Artifacts in the sky with ASW=on (Quest)

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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Generally, I don’t use ASW, I have it turned off, but I started testing various options and noticed that when ASW = ON (Oculus Debug Tool) in MSFS, huge artifacts appear in the sky, which basically make it impossible to fly (external view only). I found a similar topic on Meta Forum:

As you can see, the problem still persists, and from what I see, the only solution is to disable ASW. I have Quest Pro and RTX4090.

I think it’s some kind of bug with the encoder, which doesn’t cope very well with large texture area of the same color. Interestingly, even the moon is displayed twice on the clear, day sky :grin:. If there are any clouds, everything is ok.

Have you encountered this? Do you have any idea how to solve this but to keeping ASW=on?

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One of the reasons I don’t use Oculus and stick with Virtual Desktop with my Quest 3. I didn’t try Air Link but I’m sure others have said this only affects the USB connection - is that how you are connected?

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Right, link cable.

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I have an i913900k/rtx4090/32Gb 6400ram/z790mb and I don’t see this so-called common ASW issue with either my QPro or Q3 with Link using my official link cable connected to my Z790mb usb3.2 type-c port (2.5Gbps usb speed test) or with Air Link (1gig router ethernet wired to my pc with dedicated 5Ghz (ch36/80mhz in my case and only 5Ghz device, 2-3m away).

I don’t know why a few seem to have this problem. Maybe due to settings and/or poor Link cable/connection or poor router/wifi setup with Air Link. Who knows?

Again, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect some of this may be due to users mucking around with things like encoding widths an other ODT setitings.

I suggest you initially set all ODT settings to defaults/zeroes except ASW = 45fps forced (= 1/2 your refresh rate, 40fps in my case with 80Hz refresh and res slider full right), distortion = low, and encoding bitrate = 450mbps to start off with (set to zero with Air Link and then 100mbps Dynamic bitrate to start off with). Both of these bitrates can be raised later once you get decent results. With my rtx4090 I get the best results with Link using 650mbps and with Air Link using 200mbps Dynamic bitrates. Best ASW setting for me is ASW = 45fps forced (gives me a nice smooth consistant 40fps everywhere). With msfs I also use rearprojection = Depth (doesn’t make a big diff, just a little smoother). I also add 1.20 pixel density (ODT or OTT) and then use dlss/balanced. This improves the cockpit clarity to about what I can get with TAA/100 and runs a lot smoother.

With oculus runtime as your OpenXR default you can also try different ASW modes on the fly if you have a keyboard with a numeric keypad. Press ctrl+num1 (numeric 1, not top row 1) = ASW off, ctrl+num2 = 1/2 your refresh rate fps with ASW off, ctrl+num3 = 1/2 your refresh rate ASW on, ctrl+num4 = auto ASW (default). If you don’t have a numeric keyboard you can also make these changes with ODT by selecting it then pressing enter. These also can be done on the fly.

Sorry, all I can think of besides making sure you gpu drivers are up to date and with windows graphics, disable hardware acceleration graphics (HAGS). I also find that msfs is still more stable using dx11 mode instead of experimental dx12. Also, since upgrading to a rtx4090 I don’t bother using OpenXR Toolkit anymore.

If you are still having issues then you need to work with meta support including sending them your log file. I guess there’s always a possibility that your headset is faulty. Good luck mate and cheers.

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It’s interesting what you wrote, so you are an RTX4090 user and with ASW enabled you don’t have this effect on the clear, blue sky (or over clouds)?

What’s even more interesting is that I have… exactly the same equipment. RTX4090, i9 13900K, 64RAM and a Z790 motherboard. I also have the original cable, and the bandwidth on USB-C is 20 Mb/s, Oculus 2.5 test as well.

I also use OTT. The only difference is the refresh rate, I think you have 80Hz since you have 40 frames, I have 72Hz so with ASW MSFS has 36 FPS in VR with forced 45 and ASW on. Maybe it’s something here. Let me make sure - are you using the (Link Cable) H.264 codec?

My OTT profile for MSFS:

  • H.264 in ODT. 72Hz in Oculus soft with 1.3 SS.

Currently, I fly with ASW turned off, which gives me a stable 72 FPS in 90% of situations in MSFS. It’s not bad, but that 10% is sometimes annoying when there is a slight stutter (mainly affects jets, on or near the ground). I also have Open XR Toolkit with Turbo=on, which gives a clear advantage for me. Currently DX12 which seems to be smoother but this problem on the clear sky appears on DX11 and DX12 the same. It’s something to do with encoding and decoding, I think. In general, the Oculus software has a problem with textures of the same color over a large area and it is a matter of compression, unfortunately according me.

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I don’t use ASW for anything, not with a rtx4090, lol! If I do enable it the only artifacts I get are wavy building windows flying fast and low in cities like NYC.

As I already said I prefer to use 80Hz refresh rate, with res slider full right, and target 40fps with msfs. I can also use 90Hz refresh rate (and then target 45fps) with the res slider moved back a notch or two from full right but I think I get better visuals with 80Hz. Probably worth trying this yourself to see which you prefer. No way I’d use 72Hz and target 72fps, not in the places I fly, lol! If I use 72Hz and target 36FPS I find this a little too jerky with fast turns.

Good to see someone else use OTT. I only use OTT’s Quest link panel to set Encode Bitrate (650 works best for me, and this is automatically h264, no need to select this in ODT).

If you set anything in that Quest link panel remember to hit the save button. I leave the rest blanks. After setting up ODT properly and restarting everything these should show up in the Link panel. I certainly wouldn’t use this to set encode resolution to 3905 like you have. On the main OTT page I pretty well set everything to defaults/zeros except I set the ovr priority to High.

Set all your ODT to defaults/zeroes except Distortion = low and encoding bitrate = 500-650mbps. There hasn’t been any need or benefit to set encoding widths anymore since about 6 months ago. Likewise, if you are using OTT game profile just leave pixel density (SS) = 0 and leave the codec at default. It will automatically select h264 with Link. If you use Air Link it will automatically select h265 (hevc).

Your OTT msfs game profile looks ok except for ASW = Adaptive. This has never worked properly and can cause problems, maybe like you’re currently having. As I said before, I set my ASW = 45fps forced ( = 1/2 my refresh rate, without asw). On top right I set screen mirror to default and GPU scaling = Off. I’m not sure if these have any effect anyway tbh. Also, the game profile FoV multiplier does not work with game profiles. Personally I’ve never seen any reason to use anything but default 0:0 (set as default in ODT). The QPro and Q3 FOV’s are already pretty low and I’ve never seen any significant performance improvements knocking these back to 0.85;0.85 like you seem to be doing. I can’t comment if your game profile is going to the correct msfs file location or not. It looks like you have the Microsoft store version and I have the Steam version.

As I already said, you can use ctrl+num1 to 4 keyboard commands to try different ASW modes on the fly to see which works best.

As I already said, I no longer use OpenXR toolkit and I don’t think it’s necessary with a rtx4090. Some settings like Turbo mode, can effect other settings and this may be contributing to some of your issues.

Anyway, all I can tell you mate. Up to you to decide whether or not to take up my suggestions. Good luck mate and cheers.

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This is interesting because I get the horrible artifacts on plain backgrounds when ASW is on. Can you confirm that when ASW is on and you look at a plain background such as a cloudless sky you don’t get any of the artifacts described?

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I can confirm I don’t see these srtifacts when ASW is on with either my Q3 or QPro using Link or Air Link. Not sure why some, including yourself, see these. Sory I cannot be of more help mate.

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Thanks for the reply. This sounds quite promising, maybe it’s just a case of finding which setting is causing this. I get the problem with other games as well

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But you wrote:

“As I said before, I set my ASW = 45fps forced ( = 1/2 my refresh rate, without asw)” so it means for me that you dont use ASW=on, just you set target 45 FPS with ASW disable, not enable.

Only this option works if we talk about ASW on:

image

(45 as target FPS with 1/2 refresh rate of goggle HZ, so stable 45, 40 or 36 FPS)

Picture is smooth but its a case of artifacts on clouds and sky. The other ASW options (off, 45+disable or auto) do not cause such problems for me.

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Ya, I’m sure you’ll figure this out eventually, lol!

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I get a very similar issue only on plain backgrounds as well. not near as severe as the video posted, but its annoying. Happens in the sky, water, night when the cockpit is mostly black etc. I did not have this issue when I was using an RTX 3060, but I am currently using a 4080 which is where it started.

ASW for me is set to Auto, I think I will try to turn it off tonight and see if that clears things up. I am running buttery smooth outside of major airports, so I am not concerned with preformance, just the annoying flicker.

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Hello,
I have the same bug with flashing artifacts on a clear sky with ASW enabled.

Did you finally manage to solve this annoying problem???
I have the same in MSFS and XP11 and XP12.

I have to use ASW as enabled, otherwise the outdoor scenes are “floating” and jagged. When I set ASW to “enabled” the simulation is smooth and clear, but then these artifacts appear.
I have high-end hardware (AMD 9800x3D; RTX 4070Ti Super 16GB; 64 GB RAM) …
I correspond with Oculus support, but they send me from one address to another, without proposing any solutions…

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Maybe try going into your ODT file and turn sliced encoding = off. You can also try it = on to see if it makes any difference. also, make sure you don’t have V-syn turn on (nvidia control panel). I don’t see this issue with my QPro or Q3. Sorry I can’t be of more help mate. Cheers.

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Thank you for your willingness to help, but it didn’t help… ;-(

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Unfortunately I don’t think it can be fixed, it seems to be a problem which only Meta can fix. You could try doing a bug report, hopefully if enough people complain they’ll do something about it

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If it’s actually a bug, why don’t all Q3 users, like myself, see this? On the meta user forum many reported this fixed (for them) since the v69 update. Always a mystery why some of these issues happen to some, but not all.

Could be a hardware related issue I guess. If so, maybe push meta support to send you a refurbished replacement. Good luck mates and cheers.

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I had the same flashing issue using Oculus Link. Using Virtual Desktop instead resolved the issue for me. Might be worth considering.

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With VD and SSW (their version of ASW) I get terrible artifacts looking through my heli rotor blades at clouds and buildings. Better with it off but still smoother and better distance clarity using Link (h.264) at 900mbps Dynamic encoding bitrate, for me anyway. Also, with zero compression artifacts using a rtx4090.

Also, headset battery runtimes are now about 25% better with both Link and Air Link than VD. This happened when Meta made improvements a few updates ago (v67?) for PCVR. Pity it doesn’t make any difference with standalone mobile VR though. With Link my z790mb usb3.2 gen2 type-c port this now maintains my headset battery above 80% for a very long time (+6hrs).

Even with Air link I can now get at least 5hrs runtime with my Q3 Elite battery strap. With VD I used to only get about 3.5-4hrs. Of course I could still use external batteries to easily make up this difference.

In any case, everyone’s systems and flying style is different so I agree that if one PCVR method is giving you problems, it’s always a good idea to try something else. At the end of the day, whatever gives you the best clarity and smoothness is great imho.

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Yeah it’s interesting that you don’t get the problem. What GPU do you have?