Foveated Rendering Support for DCS

[slughead]

6 hours ago, Dentedend10 said:

I think that might solve your issue as I had something similar. The blue circle was bothering me so I disabled guardian. Then I started to lose tracking, put the guardian back. Ever since I haven’t lost tracking, and for some reason, luckily, the guardian circle only shows up occasionally so it doesn’t break immersion anymore. 

It looks like that was it. Two flights in now and the problem has not returned. I guess I'll just have to live with the guardian on despite the headset not being supposed to drop to 3DOF in developer mode with it disabled. But hey, it's developer mode.

Thanks to @actually_fredand @mbucchiafor their time.

[mbucchia]

11 minutes ago, slughead said:

It looks like that was it. Two flights in now and the problem has not returned. I guess I'll just have to live with the guardian on despite the headset not being supposed to drop to 3DOF in developer mode with it disabled. But hey, it's developer mode.

Thanks to @actually_fredand @mbucchiafor their time.

OK I will need to put a note about this so other ppl don't fall in this trap!

Really really hate this dev mode with a fiery passion.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Thanks guys!

One more question, the NVG gives a very odd looking square when NVG is  activated. Is there any workaround?

[VirusAM]

Thanks guys!
One more question, the NVG gives a very odd looking square when NVG is  activated. Is there any workaround?

Look some posts above. There is a mod

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Thanks again. Full-screen NVG is better than none.

Wish-list: option, somewhere, to turn off the feature.

[gdoggyc]

23 hours ago, slughead said:

Take a look at Fred's signature just above your comment.

@slughead I have had a difficult time getting HTCC to work even going through the installation directions thoroughly and double checking settings in my QP.  I load up DCS and don't get any indicators for my "input" point even after waving my hand.  Is there ANYTHING more thorough on instructions to set this up to work?    I've installed HTCC, configured it for virtual touchscreen...enabled hand tracking (direct touch disabled though) and load up DCS and nada.  Can only use my mouse as usual.  any ideas?

[slughead]

17 minutes ago, gdoggyc said:

@slughead I have had a difficult time getting HTCC to work even going through the installation directions thoroughly and double checking settings in my QP.  I load up DCS and don't get any indicators for my "input" point even after waving my hand.  Is there ANYTHING more thorough on instructions to set this up to work?    I've installed HTCC, configured it for virtual touchscreen...enabled hand tracking (direct touch disabled though) and load up DCS and nada.  Can only use my mouse as usual.  any ideas?

This isn't really the thread to discuss support for HTCC. I recommend either starting a new thread about it or seek help on Fred's discord server.

[seven10]

I posted on the Github since I was having issues with DCS crashing and freezing with my QP using the Meta Foveated tool. Come to find out for me it was the turbo mode in the settings file that was causing the issue and with that turned off I can now use the tool and take off and put back on the QP without DCS crashing. Attached is the log from before turning off turbo mode.

XR_APILAYER_MBUCCHIA_meta_foveated.log

[nikoel]

3 minutes ago, seven10 said:

I posted on the Github since I was having issues with DCS crashing and freezing with my QP using the Meta Foveated tool. Come to find out for me it was the turbo mode in the settings file that was causing the issue and with that turned off I can now use the tool and take off and put back on the QP without DCS crashing. Attached is the log from before turning off turbo mode.

XR_APILAYER_MBUCCHIA_meta_foveated.log 2.85 kB · 0 downloads

It's a known DCS/Oculus bug

See here:

The bug report is also linked in the comment

[mbucchia]

1 hour ago, nikoel said:

It's a known DCS/Oculus bug

See here:

The bug report is also linked in the comment

Thanks for joining those threads.

I'm actually not 100% convinced now that it might not be my issue.

I'll have to give it a try on Quest 2 (without ET obviously) and see if I can repro. I might ask you to provide some more detailed logs then.

[markturner1960]

Hi all, just trying this now......I am default settings but its tricky to assess any gains, as I dont have performance tools enabled and so dont see any FPS or frame time .......I turned ASW to disabled in ODT, is it better / recommended etc to try and run without, or would you say use it? Without, it seems OK most of the time, but I am getting the occasional slowdown and some lack of smoothness as scenery passes that ASW dialled out before......

