Quest 2 ASW does not work it just halfs my Framerate

[RoboHackfeld]

Dear Pilots,

 

I am running DCS Standalone on my PC (5800x3D, 6900XT, 64GB, latest Win11, Quest 2 via Cable) with VR and it works just fine offline and on small missions. I can maintain 72fps with QuadViewsForfeated. I also have the OpenXR Toolkit installed.

If I join an online server or start my mission on a loaded Carrier the frames drops to 50-60 and, yeah... Thats not fun anymore

 

The thing is I want to use ASW and I know it worked very well a couple of years ago. But I dont know what happened, if I turn on ASW via Debug Tool or OTT, (Strg Num2/3) it just dropps my FPS to half the Native Frequenzy (72/36; 80/40, 90/45). There is obviousely no reprojection, no matter I turn on the "Force 45fps, ASW disabled" or "Force 45, ASW enabled" mode.

Is there anything I am missing in the Debugtool, Meta App, TrayTool or Radeon Drivers I am missing to turn on, so ASW is able to kick in? Maybe some experimental features?

I run the 72hz mode with the slider to max (all the way to the right, 1.5, 5408*2736).

 

I've found this on the internet, but I dont know where to set up the HMD Priority.

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Unreal-Development/ASW-doesn-t-work-even-when-enabled/td-p/981940

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3 by RoboHackfeld

[Roosterfeet]

To be clear, it's supposed to run at half headset refresh rate with ASW enabled. I'm able to tell the difference between ASW and half refresh rate without ASW because panning around my view is much smoother with ASW enabled. Also, I can see ASW flicker when I pan around my aircraft in external view. At 36 fps without ASW, I can also see rapid jittering that looks like a high speed vibration or blur on nearby ground objects when I look out to the side at low level. Can you see any of those differences when you swap between modes (ctrl-num2 and ctrl-num3)?

[RoboHackfeld]

Yeah and exactly that is my problem. If I switch between 45 capped no ASW and 45 capped ASW enabled there is no difference. The same jittering you descriped you have with ASW disabled but I have it with both modes. 
 

The thing is, if I turn on the ASW overlay in DCS via ODT, it says that it works and the ASW Frame counter rises rapidly. 
 

I really have no clue. Must be something with the AMD Driver? 

[Qcumber]

I'm seeing the same. If ASW kicks in it's no longer smooth as it used to be. I had not considered that it was not working. I need to try comparing ASW and forced to half refresh. 

[RoboHackfeld]

Would be nice if you could confirm that. If you have the same problem and maybe more ppl can confirm that its maybe not just an AMD issue. 
I know in the past it worked pretty good for me, some artifacts but it was smooth all over the place.

 

Maybe Ive found something on reddit regarding problems with ASW in combonation with Windows 11 and maybe latest Win 10? 
 

Will check that out tomorrow and let u know.

 

Edited March 3 by RoboHackfeld

[RoboHackfeld]

Well that also did not worked.

[sleighzy]

You mentioned you are using Quad-Views-Foveated and OpenXR Toolkit. Have you tried disabling turbo mode in both of those? It’s on by default in QVF. It is documented that this can mess with ASW (or other motion smoothing implementation). 

[RoboHackfeld]

I tried all three Options:

Both - OXR Toolkit and QVF - disabled

Just QVF disabled

Just OXR Toolkit disabled

 

What I did not try, running QVF and turning of Turbo Mode in the QVF settings.cfg.

 

[sleighzy]

1 hour ago, RoboHackfeld said:

I tried all three Options:

Both - OXR Toolkit and QVF - disabled

Just QVF disabled

Just OXR Toolkit disabled

 

What I did not try, running QVF and turning of Turbo Mode in the QVF settings.cfg.

 

Yeah try turning off in settings.cfg (don’t know how you were disabling QVF in your previous steps, eg using the OpenXR-API-Layers-GUI tool). 

[RoboHackfeld]

I just unmarket the Box in the DCS Launcher to not use Quad-Views.

 

Will try that later.

