Pico 4: how to set it up for DCS?

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

1. Not sure, OTT does not work for me across 3 different NVIDIA cards.

2. Start DCS by adding these  --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR after DCS.exe. For full details:

3. OpenXR settings are done in-game, but pressing CTRL+F2

[Peedee]

How can I check in-game render resolution in DCS for Pico 4 ?  It seems to me that when I use the OpenXR/SteamVR solution and choose Godlike in Virtual Desktop streaming settings - and also increase SteamVR resolution in SteamVR settings above Godlike - it doesn't do much? I have set this to apprx 3800x3800 (or thereabout) in SteamVR settings. But, I am beginning to suspect that I am stuck in Godlike resolution (which is 3120x3120). Not sure though. 

Also when using Oculus runtime method - how to I check in-game render resolution for the Pico 4. I would suspect that it is 3120x3120 because VD settings is set to Godlike. But using the Oculus runtime gives me a sharper picture than using OpenXR/SteamVr method. And better fps too. So I am curios

Edited February 15, 2023 by Peedee

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

If your SteamVR video setting stays at 100%, here is how VD setting affect Pico4's resolution (repost)

[Peedee]

2 hours ago, VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants said:

If your SteamVR video setting stays at 100%, here is how VD setting affect Pico4's resolution (repost)

Thanks, yup, I got those numbers from your last post. But afte choosing Godlike, I have increased the resolution in SteamVR to about 3800x3800 something... But I have the same fps (ASW off of course to check this)... and it doesn't look clearer. So I'm suspecting that while in DCS whatever I did in SteamVR settings doesn't impact render resolution in DCS, and that the Godlike numbers are used anyway. So, is it possible to see the resolution in the headset like one can get the fps up ?This is of course while playing with OpenXR/Steam VR method. 

Also, while playing DCS with Oculus runtime and not even launching SteamVR, the same question - how can I see the resolution in the headset while playing?

Edited February 15, 2023 by Peedee

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

I think ASW or warping may mess with the fps number. For see what resolution in SteamVR, apart from getting the setting panel, is using application like fpsVR.

For Oculus runtime, my educated guess would be the same as the VD setting.

[Peedee]

8 minutes ago, VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants said:

I think ASW or warping may mess with the fps number. For see what resolution in SteamVR, apart from getting the setting panel, is using application like fpsVR.

For Oculus runtime, my educated guess would be the same as the VD setting.

Ok, thanks! I have ASW off when I check the fps numbers, so they are correct.  I forgot I have fpsVR, so I can use that when using SteamVR.  

[crispy12]

On 2/15/2023 at 11:46 PM, Peedee said:

Thanks, yup, I got those numbers from your last post. But afte choosing Godlike, I have increased the resolution in SteamVR to about 3800x3800 something... But I have the same fps (ASW off of course to check this)... and it doesn't look clearer. So I'm suspecting that while in DCS whatever I did in SteamVR settings doesn't impact render resolution in DCS, and that the Godlike numbers are used anyway. So, is it possible to see the resolution in the headset like one can get the fps up ?This is of course while playing with OpenXR/Steam VR method. 

Also, while playing DCS with Oculus runtime and not even launching SteamVR, the same question - how can I see the resolution in the headset while playing?

 

You can see the performance panel for Oculus by clicking in one of the VD settings page on the headset. Can also bring it up by depressing both thumb sticks. I think this only shows the streamed resolution (godlike)

[RealDCSpilot]

On 2/15/2023 at 2:37 PM, Peedee said:

and also increase SteamVR resolution in SteamVR settings above Godlike - it doesn't do much? I have set this to apprx 3800x3800 (or thereabout) in SteamVR settings. But, I am beginning to suspect that I am stuck in Godlike resolution (which is 3120x3120). Not sure though. 

You have to restart DCS everytime you change the resolution in SteamVR or you won't see any impact. While running 3120x3120 you should see fps at something in the mid 70's, on 3820x3820 something around 60 fps (with my ingame settings of course(!)). However, 3120x3120 looks pretty good already!
The thing is, with SSW enabled and locked at 45 fps you have the performance headroom to invest anything above 45 fps into higher resolutions per eye or maybe turning on MSAA again. And SSW is definitely needed to keep the experience stutter free.
I'm sooo curious about what will be possible with DLSS!

Edited February 17, 2023 by RealDCSpilot

[Fish]

On 2/17/2023 at 6:22 PM, RealDCSpilot said:

You have to restart DCS everytime you change the resolution in SteamVR or you won't see any impact. While running 3120x3120 you should see fps at something in the mid 70's, on 3820x3820 something around 60 fps (with my ingame settings of course(!)). However, 3120x3120 looks pretty good already!
The thing is, with SSW enabled and locked at 45 fps you have the performance headroom to invest anything above 45 fps into higher resolutions per eye or maybe turning on MSAA again. And SSW is definitely needed to keep the experience stutter free.
I'm sooo curious about what will be possible with DLSS!

