Some questions trying to fine tune VR (HP Reverb G2)

[TAIPAN_]

The last 9 months or so I've only used VR for standing games like Half Life Alyx etc, I still flew IL2 but with Trackir because of issues I posted about previously.

Since I've got a better work/life balance now, I'm more tolerant of the difficult tuning process and actually have some time that I won't be disturbed by the kids (during business hours :)) so I've decided to give VR IL2 another try.

 

The issues I'm having are:

1. Colours on other planes are very dark. Trying to make out roundel colours and other features to ID an enemy plane is difficult because the colours are not very bright.
My gamma is on 1.0, I know alot of people go even darker but I fear planes will be even darker if I do. Spotting the "dots" of planes is easy, it's seeing the detail when I zoom on them that is hard. Does anyone with the HP G2 find they need a higher gamma like 1.3 or something to stop the plane colours being too dark?

Will that new Varjo Aero headset improve on colour brightness do you think?

 

2. Clarity issues - to get that locked 90fps there are alot of settings cut back alot. But getting the right balance is frustrating, if I bring the quality up to reduce pixelation then frames can drop down as low as 81/82 fps which makes head movement not very smooth and sometimes even nausea. I feel like part of the reason for this is that performance has declined since last time I put VR on for IL2 9 months ago.

 

3. Performance decline since 9 months ago - when I setup the same steam/nvidia/IL2 settings that worked well for VR last time, I found I wasn't getting the 90fps that I used to get.

Have changes to clouds and other textures/graphics in the game raised the bar for specs and performance?

Or could it be an nvidia update or a windows change that lowered performance?

 

4. Choice between 100% steamSS + dynamic resolution factor or 74% steamSS + maximum resolution factor?

I've seen videos/articles about the G2 steamSS setting that 100% is what's required to remove distortion because of lense shape and that it is supposed to be higher resolution than the G2s resolution. Because of this I've been reluctant to reduce SteamSS below 100%, though I have tried 74% but I'm not sure if the clarity issues I'm having are partly related to the distortion. Is distortion from lower resolution than 100% a true thing and how bad is it?

The other option I'm running currently is 100% SteamSS, then using IL2s dynamic resolution factor at a lower setting to have it automatically reduce based on FPS. Possibly it may be reducing and causing clarity/pixelation issues. However on this setting I notice my Frametime increased to 10, and while the FPS is locked at 90 my GPU usage declined which tells me it may be overdoing the quality reduction.

Opinions on these two choices/tradeoffs?

 

5. Does steam motion smoothing work if reprojection is turned off?

 

6. Reprojection - good or bad?

I had turned it off, but then that caused the whole chase of tweaking things above because any time it drops below 90fps I get jerky head tracking and some nausea and it looks a bit crap not being smooth.

Is reprojection really that bad? Since every mission is varied and performance requirements change all the time it's hard to keep the same performance requirement static.. wouldn't reprojection be a good solution?

I remember there used to be some artifacts and issues, but is that still the case or fixed by now?

Anyone prefer reprojection and turned it back on?

 

7. How about the choice to maximise clarity/quality and lock frames at 60fps. Has anyone done this with success? I've read about issues but not sure if they still occur - flickering and shimmering

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/62398-psa-60hz-wmr-actually-works-now/?do=findComment&comment=954612

If you really want a clearer picture closer to a monitor is this really the best option?

I pretty much have the best hardware you can buy (EVGA 3090 overclocked, 32gb RAM tuned for high speeds, separate SSD, 5900X cpu) and get 144fps matching my monitors refresh rate without VR AND with all settings maxed so kind of disappointed that there are so many tradeoffs to get the quality passable. Can't really throw any more money at it either since nothing new exists in terms of better GPUs yet (fpsVR shows my CPU is not the bottleneck).

 

I know I could sit here and test and test every combination of above, but honestly I've already spent a whole week tuning and testing trying to get 90fps working, and these are new ideas to investigate on top of that week already spent. Would love to hear from someone that has been here and dealt with the same frustrations and how they solved it.

 

I've attached my settings in case there's anything specifically large impact that I've stuffed up.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

settings.zip

[paul_leonard]

Great questions.  Really looking forward to this thread.

[TAIPAN_]

OK so managed to sneak in some testing while the little one is sleeping:

-Testing with Reprojection set to AUTO after reading alot of the DCS guys run with that. I guess they have to use that because they have no chance of hitting the required frames.

-Goal of having it ON is to have maximum dynamic resolution factor of 1 + SteamSS set to 100% at the same time, and the usual texture quality graphics on.

 

Turning this on seems to have helped alot of the image clarity issues I was experiencing, and I was able to identify the markings on enemy planes alot better as well as see the smoke trails behind the Dora and 109s to identify them very clearly.

