Supmua

I rarely got this message but it went away after a few seconds, and I didn't have to do anything else about it.

OK, mbucchia has released DFR support for the Aero's quad view mode. Check it out. Note that this is not compatible with OXRTK, and the quad view off extension wrapper will need to be removed as well. This is only for Varjo OpenXR runtime as Steam runtime does not have quad view support. Major performance increase compared to stereo view even at the highest setting due to proper dynamic foveation support. Home · mbucchia/Varjo-Foveated Wiki · GitHub

For the purpose of correcting barrel distortion (I'd call it Pincushion for the Aero because the screen curve goes inward not outward) no because everything is already done internally by Varjo--no idea how Pimax does it though. For the purpose of getting better image quality yes, upsampling is a great way to improve image quality in VR if your setup can handle it. Massive game changer? doubt it, haven't seen it personally.

Yes with the right settings. Fixed foveated rendering will drop your GPU FT by 1 ms (quality/wide setting). Downsampling via resolution override can drop both CPU and GPU frametime depending on the setting. Use these correctly and there should be minimal degradation in visuals, these are some of the things I do to help maintain 90 fps in single player missions. Also, OXRTK log file can give you a lot of useful information. For example, current OpenXR runtime (SteamVR, Varjo, etc.), currently active OpenXR extensions/layers (e.g. quad_views), and resolution (if you upscale or downscale via DCS PD setting it will show the pixel numbers as well as the pixel setting on the VB).

OpenXR runtime switcher. Useful tool to quickly switch between various runtimes (Steam vs Varjo in our case). https://github.com/WaGi-Coding/OpenXR-Runtime-Switcher

I still have to try the new F-18C Syria campaign. Has anybody run it on the Aero? I don't have 1.5-2 hours to spend on mission though.

I've tried both, works fine either way. You can also do it via PD setting from DCS and check the final resolution via OXRTK log file that way. PD setting does a better job at shimmering reduction for upscaling, but it makes sense since this is done internally via DCS rather than external app. The Aero kind of does, as I said it does 4 virtual screens for DFR with different resolutions per pair.

The XR_VARJO_quad_views extension layer will need to be disabled either by ED or Varjo. I'm not sure ED would bother with this, so it's better to have a toggle switch via Varjo VB app. Steam doesn't support this extension hence it's not a problem if you run DCS via Steam. If you want to run DCS without mods right now Steam OpenXR is the only way, plus you can still use OpenXR toolkit if that's what you want. On the other hand, we may have proper dynamic foveated rendering option via quad view mode if mbucchia can get this to work. The way Varjo does their DFR if I understand correctly is by rendering virtual quad screens on your visual field (pre-made DFR if you will), 2 of them act as central vision for each eye with sharper res, and the other 2 as peripheral vision with lower res. This is different from conventional DFR where you just use 2 views, one per each eye and directly reduce the peripheral resolution.

I'm seeing better performance today after both DCS and SteamVR update, inappropriate frametime spikes are minimized. Redid the 1st mission from the Rising Squall campaign with 45 fps lock + motion smoothing + PD 1.1 and it was quite smooth (Steam OpenXR runtime). This is my go to test mission as it's fairly short 20 min rather than 1.5 hours, and there're crazy amount of flying aircrafts and missiles everywhere not to mention busy carrier deck. Also, if you haven't tried to increase PD I suggest giving it a shot, at 1.1-1.2 it increases the sharpness by quite a bit plus further reduction in shimmering. At 1.3 everything was just pristine but my setup cannot handle the framerate with motion smoothing on at this setting.

Reshade doesn’t, at least on my setup. The only filter that would load with v4.9 is the VR_CAS_fx and that still only affects 2D mode. To test this, add on/off effect toggle keybind to the setting, drag saturation in Reshade down to zero and watch the desktop screen go to B&W, go back to VR headset no change, hit effect toggle key a few times…no change. Version 5 is also OpenVR only as it works via a separate OpenVR API layer through SteamVR.

We may have some good news from mbucchia this weekend regarding DFR and quad view mode.

Found a command line that also works with OpenVR. It's --force_varjo_VR. This might be the same as default output in single thread DCS build, but it doesn't crash with mt DCS except that screen rendering is all messed up on the Aero. I wonder if this would work with higher end models such as the VR3/XR3. In st DCS, the graphics are crazy sharp with quad view rendering in this mode but with double mouse cursor issue. My fps in F-16 Caucasus free flight in quad view OpenVR is in high 70s, normally 90 in stereo view mode, not bad if you lock at 45 fps. Also, it seems DCS mt no longer outputs quadview as the mirror screen in single view only and there's no double mouse cursor with good performance. The only catch is that OXRTK causes blank screen on VR headset, but the mirror screen works normally. At present you have to disable OXRTK for this to work. Soon we may no longer need the extension wrapper. If you want to check this out, remove the Varjo folder from the C drive and uninstall and reinstall VB, then disable OXRTK before running DCS mt. (EDIT: checked with mbucchia, it seems the quad view is still active but just that the mouse cursor is now rendered correctly).

How to squeeze out even more performance from your PC. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-vbs-harms-performance-rtx-4090

DCS MT outputs OpenXR as default API, no need to force anything if you want to use OpenXR. Probably 13900KS, especially with the new MT build. Keep in mind that the 13th gen is dead end, newer chip will use diff socket which means you’ll have to get a new motherboard if you want to upgrade. It might be better to wait for the 14900K (coming in 2nd half of 2023).

