Settings related to fires & smoke

[TAIPAN_]

Currently in VR everything runs fine and smooth at 90 FPS, until somebody attacks the airbase and sets everything on fire!

 

Is there any setting or config file tweak I can make that will reduce  the intensity or thickness of the smoke/fire to not affect VR performance?

It has to be mods-off mode though, for multiplayer..

 

 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

This probably has to do with AI units, not fire/smoke.

[TAIPAN_]

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

This probably has to do with AI units, not fire/smoke.

 

This was Multiplayer just human planes.

 

Unless you mean AI as in lots of ground units?

Was a few weeks ago now but I think that was on CombatBox

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

7 hours ago, TAIPAN_ said:

 

This was Multiplayer just human planes.

 

Unless you mean AI as in lots of ground units?

Was a few weeks ago now but I think that was on CombatBox

Yup. AI units of any type. Also, online performance can tank for any reason.

 

See here:

 

[chiliwili69]

On 11/30/2023 at 6:11 AM, TAIPAN_ said:

will reduce  the intensity or thickness of the smoke/fire to not affect VR performance

 

The only thing I know that will reduce the number of particles when simulating smoke (maybe fire as well) is the Presets. Do you use Ultra? just try High or Balanced.

This of course will reduce the radius of the sphere of detail.

[TAIPAN_]

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

Yup. AI units of any type. Also, online performance can tank for any reason.

 

See here:

 

 

Thanks! Yeah unfortunately I've experienced the big differences between single player and MP performance in DCS, though for IL2 I haven't been on MP as much. That makes sense.

3 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

 

The only thing I know that will reduce the number of particles when simulating smoke (maybe fire as well) is the Presets. Do you use Ultra? just try High or Balanced.

This of course will reduce the radius of the sphere of detail.

 

I already have it on balanced, as I prefer to turn up other things (shadows, reflections, SteamSS etc).

 

I'm guessing it's just unavoidable when running so many pixels/resolution, and may be also related to the MP issue and number of AI ground units. Did have this issue in Fortress Stalingrad campaign as well but that's got a huge amount of activity.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

CPU and GPU?

[TAIPAN_]

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

CPU and GPU?

 

Ryzen 7800X3D, with RTX 4090

 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

14 hours ago, TAIPAN_ said:

 

Ryzen 7800X3D, with RTX 4090

 

So that's a monster pc. I wouldn't expect many performance hiccups on a balanced setting. I personally run the high preset on my RTX 3080 with a Reverb G2 and typically see pretty smooth gameplay and 75-80 FPS. Performance is much better in multi-player for me because it doesn't suffer from time dilation. 

[TAIPAN_]

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

So that's a monster pc. I wouldn't expect many performance hiccups on a balanced setting. I personally run the high preset on my RTX 3080 with a Reverb G2 and typically see pretty smooth gameplay and 75-80 FPS. Performance is much better in multi-player for me because it doesn't suffer from time dilation. 

 

Yeah the reason I run balanced is the Pimax Crystal has monster resolution and I want to keep it above 90fps always. Crystal has a 72hz option, but I'm sensitive to it (it seems like it's flickering like an old movie). So I always stay with 90.

 

But I guess some MP servers can't keep up with that sometimes, or when there's loads of special effects. Possibly the IL2 engine smoke/fire is a bit outdated and not using the new tech that Nvidia has too.

[DBCOOPER011]

On 12/21/2023 at 2:59 PM, TAIPAN_ said:

I already have it on balanced, as I prefer to turn up other things (shadows, reflections, SteamSS etc).

 

 

I run open composite on my 7800X3D/4090/ Crystal setup and get much better performance then SteamVR...

[[CPT]Rhino06]

40 minutes ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

I run open composite on my 7800X3D/4090/ Crystal setup and get much better performance then SteamVR...

are you achieving 90 fps in multi-player? I just got my crystal and have been tweaking settings the last couple of days but still can't quite get in finely dialed in. Running a similar system as you.  I9 13900k and rtx 4090. I'd be curious to see your full settings, in game, pimax tool settings and what you're using for setting in openxr. As well as nvidia control panel. 

[TAIPAN_]

59 minutes ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

I run open composite on my 7800X3D/4090/ Crystal setup and get much better performance then SteamVR...

How much better? 

 

When I tested at the same resolution with PimaxXR, it wasn't more than maybe 2-3fps better. At the same time when looking at the ground over the wing flying low (a good test for smoothness) it was less smooth than native. 

