Weird experience in VR

@Tailgunner68 responding to an ephemeral apparition (ykwim): I’m weighing my options. :smiley:

Omg the feeling of the sun! I thought it was only me. Amazing.

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I have subconsciously found my body reacting to the braking movement when applying the brakes while taxing… in FS and when driving in ETS2/ATS as well.

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VR is basically making the brain believe what it sees is real. Humans tend to believe what they can see, because that’s the way our brain evolved (dogs rely more on their ears and smell for example). But your knowledge is that the VR-situation is not real, basically your brain fights against your actual knowledge and sometimes the side wins that makes you believe it’s really real.

I don’t know if you guys know that Rift Demo where there’s an alien. I always made people turn around to see the scenery just to touch their shoulders - everyone, for split second believed the alien was real and actually touched them. Scared them a lot, too. :rofl: I think it’s amazing what little it needs to make VR even more immersive.

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I know this is O/T here but I believe that the frame rate in my INDEX headset is actually dictating WHEN I experience this type of experience. I moved my recording studio two months ago and just now, got my VR / Index back up and running.
I had hoped that the interim updates had fixed a lot of the issues. I have a high end system and yet, I cannot look outside the cockpit and get fluid motion. HAGS on or off, Game Mode On or Off, nVidia Control Panel settings and a host of other suggestions have left me dumbfounded. Fluid graphics in the INDEX gives me what we talk about here but it is so rare that I am Gobsmacked as to the sweet spot.

Try setting the Index refresh to 90Hz, then in SteamVR lock the framerate to 22.5fps with additional prediction of 22.2ms, with Motion Smoothing enabled. This is giving me a really smooth experience, without excessive Motion Smoothing artifacts. Even with such a low framerate cap, with the smoothing I very rarely notice anything inside or outside that is enough to break the illusion of fluid flight, but of course it is ultimately a subjective experience.

If you haven’t done so already, I would check out @CptLucky8 's My 2070 SUPER VR settings and suggestions (Index - SteamVR) thread. Following most of his suggestions has really improve my overall VR experience with the Index.

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Thank you for your kind words!

Since WU3 and the poorer game performance I’m now using 18fps + 33.3ms on a 9900K+2070S.

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Thank you for all the work you’ve put into your posts!

I’ve seen you mention using 18fps + 33.3ms since that update, but I’ve been lucky enough to be able to stick with 22.5 + 22.2, especially since the last patch and using the newest nvidia driver. I tried 18 + 33.3 and I found the reduced framerate to be subtle, but noticeable. Maybe it is the difference between my 2080 S and your 2070 S that allows me to stick with the higher fps. Regardless, I will say that this last week (since the latest patch) I’ve had some of the smoothest, most enjoyable flights ever!

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I will try both settings and report back here.

How do I set the INDEX refresh rate to 90hz? Is that in the STEAM VR App?

Yes, on the main video settings tab (not per app) there should be options for 90hz, 120hz, 144hz. This can be changed on the fly.

Thanks JW. I tried all the settings suggested here and still get very noticeable frames, especially when looking out the window to the left or right. I tried Motion Smoothing but the artifacts with it on makes it unflyable.
I am curious as to your in-sim graphics settings under VR. Can you tell me what those are set at? I am also using the latest nVidia driver.

System Specs:
Power Supply: Corsair RM850X
MB: MSI Gaming Pro Carbon
DUAL 2GB NVMe Drives. One in TURBO M.2 slot.
CPU: Intel i9-9900KF 3.60 ( I overclock MSFS2020 to 4.8 when possible.)
RAM: 32GB Corsair RGB RAM (No O/C of RAM)
Windows 10 64
GRAPHICS: nVidia GeFORCE RTX 2080 TI
Res: 2560X1040 (144Hx)
Dual DELL S2716DG Monitors.
Onboard Audio.
All drivers including nVidia up to date.
Valve INDEX / SteamVR BETA 1.17.8

