR sim..! Just flew around smiling at the clouds, the sunrays poking through them, the reflections in the rivers, the fantastic looking forests... And all in fluid motion.

Edited April 17, 2017 by T_oll

[FlyingWaffle]

The problem is that the mouse cursor won't reach all parts of the screen if one chooses a small resolution. The smallest that still worked for me was 1280x1024.

 

I had the same issue, but it seems to be only a problem for the initial loggin step, i.e. my mouse can't seem to reach the "Enter" button, but if I just pressed enter/return on the keyboard, I get logged in, then I had no problem reaching any part of the screen with my mouse.

[OrLoK]

Can confirm, hitting enter works

[coconut]

Yes, it works for me too now. Not sure if it's a fix, or if I changed something in my config. Might be exclusive_input=1. Without that, the mouse leaves the "flat window" and that causes all sorts of problems with the pointer in the game.

[FlyingWaffle]

I'm new to IL2 BoS, and just got on board with this new VR feature.

I played for a few hours last week and this weekend, a few comments/questions:

- is there a way to display the framerate in VR? I'm using the Rift with a gtx 1080 ti, with default High settings, but I suspect that ASW is engaged most of the time. There seems to be some weird graphical shimmering going on around the area that's covered by the propeller, especially the reticle sight tends to render in a strange way (there's some ghosting going on that reminds me of ASW artifacts).

- I tried using the dynamic resolution factor, but the loss of resolution has too much impact on the experience in my opinion (but probably a nice to have on the Vive where there's no ASW?).

- it does seem like there's something slightly off with the way the game uses IPD values. The game creates a slight strain (very mild) that I don't get in other sims (like DCS or Assetto Corsa, etc).

- VR zoom works pretty well.

- It would be neat if turrets could use gaze aiming in VR (having to use a mouse is always a bit awkward in VR).

- Is there a way to remap menu navigation/mouse click using buttons on a HOTAS?

With all that said, the game is really really amazing in VR. I'm recommending it to all my friends.

Edited April 17, 2017 by FlyingWaffle

[HagarTheHorrible]

 

For the record; Man, this is one beautiful VR sim..! Just flew around smiling at the clouds, the sunrays poking through them, the reflections in the rivers, the fantastic looking forests... And all in fluid motion.

Lighting seems to work particularly well, certainly better than DCS. I really like how it reflects back off other aircraft during dogfights.

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

Backspace turns on your FPS counter but it shows in the upper right corner only if you turn your head it wont turn with you.

In the Startup config the line "or_ipd = 0.06560" maybe the adjustment. I'm not sure,I just used the knob on the Vive to adjust it a little. I don't know how the Rift adjust IPD.

[dburne]

Lighting seems to work particularly well, certainly better than DCS. I really like how it reflects back off other aircraft during dogfights.

 

I was flying a ground attack mission in the Stalingrad campaign earlier today. Our flight was headed toward the action point, and the sun happened to be just above the direction we were flying and my gosh it was practically blinding me LOL.

Looked great shining off the surface of my wings as well.

 

They truly did a great job with this.

[Wolf8312]

Dont dismiss dynamic resolution. I shunned it at first because I wanted everything to be perfect but after a week of playing I realize now it works very well. See most of the time I hit 90fps (with 980Ti/I74770) but lets say I'm attacking an airport then dynamic resolution kicks in. It wont look as good but I scarely notice as I am fixated on my mission goal. When I do notice however is if I am just flying around at which time the dynamic resolution doesent kick in. So really its pretty brilliant. 

 

I use PD of 1.4 with AA on 2, and dynamic res on about 0.6. everything else off, but am also using the terrain CFG file that you can download in the OP. It looks fantastic for me and is very fluid. Things really got easier for me when I got a hold of the terrain CFG file to be honest as before that, there wasnt much leeway. I can either turn AA off, or have it on and use dynamic resolution which kicks in only when needed. Dynamic resolution is alot more palatable if you use it with the terrain.cfg file you can download in the OP.

[1./KG4_EKat]

Followed the settings for this topic and have the terrain.cfg file installed. Graphics on high.  SS @ 1.3. HUD is off  unless needed due to frame rate hit. With my Vive I'm seeing fps at 50 fps or so on the ground and a pretty consistent 89 fps while flying. Previous post states 89 is really 90, so I guess I'm pretty much there. Gotta admit it looks acceptably good and the immersion is definitely convincing. At distance, the terrain tends to shimmer quite a bit, particularly on the ground, but up close (in cockpit/near plane) visibility is very clear and stable.   Noticed that the in-game head position tends to slowly re-center itself when I move my body a little out of position. That 'head drift' can give me a headache when on the ground with the lower framerates, so I try and my body limit movement.  I'm quite satisfied and can definitely fly with this as is

 

1080ti/i4930K@3.4Ghz/32GB 

[=IL2AU=chappyj]

i dont think AA is worth putting on  in game . its expensive on your resources that you could otherwise put towards SS in steamvr. 

 

GTX980ti (slight OC in msi afterburner) and 6700k @ 4.4ghz

I'm now running

1.4 SS in steamvr

Filters/AA off in game. 

Screen res 800. windowed or full doesnt seem to make much difference

High preset for light cloud maps, switch to balanced for high cloud maps

custom terrain config to run at about 5.5gb of vram (6 on the card)

Hud off in combat.

Dres off but maybe .9 if its a particularly cloudy map. 

Sharpen is a 50/50 benefit when you have ss around 1.4 or 1.5.   SS 1.5 is like 4k supersample afaik

 

as others have mentioned , clouds are your biggest killer. followed by a busy aerodrome.

[EG1Apachesquirrel]

I'm new to IL2 BoS, and just got on board with this new VR feature.

 

I played for a few hours last week and this weekend, a few comments/questions:

 

- is there a way to display the framerate in VR? I'm using the Rift with a gtx 1080 ti, with default High settings, but I suspect that ASW is engaged most of the time. There seems to be some weird graphical shimmering going on around the area that's covered by the propeller, especially the reticle sight tends to render in a strange way (there's some ghosting going on that reminds me of ASW artifacts).

 

- I tried using the dynamic resolution factor, but the loss of resolution has too much impact on the experience in my opinion (but probably a nice to have on the Vive where there's no ASW?).

 

- it does seem like there's something slightly off with the way the game uses IPD values. The game creates a slight strain (very mild) that I don't get in other sims (like DCS or Assetto Corsa, etc).

 

- VR zoom works pretty well.

 

- It would be neat if turrets could use gaze aiming in VR (having to use a mouse is always a bit awkward in VR).

 

- Is there a way to remap menu navigation/mouse click using buttons on a HOTAS?

 

With all that said, the game is really really amazing in VR. I'm recommending it to all my friends.

 

I've also just got this for VR, along with a friend.   I second a lot of these points, especially the turret aiming.  I don't really sit at my desk so using the mouse is a no go, menus etc with hat switch would be great.

 

Running at two times super sampling with a GTX 1070 works fairly well, I've left the in game DRF at 1.0.  Similar to Elite dangerous, I have the Vive at 2x and the in-game stuff left at 1 or 0.8.

 

switching the HUD on and off is worth about 10FPS more.... although I turn it off for realism more than speed.

 

One thing I can't work with, the turret gun sights seem to be set up for your right eye.... I can't close my left one, so I'm having trouble aiming.  Is toggling this to the left possible??

 

 

Great game so far, and a better first VR implementation than many I've seen. 

Edited April 20, 2017 by EG1Apachesquirrel

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

also try setting your pre rendered frames to =1