Foveated Rendering Support for DCS

[slughead]

3 minutes ago, obious said:

• I'm finding it difficult to dial in my settings (to take account of the additional system resources I now have. Prior to DFR, I was seeing around 30% headroom being reported via the OTT HUD Performance view but when using DFR, that number jumps to 98%. I'm not entirely sure its accurate as after changing some settings to utilize the system headroom (MSAA now at 4x, render scalling in the OTT at 1.2), that 98% headroom figure doesn't really change. The only impact I see is that the Quest Pro I'm using drops down to 45PFS from 90FPS (which I rearly experienced before).

Turn off turbo mode to get accurate measurements. This mode affects the performance calculations. You can turn it on again later.

3 minutes ago, obious said:

• Not sure if this is a DFR thing or not but the sound is very 'choppy'. I'm using an encode resolution of 3664 and an Encode Bitrate of 960 but I'm not entirely sure if these settings are correct?

Set your encode bit rate back to default. Higher values cause choppiness with the audio. I use the dynamic bit rate encoder with a dynamic bitrate offset of 50. The choppiness isn't totally gone but it is much better.

 

7 minutes ago, obious said:

When using DFR, I notice what I can only describe as a 'box' that follows my line of sight/my eyes and is viewable only in the periphery. Its only noticible when looking at parts of the rendered image that span high brightness/contrast levels (like when I look back at the wings of my F-18 and I can see both the sea and the sky in the saame image. Not sure if I need to tune the settings.cfg here somewhat/somehow.

Do you mean you can see the outline of the rectangle? I too have seen this on NTTR but not on the Caucasus theatre. I've not flown in the NTTR map to see if it is still a problem. I may try later.

[obious]

13 minutes ago, slughead said:

Turn off turbo mode to get accurate measurements. This mode affects the performance calculations. You can turn it on again later.

Set your encode bit rate back to default. Higher values cause choppiness with the audio. I use the dynamic bit rate encoder with a dynamic bitrate offset of 50. The choppiness isn't totally gone but it is much better.

 

Do you mean you can see the outline of the rectangle? I too have seen this on NTTR but not on the Caucasus theatre. I've not flown in the NTTR map to see if it is still a problem. I may try later.

1. Turbo mode is off
2. Will try that
3. Yes, the outline of a rectangle is what I mean. I've also tried the PG map and I can see it their also.

Thanks 

[slughead]

3 minutes ago, obious said:

1. Turbo mode is off
2. Will try that
3. Yes, the outline of a rectangle is what I mean. I've also tried the PG map and I can see it their also.

Thanks 

Yeah, I could see it on the Persian Gulf map too. A black outline. Almost as if there is a gap in the rendering. @mbucchiaany ideas on this one? Any adjustments that we could make or is this something that needs to be addressed in the code?

[Hammer3246]

36 minutes ago, slughead said:

Yeah, I could see it on the Persian Gulf map too. A black outline. Almost as if there is a gap in the rendering. @mbucchiaany ideas on this one? Any adjustments that we could make or is this something that needs to be addressed in the code?

Disable bloom effect and I believe lens effect.

[slughead]

1 minute ago, Hammer3246 said:

Disable bloom effect and I believe lens effect.

They are already. I do need to double-check that I am still seeing this artefact though.

Edited August 12, 2023 by slughead

[Hammer3246]

3 minutes ago, slughead said:

They are already. I do need to double-check that I am still seeing this artefact though.

 

Okay, I only had this issue with them on, strange.

[Hammer3246]

21 hours ago, Hammer3246 said:

I'm trying this to get the ffr on a Pico 4,  but for some reason my hmd is so sensitive now that I have to unplug my simshaker seat because everything shakes.  

 

Anyone with an idea?

Figured it out.

I had Openxr toolkit running, even though I hadn't changed or turned anything on, disabling it cured the problem.

[Qcumber]

1 hour ago, Hammer3246 said:

Figured it out.

I had Openxr toolkit running, even though I hadn't changed or turned anything on, disabling it cured the problem.

Have you tried setting everything to default with OXRTK to see if that works? Are you using xrnecksafer? 

[Hammer3246]

13 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

Have you tried setting everything to default with OXRTK to see if that works? Are you using xrnecksafer? 

