I’ve been using VR with MSFS for maybe a year now and I’m quite suprised at how poor the framerate is in the game. I have a NVIDIA 1660-TI card which isnt the best but also isnt the worst. All other VR games play with great frame rate whereas MSFS can be horrendous.
I toyed with the idea of getting a new graphics card but seemed a lot to spend for only one game, personally I think there must be more that can be done by the developers to improve VR in this game, as I say my graphics card is good and is amazing at other VR games leaving me to believe the implementation of VR in MSFS is whets wrong here.
I think you’re being over-optimistic about that card’s abilities. Graphics have already been adjusted for lower end rigs and many weren’t happy about that.
Just for your info - when I started flying this sim in VR (as soon as it was implemented) I ran it at a fixed framerate of 18fps. I was gobsmacked at just how well that worked. Now I can run it without any framerate locking and it runs nice and smooth at 30 or 45 fps, depending on situation, aircraft model and headset used.
You also need to be realistic with your settings and not expect too much - I’m also amazed at how good it looks at low to medium graphics settings. I use the default setting (just click on the button for it) and then increase the rendering to 100. Works great - flying at >3,000ft over UK, Crete and Nigeria (my main flying areas). You also need to bear in mind just how much the sim has, for your hardware to deal with.
I also found that extra RAM = smoother VR, even if the sim doesn’t use it. Doubling my 16GB to 32GB instantly got rid of the stutters I was seeing when doing test flights in Alaska. Even though the sim has never used more than 8GB on my PC.
Remember that VR was not a consideration for this sim initially on announcement (when much of the code was likely already well advanced), so the basics were already there for 2D ‘pancake’ simming and the VR was shoehorned in later after outcry from users.
A 1660 just aint gonna cut it,just is what it is,Ihave a 3080 and im upgrading to a 4090 soon as i can vr needs all the gpu you can throw at it.For example the 3080 is about 200% faster than the 1660,also you are trying to play the probably most demanding sim there is so of course other things are gonna run easier.
I don’t think it’s silly to buy a new graphics card for 1 game, if that’s the 1 game you’ve primarily played for the past year. Right now, people are starting to get rid of their 30XX cards to buy 4090s, so it’s not a bad time to upgrade. There are 3090s on ebay for $500-600.
I think a main reason VR suffers in MSFS is because it’s such a large open-world.
It’s also not all about Asobo or MSFS. For example giving dwm.exe - the WMR compositor - more resources reduces stuttering. Especially on CPU constrained systems.
MSFS with VR is a huge software system and looks like that altough single parts are made to perform optimally - no one looks after the whole system and makes them to perform in unison.
So, for me, Sim Update 11 is one of the best releases for VR. I especially like the DHC-2 Beaver. I was actually looking forward to the DC-3, but for now I prefer to fly the Beaver in VR. Slow, but rustic with a great sound. Everything runs smoothly in VR, little to no stuttering, everything is sharp.
Only the clouds are still too “colorful” for me (saturation). Otherwise I won’t need an update until next year.
10900k / 64GB RAM / 3090 / G2
And yes, I bought a new computer for the MSFS 2 years ago. Either right or not at all
I get your points, if I get a better graphics card the graphics would be better, but I do feel there are things the developers could do to improve performance. I can play on PC display on ultra with good frame rate, but with VR on lowest graphics settings I might get <5fps. Its just two stereo screens so shouldn’t be that demanding, but as others have said it could be the windows mixed reality adding complexity. I could get a new graphics card but it feels like I shouldn’t need to spend more money because its not been implemented well!
I agree with the others. Your video card arrived on the market one year and an half BEFORE Flight Simulator hit the stores. The fact that you can still use it today it’s a proof of the good job they did with VR implementation. Then, of course, there’s always room to improve.
But really, this is the most complex title you can imagine for VR.
Really? I can imagine quite a lot, and this ain’t it. Plotting the path of thousands of tracer rounds maybe but a low polygon object floating above a low polygonal mesh and associated textures, meh!
Yeah, a whole world - literally - with all the variables involved, wind, light, reflections, clouds, 360 ° visibility. Really, really easy and light to compute. But hey, if you’re convinced, I’m not gonna try to change your opinion.