[sleighzy]

1 minute ago, RoboHackfeld said:

I just unmarket the Box in the DCS Launcher to not use Quad-Views.

 

Will try that later.

Yeah Quad-Views-Foveated will still be there but DCS just won’t send it the 4 views per frame. It just ignores that part. I’m not 100% certain if it still ignores turbo mode though, there’s been a few convos on that topics including with the dev. Haven’t tried myself as I run quad views with turbo disabled as I use VirtualDesktop and VDXR doesn’t need the turbo.

[RoboHackfeld]

Okay could be possible, maybe there is something. 

 

But when you are using VD you are not using ASW I guess, since it is only compatible with Meta Link?

 

While I am at work right now I can not try anything but could it be possible, I am using the wrong runtime? I think its Meta Quest Link Runtime in the Meta Link software , not really sure  i have to check it later, but could it be possible that this one conflicts with Open XR and could prevent ASW from being visible?

 

 

Edited March 5 by RoboHackfeld

[sleighzy]

8 hours ago, RoboHackfeld said:

Okay could be possible, maybe there is something. 

 

But when you are using VD you are not using ASW I guess, since it is only compatible with Meta Link?

 

While I am at work right now I can not try anything but could it be possible, I am using the wrong runtime? I think its Meta Quest Link Runtime in the Meta Link software , not really sure  i have to check it later, but could it be possible that this one conflicts with Open XR and could prevent ASW from being visible?

 

 

VirtualDesktop has SSW which is its version of ASW.

Meta link app is an OpenXR runtime as well so nothing needs to change there, there are no conflicts. 

[kraszus]

Virtual Desktop is great - when it has the bandwidth. For me I have stable bandwidth with Oculus Link whereas with VDXR it randonly fluctuates between 890MBps one day and 230MBps the next.

[RoboHackfeld]

Well yesterday evening I've tried Meta Link with TurboMode off (QVF and OXTK) and ASW still was not visibly active.

 

After that I started VD and wanted to see if SSW does work. In the past I always was very unhappy with VD because it does not have an Option to crop the FOV to save some performance and I always had to reduce Image Quality for a similar performance.

About SSW: Wow that <profanity> just works. There are som Micro Stutters in heavy areas like big Citys (A10C-II Free Flight Syria) where I guess I have to play around a little bit with the VD Settings like Codec or Bitrate (Still havent found out where to setup the bitrate. Any Ideas?) But in general, 90hz Frq. and 45hz. SSW with MSAA 4x, and QVF, wich allows me to pump up the PD a little more, results in an absolut nice and smooth gameplay, except those micro stutters.

I guess thats the way I have to go further.

Maybe some of you guys have an Idea for the Micro Stutters? I guess its just the heavy areas and fast headmovement that causes that because the rendering does not catch up with the movement but maybe there are some tweak recommendations from you VD-Veterans.

Edited March 6 by RoboHackfeld

[sleighzy]

2 hours ago, RoboHackfeld said:

Well yesterday evening I've tried Meta Link with TurboMode off (QVF and OXTK) and ASW still was not visibly active.

 

After that I started VD and wanted to see if SSW does work. In the past I always was very unhappy with VD because it does not have an Option to crop the FOV to save some performance and I always had to reduce Image Quality for a similar performance.

About SSW: Wow that <profanity> just works. There are som Micro Stutters in heavy areas like big Citys (A10C-II Free Flight Syria) where I guess I have to play around a little bit with the VD Settings like Codec or Bitrate (Still havent found out where to setup the bitrate. Any Ideas?) But in general, 90hz Frq. and 45hz. SSW with MSAA 4x, and QVF, wich allows me to pump up the PD a little more, results in an absolut nice and smooth gameplay, except those micro stutters.

I guess thats the way I have to go further.

Maybe some of you guys have an Idea for the Micro Stutters? I guess its just the heavy areas and fast headmovement that causes that because the rendering does not catch up with the movement but maybe there are some tweak recommendations from you VD-Veterans.

