I am starting this thread to explain the steps I took to resolve my experience with Flight Simulator and the VR issues. I will separate out the steps per post to keep things clean. I may provide a bunch of useless details thinking them of value, so if you are bored by what you read just skip it and if it is bad information, let me know.
Computer Hardware:
OS Windows 10 Pro
Version|10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel® Core™ i9-10900K CPU @ 3.70GHz, 3696 Mhz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)
- (Clocks up to 5 GHz typically runs at 4.7 GHZ)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions |Yes|
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions |Yes|
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware |Yes|
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection |Yes|
Motherboard/GPU:
Intel® UHD Graphics 630
NNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
-version 461.40 release date: 1/26/2021
Virtual Display Adapter
-Resolution|1920 x 1080 x 90 hertz
-Driver 10.0.19041.546
HP Reverb G2
Monitor: Dell S2721DGF
-2560 x 1440 at 144Hz 1 msec response time
I have added this detail here as some settings that work for me may be hardware specific.
Settings:
Windows /Headset
Headset Display:
-Level of detail: High
-app resolution: 1080p
-experience options: Best visual quality
-resolution: 4320 x 2160 best quality
-frame rate: 90 hz
-calibration: 65.768 mm
-mixed reality portal audio/mic is on, mirror audio to desktop off
Game mode off
Windows HD Color
Use HDR Off
All of the rest I use the recommended settings
OpenXR Developer Tool: Custom Render Scale: 100%, Motion Reprojection: Disabled
(I did play around with these settings and in the end opted for the ones above as the best trade off).
Graphics Card:
Global Settings (Note: Program settings are set to use global settings)
Image Sharpening: Sharpen 0.5/1.7 checkmark in the GPU scaling box
Ambient Occlusion: Performance
Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled
Antialiasing- FXAA: Off
Antialiasing- Gamma: On
Anti* Mode and Setting are both Application Controlled
Antialiasing Transparency: Off
CUDA: ALL
DSR: Off
Low Latency Mode: On
Monitor Technology: Fixed Refresh
Multi frame: Off
OpenGL: ‘select your video card’ (GeForce RTX 3090)
Power managment: Prefer maxiumum performance
Preferred refresh rate: Highest available
Shader Cache: On
Texture filtering:
-anisotropic: On
-Negative LOD: Allow
-Quality: High Performance
-trilinear: On
Threaded Optimization: Auto
Triple buffering: Off
Vertical sync: Off
Virtual Reality frames: 1
Virtual Reality -variable rate SS: Off
PhysX settings
-select processor card (GeForce RTX 3090)
The following are for the desktop and will not likely impact VR
Display resolution: Native (2560 x 1440, refresh rate 144hz)
Use NVIDIA Color settings, set output dynamic range to Full)
Adjust desktop…
-perform scaling on GPU, aspect ratio, native resolution and refresh rate as above
G-sync disabled
Video color: advanced-Full 0-255
Video image: left it with the default
MSFS VR Settings:
These settings can be personal preference and a trade off.
Render: 100
Anti Aliasing: TAA
Terrain detail: Ultra
Terrain vector: Ultra
Buildings: Ultra
Trees: Ultra
Grass: Ultra
Objects: 185
Clouds: Ultra
Texture res: Ultra
Anisotropic filtering: 16x
Texture Supersampling: 8x8
Texture Synthesis: Ultra
Water: High
Shadow Maps: 1024
Terrain Shadow: 1024
Contact Shadow: High
Windshield effects: High
Ambient Occlusion: High
Reflections: High
Light Shafts: High
Bloom: On
Glass Cockpit Refresh Rate: High
I have not evaluated the effects on each setting.
Monitor FPS depending on aircraft around 38 -55
Headset FPS 28 no matter what so perhaps it is not being measured correctly.
Memory, CPU and GPU usage runs around 50%, I have not maxed out the hardware or even come close so I am not sure where the bottleneck is if there is one. I am still tweaking things around to see what will happen but currently I am satisfied with the experience. Monitor is fantastic, VR experience is acceptable.
One other item that you will want to play with, the space bar on the keyboard will center the VR image, it will also change the depth, you can move your head forward or back towards or away from the monitor and hit the space bar then sit back and see if that puts the clarity of the EFIS where you need it. It makes a big difference. If you have never been in a cockpit of the actual airplane you are flying, you may not appreciate how crowded it gets. I can pull the yoke back to my belly in most planes, (partly my eating habits). It appears that in the VR the focal distance to the instrument panel is close to what I find in real life, which is closer than most want to be.
What are your SteamVR settings?
motion smoothing? super sampling (100%? )
LoxToxic2000
Thank you for posting this. We have almost identical specs as far as our systems. (Ram, GPU, CPU, etc) I have been running the Rift S and am presently waiting on the G2 to be delivered. I was dreading having to go through all of the trial and error I had to go through for the rift.
Thanks for the very helpful detailed description of your settings. I’ll give it a try and see how it works for me, as best as I can replicate the settings.
hi mate , got the same setup except I am running 9900KF@5.0 ghz , 3090 Asus rog strix OC + 32GB ram and 2 NVME (1 for OS + 1 for sims and steam games ) + HP Reverb G2
I am currently under a long 1 month+ test on drivers , OPENXR settings and ingame MFS settings.
I am trying your settings , HAGS ON + 441.60 drivers , on Alaska bush trip its vert smoothm reprojection OFF openXR and ingame render resolution 100%.
Just tried HEATHROW EGLL arrival approach and my fps dropped to maybe 15. 
He’s using a Reverb G2, i.e. WMR, so doesn’t need SteamVR for MSFS2020
Got a G2 myself on a 5950x/3090 build. I haven’t got the time nor patience to try endless combinations of variables, especially when most testing/comparison is never going to be 100% accurate because of the number of variables and inability to control what is going on in the background at any particular time. Most test results in these threads are anecdotal at best really.
I run 100/100, looks excellent. Stop fiddling, just play.
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I did not go through steam so those settings do not apply.
A few updates:
- With HAGS on with VR, rendering at 120, FPS dropped to 22 +/-. Reduced Terrain/building/trees etc from Ultra to High brought FPS back up.
- Trade offs: Rendering gives clarity but reduces FPS, HAGS did not make a significant impact, dropping terrain details helps offset the increase in rendering.
- Choice of planes matters. More sophisticated the plane lower FPS’s
Main goal with FS is IFR practice, I like the clarity with higher rendering and since I am in the clouds as much as possible, I don’t need the terrain etc detail.
As always, your needs and hardware will result in different settings. I enjoy tweaking things around just to see what happens so all of this settings manipulation is not for everybody nor needed to enjoy the simming. I will check with an engineer to see what HAGS is doing, my guess not much with the 3090, from what I have read, the technology is in it’s infancy subsequent updates to the OS may change that. From my experience, the two things that improve what you see the most is rendering outside the plane and focal distance to the panel inside the plane. To keep your FPS where you need it, you can reduce the rest of the items in game.
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