I noticed on reddit that v33 for the Quest2 HMD was just released and the following part of the release notes seemed interesting:
Link and Air Link Visual Improvements
Next time you use Link or Air Link with your headset, you may notice improved image quality and text clarity thanks to Link Sharpening. Link Sharpening makes images crisper, fine details clearer, and text more clear and easy to read.
The result is quite an improvement for me in MSFS2020! (pretty sure it is not a placebo) My eyes finally feel that they can relax since it feels like I am in focus not only in the cockpit but also with the outside world. The sharpening effect might be a little too strong since it can cause edge “sizzle” or more shimmering so maybe Oculus will at some point let us control its strength. You use ODT to enable it - Link Sharpening. I haven’t tested Airlink yet.
I have a 9700K@5Ghz and a RTX2070 (not Super) and use most of the settings that are mentioned in this forum but here are a few key ones:
Q2 90Hz at max 5408x2736
ODT / OTT (I use both)
SS 1.1
ASW 18HZ (complex areas) and 30Hz (used to hate it but I can finally get it to sync )
FOV (.8;…8 )
HUD= Performance - to check that ASW is holding the fixed rates of 18 and 30Hz
CTRL and Tab seem to work so that I can test changes from ODT/OTT
MSFS2020 Render Scaling at 1900x1900 or so - Medium settings
My flying that is the most enjoyable now is the freeware Airbus H135 helicopter near my old hometown of Santa Barbara, CA with the ORBX airport there and the simmarket MSFS 4 Season Trees so that I get more variation in tree coloring and correct shapes/sizes. I like to fly low (<1000) and fly up and over the coastal mountains to Lake Cachuma and with ASW set at 18Hz, the heli even with some yaw rotations looks quite smooth (never perfect OK?). This type of low flying is where the sharpening really helps but I also tested many of the precanned flights in A320s and twins and they looked clearer as well.
Try it when you can - some will like it and some won’t
I think virtual desktop may have been using a sharpening filter for some time, I have always found it sharper than link at max resolution and also the huge advantage of gamma adjustment. But I’ll try this tomorrow and compare, thanks for the heads up!
I just tried the mobile hotspot method of getting the update quicker. Connected the headset to my mobile wifi hotspot and went to settings/about/update. Totally worked for me and didn’t need to use sideload. Now checking the results
I’ve tried it and I love it. I do not use suggested settings from this forum as I found my own, so I use 90Hz with 1.5 (5408x2736) setting in oculus software, 350 encoding bitrate with low curvature and asw disabled, also sometimes I use SS 1.2. MSFS set to TAA with 110 render scale. I’m flying mostly Aerosoft CRJ-500/700 or A320NX, but I have strong 30-40 FPS with my settings when SS set to default in ODT or probably 25-30 with SS 1.2. Now I don’t feel like setting it to 1.2 as picture is clear and crispy with sharpening. Stronly recommend that. FYI my specs are i7-8700, 32Gb RAM, RTX 3080. Also tested it with DCS and got just wow effect there too. I’ll say something like “Finaly!”.
No auto update for me despite using the standard tricks, my headset always seems to be a few days/weeks behind others. So I also decided to try manually loading with ADB, I got quite scared at one point but drew inspiration from OP’s courage and determination and proceeded with the commands
The sharpening mode is a definite improvement - from my initial test flight in A320 I would say it puts it very similar to Virtual Desktop Ultra HEVC. I’ll take a few more flights to make sure but will probably stick with VD due to the gamma adjustment, although many might prefer this new Link due to the ability to reduce FOV and gain some FPS. Also I got the pink bar across the bottom of my headset which never happens to me on VD. Note I run max resolution 5472*2736 and 100 render scale in game.
If, like me, you’ve been happy with Virtual Desktop you should def try Air Link with the new v33 sharpening (and other improvements). Like VD, close and distant objects are much clearer now. Does not cost you anything to try Air Link to see for yourself. I have a feeling I won’t be using VD with my Q2 for much longer.
Link works even a little better but the relatively small improvements (mainly due to 350-500 bitrates with Link vs 200 max with Air Link) are not worth losing the freedom of wireless. For me anyway. I have a rtx3090 btw.
@Godwisper
Don’t know how to fix the screen tearing - even in home. For curiosity, what hardware and versions of software are you running. I have a 9700K@5Ghz+RTX2070 (471.68) + Win10 (21H1(Build 19043.1165) + v33 OculusPC and v33 Quest2 with no screen tearing with Q2 90Hz at max 5408x2736. Have you submitted your logfiles to Oculus? I realize that they are slow to fix things.
Had a fantastic outcome with V33 with new feature enabled. So crisp and clean…
For those with the tearing issues @Godwisper even though your oculus debug tool might say disabled, change it to a different setting in Sim and back to disabled and your tearing will stop. Same if you do this with OTT.
Settings:
V33 oculus at 72hz 1.5x
latest nvidia driver for a 3070
win: hags on game mode off. Also adjusted the msfs.exe compatibility settings (you need to do this after every update)
msfs TAA 100 , most items on high. Configured to my liking.
solid 30-36fps most aircraft at medium to high density areas.
I dont have any tearing with Virtual Desktop. It only happens with link cable and I tried 2 different types of cable. The thing is that when I remove the headset it gets worse and sometimes it lags even the 2D version.Nothing of this sort happens with VD :S although V33 looks sharp from the little I managed to see
My hardware:
Win10 Pro
Oculus 33 on headset but think on PC app still have the 32. But still I had tearing even before.
latest nvidia drivers
RTX 3060 TI Gaming Trio Z
32GB Ram
Intel i7 8700
V33 just arrive for me. for headset. i had to go to settings into the headset, “about” menu and button said an update was available. headset reboot and now i’m waiting for the oculus app v33.
(France)
I did like that…