FPS drops when maneuvering

Hi everybody, I am relatively new to VR (I have the rift) and still trying to optimise my graphics settings - generally I am able to get a consistent 45fps using ASW, but I tend to get sudden FPS drops for what seems like no reason, it often seems to happen if I make a violent maneuver, but sometimes it seems to happen for no reason at all.

Bear in mind, when launching weapons, external views or flying over cities I normally get a solid 45 fps using ASW. My specs and current settings are below:

CPU: i5 6400

RAM: 24gb DDR4

GPU: GTX 1080

Running everything from an HDD

Graphics settings are:

PD=1.3

Textures = High

Terrain Textures = High

Civ traffic = Low

Water = High

Vis Range = Medium

Heat Blur = Low

Shadows = Low

Res of Cockpit displays = 1024

MSAA = Off

DOF = Off

Lens = None

Motion Blue = Off

SSAA = Off

Clutter = 750

Trees = 90%

Preload 150000 (max)

Chimeny Smoke -= 1

Gamma = 2.2

Anisotropic Filtering = 16x

Terrain Object Shadows = Default

Cockpit Global Illumination = On

Re: my graphics settings - I have tried lots of other options and found them largely the same FPS wise. MSAA and high shadows are a killer, but dropping the options you see below I find virtually no improvement unless i'm in a super busy airfield on the ground.

Any help would be massively appreciated!

change the shadows to flat. lots of shadows when manoeuvring hard.

turn off anisotropic filtering.

set pd to 1.2

and you have the same settings as me.

I also have chimney smoke off because I often only see it in one eye..

Thanks Quadg,

Do you have the normal ASW settings and do you get solid 45fps?

I would also lower the trees setting.

Thanks for the advice guys but no joy!

I tried Quadg's settings with the lowest tree options and got no perceptible improvement.

Then I tried the VR default settings at PD 1.0 and still have almost the exact same frames and the same occasional frame drops.

Any ideas?

My only thought is that it could be my HDD taking time to call up files, and thus could be solved by running off an SSD.

Lower your cockpit displays resolution to 256 and see how that works. In VR, I don't find it any more difficult to use the TGP and Maverick sensors with the resolution at its lowest setting.

Also, if you set water to low, and turn clutter completely off, these things should all come together to give you a big boost in performance.

The images in the mirrors will be terrible, and the water won't look as pretty, but I don't spend much time staring at either one.

Hi Eagle,

Thanks for the advice, but this has not affected things at all. I'm still running a pretty solid 45fps with sudden and unexpected stutters - especially when maneuvering.

OK latest update for those interested -

I have dropped every available graphics settings to the lowest possible, including pixel density and have noticed absolutely no change whatsoever.

I am hoping that the stutters are caused by my HDD taking time to find files. I'll be getting an SSD in a week or two so hopefully this will solve the problem!

Sounds like the HDD/SDD thing might be the issue if thats the case.

Your settings don't seem to be overly ambitious. I'm running a bit lower than you with a worse card and I'm generally ok. My settings are in the low-end vr thread. I do have an SSD tho.

Turn "Game Mode" to OFF in Windows settings.

Also, AF doesn't impact FPS at all really, so you can leave it at 16x without any worrying.

Nvidia control panel: Turn to "Prefer Maximum Performance" and VR Pre-Rendered Frames to 3.

Thanks guys.

Buckeye - i've no idea how to turn Game Mode off (if it is even off) the page where I would expect to find the switch just has a link telling more about it. I reckon it isn't on...

In any case, i've tried the VR Pre-Rendered frames and - you guessed it - exactly the same performance.

I am hoping an SSD will fix this!