Upgraded my rig for Rift-S - now I have more questions

[TWC_NINja]

I'm relatively new to VR and recently got the Rift-S because I've read a lot of good things about it. I did own the CV-1 for a bit, but it wasn't for me.

 

Anyway, I recently posted about not getting good quality and fps on my old rig (i7-2600k 1080ti) when I tried out the Rift-S. I got some really good and insightful responses, which helped me to decide that it was time to upgrade. So over Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, I got myself a new computer with an i7-9700K, RTX 2080 super with 32Gb of RAM. This has definitely allowed me to fly in IL-2 with decent framerates so I don't get nauseated anymore.

 

But now I have more questions... because I'm still not seeing the quality and performance I've read about from other people with regards to using the Rift-S in IL-2.

 

I've updated my nVidia driver and used Mastiff's settings, as well as 3Dmigoto and Lefuneste's mod, but the  overall image still looks a bit washed out and "flat".

And despite trying different SS settings in SteamVR and OTT, the picture is always a bit "soft" and unfocused.

And there's the double image when getting up close and personal with another aircraft.

 

This cannot be right, I'm sure. What am I doing wrong? I tried to search for optimal settings guide, but the more I looked, the more confused I get.

 

Hopefully, I can get some guidance from more VR-savvy and knowledgeable folks here. Maybe even someone with similar pc specs who are having great performance/visual quality. Maybe a step-by-step: "start with this, then do this, then adjust this" type of guidance. Please?

 

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by TWC_NINja

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

the new Steamvr update 

 

make sure your Im set a 130% SS on the Steam VR. latest beta update from steam.

 

is they turned of composite SS if your game already has it to help make it more sharper in the VR images.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791435040972/announcements/detail/1714113379461314416

 

 

[Alonzo]

19 hours ago, TWC_NINja said:

I'm relatively new to VR and recently got the Rift-S because I've read a lot of good things about it. I did own the CV-1 for a bit, but it wasn't for me.

 

Use OpenComposite instead of SteamVR, you will get better framerates. Use Oculus Tray Tool (OTT) to set the pixel density (supersampling). For your set up I would start with 4x in-game AA plus 1.1 or 1.2 pixel density in OTT.

 

Use a glasses cloth to clean your lenses. I thought things were fuzzy due to the recent 4.0 patch, turned out I hadn't actually cleaned the lenses for ages.

 

I don't know Mastiff, but I have had good success with SCG Fenris' "best spotting settings." 

 

Double-image up close sounds like you are running 40 FPS ASW. Use OTT "visible hud" set to "application render timing" to see what is causing that. For 80 FPS you need both CPU and GPU frame time to be < 12.5ms. If either one is over that, the game will drop to 40 FPS and ASW fills in the frames, which is fine for most stuff except close-up aircraft. If you are almost making 80 FPS (which you should be, with your rig) you could try using OTT to disable ASW entirely. Then if you're at 70 FPS for a moment, the game will just run at that rather than dropping to 40 and filling in frames.

 

For the washed out colors I'm not sure what to suggest. Learn how to configure Lefuneste's mod because there's some color fix stuff in there you could try.

[dburne]

+1 to Open Composite. Way better than Steam VR for the Rift S.

Get rid of mods first and work on getting image/performance where you would like it.

Afterwards then start adding your mods and working with them.

 

In my Rift S my picture clarity is very good. 

As suggested insure lenses are clean. I use a micro fibre cloth and my breath to clean mine.

 

With your rig you should be able to run 1.3-1.4 SS ( I use Oculus Tray Tool to set mine), and 2x AA and most settings on High.

Especially if you are overclocking that CPU which helps.

Edited December 9, 2019 by dburne

[chiliwili69]

On 12/8/2019 at 5:44 AM, TWC_NINja said:

but the  overall image still looks a bit washed out and "flat".

And despite trying different SS settings in SteamVR and OTT, the picture is always a bit "soft" and unfocused.

And there's the double image when getting up close and personal with another aircraft

 

According to your mail it seems you could have several things to review.

 

1.- Measure your own IPD. As you know the Rift-S only has software IPD adjust, so you can at the affected if your IPD is too large or too small.

2.- Make sure you overclock your CPU and solve first the double image issue (you are below 80 fps)

3.- Run the remagen test to be sure your PC works as expected in just a 2D monitor.

4.- Run Oculus Mirror to know the resolution at which your Rift-S is actually running 

 

Also check this old post but still valid many of their points:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/34107-items-to-review-if-you-have-low-performance-in-il-2-vr-test/

 

[dburne]

I have found the "double image" that is typically caused by ASW kicking in to be improved since Oculus introduced ASW 2.0 in May of this year.

IL-2 supports depth buffering so it does take advantage of ASW 2.0.

 

In my Rift S, whenever it does kick in I don't find the ghosting that bad. 

