Made a discovery about supersampling last night! There IS a difference between what in-game rendering scale and steamvr/oculus etc's SS does

So apologies if this is already common knowledge (in which case, let this be for today’s lucky 10,000), but I discovered a HUGE difference between in-game SS vs SteamVR/Oculus SS.

(note according to CptLucky8, in game is just TAA strength)

I can’t pin down exactly what it is, perhaps some computing boffin can explain, but this is how it looks to my eye:

  • If you set SteamVR/Oculus is Low and in game rendering scale high, you get very crisp buildings, and the terrain/textures get a bit blurry, and the plane/UI resolution gets jaggy.

  • If you set SteamVR/Oculus higher and the in game SS lower equivalently (same overall resolution shown on the rendering scale slider), the textures/terrain etc look very nice and crisp, as do the UI and cockpit, but you start to see jaggies in the buildings. Nights look better like this too because the light dots are less blurry and smaller

Have to do a more thorough test, but the performance seems to be the same either way, so you really do have a choice.

I would say personally that the latter looks much better overall, although I can imagine you might want to change it depending on what sort of flight you are doing, the former is probably better for cities.

Good thing is, you can actually easily change SteamVR/Oculus supersampling settings without restarting the game (you do need to disable VR and re-enable it though).

I’ve got SteamVR set to (combined) 8K resolution(!) 4420x4320, and turn the in-game down from there to what I need it situationally, and it has made a huge difference. The ground looks so much more crisp and real now, it is fantastic. (Do note that I push it as far as I can without judder, so often playing at around 33ms / 30fps, which is fine as I am just sitting in my cockpit, enjoying the view while I use OVR Toolkit to work and do general computing, thank goodness for motion smoothing and reprojection)

Do note that 8K might be too much and I have yet to get it properly calibrated. It’s good to super sample over your headset’s base resolution, for extra clarity as it shines through as your head is in constant motion. However there is a limit to how much extra clarity can shine through, and putting the SS above that is pointless. I am on a G2 so that’s approx 4 in game pixels behind every real pixel, and that might be too much. I am not sure I am noticing much difference between this and what it was set to last night at approx 3800p. If you have a lower resolution headset then it will certainly be too much.

Have a fiddle and let me know if it has helped, and if you can figure out exactly what the difference is!

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I’m covering this question (and much more) here:

My 2070 SUPER VR settings and suggestions (Index - SteamVR)
My 2070 SUPER VR settings and suggestion (Reverb G2 - WMR)

These two guides are explaining some strategies you could use regarding FS2020 Render Scaling and the API (OXR or SteamVR) Super Sampling. You might want to further read the “Index” discussion, many using Oculus are also finding this is helping them.

Yes I’ve read it and you do have a small explanation of the difference, although I am just pointing out the details of the differences it makes visually.

EDIT: Ah yes, and based on your response to my question in that thread, I now see that you have defined in game rendering scale as TAA. I didn’t know that’s what it was. Makes a lot more sense now!

I’ve updated the post yesterday or so with a whole new chapter “Balancing Visuals and Performance” which is not small by any measure :slightly_smiling_face:

Indeed, not trying to belittle your incredible thread! I just meant there’s only a small section dedicated to explaining the actual computer-sciencey difference between the two settings.

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