Reverb G2 Sweet Spot Discovery

Another OXR 80 / MSFS 100 user here since I upgraded to the 3090. I was slowly upping the OXR setting I was using with the 3070 (with which I had OXR between 50&60). I’ve been pretty happy with 80/100 and now I just play with the other MSFS gfx settings.

I think people with sweet spot issues have some other underlying issue, maybe a defective device, poor hardware, incorrect settings, not wearing the device properly, incorrect IPD, or a combination of these. My G2 looks great. I ordered and received my G2 last month, so maybe it is from a newer batch with less issues.

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OMG ! THANK YOU so much for this discovery !!!
I just tried it out and as you say “The difference is MASSIVE” … I can now clearly read and see almost the whole VR view in my G2 with just a slight movement of the head rather than the need for pinpoint accuracy when trying to read anything.
Even the textures of the entire cockpit look so much better (warning labels) are now perfectly readable.
And now runs at a constant 30 fps on mix of ultra/medium settings … and now, no CTD so far on 3700x/32gb/980pro/5700xt after weeks of CTD …
Thanks again.

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I disagree.

I know what I am seeing and believe it or not, the HP Reverb G2 sweet spot is changing size depending on graphical settings/driver as I wrote in the OP.

I know it is counterintuitive and makes no sense, but it is happening and was confirmed by two others in this thread who have noticed the same thing.

I can’t explain it because like you I know sweet spot should be a hardware-based thing. Look at the post above this one from Heli4lifeFS2020.

This mirrors my personal experience.

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Outstanding!!! Thank you for your reply.

It makes no sense and I cannot explain it, but yes with these settings I am finally in love with my Reverb G2.

Enjoy!

@Beulah6126, can you clarify this? So you’re running 80-100 OXR (and it doesn’t seem to make any difference between 80-100) and WHAT setting in the sim? 100 TAA? And with all Ultra except high on volumetric clouds and low on ambient occlusion?

And for those of us who don’t know the first thing about AMD, what would you compare a 6800XT to on the Nvidia scale?

I ask because I’ve tried 100/100 with my 2070 Super, and it looks really good, but the GPU just isn’t up to the task, so I’ve backed it off to 80 or less, and whatever sim number gives me just a little above my G2s physical resolution with pretty good results, obviously depending on where I am (scenery density) and what I’m flying (aircraft complexity). I’ve also gone with high on the clouds and low on the AO. I’m not getting 40fps, but a solid 28-30 and it’s pretty steady and stutter free, and I’m consistently amazed just how good a frame rate that “low” can actually look.

(Although I’ve noticed something that others have also, and that is my performance can vary from one day to another (or even one hour to another) without me making any changes whatsoever, so :man_shrugging:.)

This is also all with the 457.30 drivers which seem to win the xmas turkey (at least thus far) in Nvidia land.

@CptLucky8, that’s just you being so much smarter than most of the rest of us that you make up your own language that we have to learn to interpret before we can figure out WTF it is you’re trying to say lol…

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:face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

I’m not smarter than most of the rest, there are smarter moderators in this forum than me… Therefore, this is me for now…

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@CptLucky8, I know that feeling…

The settings I mentioned is 80-OXR/100-TAA (now I understand why CptLucky8 invented this naming scheme, brilliant indeed). :slight_smile:
I can’t really compare 6800XT to any NVIDIA as I’ve been an AMD user for the last 10+ years. My settings are pretty much all ultra+175LOD (terrain and objects), V-cloud (medium), AO - low. I also turn off AI/live traffic. This nets me a very fluid and consistent 40-42fps pretty much everywhere except in big airports (KLAX - mid 20s-low30). My previous AMD was Radeon VII which would be pretty closer to 2070Super or 2080. 6800XT in raw rasterization is about 80-100% faster than Radeon VII. The increase in performance scales differently from game to game, and MSFS is far from optimized both for CPU and GPU (especially for VR), so things should improve in the days ahead. Having tried multiple settings and combinations, mid 30fps is really the grail performance for this sim in VR at the moment. No need for motion projection as the headmovement in G2 still produces silky 90Hz. G2 has headroom for at least 2 generations of GPU in my opinion. I think the next iteration of Navi or RTX along with ongoing optimization of the sim will get us to the native 90Hz. Or maybe not. :slight_smile:

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I’m glad that you have better results with 3090. But I still believe the “sharp center - blurry rest” on G2 is an optical issue.

