The latest VR optimization guide for DCS by Lukas Wolta. Check the video description for links.
I’ve used his previous vid’s before and, for my rig, it does help. I’m not worried about online IC’s so I go with the more ‘performant’ version. This is what keeps my system playable enough in VR. And this is an easier one-stop shop reference when I need to refresh things.
And it may be the only thing making it usable at all when the new clouds come out.
1 Like
I still hope the impact will not be a VR breaker
Yeah I’m guessing he will make another video when 2.7 + new clouds drop. I remember last year around this time when the new night lighting was implemented.
I just caught up with Lukas’ recent video/stream regarding Nvidia Control Panel and its effect on VR in DCS. 2.5 hour video. The TLDR conclusion:
VR: NVCP is irrelevant with no particular settings giving any observable performance change outside margin of error on frame timings, and no immediate visual differences. Set ‘Prefer Maximum Performance’ and leave the rest be on global defaults. VR pre-rendered frames to be investigated separately. 2D: Sharpening works. Keep your power plan at Prefer Maximum Power as Nvidia’s defaulted ‘Optimal’ plan can result in measurable performance decrease. All other NVCP settings seem like placebo with no measurable performance swings and no objective visible quality changes, whether turned off or enabled to their most extreme setting. Texture Filtering - Quality to be investigated separately.
1 Like
It’s a nicely done video for sure. I need to put those VR shaders back on. I wonder what happened to ED looking at including this sort of stuff, I guess it got pushed back? Seems like it would be popular.
I’d like it if DCS would go OpenXR, as then the WMR stuff would have nicer reprojection and options (plus a bit more efficient) and there’s probably a few Odyssey and especially Reverb people using DCS now. At one point they said they were looking at it, but it sort of went quiet for the last couple of years. The Valve only Variable Refresh Rate is sort of similar, and works really nicely.
1 Like
Everyone know about Thud’s VR4DCS ? He has made some excellent VR guides for all VR headsets and various flight sim titles.
Check out his Reverb G1/G2 guide . It is step-by-step in many areas- Windows 10, WMR, Steam VR and NVCP. But since Lukas concludes NVCP has no noticeable effect on DCS, it may not even be worth tuning.
1 Like
The VRShaders mod I’m sure gives me 90% of the performance increase. I’ve not messed with nVidia CP stuff in a long time. Agree: ED should probably have this in there, but until then this is an improvement, at least with lower end rigs like mine. Shoot, even if I had (could FIND at a reasonable price!) a 3080/3090 I’d still likely run this. Maybe. I’ll take all the smoothness I can get. Seems it should always provide extra ‘headroom’ too, no matter what the gear.
Was wondering recently about SteamVR vs OpenXR. I’ve tried both periodically and yet to notice a difference. But it’s been a month or so since the last time I toggled this from Steam to OpenXR.
1 Like
For WMR devices the reprojection can go down to a real 30 FPS with OpenXR and it repeats the frame twice to make a smooth 90 FPS in the headset. It’s what SteamVR does with VRR but only for the Index/Vive and not for things via the SteamVR for WMR bridge. I think the only game that uses OpenXR natively for WMR is MSFS.
I put the shaders on tonight and tweaked some settings from the video and it works great. Getting a decent 9ms frame rate so it works well. The cockpit looks great but the outside super simple, but if the frame rate is ok I don’t mind.
Agreed. My appetite for graphics was, mostly, sated a while back. Has more to do with my history. I want smoothness now, and a more ‘vibrant’ experience over vibrant graphics. Just me though.
Evening all.
New VR user here, setting up a Quest 2.
Am I correct in thinking that by running the unit wirelessly I’d be able to skip the compression process that the Link uses?
Hi @Whiskey_two
I don’t own a Quest 2, but have played around with one a few months back. I think needing compression or not will depend on what sort of bandwidth you can get over wifi for the Q2. A Link cable can push a 500mbps bitrate consistently, while a top end Wi-Fi 6 AX could get Virtual Desktop a decent 150mbps.
Virtual Desktop over wi-fi (especially a dedicated unsaturated one, within say 5 meters) gives a lot of flexibility in options that Link doesn’t (codec, bitrate etc), so the answer to your question is ‘Yes, just depends if the wifi you are using is decent or not’. Hope that helps.
For VD wireless I used this guide, but I don’t have access to a Q2 anymore so can’t really help much more.
This got my attention last night.
New VR optimization video out. PD 0.5, SteamVR SS 400-500%. Initial tests on my end verify increased fps with same or better visual quality! Standby for more. Back to tinkering.
5 Likes
Uuuuuuhm…! Ok. 
1 Like
Always worth a try, but Wolta’s videos are more ‘What I find works best for my Valve Index’ rather than WMR or Oculus settings.
1 Like
Correct it’s definitely not a one size fits all, but in my G2 I’m seeing a noticeable average frame increase by up to 20fps with the same or perhaps even improved visuals. I’m usually a skeptic with all this tweaking, but the numbers in fpsVR and in-game fps counter are not lying. 
DCS only. Haven’t tried other flight sim titles, yet… IL-2, MSFS…
4 Likes
Nice! MSFS internal renderscale and the OpenXR custom resolution had all sorts of good results like this, where one side is scaled back/up in a way that isn’t intuitive but just worked. Will give it a try for sure.
@Chaz, what are your settings? I see comments to the video saying 400-500% Steam VR is a bit excessive for the G2.
I think I finally have time to try this out. Good timing…thanks for the link!
My DCS settings… which are nearly identical to Lukas’ original VR optimization video up top:
2080Ti, i9 9900KS, 64GB RAM, M.2 SSD
MSAA 2X or off doesn’t appear to make a difference in frame rate, at least that I can notice, but with MSAA off I definitely see the shimmering on the edges which is annoying.
I backed off the SteamVR SS to 450% and that seems to be a good sweet spot for now. I’ll be doing some more testing with visibility increased to High, Ultra, and Extreme. I haven’t cared much for this setting unless it truly helps me spot an enemy aircraft or vehicle further away.
And I’m not using the shader mod. Honestly, I got tired of constantly updating it after every DCS patch. 
1 Like