Varjo Aero performance/settings

[O_Delaney]

I have quite recently switched from Reverb G2 to Varjo Aero. My IL-2 (I only fly in Flying Circus) was running on basically everything maxed out without any hiccups when I was using G2, but now the situation has changed.

Sometimes the game runs with same graphics settings as it used to and on 37PPD and eveything works fine and smooth. And then, some other times, it'l just stutter and become quite impossible to play (even if the ingame fps counter doesn't drop below ~80). Even lowering the ingame settings doesn't really help much.

My hardware is RTX 4090 Gamer OC 24GB (Gigabyte), AMD Ryzen 5800x3D, MB Aorus Elite with F38g BIOS, 64GB RAM@3200 (X.M.D. profile active) and NVMe SSDs. nVidia driver 546.01, latest opencomposite version. 
I'd expect IL-2 to be running smooth as a butter but apparently I'm missing something. I looked through Varjo's and OpenComposite's Discord and didn't find anything that could shed any new light on this.

Any ideas or perhaps suggested settings?

Edited November 2, 2023 by dedBaron

[SvAF/F16_Goblin]

Hi, 

Don't know if it will make a difference but a member in my community has gotten a message from Varjo support that they have found a bug in all Nvidia drivers above 532.03 affecting the Aero, mostly in regards to eye tracking but perhaps that cause problems in IL-2 as well. I have reverted back to this driver and have no problems. 

This bug is still present in the latest Nvidia driver but Varjo has made Nvidia aware of the issue.

[O_Delaney]

Thank you for the heads up Goblin, I’ll try downgrading. 
Interestingly, yesterday I bumped the Varjo base settings to 39PPS and turned off eye tracking. Quality got way better and the stuttering, well it didn’t disappear altogether, but got visibly better. 
Come on guys, share your settings, maybe we’ll figure out something optimal for our Aeros. Or maybe our good Mr. @mbucchia has some tips for us?..

[SvAF/F16_Goblin]

Turbo mode seems to have negative impact for Aero if that is activated in OpenXR toolkit.

 

[O_Delaney]

Absolutely. Tried it, turned it off immediately. 

[SvAF/F16_Goblin]

@dedBaronWhat version of Base software do You run? Latest is 3.10.3.25 and it addresses stuttering caused by OpenXR buffer in some games.

 

[O_Delaney]

@SvAF/F16_Goblin 3.10.3.25 it is. I downgraded my nVidia drivers today (to 532.03) and it seems better. I am starting to wonder if the issue isn't related to tracking actually. As someone noticed on Varjo discord, getting fairly steady fps arond 90 is not a big issue but even then everything gets choppy when I move my head. It's even visible in the virtual cockpit in varjo base.

 

[JG4_Moltke1871]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:20 PM, dedBaron said:

I have quite recently switched from Reverb G2 to Varjo Aero. My IL-2 (I only fly in Flying Circus) was running on basically everything maxed out without any hiccups when I was using G2, but now the situation has changed.

Sometimes the game runs with same graphics settings as it used to and on 37PPD and eveything works fine and smooth. And then, some other times, it'l just stutter and become quite impossible to play (even if the ingame fps counter doesn't drop below ~80). Even lowering the ingame settings doesn't really help much.

My hardware is RTX 4090 Gamer OC 24GB (Gigabyte), AMD Ryzen 5800x3D, MB Aorus Elite with F38g BIOS, 64GB RAM@3200 (X.M.D. profile active) and NVMe SSDs. nVidia driver 546.01, latest opencomposite version. 
I'd expect IL-2 to be running smooth as a butter but apparently I'm missing something. I looked through Varjo's and OpenComposite's Discord and didn't find anything that could shed any new light on this.

Any ideas or perhaps suggested settings?

Hi @dedBaron, meanwhile my Varjo also arrived and I suffer the same issues. I use steam VR so it seems that makes no difference. I send a message about the problem with the analysis tool in the Varjo menu. Let’s see they can manage anything, if I see it right they have updates about every three months. 

[O_Delaney]

Hi @JG4_Moltke1871 nice to see you here. Well, let’s hope Varjo will find something they can fix. Meanwhile I moved my base stations a bit further away so now they’re both more than 1,5m from me and downgraded nvidia driver. Helped enough to make it payable even on 39PPD, but that’s it- playable. Still inconsistent, feels like it should be running way better

[JG4_Moltke1871]

30 minutes ago, dedBaron said:

Hi @JG4_Moltke1871 nice to see you here. Well, let’s hope Varjo will find something they can fix. Meanwhile I moved my base stations a bit further away so now they’re both more than 1,5m from me and downgraded nvidia driver. Helped enough to make it payable even on 39PPD, but that’s it- playable. Still inconsistent, feels like it should be running way better

Yes, it’s a bit like lottery every time I start my computer. For usual after some restarts the game runs well. But that’s not how it should work ? 

I have about same equipment like you but a RTX3090 instead of RTX4090.

Where you find the 532.03 drivers?