You mentioned you have OXR on Auto. So probably OXR lowered your “post” resolution massively on 2080Ti. When you installed 3090, such auto-lowering was probably just less massive, due to higher specs of 3090 (VRAM).
To have any conclusive results, I suggest to:

  • set “Custom Render Scale” in OXR Developer Tools,
  • enable developer mode in the sim and display FPS.
    This way you will be able to see the resolution rendered by the sim and then enhanced by post processing.

For example, on my 3070 (not as powerful as your 3090) I have following results:

OpenXR: Auto
TAA: 60%
Game resolution: 1488x1454
Post resolution: 2480x2428 —> dramatically low, perceived as barely acceptable in the center and total blur at the edges

OpenXR: 100%
TAA: 60%
Game resolution: 1900x1857
Post resolution: 3168x3096 → much higher in post, more sharp accors the entire FoV, but still more sharp in the center and quite blurry out of it

OpenXR: 100%
TAA: 100%
Game resolution: 3168x3096 → even higher in the sim, but outside the capatibilites of 3070 (10 FPS)
Post resolution: 3168x3096 → much sharper in the cockipt (glass screens) bu still much shaprer in the center vs. the edges.

What probably happened in your case:
Your resolution was probably massively reduced by the auto OXR setting with 2080.
When you installed 3090 the auto resolution went up to more reasonable setting.
So you now perceive more clarity and apparently the bigger swet spot, compared to the previous, dramatically reduced resolution by OpenXR autosetting.

To answer the question if anything else plays role here (like a bug in the OXR driver applying lower resolution outside of the center) or rather the optical issue, you should pick a fairly small detail in the cockpit and then place it in the center of your field of view. You should then rotate your head and place the same detail at the mid distance and finally at the far end of your field of view and confirm if it remains sharp.

In other words: You were probably initially limited (on 2080 and OXR auto) with very low resolution rendered, well below the optical capabilities or imperfections of the G2 lenses. When your resolution went up to a reasonable level, the question is if you are fully satisfied with end-to-end sharpnees across the entire/most FoV. I doubt it. This is the optical limitation of G2.

I never used Valve Index, but people like @CptLucky8 who have both G2 and Index say that Index has more or less the same sharpness across the entire FoV (while less sharp than G2 in the center), which for me as the G2 user is something I can only dream about.

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When you say you have the OpenXR custom render scale disabled, do you mean you have:

  1. not checked the box; or
  2. checked the box and moved the slider to ‘0’?

It is my belief (though I have no facts to back this up) that when the box is unchecked the render scale is automatically set at 100.

Just answered my own question. If I check the Custom Render Scale box and attempt to move the slider to ‘0’ it will only adjust to a minimum of 50. So, unchecking the box is disabling the feature. Sorry to bother you with the question.

@Beulah6126, it is brilliant, but only once you understand it. Until then it just looks like technical mumbo jumbo that only the cool kids understand, and you’re not one of the cool kids.

But yeah, 2x my 2070 Super would explain the ability to do the higher settings and still get the fps you’re getting.

I believe I’ve written about this already in this topic here:
PSA: Reverb G2 small sweet spots, observations and solutions - #150 by CptLucky8

