Bad tracking / floating out of cockpit, only in DCS: Crystal Light

[Keith Briscoe]

Somewhat repeating myself as I've likely mentioned in other threads... But, tracking with my PCL in DCS is just getting worse and worse...
Main issue is... now it just floats out and away from cockpit, especially if I look away from center for any extended period of time (even just a few seconds).
I've tried so many things:
Increased light in the room / decreased light in the room
Covered the flood light directly above my simrig
Using Process Lasso
overclock CPU
disable sleep / power mgmt of USB ports
Plugged PCL into different USB port
uninstalled pimax play / reinstalled
uninstalled pimax xr / reinstalled
uninstalled all of WMR
uninstalled OpenComposite
Reduced resolution; turned off FFR
Tried to play in SteamVR, same floating

I truly want to love this thing, but it's shooting itself in the foot.
BTW, as hard as I try, I cannot get this floating to occur in Assetto Corsa Competizione or IL-2.
So, I'm definitely open to any more DCS specific suggestions.

Edited September 9, 2024 by Keith Briscoe

[Nodak]

Have you hit the 'horizontal recalibration' button in pimax play yet?  It should be correctly labeled as center headset.

[Calvin.Pimax]

Hello,

Could you please log a support ticket and share the ticket number with me? I'll involve the tech support team that specializes in addressing the PCL tracking issue and will urge them to assist you further.

 

[Keith Briscoe]

@Calvin.Pimax I submitted a trouble ticket yesterday, but I have not yet been provided a ticket/reference number. Will share as soon as I get it.

[Calvin.Pimax]

Either way, you may provide the email address to me via DM. 

[Convoy]

On 9/12/2024 at 5:25 AM, Calvin.Pimax said:

Either way, you may provide the email address to me via DM. 

Any fixes for this yet? My Reverb G2 tracked perfectly for years, but my Crystal Light it's nothing but issues. Same floating tracking issue. 

[Keith Briscoe]

I cannot comment on fixes since I'm back to and still using the G2.  I keep reading about the various and inconsistent reports about the latest PimaxPlay and associated openxr toolkit plus quadviews implementation.  Every other day I plan to try the PCL again, but then I just don't want to have to go back to tinkering...

[Convoy]

On 10/21/2024 at 2:29 PM, Keith Briscoe said:

I cannot comment on fixes since I'm back to and still using the G2.  I keep reading about the various and inconsistent reports about the latest PimaxPlay and associated openxr toolkit plus quadviews implementation.  Every other day I plan to try the PCL again, but then I just don't want to have to go back to tinkering...

I hear ya. I'm in that boat right now. I came from the G2, plugged in the PCL and it ran beautifully. Then I updated it, and it all went to <profanity>. So infuriating. 

[Lange_666]

Not a PL owner myself but stumbled upon this in relation to the floating out of the cockpit problem: It happens in MSFS2020 too.

Read down from this post:
https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/651840-watery-edges-when-looking-sharp-left-or-right/?do=findComment&comment=5202273

[Keith Briscoe]

6 hours ago, Lange_666 said:

Not a PL owner myself but stumbled upon this in relation to the floating out of the cockpit problem: It happens in MSFS2020 too.

Read down from this post:
https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/651840-watery-edges-when-looking-sharp-left-or-right/?do=findComment&comment=5202273

Thanks for the link.  When I get around to re-trying / re-installing everything for Pimax CL, I will consider keeping FFR off to see if that helps the floating.  Seems unrelated, but you just never know.

[MortarRat]

It is a long shot and I am not sure if this is the same problem, but I had been popping out of the cockpit way above the aircraft, when I would re-center in DCS, I would lose the head up down/lean function (like my head was stuck on a stick), then it would pop back down again and full movement would return forcing me to keep re-centering. In combination, tracking was getting super delayed intermittently for about 15-30 seconds every couple of minutes. I was about to just give up and put the thing on the shelf after a ton of testing, to include mobo swaps for upgrade USB to 3.2 and I was about to buy a new CPU. 

I have only done 1 test but things look resolved. (As kooky as it sounds) Replacing my lightbulbs with non LED (CFL or incandescent) and turning off my monitors. Make sure nothing that flickers or operates on a HZ is within sight of the headset.

My wife came in the room and turned on a LED light and it started stuttering again so I suspect LED bulbs in the room operating on different HZ screws with the unit. 

If I run into the issue operating on non LED bulbs I will come back and correct myself, but I played for several hours today without encountering the issue which had been persistent before replacing my lighting. 

