OpenXR for Varjo AERO using OpenCompositeACC mod: works great, very smooth

[dburne]

2 hours ago, peachmonkey said:

can you give us some specs on your config?

- VB ppd?  35? 37?

- scaled down to what % in Toolkit?

Very high in VB - 37ppd.

Toolkit - 3500x2999 per eye ( it does not list percentage that I see).

Specs are in my sig - i9 9900K@5.1 GHz all cores, RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, 32 GB PC3200 CL14 DDR4 ram

Hornet Super Carrier Cold Start in Persian Gulf. I start, take off and fly around terrain a bit ( same area each time), and return for a carrier trap. FPS never dropped below 45 even on the super carrier and was pretty darn smooth all the way around. Some small what I would call micro stutters but not enough to be bothersome to me. Previously with steam VR I would be 30 fps on the carrier, and drop below 45 fps occasionally over the terrain. Definitely more stutters.

The above is the test flight I use for all my testing as I tweak. Tomorrow I will be checking out the Apache with these same settings. Much as I dislike any Mods, this one I think I am going to like for sure. Man I wish ED would put in support for Open XR natively, that would be awesome.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by dburne

[peachmonkey]

33 minutes ago, dburne said:

Very high in VB - 37ppd.

Toolkit - 3500x2999 per eye ( it does not list percentage that I see).

Specs are in my sig - i9 9900K@5.1 GHz all cores, RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, 32 GB PC3200 CL14 DDR4 ram

Hornet Super Carrier Cold Start in Persian Gulf. I start, take off and fly around terrain a bit ( same area each time), and return for a carrier trap. FPS never dropped below 45 even on the super carrier and was pretty darn smooth all the way around. Some small what I would call micro stutters but not enough to be bothersome to me. Previously with steam VR I would be 30 fps on the carrier, and drop below 45 fps occasionally over the terrain. Definitely more stutters.

The above is the test flight I use for all my testing as I tweak. Tomorrow I will be checking out the Apache with these same settings. Much as I dislike any Mods, this one I think I am going to like for sure. Man I wish ED would put in support for Open XR natively, that would be awesome.

 

thanks, man..

I've been flying the wwii birds at 35ppd without the toolkit and it's a more or less smooth experience:

- flying on the deck:

looking forward: very smooth

looking to the sides:  slight choppiness

- flying at 300-500meters:

looking forward: very smooth

looking to the sides:  very smooth

 

i'll try your settings in my 5900x/3090wcooled/3800cl16 setup

Edited May 24, 2022 by peachmonkey

[dburne]

1 minute ago, peachmonkey said:

thanks, man..

I've been flying the wwii birds at 35ppd without the toolkit and it's a more or less smooth experience:

- flying on the deck:

looking forward: very smooth

looking to the sides:  slight choppiness

- flying at 300-500meters:

looking forward: very smooth

looking to the sides:  very smooth

 

Nice - so you are not lowering your resolution at all other than going with the default Hi setting?

[zildac]

19 hours ago, Supmua said:

OpenXR Toolkit is a must if you're running the Aero at higher or highest setting, else you'll be rendering at 7-8K pixels.  Use the toolkit to set custom res and reduce per-screen pixel to whatever suits your need, I typically aim for 3300-3600 horizontal pixels.  You can try fixed foveated option using presets but I don't think it's working correctly with DCS yet, saves about 0.5 ms frametime which isn't much.

Also, the current Toolkit and Varjo OpenXR don't play nice with Revive especially Star Wars: Vader Immortal series (at least on my setup).  So, if your old oculus games don't work I would uninstall the OpenXR toolkit and turn off Varjo OpenXR from the base app before running those games.  Interestingly, I have no problem leaving Reshade files in the DCS bin folder, swapping back to OpenVR and I get access to Reshade right away.

 

Just to clarify, when you say "Use the toolkit for custom res" are you referring to using NIS or FSR with the percentage set to get to 3300-3600? Currently, a G2 user but have an Aero enroute so am just trying to get some info ahead of swapping over. I am currently using OXR and OXRTK with the G2.

[peachmonkey]

13 hours ago, dburne said:

Nice - so you are not lowering your resolution at all other than going with the default Hi setting?

yup, was running like that for the past 2 months. I tried the FSR at 80% yesterday + post processing + FixedFovRendering = can't tell if I see much of the improvement in the 'smoothness', however the map I was flying on had some serious stormy weather all the way to the deck (wwII N20 server). I'll try to dial-it in during the next couple of days, however I feel that my CPU is probably a bottleneck at this point..

Edited May 25, 2022 by peachmonkey

[dburne]

5 minutes ago, peachmonkey said:

yup, was running like that for the past 2 months. I tried the FSR at 80% yesterday + post processing + FixedFovRendering = can't tell if I see much of the improvement in the 'smoothness', however the map I was flying on had some serious stormy weather all the way to the deck (wwII N20 server). I'll try to dial-it in during the next couple of days, however I feel that my CPU is probably a bottleneck at this point..