 

Hi RealDCSPilot, 

I've come to this thread late, and actually had the Pico 4 purchased before reading this. Having had it for nearly 4 weeks, I agree with your sentiments of of this head set, and coming from a HP VR1000 (G1), its like night and day (once you include the Virtual desktop along with the package!)

• Visuals are stunning because of the very large pancake lens, and I can see everything clearly in the pit, MFD's etc. 
• Turning you head to see a wingman or enemy in dogfight, the wide lens means you don't have to turn you head to get the target in the center, and you can scan the scene with your eyes for the attacker more easily without having to move your head. Same applies for getting to the back switches in the pit. 
• Tracking is excellent, and no loss of tracking in all my time using it, once the room is adequately illuminated. 
• Does not need windows mixed reality, which i found problematic with the G1, which has very poor tracking.
• Pass through is amazing, allowing me to quickly find something on my desk quickly, and a double tap on the headset gets me back in the pit. 
• double click of the left controller menu button takes me back to desktop if i need to check/change anything (eg. forgot to start voice attack),  Can be done with the controller leaving the mouse with the focus in DCS.  Then double click to get back to DCS.  
• Headset is well balanced and light, but not perfectly comfortable for long sessions (there's accessories available to solve this), but much better that the old HP G1. 
• Wonderful headset for other stuff, and virtual desktop is easy to navigate (me (and family) having a blast with Half Life Alyx.
• Screen door is not gone but to be honest once you can see the MFD stuff, you don't really notice it. 
• Wireless is great, but for simming i'll plug into a USB socket for charging. You will need to monitor it, since even socket charging does not keep up with the power usage.
• Won't be beaten on price. 

A year ago cancelled my order for the Varjo, and decided to put my money into a new rig, (from a 8700@5ghz & RTX2090ti, to a 13700K & 4090),  I had a punt on this head set as an intermediate headset (as it wont be my last), and at the price it was worth trying out. Well i'm blown away with what it can do, and I havn't been back to 2D since I got it. I can't seem to stop just flying around in DCS, or dogfighting in BMS (where you can get an amazing stutter free experience).  

And finally a note of caution. It does perform excellent with a very high end system, and will stand up to or be even better than others with the same resolution (Pancake over Fresnel any day), but with systems less than this there's going to be a bit of a dance to get the best from it. But VR has never been quite quite plug and play, so you should expect a little dancing.  

 

 

[rosteven1]

On 2/13/2023 at 2:33 PM, Peedee said:

This is what I do to launch the game in VR with the Pico. I am running the beta version of DCS. First of all, my desktop shortcut to the DCS exe file looks like this: "C:\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe" --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR

Having the VD desktop application running on the Windows PC (on my PC it loads when Windows boots), I put my Pico 4 headset on, click on the Virtual Desktop app there. And then I am in Virtual Desktop. I put my Pico handcontrollers aways, and use the mouse to click the DCS shortcut on my Windows desktop. And then DCS starts in VR. Easy.  I am not using open composite. 

Maybe I misunderstand your problem .   But, just wanted to tell you and others that I am getting very good results very easy, and coming from the Reverb G2 I now don't feel I miss anything in terms of resolution and clarity. In fact, I have a clear picture in most of the field of view - which was something the G2 couldn't do. 

But, to run the Oculus API, isn't it nescessary at one point to have installed some Oculus software on the PC? I have not done that on this Windows installation, so I haven't tried that. 

Sorry If I am adding to the confusion.  I am getting a bit confused myself about this Oculus thing, which I don't understand why I would use on the Pico 4. I don't think I will install any Oculus software anyway. Things are working very good now, and I'm afraid to mess things up

 

When you get a chance, I'd like to hear how you are able to start DCS without SteamVR also starting.  I have tried setting Oculus as the runtime, but SteamVR still starts when I open DCS using a clean execute ("C:\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe") or your modified execute ("C:\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe" --force_enable_VR).  Feel free to PM me or answer here...  Thanks

[dureiken]

Hi,

 

is, is this Pico 4 really fine for DCS and simulation ? how does it feel ? VS a Reverb G2 ? thanks

[Fish]

Quote

.........I'd like to hear how you are able to start DCS without SteamVR............

 

This has been posted above, but here is what works for me,

1. Make sure you have Virtual desktop on the pico and on your computer
2. Copy your DCS shortcut to the C:\ folder.
3. From inside virtual desktop in VR, right click the virtual desktop Icon (orange color) on the taskbar, and choose 'launch game', 
4. Click Ok (ignore) to the warning message, 
5. Navigate to your shortcut, (mine defaults to the C:\), select it and press OK. 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Fish

[rosteven1]

3 hours ago, Fish said:

 

This has been posted above, but here is what works for me,

1. Make sure you have Virtual desktop on the pico and on your computer
2. Copy your DCS shortcut to the C:\ folder.
3. From inside virtual desktop in VR, right click the virtual desktop Icon (orange color) on the taskbar, and choose 'launch game', 
4. Click Ok (ignore) to the warning message, 
5. Navigate to your shortcut, (mine defaults to the C:\), select it and press OK. 

