AMD 6900xt tuning and settings for VR in dcs. My optimal recipe.

[TED]

1 minute ago, DishDoggie said:

What FSR settings are you using? I'm so unclear how to set my Steam Resolution for the talked about upscale FSR will do??? I'm so new and unclear on how to set this up...

Steam vr global resolution set to 100% and per app setting to 100%. In dcs pd set to 1.0.

with fsr I adjust a bit but start with 0.85 for the scaling then 0.9 sharpening, radius around 0.9. I allow hotkeys (set to true in config file) and Ctrl set as modifier , the can just press ctrl and f4 to increase sharpness and ctrl f6 to adjust radius once in the cockpit. 

[DishDoggie]

2 minutes ago, TED said:

Steam vr global resolution set to 100% and per app setting to 100%. In dcs pd set to 1.0.

with fsr I adjust a bit but start with 0.85 for the scaling then 0.9 sharpening, radius around 0.9. I allow hotkeys (set to true in config file) and Ctrl set as modifier , the can just press ctrl and f4 to increase sharpness and ctrl f6 to adjust radius once in the cockpit. 

Thank You lol BIG HELP

8 minutes ago, edmuss said:

Set the steamvr resolution to what you want, start at 100% for a G2 and adjust accordingly.  What FSR does is render the image at a scaled down version of what the output resolution is and then use the GPU to scale it up using interpolation and trickery!

Essentially if you set FSR to 0.7 then it will render the frame at 70% of the steamvr resolution and then upscale it to 100% using magic which is less resource intensive than rendering it at 100% in the first place.  Some image quality is lost, personally I don't like to drop much below 0.7 on FSR.

I can say that I was SO OVERTHINKING how this worked I TOTALY got it wrong and it is a comfort to have it explained in black and white to me. Thank You, Wow I get so lost at times it;s funny. lol Thank You

[TED]

10 minutes ago, DishDoggie said:

Thank You lol BIG HELP

I can say that I was SO OVERTHINKING how this worked I TOTALY got it wrong and it is a comfort to have it explained in black and white to me. Thank You, Wow I get so lost at times it;s funny. lol Thank You

No worries man. Believe me, we all did too! It’s a minefield in the beginning but starts to all make sense after a while once you see the logic of how it all works. Keeping it simple is the key. 

[edmuss]

Yeah, there's so many variables that can affect it, just a case of learning what each one does and balancing all of the things you're juggling.  It's all largely personal preference as well, personally I can happily run 60hz but I want the absolute best clarity I can get so I'm happy to run it at lower framerates, accept that I have to use motion smoothing with it's small artifacts.  I am however running the G2 at 100% steamvr, mostly high settings in DCS, maximum details with 4x MSAA quality and still getting a solid 50 fps and zero stutter on let's face it, a mid range rig

[Cleric812]

Hello gentlemen,

I have read through the entire thread with great interest since I have been struggling quite a bit with the settings regarding the motion reprojection and motionsmoothing options on my 6900XT. I have some questions regarding the settings you guys are using to achieve your results. Can you guys share your settings for the following menus in SteamVR and WMR for SteamVR respectively?

Kind regards,

Vincent

[edmuss]

Set the WMR smoothing to auto instead of steamvr per app setting and it should be buttery smooth

[Cleric812]

Thank so much for the help. That was the "silver bullet" that made my day!

[edmuss]

Enjoy, once you get your head around the minefield of WMR and steamvr menus it works really well

[Al-Azraq]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:43 PM, edmuss said:

Set the steamvr resolution to what you want, start at 100% for a G2 and adjust accordingly.  What FSR does is render the image at a scaled down version of what the output resolution is and then use the GPU to scale it up using interpolation and trickery!

Essentially if you set FSR to 0.7 then it will render the frame at 70% of the steamvr resolution and then upscale it to 100% using magic which is less resource intensive than rendering it at 100% in the first place.  Some image quality is lost, personally I don't like to drop much below 0.7 on FSR.

I prefer to just not add another layer of processing with FSR. I just use SteamVR SS.

So for instance in your example I will just set SteamVR to 70% and it will look better than FSR at 0.7 IMO.

[edmuss]

Ah see I find FSR @0.75 to be almost as good quality as steamvr 100% without it but with a good 4ms knocked off the frametimes, too much to be sniffed at when you're grasping as the last few remnants of GPU performance

That said I don't think I've tried running steam @ 70% without fsr as well.  Will test it at some point tonight with vrperfkit disabled and see how it looks vs frametimes.

[DeltaMike]

10 hours ago, Al-Azraq said:

I prefer to just not add another layer of processing with FSR. I just use SteamVR SS.

So for instance in your example I will just set SteamVR to 70% and it will look better than FSR at 0.7 IMO.

Agree it generally looks about the same. I don't lose spotting distance with the fsr mod tho.  It does introduce its own artifacts.

[edmuss]

Tested it out at 70% steamvrss without vrperfkit supplying the upscaling and there is a slight degredation in quality due to the lack of sharpening, but frametimes were about the same.  However, now the fixed foveated rendering has been sorted out on the vrperfkit, that gains another 1-1.5ms frametime (nvidia cards only though so a moot point for this thread ) and the reduced resolution is virtually invisible with the G2 although it is very apparent on the 2D mirror (not that that matters unless you're streaming a video feed).

So consequently I'm back at 100% steamvr with vrperfkit with 0.77 renderscale, 0.2 sharpening and the foveated rendering enabled.  All settings in DCS to high apart from view, water and clouds to medium and 2x MSAA+MFAA.  Frametimes in the A10C easy instant action is 10-16ms on the whole with brief steps up to 17-18ms with smoke/bombs.

[DeltaMike]

PSA: don't forget to set your minimum GPU clock, it should be 100 less than your max clock.

I've been trouble shooting spikes all morning, average GPU time in the cauc map is ~14ms but it was spiking up to 30ms a couple times a second.  Setting a minimum clock speed sorted all that out.  

My experience with tuning this card for DCS is, so far is, most important thing is the fan profile; second most important, minimum clock;  and it's not clear that anything else I did made any difference.  

[TED]

17 hours ago, DeltaMike said:

PSA: don't forget to set your minimum GPU clock, it should be 100 less than your max clock.

I've been trouble shooting spikes all morning, average GPU time in the cauc map is ~14ms but it was spiking up to 30ms a couple times a second.  Setting a minimum clock speed sorted all that out.  

My experience with tuning this card for DCS is, so far is, most important thing is the fan profile; second most important, minimum clock;  and it's not clear that anything else I did made any difference.  

I also found this to be very helpful, although I did set it about 500 under my max speed, but definitely reduced a lot of the spikes.

[Thedoc_tv]

Hello guys, it's slighly off-topic as the card it's different, but I am really desperate.
I recently upgraded my 1060 6gb with an RX 6600 xt to play better with my Rift S, and the experience it's worse than before.
The problem is that, even at the same settings, if I move my head around the cockpit it's not smooth, but the image trails around, I think it's called jitter or ghosting, or maybe stutter I am not sure, and If i try to use ASW to relieve this the warping artifacts are unbearable, mutch worse than the 1060.

I also tried checking with FPSVR and surprisingly, I have this effect even at 60+ fps, 12-13 ms on GPU timing and <9ms on CPU timing, what the problem can be? I basically can't play DCS anymore.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Thedoc_tv

[TED]

4 hours ago, Thedoc_tv said:

Hello guys, it's slighly off-topic as the card it's different, but I am really desperate.
I recently upgraded my 1060 6gb with an RX 6600 xt to play better with my Rift S, and the experience it's worse than before.
The problem is that, even at the same settings, if I move my head around the cockpit it's not smooth, but the image trails around, I think it's called jitter or ghosting, or maybe stutter I am not sure, and If i try to use ASW to relieve this the warping artifacts are unbearable, mutch worse than the 1060.

I also tried checking with FPSVR and surprisingly, I have this effect even at 60+ fps, 12-13 ms on GPU timing and <9ms on CPU timing, what the problem can be? I basically can't play DCS anymore.

 

 

 

First make sure motion smoothing on in svr.

Dint go above 2x msaa in dcs 

Very important. So much so I will say again - very important - check you have removed every last bit of your old nvidia software and drivers. 
 

Check gpu settings in windows are set to ultimate performance.

In task manager or process lasso set dcs.exe to highest priority (real time)

Minimize all other windows except dcs on desktop. 
 

In Radeon software turn pretty much everything off to start with in graphics settings. Then add perhaps Radeon boost. Increase min frequency to 1-400 under max clock frequency. Increase max power to 15%. Check the video I posted earlier. 

Go through things in this thread slowly and follow as many of the steps as you can and check dcs again. You should be able to get a lot of improvements. Fpsvr can cause stuttering in my experience btw. 
 

check your ram and optimize if necessary. I use gpu-z and cpu-programs for this. Both free. 
 

[TED]

Check out this link too. Some useful stuff.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14QSlEvvzoA

[TZeer]

Pulled the trigger on a 6900XT. Gonna run it with a Quest 2 for now. Thank you for this guide. WIll make it much easier to dial in the correct settings for optimal performance.

 

[TZeer]

Ok, I got my 6900XT up and running.

Currently have some issues.

1: Testing with Speed-of-heat`s test track I`m around 45 FPS at the lowest. This is with vrperfkit @ standard settings. With same settings as Speed-of-Heat in DCS.
2: Having ASW enabled produces more artifacts with my 6900XT than my old 2080.

36Hz with ASW was really nice on my 2080. But was only realistic in Nevada due to being less demanding to run.

Setting maximum FPS in AMD software does nothing. I had it at 45 FPS, but DCS was still pushing 50-60 FPS. And 90 FPS in the menu.

Was hoping I could test stable 45 FPS without ASW enabled (90Hz refresh), or get ASW enabled with 72Hz refreshrate (36FPS).
 

[ppokit]

3 hours ago, TZeer said:

Ok, I got my 6900XT up and running.

Currently have some issues.

1: Testing with Speed-of-heat`s test track I`m around 45 FPS at the lowest. This is with vrperfkit @ standard settings. With same settings as Speed-of-Heat in DCS.
2: Having ASW enabled produces more artifacts with my 6900XT than my old 2080.

36Hz with ASW was really nice on my 2080. But was only realistic in Nevada due to being less demanding to run.

Setting maximum FPS in AMD software does nothing. I had it at 45 FPS, but DCS was still pushing 50-60 FPS. And 90 FPS in the menu.

Was hoping I could test stable 45 FPS without ASW enabled (90Hz refresh), or get ASW enabled with 72Hz refreshrate (36FPS).
 

Yep ASW doesn't play nice with AMD cards.
I usually turn mine off altogether. A big performance boost for me was the FOV modifier. Currently set at 0.75, 0.85 and big improvement in FPS.
Still get drops in frames, but its still quite smooth even at ~30FPS.

R5 5600x, 6800XT, 32GB DDR, SSD, Quest 2.......etc.etc.

[TZeer]

@ppokit

FOV? From DCS or oculus software?

[ppokit]

50 minutes ago, TZeer said:

@ppokit

FOV? From DCS or oculus software?

In the oculus debug tool. You can also adjust SS, sharpening, ASW etc with it. It comes bundled with the oculus software. 

[TZeer]

@ppokit

I have been using OTT up until now. But I guess I can use the official debug tool now.

I did some tweaking, and turned off ASW as you mentioned. Much better!

Running the track now I get a minimum of 60-63 FPS as I am coming around the hill close to ground inverted over the forrest.

Sitting on the carrier deck (training mission F/A-18) I have 72 FPS. Looks promising.

Even now, trying ASW makes to much artifacts.

yo @TED, With a G2, are you able to lock your frames at 45 FPS and get smooth performance? Like no jitter or stutters?

Edited February 10, 2022 by TZeer

[Svsmokey]

I'm having a blast running the G2 at native res (Steam VR at 100%) - with a 6800xt . I actually prefer to run it at 60 hz , with motion smoothing (similar to ASW) off . I spend a lot of time very low , and morphing/ghosting buildings with smoothing on are not pretty .

I run generally high settings in DCS graphics as well , and don't use any shader mods . Rolling , pulling and and view panning over cities is smooth , although i do get an occasional micro-stutter that does not appear to be related to the graphics load (like in the countryside with few trees) and with the gpu/cpu graphs in the green . 

I'm thinking its a Windows thing , and am gonna try a couple of tricks to resolve . Turning off memory compression for one , and i ran across a YT video on 6800xt tuning that mentioned turning off a couple of (very obscure) windows settings as well .

Some complain about seeing a flickering around the edges of the view at 60 hz , some say they got used to it and it was no longer an issue after a few minutes . I guess i'm lucky 'cause i never saw it . Maybe it's only with Nvidea cards ? In any event , i highly recommend trying it .

 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Svsmokey

[Al-Azraq]

9 hours ago, Svsmokey said:

I'm having a blast running the G2 at native res (Steam VR at 100%) - with a 6800xt . I actually prefer to run it at 60 hz , with motion smoothing (similar to ASW) off . I spend a lot of time very low , and morphing/ghosting buildings with smoothing on are not pretty .

I run generally high settings in DCS graphics as well , and don't use any shader mods . Rolling , pulling and and view panning over cities is smooth , although i do get an occasional micro-stutter that does not appear to be related to the graphics load (like in the countryside with few trees) and with the gpu/cpu graphs in the green . 

I'm thinking its a Windows thing , and am gonna try a couple of tricks to resolve . Turning off memory compression for one , and i ran across a YT video on 6800xt tuning that mentioned turning off a couple of (very obscure) windows settings as well .

Some complain about seeing a flickering around the edges of the view at 60 hz , some say they got used to it and it was no longer an issue after a few minutes . I guess i'm lucky 'cause i never saw it . Maybe it's only with Nvidea cards ? In any event , i highly recommend trying it .

Personally I prefer to keep my G2 at 90hz and aim for 45 FPS but yeah, increasing the SteamVR SS really improves everything. Shimmering will be impossible to solve because of deferred rendering not going well with MSAA and the lack of an alternative AA method, but it helps a bit to have higher SteamVR SS especially within the cockpit. I keep my setup clean of any mod including OpenFSR.

In summary, I'm running SteamVR SS at 80%, mid to low graphics, and I'm always at 45 FPS. Reprojection rate in the Tomcat is higher than in the Hornet but still manageable and even I'm thinking about pushing a bit more to 90% but it looks good enough now.

Personally I prefer to keep my G2 at 90hz and aim for 45 FPS but yeah, increasing the SteamVR SS really improves everything. Shimmering will be impossible to solve because of deferred rendering not going well with MSAA and the lack of an alternative AA method, but it helps a bit to have higher SteamVR SS especially within the cockpit. I keep my setup clean of any mod including OpenFSR.

In summary, I'm running SteamVR SS at 80%, mid to low graphics, and I'm always at 45 FPS. Reprojection rate in the Tomcat is higher than in the Hornet but still manageable and even I'm thinking about pushing a bit more to 90% but it looks good enough now.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Al-Azraq