Good VR Performance, but only when "Window is out of focus!"

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Why do I have much better VR Performance when my DCS is not active ("Window is ouf of focus") ?

Picture is very smooth when the DCS window is not selected on the Desktop. As soon as the window is acitve the performance drops again 

 

Note to the picture: ignore the standby message; the headset was active during the screenshot.

Steam shows "standby" even while the headset is working (but not on my head during the screenshot).

Edited May 20, 2021 by Ingo Kognito

[Eugel]

As in the left picture the headset is in stand-by mode, your computer will only render the lower resolution desktop mirror image.

If you alt-tab out of the game while still wearing your headset, the window will be out of focus, but there will be no performance change.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Eugel said:

As in the left picture the headset is in stand-by mode, your computer will only render the lower resolution desktop mirror image.

If you alt-tab out of the game while still wearing your headset, the window will be out of focus, but there will be no performance change.

 

The VR picture quality does not change. I tested this a lot of times with my headset on and doing ALT+TAB.

And I don't know why Steam shows "standby"; Headset is still working. I am using WMR with a G2. My Setup: RX 6700 XT with a Ryzen 5 5600X.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Ingo Kognito

[Dave317]

I would love to know why it does this too.  I tried a MI8 mission in Syria earlier.  Frame times around 40 and unplayable.  Alt tab so it's not in focus but can still see everything in the HMD and the frame times go to under 20. 

[Guest]

Here's another one with this problem - but no solution.

Or none which works for me.

 

 

[paco2002]

25 minutes ago, Ingo Kognito said:

Here's another one with this problem - but no solution.

Or none which works for me.

 

 

Heh, both treads are mine, and still happens to these days... So sad, really god sim, ruined by this bug. We are loosing a lot of FPS for no reason, our PC can run DCS smoother, but DCS has something that changes when the program is not on focus. It can be fixed if that thing that changes would be always on (or off, wathever). 

Fingers crossed for a fix... Almost a year later...

[dburne]

5 minutes ago, paco2002 said:

Heh, both treads are mine, and still happens to these days... So sad, really god sim, ruined by this bug. We are loosing a lot of FPS for no reason, our PC can run DCS smoother, but DCS has something that changes when the program is not on focus. It can be fixed if that thing that changes would be always on (or off, wathever). 

Fingers crossed for a fix... Almost a year later...

 

It would seem to me if DCS is not the active window, then there would be less demand put on the system.

Kind of makes sense to me but I really do not know. 

It does not matter really as one cannot fly DCS unless it is active.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by dburne

[Guest]

@Dave317 @paco2002

AMD or NVIDIA?

I am using a AMD RX 6700 XT.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Ingo Kognito

[Dave317]

Amd 6800 xt.  It did it before when I had a gtx 1070 though. 

[Blue73]

Could it be because motion smoothing is only activated for the current focused VR application? The feature could be eating frames.

[Guest]

So far I tried the following, but without success:

- Various settings in the Radeon Software

- Various settings in Windows (WMR, Game-Mode, etc.)

- Various settings in Steam VR

- Various settings in DCS

- New installation of GPU drivers

- Repairing DCS

- DCS open beta

- DCS stable

- Disconnection of peripherals (mouse, monitor, TrakIR)

- Changed display port of G2

- Changed PCIe from 4 to 3

- .exe with high priority

...

...all the (useless) tipps you find when you search for G2.

 

It's always the same:

Game stuttering --> ALT+TAB --> Game smooth, but no controls...

 

This is soooo annoying.... 

 

[Dave317]

I have done the same as you along with a cleanup and repair and new saved games folder.  All mods removed.  It's frustrating as it appears my pc can run dcs smoothly but won't. 

For me it seems worse with the Syria map.  The only way I have got rid of it is to reduce my settings to really low including all shadows off and stream multiplier at 100‰.

 

[Guest]

Yesterday I did a new Installation of Windows 10 and DCS was working fine ! ! !

The VR performance was not very good, but with a stable framerate.

There was no difference when the DCS window was active or not.

