Upgrade from Quest 1 [Big Quest 2 issues solved]

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
1

First what I have now:

RTX 3080 OC V2 10Gb
Core i7 12700F
32 Gb RAM
NV2 M2 NVMe SSD
WiFi 5GHz Mesh

and the Quest 1 of course. With Link Cable.

At this point you could just skip to the jist of it further down. Or read on for some more info.

Right now flying with the Quest 1 is adequate. Feels smooth enough for extended flights.

Bought a Quest 2 figuring I could just run the same settings and get slightly better quality without taxing the rest of my system too badly.

Boy was I wrong.

Just unplugging the Quest 1 and launching the same flight plan on the Quest 2 (also using the link cable) is 100% unusable. Maybe 2fps. Unresponsive system to the point it takes several minutes just to get back out of MSFS to reset. Also bought Virtual Desktop to try the wireless route, but after tweaking about 7000 settings according to several different threads and videos it is still not usable.

Did Steam update Steam VR recently and break stuff?

So if the Quest 2 is a dead end, because just waiting for Steam to maybe fix a software issue doesn’t sound very appealing, and I am unable to get my hands on a used Reverb G2 V2 (and they can’t be bought new anymore), what could I possibly do to upgrade this experience?

The jist of it:
1 (preferred): Any headset that can give me a better experience than the Quest (1) on my current setup? (If the G2 V1 is better than the Quest I could still buy it, I’d just rather buy something a bit more recent.)

2: Or keep the Quest 2 and upgrade the GPU? (I have heard folks who have even an RTX 4090 and still get terrible performance with the Quest 2 so I could potentially spend 2000 USD to try to get my Quest 2 working and I’d rather spend that money on a better headset)

The G2 V1 can be bought second hand over here, but it feels so outdated. It’s like HP made it and then just didn’t even believe in it themselves.

I would be willing to spend a bit of money on this as the Quest 1 and MSFS is probably some of the best time I have spent on a computer for the last decade.

Edit 1: I can add to this that fiddling with all these settings to try to get the Q2 to play nice has ruined it for my Q1 as well. It starts up fine, but now it stutters so badly that I get nauseous. No idea what I need to change back to play using the Quest 1.

Edit 2: Should it work with my current setup? I have seen videos on YouTube from 2 years back saying they have great results in MSFS with the Quest 2. What GPU would they have been running back then that is significantly beefier than the 3080? The videos look buttery smooth with fps well into two figures.

Edit 3: To answer my last post. The Quest 2 with default settings works like a charm in X-plane 12. Downloaded the demo to check. So I guess it should work in MSFS without needing to change a million settings. Is something broken in an update somewhere?

5

Did you try VD in VDXR mode to completely bypass SteamVR?

6

No. Can you do this with the Steam version of MSFS? If so I haven’t seen a how to guide for it.

7

I have Store version so not sure about that. Try this:

  • start VD and set OpenXR runtime to ‘VDXR’
  • start VD in Q2 and enable performance overlay
  • start MSFS from VD inside Q2
  • in MSFS switch to VR
  • double-check that VD overlay shows VDXR runtime being used
8

You are a life saver. Or maybe not a life saver, but a money saver at the very least. That one change brought it up from unusable to about 45 fps in wireless. That might have been mentioned in one of the many threads, but I sure didn’t catch it.

Ran great! There were some stutters every now and then.

The performance overlay had the following:

WiFi 5GHz between 230 and 720 Mbps in game.

Framerate 45 (varying of course)
Latency 72
Bitrate 43 Mbps
Codec HEVC
VDXR runtime
Graphics Quality High
Target framerate 80
Video buffering Yes
Auto Bitrate Yes
Spacewarp Disabled

I am guessing the high latency is because I do not have a cable running to my router (which is in another room).

So can I use this with the Meta link cable to reduce latency or would another node for my mesh network with a cable from that to my PC help as well (depending on how important it is to be wireless to the headset)?

So far that is leaps and bounds better than what I had, and a fair bit better than with the Quest 1 tethered.

9

Cable does not work with Virtual Desktop, only WiFi.
Best solution is to find a way to wire the PC to the router.
Aside from that, moving up to a WiFi6 router may also help.

10

I have three TP-link Deco X60s (router and two APs). The closest one has ethernet backhaul to the router but I could arrange for a CAT6 cable to a third AP. I think the X60 is WiFi 6.

11

To update this. I moved one of my Deco X60 to my gaming PC and connected using a cable. 1200 Mbps. Buttery smoooooth VR. Now I just need to get a cable there from where the plug in the wall is and I’m golden.

1 Like
12

Quest 2 for me is very inconsistent, on day can be butter smooth and the next unplayable.
This only happens in Msfs 2020