Pimax (Delay/Lag issue)

[=IRFC=NakedSquirrel]

In multiplayer, I occasionally jump on servers where I will get stutters and my headset's movement.  It feels as if I drop to a very low FPS, but the actual game FPS is at ~90

If I don't move my head, the framerate is fine, but once I start looking around, it feels like 5fps.

 

The other odd thing is how it seems dependent on where I am looking.  It depends on the map, but I (for instance) won't be able to look east without risking this odd fps drop.

It doesn't seem like an GPU issue.  The game is running stable, and if I can keep my head *perfectly* still, I have no lag/FPS drop.    

 

I've tried messing with Room Lighting Frequency and Refresh rate, but this doesn't seem to help.

 

I'm using OpenXR and OpenComposite.  I've also tried disabling OpenXR toolkit for IL2, but I still get the lag.

 

It might be related to QuadView or Smart Smoothing.  I might try disabling those next and see if the issue resolves.

 

 

It's difficult to test because it isn't a consistent problem.  I'm guessing it is related to the number of objects in a scene.  

[[CPT]Crunch]

Why would you be using opencomposite with a pimaxplay OXR capable headset?  There's your potential issue right there.

[=IRFC=NakedSquirrel]

Ah.  Yes that might be the case.  It's a legacy thing I still had from the HP reverb.  

[Varibraun]

On 8/31/2025 at 11:13 AM, =IRFC=NakedSquirrel said:

It might be related to QuadView or Smart Smoothing.  I might try disabling those next and see if the issue resolves.

 

Yes, I think there is agreement in these forums that neither of those currently work well (or at all) with IL2.

 

On 8/31/2025 at 1:06 PM, [CPT]Crunch said:

Why would you be using opencomposite with a pimaxplay OXR capable headset?  There's your potential issue right there.

 

LOL...now you have me worried too!  So here comes the dumb question to be sure I am on the same page with you and that I haven't been doing this all wrong since the release of the Native PimaxXR (especially because I am literally in the process of setting up a brand new system):

 

I am using the OpenComposite download with the replacement "openvr_api.dll" file from the github opencomposite site still following those instructions - see here:

 

Spoiler

 

The .exe on that download opens the opencomposite switcher which I use.  I thought that was a requirement to keep my system from running SteamVR.  I think that is still correct and it will run PimaxXR (which was selected in Pimax Play) and AI seems to agree based on the response to my query below - BUT, I just want to be sure you think that is correct or am I gimping my system by using the switcher?  Thank you!

 

 

[Panzerlang]

5 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

Yes, I think there is agreement in these forums that neither of those currently work well (or at all) with IL2.

 

 

LOL...now you have me worried too!  So here comes the dumb question to be sure I am on the same page with you and that I haven't been doing this all wrong since the release of the Native PimaxXR (especially because I am literally in the process of setting up a brand new system):

 

I am using the OpenComposite download with the replacement "openvr_api.dll" file from the github opencomposite site still following those instructions - see here:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The .exe on that download opens the opencomposite switcher which I use.  I thought that was a requirement to keep my system from running SteamVR.  I think that is still correct and it will run PimaxXR (which was selected in Pimax Play) and AI seems to agree based on the response to my query below - BUT, I just want to be sure you think that is correct or am I gimping my system by using the switcher?  Thank you!

 

 

I'm running my Super entirely on its own built-in software (OpenXR in my case) with zero issues (9800X3D and Asus 5090).

[Varibraun]

13 minutes ago, Panzerlang said:

I'm running my Super entirely on its own built-in software (OpenXR in my case) with zero issues (9800X3D and Asus 5090).

 

Did you have to switch out the openvr_api.dll file?

[Panzerlang]

9 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

 

Did you have to switch out the openvr_api.dll file?

No, everything out of the box, so to speak.

[Varibraun]

7 minutes ago, Panzerlang said:

No, everything out of the box, so to speak.

 

When I do that (i.e. run with the default IL2 openvr_api.dll), it runs through SteamVR (using PimaxXR runtime).  Is yours opening SteamVR?

[Panzerlang]

57 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

 

When I do that (i.e. run with the default IL2 openvr_api.dll), it runs through SteamVR (using PimaxXR runtime).  Is yours opening SteamVR?

No, it doesn't. I'm guessing you've got non-OEM stuff in your IL2 folders somewhere.

