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actually_fred

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About actually_fred

  • Birthday 03/01/1987

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  • Flight Simulators
    FSX, DCS World
  • Location
    Austin, TX
  • Interests
    VR
  • Occupation
    Software Engineer

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  1. actually_fred
    You can also find various guides online to move Saved Games via other techniques such as the registry or various NTFS features - DO NOT USE THEM, they break things. The way described by others above is the only way to move Saved Games without subtly breaking some windows internals.
  2. actually_fred
    This is true - it uses the OpenVR *driver* API, which is separate to the OpenVR game API. However, every other OpenXR runtime except for the simulators (e.g Meta's XR simulator, or the simulator built into varjo base to allow testing their runtime without a headset) also talks to the headset with their own internal driver/API (or in some cases, Windows.Devices.Display.Core - this is documented as a UWP API, but is not limtied to UWP), not with OpenXR. While early OpenXR presentations mentioned an OpenXR device interface (a.k.a. driver), this was never actually specified or implemented. As a developer working with and on OpenXR, I would like to see more (good) runtimes. As a consumer interested in niche headsets from small manufacturers, I'd much rather have one with a mandatory complex piece of software developed by Valve rather than the small manufacturer. I have more trust in Valve to keep delivering a reliable runtime for my expected lifetime for a headset. My definition of a 'good' runtime is: - publicly released versions pass a recent version of the freely-available OpenXR test suite - performant Sadly the majority of runtimes fail the first point - i.e. they do not work correctly. Most vendors seem to test with common games, and maybe run the test suite every year or two, but mostly leave it to users to discover issues that the manufacturer already has access to nice, isolated, reproducible examples with clear pass/fail definitions. I personally consider it misleading to call something an 'OpenXR runtime' if it does not pass a recent version of the OpenXR test suite. Khronos have their own definition which overlaps, but is in some ways weaker (e.g. Meta's PC software is considered conformant, but the tested version is from 2020 on a rift S, and Valve's is from 2021), and some ways stronger (formal process and review, membership, and IP framework rather than just 'tests pass')
  3. actually_fred
    SteamVR supports OpenXR natively. Other runtimes from hardware manufacturers are generally substantially worse than steamvr, and I’m talking about correctness, not just performance. Valve did recently introduce some openxr correctness bugs, and when I reported them, they fixed them within two days - Meta is the only other hardware vendor to actually fix openxr correctness issues when I’ve reported them (but sadly seem to pretty much never fix issues reported in PTC before rolling out to stable), even when I point at failing tests in the openxr conformance test suite. Openxr isn’t a magic wand for lockin - using your own example, WMR had its own OpenXR runtime, and Microsoft abandoned it. The crystal is similarly tied to Pimax’s software, quests are tied to Metas (or when using the alternative to Link, still Metas firmware), etc. That said, I’m 100% with you on *game* adoption of openxr being a good thing. On a minor note, OpenComposite (the openvr to Openxr translation layer) is not one of mbuchhia’s projects, and for most of his VR projects, he explicitly did not support them when used with opencomposite. Edit: While it is possible, this doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means; several other vendors ship additional OpenXR integrations as API layers which require SteamVR - for example, HTC have done this for several of their headsets, adding face and hand tracking via OpenXR on top of SteamVR.
  4. actually_fred
    SteamVR supports OpenXR, and is one of the best OpenXR runtimes - but only when used for SteamVR-native headsets, like the BigScreen Beyond and the Valve Index. It tends to have issues/overhead when the headset is *not* SteamVR-native (e.g. when SteamVR is just wrapping other software from the manufacturer like Oculus Link or WMR). Most hardware manufacturers with their own runtime have done a substantially worse job than Valve have with SteamVR - especially the smaller manufacturers - and it takes engineering time from other things that are more useful. By asking BigScreen to create/support an alternative OpenXR runtime, you're asking BigScreen to spend significantly more time on software development for no concrete benefits, and a likely worse overall result. I understand some of you may dislike SteamVR, but that doesn't mean that SteamVR is technically bad or the wrong choice for all headsets.
  5. actually_fred
    Neither of those tools are suitable for OpenXR: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools?tab=readme-ov-file#why-should-i-use-this-instead-of-my-favorite-tool-for-non-vr-games
  6. actually_fred
    Running things as administrator is a *really* bad idea, and can *create* issues that can only practically be fixed by re-installing windows (or chasing down a lot of undocumented filesystem locations and registry keys), as it can change things that should be owned by your user to require administrator permissions. It also puts your system security at severe risk when joining multi-player servers. It can help with OBS specifically because OBS contains explicit code to try and get high priority on the GPU, which requires administrator; running *everything* as administrator will not have the same effect as: - most software does not contain the code that attempts to use the only-available-to-administrator high GPU priority - even if it did, if everything has priority, effectively nothing does - it always takes away from *somewhere* - when you run OBS as administrator and it uses that to give itself higher GPU priority, this is taking away GPU resources from other things, including DCS
  7. actually_fred