I don't have necksafer and everything was default, so I'm not sure what was going on. It's all good for now. 

[Qcumber]

7 minutes ago, Hammer3246 said:

I don't have necksafer and everything was default, so I'm not sure what was going on. It's all good for now. 

You have my sympathy. I wish I could help but the VR experience is still very "Hogwarts". In the absence of logic it must be magic! 

[slughead]

Ok. I doubled checked... I don't see the borders/outline of the rectangle anymore in any theatre. It may have been the bloom effect setting as I did start out with that on and disabled it a while ago.

[slughead]

Something I have noticed since using QVFR... no stutters! Looking on 6-9 line Caucasus over town, 72Hz no ASW, smooth! The micro stutters used to annoy me. I'm betting it's QVFR has helped rather than a DCS patch due to the performance uplift.

[obious]

10 hours ago, slughead said:

Something I have noticed since using QVFR... no stutters! Looking on 6-9 line Caucasus over town, 72Hz no ASW, smooth! The micro stutters used to annoy me. I'm betting its QVFR has helped rather than a DCS patch due to the performance uplift.

Could possible be due to Turbo Mode being on? I had the same experience 

[markturner1960]

18 hours ago, obious said:

Ok, so after playing around with this for the past few hours I thought I'd provide my 2 cents.

1. The performance improvement is immediately apparent. After runnning a simple NTTR F-18 free flight mission (with Broken Clouds 7 on Ultra, 2x MSAA) that struggled, the same mission becomes instantly playable.
2. I'm finding it difficult to dial in my settings (to take account of the additional system resources I now have. Prior to DFR, I was seeing around 30% headroom being reported via the OTT HUD Performance view but when using DFR, that number jumps to 98%. I'm not entirely sure its accurate as after changing some settings to utilize the system headroom (MSAA now at 4x, render scalling in the OTT at 1.2), that 98% headroom figure doesn't really change. The only impact I see is that the Quest Pro I'm using drops down to 45PFS from 90FPS (which I rearly experienced before).
3. After closing DCS and starting it again (to change an OTT setting etc),  DCS hangs (white box; see attached image). Anyone else experienced this?
4. Not sure if this is a DFR thing or not but the sound is very 'choppy'. I'm using an encode resolution of 3664 and an Encode Bitrate of 960 but I'm not entirely sure if these settings are correct?
5. When using DFR, I notice what I can only describe as a 'box' that follows my line of sight/my eyes and is viewable only in the periphery (I'm assuming this is the 'fully' rendered image vs. the lower-res part of the quad-view). Its only noticible when looking at parts of the rendered image that span high brightness/contrast levels (like when I look back at the wings of my F-18 and I can see both the sea and the sky in the saame image. Not sure if I need to tune the settings.cfg here somewhat/somehow.
6. Whilst the instructions are great and perfectly clear, I think using DFR with the Quest Pro may not be for everyone. I had to setup a Meta developer account (which required a credit card and home address) and toggle a bunch of settings deep in the bowls of the Oculus software. 

 

Hi Obious, can I query your use of the render scaling in OTT? First, I stopped using that as I thought the general conecnsus was use ODT, rather than OTT? ....secondly, I also thought that better to only make supersampling tweaks etc in ONE place.....and as the QVFR is now controlling what you see, do it there via the config file. So I have simply set my main render upscaling on the slider in Occulus software, then tweak the value in the QVFR config for the main FOV.

Is what i am doing correct all? 

Finally, regarding the .cfg settings file......in the advanced instrcution Mbucchia linked, he says the .cfg file is in "localappdata" ( which is found in my "users" folder. There is a file there, which i have enclosed, is this the one I edit? I ask as its a .log file, not a ,cfg file......

Is this right ? 

Should I keep the original and rename it? 

 

Quad-Views-Foveated.log

Edited August 13, 2023 by markturner1960

[Qcumber]

1 hour ago, obious said:

Could possible be due to Turbo Mode being on? I had the same experience 

I've just posted this in the bug forum but I'll repeat it here as it's been "bugging me" if you'll pardon the pun.