Edit: Found the performance HUD overlay in ODT and I can see it is working, as I notice a slight snapping in of textures as they get focused on by my eyes centrally. Seems generally good, I guess I can try myself with regards to the ASW on or not, I just wondered if there were good reasons for doing one way or the other.....

Logically, if this is all about additional performance then I guess I have 2 options...1) Run at a lower FPS with ASW forced, and use the increase in performance overhead to crank up the resolution for a crisper image, OR: 2) Run at a higher FPS than previously for the associated benefits ( although, with ASW being so well implemented in the Pro, personally, I dont think there are benefits to gained by running higher FPS) 

Do I have that broadly correct? 

Edited July 2, 2023 by markturner1960

[markturner1960]

OK, I just had a play and set the ASW to forced 45FPS ASW enabled . I am running 72hz. i also set pixels per display override at 1.3 and the tangent multiplier to 0.9

 

OMG!!!! perforamnce HUD shows DCS locked at 36 ( I guess I get half refresh, not forced 45) 100% performance overhead and everything is super clear and reaaaaaally smooooth. And I have lost the shimmery out of focus appearance to the area outside the foveated rendering mask I had before which was a little disconcerting after the clarity I was used to with the Quest Pro, but I could live with, however, its gone! 

This is an amazing addition to the arsenal of tools to aid VR happiness....thank you MBucchia! And all the great helpful people on this forum!!! 

[Hippo]

I decided to give this another go, and am currently happy with the following settings which give me a good perf (20-25% reduction in cpu util) : visuals.

peripheral_multiplier=0.5
focus_multiplier=1.0
horizontal_focus_section=0.4
vertical_focus_section=0.3
vertical_focus_bias=0.28
turbo_mode=0
smoothen_focus_view_edges=0.4
sharpen_focus_view=0.0

On a previous attempt with...

peripheral_multiplier=0.4
focus_multiplier=1.0
horizontal_focus_section=0.5
vertical_focus_section=0.5
vertical_focus_bias=0.25
turbo_mode=0
smoothen_focus_view_edges=0.2
sharpen_focus_view=0.0

... I found that the performance improvement was much  less and the peripheral area was too distracting,  Which I find odd, since the peripheral area was smaller.  Could it be down to peripheral_multiplier and smoothen_focus_view_edges?  Or is it some placebo / me having a bad day / dodgy eyesight?

I'm just wondering what works for other people, and which settings they find most critical.

Could someone please expand on the definition of smoothen_focus_view_edges?  What is the value multiplied against?  Is the transition band split equally between the focus and peripheral areas, or is containted within just one of them?

EDIT:  My comparison isn't really valid, as I had also changed my settings 2xMSAA -> 4xMSAA.  Also tested with a different mission.  Both of these changes considerably affected the relative changes in performance and my visual perception of shimmering.  Overall, I am very impressed with the results I get with the second set of settings: when I'm absorbed in a mission and not consciously looking for the DFR I'm almost never aware of it.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Hippo

[mbucchia]

18 minutes ago, Hippo said:

Could someone please expand on the definition of smoothen_focus_view_edges?  What is the value multiplied against?  Is the transition band split equally between the focus and peripheral areas, or is containted within just one of them?

This is the "thickness" of the transition band contained in the focus area.

You can see a little bit what it looks like on the wiki if you zoom much

it's expressed as a fraction of the width of the focus area (so 0.1 is 10%), this explains why 0.5 is the maximum (because it means half of the focus area, which is pretty much from the center).

[Hippo]

35 minutes ago, mbucchia said:

it's expressed as a fraction of the width of the focus area (so 0.1 is 10%), this explains why 0.5 is the maximum (because it means half of the focus area, which is pretty much from the center).

So with my settings (horizontally) 0.4 - (0.4 * 0.4) = 0.24, and so only the central 24% of my fov is at full resolution?  I am somewhat concerned / embarrassed to admit that I can't actually tell.*  Should I be worried about my eyesight?

Is the drop in resolution in the transition band linear?

Is there any advantage to having peripheral_multiplier=0.5, i.e. exactly half?