Yes but I don’t think thats accurate when you switch out to desktop from the headset because background app can show reduced performance uptake causing underestimation of numbers, and it’s inconvenient to take off the headset just to check. In scenarios where you have 1 sec stuttering it’s tough to tell what’s causing it because by the time you take off the headset it was a done deal. DCS also has pop up GPU FT graphs, and I use this sometimes to cross check the accuracy of numbers from other apps.

No issue with FFR in terms of eye discrepancy.

OXRTK can glitch out with disappearance of pop up window and sometimes you need to delete its registry via regedit before you can reset it. To do this use regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\ and delete the whole OpenXR toolkit entry (right mouse click and delete). I run DCS mt straight from the app now, have it pinned on my taskbar, no command line needed.

Thanks for the confirmation. The latest DCS beta also runs really well on my system, the best it's ever been in a long time. Motion smoothing option incurs around 2.5-3.0 ms CPU FT and 1.0 ms GPU FT increase according to what I've seen so far with fpsVR. So if you plan to use this option definitely need to reduce settings appropriately to accommodate the overhead which may also be different if your setup is different from mine. I do notice inappropriate CPU FT spikes in busy missions especially on an airfield or carrier, but very rare and only with fast head turning.

If you really want to fine tune your settings I recommend Steam OpenXR mode because you can run fpsVR and see everything. Having constant graph tracings of both CPU and GPU frametimes, as well as real time GPU/CPU usage per core, temp, RAM etc. right in the same pop-up window is very helpful. When you have a drop frame you can see exactly what's going on with the CPU/GPU/memory/temp, etc. There's a few issues with Steam OpenXR that I found. OXRTK's Turbo mode in Steam OpenXR causes persistent CPU and GPU FT spikes at regular intervals and this will tank performance, causing stutters, and should be disabled (no problem in Varjo OpenXR mode). XRnecksafer also causes DCS crash in Steam OpenXR, even when it's not running and should be uninstalled.

It all comes down to finding the right settings or modes for what you have. I think motion smoothing only works well with topshelf CPU and GPU. It's good but still not perfect with my setup, but may be better for people with stronger CPU such as 13900K or the latest AMD X3D series. But as far as artifacts elimination is concerned providing that you can maintain constant fps, Varjo did a good job with it.

Turning off Bloom effect in DSC setting/VR tab shaves off another 0.5 ms in GPU frametime. So, with this plus running at PD 0.9, fixed foveation, flat terrain shadows (I still use high overall shadows as the cockpit looks superb with it), my GPU frametime drops by at least 3.5 ms and this is substantial. Overall I'm seeing very good performance uplift with the latest DCS beta, both in ST and MT builds. For example, F16 Syria free flight is pretty much constant 90 fps for me now with MT, and mostly 90 fps in ST (without Vsync)--this was never possible in previous builds. The new NVIDIA driver 531.29 is also out, this update supposedly fixes high CPU usage issues that some people have. Plenty of 4090/13900K people on Varjo discord.

Using motion smoothing requires a lot of extra power, so don't expect the same performance with non-MS and some settings need to be lowered. People that report good MS in MSFS are usually running at 30 fps, which is no go for DCS. For me 45 fps is minimum. I have to try Inferno Syria to see, been running Rising Squall campaign which can also be graphically intense and Auto+MS is not too bad (although I do get much better performance from using no V-sync). Yes, it's my go to headset now due to simplicity for general gaming/VR exercise when I'm not doing sims.

It's interesting to see people having issues with MS, but on my end It's quite good and I really don't have any stuttering issues as long as I can maintain 45 fps--and it's not that hard to maintain 45 fps with high-end PC setup if you don't go too crazy on the settings. That aside, I just plugged my PSVR2 headset into the Aero's Link box USB input and it shows up as a 2nd PC monitor. The headset operates directly in playstation cinema mode rather than VR, and OLED colors look superb with deep blacks and saturated colors although the resolution is no match for the Aero plus mura is more apparent. I can even adjust gamma, brightness, etc. via NVDIA's control panel. Audio output also works. That's just crazy, which means people may be able to mod this thing to work with PCVR in the future.

MT vs non-MT CPU Utilization (Apache Syria Hot ramp mission) As you can see, MT build is really the only way forward. Much better utilization of CPU power, no jumping between cores.

I’ve been testing auto Vsync with MS, no big issues so far for what I typically do (no massive MP stuff). In non congested areas it’s pretty much 90 fps without reprojection and if I can’t maintain 90 then it would transition to 45. The key is to leave some headroom in the settings for situations that would cause brief performance drop to maintain smoothness (for me this is done via using PD 0.9 or Steam’s sub sampling if you run via Steam OpenXR, fixed foveated rendering, flat terrain shadows—these would drop GPU FT by at least 3ms without significant reduction in image quality). MS used to have a huge performance hit, but the mt build + new shadows patch + conservative settings make this viable now at least on my setup. I get zero ground object blur this way. Dogfight upclose is still a miss with close object separation at high speed but this happens with any iteration of motion smoothing, so Varjo’s MS is imo now roughly as good as HTC or Steam’s implementation.