Very interesting. By all rights you should probably perform slightly better than me. Here are my system specs:

Power: EVGA 750 W
MB: GIGABYTE Z390
Drive 1: Crucial P2 500GB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
Drive 2: Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA SSD
CPU: Intel i7-9700K 3.60 O/C’d to 4.9
RAM: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32GB RAM (2 x 16GB), using XMP Profile 1
Video: nvidia RTX 2080 Super, 466.27 driver
Valve Index, SteamVR 1.16.10 (non-beta)

I get very few Motion Smoothing artifacts, but not zero. Unless I’m in an extremely taxing area the prop is pretty clean. Looking out to the side is usually clear of artifacts unless I’m in an area where the framerate dips significantly. I don’t notice this very often. When it does occur it generally looks like a slight distortion on the leading edge of the wing or struts.

It certainly could be that my tolerance of the artifacts is higher than yours, but I will say that back in the beginning when I first tried Motion Smoothing prior to limiting framerates in SteamVR I couldn’t stand it and found it to be unplayable. This is definitely a case where it has vastly improved for me, not just that I’ve grown used to it.

Here are my in-sim settings. I also included data settings, as I do think that has an impact on stuttering. Note that I generally turn off multiplayer but keep live traffic on. Another thing to note is that I currently have Glass Cockpit Refresh Rate set to Low. I’ve also had it set to High per CptLucky’s recommendation, and really haven’t notice much of a difference. I lowered it when trying to make up for the WU3 performance issues, plus I usually fly steam gauge planes anyway.


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Also should note, HAGS off, Game Mode off, and I TURN OFF MSI Afterburner when running the sim. This definitely has an impact.

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Great info. I had my settings WAY DOWN from yours. I bumped everything up tp your levels and will give it a shot. My current nVidia driver is the 146.627. Is this the driver you are using? Im also using the latest SteamVR BETA.

Would you be able to screenshot your STEAMVR settings? The GENERAL, VIDEA and PER APP settings?

I made the changes to the sim as per your screenshots. I am amazed at how buttery smooth it is now. My only complaint is the MOTION SMOOTHING artifacts. Prop and lightning are terrible. I did install a fix for the prop and it seems better but the lightning is terrible. Any suggestions on that? Thanks for the help as it is much, much better.

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Glad to hear that you are having some success with the changes!

My nvidia driver is 466.27. Prior to that I used 457.30, which was the best performing driver until now. I find 466.27 to be as good as 457.30.

Here are my SteamVR settings. I know the good Cpt. recommended setting resolution to 100% on the main video tab and making all changes on the individual app settings, but I use a baseline resolution of 192% SS in the main because it works for most other VR apps I play. I then use the per-app to dial it in for MSFS. I am also using a slightly higher res overall than CptLucky, presumably because my card is a little beefier than his. Yours is better than mine, so maybe you can do even better.

Picture1 Picture2
Picture3 Picture4

As far as further suggestions for Motion Smoothing… I’ve got nothing, really. As I mentioned I’m not finding the artifacts to be too bad. I haven’t installed a prop mod and very rarely does the prop get terrible for me. Before I was able to dial in all my perf settings, it really was bad, though, so maybe with further tweaking you will be able to improve it. I mainly fly VFR in decent weather, so TBH I’m not sure how lightning looks on my rig with these settings.

Anyway, I hope this helps. It sounds like you’re already on the way to finding the best settings for your rig. I wish you the best with it. I’ve done a lot of tweaking over time, based on CptLucky’s recommendations and I really am amazed at how well it runs now vs. when I started. I hope you have similar success!

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After booting up, I decided just to check for updates to Windows. I had already installed the KB391 update ( OR SO I THOUGHT ). It was stil on the list so I installed it again. I will test it now to see what effect it has.

Well… my frame rates are now fine but the motion smoothing artifacts are terrible. Really wigs out my brain inducing motion sickness. I am removing the old PROP MOD from the community folder to see what effect this has.