 

Did you use the Toolkit and enable some things like FSR etc to get that increase? I like to run native full res without any compromise.. 

 

I definitely get the OpenComposite improvement in driving sims like euro truck sim and racing games, but it doesn't seem to make a difference in IL2. 

[[CPT]Rhino06]

2 minutes ago, TAIPAN_ said:

How much better? 

 

When I tested at the same resolution with PimaxXR, it wasn't more than maybe 2-3fps better. At the same time when looking at the ground over the wing flying low (a good test for smoothness) it was less smooth than native. 

 

Did you use the Toolkit and enable some things like FSR etc to get that increase? I like to run native full res without any compromise.. 

 

I definitely get the OpenComposite improvement in driving sims like euro truck sim and racing games, but it doesn't seem to make a difference in IL2. 

I've seen you post in here about the crystal. I too have a crystal but can't get the damn thing to run smooth. I'm running a 13900 and 4090. Open xr I run full resolution and have backed pimax render quality down to .60. Everything else is set to what you've posted your settings in here. 

[TAIPAN_]

9 minutes ago, [CPT]Rhino06 said:

I've seen you post in here about the crystal. I too have a crystal but can't get the damn thing to run smooth. I'm running a 13900 and 4090. Open xr I run full resolution and have backed pimax render quality down to .60. Everything else is set to what you've posted your settings in here. 

Try my settings with OpenVR, removing OpenComposite. 

 

Check its working in FpsVR and see what the frame times are for GPU and CPU. 

 

The main difference I notice besides CPU is that I don't use OpenComposite anymore for IL2. 

[DBCOOPER011]

20 minutes ago, TAIPAN_ said:

How much better? 

 

When I tested at the same resolution with PimaxXR, it wasn't more than maybe 2-3fps better. At the same time when looking at the ground over the wing flying low (a good test for smoothness) it was less smooth than native. 

 

Did you use the Toolkit and enable some things like FSR etc to get that increase? I like to run native full res without any compromise.. 

 

I definitely get the OpenComposite improvement in driving sims like euro truck sim and racing games, but it doesn't seem to make a difference in IL2. 

 

I get probably 5-10 FPS better open composite vs SteamVR. I don't hve toolkit installed only QVFR that I use for DCS. My settings are below and I just confirmed a steady 90fps online/offline in 90Hz even though I usually use 72Hz as I don't see any performance difference and/or problems. I'm likely able to bump up the shadows/mirrors/canopy/hdr and SSAO settings but don't due to personal preference. I could probability bump up the render quality a bit, but don't since I use that percentage for DCS and have the foveated resolution set to 200% and dont like to switch the settings between the two to start. Hence why eye tracking is enabled but wont matter for IL2...

 

Nvidia settings:

Antialiasing - Gamma correction =off
CUDA -GPUs =All
Low Latency =Ultra
Power Management =Prefer maximum performance
Texture flitering - Negative LOD bia =Allow
Textrue filtering - Quality =High Quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization =Off
Vertical sync =Off

 

 

[TAIPAN_]

20 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

I get probably 5-10 FPS better open composite vs SteamVR. I don't hve toolkit installed only QVFR that I use for DCS. My settings are below and I just confirmed a steady 90fps online/offline in 90Hz even though I usually use 72Hz as I don't see any performance difference and/or problems. I'm likely able to bump up the shadows/mirrors/canopy/hdr and SSAO settings but don't due to personal preference. I could probability bump up the render quality a bit, but don't since I use that percentage for DCS and have the foveated resolution set to 200% and dont like to switch the settings between the two to start. Hence why eye tracking is enabled but wont matter for IL2...

 

Nvidia settings:

Antialiasing - Gamma correction =off
CUDA -GPUs =All
Low Latency =Ultra
Power Management =Prefer maximum performance
Texture flitering - Negative LOD bia =Allow
Textrue filtering - Quality =High Quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimization =Off
Vertical sync =Off

 

 

 

Thanks those are very very different settings to me, which is probably why we see very different results from trying OpenComposite. Possibly due to variance between CPU or GPU focus, maybe one or the other benefits more from OpenComposite. 

 

I also get a steady 90fps online and offline, except if I fly into an intense situation like my airfield getting attacked in my OP. Same thing happens in DCS on Enigmas cold war server when the Mirage F1s zoom in and bomb the runways when we're taking off ?

