BoS with Rift without ASW

[dburne]

As most Rift users know, by default the Rift runs with ASW on auto.

If framerates drop much below 90 fps, ASW kicks in - drops the actual frame rate to 45 fps, and interpolates frames in between to give an end result of 90 fps in the display. In effect it is guessing where those frames should be in between the real ones.

This works quite well to give a smooth experience with the Rift on systems that may struggle to reach and maintain a 90 fps display. However it has some nuances, like squiggly gun-sight and squiggly planes as they pass by.

 

My system runs BoS with the Rift quite well, I am able to maintain 90 fps the majority of the time, but ASW does kick in when in heavy combat or very low to the ground - like less than 100m.

So early this morning, I thought I would disable ASW for my Rift and give it a try.

 

I disabled it through the Oculus Tray Tool that I use to set my Pixel Density per game. I have been continuing in my Stalingrad Campaign for a fair part of the day, and must say I am pleased so far with the result. Perhaps it is a placebo, but I would swear I am actually getting a little better performance over what I was getting, which was already pretty darn good. 

I was concerned about frames dropping much below 90 fps without ASW, as I had heard that can induce some bad motion sick inducing stutters. However I did not find this to be the case at all for me.

 

In fact, the lowest I saw my fps dip was into the low 60's and this was when touching down on the runway for landing. And my flights and combat were still very smooth and stutter free - least nothing that I noticed anyway. And did not have the squiggly gun-sight or weirdness as planes flew by.

So unless I run into some unexpected weirdness as a result of having ASW off, going to leave it off for BoS as the experience is even better for me now, over what was already a great experience.

 

One caveat though - If you are one that prefers not having the Oculus Home software running when playing BoS through Steam VR, turning ASW off may not work - at least it does not for me using the Oculus Tray Tool. Apparently it is reliant on the Home software running - at least my profile for BoS in the Tray Tool certainly requires Oculus Home to be running.

Edited June 10, 2017 by dburne

[OrLoK]

hmmmm, interesting, I may have to give it a go!

[hsthhsth]

What works best for my settings (Ultra, everything highest settings, HUD off):

- start Oculus Tray Tool (DPI 1.8, ASW off)

- start Oculus Home

- start IL-2 Launcher & Il-2, Steam Vr will come up

- in single mission fps = 45, drops to 30's

- stop mission, exit game

- stop Oculus Home (leave all else running, IL-2 Launcher, Steam Vr & Oculus Tray Tool)

- start game again

- start mission, fps now 90, stays > 70.

 

So far this sequence gives me the best result.

[I./JG68_Sperber]

I have the best results without any tool. I use only the steamvr.cfg

[ClarkFable]

What works best for my settings (Ultra, everything highest settings, HUD off):

- start Oculus Tray Tool (DPI 1.8, ASW off)

- start Oculus Home

- start IL-2 Launcher & Il-2, Steam Vr will come up

- in single mission fps = 45, drops to 30's

- stop mission, exit game

- stop Oculus Home (leave all else running, IL-2 Launcher, Steam Vr & Oculus Tray Tool)

- start game again

- start mission, fps now 90, stays > 70.

 

So far this sequence gives me the best result.

 

Does oculus tray tool even do anything when you are running the game through Steam and SteamVR?  I thought it just affected games launched through Oculus. 

[coconut]

 

 

Does oculus tray tool even do anything when you are running the game through Steam and SteamVR? I thought it just affected games launched through Oculus.

 

Yes it does. When using the Rift, SteamVR is just a facade to the Oculus runtime.

[Urra]

What works best for my settings (Ultra, everything highest settings, HUD off):

- start Oculus Tray Tool (DPI 1.8, ASW off)

- start Oculus Home

- start IL-2 Launcher & Il-2, Steam Vr will come up

- in single mission fps = 45, drops to 30's

- stop mission, exit game

- stop Oculus Home (leave all else running, IL-2 Launcher, Steam Vr & Oculus Tray Tool)

- start game again

- start mission, fps now 90, stays > 70.

 

So far this sequence gives me the best result.

It helps as you specified!. Edited June 12, 2017 by TunaEatsLion

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

a) This only "works" if you have Oculus Home as tagged to start as Admin only, otherwise Oculus Home will start

b) You get better FPS because DPI 1.8 does not work in this configuration once Oculus Home isn't running

 

Just tested it.

[coconut]

Regarding crazy high values of supersampling: By default the buffer used by VR apps to submit scenes is already larger than the hardware's native resolution. The reason for that is that the runtime "bends" the image to compensate for optics. I'm not sure of the exact value, but looking at my startup.cfg I see or_height = 2064, compare that to the 1200 lines the Rift has. I'm not convinced there's any actual benefit in going over 1.3.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

I agree. Running in ss1.3 with aa 4x gave me the best quality results.

If you disable aa and run with a higher ss, the image only gets slightly crisper,but instead you will get graphical artifacts from the engine like thin white shimmering lines between polygons, faulty grass popping in and out of existence, and really terrible looking trees.

 

So basically, best is preset to high or ultra, ssao off to avoid crawling shadows on forests, aa on, ss to 1.3

[ClarkFable]

I find that the detrimental effect of SS and AA on identifying contacts, which is crucial in multiplayer, is too big a cost.

