Migrate VR API from SteamVR's OpenVR to OpenXR

[FoxTwo]

In reference to this post on the hpreverb subreddit:

 

 

Steam's OpenVR isn't really that open and is very likely contributing to several performance issues experienced by people with high end hardware while playing DCS in VR.

[divinee]

+1

[Aarnoman]

+1

[BIGNEWY]

OpenXR is something we are looking into but I do not have any news to share with you currently. 

 

thank you

[Sewo]

https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/201883-hps-reverb-vr-pro-headset/?do=findComment&comment=3910636
 

Quote

Later this month I will send the device to our team to allow native support (no SteamVR requirement)

It's more then 1 and half year without any news to share.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Sewo

[mhe]

@BIGNEWY
I know you have no news to share with us, but maybe these news shared with you and the team might be helpful: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/250820/view/3044967019267211914

 

tl;dr: SteamVR 1.16 brings full OpenXR compliance into SteamVR. Since Oculus also does that, you could start migrating to OpenXR and only have to maintain 1 API instead of the current 2 (SteamVR and Oculus). That would also be super helpful for the people running WMR headsets since the performance gain should be substantial by just utilizing OpenXR alone (WMR via SteamVR copies the framebuffer between the 2, not the most elegant solution). 

[BIGNEWY]

Thanks, yes I have already highlighted it to the team. 

[Aarnoman]

Awesome thank you BN!

[Worrazen]

Oh I didn't knew that, would make great sense since OpenXR is also from Khronos like Vulkan which probably has more developer crossover and experience in the community as well as compatability familiarity that can come helpful. I would coincide this with the Vulkan API renderer for DCS, that together could make a good splash for VR users, it would also make sense from usability for these major changes to coincide so there's less major changes to the configuration and tweaking process for VR users. Once Vulkan renderer comes, VR may work differently and old tweaks/config may not work anymore, making users to re-figure out the optimal process, OpenXR support may produce this same effect, but if they both come together along with other changes/improvements, then it might be one less change of procedure for users, or perhaps much lesser of a procedure overall because the whole thing would skip ahead to a better implementation that would work better out of the box, potentially sparing a lot of back-and-forth within the community. ...... at the expense of potentially delayed release and more waiting haha

Edited March 1, 2021 by Worrazen

[tosmonaute]

+1

[Aarnoman]

On 2/28/2021 at 1:18 AM, Worrazen said:

Oh I didn't knew that, would make great sense since OpenXR is also from Khronos like Vulkan which probably has more developer crossover and experience in the community as well as compatability familiarity that can come helpful. I would coincide this with the Vulkan API rendered for DCS, that together could make a good splash for VR users, it would also make sense from usability for these major changes to coincide so there's less major changes to the configuration and tweaking process for VR users. Once Vulkan renderer comes, VR may work differently and old tweaks/config may not work anymore, making users to re-figure out the optimal process, OpenXR support may produce this same effect, but if they both come together along with other changes/improvements, then it'll one less change of procedure I would assume, or perhaps much less because it would work better out of the box, potentially sparing a lot of back-and-forth. ...... at the expense of potentially delayed release and more waiting haha

 

Strongly agree as a long time vr user.

[some1]

The issue quoted in the first post will most likely be fixed waaay before ED even starts OpenXR migration. Besides the developer talks mostly about additional memory footprint required by current implementation - reducing that may, or may not help in case of DCS. If you don't run out of GPU memory now, you won't see much improvement when they further reduce memory requirements. 

 

OpenXR may still improve and streamline DCS VR development in the long run, but it's not a magic bullet that some may think. For a WMR headset it functions as a yet another middleware, replacing the job of SteamVR. For a Steam or Oculus headset, it will be an additional middleware layer, added between DCS and headset API, instead of current native DCS implementation. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by some1

[Worrazen]

[divinee]

Any info about this? Is this still considered by ED?

[Marin3r]

I surely hope it is. While probably quite a job to implement, in the long run I can only see benefits in this!

[toilet2000]

Hopefully we'll get some news about this soon! :)

[markbam]

https://developer.oculus.com/blog/oculus-all-in-on-openxr-deprecates-proprietary-apis/

[Lurker]

Any news on this? Is it still being considered for implementation?

[Nomatic]

10 hours ago, Lurker said:

Any news on this? Is it still being considered for implementation?

Honestly, I’d love to see any update on any/all performance work including this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[Enduro14]

Yup be nice to have DCS full on OpenXR.  No issues with my rift s in dcs but wow the overhead when I try to run dcs In WMR and Odyssey +.  This piggyback stuff through steam Vr is killing dcs performance.

[Nomatic]

Bump

[chlywly]

Bump... I def find running OpenXR slower on my Reverb G2, also I don't think it allows me to use the FSR downscaling stuff... 

[lazerwolf]

G2 user here. It's been about 8 months since the last ED update on this. Any new info?

[some1]

As I said before, for G2 you will be replacing one middleware with another one. I wouldn't expect much performance gains, if at all. It may offer a better implementation of some aspects than SteamVR for WMR, or it may come with its own set of issues. For Oculus and Valve Index, you'll be actually adding another software layer between DCS and the headset.

OpenXR is more for streamlining developers' work, not to squeeze more performance out of the headset.

*OXR device plugin interface is optional.

Edited December 13, 2021 by some1

[Nomatic]

Hey @BIGNEWY , I know yall are working on more than a few performance updates coming down the production line, but we were wondering if there was any update on this? Last we have is from February. Did the team decide to pursue any of the above? I think any info (if possible) would be appreciated.