Valve Index Hands On

[Wicked.-]

I received my Valve Index (and one base station, no hand controllers) today. I set it up in SteamVR. It asked me if I wanted to use 120Hz. I clicked on yes and loaded up DCS. I set a few VR settings and restarted DCS. I soon found myself in a Hornet. My reaction: OMG this is amazing! Clearly heaps of playing around to understand it all but I was able to take off, fly over the Hoover Dam and land. It seems so much easier than using a monitor as I was in the cockpit and could look around normally. I’m delighted. It’s easy to set up, comfortable, I can wear glasses with little trouble. It’s nice and clear and I can move my eyes to look around comfortably, that is not just rely on head movement. So happy right now.

 

Welcome to the club!

[Snowy55]

Thank you for the tip imacken. I will set it to 90Hz today.

Thanks Wicked.

[RealDCSpilot]

The thread needs to be come back to life :)

 

Just found this channel with very interesting information about tuning Windows and general game performance: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzBPlB3pl9FvNfP1Uk4RKaw

Might be worth a look.

[Twwhitey]

The thread needs to be come back to life :)

 

Just found this channel with very interesting information about tuning Windows and general game performance: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzBPlB3pl9FvNfP1Uk4RKaw

Might be worth a look.

 

Funny you mention that as I recently found it as well. Ive been SLOWLY whittling away watching his 4hr(!) Windows 10 1903 tweaking video. He’s at a whole ‘nother level of tweaking with his recommendations. He’s got a guide linked in that video that’s huge.

 

I’ve got a fresh install of Win10Pro that I’m slowly applying his tweaks to (and backing up regularly)... learning a lot about Windows 10 architecture for sure...

[Snowy55]

Well, several weeks later and I’m still delighted with my Valve Index.

[Wicked.-]

My performance has gone to crap over the last day or so. Anyone else seeing the same thing? Between the latest DCS update and 2 Steam beta releases I'm not sure where to start looking but my frame rates have gone down forcing me to reduce my settings from 138% DCS Steam App and 148% Custom Resolution to 200% custom resolution only. For a long time I could spot targets at 18 miles while at high altitude but lately it's been degrading to where I have to lean or zoom in to see the F-16 MFD's.

Seriously thinking of doing a complete dance and reformatting but my buddy who has a Reverb has noticed it as well.

[Supmua]

Been flying mostly in nonVR since I am testing joystick software and also doing some A-10C DLC campaign with my buddy (I’m neither fast enough nor have the patience to operate CDU in VR in those heavily scripted missions). I did play some easier Caucasus A-10C mission in VR yesterday and didn’t notice any significant performance or visual quality change (ground spotting is still not great in VR especially when comparing it to my 4KTV back to back).

 

I’m now using DCS PD 1.4 rather than SteamVR SS though, since it seems a bit superior in terms of shimmering reduction.

 

The new NVIDIA sharpness setting can make DCS look so good on my 4KTV, too bad it doesn’t work in VR.

[Nahemoth]

Have you tried these settings?

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1613410347

 

Seems that FXAA+AA is much better than MSAA...

[Wicked.-]

Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen, I'll try these before reformatting. I sent my original Index back because of overheating but the replacement is doing the same thing. I'm now wondering if I have a bad power strip as I also seem to be having intermittent USB issues recently as well. Things were really good for a long time for me which seems to be the case for all of us if you look at the drop off in posts. Now I'm back to tweaking.... great lol.

[Wicked.-]

Been flying mostly in nonVR since I am testing joystick software and also doing some A-10C DLC campaign with my buddy (I’m neither fast enough nor have the patience to operate CDU in VR in those heavily scripted missions). I did play some easier Caucasus A-10C mission in VR yesterday and didn’t notice any significant performance or visual quality change (ground spotting is still not great in VR especially when comparing it to my 4KTV back to back).

 

I’m now using DCS PD 1.4 rather than SteamVR SS though, since it seems a bit superior in terms of shimmering reduction.

 

The new NVIDIA sharpness setting can make DCS look so good on my 4KTV, too bad it doesn’t work in VR.

 

 

When you say SteamVR SS do you mean DCS Application SS or Custom Resolution? If not Custom Resolution, what are you setting it to; 150%, 188%?

 

 

*edit* I set it to 100% and am testing from there.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Wicked.-

[Wicked.-]

Nahemoth,

 

 

I see absolutely no change when using NVCP AA, whether at 2x or 4x. I may have found my problem with framerates because of that guide though. I had set texture filtering to High Quality at some point and forgot to turn it off.

[Nahemoth]

Nahemoth,

 

 

I see absolutely no change when using NVCP AA, whether at 2x or 4x. I may have found my problem with framerates because of that guide though. I had set texture filtering to High Quality at some point and forgot to turn it off.

 

I have also tried those settings, the performance was good but I'm not sure if the AA was correctly applied. The problem is that I don't have any clear reference object to observe the sharpness and shimmering.