I’m not sure how you can use an argument that CptLucky8 gets improved Index resolution VIA SOFTWARE to make the argument that the G2 is OPTICALLY LIMITED. Perhaps similarly even with what we think is a great GPU/CPU combination, the G2 is still limited by both the computer hardware/software combinations currently available to us. I only have a 2070S with an i9-9900K but when I go from 100% TAA in sim/100% SS OXR (full optical resolution) to 70% TAA/150% OXR, I get a much better image overall in the G2 (sorry I don’t have an Index to compare!). Same optics in G2 but in 2nd setting, better software settings calculating lower res virtual images for each eye, then post-processing automagically upscaling them to a noticeably sharper overall image. I have also noticed if I really push my luck and go to 100% TAA/150% OXR, which is 100% STUTTERVILLE, the images that momentarily freeze on my screen seem incredibly sharp compared to lower settings that give smoother motion without major stuttering. I don’t think getting a smooth frame rate with a 3090 necessarily means one is getting the sharpest possible image out of the headset hardware (going back to CptLucky8’s Index image improvement in Steam via a software change…). The other thing that I wonder about in comparing Valve “sharpness” to G2 supposed blurriness is that with the Index you have larger pixels distributed over a wider field of view (4.6 M pixels in ~130 deg FOV vs 9.3 M pixels in ~114 deg FOV). The G2 pixels are going to be smaller, being crammed into a narrower field of view. If you don’t have really good corrected vision, they’re going to look blurrier (try reading 12 point font vs 9 point font). If you have less than perfect vision, the clearest small spots are going to be in the center (because of the greater sharpness of foveal vision, that’s where the limited optics of VR headsets aims to provide the clearest vision and the headset optics don’t change when you move your eyes) and those small pixels are going to look blurrier off to the side, less so the sharper your vision, e.g. 20/15 corrected vs. 20/35 (perfectly acceptable to drive with up to 20/50 vision in Texas). So, yeah, everything looks sharper with an Index under Steam when you only have to resolve bigger pixels!

Edit_Update: Don’t know if it’s possible in MSFS but one thing that might be useful would be if the SIM could present the view for either eye that it’s calculated for VR in motion in a 2D image at the same resolution, i.e., essentially a buffer that captures an image frame that would be sent to your headset and allows you to view that frame at headset resolution in 2D. Right now if we switch out of VR, we get on our monitors the image that’s supposedly going to each headset but I don’t think it’s at full resolution (my monitor is only 1440p high and the vertical height of the image is ~1/2 the height of the screen). So I’m wondering if we could see at full res in 2D the images that are being sent to a single eye, whether that would help sort out questions of computer/hardware software computation of image vs. G2 optical quality. I guess one’s monitor screen pixels are a lot bigger than those you’d be viewing with the headset, too

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I believe you’re half right and half wrong. Please let me explain some key elements missing which will help understanding some of this.

First and foremost, the FOV you’re mentioning are diagonal FOV only. This is very important because the Index panels are rectangular and vertical, whereas the G2 are square. These headsets physically designed FOVs are measured and reported here:

HMD Geometry Database | Collected geometry data from some commercially available VR headsets.

But what makes the Index optics also better for edge to edge clarity is that these are dual-element lenses, and the panels are canted (by 5 deg):

The custom lenses built into the Valve Index Headset maximize field of view without sacrificing edge-to-edge clarity. High geometric stability allows you to look around the scene by moving your eyes (not just your head) with minimal shape distortion.

Instead of a mount perpendicular to the user’s eyes, the headset’s displays cant outward by 5 degrees. This improves outer FOV while balancing the inner FOV.

Headset - Valve Index® - Upgrade your experience - Valve Corporation

This difference is in fact massive to the experience:

  • The canted displays are contributing to making the distance between the external side of the image (right side of the right panel) and the headset enclosure smaller, and this was a revelation to me: with the G2 the enclosure looks wider to the side and is contributing to the “see through goggles” impression, whereas with the Index they are small enough to give enough peripheral presence and contributing to the “being immersed” impression. The vertical FOV is also much higher and contributing to this immersion as well.

  • The lenses are effectively giving you the most of each pixel nearly edge to edge. To me it is about 85% off center before it starts getting blurry but even there, it is less blurry at the edge than the G2 at 50% off center (about). I also notice the Anti-CA filter in WMR is not as effective as the combination of both the dual-element lenses material and the Anti-CA filter in the Index (I’m sure there is one too, it is the same lead developer Alex Vlachos behind the two).

So in turn, although you never get a pixel as sharp as the G2 in the center with the Index, you get overall more of each pixel across the entire field of view and this is visually much more immersive and much more comfortable in practice (let alone my own G2 optics problems I’ve described - awaiting a printed slimmer mask to compare prior doing the RMA).

