Nvidia Image Scaler

I think it’s because with the lens and counter-distortion then you can make a case for ‘what is a native resolution in VR anyway?’ :slight_smile:. It’s a useful term for reference in terms of supplying less or more than the display can use, but it’s not going to be ‘I have this panel, so I need to supply x by y pixels for the best clarity’. It depends on where you mean in the image - the center pixel is stretched, but the sides are compressed etc.

On a monitor it’s easy, as one to one frame buffer to each pixel rendered, but for VR that’s never the case - because we’re looking through Fresnel lenses on to something that’s had the opposite distortion applied.

The NIS is better because it uses a more sophisticated edge detection. A simple bilinear where you take a 2x2 matrix of pixels and make it 4x4 works by averaging out the difference - when means it looks blurry or soft (because it is a form aliasing). The NIS tries to make better guesses around averages of the chance of something being an edge, and then not just averaging the range - so less blur, because it keeps the edge. The sharpening you can see comes as a side benefit, because now you just apply that without even changing size.

Anyway, not sure if I’m making any sense, but the key thing is these sorts of scalars are very much ‘for taste’, so if you tried it with stock settings and it didn’t work for you, then there is no right or wrong.

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Does placebo count too? :slight_smile:

I settled on OpenXR 100%, MSFS render scale 100% and NIS 72%. I am not sure whether the image is better but I feel better :slight_smile:

Thanks for explanations, @fearlessfrog I appreciate it.

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No worries, VR is a nightmare of terms and confusion.

I once thought about doing a competitor app for fpsVR called fpsVRplacebo where for $1 less it would just display a smiley face in the corner that meant your framerate was ‘probably fine and not to worry about it’. It wouldn’t give any real info, but people would feel good seeing it. :slight_smile: ← free trial.

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Now this is what the VR community needs! :laughing:

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An updated Alpha #4 - working really well. Releases · mbucchia/_ARCHIVE_XR_APILAYER_NOVENDOR_nis_scaler · GitHub

Changelog:

  • Fixed poor visual quality with dark colors (thanks HyperJet2018 and CptLucky8)
  • Improved performance with scaling set to 100% (bypass upscaling stage)
  • Disabled bilinear filter to save up memory, using point min-mag instead
  • Miscellaneous performance improvements (faster D3D context switching)
  • Added performance instrumentation ( enable_stats=true ), only dumps statistics in the log file
  • Added extra logging

Next up is a beta version with a nicer installer (for those freaked out by having to run the powershell script etc).

I might be shouting in the void here, but this works really well. If you VR in MSFS on Oculus/Valve or WMR, whatever your graphics card, then it makes a substantial performance improvement. Now comes with an installer and some further optimizations.

The Developer’s FAQ thread on the forums:

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Just installed and gave a quick flight. I don’t really see an improvement, maybe losing a frame or 2, and moving from RS 80 to 100 in game setting dropped about 8-10 fps. I’ll tinker with it a bit, but so far losing more than gaining.

Standby, didn’t run the config tool. Running it now and retesting…

OK, after install, guys press the Windows key and type OpenXR NIS Scaler configuration to enable NIS.

I don’t think it’ll do anything without using the settings app - not sure, as in the alpha it was a plain file but now it stores it in the registry.

So what I’m seeing is that I’m able to raise Render Scaling the game settings to 100 and get the same fps as with it set to 80. So, yes it is definitely helping. Have not tried changing any of the settings yet. Thanks!

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Now even I can use it!

I hope!

:wink:

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A good guide with exact steps here if you’re feeling adventurous! :slight_smile:

Update: just tried the Beta. Worked flawlessly.

OXR 100 (3156x3088)
MSFS 100
NIS 70 (2209x2161)
Sharpness 40

That gave me a clear, sharp G2 visual - the best I’ve experienced in my short 2 weeks as a G2 owner.

You, sir, are a golden god.

Recent posters who haven’t yet been able to access get started:

  1. Download the .msi file
  2. You may have to tell Defender that it’s ok to keep it, and ok to run it.
  3. Run it and follow the quick and simple installer instructions
  4. Run OpenXR and set your Custom Render Scale to at least 100.
  5. Look for a shortcut on your desktop called “OpenXR NIS Scaler configuration tool”
  6. Open the tool and verify that your OpenXR resolution is showing in the upper left hand corner. My OpenXR 100 setting gave me 3156x3088.
  7. Select MSFS in the drop down window
  8. Check the “Enable NIS Scaling” box and drag the slider to the desired finished resolution (for my G2 I am using 70% which gets me 2209x2161)
  9. Set your initial sharpness (you can adjust it higher or lower in the Sim with CTL-UPARROW and CTL-DOWNARROW). I started with 10, and then upped it to 40 which I’m keeping
  10. (Re-)launch Virtual Reality Portal (you need to enter new sharpness values, close it, and relaunch it if you make any changes
  11. Launch MSFS and test it out
  12. If you raise the sharpness while you are in the Sim using the keyboard, you have to manually go back and put the new value that you’ve settled on into the Scaler Configuration Tool to keep it for your next session. The final value is in the .log file in the %Local%Appdata% folder.

Hope that’s helpful
Waxer

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Thanks, I had grabbed the beta Hotfix1 today and it seemed to work fine. One issue that I’m having is all of the CTRL + 12 screen shots it creates are deemed to be corrupt in Windows image viewer. Wondering if I should enter an Issue in GitHub.

The screenshot makes the unusual raster raw image format of .dds files. You’ll need something like paint.net to use them and save them out as something a bit more portable and smaller.

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That works like a champ, thanks. As I suspected a little work to crop the mask (right hand lens), but the output is a little higher resolution that what you can grab with the Nvidia GeForce Experience method.

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Nice shots - plus I’m currently doing something similar, so jinx :slight_smile:

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Ok, I installed the NIS tool and gave it a go. Used the settings of mr. Waxer in the link above.
Now, my experience with MSFS is limited, so I can’t compare to a lot of previous experience, but this sure look good! And it’s amazing how well this sim performs in VR, without motion reprojection! I don’t know what my FPS is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not anywhwere near the native 90 of the G2, but it feels really smooth and fluid! It’s just not worth the artifacts of reprojection…
And the atmospherics of MSFS is incredible. Scud running in and out of rainshowers feels so real!
I need to get some quality add-ons and sink my teeth into this sim for real… Oh, right! It’s holiday season and we’re about to move to another house. Guess that takes priority! But next year! :wink:

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A good tip for MSFS - if you use this then try turning off the in-built VR Sharpen post process that it does - as you might as well use NIS for it. Info in here:

You must edit your UserCfg.opt file either here

\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\UserCfg.opt (Steam version)

or here

%LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache (MS store version)

…and in the GraphicsVR section modify Sharpen to be 0:

{PostProcess
        Enabled 1
        EyeAdaptation 0
        ColorGrading 0
        Sharpen 0    <---
        Fringe 0
        LensDistortion 0
        Dirt 0
        LensFlare 0
        FilmGrain 0
        Vignette 0
        LensBlurMultiplier 1.000000
        FringeMultiplier 1.000000
    }

Note: there are two Sharpen values in that config file, so make sure you get the GraphicsVR section 2nd one.

Works nicely.

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Is there any point of having the post processing enabled at all…?

Depends if they are all off I guess. Most of the other settings are configurable in the VR / Graphics settings in the UI, but Sharpen is always set to on/1 by default and has no config UI to use.

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A real pilot said that. That means a lot.

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