Edited October 27, 2024 by MortarRat

[Keith Briscoe]

On 10/27/2024 at 12:03 AM, MortarRat said:

It is a long shot and I am not sure if this is the same problem, but I had been popping out of the cockpit way above the aircraft, when I would re-center in DCS, I would lose the head up down/lean function (like my head was stuck on a stick), then it would pop back down again and full movement would return forcing me to keep re-centering. In combination, tracking was getting super delayed intermittently for about 15-30 seconds every couple of minutes. I was about to just give up and put the thing on the shelf after a ton of testing, to include mobo swaps for upgrade USB to 3.2 and I was about to buy a new CPU. 

I have only done 1 test but things look resolved. (As kooky as it sounds) Replacing my lightbulbs with non LED (CFL or incandescent) and turning off my monitors. Make sure nothing that flickers or operates on a HZ is within sight of the headset.

My wife came in the room and turned on a LED light and it started stuttering again so I suspect LED bulbs in the room operating on different HZ screws with the unit. 

If I run into the issue operating on non LED bulbs I will come back and correct myself, but I played for several hours today without encountering the issue which had been persistent before replacing my lighting. 

 

VERY VERY interesting.  I do indeed have LED in ceiling flood lights in this room, in fact, practically everywhere in the house.  But, I've just put some old style incandescent 65w bulbs and a new set of baffle trim rings in my Amazon shopping list so I can purchase those next if my other series of tests are not successful.  Thank you for the suggestion.

Wonder if others will see this and would love to see if those with tracking issues tend to be using LED lighting in their spaces...

Edited October 29, 2024 by Keith Briscoe

[MortarRat]

Yeah I don't know if our issues are related, sounded like your tracking error involved different behavior but, I tested for another 2 hours last night and did not have any tracking issues for the 2nd time. Really happy to figure this out for myself finally. 

 

Just make sure that there is no LED light bleeding into the room and no screens or monitors running anywhere. Good luck! 

[Stoatmaster]

Similar issues now experienced with mine.

1. 'Inside Out' now refuses to work, I get a sensor error.

2. Using lighthouses results in drift and horrific jitter.

As a test I plugged my Index back in and it's rock solid. I've only had the Crystal since Monday

[Keith Briscoe]

3 hours ago, Stoatmaster said:

Similar issues now experienced with mine.

1. 'Inside Out' now refuses to work, I get a sensor error.

2. Using lighthouses results in drift and horrific jitter.

As a test I plugged my Index back in and it's rock solid. I've only had the Crystal since Monday

Do you have LED lights in your area where you use VR?

Do you have an Intel 13900 or 14900?

[Stoatmaster]

Hi,

I actually tried it with the lights turned off to rule that out, CPU is 9700k.

I've raised a ticket with Pimax and sent gem some debug info on it. (That's for the Inside Out issue)

Lighthouse issue must be headset specific as the Index is fine when I use it with the same setup. Hopefully software rather than hardware.

[Blackhawk163]

I have this error, primarily with the F14 and the F4. When it happens its quite jarring, and nauseating to me when it jitters uncontrollably. I'm hoping the new pimax drivers and firmware fix this, as it happens to me in BMS as well. 

[ig002]

On 11/2/2024 at 4:25 AM, Blackhawk163 said:

I have this error, primarily with the F14 and the F4. When it happens its quite jarring, and nauseating to me when it jitters uncontrollably. I'm hoping the new pimax drivers and firmware fix this, as it happens to me in BMS as well. 

I saw you have the same specs as me (Ryzen 7 7800x3d with RTX 4080, 64 GB DDR5). I have just built the pc and I have just tested it in DCS. I have the same floating issue with the Crystal Light but I also saw that my FPS is CPU bound and I can't get above 50 fps. Is it similar to you as well?

The floating issue happens in daylight as well to me so no LED influence.....other than the monitor. I would be really pissed if I will be forced to buy the faceplate for 180. 

[Blackhawk163]

1 hour ago, ig002 said:

I saw you have the same specs as me (Ryzen 7 7800x3d with RTX 4080, 64 GB DDR5). I have just built the pc and I have just tested it in DCS. I have the same floating issue with the Crystal Light but I also saw that my FPS is CPU bound and I can't get above 50 fps. Is it similar to you as well?

The floating issue happens in daylight as well to me so no LED influence.....other than the monitor. I would be really pissed if I will be forced to buy the faceplate for 180. 

Can you post your DCS and Pimax settings in this thread?   
 

I’ve been experimenting with various settings and can comfortably get 90+ fps with settings that I find acceptable. If I leave everything on their highest settings I can get 60-90 up high, but once I hit the deck, it’s 45-50 depending on the map. 
 

The floating issue more or less always precedes a crash for me, and primarily is on the F14 and F4 for me. Very annoying. I should try this on msfs2020, I know it happens in BMS with the F-15c as well. But it been a while since I’ve loaded up those two games.