The downside is it feels very slightly less smooth, though it's a subjective thing I'm not sure what it is. Maybe there's some latency or something I noticed I had a collision when I'm normally able to avoid, but it was on the opening scene of QMB air start 8vs8 facing one another..

 

fpsVR:

-shows 45fps locked instead of running between 83-90fps. I guess this is due to the reprojection, and having increased my graphics settings I suppose I don't ever hit exactly 90fps now on a demanding mission.

-GPU usage decreased alot down to only 60-70% when it was ~90% before. This surprised me considering the GPU is the bottleneck I assume (because GPU frametimes higher than CPU frametime).

-Does reprojection overdo the filling of frames and result in under-utilising the GPU?

My reprojection ratio actually dropped. When reprojection was off, fpsVR said there was a reprojection ratio of 6% even though it was off. With reprojection on and increased settings the reprojection ratio reduced to 2%, which is very strange. I guess the meaning of these stats are not exactly what they are labelled as?

The "average fps" now shows about 58, which has declined I assume due to increased settings combined with reprojection reducing my GPU usage.

 

While I DO like the improved picture quality with reprojection, I'm going to be kind of upset if its not using my expensive graphics card to its best capacity

So I've partially answered my questions #1,2,4,6

Still not sure about #3,5,7 yet.

Edited February 5, 2022 by TAIPAN_

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

May not help your quest for a consistent 90 Hz in HP Reverb G2 but I have learnt to just accept a variable refresh rate in the 80 - 85 Hz Range with a 5800x and RTX 3090. 

Run High settings in Game, 100% SS and no reprojection. Also run MSAA x 2 as I find it really helps with shimmering. Below is a summary of most of my IL 2 in game settings.

 

This is the compromise that I have to make to best suit my personal tastes with currently available PC hardware.  Your tastes may differ.........

 

 

[messsucher]

It is best just to become immersed and enjoy of what you have. It will not be perfect, but if you can't get that obsession to perfection out of your mind, then you can't enjoy of IL-2 VR for the next 5 years or more. It is what it is, and you just best enjoy of it.

 

I myself was so disappointed of all that imperfection when compared to flat screen, that I could not play the game. Took a long break, forgot how good flat screen looks, and now enjoying heck loads of VR immersion even with bad graphics and low FPS. I have Vive Pro, locked at 45 FPS. No probs, 45 FPS is passable. I even played at 30 FPS locked, but that is not quite good for combat flying. For sight seeing flying it would be enough.

Edited February 5, 2022 by messsucher

[WheelwrightPL]

In Hp Reverb Mk 1 if you set reprojection to "auto", it will toggle between reprojection-on and off depending on the framerate the system can produce.  If that framerate is 90fps or more the reprojection will be off, otherwise it will be on (on means the system will produce only 45 real fps, which will be interspersed with fake frames generated by the reprojection software, adding up to 90 fps). Reprojection-on is suboptimal mode because those fake frames cause many visual issues, such as plane ghosting, and various rendering errors/artifacts. However it is almost impossible to avoid this mode, unless you lower the graphics settings significantly, or fly only simple missions in QMB. The reprojection-off is preferred because the image it produces contains no visual errors, other than minor plane ghosting.

[[CPT]Crunch]

Is it coincidence the settings in the nvidia control panel for max frame rate is 58 by default?  Think not...

 

While your at it, may as well reset the Background App Max Frame Rate also, it too is capped at 58 by default.  Try 95 for both, just a bit more than the 90 you seek.

[TAIPAN_]

Thanks guys for the helpful replies.

That screenshot of the launcher makes me wish I'd purchased BoS/BoM/BoK directly instead of through Steam! It would be much easier to tune if I could see the settings before launch.

 

2 hours ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

Is it coincidence the settings in the nvidia control panel for max frame rate is 58 by default?  Think not...

 

While your at it, may as well reset the Background App Max Frame Rate also, it too is capped at 58 by default.  Try 95 for both, just a bit more than the 90 you seek.

In the screenshots I attached I thought it was already 90, I might be having a senior moment but maybe it's a different setting?

The one I had set already is "Max Frame Rate" on page 3 of the screenshots, can't see where 58 was?

 

On 2/5/2022 at 8:19 PM, messsucher said:

It is best just to become immersed and enjoy of what you have. It will not be perfect, but if you can't get that obsession to perfection out of your mind, then you can't enjoy of IL-2 VR for the next 5 years or more. It is what it is, and you just best enjoy of it.

 

I myself was so disappointed of all that imperfection when compared to flat screen, that I could not play the game. Took a long break, forgot how good flat screen looks, and now enjoying heck loads of VR immersion even with bad graphics and low FPS. I have Vive Pro, locked at 45 FPS. No probs, 45 FPS is passable. I even played at 30 FPS locked, but that is not quite good for combat flying. For sight seeing flying it would be enough.

Thanks I also had a long break, and just played standing VR games with the headset and sims with the curved 38" screen + trackir.

It's a $2000+ monitor which makes it hard to adjust

I have had some good moments in VR, the best wow moments are very close air to air with cannons - eg with the Dora when you hit an enemy plane with a burst the G2 has satisfying bass and those rounds just rip them apart. The 3D effects of the explosions and dodging the shattered plane is awesome and I don't get that with Trackir/Monitor.

Cruising around I didn't find much different, and even found the FOV feels a bit small compared to the ultrawide.. though planes without bubble canopies VR is very nice to see around the support bars and to view the instruments in difficult to see places. The I-16 is a totally new plane in VR.

The main downside is ground targets, on a 4k screen I can look down 2km and see crystal clear ground targets firing artillery, and see the Bf 110s dropping bombs on them easily. In the G2 it's a pixelated blur and I have to keep my head extremely still and focus to make out that activity.

On 2/6/2022 at 4:08 AM, WheelwrightPL said:

In Hp Reverb Mk 1 if you set reprojection to "auto", it will toggle between reprojection-on and off depending on the framerate the system can produce.  If that framerate is 90fps or more the reprojection will be off, otherwise it will be on (on means the system will produce only 45 real fps, which will be interspersed with fake frames generated by the reprojection software, adding up to 90 fps). Reprojection-on is suboptimal mode because those fake frames cause many visual issues, such as plane ghosting, and various rendering errors/artifacts. However it is almost impossible to avoid this mode, unless you lower the graphics settings significantly, or fly only simple missions in QMB. The reprojection-off is preferred because the image it produces contains no visual errors, other than minor plane ghosting.

 

Thanks that's what I've got it set at in my second post. However at the same time as turning that to auto, I kicked up the quality settings.. so maybe it will never hit 90 in this case.

 

I don't see any plane ghosting, render issues or artifacts, in fact I've never seen them unless I don't know what to look for.

The worst I see is that head movement is juddery..

 

I'm wondering if there's a tracking issue because I sit in front of a very large black monitor, quite close. I might need to put some coloured desktop backgrounds on or something if the cameras aren't getting smooth tracking.

 

I've been watching the reviews on the Varjo Aero and that seems to solve my issue in terms of CLARITY which is what I want, though the FOV still seems to be exactly the same as the Reverb G2. It's a shame for such a big spend it's not an upgrade on all fronts, and a downgrade in some areas (I would miss the G2 speakers and mic). Using Steam Lighthouse tracking is an improvement though, however you have to purchase separately.

[[CPT]Crunch]

You mentioned your average FPS was reading out at 58, that specific number seems to me suspicious, a 3090 should be doing better, my 3080 certainly does. 

 

I know those settings were capping my FPS in DCS, they would never push past 60 in the game FPS read out until those were reset in the nvidia controls, now I can hit 90 on occasion and generally keep above 60.  IL-2 will read 90 with them on the 58 default setting, not sure how reliable the in game FPS reader is within IL-2, generally watch the timings through steam, they tell a better story. 

 

You should check out the scaling thread "VR world scaling ... a cheat?", that should help in seeing ground targets.  Most agree they're currently a bit under scaled making definition of everything a bit more difficult.  Scaling it up seems to make everyone happy with the over all visual benefits.

[TAIPAN_]

On 2/7/2022 at 10:40 AM, [CPT]Crunch said:

You mentioned your average FPS was reading out at 58, that specific number seems to me suspicious, a 3090 should be doing better, my 3080 certainly does. 

 

I know those settings were capping my FPS in DCS, they would never push past 60 in the game FPS read out until those were reset in the nvidia controls, now I can hit 90 on occasion and generally keep above 60.  IL-2 will read 90 with them on the 58 default setting, not sure how reliable the in game FPS reader is within IL-2, generally watch the timings through steam, they tell a better story. 

 

You should check out the scaling thread "VR world scaling ... a cheat?", that should help in seeing ground targets.  Most agree they're currently a bit under scaled making definition of everything a bit more difficult.  Scaling it up seems to make everyone happy with the over all visual benefits.

Well since the GPU usage was pushed down by reprojection it would make sense as to why the FPS is staying down there.

If reprojection is filling every 2nd frame, it seems the graphics card is taking a break.

I think because I turned quality settings up, it just doesn't touch 90 anymore so the reprojection is just on all the time.

 

Thanks I've adjusted my world scaling to 108% and it does seem better, especially the cockpit seems more realistically sized though I do notice the lack of FOV more because the cockpit fills the FOV more than before.