 

Thanks, that worked...

[Bearskin]

The two ways I am starting DCS world are :

1. Launching VD, clicking the VD streamer icon on my taskbar, launch game, ignoring the warning and clicking the DCS world EXE in my Bin folder.

2. Launching VD, clicking the DCS shortcut I created with the --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR, this works just as well, but game m/s is 20 as opposed to 10 in option 1, a handfull of FPS less and a bit more latency than in option 1, plus with option 1, Steam VR doesn't start.

I am having a problem with option 1, if I take off my headset to go get a drink or have a smoke, when I come back, I put the headset on, click the use boundary as is, then all I get is a black screen with the white circle, DCS is still running on my desktop but it doesn't appear in my headset. I can long press the hamburger button on my left controller to bring up VD and switch to desktop, then back to VR and still a black screen with the white circle. Option 2 goes straight back into DCS on my headset after I click the boundary button. 

 

 

 

 

[crispy12]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:52 PM, dureiken said:

Hi,

 

is, is this Pico 4 really fine for DCS and simulation ? how does it feel ? VS a Reverb G2 ? thanks

Lots of comparisons in this thread already

[crispy12]

Few tips I've experienced while running the Pico 4:

1. Tracking system uses visible light (as opposed to infrared light on Quest 2). Ensure environment is well lit to get good tracking!
2. To disable the headset going into standby mode, place a sticker over the proximity sensor in the goggles. Currently standby/passthrough mode or loss of tracking will crash DCS. No problem for VD Desktop Mode, but kinda annoying if you're in a multiplayer mission and remove the headset.
3. Use a high powered USB-C charger - this will allow the headset to trickle down or even maybe charge up a little bit during prolonged use. Without a charger, i tend to run out after 1.5hrs in DCS Godlike VD mode. I run the charging cable through the velcro loop on the top of the headset to give the charging port some strain relief.
4. If your hand controls are not detected, a center dot will appear in the headset to allow you to click using the headset right-side buttons. Useful to re-center the play area as well.
5. Double tapping the menu key on left controller will toggle between desktop mode and VR mode. Really useful for checking out Discord or browser mid-game.
6. I get better experience running Oculus API - right click on the VD system tray icon and launch DCS shortcut or DCS.exe. The draw back is lack of XR utilities like XRNS, OpenXRToolkit.
7. From VD Discord: You can launch games that aren't part of your Oculus or Steam library by right-clicking the Streamer icon in the system tray, selecting "Launch Game..." and locating the executable. Alternatively, you can inject games through a batch file (.bat) by using: "C:\Program Files\Virtual Desktop Streamer\VirtualDesktop.Streamer.exe" "[ExecutablePath]"

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by crispy12

[Peedee]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:22 PM, RealDCSpilot said:

You have to restart DCS everytime you change the resolution in SteamVR or you won't see any impact. While running 3120x3120 you should see fps at something in the mid 70's, on 3820x3820 something around 60 fps (with my ingame settings of course(!)). However, 3120x3120 looks pretty good already!
The thing is, with SSW enabled and locked at 45 fps you have the performance headroom to invest anything above 45 fps into higher resolutions per eye or maybe turning on MSAA again. And SSW is definitely needed to keep the experience stutter free.
I'm sooo curious about what will be possible with DLSS!

 

Hi, thanks, I´ve been on vacation so no chance to check things out the last week or so. But, yes, I know that I have to restart DCS. I change the resolution before entering the game, but it seems not to do anything, so something strange is going on on my system.  

[Peedee]

On 2/25/2023 at 8:52 AM, dureiken said:

Hi,

 

is, is this Pico 4 really fine for DCS and simulation ? how does it feel ? VS a Reverb G2 ? thanks

Yes, I think it is. I also have the Reverb G2, but now I prefer the Pico 4. BUT - you have to have good graphics card (and cpu).

[dureiken]

16 minutes ago, Peedee said:

Yes, I think it is. I also have the Reverb G2, but now I prefer the Pico 4. BUT - you have to have good graphics card (and cpu).

I have a 4090 and 12600k should be ok thanks

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

My USB-C Ethernet hub + charging port starts to show unable to connect with the Ethernet, which is not the USB-C port or the Ethernet cable problem, it should be Ethernet port on the hub. So I get the Anker one:

Much more expensive but hope it lasts longer.

 

[KoN]

Pico 3 link with Display port is the way to go for racing and flying Sims . 