[DBCOOPER011]

2 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

When I do that (i.e. run with the default IL2 openvr_api.dll), it runs through SteamVR (using PimaxXR runtime).  Is yours opening SteamVR?

 

Thats the same for me with the OG crystal. If I don't have the opencomposite openvr.dll_api.dll placed in the bin/game folder, or use the opencomposite runtime switcher, IL2 will start in SteamVR regardless of what I set in Pimax play. If the opencomposite openvr.dll_api.dll is in the bin/game folder, or the opencomposite runtime switcher is set to "Switch to OpenComposite", then the game loads without SteamVR.

[Panzerlang]

8 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

Thats the same for me with the OG crystal. If I don't have the opencomposite openvr.dll_api.dll placed in the bin/game folder, or use the opencomposite runtime switcher, IL2 will start in SteamVR regardless of what I set in Pimax play. If the opencomposite openvr.dll_api.dll is in the bin/game folder, or the opencomposite runtime switcher is set to "Switch to OpenComposite", then the game loads without SteamVR.

Try uninstalling SteamVR and see what happens. I'm assuming you're not running the Steam version of IL2 however.

[DBCOOPER011]

1 hour ago, Panzerlang said:

Try uninstalling SteamVR and see what happens. I'm assuming you're not running the Steam version of IL2 however.

 

Yes, running the IL2 standalone version. I just installed pimax play and IL2 on another win11 drive I have that didnt have steam or opencomposite installed. The game wouldnt go in VR mode with any settings checked in pimax play. 

[Varibraun]

22 hours ago, Panzerlang said:

No, it doesn't. I'm guessing you've got non-OEM stuff in your IL2 folders somewhere.

 

I don't think so (other than the .dll swap) simply because it is a brand new install on a new rig.  I am running IL2 through Steam though, but it doesn't look like that makes the difference based on @DBCOOPER011's posts above since we are having the same experiences and he is running stand alone.

 

@[CPT]Crunch, are you also able to run PimaxPlayXR without the .dll replacement/switch AND without it opening SteamVR like @Panzerlang's system?  If so, I think we should open a new thread here to see if we can get to the bottom of this - I would like to run PimaxPlay native XR without the necessity of the outdated opencomposite .dll swap hack.

 

@firdimigdi - do you have any thoughts about this, I think you have discussed it before with your VR expertise?  I think the AI answer I posted above is likely referencing you and some others that have addressed this in past including the chart that @chiliwili69 put together prior to the native PimaxPlayXR introduction.

 

 

Edited September 5 by Varibraun

[Panzerlang]

16 hours ago, DBCOOPER011 said:

 

Yes, running the IL2 standalone version. I just installed pimax play and IL2 on another win11 drive I have that didnt have steam or opencomposite installed. The game wouldnt go in VR mode with any settings checked in pimax play. 

Then WTF! Lol. I had everything installed with my OG at one point or another, then uninstalled and/or deleted. Got the Super, plugged it all in, updated Pimax Play and off I went. Can you reinstall IL2 over itself? My guess would be there's something left over in a folder or in the registry that's tripping up the VR (though it didn't in mine and I'm messy as hell).

Oh, memory hit...somebody somewhere mentioned you have to physically click the OpenXR button in Pimax Play to activate it (because it's not active by default). Try that.

 

[firdimigdi]

13 hours ago, Varibraun said:

@firdimigdi - do you have any thoughts about this, I think you have discussed it before with your VR expertise?  I think the AI answer I posted above is likely referencing you and some others that have addressed this in past including the chart that @chiliwili69 put together prior to the native PimaxPlayXR introduction.

 

The only way to get an OpenVR title to run via OpenXR using the system's assigned OpenXR runtime (in this case PimaxXR) and circumvent SteamVR is via OpenComposite - either as a per-app .dll replacement or via the file the OpenComposite switcher edits. For those that do not have the .dll swapped but in the past had the switcher installed it works because uninstalling the switcher does not restore the aforementioned edited file (IRCC it's something like %localappdata%\openvr\openvrpaths.vrpath).

 

https://pimax.com/blogs/blogs/how-to-run-openxr-on-the-pimax-crystal

 

(You can skip OpenXR Toolkit from the above, but not OpenComposite)

[Varibraun]

34 minutes ago, firdimigdi said:

The only way to get an OpenVR title to run via OpenXR using the system's assigned OpenXR runtime (in this case PimaxXR) and circumvent SteamVR is via OpenComposite - either as a per-app .dll replacement or via the file the OpenComposite switcher edits. For those that do not have the .dll swapped but in the past had the switcher installed it works because uninstalling the switcher does not restore the aforementioned edited file (IRCC it's something like %localappdata%\openvr\openvrpaths.vrpath).

