FS2020 VR is Rubbish compared to other VR Apps

I have a Rift CV1, yes, a bit old now. But when compared to a friends Quest 2, we both agree there is not a huge difference in graphics. Despite my GTX980Ti, all my Oculus apps and games run and look pretty good. More importantly Aerofly FS2 VR runs exceptionally well, good frame rates, clear and sharp VR, with very little stuttering and no head movement black border catch-up problems. The scenery in Aerofly can be dense, like flying around San Francisco. Not as perfect as I would like, but considering my hardware, better than I expected. FS2020 looks great in monitor/TV mode and a lot of settings can go up to ultra, without impacting on frame rate to much. However, FS in VR is terrible, so bad that I cant play in VR anymore! I have been trying since last December to get acceptable performance in VR. Tried loads of suggestions. Have the latest Oculus PTC software, and tried the Tray Tool, et. All to no avail, so I have given up with FS VR, at least until I can get hold of a RTX3 series GPU. What I really don’t understand is WHY is FS so bad in VR? Or it seems the FS VR software is only suitable for powerful PC’s. A real shame!

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FS2020 is a next gen game, set out for the next decade, so a GTX980Ti will simply not cut it. It works reasonably well on the best hardware you can currently buy. In 5 years it will work reasonably well on medium hardware.

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FS2020 in VR is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen. So real and only distinguishable from reality by the lack of smell and vibrations.
But only with the best hardware you can get.

Thanks. You are right. But as you said the best hardware you can get. I have been trying to get hold of a RTX3 series GPU since last October, but the supply problem is still hopeless, at least in the UK. To go with the new GPU, a upgraded CPU, MB and probably the best VR headset like the HP Reverb G2. A upgraded CPU, MB and new VR is not much good without the latest RTX3 series GPU.

man I wish I had the same experience to share as you…
I’ve had VR for 2 weeks, been adjusting settings every day, probably flying for 10 minutes, and tweaking for 40. 2080Ti and I can’t get the jitter/stutter to go away. to me the fact that I’d have to change anything lower than ultra with a 2080ti is disappointing.

$3k on a custom PC last year with the 2080Ti, $600 on the Reverb g2. Now it looks like I’ll be forking out another $1500-2k for a 3090.

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Just lower your expectations. Ignore it. Have fun.

I’m also playing on a RTX2080Ti (5900x, 64GB DDR4 3600 CL16) and I’m 100% satisfied. Of course I run the correnct NVidia driver version and apply all the tweaks suggested here on the forums. In simple planes (like C152 or the Zlin Savage) I have very good performance if I avoid very complex areas. Around complex airports it gets a bit slower, but still playable (25-30 fps). Playing on a G2 with 100% rendering both in the game and OXR. Anything below that makes it blurry which I don’t like (especially on the cockpit instruments).

Low / high / ultra are just presets. They could have just renamed high to ultra or tweaked the render scaling coefficients. Would you be satisfied then? 2 or 3 generations from now it will run great. We just need the extra oomph. For now it’s still without doubt the best sim ever for cross country VFR flying. For IFR I would stick with X-Plane. You look at the instruments 95% of the time anyway.

Also, optimizations are coming, related to the XBox version release. We’ll see. If they could squeeze out let’s say 30% more frames that would make a big difference.

There is something it is not right, not sure if it is drivers, the sim or OpenXR.

It can not be that MSFS is so complex that it tanks the best system money can buy.

I have reasonable expectaions. If I can play HLA on Ultra in VR with no stutters and tearing, same applies to DCS, I should at least hit 30 fps in this sim, not asking for more.

Really do not understand the people who are making this sim as the next marvel in software. It is not 160 gb of code related to systems and airplane simulation. We can see how the CPU and GPU dance is not quite working well when using dev mode. The CPU is getting taxed unfairly and that leads to data not being able to read/write at speed. Even a 3080 goes on CPU bottleneck.

I will patiently wait but what is exactly causing the performance drop in most VR head sets?

I have a Oculus Quest 2. A certain starting sequence makes a big difference. I shut down the Oculus program, start MSFS 2020, as soon as I hit the main screen, I turn on my headset, start the link and then hit activate VR. That works most of the times in terms of decent performance.

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I have had a taster what the good graphics will look like in VR. After the tweaking the VR cockpit was crisp and clear as was the scenery. BUT, I could only enjoy this if the aircraft wasn’t moving and I didn’t move my head. Ha!

You must have a carp system. Or carp settings:)
I just enjoy VR flying every day.

I will certainly give that a try. Maybe the Oculus app running in the background does affect the performance? Once in FS, then start VR mode, then put on the headset, surely the Oculus VR app starts automatically, or does it not after the FS VR has started?

Run a userbenchmark from the userbenchmark website, it will tell you your weakest link.

  • CPU (clock speed and cores matter),

  • GPU (1080 ti was my bottleneck before, now with my 3090 it is CPU bottlenecked)

  • RAM (XMP enabled so you’re running your RAM at its max speed)

I have a high-end system and get ~50 fps on a 4k monitor, VR Rift S, or a little lower on the G2 with 100% scaling and mostly ultra settings. I’m convinced it doesn’t get better than this until there are optimizations to the game or some new extensive change to hardware to remove the CPU bottleneck.

My whole system is quite weak for FS. But I can run FS on a lot of ULTRA settings, without severe impact on the frame rate, which I find reasonably acceptable. Until I can get hold of a RTX3 series GPU, plus a new CPU, et., I will have to make do. It is the VR, that is hopeless, and is unplayable.

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Definitely, there are some good videos on youtube about optimizing and a few forum posts that list the impact of each setting. I personally don’t like dropping the rendering resolution down below 100% (it is literally rendering under your VR headset’s resolution and then upscaling). It does however give you the biggest improvement of framerate. If you open developer mode, then turn on the FPS counter, while in VR you can hold the headset off your head and on the screen see your limitations, GPU or CPU. Then with that info you can try to modify settings based on the limiting factor.

I’m still using a 1080ti and it struggles in certain situations. I’m actually impressed with the overall performance of the sim- I think it runs better than X-plane tbh. However, I also know for a fact that my GPU wouldn’t be able to handle VR with MSFS. That’s why I’m holding off until I get the 3090. I’m actually surprised that you can get decent performance with the 980…

Is this something that DX12 will solve, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I’m not sure about DX12. I am no expert there but it sounds like different people’s systems will benefit differently from what they said in the Q/A and other more knowledgeable people’s info. If they have to improve optimizations while getting it to DX12 for the xbox version, that hopefully will also improve our side as well.

Do you have any idea of why I am getting 2 images on screen and Quest 2 when playing MSFS or Aerofly FS2 on Quest2?

Two different platforms, two different types of performance. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but it is what it is. MSFS is its own animal.

Yeah, I’m also kind of stumped on the benefits of DX12 vs 11…Although everyone seems to be waiting for it with baited breath. I’m more excited about getting a 3090 in a month tbh.

You might want to change the title from FS2020 VR is Rubbish compared to other VR Apps to
My Computer is Rubbish compared to other Computers!!

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