Hi All,
Just a quick brag post, with the hope that somebody with similar hardware will get similar results as I am enjoying. VR feels smooth and visuals feel super realistic.
About my PC:
8700k overclocked to 4.8ghz
2080ti overclocked to +100 on the core and +700 on the memory
64Gb 3200 RAM using XMP profile
Windows 10 Pro build 19042.685
NVIDIA Driver:457.30
HMD: VIVE Pro 90Hz refresh 1440 x 1600 per eye
Steam VR - Linux Beta 1.14
OVR Toolkit with Edge Browser for charts and weather and V-Pilot for traffic and ATC.
Windows 10 Settings
Game Mode Off
Game Bar Off
Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling Off
That’s it… Getting great visuals, and smooth experience inside the headset, but one more thing that makes the visuals even better is when I wear a pair of ray-ban sunglasses inside the HMD. I have found this makes the colours of the ground textures, buildings and trees more realistic, does a better job of blending the transition from close LOD and the more blurry textures of the far horizon. Makes the sky look amazing, and it really accentuates the light shafts and shadows in the cockpit… If you don’t have sun glasses handy, try turning on Night Mode in Steam VR, it makes a difference as well.
Nice. I’ve got the same GPU so I’ll make sure to try your settings. What kind of framerate are you getting? Also I’m curious how are you taking screenshots of your in-game settings? I never have and it will come in handy if I ever need to revert back.
Be careful with those sunglasses. It’s all too common to read about HMD lenses being scratched because of wearing glasses without spacers installed. I see it quite a bit on the Index and Oculus subreddits.
Edit - I noticed you are using the Linux beta of Steam VR. How does that work? I would have assumed that wouldn’t work in Windows.
Night Mode must be specific to the Linux beta. I’ve never seen that before. Or maybe it only appears when an HTC headset is detected.
I honestly don’t know what the frame rates are. I have been tuning for smoothness and visual quality, without checking or even worrying about what the FPS is. Having said that, I am guessing solid 30, but might be 45. I am quite susceptible to nausea from judder in VR, so 30 is the absolute minimum I can usually stand in other sims and VR games.
I put the sim in window mode, then alt tab out and use the windows 10 Screen Snip tool to capture them.
Yep I hear you, but the Vive has a nifty feature where you can adjust the headset to accommodate the extra room for the glasses.
I don’t think it installs the actual linux drivers, but instead steam VR installs the equivalent windows driver for version 1.14. To install, opt into the beta via the steam vr properties tab and choose the linux driver from the dropdown list. This has been the secret sauce for making VR smooth for me in MSFS2020, it also works great in P3D, Xplane and DCS.
For me, Night Mode is a toggle option in the steam vr setting panel. It has always been available, not just the linux drivers. Not sure if it is specific to the vive HMD though.
I tried the Linux Beta branch last night finally and it made a huge difference. My frame time graphs for both cpu and gpu were smooth with the occasional spike. I’ve never been able to get it that smooth with settings as high as I was using.
Planes with screens (is that called a glass cockpit?) were unplayable before, but I fired up the 172 and all was well. So … thanks!
One thing I noticed is I can no longer bring up the toolbar with the tab key. Instead it brings up some kind of console/terminal window only in my left eye and it’s very out of focus. The text in the window looks like some kind of msfs log data. Are you able to use the toolbar? Dev mode was my first thought, but it’s disabled in the sim.
For anybody using an Index with the Steam Linux Beta: Are you able to change refresh rate in-game? When I try my headset now goes into a black screen until I toggle out and back in to VR.
I confirm you can’t change the headset refresh rate with linux_v1.14 unless you toggle VR mode. In addition, it fails sometimes to display the Steam overlay (clicking the Index HMD button or using the Knuckles button), and I’ve had occasions where the SteamVR monitor didn’t display either (this is the little window showing the connection state of the HMD, controllers, LH stations). Otherwise I agree it is the best SteamVR for simulation and I agree not just for FS2020.
Speaking of refresh rate, I now find using Index at 120Hz + SteamVR linux_1.14 + NVidia 457.30 giving the best overall experience. More details about all this and more here:
NB: @Mendigo1151 is reporting trying an older NVidia Driver giving even better results on his system than 457.30. I didn’t try it yet (tried many others) but I’ll do soon:
I tried the 451.48 drivers this morning, and early tests suggest that I am getting slightly better smoothness as well. I need to do more testing, but this was noticeable out the side windows of the CJ4 during taxi. Couple of stutters on take off, but I am not too worried about that as it happens from time to time. Flying the C172 with steam gauges was very smooth and stutter free as well.
So did everything you did. I basically have the same system only I have a 3080… I even changed over to the Steam VR Linux. Oh and I’m using the most latest Nvidia drivers released on the 7th. Oh and running at 120Hz not 90… I suggest going to 120… At 90 It runs terrible on my system.
And flying the Cj4. Getting about 35 FPS and running about solid GPU Framtime of 21. And CPU FrameTime of 9-10… Cpu bottle neck though.
Its much smoother thats for sure… I can tell you the CJ4 is most likely one of the hardest planes to get running in VR… Still not perfect.
I’m pretty sure flying the 172 would be solid 50-60 FPS though. Have not tried yet though. And thats the difference between the 172 and the CJ4… If anyone was wondering.
Unfortunately, I am using the Vive Pro which is fixed at 90hz refresh rate. The trick for me is to maintain 45 or worst case 30 fps, otherwise I get unbearable judder, so I would expect I am getting about the same 35 - 50 FPS depending on the plane/situation/weather etc.
Even with the few stutters, the CJ4 is perfectly flyable and cockpit is completely usable/readable with these settings flying on vatsim with OVR Toolkit for charts so no complaints from me.
I know you’ve written in another discussion some problems when changing drivers, but it seems the best overall is 457.30 and since this morning there is an increasing number of good reports for 451.48.
You might want to consider giving these another try.
