I have a Crystal light and I have an RTX4090, 5800X3D with32Gb of DDR 4 RAM.
I’m running at recommended settings on the Pimax website and getting 13-14 FPS in VR with the on screen monitor saying I am main thread limited. The SIM runs but not smoothly I add with some tearing if I turn my head fast and lots of micro stutters.
Apart from lowering graphics settings drastically is there anything else I can try?
I’ve watched so many vids I’ve kinda lost the plot tbh but I remember one that said CPU performance could be improved by altering something in WIN 11, cant find that vid now tho.
I’ve tried the latest DLSS tweaks and I’m using preset K.
Sounds like you may be having problems with head tracking. Turning your head should be smooth and feel natural. Look into room lighting issues which may confuse the inside-out tracking.
Hi everyone and thank you very much for your responses.
[WobbliestAce53] Thank you but I don’t think it’s a head tracking issue because it doesn’t occur in IL2 and other applications. Also the light in my sim room is very bright anyway.
I think the screen tearing is the main thread being overwhelmed with the workload, and the low FPS also points to this.
[BearsAreCool510] Thank you but no I gave up on the Open XR route as it was just so fiddly to use and once other options became available I found a way out. I should be able to get decent FPS without going back to this I believe.
[RelativeBell177] Thank you and yes I am using Pimax Play and pimax XR is the runtime so no steam issues. I am running at native resolution as recommended by Pimax and the 4090 is handling things with ease at about 60% capacity. The main thread is 100%.
I am on sim update 2 still as I didn’t go beta and eagerly await SU3 but I don’t think this will make a massive difference to my FPS. I think there’s something causing an additional workload, maybe the Nvidia settings or something else.
I have to this point upgraded to Win11 recently and did a full fresh install, upgraded from 2020 to 2024 and obviously had to set up all the controllers for the new sim. I have installed a new sim rig with HF8 pro (currently not used whilst I sort the FPS issue) and I’ve been at this for weeks of spare time and desperate to get things running smoothly.
I know upgrading to a faster processor would help a little but the 5800X3D is no slouch so gains would be maybe 10-15 percent and as I’m averaging only 14 FPS this isn’t going to cure the issue.
Is anyone aware of anything In Win11 or the sim settings that I can try?
I have the same setup, only with 64GB DDR 4 RAM and a Pimax Crystal OG, with eye tracking being the only real difference. Your rig is definitely capable of much higher fps than a measly 14 (my extra RAM makes little to no difference in most cases).
Be aware that to get accurate FPS and frame time readings using the FPS counter in Dev mode, you should set your screen time delay from 20seconds to five minutes (or place some tape over the sensor that determines if the headset is being worn). Otherwise the FPS counter will show a much higher Main Thread usage when the screens turn off, it’s a Pimax bug of some sort, at least with my headset.
In the latest SU 2 release I would expect you to get an easy 45fps in GA aircraft in rural settings and be GPU limited or nearly so using mostly medium to high settings and this is without using foveated rendering. Using the latest DLSS 4 with preset K does use more CPU resources though, as does enabling Foveated rendering.
If you could show us screenshots of your VR settings in the sim and also a screenshot of the dev mode fps counter we can get a better idea of what may be going on. Make sure your community folder is empty too.
With a bit of tweaking you should be getting a stable 45fps up to mid 50s easy, depending on settings, location and aircraft.
I’ve not bothered yet to install 2024 on my new machine as it really isn’t VR friendly or enjoyable (yet?), mainly due to the the low/ blurry ground textures detracting from the experience. However, using my PCL on my old machine (i7 12700k RTX 3080) I was getting 30-40fps and smooth flight in GA aircraft using quadviews FFR + QV companion, with DLSS 3.10.x., Preset k in SU2. In DCS using TAA, Rebar on and HAGS off, I get a comfortable 60FPS (120Hz/Half FR).
As you have strong GPU and weak CPU, consider disabling Foveated Rendering in the sim, which (when enabled) lowers the load on the GPU but increases the load on the CPU.
