Pointers for the VIVE?

[jasonstory44]

So I just setup the VIVE this weekend and wow what a different experience. I hopefully have a ZOTAC 1080 Amped Extreme coming this week to improve the experience.

 

Was looking for some tips or pointers to fine tune my VR experience. For starters, is there a way to turn off the main display or monitor so the graphics card doesn't have to render that in addition to the headset? It would seem to me that if the graphics card didn't have to render the main monitor along with both displays in the headset that would add some umph! Or am I just being naive? I've turned the resolution of the main monitor way down but I can't really tell if that's added any performance for my Vive.

 

Secondly, I'm running Windows 10 and I can't seem to get Steam, Steam VR and the services to stay off when I fire up DCS. I've read the thread and turned off the services in the task manager but every time I fire up Steam they come back up. I've read that the VIVE will work without Steam VR for DCS so I must be doing something wrong. Any advice or suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance, Jason

[yellow_jacket]

Not a direct answer to your question, but wrt SLI. I've noticed it works to some small extent (both cards have high % usage) in DC's of you set( add )dx11 compatibility bits for "Assetto Corsa" title. It doesn't work with latest nvidia driver xxx.81 but installing just the previous to that one works, as the latest driver broke it for me. Just making that one line change does it. Although I noticed that when CPU heavy stuff is taking place that brings you down to 20-30 you don't see a boost at all. More than anything SLI seems to just even out the fps spikes as you look around, other than that I am not sure. At least I feel a bit better when the other card just doesn't sit there collecting dust.

[Ferrum Intra]

You are swapping maxwell flagship for a pascal middle tier card for 15-20% performance increase at best of times. Do note that DCS doesent use nvidia vr works, hence doesent use SMP. Also fun fact: 980ti also hardware supports an SMP method, but nvidia pretends like they never mentioned it in the whitepapers. Assuming a VRvworkd supported title does come out, Your 980tis should also see a performance increase.

[vicx]

Jason,

 

There is no way to turn off the desktop display BUT IMO it is actually worth having a desktop copy of what is in your HMD .. even if it does use a little perf. The other thing to keep in mind that is that only weak cards will the perf loss be measurable ... on a 1080 probably less than 1% of GPU. Drawing the scene from scratch uses a lot of perf but re-drawing it for the desktop is just a copy, rescale and paste.

 

The Steam client does not have to run BUT the SteamVR service will launch a management window every time you run a SteamVR app. You need it to launch. I doubt you will see anything in the HMD if you disable the vrserver, vrmonitor, compositor from running.

 

Tips.

 

Use the SteamVR console option to turn off power saving on USB. If you change the USB port that the Vive is connected to, run this option again.

 

Respect the Lighthouse system. Mount your beacons on stuff that does not and will not move, wobble or vibrate. Bolt them to a brick wall and never move them again. And remove ANYTHING remotely reflective from your VR room. Bottled water can cause tracking issues which are subtle but present. Main offenders are metallic objects, glass and shiny plastic.

 

On subject of the 1080 ... I think in VR you will come out ahead of a 980TI. If you have a lot of money and you want the best for VR.

[jasonstory44]

Thanks for the answers guys. I should have clarified, I'm not currently running SLI.