Issues with VR after recent updates

[Angry_Russian]

Has anyone experienced smearing/shaking of the image in VR since the latest updates? It feels like some kind of spacewarp is enabled, but it doesn't and all metrics tools confirm solid 90 fps. Game was butter-smooth with 4.701, but now doesn't matter how low I drop the graphics it still looks blurred and shaking when I roll the plane aggressively or going for a take-off for example, or basically in any situation when something goes fast against background. I'm on Win10, rtx3080ti, Quest 2, 11600k @5GHz playing through Oculus link.. again, all metric tools don't detect frame drops and show 90 fps and 30-40% of GPU headroom and it still behaves like this. DCS runs well, HL Alyx runs well, no smearing no matter how fast I turn if fps is OK. Maybe some kind of openvr issue?

 

So far I've tried different versions of SteamVR, Opencomposite, clean reinstalls of Steam, SteamVR, and the game, different link cables, fholger's openvr library, but nothing helps. Right now I'm forced to fly in potato graphics to improve spotting because otherwise I basically loose low contacts visually due to this smearing. Any ideas on what else I can try, is this a known bug? Maybe it's a Quest 2 related issue I don't know about?

Edited February 16, 2022 by Angry_Russian

[dgiatr]

Hello , i own quest2 too, i had the same problem with you.

 

Try to ensure a better and more bright lighting in your room in order to help quest 2 vr device to get a better tracking of the whole space, especially during fast head movements. 

 

I also use oculus cable, i dont know if its relative to your problem due to faster transfer rate of cable compared to air link....

 

 

.....did you ever tried oculus cable? i suspect that using air link might bring better image quality due to video compression while using cable instead of air link....

Edited February 16, 2022 by dgiatr

[Angry_Russian]

17 hours ago, dgiatr said:

Hello , i own quest2 too, i had the same problem with you.

 

Try to ensure a better and more bright lighting in your room in order to help quest 2 vr device to get a better tracking of the whole space, especially during fast head movements. 

 

I also use oculus cable, i dont know if its relative to your problem due to faster transfer rate of cable compared to air link....

Hi, I've tried that, for sure lighting is not the issue - even if my head is stationary all fast moving objects relative to my viewpoint get smeared. It's looks similar to when you are running something on the monitor without vsync on. When tracking is the issue the viewport is jumping around, but that is not what is happening here. Tried both cable link and air link, and issue is the same, the problem is somewhere in interaction between IL2 and the headset, maybe some CPU problem in the rendering, as everything else runs smooth. I have 11600k @5GHz and it gets loaded max to 30%, and again I don't see frametime spikes or framedrops, its something with the VR presenter vs IL2.

 

What Oculus software version on the headset do you have BTW?

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Angry_Russian

[Angry_Russian]

So I ended up with a clean reinstall of Windows, and issue is still there, though VR performance improved, I have now even more GPU headroom than before and link now works with all my USB ports without issues (new chipset drivers). Tested Beat Saber both with native Oculus support and SteamVR and it runs flawlessly with 1.8 supersampling and 8x MSAA (to fully load GPU).

 

I don't know what exactly is going on but it seems like recent Quest 2 firmware update is not compatible with latest IL-2, no frame drops are reported by the game or presenter but fast moving objects are obviously ghosting, and I can't solve it no mater what I do on my PC. It was not like this a month ago with 4.701 and v35 Quest 2 firmware, but I can't downgrade any of those to test. Will try to find a way to properly record this and post in bug reports..

[firdimigdi]

@Angry_Russian are you encountering these issues in singleplayer or multiplayer?

[Angry_Russian]

51 minutes ago, Firdimigdi said:

@Angry_Russian are you encountering these issues in singleplayer or multiplayer?

SP, didn't try MP yet. When I'm flying alone in quick mission with no AI it's less noticeable than when I'm doing campaigns or career. But even at 4 vs 4 quick mission it's very noticeable, so it's not like 11600k at 5GHz is limiting the performance. A month ago with same config I could do career and campaigns without any issues at 80 fps at high graphics as long as I stay within reasonable AI amounts. Quick fights 8x8 were no issue even at 90 fps. PWCG was also not an issue with reasonable setup.

 

Maybe something changed in how Quest 2 works with OpenVR in IL2 due to changes in Oculus software or IL2 itself, I don't know. But DCS works great both in Oculus mode and SteamVR, so I tend to think that something changed on IL2 side with latest hotfixes. Again, no frames are getting dropped by the game, and IL2 mirrored image (pre-presenter) looks clear, maybe IL2 OpenVR somehow brakes Oculus link.. mirrored image from Oculus mirror shows same ghosting though, so it's not a Quest 2 hardware issue.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Angry_Russian

[firdimigdi]

This is with a Reverb G2 on a 5900X/3080Ti playing at 90Hz, ~7ms frametime (in any case always under 11ms), motion reprojection disabled:

What I have noticed in SP career, AQM or multiplayer missions with AI hosted on the same PC is that in even in moderate AI activity zones there is an obvious microstuttering in the rendering of just the AI planes (most pronounced in maneuvers like rolling scissors - the scenery around is quite smooth but the motion of the plane I am looking at is not). There is no framedrop logged or anything, not even synthetic frames. This does not seem to occur in 8vs8 QM dogfights. Also it does not occur online.

 

Where it gets interesting:

If I take the very same mission that I could see the issue in and run it off a different PC acting as server it is completely smooth - which leads me to believe there is something with the AI-related thread. I tried this even with the AQM-generated missions after converting them to work with MP.

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Firdimigdi

[-DED-Rapidus]

@Firdimigdi, @Angry_Russian, that is, there is no clear picture of what is happening?

