Struggling with VR Settings - Valve Index

Hey Guys,

I just got the Valve Index after many recommendations from other members of the community.

My specs are as follows:

Intel i7-6700K

GSkill 32GB DDR4 RAM @3200 GHZ

Nvidia 1080ti Founder's Edition

Samsung 850 EVO TB SSD

I spent most of last night messing with a series of settings and doing a bunch of research and I got the frame rate to an acceptable level, but my big issue is a bit hard to describe.

When rolling an aircraft and looking out the side (right or left) it feels like the world is "tearing" a bit, or when flying near cities and staring out the side of the airframe. It feels like buildings are just not catching up with the speed of the airframe and there's a "blur" for a lack of a better term.

I've turned of motion smoothness and bluring in both steamvr.

If I look straight a head there's no issues, the cockpit isn't tearing and there's no noticeable frame rate drops.

Unfortunately this tearing is causing quite a bit of nausea for me and really hurting my enjoyment.

Any help would be appreciated!

Struggling with VR Settings - Valve Index

Leave motion smoothing on, this is so ground objects or buildings don’t split into two when you look to the side.

In SteamVR setting Video tab, turn on custom resolution and leave the slider at 100%. Do the same thing in application tab for DCS.exe (after you run DCS) and set it to 100%.

You should also buy fpsVR since it will help when fine tuning your system by giving exact FPS and frametime numbers.

In DCS VR use PD 1.0, and start adjusting the other graphic settings to get the frame rate you want. I suggest running the Index in 80Hz mode and aim for 40 FPS when you tweak your settings. Certain settings such as antialiasing require restart of DCS to see the effects. Once you can get acceptable frame rate you can start playing with super sampling.

Leave motion smoothing on, this is so ground objects or buildings don’t split into two when you look to the side.

 

In SteamVR setting Video tab, turn on custom resolution and leave the slider at 100%. Do the same thing in application tab for DCS.exe (after you run DCS) and set it to 100%.

 

You should also buy fpsVR since it will help when fine tuning your system by giving exact FPS and frametime numbers.

 

In DCS VR use PD 1.0, and start adjusting the other graphic settings to get the frame rate you want. I suggest running the Index in 80Hz mode and aim for 40 FPS when you tweak your settings. Certain settings such as antialiasing require restart of DCS to see the effects.

I'll try turning motion smoothing back on, I still had the issue, but that's a good description of what I see (the building split in two). I've got everything else set up as you have, I'll look into getting FPS VR. I had the overlay and it was locked at 40FPS regardless of what I was doing.

If that is the case you might not be getting steady 40 FPS. That is why fpsVR is important, especially frametime tracking to see if you have intermittent dropped frames or not.

Assuming I'm not getting a consistent 40, what should I adjust? What are settings that help boost performance?

I'm trying to avoid going full ham, and getting a 2080ti and/or upgrading to the new 3900X :P

You may want to look into something like process lasso to set up specific cores in your processor for VR vs DCS. I saw my game smooth out quite a bit through the affinity assignment of specific cores and HTs. I currently have 1 core +HT affinity set for the support apps (srs, VA, etc), 1 core +HT for VRcompositor, and 6 cores +HTs for DCS. That seems to give me a good balance and the best smoothness in game.

I'd also turn everything down first, get the visuals to move smoothly first, then ratchet up the SS resolution and the post processing effects (MSAA, MFAA, AF, etc.). That way you can judge what is worth turning on and what isn't. Personally I want smooth over less shimmer. That is put me at SS 148/138 in Steam VR with AF set to x2 in game. I had to do the processor affinity work first to get and keep the game smooth.

You may want to look into something like process lasso to set up specific cores in your processor for VR vs DCS. I saw my game smooth out quite a bit through the affinity assignment of specific cores and HTs. I currently have 1 core +HT affinity set for the support apps (srs, VA, etc), 1 core +HT for VRcompositor, and 6 cores +HTs for DCS. That seems to give me a good balance and the best smoothness in game.

 

I'd also turn everything down first, get the visuals to move smoothly first, then ratchet up the SS resolution and the post processing effects (MSAA, MFAA, AF, etc.). That way you can judge what is worth turning on and what isn't. Personally I want smooth over less shimmer. That is put me at SS 148/138 in Steam VR with AF set to x2 in game. I had to do the processor affinity work first to get and keep the game smooth.

I need a little bit of both, shimmer not so much but lack of detail seems to make me more nauseated (trying to read or focus on things that just are too pixelated).

But do you have a link for that process lasso?, I'd like to try that since I know DCS is CPU limited.

Or a tutorial?

When you go to SteamVR/video tab, where you set the custom resolution it should give you a recommended setting. Mine for instance is 150%. Leave all the other SS options like DCS Application resolution and in game pixel density at 100% or 1.0. Then click the VR preset in DCS settings and try it. As to the blurring and double vision on outside objects that's most definitely helped with motion smoothing on. Turn trees down to 60%, leave all shadows off and no MSAA, motion blur, depth of field or civilian traffic, chimney smoke, cockpit global lighting should all be off.

well now that I've solved my 2x vision issue with that "raw" I'm now trying to dial in the perf...or serious lack thereof.

with the O+, I am able to run 160% and hold 45fps 99% of time.

