Loss of quality and frame rates in Reverb G2

[streakeagle]

In the past week or so, I have witnessed a substantial loss in image quality and frame rates in the Reverb G2. When I dumb down my graphics settings to the bare minimum in DCS, I can get the fps to go up, but they are unstable and still go very low while dogfighting.

 

In comparison, when I use the Quest 2, I can use the same quality settings I have always used, even a little better and suffer no performance losses: butter smooth and steady.

 

I have not been able to isolate whether this is being caused by hardware , WMR, SteamVR, or DCS. For reference, I am using an AMD motherboard/CPU (Crosshair Dark Hero VIII and a 5800X), which easily could be the problem, except that it used to work fine a week or two ago. Along the way there have been Windows 10, nVidia, WMR, SteamVR, and DCS patches. This sucks, because normally the G2 gets the same or better frame rates than the Quest 2 with higher quality and equal or better stability.

[streakeagle]

So I have been performing tests all night and found a partial solution. If I drop my base frame rate to 60 Hz and force motion reprojection to lock it at 30 Hz, my frame rate is a solid, stable 30 Hz and I can crank up all of the other quality settings back up to where they were or even a little bit better. Before, I could lock at 45 Hz, which is quite a bit smoother and useful for precision gunnery in dogfights. But the smooth, steady 30 Hz looks a lot better than a jumpy 45 Hz.

[Lurker]

I have noticed the same behavior with the Rift S, which if you will note is a device that pushes far fewer pixels. My system is pretty decent, i5-9600k @4.8 Ghz, 32GB Ram (3200), 1TB SSD, and a RTX3090. Not exactly a slouch, yet for now while I am flying the Hind and while I can get relatively smooth gameplay, I can see that it's using ASW (Oculus's version of motion reprojection)...nearl 100% now which has not been the case before and I've had to drop some settings for smoother gameplay. 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Lurker

[streakeagle]

It seems to be related to the clouds, particularly after the patch that helped reduce the clouds flickering in VR. If I play a mission with no clouds, my system runs as it did before, 45 - 90 fps.

[BMGZ06]

I have seen the same issue after the last patch with the G2. Before it was fine and could run at 45fps a lot of the time. Clouds at high or standard whack FPS and Frame times. I see mostly orange in the graph. So I am forced to run no clouds or very light clouds. I also lowered PD to .9 and kept resolution of G2 at 100% with my old settings. Doing this I can actually run MSAA at 2x in F18 PG CASE 1 and get a smooth 45fps 90% of the time. I also disabled motion smoothing in steam. Having it on was causing hitching or micro stutters I think.

 

This last update really did a number on performance. I also made sure to rename saved game folder to start fresh to see if it was an issue there and nothing improved.

 

I made sure that HT was disabled and then I also disabled C-states. I already hade Intel Turbo boost disabled and speed stepping off. C-state off did not make a positive or negative change but can't be sure yet.

[streakeagle]

Hopefully this isn't a permanent performance drop. I just built a new fast rig and it doesn't really perform any faster than my very old rig, and now it performs even worse.

[Rebel28]

I have read this thread and feel your pain. I chased this for a long time with my G2 where frames would not stay stable and go up and down for no reason. After trying everything that has been mentioned this is what I found worked for me. It is very odd and the only thing I can think of is something between the game, WMR and SteamVR is not getting picked up in settings when you launch the game. This is what I found fixed it for me and now run a steady 45fps.

         Launch WMR

2         Launch the game

3         SteamVR will launch automatically

4        Entering the game bring up FR counter

          Choose instant action pick a free flight. Bank and turn the plane toward the ground.

           If the framerate drops exit to desktop

7         Re-launch game repeat from step 4 - DO NOT shut down SteamVR

           It may take 3 times doing this but when the frames lock steady they will stay locked for as long as you play.

I realize this is a strange way to work around a problem as this is the only program I run that has this problem but it is, what it is. And if this is what it takes for me to run without stutters so be it.

[DucS2r]

Interesting, I do something similar with the G2. I use a similar startup and if I get stutters just looking around the cockpit before I hit fly I know it will not work right. So I restart and almost always it then works fine, steady 45 FPS and no stutters. And I use Speed of Hear’s settings and most of his hygiene steps.