Ok. Turbo mode wasn’t on either. I’ll do more testing, including flying without mods etc and I’ll report back if my issues persist and appear to be clearly linked to the toolkit (as I said, with limited replication it’s still possible that my crashes are not linked to the toolkit itself).
Thanks to help received I’ve now got the Toolkit working and have been playing with the settings, with advice from a few Utubers. I’ve managed to get a reasonable balance between performance and visuals but if I try to improve the graphics I get loads of stuttering (around 12 FPS) making it, for me, unplayable. So I’m wondering if my system just isn’t up to it, specs as follows:
Pico 4 VR h/s, Ryzen 7 5800X CPU (just idling along), RTX3060 (running at 100%), 64GB DDR4 @ 1580MHz RAM, 2TB Nvme plus SSDs for storage. Out of VR performance is excellent.
In all honesty I’m not getting any improvement using the toolkit - I’ve tried disabling it using the Companion app.
So am I wasting my time with the RTX3060, would a 3080/90 do it for me (40 series out of the question).
Maybe I need faster RAM?
RAM would be a start looking at the speed you’ve given, but VR is always a struggle when you dial up the visuals unless you have the very latest and very fastest cpu and gpu. As far as I understand the Pico 4 is a standalone headset which doesn’t help with performance. Lower settings and FFR will help.
That IMO is the bigger handicap than the GPU. You’re using a headset that is forcing you into the SteamVR ecosystem, which is costing you performance over a device with native OpenXR support.
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I’m using OpenXR with a Pimax 8kx. Is there a way to access the settings menu outside of VR?
With the latest version, I don’t see a way to access the settings inside or out of VR.
If you are not seeing the menu in VR, then OpenXR Toolkit is likely not running, and no amount of making settings outside of VR will help.
Follow the troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting | OpenXR Toolkit (mbucchia.github.io)
That was it, I was confusing Pimax XR with the Toolkit. I now have toolkit installed. Is there any way to access the settings outside of VR? It’s very cumbersome to go through the menus while in VR.
No it’s just the VR menu.
Not really sure how useful it would be to tweak things like sharpness, world scale, FOV, brightness, contrast, etc from the Windows desktop and without being able to see the impact in real-time directly in the headset, and therefore needing to wear the headset.
The default keyboard bindings make it easy because Ctrl is at the bottom left corner of your keyboard and F1-F3 are at the top left corner of your keyboard. Easy to reach without being able to see.
If the menu timeout is too short for you, you can go to the Menu tab and disable the menu timeout (so that it won’t disappear after 12s without a key press). That Menu tab also has options to increase the font size and the distance (which can be useful for readability and eye comfort).
Mouse support would be great, but unfortunately with each game capturing mouse differently, this is complicated to implement.
For guys with rigs, it would be useful to have a menu that could sit on the desktop. It’s easy to pick up the headset, make the adjustments via mouse, then put the headset back on.
Otherwise it’s fumble around with a keyboard in your lap.
I changed the keybinds to ctrl+ down arrow (start the menu and down) and up arrow (up) and left & right arrow (left and right in the menu). I’m at least semi-proficient in typing while not seeing but this configuration made it super easy and most importantly I can use menu with one hand only.
Unfortunately I don’t have the resources to create a second menu implementation. The motion rig is a minority case anyway, and I don’t think past initial tweaking, people need to use the menu every flight. So you’ll have to endure the pain for a day while doing your initial set up.
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Can’t you use the output display in the Mixed Reality Portal app to do this?
If I ever want to change OXRTK settings while not wearing the headset, I just enable this MRP output display, hit CTRL F2 and the OXRTK menu appears on the MRP window, from which I can easily navigate and change OXRTK settings without ever having to wear the VR headset.
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Ideally, a VR rig (or Motion VR rig in my case) should not have a keyboard, but in reality, MSFS is so VR-unfriendly in its design, that it’s not possible to eliminate the keyboard and mouse anyway. You can see in my photo how I integrated a mini-keyboard and trackball into my rig. It is possible to get to the menus and adjust settings without taking off the helmet. And once you set it to your liking, you don’t usually touch it.
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I did a lot of VR tweaking with the OXR toolkit the last week and although the colors improved I was not so happy with the persisting blurriness. (Tried all kinds of combinations) I turned it off and left render scale in open xr tools at 150, DLSS to quality and the AMD Fidelity Sharpening to 200, graphic settings high. WOW!, what a difference, super clear and smooth, colors a bit washed out as expected. I can read even small writing in the cockpit and see lots of outside detail. This is now my ‘set and forget’ setting. Works from the airport to cruise, fps 35 to 50+.
HPG2, 5800x3d, RTX4080, 3600 Cl16.
Is it possible that DLSS outperforms all the possible toolkit settings, especially in combination with the AMD Fid Sharpening? With CAS in the toolkit I didn’t get it nearly as sharp.
I just saw a video from the VR Flightsimguy on Youtube and he tested a human-eye resolution headset in Finland and used a ‘push/twist button’ thing which was attached on his right leg. The headset featured also eye tracking, so just by looking at e.g. the landing gear handle and then press the button, it would move. Same applies to dialing in an ALT setting. Kind of eliminating the mouse and keyboard. Promising!
Here’s a link to the video: I tried the VARJO XR-3 in DCS World with EYE TRACKING & 3DOF MOTION! THIS IS THE FUTURE OF VR! - YouTube
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Well yeah, but having one is important for tuning graphics options to get the best possible balance of fps, latency, and terrain/object detail.
Never heard of the MRP. Can it be used with the Pimax?
No, MRP is the Mixed Reality Portal which is for WMR devices only.
For Pimax, if you use PimaxXR 0.3.2, you can enable something called “Show mirror window” to get the VR mirrored on the desktop.
Of course performance stats are useful to see when tuning, but IMO once it’s done leaving them showing is not only a source of potential anxiety but also a visual distraction to the flight experience.
Could someone link me to said Propeller Mod? I find the wobbling of the scenery very nauseating when Reprojection Mode of the Toolkit is enabled.