With the Index, I have it at 100% only, and 80hz, and I can barely hold 40, often its jumped into 20s or 30s on MP.

All the other settings are the same.

Latest nvidia drivers, steamvr beta, etc.

I didnt think the screen resolution was much larger in the Index...?

Do not get the 3900X unless it for something other than DCS. The extra cores will not help. I had the 6700K and could run it at 4.8Ghz if I remember correctly. Your first and best option is to OC the current 6700 as high as you can stable. Disable Hyperthreading in bios to bring your temps way down. DCS doesn't use it and the temperature drop could be as high as 10C. If you can't get it to 5.0Ghz or better, buy a new processor and board. I think the 9900K is cheaper than the 8700K at the moment but most of us that compare settings with the Index have 9900's I believe.

Do that first. It's pointless to get a 2080Ti without having a CPU that can send it data quickly enough. 9900K's clock to 5ghz basically out of the box. The 6700 doesn't have the clock speed to push the 2080Ti.

That's what you need for frame rates. We are able to do the process lasso stuff, and SS experiments because we have the horsepower to begin with. The Index needs all it can get because of the lower native resolution which forces us to use supersampling.

I think the 9900K is cheaper than the 8700K at the moment but most of us that compare settings with the Index have 9900's I believe.

The 9900K is still about £100 more expensive than the 8700K, so not sure where you are getting that from.

Also, IMO, there is no benefit spending the extra on a 9900K. I bought one, and couldn’t really see any difference in DCS, or anything else that doesn’t use the extra cores available, so I returned it and went back to my 8700K.

@pchRage - I came from an o+ too. You will need to make sure you've purged all of the settings for SteamVR before you start up with the index.

The index has the SAME resolution as the o+. SAME. What is different is the panel tech - OLED vs LCD. LCD is slightly less bright, and less contrasty, with better pixel fill and better refresh.

The settings can be broken into three areas - SteamVR, Nvidia Control Panel, and DCS itself.

Do the least amount graphically in DCS. Put PD back to 1, remove all antialiasing (MSAA, SSAA, and AF), turn shadows to flat, and reduce the trees and grass (50% for trees, and 0 for grass).

In SteamVR, you can use the 1.7.15 beta and go ahead and use the defaults - motion smoothing on and no custom resolution. Not sure what your specs are but try whatever Steam recommends. Also press up to 90hz first. If you don't have fpsVR, you can also go into the steamvr settings, under developer, and enable the check box to see the frame time counter in your index. This will show you how your GPU is performing real time. The lower the Frame time the greener the display, the smoother the game. @ 90 hz you want the game to operate at >18-19ms for 45 fps.

In NVCP, stick with stock. You'll want to stick with the 436.02 driver for now.

You will need to baseline this config with afterburner, or some other HW monitoring software to see how the CPU and GPU are doing. Something is bottlenecking somewhere, and having some data will help find the problem.

If you do all of this and still have issues, you may have to look at upgrading something else to get better performance.

If all of this you've done before, then disregard :). Just trying to help.

The 9900K is still about £100 more expensive than the 8700K, so not sure where you are getting that from.

Also, IMO, there is no benefit spending the extra on a 9900K. I bought one, and couldn’t really see any difference in DCS, or anything else that doesn’t use the extra cores available, so I returned it and went back to my 8700K.

Awesome, get the 8700 lol. Had I known then what I know now I would have done the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the 8700K lack hyperthreading? If so that's one less thing to have to mess with.

Awesome, get the 8700 lol. Had I known then what I know now I would have done the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the 8700K lack hyperthreading? If so that's one less thing to have to mess with.

No, it’s the 9700K that doesn’t have HT. 8700K does.

thanks @Nagilem

Yea in other thread I had a weeks-worth of troubles with WMR settings mucking with Index.

What I did find last night is I missed 1 setting in DCS, the Terrain shadows! I had dropped my previous saved settings in DCS to wipe out WMR remnants and missed that one.

I turned it off and immediate got back closer to spec.

I then moved from 80hz to 90hz.

A setting I found works better for me in SteamVR is to DISABLE (always off) the Motion smoothing.

I saw Wicked.- great comment on removing Hyperthreading in bios, and will try that.

I'm also testing my I-7700K from a default of 4.5mhz to 4.9mhz (100 more than the default MSI "game mode" of 4.8).

So now I'm running 4 cores vs "8 HT", and 4.9...

Will test a burn in with DCS and see if the temp exceed 80C (no watercooling...).

EDIT: Regarding your comment "@ 90 hz you want the game to operate at >18-19ms for 45 fps." I check and when I'm in the weeds I see locked 45fps, and my ms is ~"13.1 of 11.1ms (90 Hz)"

Good deal! Glad it's working for you! If you're not going to use an AIO water cooled solution, buy a tube of Thermal Grizzly Conductanaut thermal liquid metal/paste. It will also lower temps by least 5c and probably more. It's the best thing I've tried and I've been building computers and overclocking since the mid 90's.

