Long time FS (like FS V1- FS X > 2020) user with 40+ years in the IT industry but have failed to stabilise my Intel i7 based Laptop connected to an External Graphics Card enclosure with an Nvidia 3060 TI card installed and Oculus Quest 2 headset.
Whilst this is not an ideal hardware combination, my expectations of overall VR quality on my Quest 2 headset are not high in terms of resolution or clarity. BUT I need to stop the shimmering which makes the sim unplayable for any length of time.
Worked through countless âtuningâ tutorials and currently only use the Oculus debug tool, primarily to disable ASW, Nvidia control panel, and Lasso (juryâs still out on Lasso). Removed Razer cortex (I have a Razer Core X Thunderbolt 3 external GPU case), Nvidia Experience, MSI Afterburner etc.
With so many layers of software in the graphics presentation stream I need to understand which settings are critical at the Nvidia, Oculus/Quest headset and to some degree FS2020 layers?
I have expermineted with disabling the Laptops VGA card and only using the eGPU HDMI display in an attempt to minimise the Thunderbolt load but this made little difference from a VR perspective. In 2D I obtain 45+ FPS and a surprisingly smooth experience, in VR the shimmering is killing me:-(
I suspect the Thunderbolt communication is the bottleneck and may need to purchase a dedicated PC (using the 3060 TI) but do not want to do that without first ensuring I am not missing something in regard to the shimmering issue.
Intel(R) Core⢠i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz 1.50 GHz
16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
Windows 10 v21H1
FS2020 default MS Store install on SSD
Geforce RTX 3060 TI (8GB RAM)
Nvidia Drive 496.49
For me the shimmering can be defeated by disabling motion reprojection. I see you tried that but have you also disabled it in the OpenXR settings? I forget if Oculus headsets need to disable it in other places outside of the Oculus software but you might want to check. As you probably know you can use OpenXR via Steam or WMR and both of those also have a motion reprojection setting so you might look there if you havenât tried that yet.
what i understood is with a Q2, you can use openXR in 3 way, by Oculus native api, by SteamVR or by WMR. by default (but you can change it), the Q2 use Oculus, so no need to change anything in SteamVR or WMR as they are not used
Shimmering was introduced with SU5 and they donât care enough to focus on fixing it apparently. Which is a real shame as itâs more or less game breaking.
Iâve found Shimmering (at least as I see it) is directly related to antialiasing. Set to FAA (or FFA?) and see if that helps.
Somewhat related I must have inadvertently enabled Photogrammetry, and for DAYS I had an annoying stutter every second or so and couldnât figure it out. I turned Photogrammetry off, and my smoothness was vastly improved.
Can you describe what you mean by âshimmeringâ.
With ASW on I get a significant wobbly/wavey look to terrain.
Other effects I see sometimes due to MSFS settings are what might be described as a shimmer in the distance where the Terrain Level of Detail is low - I dont see this at 100+ though, albeit with the occasional pop-in.
Something else that could be described as shimmer is when you do something like roll quickly - the terrain âflickersâ. That occurs for me at low FPS.
There was one other thing where with an initial setup using Link I got violent flickering/juddering - I seem to recall that there was a conflict causing that - like maybe I had Steam VR or VD running at same time. If using Air Link check that your bandwidth is high enough
I donât know if the shimmering is caused by aliasing, light/shadows calculations, LOD shifting or some bug in the shaders. What I do know is that it is a lot more pronounced in VR than in 2d. This is probably a combination of us being âcloser to the pixelsâ and that the camera (your head and line of sight) is always slightly moving around.
I can see the same effect in 2d @ 4k. But it is a lot less noticeable. I especially notice it on light/thin structures such as masts, towers, windmills etc. Changing object or terrain LOD distance doesnât seem to make any difference.
In this screenshot (this is cut and pasted from the same position in 2d with a slight adjustment to the camera angle) you can see the issue where the top of the tower seems to disappear by just slightly changing the camera angle. This is barely noticeable in 2d, but in VR it really stands out. Perhaps if both eyes see different LODs of objects in the distance, and/or it is swapping LOD as you move your head, this is observed as shimmering and perhaps mistaken for poor anti aliasing? I donât know. This particular issue may also be different from the texture shimmering seen on certain buildings.
I solved all my problems by purchasing a new PC, still setting it up but initial performance with MS âUltraâ profile is excellent in 2D. Next step is to setup the Questđ
I see 3d objects as double when flying close without motion reprojection (90fps with artifacts). Is that shimmering? Like i was drunk after 10 shots of vodka, i see two smoke pipes on the roofs (second one is ghost kind a)
You mentioned 45 fps in 2D - whatâs it at in VR?
Have you tried Air Link? I get excellent performance using that - it would either confirm or eliminate any doubt around the thunderbolt - make sure to set at 200 Mbps Dynamic - you will need a good wifi connection (5Ghz) and your PC will need to be wired to your router.
Have you been monitoring your PC memory usage for peaks? I have found CapFrameX useful for performance analysis.
Iâve found other than turning off ASW, the next thing is to limit the FOV to 0.7,0.7 or even 0.6,0.6 and it performs pretty well. Not as good as SU5 days but it gets me by.