[Super_Tonton]

After a lot of reading on forums and testing, my best compromise in VR experience is playing with motion smoothing forced on, 100% steamSS and high graphic settings. Here is some of my findings (on a RTX 3070 and I7 10700):

 

• I can't stand 60 fps / 60 hz in VR, light flicking is to noticeable, so not an option.
• When playing at 90 fps (without reprojection), frame drops are unavoidable when I get in the thick of the action (no matter of low the graphic settings and even at 70% steamSS in my case). And those frame drops are noticeable with ghosting and stuttering.
• When playing with motion smoothing forced on, I see ghosting for sure, but rarely stuttering from beginning to end of a mission. The GPU is less stressed and I can push graphic settings up with 100% steamSS (which helps a lot with spotting and ID).
• I've also tried FSR/NIS, but I did not succeed with staying above 90 fps no matter the action.

[KPnutskgwanchos]

I feel your pain ... so wish there was some kind of flow chart to help you navigate thru all the varied possible approaches to finding that sweet spot that also ensures you get the best from your rig. There seems to be different tech which attempts to do do the same thing like super sampling in SteamVR versus FSR or NVIDIA's NIS. And then someone will suggest you should not use either etc etc. After weeks of trawling and trying I honestly have no idea if Im doing it right. Not even sure if I should use Oculas settings, streamVR settings,Windows Mixed Reality settings or a combination of all. Its so frustrating I think I may end up back on 2D for now. I just dont have the bandwidth.            

[TAIPAN_]

11 hours ago, Super_Tonton said:

After a lot of reading on forums and testing, my best compromise in VR experience is playing with motion smoothing forced on, 100% steamSS and high graphic settings. Here is some of my findings (on a RTX 3070 and I7 10700):

 

• I can't stand 60 fps / 60 hz in VR, light flicking is to noticeable, so not an option.
• When playing at 90 fps (without reprojection), frame drops are unavoidable when I get in the thick of the action (no matter of low the graphic settings and even at 70% steamSS in my case). And those frame drops are noticeable with ghosting and stuttering.
• When playing with motion smoothing forced on, I see ghosting for sure, but rarely stuttering from beginning to end of a mission. The GPU is less stressed and I can push graphic settings up with 100% steamSS (which helps a lot with spotting and ID).
• I've also tried FSR/NIS, but I did not succeed with staying above 90 fps no matter the action.

 

Thanks, this is the sort of info I like to see. I'm thinking I'm in a similar situation, I just can't handle those frame drops so I like the reprojection too.

Having it on AUTO is probably going to be the same as forced to on because it's not going to hit 90fps anyway.

 

In DCS it seems people have got their settings more in agreement, and pretty much everyone is 100% into motion reprojection as the ONLY way. It is a lower frame rate sim than IL2 though.

 

Maybe I should totally maximise all my graphics settings to get the GPU usage up, as long as it doesn't ever drop below the 45fps minimum required for reprojection but I don't think it will - I noticed the difference between reducing settings and max settings was only a few FPS as long as I didn't mess with anti-aliasing too much.

 

9 hours ago, KPnutskgwanchos said:

I feel your pain ... so wish there was some kind of flow chart to help you navigate thru all the varied possible approaches to finding that sweet spot that also ensures you get the best from your rig. There seems to be different tech which attempts to do do the same thing like super sampling in SteamVR versus FSR or NVIDIA's NIS. And then someone will suggest you should not use either etc etc. After weeks of trawling and trying I honestly have no idea if Im doing it right. Not even sure if I should use Oculas settings, streamVR settings,Windows Mixed Reality settings or a combination of all. Its so frustrating I think I may end up back on 2D for now. I just dont have the bandwidth.            

 

Yeah this is most frustrating - so many bits of advice that tell you different things.

Its complicated by using different games/sims too like the MSFS users will tell you to do crazy stuff like turn on reprojection below 3000 feet, then turn it off above that. To me that seems crazy to be adjusting settings every flight.

 

Even some youtube videos out there tell you things that are actually totally incorrect, not even factual. I wish people wouldn't make videos unless they actually researched things first, thousands of people have wasted time watching them for incorrect information.

 

We're still early, hopefully some standardisation of things will win out in the long run, or maybe in 3 years time we have the Nvidia 5090 that has 3x the power of todays cards without heating up the room

[paul_leonard]

This is the game we play in IRL.  It's called tweaking (no not twerking).  It's more frustrating but weirdly more satisfying (at the end) than sometimes the game itself.  do you know why I'm so exciting to beta test Cliffs of Dover Blitz in VR in 2022?  Because in 2011 I knew my hardware wouldn't run it on high quality, that I'd  have to wait 3 years for the hardware to catch up....  

 

But seriously, there is no right answer except the safeness and tyranny of a console.  My only advice is get it running well, fly, fly fly, then incremental tweaks (there's that word again).

[Hartigan]

I recommend trying the Fholger´s FSR ! 

 

https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr/releases/tag/fsr_v2.1.1https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr/releases/tag/fsr_v2.1.1

 

The image quality of the Reverb G1 is almost doubled. The performance corresponds to a density of about 2400x2400 pixels. Since the G1 scales differently than the G2, make sure the Steam SS is around 3500x3420.

