Heavy shimmering in cockpit VR

[CPS_Bomber]

Hi all

Anyone here flying the Mirage F1 using Quest 2?

It's most likely a setting or settings I need to tweak on my system, but the cockpit overall and instruments are generally very shimmery/sparkly, in particular the ADI (artificial horizon) and the covering for the control panel (especially on the upper left) look almost like glitterballs. Not only does it make many of the instruments and dials difficult to read, it's very uncomfortable for the eyes.

I have all the flyable modules in my collection, and this is the only aircraft I'm seeing this really exaggerated effect in, and it's present in the F1CE, EE and BE.
External views are perfect.

It's all fine in 2d using TrackIR.

I have access to both standalone Beta and Stable with normal or MT versions (so no DCS Steam install).
I'm currently using standalone Open Beta MT with 2.9 update.

FXO and Metashaders2 folders emptied after update + last hotfix installed.

I also use Viacom Pro/VoiceAttack (not that that should make a difference?)

I'm using Quest 2 with cable via USB3 hub (all updates installed). It's set to 72hz with default 1.0x 4128x2096 resolution setting.

I also have Oculus Tool Tray installed and OpenXR tool kit.

I've got 32gb RAM, Nvidia 3090ti (latest drivers), 1000w PSU with Win10 home premium fully updated with DCS on an SSD and windows on an NVME.
On 2D with TrackIR I can run maxed out on all maps (except for Sinai and Syria when things get very busy I notice a drop in performance).

In-game settings for a balanced smooth and clear performance in VR are:

SYSTEM
Res 1920x1080 (desktop Res is 3440x1440)
1 screen
1024 every frame
MSAA
4x
Upscaling off
Sharpening 0.51
Textures high
Terrain textures high
Shadows flat only
Shadows blur both off
SSS off
Visible range high
Civ traffic off
Clouds ultra
Water medium
SSAO off
SSLR off
Lens effect dirt+flare
Heat blur off
Motion blur off
Depth of field off
Clutter 0
Forest Vis 50%
Forest detail 0.3
Scenery detail 0.4
Preload 100000
Chimney smoke 0
Gamma 1.7
Ext FoV 78
LoD 1
Anisotropic 16x
Terrain object shadow off
Cockpit global illumination off
Font scale 1
Scale GUI 1
Rain droplets on
VSync off
Full screen off
Cursor to game window on

VR
Pixel density 1.2
Force IPD unchecked (value in box states 63.5)
Bloom effect off
MSAA mask 0.42
HMD mask off
VR mirror Use DCS resolution on
Eye source right eye.

My Nvidia control panel has a profile for DCS, but everything is set to default/global setting except:
Power management mode - pref max performance
VR pre rendered frames - 1

The basic setup was done using the latest tutorial by Laubox as it covered both 2.9 and Quest 2, and all in all this is the clearest and smoothest I've had it all running:

https://youtu.be/C799qSimMd4?si=7j0o-reiAMjPXPjN

Any suggestions as to where to look at settings to tweak?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice!

Cheers
Rob

[average_pilot]

Probably just the fine roughness texture of the plastics used in those cockpits, which don't work very well with today's typical VR resolutions. If you look at them in monitor mode, or look at them really close in VR (close one eye to look at it really close) you'll see what I mean.

Just my guess though.

[darkman222]

I have the Varjo Aero and the shimmering is only visible to me on the cockpit "dashboard" or whatever you may call it. The outside of it seems to have a not filtered texture. Its like sparkles shimmering.

And the rudder pedals seem also not to have filtered textures.
The instruments are fine for me

null

[AlpineGTA]

I think I've noticed this too with my Reverb G2.

[average_pilot]

On 11/3/2023 at 2:13 PM, darkman222 said:

I have the Varjo Aero and the shimmering is only visible to me on the cockpit "dashboard" or whatever you may call it. The outside of it seems to have a not filtered texture. Its like sparkles shimmering.

And the rudder pedals seem also not to have filtered textures.
The instruments are fine for me

Now that you mention it really looks like unfiltered textures. Is that even possible, though? I thought every single texture is filtered by the graphics engine no matter what as part of the normal rendering. But it really looks like it.

Or maybe negative texture LOD bias? Very high (negative) values can give textures that sparkling look.

Edit: I just re-read OP and he specifies using default values in nvidia profile for DCS.

Edited November 8, 2023 by average_pilot

[Temetre]

Mb try to disable sharpening? That can cause artefacts sometimes, when lighting effects are exaggerated by it.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Temetre

[Dedbeat]

I have this issue too. Lots of shimmering to the point it’s difficult to read text. 
All my other modules seem fine. 
Im using quest 2, 5800x3d, 64gb ram and 4070ti. 

[Dedbeat]

I have upgraded to a Quest 3 and most of the shimmering has now gone. 
I also found it difficult to read the gauges before, and now it’s pin sharp. The increased resolution of the q3 really has made things so much better.