[TWC_NINja]

@Mastiff: I have not updated SteamVR and it's still running 1.8xx

 

@Alonzo and dburne:

Thanks, gents. I'm having issues with OpenComposite with this new rig. I ran it fine on my old rig, but now when I start up IL2 I don't see the game in the headset even though it's on the flatscreen - it goes back to Oculus Home - but on the monitor, I see the stereoscopic images of the game. I really have no idea what's going on with that. I know OpenComposite would definitely help a lot. I don't like SteamVR - I think it's just too clunky.

 

Also, I have disabled ASW in OTT and SS is at 1.2, but I still get the double image. I've set all other SS in SteamVR to 1.

 

 

8 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

 

According to your mail it seems you could have several things to review.

 

1.- Measure your own IPD. As you know the Rift-S only has software IPD adjust, so you can at the affected if your IPD is too large or too small.

2.- Make sure you overclock your CPU and solve first the double image issue (you are below 80 fps)

3.- Run the remagen test to be sure your PC works as expected in just a 2D monitor.

4.- Run Oculus Mirror to know the resolution at which your Rift-S is actually running 

 

Also check this old post but still valid many of their points:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/34107-items-to-review-if-you-have-low-performance-in-il-2-vr-test/

 

 

Thank you, Chilli,

1. My IPD is 63, so I'm okay.

2. I am a bit nervous about OCing my CPU. Is it an easy thing to do? My mobo is ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S-1B

3. Not sure what remagen test is, but I use the PC for everything else on 2D and it's fine.

4. I will try this when I have a bit more time.

 

And the link to that old post has now given me a lot of homework to do, so I will check all those out at a later time.

Thank you again.

Edited December 10, 2019 by TWC_NINja

[ironk79]

12 hours ago, dburne said:

I have found the "double image" that is typically caused by ASW kicking in to be improved since Oculus introduced ASW 2.0 in May of this year.

IL-2 supports depth buffering so it does take advantage of ASW 2.0.

 

In my Rift S, whenever it does kick in I don't find the ghosting that bad. 

Tried the new ASW settings just a few weeks ago, ghosting was definitely better (wing edges when banking). But i got weird "distortions" on parts of the instrument panel / ammunition counter. Before i only remember gun-sight being affected, does anybody see the same distortions?

[Fern]

Are you 100% sure ASW is actually off? Open the Visual HUD in OTT and see if ASW is "Not available" when you start the game. I had it check to off, but ASW was still available. Shift + Numpad 1 toggles it on/off.

[dburne]

13 minutes ago, Fern said:

Are you 100% sure ASW is actually off? Open the Visual HUD in OTT and see if ASW is "Not available" when you start the game. I had it check to off, but ASW was still available. Shift + Numpad 1 toggles it on/off.

 

It is CTRL rather than SHFT.

Technically CTRL + Numpad 1 only toggles it off.

Ctrl + Numpad 4 toggles it back on.

 

• Control-Numpad1: Disables ASW and returns to the standard rendering mode.
• Control-Numpad2: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW disabled. Depending on the application, you are likely to experience judder.
• Control-Numpad3: Forces apps to 45Hz with ASW enabled. Enabling and disabling ASW will help you see the effects of ASW.
• Control-Numpad4: Enables ASW. ASW will automatically turn on and off, depending on whether the app maintains a 90Hz frame rate. This will be the default rendering mode when ASW is officially enabled in the runtime.

 

[Fern]

Thanks for clarification.

 

I saw another thread that I've been wanting to try out. Will messing with the Dynamic resolution factor do anything?: 

 

 

Dynamic resolution factor is a new method for keeping your frames per second (FPS) steady. Its value can be set from 0.5 (half the original resolution) to 1.0 (full resolution). If you set it to 1.0, you'll be turning it off and everything will work as before. If you set it to a lower value, you're telling the game it's Ok to degrade the rendering quality to this value to keep the FPS close to the value you set in Target FPS drop-down list here. So if you set Target FPS to 144 and Dynamic resolution factor to 0.5, the game will lower the rendering quality up to 0.5 of the original resolution trying to keep that high frame rate you specified. You can experiment with these values to find out what FPS you can achieve on your PC without degrading the visual quality too much. On a regular monitor, quality degradation is more apparent than in VR HMD, so this feature is especially useful for VR.

 

 

 

Please note, that Target FPS value is ignored in VR - it is set to HMD refresh rate (90 FPS or 45 FPS when it is lower than 90 and HMD driver automatically engages ASW if you're using Oculus and Reprojection for Vive). You can Google what these technologies do - basically, they generate new frames depending on previous ones to show you if PC performance level is insufficient to output 90 FPS. Target FPS parameter is also ignored if you use a regular monitor and check V-Sync option here - in this case it ties to your monitor refresh rate.

[TWC_NINja]

UPDATE: Managed to get OpenComposite working, so no more SteamVR!!! I started the game from the game shortcut on the desktop instead of from within Oculus. 