My Steam SS in this case is 252%. See pic .... FSR mod is easy. Replace openvr_api.dll from the bin / game folder (save the original) and add an openvr_mod text file. Open the Openvr_mod file using Notepad and edit.

 

"enabled": true,

"useNIS": false,

"renderScale": 0.70,

"sharpness": 1.3, (you may want to try anything from 0.5 to 1.5)

"radius": 0.7,

 

 

ps,dont use MSAA, it´s too heavy

 

Reprojection off, im 95% of the time 90fps. 3080 suprimX, 5600x ryzen

 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Hartigan

[TAIPAN_]

14 hours ago, Hartigan said:

I recommend trying the Fholger´s FSR ! 

 

https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr/releases/tag/fsr_v2.1.1https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr/releases/tag/fsr_v2.1.1

 

The image quality of the Reverb G1 is almost doubled. The performance corresponds to a density of about 2400x2400 pixels. Since the G1 scales differently than the G2, make sure the Steam SS is around 3500x3420.

My Steam SS in this case is 252%. See pic .... FSR mod is easy. Replace openvr_api.dll from the bin / game folder (save the original) and add an openvr_mod text file. Open the Openvr_mod file using Notepad and edit.

 

"enabled": true,

"useNIS": false,

"renderScale": 0.70,

"sharpness": 1.3, (you may want to try anything from 0.5 to 1.5)

"radius": 0.7,

 

 

ps,dont use MSAA, it´s too heavy

 

Reprojection off, im 95% of the time 90fps. 3080 suprimX, 5600x ryzen

 

Thanks I might look into that! Does it pass the integrity check for multiplayer mods?

Do you have a G1 or G2?

One question though - I can't understand how it comes out to 252% when my 3160x3088 (per eye) comes out at 100%. Unless its the old G1 and that has different steam settings?

 

Questions:

1. If it's the G2, do I leave it at 3160x3088 or increase it up to 110% or so which would give the same as yours?

2. What exactly does the mod do, does it increase the FPS or just increase the quality?

3. Do game updates overwrite that dll file and we should replace it after every update?

4. FXAA - I thought this method makes enemy planes harder to see. Is this still the case or it has been improved? Since resolution is so high I was hoping to just go with zero AA since SteamSS is a kind of AA anyway..

Edited February 10, 2022 by TAIPAN_

[paul_leonard]

I have a G2 and have weird settings too.

 

The mod increases fps AND visual quality.  

 

Keep the download in your downloads folder.  I agree, not clear that it won't be overwritten i future updates.

 

FXAA more forgiving.  MXAA less so.  Avoid MXAA. Experiment.

[Hartigan]

FSR works with mods off and in multiplayer as well.

 

1. If it's the G2, do I leave it at 3160x3088 or increase it up to 110% or so which would give the same as yours?

I have a G1 and it behaves a little differently than a G2. Try Steam SS 110% if it is close to 3500x3500pixels. The G2 has the same native resolution of 2160x2160 which is achieved by 50% Steam SS.

 

2. What exactly does the mod do, does it increase the FPS or just increase the quality?

Some players may just want better performance and use normal resolution and FSR scaling let´s say 0.77. The result is much better performance with about the same image quality. If set to 0.50-0.60, the image quality will deteriorate too much. With better hardware, you can achieve really good image quality at high SS levels, which is scaled by FSR, giving more fps.

 

There is help in the text file.

// Ultra Quality => 0.77

// Quality => 0.67

// Balanced => 0.59

// Performance => 0.50

 

3. Do game updates overwrite that dll file and we should replace it after every update?

So far, the game updates have not overwritten the dll file. You will notice the difference if this happens. And the original can be restored quickly if in the future the game does not support this version.

 

4. FXAA - I thought this method makes enemy planes harder to see. Is this still the case or it has been improved? Since resolution is so high I was hoping to just go with zero AA since SteamSS is a kind of AA anyway.

I tried many times between MSAA and FXAA. At 3500x3420 pixel density, the difference in image quality between these is small, but MSAAs require significantly more GPU resources in VR. Try my settings in the previous post. Note that the FSR also includes a sharpening feature. 

As the readme file says: FSR/NIS is *not* an anti-aliasing solution.

 

 

(then try the original dll, Steam SS 50% and Msaa X 8 and see how horrible the image quality is at 50 fps)?

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Hartigan

[Youtch]

On 2/9/2022 at 11:02 AM, Hartigan said:

"sharpness": 1.3, (you may want to try anything from 0.5 to 1.5)

Sharpness 1.3? I thought i was going only till 1.0

 

I tried 1.3 and it did not give better results, maybe I miss something or it does not apply to G2, ony to G1.