When I look on the NVIDIA page the oldest version I find is 537.13

 

[Barn-Owl]

Glad I read this now, will hold off on buying the Varjo Aero for now.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Meanwhile I find 532.03 drivers. Unexpected it doesn’t helped in my case ?

the only what helps is restart the game until I am lucky because sometimes it runs well, why ever… ??‍♂️

With all the information here it seems we have to hope the problem will be solved by Nvidia or Varjo Software Updates.

I hope that will happen in the weeks I am in vacation ??

I hope I don’t be forced for a return request because the googles can’t handle simple drivers ?

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Find this video, maybe some other versions work….??‍♂️

 

 

[JG4_Moltke1871]

As strange as it is….: from all the reports I see it should mainly a problem of 4090 GPU’s but I also have this stutters with my 3090.

However, the solution for me is very simple…. I have to switch between game and workspace right after the game is fully loaded. Before I do that the screen shows 50 fps, after that 90….

An expensive product should not show behaviours like that, however, this simple „trick“ let my game runs normal.

[O_Delaney]

Yesterday I installed the latest nVidia drivers (preceeded by Display Driver Uninstaller) and at first the game was running perfect. Then, after some time (playing online) it went stuttery as hell. It was like that until... I left the server and came back. Everything was back to normal then.

What is going on here?..

[JG4_Moltke1871]

23 minutes ago, dedBaron said:

Yesterday I installed the latest nVidia drivers (preceeded by Display Driver Uninstaller) and at first the game was running perfect. Then, after some time (playing online) it went stuttery as hell. It was like that until... I left the server and came back. Everything was back to normal then.

What is going on here?..

I think I will contact the support. Report the problems and ask about there is a solution in sight or not. If they are not able provide a stable software I will request a retour.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

New Nvidia drivers out! Just had a few minutes on the QMB but seems running better. The game runs good from beginning and I don’t have to switch the surfaces to improve anything. How it works on your pc‘s?

[Voxman]

Just bumping this post as I'm awaiting delivery of the Varjo Aero XR-3 headset.  I know I'll probably need more CPU horsepower, but we'll see.  

My previous headset, the Reverb G2, ran well in SP/Career mode, but at 60HZ resolution.   I'm sure I will need to tweak quite a bit to get same or at least 90FPS performance out of my rig....oh the woes of this hobby/game.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:41 PM, Voxman said:

Just bumping this post as I'm awaiting delivery of the Varjo Aero XR-3 headset.  I know I'll probably need more CPU horsepower, but we'll see.  

My previous headset, the Reverb G2, ran well in SP/Career mode, but at 60HZ resolution.   I'm sure I will need to tweak quite a bit to get same or at least 90FPS performance out of my rig....oh the woes of this hobby/game.

Any update? System specs?

[Voxman]

7 hours ago, =DW=_drewm3i-VR said:

Any update? System specs?

System is the same at this point.  i7-10700K@5.0Ghz, 3080ti...

I got the Varjo yesterday and was basically getting to grips with it before I ran out of time...funny how 4 hours goes so fast in this game.

 

I did get a few flights in, just SP and using QMB for some one on one action.  I got 90fps with pretty smooth graphics, using the ingame/driver settings for the G2.  The resolution and screen are much, much better than the G2, as well as the colors.  Just a very significant improvement.  It was hard to try and leave the game to start tweaking etc. I was just delighting on the visual improvement.

 

I may get a little playing time today, but one thing I'm stuck on is that I have to run Steam VR and it's settings.  I didn't have to do this with the G2.  For the G2 I was using OpenXR and Opencomposite.  I see Steam VR has that in a menu item, and not sure how to set up this Varjo to operate without it...I think one has to use it due to the base station communication. Working my way through that.  I see that DCS has a tutorial/setup guide.  Will look into that further, but was hoping there was one for IL2 specifically.

 

Also XRSnecksaver is not working.  I'm not sure if it has to do with the OpenXR settings or what, it just doesn't work.  I've uninstalled and reinstall the program, not sure what it's doing at this point.

May have time playing with it today..but this Christmas thingy lurking around the corner...well that sucks up a lot of time.

[Voxman]

Just a quick update on this thread, if someone is searching,  XRSnecksaver is working fine.  Needed to add the openvr_api.dll file that's in that program, into the IL2 bin>game directory. 

As far as running the program with my rig, 3080ti, i7-10700K@5.1Ghz, and 16G memory, slightly overclocked, I'm able to play nicely in certain situations, but will need to improve my CPU/mem rig in the near future for smoother action when large multiple A/C are in the picture. 

I do want to make some improvements to my graphics settings, especially in game, if needed but really haven't a clue on a plan of attack at this point.

My Varjo PPD setting is set to high, 35PPD.  I really haven't tried any other settings here but it all seems good so far. 

 My ingame settings are as follows:  Should I turn off FXAA, and switch to MSAA?  Not sure again.  Game play is more important to me, as far as smoothness, but it's always nice to have some of that eye candy up and running.