[Angry_Russian]

@-DED-Rapidus In my case when I'm taking off I can see ground terrain ghosting too. As a test I'm trying first mission of Fortress on the Volga campaign. I can see ghosting on 2 bombers against the sky when they fly by right above me on a take-off, and then when I'm taking off from the runway I can clearly see ghosting on the hangars and control tower if I look 90 to the right, then in the air if I roll the plane fast enough (109 doesn't actually roll that fast, but it's still visible) I can see the issues even on the terrain. When alone in quick mission the terrain doesn't exactly ghost, but when I roll I still can see like it's sometimes moves step-by-step, like stuttering with the same intervals. Issue indeed progresses rapidly the more AI I add into the mission. I will try to do a recording from Oculus mirror now and post it here, hope OBS won't take too much resources to keep it obviously visible.

[firdimigdi]

@-DED-Rapidus - sorry, obviously what I am seeing is different to what @Angry_Russian is seeing, maybe I should've of opened a different report. I don't see any ghosting of the terrain or anything of this sort. In fact I would not call what I am seeing "ghosting". It is more a micro-stutter in rendering just the AI planes in rapid maneuvers (it's not like motion reprojection/smoothing, it's a bit "rougher"), which is what makes it so strange and made even stranger by the fact that it is not displayed when seeing the same AI-planes hosted on a server. Also the recent updates have increased performance by quite a bit all around, which makes this stand out even more I guess.

 

I attempted to record this over the weekend but it seemed impossible to detect in the desktop mirror sadly; I'll give it another try maybe I can get a higher FPS recording or something.

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Firdimigdi
typo

[Angry_Russian]

Indeed recording this is really hard. Best I can do is OBS recording of 2000x1566 at 80 fps. Higher than that gives issues with Oculus link, basically NV12 encoder gets overloaded.

 

@-DED-RapidusHere is the video sample, you can see trees, terrain, objects and shadows stuttering although game is still at 80 fps, in VR it's MUCH more obvious for sure. I've set graphics to potato to free up GPU and make it more visible. Also the video is 80 fps, but I don't even know how to watch it on a monitor with 80 fps - best way too look at it is to use Virtual Desktop (Steam version) or some other 360 degrees VR video player and run headset at 80 Hz and use 100 degrees dome projection.. When I'm watching this video like this I can see ghosting on the planes flying above me, on the control tower and other planes on the ground when I'm passing them and on the terrain textures when I'm rolling the plane. These are not video-compression artefacts of OBS, this pretty much looks like it does in the headset, but much more crisp image in the headset makes it 10 times more obvious.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKXtGbyPK5IMZKJWpfqbWvby1fpOBfKr/view?usp=sharing

 

If you don't have the headset to watch it at 80 hz - let me know, I'll try to record at 90 hz. Rift S, Quest 2, Index - all should give you the ability to see at 80 Hz, I think.

 

Hope this helps to understand what is this.. nothing like that in DCS both in Oculus mode and SteamVR mode, it's really awkward to see IL-2 running worse than DCS, never was a case for me before ?

Edited February 21, 2022 by Angry_Russian

[BH_Adabadoo_VR]

On 2/21/2022 at 3:45 AM, Firdimigdi said:

This is with a Reverb G2 on a 5900X/3080Ti playing at 90Hz, ~7ms frametime (in any case always under 11ms), motion reprojection disabled:

What I have noticed in SP career, AQM or multiplayer missions with AI hosted on the same PC is that in even in moderate AI activity zones there is an obvious microstuttering in the rendering of just the AI planes (most pronounced in maneuvers like rolling scissors - the scenery around is quite smooth but the motion of the plane I am looking at is not). There is no framedrop logged or anything, not even synthetic frames. This does not seem to occur in 8vs8 QM dogfights. Also it does not occur online.

 

Where it gets interesting:

If I take the very same mission that I could see the issue in and run it off a different PC acting as server it is completely smooth - which leads me to believe there is something with the AI-related thread. I tried this even with the AQM-generated missions after converting them to work with MP.

 

 

Is there anywhere you could point me to that has information on how to convert a mission to MP and how to setup a server for it??

I would love to be able to do that.  I have a spare machine sitting around that I could use to serve some fun missions with friends.

 

S!

 

 

[firdimigdi]

10 minutes ago, BH_Adabadoo_VR said:

Is there anywhere you could point me to that has information on how to convert a mission to MP and how to setup a server for it??

 

 

Basically I add the object type called fake_airfield at the location I want to spawn from, set its nationality, remove the Player plane and set the mission to Dogfight or Coop depending on what I want to do. As long as there's no logic strictly depending on the Player plane you are usually good to go. The missions the game generates are saved in the mission directory with a name like "gen" or something - sort by time modified in that dir right after you generate it.

 

But you can also use the excellent Easy Mission Generator or PWCG if you want something more complicated to play with friends. The former is much easier and quicker to use, only did the above for testing purposes.

[BH_Adabadoo_VR]

On 3/2/2022 at 9:55 AM, Firdimigdi said:

 

 

Basically I add the object type called fake_airfield at the location I want to spawn from, set its nationality, remove the Player plane and set the mission to Dogfight or Coop depending on what I want to do. As long as there's no logic strictly depending on the Player plane you are usually good to go. The missions the game generates are saved in the mission directory with a name like "gen" or something - sort by time modified in that dir right after you generate it.

 

But you can also use the excellent Easy Mission Generator or PWCG if you want something more complicated to play with friends. The former is much easier and quicker to use, only did the above for testing purposes.

Sweet and thanks for the link the that manual!!!