    OpenKneeboard prepares the kneeboard images in VRAM regardless of whether or not it's visible - all that showing/hiding it affects is whether or not the result (a single image which is already in VRAM) is passed on to the runtime; this is *extremely* cheap compared to everything the game (and the main openkneeboard process) is doing. If your numbers are reliable, it means either: - your system is horribly overloaded - your OpenXR runtime is terribly optimized for composition quad layers, and you should report this as a bug to your OpenXR runtime vendor > OBS If you're using Jabbah's OpenXR API layer, that must do additional work when overlays are present (i.e. when OpenKneeboard is visible); I've not looked at how well it works or how well it is optimized. This would be an alternative to 'the runtime is terribly optimized'. > Reduce amount of images in the Kneeboard to reduce VRAM. (thanks Fred for the tip) To be clear, this was not a performance tip, just a statement that images stay in VRAM in OpenKneeboard. 'use less VRAM' does not improve performance unless you are reaching 100% full VRAM. When this happens, the game will generally crash or you'll get somewhere between single-digit FPS and 'seconds per frame'
  8. actually_fred
    Please keep in mind project is still in the 'early testing' stages Download: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools/releases/latest Documentation: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools/blob/main/README.md Summary: Every time someone uses any framerate measurement tool that was not specifically built for OpenXR, the numbers are not accurate, and are likely misleading. That said, it's not been entirely productive for me to keep saying that without offering an alternative, so... here we are OpenXR Toolkit's numbers are accurate; I had 3 things in mind when I started making this: OpenXR Toolkit is no longer maintained, and some games are incompatible I wanted to include power management data: "GPU time is 99% of frame time" has different meaning and implications if your GPU is running at maximum performance, vs when it's throttled, e.g. for thermal management More powerful logging: the option for 'every frame'; the binary logs are logged at every frame, but you can choose how many frames go into each row when exporting to CSV I wanted 'always-on' to be a reasonable option. Currently, the binary logging consumes 104 bytes per frame, which is 26mb/hour at 72FPS, or 43mb/hour at 120fps. Download: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools/releases/latest More information: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools/blob/main/README.md
  9. actually_fred
    If you're able to reach 90 non-VR that's a good starting point, but: - you might not be able to at all, depending on your monitor, and driver settings (especially vsync and related technologies) - if you are able to, you won't be getting the same performance with the VR1 - it is harder to produce the same framerate in VR than non-VR - the issues you're seeing might not actually occur in VR Of course, aiming to get things working non-VR first is good - just the target ends up being somewhat arbitrary and potentially unreachable. If that's fine with you, great If you're happy to sink in more time, you could also install varjo base; skip the headset setup, then click 'analytics window', then 'simulate' - you can now launch DCS in OpenXR, inside Varjo's simulator without a headset. Won't be entirely accurate for the VR1, but is as close as you can do without a headset.
  10. actually_fred
    Tools that are not specifically made for OpenXR can not produce absolute numbers that are meaningful for framerate/interval targets: https://github.com/fredemmott/XRFrameTools/blob/main/README.md#why-should-i-use-this-instead-of-my-favorite-tool-for-non-vr-games It can show when the mirror window framerate is spiking which can correlate with XR issues, but they're measuring the wrong thing (specifically 'Present' is not part of the OpenXR frame loop - it's used to show the mirror window on the screen)
  11. actually_fred
    Sorry, I misread the trace and mislead you, I'm following up with Somnium. From the OpenXR spec > A subsequent xrWaitFrame call must block until the previous frame has been begun with xrBeginFrame and must unblock independently of the corresponding call to xrEndFrame. It looks like DCS gets into the situation I described to Toge because the VR1 runtime does not do this. In this trace xrWaitFrame with predictedDisplayTime of 12388500800 is followed by xrWaitFrame with predictedDisplayTime of 12389312800, without a begin/end frame in between. The runtime should not return from the second xrWaitFrame (12389312800) until xrBeginFrame has been called for 12388500800
  12. actually_fred
    No, OpenXR Toolkit was never strictly required for anyone, regardless of headset/runtime. Some people may have been unable to get performance they were happy with without it though. The unrelated but similarly-named "OpenXR Tools for Windows Mixed Reality" is also not theoretically required, even for people with WMR headsets -the WMR openxr runtime is installed automatically when you plugin in the headset - but if the default OpenXR runtime had changed since installation, WMR users may need it or another runtime switching tool. For non-WMR headsets, it was widely incorrectly described as mandatory on these forums and elsewhere on the internet, but it was never a good idea for non-WMR headsets - it is unnecessary and frequently misleading.
  13. actually_fred
    This is just an ultraleap dev unit (https://www.ultraleap.com/product/stereo-ir-170/) in a custom case; any improvements here need to come from either Ultraleap or Eagle Dynamics. That said, install the latest drivers for it from leap motion rather than the obsolete ones that Pimax link to.
  14. actually_fred
    VDXR over link is primarily a development tool, not intended for actual use. being able to switch between link and VD as the backend helps isolate problems: if a bug only exists with VDXR using VD, it’s likely a VD bug, if exists with both VD and link as the backend it’s probably a VDXR bug.
  15. actually_fred
    The original rift shipped with an Xbox controller and PC dongle for a start - touch controllers didn’t exist yet
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