Well I decided to move back to 4.8MHz instead of 4.9. The temps were still fine, rarely a spike over 80c, but running 1.4+ vcore just felt iffy. 4.8MHz takes me back to 1.3v and that 100MHz delta doesn't seem to make a perceptible difference.

I'll prob jump on the 2080 Super or Ti bandwagon around Black Friday/Cyber Monday (plus a larger PSU), maybe by then the drivers will start to net out some cost/benefits.

Hey Guys,

 

I just got the Valve Index after many recommendations from other members of the community.

 

My specs are as follows:

 

Intel i7-6700K

GSkill 32GB DDR4 RAM @3200 GHZ

Nvidia 1080ti Founder's Edition

Samsung 850 EVO TB SSD

 

I spent most of last night messing with a series of settings and doing a bunch of research and I got the frame rate to an acceptable level, but my big issue is a bit hard to describe.

 

When rolling an aircraft and looking out the side (right or left) it feels like the world is "tearing" a bit, or when flying near cities and staring out the side of the airframe. It feels like buildings are just not catching up with the speed of the airframe and there's a "blur" for a lack of a better term.

 

I've turned of motion smoothness and bluring in both steamvr.

 

If I look straight a head there's no issues, the cockpit isn't tearing and there's no noticeable frame rate drops.

 

Unfortunately this tearing is causing quite a bit of nausea for me and really hurting my enjoyment.

 

Any help would be appreciated!

I had the exact same issue when I first got my VR rig. The issue is looking at dense objects like a city off the 3/9 line (wingline) I played with all the settings but the one thing that seemed to have the biggest effect on frame rate was the shadows (believe it or not). As soon as I set the shadows to FLAT, the problem went away and it's a really smooth now.

I have Shadows and Terrain Object shadows both set to Flat.

I also Have MSAA, Depth of field, Lens Effects Motion Blur and SSAA all OFF

Those settings seemed to have the biggest effect on eliminating that issue.

Similar spec except for 4770K @3.9 I select 120hz which seemed to help a lot with vr sickness. Looking sideways is the biggest demand on system so some smoothing options will be needed. Reprojection is ON but smoothing OFF i think ? It shows differently to me depending where i look in the steamvr settings. I ignore my apparent fps. Its smooth in flight offline. Not tried online where i expect it not to be.

Using dcs vr default settings on the Options.Sytem page.

With my single radiator AIO cooler, I'm not able to get it much over 4.2 ghz base, I did manage to get it tolerable but without MSAA the pixelation is horrible.

I think it's time to retire the old rig. Aside from optimal builds, is there anything wrong with the 3900X, I am planning on using it for things other than DCS.

With my single radiator AIO cooler, I'm not able to get it much over 4.2 ghz base, I did manage to get it tolerable but without MSAA the pixelation is horrible.

 

I think it's time to retire the old rig. Aside from optimal builds, is there anything wrong with the 3900X, I am planning on using it for things other than DCS.

DCS is CPU clockspeed/GHz dependent. You really want to be at or above 5.0Ghz. AMD's aren't going to do that.

DCS is CPU clockspeed/GHz dependent. You really want to be at or above 5.0Ghz. AMD's aren't going to do that.

You understand that the new ryzen chips actually have better IPC than the latest intel chips right? So a Ryzen 3900x at say 4.6ghz is basically equivalent to a 9900k at 5ghz. Clock speed doesn't mean anything as long as the IPC is there to give you better single core speed. You could have a chip that runs at 3.5 ghz but with a massive IPC lead over current chips and it would be better than something running at 5ghz with less IPC.

Long story short, clock speed doesn't mean anything. Single core scores, and IPC do. How you get there doesn't matter. The only hope we have for the future of VR right now is either massive changes to the engines that run these games, or new CPU's with massive IPC increases. We need new and better architectures, the current ones are tapped out and chips aren't going to get any faster in the mhz department.

I agree it's a losing battle with the current software but I can't say I've seen DCS benchmarks where AMD performs better than an intel chip; whether i7 or i9. Granted, I'm basing that on what I read here on the forums and the PC specs I see in people's signatures. Is this a new reality that AMD is the way to go? I ask because I'm not opposed to switching as I'm married to neither brand. But, I'd rather not have the same let down as when upgrading from a 1080Ti to a 2080Ti.

Been trying out so many settings lately on nvidia, steamVR and dcs graphic/vr settings on my odyssey plus.

It appears the non beta steamVR is much better for me. Tried this with heavy missions and it runs much more smoother than the beta version.

My issue with the non beta version, cranking up supers sampling does not seem to change anything in-game.

Cockpit is super clear in the Tomcat, a tiny bit fuzzy in the hornet, beautiful in my black shark KA-50 and harrier and using FspVR app, I have constant yellow/orange indicator colors with smooth game play.

Look like I will be staying with the non beta steamVR.

What is in the steamVR beta? It has been giving so much micro jittery and long freezes lately.

Thanks