[Thinder]

On 2/6/2023 at 8:45 AM, RealDCSpilot said:

xD yeah, a lot of his "FACTS" do not make sense... Unless he is from the future and already plays DCS with multithreading, DLSS and Vulkan.

By the way, you can also use USB-tethering with Virtual Desktop. Works pretty seemlessly and gives constant 1200 Mbps.

About OXR Toolkit, yeah. If you still have a cable VR HMD it can help to improve performance. But with a wireless headset, especially fixed foveated rendering seems to degrade compressed streaming quality a lot (also found this by testing MSFS2020 - got 10 fps more but clearly visible compression artifacts in the image center).

 

 

What doesn't make sense is your assumption that you know everything, down to what other players experienced.

FACT: Steam VR doesn't start with Pico4 without Streaming assistant, it has to detect it first, I could make a video of the procedure to start DCS just to make my point but it's wasted time apparently.

1: Streaming assistant. 2: Steam VR. 3: Virtual Desktop, you can start the game from there, That's how I managed my 4 videos happy or not, you can keep banging chest pretending you know better than me what I did, it doesn't work, as for the geezer who has an issue with frame rate, not everyone plays with bottlenecked PCs.

About "incredible frame rates", I never mentioned it, since I didn't test Frame rate but visual quality first and the videos are there to prove it, plus I just tried it again and it works, I lowered the settings to get a smoother play and was about to start testing with Afterburner when this stupid update caused the issues.

In short, I know where to ask for opinions and you're not on my list. By a margin.

For the others. All those half butt solutions are not going to change another fact: The update is buggered, and the problem can only be resolved by developers, all the rest isn't going to bring back the lost visual quality of the game previous to the update if they don't fix it.

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Thinder

[RealDCSpilot]

14 hours ago, Thinder said:

1: Streaming assistant. 2: Steam VR. 3: Virtual Desktop,

At step 3 - are you talking about this app? https://store.steampowered.com/app/382110/Virtual_Desktop/

@Thinder Are you aware that everybody in this thread and the whole VR section is always talking about the standalone "wireless" version of Virtual Desktop? Which has to be started on the headset itself and connected to the free "Streamer" app running on Windows? https://www.vrdesktop.net/
Running Pico's Streaming Assistant to run Steam VR to then get the desktop version of Virtual Desktop running to run DCS is total nonsense!
You either run DCS via Pico Streaming Assistant and SteamVR or you use the much better alternative with Virtual Desktop ON YOUR PICO 4 to connect to your PC with it's streaming app and run SteamVR and then DCS.
And we are all talking about Virtual Desktop here because it offers much better quality and tweaking options!
About your FACTS: everybody here and in the whole world would really like to know how you achieved real 180 FPS in VR in DCS. Like in this video you posted. It runs with terrible stuttering but shows 180 fps which also makes no sense. PD setting at 1.6 ... Wtf? So please enlighten us?!

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by RealDCSpilot

[Thinder]

LOL! It's so funny to read you guys because you always jump to conclusions before knowing HALF THE FACTS, that's because you don't inform yourself properly for a starter.

I mentioned this in a disclaimer saying something like "don't pay attention about the FPS it's NOT the game FPS but screen recording of the replay". SAVVY?

And btw, after testing OpenBeta again today, I don't have any of the loss of quality I experienced after the infamous update anymore, back to where I was then, still using the same (as few as possible) APPs and testing different settings, it took time but I got there simply seating this one out.

And to nail it, I even posted a request for information on how to get the overlay showing in replays instead of recording of the replays, I didn't know how to set up Afterburner... My bad.

For your info, my GPU offers the option to override game settings, I've been testing different anti-aliasing methods, the best being SSAA for AMD and I use it for at least playing Elite Dangerous, perhaps I will use a different profile for DCS to get a smoother play.

I don't have to add layers and layers of stuff which as you mentioned yourself in this topic are causing the issues to worsen, not get better, image quality is great again so I can play around with game and GPU performances.

Now you can return the favor and tell us, honestly, did you manage to restore the visual quality of the Pico4 as it was before this stupid update ? You don't have to reply...

So as I said in this topic, it can only be sorted by developers, the rest is never going to cut it for the precise reason you mentioned, at least we agreed on this point.

ps I use a cable plugged into a USB 3.2 Gen2, with 20Gbps, a X 5 higher bandwidth than WiFi 6E.

Have a nice day.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Thinder

[ECTAE]

I currently have the RIFTS and I am debating whether to buy a pico4 or wait for the next META, is the difference between a RiftS, with the SS at 2.0, and a pico4 much? I've been flying alone for a year on monitor even having 5800x3d and 4090, but in multiplayer in very populated servers there is no way to move or riftS, usually fall much fps. But lately I'm debating between waiting for the next generation of viewers or take the plunge and buy a pico 4.

Thanks for your help.

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by ECTAE