[Hartigan]

I think the sharpening goes over 1. NIS sharpening is more effective (maybe not in a good way) relative to FSR. If you try sharpening 1.3 and NIS enabled you will notice that the image quality starts to suffer

Edited February 10, 2022 by Hartigan

[[CPT]Crunch]

And those fixed presets are for AMD only, you can use any number for NIS in your fine tuning.

[Youtch]

I played a little bit with NIS vs FSR. For me, NIS is leaving a glowing edge on the contour of all planes, and hence it looks unatural and make planes less neat and more difficult to ID.

 

Maybe it is because i didn t manage to nail the perfect value for NIS, and i didn t play enough with sharpening parameter while using NIS. But, with debug mode, the difference between FSR and NIS was quite obvious.

 

I don t know if other people experienced the same thing with NIS as well.

[[CPT]Crunch]

The glow comes from using both sharpen methods simultaneous.  It's an either or, you can kind of get away with .1, and that's about it with the in game sharpen on.

[Youtch]

I don t have any in game sharpening activated with FSR mod.

 

But i will test again with NIS.

[firdimigdi]

With the G2 using NIS I've not been able to go over .25 before the image starts getting oversharpened (easily visible as a slight glow near the text in the cockpit), with FSR it can go all the way to 1 without being immediately apparent but then the trees at short range will appear to glow so the safest value I've gotten in that case is up to .85, YMMV depending on what you are willing to put up with.

[Youtch]

I reached the same conclusion, and prefer indeed FSR, and I have it currently set at 0.9, and it is quite nice.

 

With these settings, which give much nicer result that all i had tried so far, I still feel that objects/vehicles on the ground are very shimmering/blurry, and would require a good pass of anti-aliasing, which unfortunately I have totally disabled. MSSA is too demanding and FSSA makes spotting harder.

 

I still need to play more with NVIDIA setting to see if I can get more neatness on fast moving object.

I don t have motion reprojection, but i still feel that fast movement tends to ghost a little.

 

I am also trying for a while to play with gamma 0.9 for a change instead of 1.0.

Colors look a little bit more realistic, but planes moving close to the ground are harder to spot.

 

I have also tried to play with dedicated enhancement mod, called VR Reshader. It gives quite nice results, nicer color and makes planes markings appear much clearer having its own sharpening (hence disabling sharpening in FSR mod, used only for up scaling).

 

I tried also VREM enhancer, but I didn t play enough with the parameters, and did not get anything satisfying. It is also banned in MP, but maybe I shall try it more. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Youtch

[TAIPAN_]

Awesome info thanks guys

 

I'm away on a beach holiday right now but will try it out after I get back home

[III/JG52_Al-Azraq]

On 2/8/2022 at 1:05 PM, Super_Tonton said:

After a lot of reading on forums and testing, my best compromise in VR experience is playing with motion smoothing forced on, 100% steamSS and high graphic settings. Here is some of my findings (on a RTX 3070 and I7 10700):

 

• I can't stand 60 fps / 60 hz in VR, light flicking is to noticeable, so not an option.
• When playing at 90 fps (without reprojection), frame drops are unavoidable when I get in the thick of the action (no matter of low the graphic settings and even at 70% steamSS in my case). And those frame drops are noticeable with ghosting and stuttering.
• When playing with motion smoothing forced on, I see ghosting for sure, but rarely stuttering from beginning to end of a mission. The GPU is less stressed and I can push graphic settings up with 100% steamSS (which helps a lot with spotting and ID).
• I've also tried FSR/NIS, but I did not succeed with staying above 90 fps no matter the action.

 

I agree, 100% SteamVR resolution with reprojection and high settings is the best. I disable MSAA though because it doesn't work very well with deferred rendering and tanks performance.

 

You will never reach stable 90 Hz currently so use reprojection and use your overhead in performance to improve the visuals.

 

OpenFSR is just adding another layer of possible issues, artifacts and it does nothing better compared to just lowering your SteamVR SS.

[messsucher]

On 2/13/2022 at 11:15 AM, III/JG52_Al-Azraq said:

 

I agree, 100% SteamVR resolution with reprojection and high settings is the best. I disable MSAA though because it doesn't work very well with deferred rendering and tanks performance.

 

You will never reach stable 90 Hz currently so use reprojection and use your overhead in performance to improve the visuals.

 

OpenFSR is just adding another layer of possible issues, artifacts and it does nothing better compared to just lowering your SteamVR SS.

 

I play like this too, haven't found a better way.

 

Edit: I actually have reprojection disabled, but no stutters.

Edited February 14, 2022 by messsucher

[KPnutskgwanchos]

On 2/13/2022 at 9:15 AM, III/JG52_Al-Azraq said:

 

I agree, 100% SteamVR resolution with reprojection and high settings is the best. I disable MSAA though because it doesn't work very well with deferred rendering and tanks performance.