 

All I can say is it's pretty hard to test the difference if we're usually at 90. I think I turned the SS up to make the test harder. Even using Vanders benchmark mission it's not that taxing on this system.

 

One other benefit of using OpenComposite is that you won't have to turn off DFR in PimaxPlay because OpenXR has it disabled by default. If you play in OpenVR with Foveated Rendering on in PimaxPlay then IL-2 gets some crashes when doing certain things, especially if sharpening is on. Maybe it might be worth me trying it again one day just for this benefit of not having to change pimaxplay when switching games. 

 

Can you post your PimaxXR app showing the resolution? PimaxPlay resolution is done by percentage width, whereas SteamVR is percentage total pixels. 

My settings are here

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by TAIPAN_

[DBCOOPER011]

3 hours ago, TAIPAN_ said:

 

Can you post your PimaxXR app showing the resolution? PimaxPlay resolution is done by percentage width, whereas SteamVR is percentage total pixels.

 

Sure. I'm running 3450x4082 in both IL2 and DCS..

 

[TAIPAN_]

8 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

Sure. I'm running 3450x4082 in both IL2 and DCS..

 

Thanks, mine is 3608x4268 in IL2 (70% in SteamSS settings, but 100% in PimaxPlay. 

 

Only slightly higher resolution than you, the other settings are a bigger difference. Interesting how different personal preferences are in regards to shadows etc. I love my high detail shadows. 

 

DCS I run higher because of Quadviws performance, running 80% at 3856x4560 pixel density (PimaxPlay at 1.0, DCS set to 0.8)

[DBCOOPER011]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:20 AM, TAIPAN_ said:

One other benefit of using OpenComposite is that you won't have to turn off DFR in PimaxPlay because OpenXR has it disabled by default. If you play in OpenVR with Foveated Rendering on in PimaxPlay then IL-2 gets some crashes when doing certain things, especially if sharpening is on. Maybe it might be worth me trying it again one day just for this benefit of not having to change pimaxplay when switching games. 

 

 

I turned off all my openxr layers in steamvr and been playing for several hours without a crash with foveated rendering on. Hopefully it lasts...

 

 

Edit: Did a couple hours testing in combatbox. Averaged about 10ms with steamvr with foveated rendering, and about 11.5ms with opencomposite at 72mz at 4312x5104 resolution with the settings attached. No crashes and seems stable...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2024 by DBCOOPER011
Further testing

[chiliwili69]

6 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

Averaged about 10ms with steamvr with foveated rendering, and about 11.5ms with opencomposite at 72mz at 4312x5104 resolution with the settings attached

In the past I always have hear (not tested myself) that OpenComposite was giving better performance than SteamVR route. But your testing (at least for Crystal) looks like the opposite. Did I understand correctly?

[DBCOOPER011]

6 hours ago, chiliwili69 said:

In the past I always have hear (not tested myself) that OpenComposite was giving better performance than SteamVR route. But your testing (at least for Crystal) looks like the opposite. Did I understand correctly?

 

SteamVR with the foveated rendering settings has better performance then Opencomposite for me now. Opencomposite has advantages with being able to use Openxr toolkit and that I cant use with Steamvr. I'll probably use Steamvr as long as this remains stable... 

[Youtch]

Is foveated rendering working with IL2?

[DBCOOPER011]

4 hours ago, Youtch said:

Is foveated rendering working with IL2?

 

I think so. I'm seeing about a 1.5-2ms decrease in frametimes having it on vs off in steamvr. maybe steamvr had an update of some sort that fixed the crashing...

[TAIPAN_]

13 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

I think so. I'm seeing about a 1.5-2ms decrease in frametimes having it on vs off in steamvr. maybe steamvr had an update of some sort that fixed the crashing...

 

I think because you're at 72hz and lower frametimes you are a lot less likely to get the DFR crash.

 

For me I was pushing supersampling at 90hz, with high settings such that it was sometimes dipping below 90. The best way to then induce the crash was to load a multiplayer mission I have that has every single aircraft available to select from one airfield (I use it to setup snapviews). Usually a heavy mission will do it if you're pushing the graphics hard, but I would also sometimes get crashes even on quick mission builder.

 

Unfortunately I can't use IL2 at the moment because it's tax return time for my business and personal taxes which is going to take most of next week up  

Interested to hear if anything changed though, ie if everyone else is able to use DFR without crashes now, or if you're still able to do it when pushing the PC hard. I should be flying again by end of the month I think.