ASW doesn't work with OpenXR (Rift S)

Just tested it for an hour, after finding that I must use registry tweak to enable OpenXR, along with enabling beta in Oculus Home and even in SteamVR (I have purchased MSFS through Steam).

FPS is around 27.5, the sim kinda locked it at that value for a frame reprojection (ASW), but it’s clearly visible that ASW was off, very jittery. Tried forcing ASW modes via Oculus Tray Tool and Debug Tool, no luck. That forced me to believe that OpenXR does not currently supports ASW with either Rift S or by Oculus headsets generally.
I tried to force SteamVR to use OpenXR, but there is no such option under Settings - Developer.
When I did a registry tweak to force OpenXR via Oculus, SteamVR isn’t needed at all, and when I load it anyways, it says that it runs via Oculus (it should write SteamVR).

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

I also have the same issue. Not sure ASW works with MSFS, would be a shame if it didnt.

I get horrible stuttering and jittering whenever I do not disable ASW through the oculus debug tool. Did you try turning it off instead of one of the other modes?

I’ve tried with ASW forced on and off and see no difference. I suspect it isn’t actually doing anything

To get it working I had to force the 30Hz mode, using the command line and sever:asw.clock30 . This forces it to run ASW at 30Hz (when 90Hz is set, it will be a bit lower on 72/80Hz). It is definetely there when forcing 30Hz and feels smooth. One thing I noticed is that AA has a huge impact on fps. I am turning it off and running a much higher resolution. Getting shimmering but very sharp image and almost zero stutters. Q2/2070S/3600x.

1 Like

I guess I really need VR 101, because I don’t have the first clue what y’all are talking about. Might as well be speaking Mandarin.

2 Likes

TL;DR: there seems to be a frame-timing issue with MSFS that also is affecting X-Plane, where running in the native Oculus runtime causes micro-stutters. Setting ASW on and telling it to lock the framerate to half-refresh (e.g. 45Hz) does not work as it should, and frametiming remains unstable. Does not affect any other apps I’ve found.

I am seeing the same. I also have this exact same problem with X-Plane running in the native Oculus build. No other VR games on my system that I’ve noticed (I have almost 100) behave this way.

There seems to be some kind of frame-timing issue going on. If you turn on the performance overlays, and toggle the ASW mode on/off with the framerate lock, it doesn’t lock the framerate as it should. Framerate is unstable and fluctuating. If you go to the Application Render Timing overlay, the App Missed Submit Count is red and increasing quickly.

This causes the fluidity in the app to be ruined – filled with persistent microstutters that you can’t get rid of. It’s not an issue of graphics settings being too high – you can drag everything to minimums and this problem still exists, even when the performance overlay shows plenty of headroom available.

Weirder still, in X-Plane, this issue goes away when I force it to run in the steamVR runtime with a command line switch (–steam_vr). Even though it’s still technically running in Oculus, which is hosting SteamVR, ASW then behaves as it should and locking the framerate makes everything smooth and fluid as expected.

We can force MSFS to run in steamVR too with the openXR setting, but when I do that it creates a new issue, where the view distorts ever so slightly with small head movements (it’s a slight stretching effect). None of this is normal and shouldn’t be happening. I haven’t tested further with that to see if it fixes the frame timing issues yet.

1 Like

You shouldn’t have to go this low, if there is adequate performance headroom available. Even pulling every setting to minimums doesn’t fix the frame timing problems and fluctuating framerate with ASW enabled and locked to half-refresh. Something is broken/bugged with this, and it’s been affecting X-Plane for months too – see my post above.

Have you tried oculus tray tool? Much easier to set ASW settings.

That works the same as the command line instruction mentioned above, but it isn’t relevant for this problem. No matter how you turn it on, something in the app’s frametiming is broken, causing instability with ASW.

Agree. Something is off for sure. What I’ve mentioned is that forcing it to 30Hz was bit more stable.Still far from ideal. My system was showing 45fps stable, but no noticeable asw and very annoying micro stuttering.

You can try and see how it works for you. I am forcing to 30 at this point. Works ok with civil flightsim, not very good for something like DCS

To me that sounds like Charlie Brown’s teachers do on the cartoons. I mean no offense whatsoever, but even my nerdy ■■■ hasn’t got a CLUE what you just said, what it means, or how it might apply to me. Hell, I’m just barely past the “I got VR running at all” stage.

According to MSI afterburner, I was getting crummy frame rates (high teens-low 20s), but it didn’t feel bad to my eyes. And I had to take of my HMD and look at another screen to see that info in the first place, if there’s a way to get a frame rate counter inside of VR, I haven’t found it yet.

And I actually think that’s a good thing, I think people chase raw fps numbers in lieu of just being happy (or not) with what they’re seeing with their eyes. If my eyes are happy, I don’t care what the raw numbers are.

The raw numbers matter because they are proof of bugged behavior, instead of people just saying ‘yeah, something doesn’t seem right.’

You can have your own philosophy about satisfaction. I’m very, very familiar with VR after having used it for years, and there is something broken here. I’m not just ‘chasing raw numbers.’ I’m trying to gather more info from others so I can have a better angle about how to get this fixed.

As for why you, or anyone else should care, the performance in VR and the overall experience is definitely affected by this. It may be a case of “if you don’t know what you’re missing, you can’t miss it,” but without people like us complaining, these issues often don’t get found or fixed by the devs.

Perhaps. And hell, I’ve been the knowledgeable nerd dealing with someone who can’t even spell whatever it is we were dealing with, so I totally get that aspect. But I don’t even have an Oculus (mine is a Reverb G2 that I literally turned on for the first time ever about 18 hours ago), so it’s completely possible I’m on the wrong road to begin with.

:\ Then you’re not even affected by this issue, because your G2 doesn’t use the Oculus runtime at all.

Yup. Wrong road lol.

But you’re definitely right about one thing, this is SO new to me, I don’t even know what to expect, or what would be nice, or how to get there if I’m not already there.

I am having to run no ASW but that requires crazy video card power maxes out out my 3090 with ss at 1.3 . I can get ss of 2 on P3D 5 but again ASW broken.

Not to dilute this post any further, since we’re already diverging from the issue it’s meant to discuss, so this’ll be my last reply on this angle. That said, I would really, really encourage you to try some other VR apps with your new G2, because these flight sims tend to be the worst-performing VR apps, no contest. Many flight simmers are older people who only bought VR headsets to use with their sims, so they don’t have any feel for where the current state of VR actually is, outside the sim world. It is capable of incredible fluidity and great performance, along with detailed graphics. The reason I suggest trying other well-optimized apps is so you have a sense of what good VR looks and feels like, so then you can come back and complain with us until these flight sim apps figure out how to get their products performing like modern VR should. :slight_smile:

I’ll bite. Point me to a good one. I was thinking HL Alyx, but not because there’s anything special about it, it’s just the VR title that’s got the most name recognition (at least to me) that I know of.