Need help with Pimax Crystal Light setup

[SCLINC]

I just moved from a Quest 3 where I was getting pretty decent FPS using Airlink but having to lean way in to read gauges, to a new Pimax Crystal Light which seems to be in good working order thankfully. But this thing is killing my computer. My CPU fan spins up like it’s getting ready for takeoff itself. I’ve followed the guidelines on the Pimax site here and VR Flightsim Guy’s MS2024 settings video and it seems like I’ve got everything set extremely low but I’m still struggling. Hope someone who understands all the settings better than me can glance through and find something I’ve done wrong or give some advice. At this point, I’m about ready to send it back. I’ll be happy to get FPS of 45 or even 30 if necessary and I don’t even mind it if I have to have Fixed Foveated rendering so that only what I’m staring directly at is really clear.

PC Specs:
MB: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX PC Direct
CPU: Intel Core i5-13th Gen 13600KF (Raptor Lake)(Bulk)
GPU: MSI Geforce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X OC D6X 12GB
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) Desktop memory
SSD: (2x) WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD
PSU: Corsair RM850 2021 80PLUS GOLD White Computer Power
CPU fan: DEEPCOOL AG620 Twin Tower CPU Cooler (Black)

I also have OpenXR toolkit using target of 45 and FFR set pretty aggressively (no screenshot but can provide if needed I think)

[HugeMercury163]

OK. First off, if you followed VR Flight Sim Guy’s settings, did you change secondary render scaling in the MSFS config file to 1.5? If so set it back to default. If you have no clue what that is, then you probably haven’t changed it. lol

Now first things first, forget TAA mode, I can’t run it with a 4090, it’s just a huge frame killer in FS2024 for high res headsets like a Crystal.

Start by selecting DLSS Performance and set your resolution in the Pimax Play app to 1.0 That will give you a starting point (you can try higher settings once we have a starting point).

Also select Hidden Area Mask, to stop rendering bits you can’t see. Turn off fixed foveated rendering, no quad view (doesn’t work) and no Pimax Central rendering (for Steam only, I think).

Your sim settings are OK, but turn off Dynamic settings just for now too. It would be better if you set everything to low, with things like fauna switched off, and then methodically set things higher, but we can work with what you have now.

In the Toolkit turn off target frame rate, again just for now.

Run the FPS counter in the toolkit.

Now fly the Cessna 172 Garmin in a rural area at 2000 feet with clear sky preset and no live weather, multiplayer etc and see what FPS you get, with native headset resolution. Then reduce the resolution in the Toolkit to 3500 X whatever and see what the FPS is then.

Oh and set sharpness in Sim to 90 and also CAS sharpening in the Toolkit, just for now to give you a bump in clarity.

Then get back to us with your results and we can take it from there.

Good luck.

[HugeMercury163]

Must add, start with TLOD and OLOD at 100, you can fiddle with them later.

[stekusteku]

Or switch to MSFS2020, you will immediately get +30% FPS with similar settings compared to MSFS2024, which is not optimized for VR.

[SCLINC]

Set everything to low or off when possible. I think Terrain was left at medium simply because it would require a restart. Turned off all FPS targets in both the sim and the toolkit although in the sim it came back on it’s own and took two tries to get it to stick. With Render Quality at 1.00 in Pimax Play, in the Cabri (easier setup for controls) in a rural area with clear skies, it was at 28-30 FPS almost as if it were pegged although I verified that it wasn’t in both places and didn’t turn on the app that shall not be named. When I paused the sim, and changed the Render Quality in Pimax Play to .75, the FPS shot up to 45 and stayed there as if pegged. The Toolkit usually told me about missing target or having CPU or GPU headroom when I had the target, so the fact that only the FPS showed up verifies that it was off.

It ran well and didn’t look too bad considering but that doesn’t bode well for being able to turn things up at all.

[stekusteku]

Did you switch from TAA to DLSS Performance or Quality? Your GPU is not the fastest, even 4090 can’t handle TAA in MSFS2024 at default Crystal resolution (4312x5102 per eye).

[SCLINC]

Yes. DLSS performance

[HugeMercury163]

Well, 45fps does give you some wiggle room, but obviously the GPU is struggling with FS2024. Having to lower resolution to .75 even with DLSS performance shows how poorly optimised the sim is in VR atm. Fixed foveated rendering switched on in the Toolkit should give you 2 maybe 3 fps more, if you can tolerate it.

Try raising individual settings at a time, say trees to medium and aim for maybe 35fps? That will allow some headroom for things like clouds and city areas. Also the nameless app will help at busy airports and low level flying. You should find that raising some settings is handled quite well by a 40 series GPU and has minimal impact. It’s all a balancing act and takes patience.

Of course right now, the only other option is a faster GPU.

[SCLINC]

Thanks for the help.

I’m thinking about going with upscaling as well.

I didn’t notice any difference with FFR being on or off even in the toolkit. But my eyes are getting old. I’ve got progressive lenses which combined with the aspheric lenses in the PCL mean that everything in the periphery is pretty blurry anyway. But I’ll toy with those again as well.

[stekusteku]

Crystal projects image at constant distance of ~1.5m from your eyes, so your progressive glasses (contacts?) will not work well. Consider ordinary (non-progressive) lenses or contacts working well fornyou at such distance. Be careful with glasses to avoid scratching their coating or Crystal lenses coating layer.

[HugeMercury163]

It’s closer than that, at one metre. I could use the G2 without issue, but not the Crystal which was slightly out of focus and gave me eye strain. I ordered glasses online to focus my eyes at one metre (with a prescription from my optometrist). I made sure to have plastic frames that are less likely to scratch the Crystal’s lens coatings. Works fine, although more expensive 3rd party lens inserts would be better.