Comparison Performance VR

Before I start, I will make it clear that MSFS is superb on my i9-11900K, RTX3090, 32GB Ram, Fast Gen 4 SSD and ultra fast fibre BB. In 4K, ultra settings, good FPS in monitor mode. The level of detail, content, ect. are exceptional. However, FSVR is a let down. Spent hours and hours trying to tweak FSVR with Tray Tool, OXR Toolkit, Meta and Nvidia settings, and more. And the results on my Quest 2 are poor FPS, shimmering and shaking despite lighting condition, and what looks like washed out graphics! You may say, well go for a faster system with a RTX4090 and Pico VR. How many flight simmers are going to pay out thousands for a top range VR system, just to get decent VR in FS? This is my point, I have AeroFly FS4 with added scenery, and the VR on my Quest 2 is superb. Crisp, clear with decent FPS, almost as crisp and clear as monitor mode! I am certainly NOT knocking FS, as it offers a lot more than AeroFly. IPACS have had a head start on MS/Asobo in VR. But with the mighty Microsoft behind FS, if IPACS can get the VR right, then why not MS/Asobo? I think fairly soon FS will come up with a massive upgrade to improve VR, I will look forward to that.

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Hi!

I, like you, spent a long time trying to get my system to run smooth and stutter-free using the Quest 2. First in the-other-sim and then again when I made the switch over to MSFS. I spent days, no weeks… researching settings, tweaking, getting frustrated, re-tweaking, experimenting, retweaking things… until I got it right.

I am now able to get smooth performance out of my mid to higher end system using the Quest 2 with almost any aircraft in any location. I’m using an i9-9900k OC’ed to 5.0GHz with a 3080 Ti. Wired Q2 using the official Link Cable. On top of MSFS, I’m on the VATSIM network and usually livestreaming, so I have StreamLabs using up resources, as well.

I made the attached video to hopefully help out people who are struggling with getting their VR experience running smooth. Give it a watch and maybe use the settings as a baseline and tweak from there based on your specific system. And don’t hesitate to ask any questions - my goal is to try to get as many people running well on VR. There is so little documentation out there - the VR community has to stick together to help each other out so that as many people as possible can experience the amazing-ness of VR in this sim!!

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@Deelee6800

Agreed, I also use a Quest 2 and am very happy with the performance and clarity in MSFS. I have an i7-10700K and RTX 3070. I only fly in VR and love every moment of it. Your live streams are fantastic by the way, always great to watch and very relaxing to listen to :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,

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Yes! Same. I haven’t flown in 2d in years at this point. Once you get those settings dialed in and things are running smooth… it’s just impossible to go back!

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@ExceededBull193 msfs vr will never be as good performance wise as aerofly vr because aerofly is a simpler game with simpler graphics. msfs vr is very demanding, aerofly isn’t. but msfs vr can be a good experience, to me it seems like you are not doing it right judging by your posts on this forum. you blame msfs but i and many others know msfs can be very good in vr, so either your expectations are too high or you aren’t very good at getting your settings dialled in.

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I’m not doubting your conclusions based on your hardware but I want to point out one area that you haven’t optimized. In this sim, the best results are obtained when using Windows Mixed Reality OpenXR runtime as opposed to Steam’s. Since you’re running the sim using an Oculus headset I know you’re using Steam. I have the capability to use both OpenXR via WMR and Steam. I can tell you it’s night and day. WMR greatly outperforms Steam in this sim.

So when you state that MS/Asobo are lacking in VR, I don’t think they’re lacking as much as you. I agree it could be better but I think you’d be much happier if you had a headset capable of running the sim via WMR’s OpenXR. I have a Reverb G2 running on a 6900xt and I’m totally satisfied with the visuals and performance. Actually since DX12 and FSR2 got implemented I’m totally impressed.

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I stepped up from Occ rift to Hp G2 about 3 weeks ago. Wonderful experience even on my midrange system, 9700K, Rtx 3080.
I lower the grahics to medium-high with clouds at high and with DLSS from Performance to Quality depending if at the airport or at cruise. I aim for FPS 40 to 45, about half of 90HZ. Very clear, no stutters or artifacts. I learned that on my system FPS in VR is more important then trying to see the last bit of detail. It would be great to be able to change graphic settings while being in flight, e.g. via toolbar.

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Thanks very much for offer of help. I did put some comments on YouTube ‘VR Flight Sim Guy’ but never got a reply after trying out his settings for the Quest 2. I would very much like to crack this once and for all, instead of struggling all the time. I don’t expect as good performance as monitor mode, or as good as in AeroFly. But from all the YouTube vids I have seen with reasonable fps and graphics on systems not as powerful as mine, my VR experience is a dismal one on FS, no enjoyment. At a loss as to what to do to improve it. VR Flight Sim Guy mentions about changing the bitrate in Oculus Tray Tool, when using the Link Cable. But I can only use Air Link, because the Oculus Link cable has never been recognised on my system, why I have no idea, spent massive amounts of time with Meta and Asus about this problem with no cure. Tried other cables and all USB ports, and updated all the Asus USB drivers. All other USB devices work fine. Meta are at a loss with this problem? Could be a Quest 2 fault, although the link cable did work fine on my previous system. The link cable does charge the Quest 2. I do have the PC on direct cable link with the Router. So maybe the problem with poor VR lies with the fact that I can not use the Link Cable? Thanks for your help. If you need to know all my settings, Windows Graphics, Meta App settings, Nvidia settings, Tray Tool settings, and Open XR Toolkit settings , ect. Let me know.