* I can notice shimmering quite clearly if I'm in a screen with lots of text, but not in the cockpit.  In the F-18 I only really notice shimmering in the IFEI.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Hippo

[mbucchia]

13 minutes ago, Hippo said:

So with my settings (horizontally) 0.4 - (0.4 * 0.4) = 0.24, and so only the central 24% of my fov is at full resolution?  I am somewhat concerned / embarrassed to admit that I can't actually tell.*  Should I be worried about my eyesight?

Is the drop in resolution in the transition band linear?

Is there any advantage to having peripheral_multiplier=0.5, i.e. exactly half?

* I can notice shimmering quite clearly if I'm in a screen with lots of text, but not in the cockpit.  In the F-18 I only really notice shimmering in the IFEI.

 

I'm not following your math at all. You can use the option `debug_focus_view=1` to make it really obvious what your focus region looks like.

The drop is linear but it doesn't actually drop all the way to 0. It goes from 1 (fully opaque) to 0.5. This is is inspired from what Varjo's implementation seems to be doing.

Peripheral region should be at a resolution that doesn't make it too distracting. There aren't really any other rules.

[skywalker22]

Is it possible to change these params in the file and changes actually take place without restarting the game? Didn't try that, that's why I'm asking.

[mbucchia]

6 hours ago, skywalker22 said:

Is it possible to change these params in the file and changes actually take place without restarting the game? Didn't try that, that's why I'm asking.

No, the config file is only read at start-up.

The challenge is that the main things driven by the config options (like the multipliers and region size) directly feed into the resolution of the image for the quad views.

Therefore these settings are equivalent to changing the resolution of your headset... which is something that can only be done with cooperation from the game.

Some of the other settings like sharpening or transition thickness would require some sort of keyboard/menu user experience in game (like OpenXR Toolkit), which I dont think has value here. You really probably don't need to change them anyway.

[VirusAM]

I am having this issue with the Quest Pro, basically every session I got a "lost tracking" message in the headset, some times it closes itself immediately and DCS continues to work, but more often DCS crashes...

I don't know if it is my headset, meta bug or if meta-foveated is involved in this (still didn't have time to try without it).

Is someone else with the same issue?

These lines appears in the logs:

 

null

Edited July 10, 2023 by VirusAM

[slughead]

3 minutes ago, VirusAM said:

I am having this issue with the Quest Pro, basically every session I got a "lost tracking" message in the headset, some times it closes itself immediately and DCS continues to work, but more often DCS crashes...

I don't know if it is my headset, meta bug or if meta-foveated is involved in this (still didn't have time to try without it).

Is someone else with the same issue?

These lines appears in the logs:

 

null

 

Yes. I have been getting this too. Is your guardian enabled and have you cleaned your headset lenses?

[VirusAM]

Yes. I have been getting this too. Is your guardian enabled and have you cleaned your headset lenses?

Yes to both questions

[mbucchia]

Does it happen when you remove your headset by any chance?

This looks like an issue with Turbo mode that's on my todo list.

Meanwhile you can disable Turbo mode in the config file and see if it helps.

[VirusAM]

Does it happen when you remove your headset by any chance?
This looks like an issue with Turbo mode that's on my todo list.
Meanwhile you can disable Turbo mode in the config file and see if it helps.

Sometimes yes, but the last few times it happened without me removing the headset.
I disabled turbo mode this evening and it happened as well.
I also was still inside DCS (didn't crash this time) but controllers tracking was messed up I was only in 3dof

[mbucchia]

13 minutes ago, VirusAM said:

Sometimes yes, but the last few times it happened without me removing the headset.
I disabled turbo mode this evening and it happened as well.
I also was still inside DCS (didn't crash this time) but controllers tracking was messed up I was only in 3dof

 

oh OK then it sounds like that problem instead: 

Not quite sure this is something in my control - I don't do anything at all about tracking.

[Gun Jam]

sorry if I missed this but cant seem to find an answer.

I have the G2 and its my understanding that openxr should support fixed foveated rendering. I have found it mentioned in several locations but have not been able to figure out how to implement it in real life. I see no options for FFR in "openxr tools for windows mixed reality" im assuming it probably uses some other app that ive forgotten about or dont have.

any links or quick explanation of how to enable this?

Thanks