[RustNeverSleeps]

What works best for my settings (Ultra, everything highest settings, HUD off):

- start Oculus Tray Tool (DPI 1.8, ASW off)

- start Oculus Home

- start IL-2 Launcher & Il-2, Steam Vr will come up

- in single mission fps = 45, drops to 30's

- stop mission, exit game

- stop Oculus Home (leave all else running, IL-2 Launcher, Steam Vr & Oculus Tray Tool)

- start game again

- start mission, fps now 90, stays > 70.

 

So far this sequence gives me the best result.

 

 

Woah i didnt know you could close oculus home while using the rift?!

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

You cannot. I want the same stuff he is smoking )

I find that the detrimental effect of SS and AA on identifying contacts, which is crucial in multiplayer, is too big a cost.

AA has a detrimental effect.

SS has a positive effect.

[dburne]

Woah i didnt know you could close oculus home while using the rift?!

 

You can actually start BoS without Oculus Home ever launching.

 

Just set Oculus Home to " Run as Administrator", and it will not automatically launch when putting on the headset. Then launch BoS and Steam VR starts and the Rift operates fine through it.

 

Only caveat is the Oculus Tray Tool will not work with it that way as far as setting PD and ASW through a profile set in the Tray Tool. 

Edited June 25, 2017 by dburne

[MajorDogbite]

Ctrl/NP1 will turn ASW off while in game.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Thanks for that information @MajorDogbite

 

 

So you can disable Oculus Home / OTT, use SS from SteamVR  (2.2 SS in SteamVR = 1.5 PD in OTT), and disable ASW ingame.

[ClarkFable]

You cannot. I want the same stuff he is smoking )

AA has a detrimental effect.

SS has a positive effect.

 

I thought it was the common opinion that SS would make stuff harder to spot/identify, although I was never perfectly clear on the underlying reasons. 

 

AA blurs high contrast areas, so the notion that it would make things harder to spot seems obvious.   SS on the other hand, seems like it could go either way.  e.g. if you super-sample an the edge of something you might just get a grey when it should be either black or white, but when it comes to a larger object, SS will help contours and shapes look more smooth and continuous. 

Edited June 27, 2017 by ClarkFable

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Planes are very large objects in VR. Even a Yak's span is 10 meters.

 

AA makes it much harder, SS much easier.

Edited June 28, 2017 by 1CAG_Fenris_Wolf

[von_Tom]

Is there any visual difference between:

 

1.3SS and 4xAA

 

1.3SS and no AA

 

In other words, does everything look just as crisp without AA as with?

 

von Tom

[dburne]

Is there any visual difference between:

 

1.3SS and 4xAA

 

1.3SS and no AA

 

In other words, does everything look just as crisp without AA as with?

 

von Tom

 

Not to me, with no AA I see jaggies. I run 4xAA and SS 1.5.

[MajorDogbite]

I run pd 2 on ultra, so I find AA has less impact.

[ClarkFable]

Planes are very large objects in VR. Even a Yak's span is 10 meters.

 

AA makes it much harder, SS much easier.

 

But when I enter a dog fight, I am sometimes looking at a Yak that is literally 8 pixels in width, and even a single blurred edge can affect identification. 

 

My anecdotal experience has been that 1.0 SS and 0 AA is the best for spotting and identifying ( a real bitch in VR), even though the game overall looks worse.  But I am certainly open to the possibility I am dead wrong. 

Edited June 28, 2017 by ClarkFable

[HunDread]

So you can disable Oculus Home / OTT, use SS from SteamVR  (2.2 SS in SteamVR = 1.5 PD in OTT), and disable ASW ingame.

 

Are you sure? How do you know this is the correct number? 

What is the equivalent of 1.3 OTT PD?

[chiliwili69]

 

 

Not to me, with no AA I see jaggies. I run 4xAA and SS 1.5.

 

It is strange that you see jaggies when you have SS at 1.5.

The SS method is averaging the supersampled image to a lower resolution image, so borders should be softer.

 

If you are using OTT to set the SS and you are not launch Oculus Home, it might be that your 1.5 SS is really not in place.

 

I think there are two other methods to set SS (in SteamVR and in the Nvidia card settings). I have not used them, but if OTT is not effective if Oculus Home is not launched, then we will need to set SS in SteamVR or Nvidia card.

[dburne]

It is strange that you see jaggies when you have SS at 1.5.

The SS method is averaging the supersampled image to a lower resolution image, so borders should be softer.

 

If you are using OTT to set the SS and you are not launch Oculus Home, it might be that your 1.5 SS is really not in place.

 

I think there are two other methods to set SS (in SteamVR and in the Nvidia card settings). I have not used them, but if OTT is not effective if Oculus Home is not launched, then we will need to set SS in SteamVR or Nvidia card.

 

That is correct, if Oculus Home is not launched and running the OTT has no affect on those settings I found out. So I definitely have it running and confirm I am getting 1.5 SS and no ASW per my settings. It just looks a lot better to me even with 1.5 SS if I run AA at 4x.