 

https://pimax.com/blogs/blogs/how-to-run-openxr-on-the-pimax-crystal

 

(You can skip OpenXR Toolkit from the above, but not OpenComposite)

 

Thank you for weighing in, I REALLY appreciate the time you spend addressing these type of VR issues for this small community.  So basically nothing has changed other than the fact that with PimaxPlayXR ENABLED in the PimaxPlay UI, we will be using that runtime instead of the old OpenComposite/OpenXR runtime?

 

8 hours ago, Panzerlang said:

Then WTF! Lol. I had everything installed with my OG at one point or another, then uninstalled and/or deleted. Got the Super, plugged it all in, updated Pimax Play and off I went.

 

Considering you were running the OG in the past, this all now makes sense to me in light of what @firdimigdi explained above.  You are probably still running the the edited .dll from your old install without completing the full purge of the path he mentions.  It also tracks with my experience when I hooked up my Super for the first time on my old system where I had been running my OG Crystal, because it also ran IL2 "out of the box" without SteamVR because the edited .dll was already installed.  It wasn't until I went to a brand new rig with a fresh IL2 install that I needed to "switch" the .dll again.  (Also, didn't seem like the "Switcher" was working for me this time and I had to manually insert the .dll to get it running).

 

Bottom line - Unless someone feel differently, no need for a new thread.  Things are still as they were, and unless the Devs make a change, we still need to switch the .dll to avoid SteamVR.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to educate me...again!  

[firdimigdi]

57 minutes ago, Varibraun said:

 

Thank you for weighing in, I REALLY appreciate the time you spend addressing these type of VR issues for this small community.  So basically nothing has changed other than the fact that with PimaxPlayXR ENABLED in the PimaxPlay UI, we will be using that runtime instead of the old OpenComposite/OpenXR runtime?

 

 

Considering you were running the OG in the past, this all now makes sense to me in light of what @firdimigdi explained above.  You are probably still running the the edited .dll from your old install without completing the full purge of the path he mentions.  It also tracks with my experience when I hooked up my Super for the first time on my old system where I had been running my OG Crystal, because it also ran IL2 "out of the box" without SteamVR because the edited .dll was already installed.  It wasn't until I went to a brand new rig with a fresh IL2 install that I needed to "switch" the .dll again.  (Also, didn't seem like the "Switcher" was working for me this time and I had to manually insert the .dll to get it running).

 

Bottom line - Unless someone feel differently, no need for a new thread.  Things are still as they were, and unless the Devs make a change, we still need to switch the .dll to avoid SteamVR.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to educate me...again!  

 

Games can "speak" Oculus, OpenVR or OpenXR.

 

When a game speaks Oculus it plays natively on Meta headsets. When it speaks OpenVR it plays natively on SteamVR headsets. When it speaks OpenXR it can play  on any headset that has a supporting OpenXR runtime provided for it.

 

The idea of OpenXR is that game developers write the game in a headset-agnostic way and then it's up to the headset manufacturer (or another third party like for example VirtualDesktop's VDXR or mbucchia's Pimax-OpenXR [which later was renamed to PimaxXR or something along those lines, I didn't follow]) to provide the implementation.

 

OpenComposite started its life as a translation layer from OpenVR to Oculus runtime allowing players with Oculus Rift headsets to play SteamVR games without the need to run SteamVR with a decent performance gain. Later it was modified to translate OpenVR to OpenXR opening the path to SteamVR being circumvented on any headset that has an OpenXR runtime provided.

 

 

Edited September 5 by firdimigdi
always typos

[Panzerlang]

7 hours ago, Varibraun said:

Considering you were running the OG in the past, this all now makes sense to me in light of what @firdimigdi explained above.  You are probably still running the the edited .dll from your old install without completing the full purge of the path he mentions.  It also tracks with my experience when I hooked up my Super for the first time on my old system where I had been running my OG Crystal, because it also ran IL2 "out of the box" without SteamVR because the edited .dll was already installed.  It wasn't until I went to a brand new rig with a fresh IL2 install that I needed to "switch" the .dll again.  (Also, didn't seem like the "Switcher" was working for me this time and I had to manually insert the .dll to get it running).