And if you add the rest: sturdy build, eye relief adjustment (distance eye/lens), the convenient button on the headset which allows me popping up the SteamVR overlay and changing setting without having to touch a controller, with the addition of the razor sharp tracking which is never failing nor lagging nor glitching… It adds up to the overall experience and I really want the G2 to be my main sim driver but the more I continue using the Index, the more I’m really starting to wondering whether the G2 is really up to the task in the end despite the panel resolution.

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Yes this is possible and “only” requires building a proxy DLL intercepting the OpenXR API calls. It is exactly what programs like ReShade are doing for the 3D API DLLs. I thought about coding one like this but I’ve never allocated any time because, well, there is always something else to do :slight_smile:

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There is also this in-depth discussion of the Valve Index in relation to FOV. I’ll have to see if I can come up with something similar for the G2 as to the pro’s and con’s of it’s optics choice (like no eye relief!).

Field of View - Deep Dive - Valve Index - Upgrade your experience - Valve Corporation (valvesoftware.com)

Seems like a good run-down on FOV considerations (explains HAM!):
(also by Richard Musil, same guy running the HMD Geometry Database quoted by CptLucky8)

VR headset rendered FOV calculation - VR Docs (risa2000.github.io)

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I wanted to further comment on this and I’ve taken a screenshot for another unrelated problem which gave me the idea to specifically compare the G2 and Index headsets with this aircraft cockpit as a reference.

I’ll use this screenshot for illustration only (just to remind the disk of clarity limits I can observe)*:

I’ve compared both in placing me in front of the attitude indicator and looking directly to its center point, with the Cessna logo on the yoke visible near the bottom of the view, then in moving only the eyes around.

Reverb G2:

  • I can see the attitude indicator gauge sharp overall.
  • The right most side of the airspeed indicator is showing slight blur, increasing as you look further to the left.
  • The left most part of the altitude indicator is showing the same level of blur increasing as you look further to the right.
  • The 3 gauges below (Turn Coord, Compass, VSI) are slightly more blurry and their lowest part is becoming sensibly less sharp.
  • The RPM indicator is heavily blurry, you can still decode the writing but not read it at a glance.

To keep it simple, trying to read anything beyond the middle of the 5 gauges surrounding the attitude indicator requires moving the head.

Valve Index:

  • There is no blur vertically from top to bottom. I can read clearly the Cessna logo and even see no blur on the features on the floor.
  • I can see no blur from the left most gauge (fuel QTY) to the left edge of the Garmin GPS.

The Index has a large edge-to-edge clarity where you can read easily anything within the 3 black grooves as clearly as in the center, and anything quite far beyond still, with minimal blur. You don’t feel the need to turn the head to read better.

Comparing effective resolution:

  • In the entire Index region I’m describing, the effective perceived resolution is higher than on the Reverb G2 image seen when reading the “100 knots” mark in the airspeed indicator, or the aircraft symbol in the center of the compass.
  • In the disk of clarity region of the G2 I’m describing, the effective perceived resolution is higher than on the Index center, there is no question there.

Comparing optics (simple test in SteamVR):

  • launch SteamVR Home
  • set Alyx 17 environement
  • navigate to the 2nd part of the environment (after passing through the porch on the left)
  • go near the wall onto which passes a big cable
  • turn around and look at the wall at the opposite side where there is a Russian poster/writings
  • turn your head left and right and see how the wall and poster are geometrically deforming
  • remove the front mask and hold the headset closer to your eyes and repeat.

There is a distance were there is no deformation at all (in addition to increased FOV and the perception of a wider sweet spot we all know already), and if you get closer to the point your eyes are nearly touching the lenses, the wall deformation will come back but this time reversed (like farther away it is barrel distortion and closer it is pincushion).

I don’t see any distortion whatsoever with the Index regardless of eye relief adjustment. It is possible SteamVR is also varying the pre-distortion to compensate for the eye relief distance changes too, but I just think the optics have a better designed sweet spot allowing such variability optically only.

Do you see this happening with yours too?


*this screenshot comes from an unrelated discussion:
LOD Problems - Distances revisited - #32 by CptLucky8

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