 

There is also not very clear information about the effectiveness of nvidia CP settings for VR games...

[Svsmokey]

I think the consensus is that the only Nvidea setting that counts in DCS is the "power vs performance" setting .

[dburne]

I think the consensus is that the only Nvidea setting that counts in DCS is the "power vs performance" setting .

 

Correct.

[Supmua]

When you say SteamVR SS do you mean DCS Application SS or Custom Resolution? If not Custom Resolution, what are you setting it to; 150%, 188%?

 

 

*edit* I set it to 100% and am testing from there.

 

 

 

SteamVR 100%, DCS PD 1.4. I haven’t flown in PG Map recently so not sure how taxing it would be in Dubai, but no issues in Caucasus campaign (Op Piercing Fury).

[Supmua]

Valve Index Hands On

 

Have you tried these settings?

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1613410347

 

Seems that FXAA+AA is much better than MSAA...

 

 

 

Can’t agree with some of the suggestions there.

 

Turning off motion smoothing is a big no for me, do that and look down at ground objects on your side and it is a mess unless your FPS is the same or higher than the headset’s refresh rate.

 

FXAA also causes significant reduction in image quality (smearing) especially texts.

 

All we really need is NVIDIA’s sharpness filter that works in VR, this way we can say goodbye to supersampling.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Supmua

[Wicked.-]

Well, as I was bitching to a buddy while flying about my performance drop off he asked me if I'd gotten any windows updates lately and I said yes, last week. He said check to see if Windows defender was enabled..... dammit. Sure enough it was turned back on and dragging down performance.

Once off things got better but they're still not right. I've only flown the 16 since release so I only have it to compare but something has changed. On release I was able to turn on MSAA with 148% and 138% without a frame hit. As opposed to the Hornet where I couldn't do that without excessive frame drop and the canaopy rails looking like water. The 16 had more aliasing than the Hornet on the hud and needed MSAA at 2x to clean it up which it did. I didn't get any frame hit from turning it on until the last couple updates. After trying Supmua's settings of 100% for all steam and crank up the PD I still had pretty knarly aliasing and MSAA at 2x didn't help. I had it as high as 1.7 but after 1.5 I stopped seeing any improvement which is really strange. The CV1 shows improvement to 1.8 then stops being noticeable. After trying those settings as well as the ones from Nahemoth's link, I went back to 138% x 148% without MSAA. It runs butter smooth but I'm stuck with aliasing. Oh, I also switched back to SteamVR stable as I wasn't having luck with the beta. Basically I have no clue what has caused the issues other than Windows defender but that didn't fix everything.

 

*edit* it's running butter smooth online flying the Snowfox mission in PG.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Wicked.-

[imacken]

Correct.

 

As we have discussed before Don, that is not correct. I had a lengthy exchange with nVidia support on this very topic if you remember.

 

One of the things they stated was

 

‘We actually recommend Antialiasing for clearer display while using VR which directly means that it will affect the quality and performance.

Any changes we make in the Manage 3D settings will directly affect the performance as well as the quality of the objects rendered in VR.‘

[Wicked.-]

All I know is I didn't see any improvement or visual difference at all when I turned it on and set it to 2x or 4x. I would be ecstatic if it did work. I trust Nvidia a hell of a lot more than Steam or DCS when it comes to their hardware.

Speaking of, what Nvidia driver is everyone using right now?

[dburne]

As we have discussed before Don, that is not correct. I had a lengthy exchange with nVidia support on this very topic if you remember.

 

One of the things they stated was

 

‘We actually recommend Antialiasing for clearer display while using VR which directly means that it will affect the quality and performance.

Any changes we make in the Manage 3D settings will directly affect the performance as well as the quality of the objects rendered in VR.‘

 

Well they have not ever worked for me, has been a few weeks since trying last so will give it another go and see if anything changed on my end.

[Supmua]

All I know is I didn't see any improvement or visual difference at all when I turned it on and set it to 2x or 4x. I would be ecstatic if it did work. I trust Nvidia a hell of a lot more than Steam or DCS when it comes to their hardware.

Speaking of, what Nvidia driver is everyone using right now?

 

 

 

I’m using the latest one that added sharpening filter in the control panel.

[Wicked.-]

I’m using the latest one that added sharpening filter in the control panel.

 

Does the sharpening filter work? I'll update today, maybe that will fix whatever is wrong.

[Supmua]

Does the sharpening filter work? I'll update today, maybe that will fix whatever is wrong.

 

 

 

Only in 2D I’m afraid. It’s basically Reshade with very low performance hit. If they can make it work in VR then it would yield results very close to supersampling.

[dburne]

Does the sharpening filter work? I'll update today, maybe that will fix whatever is wrong.

 

I gave it a try earlier and it does not appear to me it does anything in VR.

[Wicked.-]

Roger that.