It seemed that the problem was solved. 

 

I did not update windows nor changed any VR related settings other than the resolution and general quality settings in DCS.

 

But this morning Windows installed some Updates and the Problem returned ! ! !

The I resetted Windows to the version from the evening before and reinstalled Steam and DCS (local Data, no new Download).

The Problem did not disappear. 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Ingo Kognito

[Taz1004]

Is HAGS disabled?

 

Typically it is expected to have better frame rate with the game out of focus because it is not reacting to any input.  It is just output at that point.

Game is polling your input every frame.  And all the avionics and AI (your wingman for example) reacts to your input every frame.

[Guest]

52 minutes ago, Taz1004 said:

Is HAGS disabled?

 

Typically it is expected to have better frame rate with the game out of focus because it is not reacting to any input.  It is just output at that point.

Game is polling your input every frame.  And all the avionics and AI (your wingman for example) reacts to your input every frame.

 

 

It is not a "better framerate" only. It's a problem which makes it unplayable.

This is not a normal behavior; and I can do this even in the main menue of DCS.

 

And my tests show it is possible that it's working normal - but how?

Maybe later I will try again a re-install of Windows and then I will disable updates. 

 

 

[Dave317]

For me there isn't the option to disable HAGS in Windows.  It doesn't mention it at all. 

[Taz1004]

14 minutes ago, Dave317 said:

For me there isn't the option to disable HAGS in Windows.  It doesn't mention it at all. 

 

If you type GPU in start search and go to Grphics Settings, there's option for Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.

If you don't have that option, then you must be on older Windows.  What version?

[evanswillo]

Question Dave317, what GPU do you have installed.

HAGS is not available for AMD 6000 series under current AMD Drivers.

[Dave317]

That'll be why then.  I have a 6800xt.

[Guest]

1. Reinstalled Windows, DCS, Steam, etc.  -> DCS works fine (SU-25)

2. PC restarted -> DCS works fine

3. F18 installed -> DCS works fine

4. PC restarted -> Noooooo, DCS broken

 

No settings changed, no software installed, Windows Updates disabled, ...

 

[Guest]

I switched on the "Motion Vector" option by direct accessing the option menue on the desktop before starting SteamVR (rather than doing this in the steam menue).

 

C:\Steam\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\bin\win64\OpenVRSettingsUX.exe

 

So far it seems this solved my problem.

Smooth gameplay, stable frametimes. Tested several instant flight scenarios, restarted PC several times.

[Dave317]

Keep us updated.  I'm away for a few days but will try this when I get back. 

[paco2002]

On 5/21/2021 at 6:03 AM, Ingo Kognito said:

@Dave317 @paco2002

AMD or NVIDIA?

I am using a AMD RX 6700 XT.

 

AMD RX 580

[Redbeam]

This problem appears to be originating from bugs in DCS itself. Disabling HAGS likely to fix it. But framerate will deteriorate by ~12%.

[peachmonkey]

On 5/24/2021 at 2:39 AM, Ingo Kognito said:

I switched on the "Motion Vector" option by direct accessing the option menue on the desktop before starting SteamVR (rather than doing this in the steam menue).

 

C:\Steam\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\bin\win64\OpenVRSettingsUX.exe

 

So far it seems this solved my problem.

Smooth gameplay, stable frametimes. Tested several instant flight scenarios, restarted PC several times.

 

are you on 2.7 ?

 

The new DCS version has a problem when both WMR (MixedRealityVTDriver) and SteamVR have motion smoothing enabled resulting in continuous stutter.

 

1) If you enable motion smoothing in SteamVR then you must disable it in WMR:

Steam\steamapps\common\MixedRealityVRDriver\resources\settings\default.vrsettings

comment out the "motionReprojectionMode" line

 

2) or disable motionsmoothing in SteamVR and then in the default.vrsettings make sure there's a line with ""motionReprojectionMode": "auto"" or motionvector

 

 

edit:  whenever you reinstall WMR app the motionReprojectionMode line gets re-enabled in WMR, so just fyi

 

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by peachmonkey