VR Discussions, Questions & Feedback

XRToolkit, cropping vertical FOV very aggressively; it's the only way.

 

I guess I have a lot to learn with this VR stuff. So did you have a similar issue?

 

FYI, since Kro is using a Pimax headset it's not necessary to use XRToolkit to get vertical FOV cropping - this is possible to do in the Pimax Play EVO software. There could be other advantages to using XRToolkit, but the combo Pimax Play EVO + SBoys3 makes many of the XRToolkit benefits redundant for Pimax users. I see that you too are a Pimax user, but maybe you didn't know about this.

Kro, since you haven't mentioned what runtime you're using, I'm assuming that you're running the default for a Pimax Crystal Super, which is running Pimax Play (not EVO) and SteamVR. One tool you could use to help debug performance issues is the fpsVR tool. It's not free, but I'm sure there are other alternatives that are free. Then you can check GPU frame timing and check CPU frame timing pr. core so that you can identify if the problem is GPU load or CPU load. You also get the actual rendered resolution which I would expect to be something around 4000 by 4000 pixels. If it's much higher than this (which for some reason can happen with Pimax headsets) then that's your problem.

 

Yes Im using Pimax OpenXR with steamVR ..by default steamVR was selected in Pimax Play, but nothiong would load into 3d just the theater mode, when I switched it to pimax openVR it loaded into 3d but only if I launched from Pimax Play ..Now i wanted to switch back to steamVR to test but now I can't change it? im a total newb with this stuf ..I got the fpsVR program. I don't know what to do with it but i have it lol do i run it in the background while launching a game?

 

so I’m on a 5090 and Pimax Super. I use the Openxr toolkit but rather than cropping on the FOV menu, it doesn’t work for me, I do it by culling the entire outer rim to 70%
So I’ve basically lose 30%of the image. But you want notice it.
I think with a 4090 you’re going to have to reduced the resolution. Then drop many of the graphics settings down. I don’t run many of them maxed out. But I’m aiming 72FPS in the night and rain. But you’ll need drop viewable cars down to 18ish. I’d probably need write a guide for you

I haven’t used SBoys3 and Evo yet. So they might be good solutions as was suggested above. I hadn’t picked up that SBoys3 is now working for all Pimax head sets now.

 

With Pimax Play EVO you can toggle between OpenXR/SteamVR directly in that app, but in Pimax Play (the original version) you can enable OpenXR runtime there, but then to switch back to SteamVR runtime you need to do it from Steam.

1. Launch SteamVR
2. In the small floating SteamVR window, click the top left menu icon and go to Settings
3. Under OpenXR, click "Set SteamVR as OpenXR runtime"
4. Launch fpsVR (there is a setting to launch this automatically when SteamVR is launched)
5. Launch Automobilista 2 in SteamVR mode
6. Start measuring your performance issues

Hopefully these images are still relevant, it's been a while since I did this myself, and I just grabbed these off an internet image search:

 

ok so fpsvr almost exploded ..lol lots of red ..said GPU at 90+% CPU around 40% but it said my rez was like 7800x7800 lol fps was 17-20 lol i almost blacked out from the slide show heh

 

Native resolution for the OLED module is 5400-ish by 5400-ish, the ultrawide has slightly more pixels than that but nowhere near 7800.
I think you've enabled some kind of supersampling somewhere.
The not so fun part about troubleshooting VR performance is that it's many places where you can set/override supersampling settings, and you can have different settings per application (e.g. different supersampling setting for AC:Evo vs. AMS2). Rendering load increases geometrically with pixel count, so reducing it should help a lot with performance. Either by reducing it in the "render quality" setting in Pimax Play, by using FOV crop, or by going through all the possible places in the VR rendering pipeline where you can configure/override supersampling settings. I know you can set this value in Pimax Play per application, and also in SteamVR settings per application, but possibly also elsewhere.

By the way, I'm running with Pimax render quality "performance" which takes the resolution down to around 2700x2700 which is much more normal for VR headsets in general, and with this resolution I have no performance problems in AMS2 when running medium-low graphics settings.