I find that turbo mode causes latency spikes about 1hz frequency (very jittery) unless I cap frame rate at or just below the headset refresh rate (e.g. cap at 70 for 72hz). This reduces the microstutters, but if frame rate drops below about 40 then the spikes come back. Frustrating. 

Has anyone else experienced this? 

[obious]

16 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

I've just posted this in the bug forum but I'll repeat it here as it's been "bugging me" if you'll pardon the pun.

I find that turbo mode causes latency spikes about 1hz frequency (very jittery) unless I cap frame rate at or just below the headset refresh rate (e.g. cap at 70 for 72hz). This reduces the microstutters, but if frame rate drops below about 40 then the spikes come back. Frustrating. 

Has anyone else experienced this? 

Where are you capping the frame rates?

[Qcumber]

47 minutes ago, obious said:

Where are you capping the frame rates?

I cap them using OXRTK. 

[obious]

1 hour ago, Qcumber said:

I cap them using OXRTK. 

Is that the frame rate throttling setting?

@mbucchia Does the OXRTK Companian App in-game pop up save the setting values to a file anywhere? I'd be great if I could change the settings via a file rather than the pop-up

Edited August 13, 2023 by obious

[Qcumber]

44 minutes ago, obious said:

Is that the frame rate throttling setting?

Yes. That's the one. You could also cap it with NVIDIA control panel. 

[Number481]

2 hours ago, obious said:

Is that the frame rate throttling setting?

@mbucchia Does the OXRTK Companian App in-game pop up save the setting values to a file anywhere? I'd be great if I could change the settings via a file rather than the pop-up

 

Keys are stored in registry..  you can modify most stuff via CLI..  https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/cli.html

[slughead]

4 hours ago, Qcumber said:

I've just posted this in the bug forum but I'll repeat it here as it's been "bugging me" if you'll pardon the pun.

I find that turbo mode causes latency spikes about 1hz frequency (very jittery) unless I cap frame rate at or just below the headset refresh rate (e.g. cap at 70 for 72hz). This reduces the microstutters, but if frame rate drops below about 40 then the spikes come back. Frustrating. 

Has anyone else experienced this? 

I am not experiencing this. I am not capping my frame rate and have turbo enabled. Are you using the multithreaded or single-threaded binary? I am using multithreaded.

[Qcumber]

7 minutes ago, slughead said:

I am not experiencing this. I am not capping my frame rate and have turbo enabled. Are you using the multithreaded or single-threaded binary? I am using multithreaded.

I'm using MT. I think the issue is either virtual desktop and/or Pico 4. I haven't tried with Pico streaming assistant. I'll see if turbo works with that. 

[slughead]

1 minute ago, Qcumber said:

I'm using MT. I think the issue is either virtual desktop and/or Pico 4. I haven't tried with Pico streaming assistant. I'll see if turbo works with that. 

Oh ok. I use a Quest Pro at 72Hz so have lots of headroom.

[mbucchia]

10 hours ago, markturner1960 said:

Hi Obious, can I query your use of the render scaling in OTT? First, I stopped using that as I thought the general conecnsus was use ODT, rather than OTT? ....secondly, I also thought that better to only make supersampling tweaks etc in ONE place.....and as the QVFR is now controlling what you see, do it there via the config file. So I have simply set my main render upscaling on the slider in Occulus software, then tweak the value in the QVFR config for the main FOV.

Is what i am doing correct all? 

Finally, regarding the .cfg settings file......in the advanced instrcution Mbucchia linked, he says the .cfg file is in "localappdata" ( which is found in my "users" folder. There is a file there, which i have enclosed, is this the one I edit? I ask as its a .log file, not a ,cfg file......

Is this right ? 

Should I keep the original and rename it? 

 

Quad-Views-Foveated.log 2.44 kB · 2 downloads

 

Read the instructions again. None of them are asking you to modify a .log file.

> %LocalAppData%\Quad-Views-Foveated\settings.cfg - This is the file you may edit to add your own settings. Note: You have to create this folder and the file yourself. Do not copy the file from 1), instead **create a blank file** and only add settings you want to change from the default configuration.

Also, consider this:

> The default configuration should be sufficient for most users. You probably do not need to modify the configuration file.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

About performance gain, I don't think I have made any benchmark comparison yet, so here are a few charts for your reference: