VR Help - Been away for a while

[SmoglessPanic]

Hello All,

Before I took a break from DCS I'd set up OpenXR for Windows Mixed Reality and OpenXR Took Kit. I wasn't really happy with the artifacting when enabling re-projection, but it got rid of the thing that annoyed me the most when I play DCS VR...the ground stutter when flying down low over terrain. I was really disappointed after I upgraded some of my components and this was still an issue. In hindsight, expecting an improved because I upgraded my motherboard, RAM, and SSD was naive of me.

Anyway, I'd like to get back into the flow of DCS, but I have this feeling that I may not be up to date with the latest settings etc. Last time I played you had to add the variables to the DCS VR shortcut, and I'm not even sure that's still a thing since we have a new launcher now. I'm also wondering if I should just download DCS again this way I have a fresh start.

 

Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated! I don't care what settings I have to run as long as I can get rid of that ground stutter while keeping a High visibility. (render distance)

 

Specs:

VR: HP Reverb G2

CPU: 7800x3D

GPU: EVGA FTW3 3090

RAM: 64GB DDR5

SSD: WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X NVMe \\

MOBO: GIGABYTE B650I AORUS Ultra Mini-ITX AM5

[sleighzy]

15 hours ago, SmoglessPanic said:

Last time I played you had to add the variables to the DCS VR shortcut, and I'm not even sure that's still a thing since we have a new launcher now.

No need for params on the shortcut. You just start the launcher, make sure the little man with the googles is selected by the big orange launch button (will automatically start in VR) and click the launch button.

You could try an update, I have no idea how many versions behind you are. You can probably rename your C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS folder to DCS.old so DCS recreates a fresh one. Will ensure that you a) can copy back your old key bindings, b) means the config will have the latest stuff, will have cleared the old shaders, mods, etc. That folder wouldn't be touched on a fresh install so is a good idea regardless of reinstall or upgrade.

As to DCS settings, just crank them up to get a good balance between smoothness and clarity. After starting a mission and playing for a bit drop your C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS\Logs\dcs.log file (may just be a text document named "dcs" if your Windows is hiding extensions) here along with some detail about your experience. We can take a look at that and see if there is some advice.

[ChariotOfFLAME]

Just a heads up that Windows Mixed Reality will be officially unsupported by Microsoft come October of this year.

if you are on the latest Windows 11 update, it’s possible it’s already been removed from you system and cannot be added back. The Reverb G2 will not work without it, and nobody has managed to reverse engineer Windows Mixed Reality.

if you’re still on Windows 10 (like me) it should work until October though.

let us know if you start considering alternate headset options, as there are a decent group available today, all the their own benefits and drawbacks

Now with that out of the way, here are my suggestions for getting a good experience:

Increase performance and visual smoothness/anti-aliasing:

• Force DLSS Preset J (no need to do the regedit step)
• Enable DLSS Quality in DCS Settings (should enable DLAA by default, which will be the actual helper for your issue)
• QuadViews Foveated Rendering
• QuadViews Companion (for adjusting QVFR settings easily)
• Enable QVFR in DCS Settings

[SmoglessPanic]

On 3/24/2025 at 2:24 AM, sleighzy said:

No need for params on the shortcut. You just start the launcher, make sure the little man with the googles is selected by the big orange launch button (will automatically start in VR) and click the launch button.

You could try an update, I have no idea how many versions behind you are. You can probably rename your C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS folder to DCS.old so DCS recreates a fresh one. Will ensure that you a) can copy back your old key bindings, b) means the config will have the latest stuff, will have cleared the old shaders, mods, etc. That folder wouldn't be touched on a fresh install so is a good idea regardless of reinstall or upgrade.

As to DCS settings, just crank them up to get a good balance between smoothness and clarity. After starting a mission and playing for a bit drop your C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS\Logs\dcs.log file (may just be a text document named "dcs" if your Windows is hiding extensions) here along with some detail about your experience. We can take a look at that and see if there is some advice.

