To have decent (40+) FPS on high/ultra settings in dense areas you can’t have both Pimax Crystal running at native resolution and TLOD well above the default 100.
Some people recommend limiting resolution in OXR Toolkit to 3500 x xxxx, to be able to have higher TLOD. This is what I currently do (TLOD 205 - added benefit - in unlikely case of FPS drop in really dense photogrammetry are I can bring TLOD down without restarting VR session).
Some other (@Simhanger) run Pimax Crystal at native resolution with TLOD set at 100.
What are your opinions?
I did some testing (7800x3D, 4090, Pimax Crystal, TAA 100, most settings Ultra except Clouds = High), in photogrammetry Copenhagen, with FlyTampa complex airport (EKCH) and Orbx medium complexity airport nearby (ESMS). Default C172 classic, FSLTL traffic, scattered clouds (Live weather). I observed the following:
increasing resolution from 3500 x xxxx to native (above 4000 x xxxx) is clearly visible as image clarity improvement, especially over photogrammetry area), but FPS drops from 40+ to 28+ (the scenery movement below 30 FPS is no longer smooth enough),
increasing TLOD from 100 to 205 has much less FPS impact, but also smaller clarity improvement vs. the resolution increase. Higher TLOD resulted in the scenery objects pooping up further into the distance, which made the pop up less obvious.
So I settled on the resolution of 3700 x xxxx and TLOD 205, with FPS between 35-45 (FFR ON in the OXR Toolkit - Quality, wide, for ca. 5 FPS improvement).
When I used VR, I never pushed TLOD because most of my fights were VFR at lower altitudes, and I wouldn’t “zoom” my view to look into the distance like I would in 2D. So I didn’t need long draw distances.
I preferred the resolution so cockpit instruments were easier to read.
With Pimax Crystal even at 3500 x xxxx the gauges and glass cockpits are crystal clear. We are talking here really high resolutions. The difference between native 4300 x xxx vs. 3500 x xxxx is visible mostly for the distant scenery objects. So higher than usual 2D display.
Have you tried Pimax full res, all ultra, LOD 200 but using DLSS quality?
I’m running it that way and quite happy. Worth a try, at least. I’m gonna try your settings, one never knows, right?
This is with upscaling off right? You are not using NIS or CAS right?
I will be testing next week when I get back from vacation. Since I mainly fly airlines I guess the FPS impact on full resolution over high density areas would be below 25 FPS (only my guess)…
Stekusteku, a side question, sorry that it has nothing to do with the topic of this post, do you fly the Fenix A320? Is this aircraft working for you in VR? Thanks
Unfortunately not. What kind of problem do you have? You can’t interact with the cockpit buttons with the mouse or the VR controllers? Controllers are not convenient enough for me I would rather use the mouse.
Possibly you can seek advice on some Fenix user forums?
I am starting to think that is a Pimax issue or maybe conflict with the all in one tablet that does not allow the interaction in the cockpit (I am not using controllers but only the mouse). I just opened a Ticket to Fenix, we will see. Many thanks
The issue with All In One tablet lack of interaction is limited to the tablet only. It happens when you change the network settings of you PC, and you can reset your settings on flightsimulator.me page.
But this should not impact the buttons in the cockpit. You can temporarily remove the tablet from the Community folder but I don’t thing the tablet being the culprit here.
Good idea, I will try just by removing the tablet from the community and see what happens. Probably it will not solved the issue but I have nothing to lose at the moment. A Pimax issue would probably not be as well as is working beautiful in other aircraft…
Initially disappointed with the Crystal but after much tinkering I’m now blown away. Apart from the blooming which at night is properly disappointing. (But I have modified the Pimax ini to 0.006 for local dimming which makes it just about tolerable.
Cpu 13900ks,( I think the S really makes a difference here.) 4090, ddr5 etc
If you’re flying safety altitude vfr you must have high tlod I think. Especially if you’re flying by dead reckoning with map compass and stopwatch any less than 300 is unusable. You need to be able to see vrp’s. Personally I don’t know how anyone can be satisfied with settings lower than 250. Anyway with the crystal and my pc I can run 400 tlod and 200 object detail, everything on ultra with fps about 47 (using nvidia dlss, no nis/cas etc). Pimax client set to 1. Oxrt image at 4000. Using dlss with these settings I think looks better than taa with same msfs/oxrt settings but with much higher frame rate. It’s beautiful in a steam guage aircraft.
But… in a glass panel taa is quite bit sharper. The steam gauges look better in dlss oddly. To get the kodiak acceptable I’ve been playing around with taa config now and have it working acceptably. My fps is worse at about 30-37 but turbo mode seems to sort the smoothing….
Mffs-tlod 300, od max, all ultra apart from clouds, trees and byshes which are high. Traffic etc turned down quite low but not off. Oxrt rendering 3900, foveated rendering at quality and wide, turbo mode. No stuttering, smooth over London and Heathrow this afternoon, fps 30-37 ish dropped to 29 occasionally. No artifacts. Genuinely breathtaking.
Adjusting the tlod doesn’t seem to impact my fps at all. I can only assume it’s the 13900ks which runs at a higher clock rate and/or the speedy ddr5 ram (32gb).
I still prefer dlss over taa but can’t be ■■■■■ to tinker when I switch back and forth to a glass panel so have settled on taa and the lower fps. I can’t really feel any difference in smoothness at 30 ish fps. The steam gauges look very slightly sharper in dlss I think
Very very happy I can now fly properly vfr in msfs with such high clarity.
Try OpenXR Toolkit resolution 4700 with DLSS Quality. Sounds crazy to supersample Crystal, but I highly recommend trying.
And indeed with DLSS Quality (even with super sampling at 4700 x xxxx) I can have TLOD above 300, which is clearly better compared to TLOD 205 I used with TAA 100. Higher TLOD results for example in larger tree draw distance. Seems like DLSS allows much higher TLOD compared to TAA 100, with no significant negative FPS impact. Thank you for the hint.
No, I’m flying GA planes like A2A Piper Comanche. When using DLSS Quality you will be able to have higher resolution vs. using TAA. With TAA some people recommend reducing Crystal resolution to 3500 x xxxx, this way you are not using what you paid for where it comes to Crystal clarity. The difference is immediately visible.
You will need to adapt the resolution or DLSS quality level to your H/W and plane.
My CPU (7800x3D) is not heavily utilized (40%), my GPU (4090) is utilized 100%. I don’t know if PMDG loads CPU or GPU more.
My sim setting are mostly Ultra, clouds High, LOD above 300.