 

You will never reach stable 90 Hz currently so use reprojection and use your overhead in performance to improve the visuals.

 

OpenFSR is just adding another layer of possible issues, artifacts and it does nothing better compared to just lowering your SteamVR SS.

 

Hi AL-Azraq / and all other Gurus (relative to me!)

 

I was following your VR advice on the forum and wondered if you would be able to do me a massive favour and just cast your expert eye over my Steam VR settings to advise if I could be making any mistakes. Im using a Q2 on a good cable but I may try Airlink / Virtual Desktop as I have a 5k router. I dont have a powerful PC but it should be enough for reasonable performance I hope (I7 2600k at 4.2Ghz + RTX2070s) Im using OpenFSR and Im not sure if I really need to be? Im not sure its making any difference. Im pretty happy with smoothness but I seem mostly locked to 35 FPS with occasional jumps to 70. I assume I must be somehow locked to the 72mhz refresh rate. Soooooo Im thinking as per your advice I should ditch FSR? ... If I do that then are my setting below correct for Steam VR / Oculus?  ... Also I cannot find Reprojection settings anywhere in steam or is that what Motion Smoothing is?  .... really sorry for bugging you but you seem to know your stuff ?    any other tips greatly appreciated !  

 

 

On 2/13/2022 at 9:22 AM, messsucher said:

 

I play like this too, haven't found a better way.

Hi messsucher / and all other Gurus (relative to me!)

 

I was following your VR advice on the forum and wondered if you would be able to do me a massive favour and just cast your expert eye over my Steam VR settings to advise if I could be making any mistakes. Im using a Q2 on a good cable but I may try Airlink / Virtual Desktop as I have a 5k router. I dont have a powerful PC but it should be enough for reasonable performance I hope (I7 2600k at 4.2Ghz + RTX2070s) Im using OpenFSR and Im not sure if I really need to be? Im not sure its making any difference. Im pretty happy with smoothness but I seem mostly locked to 35 FPS with occasional jumps to 70. I assume I must be somehow locked to the 72mhz refresh rate. Soooooo Im thinking as per your advice I should ditch FSR? ... If I do that then are my setting below correct for Steam VR / Oculus?  ... Also I cannot find Reprojection settings anywhere in steam or is that what Motion Smoothing is?  .... really sorry for bugging you but you seem to know your stuff ?    any other tips greatly appreciated !  

 

 

 

 

[Youtch]

On 2/13/2022 at 10:15 AM, III/JG52_Al-Azraq said:

On 2/8/2022 at 1:05 PM, Super_Tonton said:

After a lot of reading on forums and testing, my best compromise in VR experience is playing with motion smoothing forced on, 100% steamSS and high graphic settings. Here is some of my findings (on a RTX 3070 and I7 10700):

 

• I can't stand 60 fps / 60 hz in VR, light flicking is to noticeable, so not an option.
• When playing at 90 fps (without reprojection), frame drops are unavoidable when I get in the thick of the action (no matter of low the graphic settings and even at 70% steamSS in my case). And those frame drops are noticeable with ghosting and stuttering.
• When playing with motion smoothing forced on, I see ghosting for sure, but rarely stuttering from beginning to end of a mission. The GPU is less stressed and I can push graphic settings up with 100% steamSS (which helps a lot with spotting and ID).
• I've also tried FSR/NIS, but I did not succeed with staying above 90 fps no matter the action.

 

I agree, 100% SteamVR resolution with reprojection and high settings is the best. I disable MSAA though because it doesn't work very well with deferred rendering and tanks performance.

What other settings are you using in the game and nvidia?

 

I have a 3080 but if I play without FSR upscaling and without motion reprojection the amount of stuttering looking sideway is insane, making the game unplayable with a G2 at 100%. Planes looking double, and landscape stutter making me motion sick in no time.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Youtch
Typo and clarifications

[messsucher]

Why you keep such huge resolution per eye, 260%? 200% is perhaps a reasonable maximum, so that you can get better FPS, more than 200% should not make much difference to image quality. I would decrease it to 100% and increase graphics settings in game, the game looks a lot better when you increase the graphics settings in game.

 

You should test various resolutions, 100%, 150%, and 200%, and check out the differences on FPS. When you get good FPS you can increase graphics settings in game. Your headset have anyway the 100% resolution max what it outputs.

[KPnutskgwanchos]

2 hours ago, messsucher said:

Why you keep such huge resolution per eye, 260%? 200% is perhaps a reasonable maximum, so that you can get better FPS, more than 200% should not make much difference to image quality. I would decrease it to 100% and increase graphics settings in game, the game looks a lot better when you increase the graphics settings in game.

 

You should test various resolutions, 100%, 150%, and 200%, and check out the differences on FPS. When you get good FPS you can increase graphics settings in game. Your headset have anyway the 100% resolution max what it outputs.