 

i went from using open from using the open cpen xr toolkit to sboys3 in the last couple of days and i now have bigger gains i have every thing on ultra and get frametimes down in the threes with a full field absolutely amazing i have cropped the screen to 80 -60 , not sure why kro has his problem

i have got s boys 3 running and have now got everything on ultra with a full field i have cropped it to 80 60 in that software and frametime in the threes amazing i used open composite before but this kills it , not sure why kro has the problem
the main setting here was the render resolution multipliers along with the max per eye resolutions settingshttps://pimax.com/blogs/blogs/sboys3-native-steamvr-driver-setup-guide follow this link kro

 

I somehow found (by clicking everything lol) the steam menu for video and was able to do the crop thing ,I also did it in P-Play setting it to narrow ..making progress ! its smoothed out but now i see doubble ahead 1 car looks like two at 20-50 feet away lol?

 

Wow, you still have to cut the FOV back that much even with an RTX 5090? The Pimax really is a hungry beast.

 

IDK what i did now, but everything is in some kind of magnification mode lol the wheel is HUGE and everything I tried setting everythinbg back to default but can't get rid of mag view

 

don"t have too i just set it for thunderstorm at midnight with max vechiles and everything on ultra ,which hardly ever happens ,but occassionly night races come on multi

 

Ok i downloaded sboys3 1.3.0.beta 1..I thought i read that you can use the Pimax super with this latest version? It has EVE & AIR features that you just won't need or use. is that right?

 

You're moving a bit too fast for me First I would focus on lowering the overall resolution, just to confirm that this is able to get your framerate to be normal, before you can start fiddling with more advanced settings.
Were you able to reverse your settings that caused this problem with wrong scale and seeing double?

FOV Crop should not be done from the Steam VR settings, you should instead do it from Pimax Play EVO, from Sboys3, or if you like Flavio mentioned prefer XRToolkit you can do it there as well.
Note that FOV Crop only has a moderate effect on framerate (scales linearly) while reducing resolution should have a significant effect on framerate (scales quadratically).

You write "Pimax Super" but there are 3 different modules for that headset, and you haven't stated which you are using (Crystal Super, Crystal Super Ultrawide, Crystal Super OLED). Sboys3 was initially written for MeganeX, then for Pimax Dream Air, and just now with 1.3.0 beta1 it has been expanded to include limited support for other Pimax headsets. My Super OLED module works fine, but for example the Super Ultrawide has "bad distortion". Details on which Pimax headsets/modules work well at the moment:

Source: https://github.com/sboys3/CustomHeadsetOpenVR/releases/tag/1.3.0-beta

 

Right Thanks for the help! .its the Pimax Crystal Super 50 50PPD- Upgraded Package. What ever that means ..
I have made some progress, i was able to lower the rez via the steamvr menu that pops up if I hit the menu button on the controller in game .. Now it's all green in the fpsvr graphs with 70ish+ FPS. I had it at 90 fps but it was not looking that great lol so i have been adding back the rez to find a happy medium ..My biggest issue is not knowing wtf I'm' doing lol ..the headset was delivered Sunday and I have never used VR so just learning the simple menus & how to navigate the settings is the cause of most of my confusion .. but im slowly starting to understand ..the rez thing is a puzzle for newbs lol we have the in game rez, the SteamVR rez ,& Pimax play has its own as well .. Looks like the sboys3 will be the way to go with all the settings in real time .. part of what got me was not restarting steamvr after making the rez changes in program.. I'm slowly figuring it out .. I have LMU and AC EVO running pretty good now! but I dont use steamvr for those ,they run great from pimax play, it's just ams2 that's giving me headaches lol but! The more i learn the better it gets ..

 

I will keep my Quest2 until it exploded and eye tracking foveated rendering, 120hz and 180 horizontal FOV became mainstream.
VR market is insane.

 

FYI I'm also using, and I gave what for my own benchmarks works the best, even FOV crop from the latest EVO does not match the performance gain still from XRtoolki. (edit: did not mean to sound rude, in case I did sorry.....)

@Kro, I'd also bypass Steam VR completely; it drains performance... I've lost countless hours tinkering and trying stuff.

 

Doing this gained me at least 20%! its seems to be all working pretty good now .. My R9-3900X chip is the weak spot on my sys keeping me from more gains but over all it looks pretty dam good ! ;-) Im not that much of an open wheel fan but I do drive them and in VR its amazing ! ..Acctually mind blowing for someone new to VR ..
I do have a question, can we use our simhub overlay's in VR & or, can I scale the in game huds they are so tiney and kind of in my view now? Im having issues editing the AMS2 huds, I can't seem to click on them to move or turn them on/off. Im dragging the mouse and clicking but the response is random lol sometimes the box will lite up but it's on/off med/full menu won't appear ect..