 

Bottom line - Unless someone feel differently, no need for a new thread.  Things are still as they were, and unless the Devs make a change, we still need to switch the .dll to avoid SteamVR.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to educate me...again!  

I didn't think of that. Lol.

[TAIPAN_]

Am I the only one that doesn't like using open composite? 

 

Gameplay seems the smoothest to me with the native SteamVR/OpenVR. 

 

I've seen some huge performance gains from OpenComposite in other sims (like racing sims) but IL2 was not one of them. 

 

With OpenComposite when I turned my head it just wasn't smooth compared to native OpenVR. 

 

I did have to disable FFR for stability though, and have tuned a lot of settings. 

My crystal is the OG one with the battery. 

[DBCOOPER011]

3 hours ago, TAIPAN_ said:

Am I the only one that doesn't like using open composite? 

 

Gameplay seems the smoothest to me with the native SteamVR/OpenVR. 

 

I've seen some huge performance gains from OpenComposite in other sims (like racing sims) but IL2 was not one of them. 

 

With OpenComposite when I turned my head it just wasn't smooth compared to native OpenVR. 

 

I did have to disable FFR for stability though, and have tuned a lot of settings. 

My crystal is the OG one with the battery. 

 

I see a slight improvement gain using opencomposite vs steamvr at the same resolution. nothing substantial though. I prefer using opencomposite since I like cropping the fov (top portion) and adjusting the resolution using the ohnespeed openxr toolkit configurator.

[Varibraun]

On 9/6/2025 at 7:41 PM, TAIPAN_ said:

Am I the only one that doesn't like using open composite? 

 

Gameplay seems the smoothest to me with the native SteamVR/OpenVR. 

 

I've seen some huge performance gains from OpenComposite in other sims (like racing sims) but IL2 was not one of them. 

 

With OpenComposite when I turned my head it just wasn't smooth compared to native OpenVR. 

 

Like @DBCOOPER011, one of the main reason I have been using OpenXR vs. SteamVR was the ability to use the XRToolKit.  However, with the recent Pimax Play addition of Sharpening and the adjustment tools, I will probably give SteamVR another go to determine if it impacts my performance (I seem to recall a 10fps difference in the past, but that was a long time ago) and to see if it helps with side tracking for me.  

 

I will have to set up SteamVR motion compensation for the DoFR rig too if I decide to fully reconvert, so it may take me some time to implement, but I will report back with what I decide.  I appreciate your input!

[DBCOOPER011]

3 hours ago, Varibraun said:

 

Like @DBCOOPER011, one of the main reason I have been using OpenXR vs. SteamVR was the ability to use the XRToolKit.  However, with the recent Pimax Play addition of Sharpening and the adjustment tools, I will probably give SteamVR another go to determine if it impacts my performance (I seem to recall a 10fps difference in the past, but that was a long time ago) and to see if it helps with side tracking for me.  

 

I will have to set up SteamVR motion compensation for the DoFR rig too if I decide to fully reconvert, so it may take me some time to implement, but I will report back with what I decide.  I appreciate your input!

 

Out of curiosity, I did a Opencomposite/SteamVR comparison with CapFrameX. This was using my OG crystal at 4312X5100 resolution and OpernXR Toolkit disabled. It appears SteamVR has better lows overall..

 

 

 

[TAIPAN_]

8 hours ago, Varibraun said:

XRToolKit

I was worried when it got abandoned that it might not keep up with any changes, though the main reason I used to use XRToollkit was MSFS which I eventually gave up. MSFS was just too much maintenance to keep all the addons working with the updates, IL2 is much more stable and enjoyable without any "work" to mod it.

 

Now I'm SteamVR for IL2, with 80% of resolution and OpenXR for DCS with 100% of resolution using QuadViews (150% in the centre). Been a very stable setup for these two.

Racing I rarely do, just for occasional VR thrill in single player.

 

Regarding smoothness when looking to the side, these settings in Nvidia control panel are something that helped the same problem in DCS. I don't know if they helped in IL2 or not.

• Virtual reality pre-rendered frames: 3
• Low latency mode: Ultra

I notice I did turn them on for IL2 as well, so they either help or do nothing to hinder it since I'm very happy with how IL2 performs when at 80% resolution.

My hardware is 7800X3D, 64GB DDR5 @6000, Nvidia GTX 4080. I have a 9800 and 128gb DDR5 in a box here ready to install once I get some spare time to pull things apart (hopefully soon).