 

I turned off ASW with CTRL-numpad 1 and confirmed it through the HUD - ASW shows "not available".

Also flew a bit with the Composite HUD thingy and the GPU is showing under 1ms, and the CPU is about 5ms, and frames pretty much locked in at 80. So the rig is running well with settings on HIGH, and most adjustments on medium-ish. I will make further adjustments as I go along in the coming days... SS in OTT set to 1.5 in the IL-2 game profile.

 

This is generally running well... but one thing still - can't seem to shake the slight double-image/ghosting when aircrafts fly by. Much less, but not entirely gone. This is from inside a Mustang in a 4v4 quick mission, btw. 

 

Is this about as good as it gets? Something else to tweak/adjust? 

 

[chiliwili69]

On 12/10/2019 at 4:44 AM, TWC_NINja said:

2. I am a bit nervous about OCing my CPU. Is it an easy thing to do? My mobo is ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S-1B

3. Not sure what remagen test is, but I use the PC for everything else on 2D and it's fine

 

Glad to see to performance has been improved.

On the questions above:

 

2. Don´t be nervous. Not overclocking a 9700K for IL-2 VR it is a bit of a crime. It is safe and easy as far as you have a good CPU cooler and monitor temps. The community helped me on that as well. I was also new to overclock two years ago, and now I am quite comfortable by do it.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/55044-need-help-overclocking-9700k-on-gigabyte-board-z390-gaming-x/?tab=comments#comment-837747

or

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/29881-overclocking-a-4790k-for-better-bos-performance/

 

3. It is a becnhmark for IL-2 in monitor. So we can check that our hardware/software/settings is working as expected. Instructions here:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/56485-benchmark-for-cpuram-performance-remagen-4002/

 

 

An additional comment: 1.5 SS in OTT is a lot even for a 2080 card (1.5 in OTT is equivalent to 225% in SteamVR!!). Your GPU will get saturated and you will be under 80fps in certain moments (double image). Please, put it to 1.2 (which is equivalent to 144% in SteamVR ) and you will be more than fine. The visual quality doesn´t improve too much beyond 1.2 or 1.3

[Alonzo]

On 12/10/2019 at 8:49 PM, TWC_NINja said:

This is generally running well... but one thing still - can't seem to shake the slight double-image/ghosting when aircrafts fly by. Much less, but not entirely gone. This is from inside a Mustang in a 4v4 quick mission, btw. 

 

Is this about as good as it gets? Something else to tweak/adjust? 

 

Are you really sure you're getting 80 FPS at those moments? I would try setting pixel density to 1.0 and overall setting to Balanced (much lower than you really want to use) just to ensure the FPS is locked at 80. See how the enemy planes look. There should be zero ghosting if you're at a real 80 FPS. Then start increasing settings slowly, giving yourself enough headroom that during a frame time "spike" you're still going to (mostly) hit 80 FPS.

 

High settings, High shadows, HDR on, bloom off, High/Ultra clouds, 4x in-game AA and 1.2 pixel density is about as high as I would push a rig such as yours if I wanted headroom for that constant 80 FPS. Even that might be a little high.

[Blue_Bear]

On 12/9/2019 at 9:52 PM, dburne said:

IL-2 supports depth buffering so it does take advantage of ASW 2.0.

I use the Oculus Rift S and ASW 2.0 definitely does not work.

[dburne]

55 minutes ago, Blue_Bear said:

I use the Oculus Rift S and ASW 2.0 definitely does not work.

 

IIRC ASW 2 only works with forward rendering, the latest update to the game changed it to deferred.

Easiest way to tell is if you can pull up Dash whilst in game, if game image stays in headset it does use ASW2, if it fades away it does not.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by dburne

[AuburnAlumni]

8700k/1080ti Rift S user and this latest update along with all of the Oculus updates over the last year has made IL-2 probably the best VR experience I have overall now in my games library.  

 

I had just started learning a couple of modules in DCS this month...but now...with the performance and graphical improvements in IL-2..it's really hard for me to fly anything other than IL-2 aircraft.

 

[dburne]

10 minutes ago, AuburnAlumni said:

8700k/1080ti Rift S user and this latest update along with all of the Oculus updates over the last year has made IL-2 probably the best VR experience I have overall now in my games library.  

 

I had just started learning a couple of modules in DCS this month...but now...with the performance and graphical improvements in IL-2..it's really hard for me to fly anything other than IL-2 aircraft.

 

 

Yeah that is for sure!

[1ngvaar]

On 5/22/2020 at 4:04 PM, AuburnAlumni said:

8700k/1080ti Rift S user

Same as mine specs:D

il2 looks very good in VR for sure.

 

If you want increase dcs performance i can advise you to try VR shader mod for dcs. It’s easy to google and instal)

 

I love il2 and love ugliest plane, beautiful Warthog ?