With your system, you should be getting performance at or better than what I’m getting with my 3080 Ti. The fact that you can’t use the link cable with your system is a big red flag. Air Link can be used to some degree of success, but you are going to have to have a very very fast connection to match what you’ll get over the link cable.

Some questions -

Are you using the official link cable or just a generic USB3 cable? Maybe it’s snake-oil, but I have the official link cable and I have heard from several other seasoned VR users that this cable is worth the money somehow. I bought it and have had zero issues.

What do you see when you go into device manager? Any exclamation marks next to any of the USB devices when you have the link cable plugged in? If so, right click, disable the device, then re-enable it. I have had this happen a few times and it that’s the only way to clear it.

Thanks, have to go soon. But I will reply tomorrow.

I have had this problem from March 2021 after the system upgrade. I had spent hours and hours contacting Meta and Asus about this. I purchased an official Oculus link cable, but have tried other cables, and every USB port on the PC. Meta diagnostic reports there is a hardware issue? When I plug in the Quest 2 the Device Manager shows:- ‘Oculus Device’ under that ’ ! Oculus XRSP Interface’ . The explanation mark indicates a problem. Tried to update driver, but says ‘is the best driver’. The only other thing I can do, is replace the ‘ROG Maximus XIII Hero’ with another motherboard. Meta and Asus can not help me. As said, the Quest 2 link cable worked fine on my previous system ‘Asus Maximus VIII Hero’ MB. Thanks

You have sufficient hardware to have a generally good vr experience locked at one-half of 72 hz (36) using ASW45 - IF you are getting all of your CPU cores running continuously at 4.8Ghz or better. Use a tool like HWinfo or OCCT to monitor frequency and temperature while running MSFS. I run Airlink at 200 Mbps with either 2912 or 3648 width. Try to use the Oculus performance HUD options to verify and then using the OpenXR toolkit from mbucchia to get some FPS improvements using FSR and FFR. I setup some high pixel density values like 1.5 but work up to that. Use the advanced FPS printout option in the OpenXR toolkit so you can see your “headroom “ -both appCPU and appGPU should be less than 22 msec to hold 36hz. Even if you don’t want ASW, you can run nonASW45 locked using ODT. It should be smoother. For a reasonably clear image, I try to make sure that when I select General Options I see with TAA, a vr resolution of about 1800x1800. However, I then change to DLSS-Quality so as to keep appGPU at about 21msec on a medium complexity airport in a Photogrammetry area.

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Thanks for reply and info. I may have to get back to you for more explanations of settings. Are these settings based on using the link cable, air link, or both? I have been unable to use the link cable since my pc upgrade, see my above comments. All the best.

Airlink. Is what I use

@GrapeJuice12345 I have the same hardware, curious would you mind posting your exact settings? Do you use render scaling of 100 in open XR?

yes, 100 in openxr, MR off. Settings in VR at medium, clouds high. Dlss quality or balanced.
Just started playing with the openxr toolkit.
Definitely an improvement in picture quality and fps, worth to play around with. I use Cas sharpening at 50, foveat render at wide, quality and turbo mode on and add some colors, especially blue. Thats all, looks very good.

You’re a life saver @GrapeJuice12345 !! Followed your settings for OpenXR + OpenXR tookit and used @Deelee6800 's settings in game. Sitting comfortably at 40 FPS now at full resolution on the Reverb G2 with a 9900k, 3080ti and 32GB of RAM. I dip to the high 20’s here and there in really busy places (like downtown city cores close to the ground) but this is GAME CHANGING. Game is actually playable and enjoyable now.

One thing to note, don’t switch in and out of VR, start VR BEFORE loading your flight and keep it on the whole time. If it’s a long flight, you’ll need to come back from time to time to prevent the headset from timing out. There’s a bug that can often render the sim unusable as FPS slows to a crawl (both in VR and non-VR) that’s gone unfixed for more than a year as far as I can tell. No known workaround although if anybody knows of any, please let us know! Thanks again folks, great tips on this thread.

You should be able to easily lock it at 45FPS with DLSS, well worth it, FAR smoother than 40 (smoother than anything above 45 too actually, unless you get to 90, which we can’t yet).

FYI, I followed this guide as well and am able to get ~40 FPS with (IMO) better clarity than TAA at full resolution in the reverb g2 with my 9900k and 3080ti. Key is to use DLSS Performance but then super sample by a huge margin in the OpenXR Toolkit. It makes absolutely no sense (i.e. even with DLSS, with the super sampling I’m now rendering at the resolution behind the scenes that I was getting 20 fps at before) but it works perfectly lol.

I’m having a good time nowadays in MSFS. I made this video and it can help if you try.

I started in VR using a 9600k and a GTX1660 super, so that give me a good knowledge about how set things up to have a good performance in modest systems.

Enjoy …

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