You want to be GPU bound. I run my Valve Index at 300% resolution with DLSS Quality. Most settings are Medium or lower, and that includes texture resolution. I get around 20ms GPU frames and 10ms CPU frames. Easy way is to select Low-End Preset and use TAA with the render scale slider to increase resolution until you are GPU bound. Then put that new resolution into the headset, and flip AA back to DLSS Quality. I have my Index at 80hz, and I see a rock solid 40fps in all my planes. Some heavy airports will impact this a bit, so try to aim for 80% GPU utilization so you have some headroom. Adjust the other settings up one at a time, but things like LOD, Shadows, Raytracing, and Ambient Occlusion will drag you down.
Hi, just to thank everyone for their input on this topic and to update you all.
A couple of months it’s been of spare time tweaking, fiddling and deleting and reinstalling but I’m extremely happy now.
I am running the PCL at full native resolution and at a steady 35fps with no issues in TAA mode and it is crystal clear. There’s no judders just really smooth rendering. I am even sightseeing in it and I can’t believe how sharp it looks. My old G2 is completely blown away by the PCL.
I think so, I was using the openxr toolkit but was getting stutters after a while, so disabled it and ended up using 80-85% res, 72hz locked to 36 with smart smoothing (works really well for me) and in sim foveated rendering at 45. Dlss 310.7 preset k.
Last week I had the return of visual wobbling near props etc. that wouldn’t go away so in desperation I reinstalled the sim and now back to normal, not sure what causes that.
The crystal light is such a great upgrade from my quest pro, I almost sent it back after a few days because of eye strain but had a play with the ipd offsets and it’s way better. Pimax really need to make dialling in those settings a lot easier with maybe some sort of test card and a way of adjusting without removing the headset.
I think if they did that they’d get a lot less returns.
I’m running 5800x3d and 4090. I’d imagine full res and taa would be a stutterfest especially flying low. I fly the h145 mostly in poor weather for sar missions, no way of running full res especially with taa without stutters and my pc wanting to take off.
I need smoothness over everything and without smart smoothing I get jitters and double frames so 72 locked at 36 is my sweet spot
That’s interesting. I have upgraded my AM4 to AM5 now with a 9800X3D and it’s overkill but I went with 64Gb RAM just before the price hikes. Wasn’t that costly as I got £450 back for my 5800X3D on the Aorus Elite MB. That said initially my system wasn’t all that much faster or smoother but I did benefit a little from faster components.
I fly mostly GA aircraft, low level sightseeing but every now and then I’ll fly a small fast jet around.
Anyway I’m currently running my sim on mostly high settings with some on Ultra with a few on med and a few on low. OLOD is at 300, buildings LOD 200. I am using DLSS 4 with preset K Pimax Play on 1 or full native and I was getting 60 to 65 fps on 90Hz, flying at low level this was excellent. Occasional drops to 55fps but really smooth (or so I thought).
For some strange reason I decided to try oversampling the PCL and took the res to 1.2 in Pimax Play still on 90Hz. the fps dropped to between 45 and 50 with occasional drops to 42. The clarity was stunning though and so much sharper. I then decided to lock to half framerate in Pimax Play and suddenly I was stunned by the smoothness, the sharpness was still there but half framerate made a big difference. Odd given my framerate dropped slightly but people do say that I had heard.
Sim updates have no doubt allowed for a much improved VR experience and maybe my AM5 system is able to make a little more of these but I am miles away from where I was when I started this thread and very much in love with 2024 now.
YMMV given slight system differences and TAA preference but I’d urge you to have a play with a few things, one at a time and reverse the changes if no difference also keep an eye on CPU temps too.
All the best and let me know how you get on if you do have a play.
Hello. Do you use some type of Reprojection to avoid judder (double vision) when moving your head, considering that you locked your dos to half refresh rate?
That said I can however use TAA mode without any significant drop in frame rate (without having it locked in Pimax Play). TAA puts a little more strain on the system but I only lose around 10 percent frames if that.
It’s difficult to pinpoint any particular issue that is causing low frame rates I know but keep trying things is the way I got there. Change one thing at a time, try it and if no better change it back before you try anything else is my adivice. Also once you do get there don’t stop trying things, that extra bit of performance makes a big difference.