 

Ok, I've been using the launcher set to VR, I guess I can delete the shortcut with the parameters now. I did update to the latest version of DCS, though. Should I uninstall OpenXR Tools for WMR and OpenXR Tool kit? Do I still need those?

I'll be sure to post the log file.

I appreciate the help!!!

Edited March 26 by SmoglessPanic

[sleighzy]

1 minute ago, SmoglessPanic said:

Should I uninstall OpenXR Tools for WMR and OpenXR Tool kit? Do I still need those?

I don't have a G2 so can't comment re: OpenXR Tools for WMR. As to the OpenXR Toolkit I don't know what you had previously used from it, but as per ChariotOfFLAME's comment QuadViews can be used to replace this instead. It will offer a nice performance benefit by offloading some of the work to your CPU and give more headroom to GPU. Based on your specs for your CPU you'll have no issues there.

I don't know what anti-aliasing you use in DCS at the moment to get rid of shimmering and jagginess. DLSS has vastly improved with later versions and presets as per ChariotOfFLAME's comment, however with your specs you could try DLAA. Potentially a little less performant, but will have less ghosting.

[SmoglessPanic]

11 hours ago, ChariotOfFLAME said:

Just a heads up that Windows Mixed Reality will be officially unsupported by Microsoft come October of this year.

if you are on the latest Windows 11 update, it’s possible it’s already been removed from you system and cannot be added back. The Reverb G2 will not work without it, and nobody has managed to reverse engineer Windows Mixed Reality.

if you’re still on Windows 10 (like me) it should work until October though.

let us know if you start considering alternate headset options, as there are a decent group available today, all the their own benefits and drawbacks

Now with that out of the way, here are my suggestions for getting a good experience:

 

Increase performance and visual smoothness/anti-aliasing:

• Force DLSS Preset J (no need to do the regedit step)
• Enable DLSS Quality in DCS Settings (should enable DLAA by default, which will be the actual helper for your issue)
• QuadViews Foveated Rendering
• QuadViews Companion (for adjusting QVFR settings easily)
• Enable QVFR in DCS Settings

I'm on Windows 11, I've applied a few updates since Microsoft announced they were discontinuing support for WMR, but I always check before applying to make sure the update isn't upgrading me to 24H4. It seems like if you have WMR installed Widows won't update you past 24H3, at least that's been my experience so far...knock on wood. I am looking into creating an image of my hard drive just in case, I don't want my VR headset to be a brick before I'm ready to pick up a replacement.

 

I will test these settings, DLSS wasn't so hot when I first tried it a while back, but DCS' support for DLSS may be better now. I appreciate your posting the links for and videos for your suggested settings!

I will try these out and report back.

Thanks!!

 

 

[SmoglessPanic]

5 minutes ago, sleighzy said:

I don't have a G2 so can't comment re: OpenXR Tools for WMR. As to the OpenXR Toolkit I don't know what you had previously used from it, but as per ChariotOfFLAME's comment QuadViews can be used to replace this instead. It will offer a nice performance benefit by offloading some of the work to your CPU and give more headroom to GPU. Based on your specs for your CPU you'll have no issues there.

I don't know what anti-aliasing you use in DCS at the moment to get rid of shimmering and jagginess. DLSS has vastly improved with later versions and presets as per ChariotOfFLAME's comment, however with your specs you could try DLAA. Potentially a little less performant, but will have less ghosting.

It looks like anti-aliasing and DLSS are turned off in my game settings, I don't think they worked too well with OpenXR. I'll follow ChariotOfFLAME's and your suggesting, I'm going to uninstall the software I have installed and I'm going to use QuadViews instead and I'll tweak the settings as you suggest from there.

I always hoped there'd be a way to offload some of the workload from the GPU while in VR. Honestly, it's why I stopped playing for such a long stretch, DCS is epic in VR, I just can't go back to 2D.

I really hadn't heard of QuadViews, I appreciate you both pointing me in the right direction. I'll provide an update as soon as I install the software and try DCS, and I'll post that log as well.

Thanks!!!!