[darkman222]

I think gauges are a thing thats detemined by the resolution of the headset. But the shimmering is due to bad textures, of whatever reason.

I have the Varjo Aero and the Pimax Crystal. Shimmering on the dashboard and the rudder pedals in both VR headsets.

[Aarnoman]

+1, same here Reverb G2. Shimmering is very bad on the upper dashhboard area on each side of the hud as shown by arrow in this photo. DLAA somewhat reduces this (at the cost of ghosting artefacts elsewhere).

On 11/4/2023 at 2:13 AM, darkman222 said:

I have the Varjo Aero and the shimmering is only visible to me on the cockpit "dashboard" or whatever you may call it. The outside of it seems to have a not filtered texture. Its like sparkles shimmering.

And the rudder pedals seem also not to have filtered textures.
The instruments are fine for me

null

 

[average_pilot]

Maybe the texture lacks mip maps? I don't have any software right now to check it myself.

[lwalter]

+1

Shimmering very bad for me too (Quest 2). No extra sharpening used.

[Volator]

On 11/3/2023 at 2:13 PM, darkman222 said:

I have the Varjo Aero and the shimmering is only visible to me on the cockpit "dashboard" or whatever you may call it. The outside of it seems to have a not filtered texture. Its like sparkles shimmering.

And the rudder pedals seem also not to have filtered textures.
The instruments are fine for me

null

Same issue here, non-VR. Instruments are good, but the left dashboard shimmers really badly. It improves a little if I zoom in.

[AlpineGTA]

Yes, it's not just a VR thing. I've noticed the texture on the top left dash shimmering on youtube videos too.

[Nebula_Creates]

I can confirm this as well, with the Quest 2 it is impossible to fly the Mirage F1s, as much as I want to. The cockpit textures just shimmer too much and the buttons and hud are unreadable

[streakeagle]

DLSS/FSR can reduce or even eliminate this problem.
The way it "blurs" the image, it gets rid of most shimmering problems.
Of course, DLSS/FSR brings its own issues, but give it a shot and see what you think.

I am using an AMD 7900 XTX with a Quest 3, so I am using FSR.
I have sharpness at 1.0 and scaling at 0.75.
The main penalty is a slight blurring of textures, most notably cockpit text labels on control panels.
There can also be problems with ghosting/blurring of some objects.
But in the case of the Mirage F1, I get a nice HUD where I can read the compass and HUD pitch angles without zooming in.

[les]

I've found I can't use dlss/fast with my quest2- it initially looks great, scenery and cockpits really nice , but I found that other aircraft disappear at certain ranges: you see them in the distance as a black dot, then as you get closer they disappear, closer still and you can see that they are flickering / ghosting really badly.....not ideal!!!

[streakeagle]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:51 AM, les said:

I've found I can't use dlss/fast with my quest2- it initially looks great, scenery and cockpits really nice , but I found that other aircraft disappear at certain ranges: you see them in the distance as a black dot, then as you get closer they disappear, closer still and you can see that they are flickering / ghosting really badly.....not ideal!!!

Yes, it does have problems. Every time I try FSAA in a dogfight, it gets ugly. But it looks so good taxiing around the airfield with almost zero shimmering or aliasing. There must be a way to get sharp images and minimize aliasing/shimmering in VR, but I haven't found it yet. Always a compromise between image quality, frame rate, etc.

[YSIAD_RIP]

YEP.. same here. I use 2D and it is very sparkly. Looks like it just needs a touchup on that panel. 

[Rapierarch]

Quest2 and everything is fine here. Never had the problem described above. 

[AlpineGTA]

6 hours ago, Rapierarch said:

Quest2 and everything is fine here. Never had the problem described above. 

Are you using any kind of upscaling? I've noticed it's much less obvious if you have upscaling enabled, but I don't use it myself, I don't like it.

[Rapierarch]

Yes, but with DLAA or MSAA 2x too there were no shimmering. I have never seen it since F-1 is released. 

[AlpineGTA]

17 hours ago, Rapierarch said:

Yes, but with DLAA or MSAA 2x too there were no shimmering. I have never seen it since F-1 is released. 

That's interesting. I'm using MSAA x2 but I'm still seeing the sparkly texture. I wonder if there's some other setting you're using that those that are seeing it aren't?

[kontiuka]

19 hours ago, Rapierarch said:

Yes, but with DLAA or MSAA 2x too there were no shimmering. I have never seen it since F-1 is released. 

 

1 hour ago, AlpineGTA said:

That's interesting. I'm using MSAA x2 but I'm still seeing the sparkly texture. I wonder if there's some other setting you're using that those that are seeing it aren't?

I use only MSAA x 4 and see the sparkling on a 2D monitor under certain lighting conditions.