 

 

What CPU and GPU are you running?

[peachmonkey]

1 minute ago, dburne said:

 

What CPU and GPU are you running?

5900x / 3090 watercooled

[dburne]

17 hours ago, Supmua said:

Don I suggest the following also.

In the OpenXR menu, Appearance tab, Postprocessing On, Exposure 51, Saturation 52.5.  DCS setting, gamma 2.1.

 

Whoa - pretty dang slick there slick! Thanks for the suggestion loving it!! Did not seem to affect my performance either, at least that I could tell.

[Supmua]

3 hours ago, zildac said:

Just to clarify, when you say "Use the toolkit for custom res" are you referring to using NIS or FSR with the percentage set to get to 3300-3600? Currently, a G2 user but have an Aero enroute so am just trying to get some info ahead of swapping over. I am currently using OXR and OXRTK with the G2.

No, I would avoid those upscaling methods because they introduce significant aliasing artifacts especially shimmering.  Those can improve fps BUT it is better to keep image quality as pristine as possible, because that’s the main reason why we get the Aero. This setting is located in a different menu section called resolution override or something like that.

[zildac]

6 minutes ago, Supmua said:

No, I would avoid those upscaling methods because they introduce significant aliasing artifacts especially shimmering.  Those can improve fps BUT it is better to keep image quality as pristine as possible, because that’s the main reason why we get the Aero. This setting is located in a different menu section called resolution override or something like that.

Agreed, that was why I asked. I did find it "System" -> "Override Resolution". Thanks, I wouldn't of seen it.

[dburne]

@Supmua

Just for future reference, those three files you gave me in a zip - where do they come from so I will know where to look for any updates? Also is the Toolkit we are using the same one the WMR guys are using?

Edited May 26, 2022 by dburne

[Supmua]

15 minutes ago, dburne said:

@Supmua

Just for future reference, those three files you gave me in a zip - where do they come from so I will know where to look for any updates? Also is the Toolkit we are using the same one the WMR guys are using?

 

Everything should be the same as other headsets except maybe the ini file which really doesn’t need an update. The files that will likely be updated in the future would be the custom openvr_api.dll that can be downloaded directly from the main Opencomposite OpenXR GitHub page (per-game section), and the OpenXR Toolkit from their own download page. 

[dburne]

15 minutes ago, Supmua said:

Everything should be the same as other headsets except maybe the ini file which really doesn’t need an update. The files that will likely be updated in the future would be the custom openvr_api.dll that can be downloaded directly from the main Opencomposite OpenXR GitHub page (per-game section), and the OpenXR Toolkit from their own download page. 

 

Ok thanks much for the info.

[dburne]

29 minutes ago, Supmua said:

Everything should be the same as other headsets except maybe the ini file which really doesn’t need an update. The files that will likely be updated in the future would be the custom openvr_api.dll that can be downloaded directly from the main Opencomposite OpenXR GitHub page (per-game section), and the OpenXR Toolkit from their own download page. 

Ok I know I am sounding stupid but where does the D3DCompiler_47 file come from?

Edit: Never mind I see the link to it in the first post of this thread duh. Did I ever tell ya I confuse easily these days? lol Probably why I have always tried to stay away from Mods.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by dburne

[Supmua]

2 hours ago, dburne said:

Ok I know I am sounding stupid but where does the D3DCompiler_47 file come from?

Edit: Never mind I see the link to it in the first post of this thread duh. Did I ever tell ya I confuse easily these days? lol Probably why I have always tried to stay away from Mods.

 

 

D3DCompiler_47.dll is usually already in the System32 folder for general Windows operation, but that version might not be the latest or fully compatible with the latest OpenXR mod.  In order to avoid messing with the entire system while maintaining good compatibility I put it in the DCS bin folder so the program would use that one instead of the system one (the old OpenCompositeACC also uses this route).  You can copy it over the old one in System32 folder and delete the one in DCS folder, but that's messing around with your default Windows installation.  I generally try to avoid hacking or modding at the system level including regedit stuff unless I really have to.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Supmua

[dburne]

5 hours ago, Supmua said:

D3DCompiler_47.dll is usually already in the System32 folder for general Windows operation, but that version might not be the latest or fully compatible with the latest OpenXR mod.  In order to avoid messing with the entire system while maintaining good compatibility I put it in the DCS bin folder so the program would use that one instead of the system one (the old OpenCompositeACC also uses this route).  You can copy it over the old one in System32 folder and delete the one in DCS folder, but that's messing around with your default Windows installation.  I generally try to avoid hacking or modding at the system level including regedit stuff unless I really have to.

 

 

Yeah my actually trying a Mod is a big thing for me, pretty sure I am not going to mess with any of my system files. Thanks for the info!

[81banana]

Guys, I just pulled the trigger on Aero and am trying to collect as much as information while I am waiting for my headset to be delivered.

Is there any way around SteamVR? I would like to use OpenXR without being forced to run SteamVR.

I am using a HP Reverb G2 at the moment and therefore have needed no base stations.

I am afraid in order to run the BS I have to run SteamVR, right?

Cheers,

81 | Banana

[dburne]

5 minutes ago, 81banana said:

Guys, I just pulled the trigger on Aero and am trying to collect as much as information while I am waiting for my headset to be delivered.

Is there any way around SteamVR? I would like to use OpenXR without being forced to run SteamVR.

I am using a HP Reverb G2 at the moment and therefore have needed no base stations.

I am afraid in order to run the BS I have to run SteamVR, right?

Cheers,

81 | Banana

You can run the Aero with DCS and Open XR, see first post in this thread:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/300065-varjo-aero-general-guide-for-new-owners/

But yeah for base stations and headset tracking it will still use Steam VR, and Open XR for display. Suggest you first get it set up and running decent in Steam VR , then tackle the Open XR Mod.

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by dburne

[81banana]

8 minutes ago, dburne said:

You can run the Aero with DCS and Open XR, see first post in this thread:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/300065-varjo-aero-general-guide-for-new-owners/

But yeah for base stations and headset tracking it will still use Steam VR, and Open XR for display. Suggest you first get it set up and running decent in Steam VR , then tackle the Open XR Mod.

 

 

I was afraid of that. Thanks for the link! I can't wait!

[peachmonkey]

7 minutes ago, 81banana said:

I was afraid of that. Thanks for the link! I can't wait!

for any consolation, when running OpenXR with Varjo, you won't see the actual SteamVR app running. Varjo software (Varjo Base) simply uses SteamVr's libraries "in the background", i.e. SteamVR service will still run..  just not the front end app  

[81banana]

2 hours ago, peachmonkey said:

for any consolation, when running OpenXR with Varjo, you won't see the actual SteamVR app running. Varjo software (Varjo Base) simply uses SteamVr's libraries "in the background", i.e. SteamVR service will still run..  just not the front end app  

I thought the SteamVR app will show up because of the Base Station. Don't they???

[peachmonkey]

13 minutes ago, 81banana said:

I thought the SteamVR app will show up because of the Base Station. Don't they???

nope, you can see the base station status inside Varjo Base application (you need to install it, without it Varjo headset won't work). It uses SteamVR service+libraries to get their status and the actual SteamVR app isn't running. When I say the 'app' I mean the small SteamVR window with headset/controller status + ability to get in to its settings. The whole steamVR framework is still running as a service and is accessible.

With the openXR mod for DCS when you launch the game there will be a pop-up warning stating that SteamVR is being bypassed (can't remember exactly what it says), just click OK and the game launches as per usual but without SteamVR "app". If you alt-tab out of the game, open Steam application, you'll see that SteamVR status in Steam will say "running", however again, there won't be a SteamVR app running that you can open/click/navigate to/thru. You could probably force launch it, but I don't recommend it as the headset/steamvr will get all screwy.. and it'll either crash or start showing the game in HMD as a 2d application ..

Edited June 8, 2022 by peachmonkey

[81banana]

22 minutes ago, peachmonkey said:

nope, you can see the base station status inside Varjo Base application (you need to install it, without it Varjo headset won't work). It uses SteamVR service+libraries to get their status and the actual SteamVR app isn't running. When I say the 'app' I mean the small SteamVR window with headset/controller status + ability to get in to its settings. The whole steamVR framework is still running as a service and is accessible.

With the openXR mod for DCS when you launch the game there will be a pop-up warning stating that SteamVR is being bypassed (can't remember exactly what it says), just click OK and the game launches as per usual but without SteamVR "app". If you alt-tab out of the game, open Steam application, you'll see that SteamVR status in Steam will say "running", however again, there won't be a SteamVR app running that you can open/click/navigate to/thru. You could probably force launch it, but I don't recommend it as the headset/steamvr will get all screwy.. and it'll either crash or start showing the game in HMD as a 2d application ..

 

Thanks mate! I appreciate the time you are investing. I am happy if I don't see the APP at all!

BTW does the Varjo Base software deliver a view to be captured for recording/streaming purposes?

[peachmonkey]

Just now, 81banana said:

Thanks mate! I appreciate the time you are investing. I am happy if I don't see the APP at all!

BTW does the Varjo Base software deliver a view to be captured for recording/streaming purposes?

no probs, just trying to be helpful!

so, the VB app has all that, check out this page to get acquainted with it:

https://varjo.com/use-center/get-to-know-your-headset/using-varjo-base/

Also, when you get the HMD join their Discord for any questions/troubleshooting, there's a bunch of rooms, one specific to DCS, another for VB app, etc..

https://discord.gg/spumy8hseA

[fastf1nger]

Is the tutorial on the 1st page still up to date?
I´m a little bit confused after reading the last 8 pages

Thanks btw for your amazing work, VR gets mindblowing now!!!