Bitrate setting in VD is in the menu in the headset. There's a slider, under the Streaming tab I think, that will show how much it thinks you can give it based on your network at the time. You can adjust as you like.

Stutters can be due to numerous reasons. You can drop your DCS log here if you like and we can see if anything obvious jumps out. What do you set the PD in DCS to? Recommend leaving that at 1.0 and just increasing the resolution in QVF, otherwise you end up multiplying things multiple times.

[RoboHackfeld]

Ah okay thanks, I think Ive noticed that slider it was like bright blue on the right and dark, transparent blue on the right.

Yeah I pumped it within DCS to 1.4 and left the QVF PD at 1.1 for the focus Area. I will play with those settings around and will test with stuttering.

The log File will be uploaded tonight, when Im back home.

[sleighzy]

11 minutes ago, RoboHackfeld said:

Ah okay thanks, I think Ive noticed that slider it was like bright blue on the right and dark, transparent blue on the right.

Yeah I pumped it within DCS to 1.4 and left the QVF PD at 1.1 for the focus Area. I will play with those settings around and will test with stuttering.

The log File will be uploaded tonight, when Im back home.

Yeah, try it the other way round and see how the clarity vs. performance balance goes. For example, I run quad views at 1.4 (try it lower if it's bad) and DCS at 1.0 although my specs are different than yours so YMMV.

[RoboHackfeld]

I will check that out. What PD do you have for the peripheral area?

 

[sleighzy]

15 hours ago, RoboHackfeld said:

I will check that out. What PD do you have for the peripheral area?

 

Just the default of 0.4

[Phantom711]

Am 5.3.2025 um 19:06 schrieb sleighzy:

Meta link app is an OpenXR runtime as well so nothing needs to change there, there are no conflicts.

You have to activate it in the Meta Link Software on the PC though. And if one is switching back and forth between VD and MetaLink, you have to do it everytime you switched.

[Zligor]

On 3/3/2025 at 9:22 PM, Qcumber said:

I'm seeing the same. If ASW kicks in it's no longer smooth as it used to be. I had not considered that it was not working. I need to try comparing ASW and forced to half refresh. 

I had the same isue on my old rx5700xt last year. It came in with amd drivers.

I solved it by reinstaling amd drivers to older version, i think 23.5.1 if i remember correctly. 

Then i had troubles every few days when win10 updated drivers on it's own. I forgot solution for this, but succeeded in this too. 

In january 2025 i finaly bought 4070ti super 'couse 5700xt was too slow for quest2 even with fov 75 degree reduction. 

[RoboHackfeld]

vor 16 Stunden schrieb Zligor:

In january 2025 i finaly bought 4070ti super 'couse 5700xt was too slow for quest2 even with fov 75 degree reduction. 

I really think I had solved the issue in the past with an old driver but could not remember which driver it was. Thank you I will definately try that. 

And with the 4070 ti the ASW does work? Maybe you can try it.

Edited March 12 by RoboHackfeld

[Zligor]

3 hours ago, RoboHackfeld said:

And with the 4070 ti the ASW does work? Maybe you can try it.

Yes it work. I put everyting in dcs on ultra/high, quest2 max resolution 72Hz and PD in dcs to 1,2, QVFR turn on, and i use Oculus Tray Tool to shrink fov to 80 horizontal and 80 vertical. I do not see fov reduction at all. My personal ipd is 70.

But with that setup i maintain 72fps unless flying low over dense city. Then ASW kicks in.

Important is to setup ASW to adaptive mode just in oculus tray tool. Then it run smoothly. Do not use oculus debug tool for asw and that ctrl+num1, 2, 3. Even with 4070ti when i press ctrl+num1, 2... it become like you sad, not smooth, stuttering, like thad bad drivers from 2024 i was struggling. 

I hope i helped

[RoboHackfeld]

Okay coming back to this topic I also can confirm now, that ASW just does not work with AMD cards. 

I got a new 5080 installed drivers and did not change any other setting. ASW kicks in and works just out of the box.