Thanks for advice... I put it that high as it really seemed to improve resolution on the instruments and reduce shimmering... But yes you are right I should really reduce  and maybe add some anti aliasing instead... Thanks again

[messsucher]

29 minutes ago, KPnutskgwanchos said:

Thanks for advice... I put it that high as it really seemed to improve resolution on the instruments and reduce shimmering... But yes you are right I should really reduce  and maybe add some anti aliasing instead... Thanks again

 

Anti aliasing is matter of taste how much it disturbs. I have not been much bothered of it, hence I don't use any anti aliasing. Some things are pixelated, but no shimmering, shimmering I find very disturbing.

 

I think this VR requires overall a little bit different expectations of image quality to make the game best playable what your your hardware can do. Meaning when things are smooth enough, then it is fine enough. It is the immersion and 3D appearance what makes VR special, not the ultimate graphics as in flat screen.

[Super_Tonton]

5 hours ago, Youtch said:

What other settings are you using in the game and nvidia?

 

In Nvidia CP: VR pre-rendered frames is set to 2 and everything else is set to Global default. 

 

Il-2 graphic settings: Ultra preset, shadows and clouds at HIGH, Landscape details at 4x (if you have 8G of VRAM, there's no gain to set this lower), mirrors at OFF and no MSAA (those are frame rate killers), horizon draw distance at 150km, other settings to taste...

 

SteamVR motion smooting FORCE ON. I tested with AUTO but there is much more display artifacts than forced on. 

 

 

[Youtch]

10 hours ago, Super_Tonton said:

Il-2 graphic settings: Ultra preset, shadows and clouds at HIGH, Landscape details at 4x (if you have 8G of VRAM, there's no gain to set this lower), mirrors at OFF and no MSAA (those are frame rate killers), horizon draw distance at 150km, other settings to taste...

 Are you using in game sharpen?

 

I will try with motion reprojection to see how it improves.

[messsucher]

Also I would say disable FPS counters. They really give you zero information in VR. They don't tell you of micro stuttering, all you will do is become obsessed of that FPS number and how it changes while you play the game. I disabled the FPS meter, began trusting my eyes and brains on what is good, and now have the best time ever. If you keep the counter visible your brain will tell you "45 FPS bad" because you have heard so. Just toss it and learn to live without that FPS number god. Your life will only become better!

 

It is funny to say these things since forever it has been said gameplay more important than graphics. Yet for some reason in flight sims it has went completely other way around. So glad I am back in the right track - the gameplay matter the most!

[KPnutskgwanchos]

44 minutes ago, messsucher said:

Also I would say disable FPS counters. They really give you zero information in VR. They don't tell you of micro stuttering, all you will do is become obsessed of that FPS number and how it changes while you play the game. I disabled the FPS meter, began trusting my eyes and brains on what is good, and now have the best time ever. If you keep the counter visible your brain will tell you "45 FPS bad" because you have heard so. Just toss it and learn to live without that FPS number god. Your life will only become better!

 

It is funny to say these things since forever it has been said gameplay more important than graphics. Yet for some reason in flight sims it has went completely other way around. So glad I am back in the right track - the gameplay matter the most!

You know I have come to exactly the same conclusion. I reduced the resolution per eye to from 260 to 150 as you suggested and all still looks good, maybe the cockpit gauges not quite so clear but its ok. I tried AA as well but as you say not a great deal of difference to me so I will just keep the performance gain for smoothness . I definitely get a performance boost from FSR so I will keep using that for now. The other trick that has helped is increasing the Q2 refresh rate slightly from 72 to 80. This means that the lowest FPS drops to now is 40 not 35. But most of all as you say I now have smoothness which is the most important thing. So I am happy now altho I may just have to try composite one time to see if that is even better and also last thing is whether or not to try wireless link and for that I need to decide between Virtual Desktop or just use airlink. Thank you again for your help and wise words about the FPS counter!              

[Super_Tonton]

1 hour ago, Youtch said:

Are you using in game sharpen?

Yes, I use in game sharpen, no HDR, no SSAO. I either use no AA or FXAA x4, but no AA seems to help with ID at distance.

[dburne]

2 hours ago, messsucher said:

Also I would say disable FPS counters. They really give you zero information in VR. They don't tell you of micro stuttering, all you will do is become obsessed of that FPS number and how it changes while you play the game. I disabled the FPS meter, began trusting my eyes and brains on what is good, and now have the best time ever. If you keep the counter visible your brain will tell you "45 FPS bad" because you have heard so. Just toss it and learn to live without that FPS number god. Your life will only become better!

 

It is funny to say these things since forever it has been said gameplay more important than graphics. Yet for some reason in flight sims it has went completely other way around. So glad I am back in the right track - the gameplay matter the most!

 

So very true!