VR just found a way to increase FPS in X-Plane 11

[Nigel H-J]

Having the Quest 2 since around last March I have enjoyed VR flying but could not set Number of World Objects to Maximum otherwise my framerates would go down below 20fps in high density areas such as London Airport and even where large cities lay.

As I am no techie on VR I don't know why I did this but decided to set my Quest 2 from 80Hz to 90 Hz just to see if there was any difference (in graphics) and WOW there was!! I can now run World Objects which includes towns cities and villages to their maximum and all with an increase of around 4 - 5 fps which means a lot if you want to see a town with all their buildings as apposed to the 'High Setting' which shows quite a few buildings missing which I find a bit disappointing!!

So from London City Airport using R/W 28 in the Carenado F50 it used to be below 20fps at around 17-18 now it is 22.5fps but even then, the take-off and even landing towards the city is so much smoother.

The only thing I cannot do is to run Visual Effects up one notch into HDR but with all buildings in towns and cities, HDR can wait for X-Plane 12.



So from harping on from my surprise, can any-one tell me why using a higher Hz setting gives greater performance? This has got me completely stumped as I would have expected a higher setting to have the complete opposite effect. For those in MS2020 in VR maybe the same will apply to your VR Flying?

Be interesting to see if any-one else is able to gain more fps!

Regards
Nigel.

[TSR2]

That seems odd Nigel. Could you do me a favour out of interest and see if you can slight it down to 60 to see if there is an improvement again? My only guess is that 90 is a multiple of some sort of default refresh rate which its easier for the card to drive than 80.... scratch that, just read that the default refresh rate of the Q2 is 90Hz... so that will explain it. Running at the default refresh will give you much better performance. It used to be that half refresh was better again (on monitors) albeit the smoothness was better but the flicker was slightly worse. So 90 sounds like the right setting.

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Ben, I don't know whether you will see the settings in the menu but it goes from 72Hz which is the recommended settings then to 80Hz which I used to run until now then it is now 90Hz. there is also a 120Hz but that can increase the running temp of the headset so have not tried that, my brain could fry!!

I keep my monitor on the default setting of 1920 X 1080 regardless of the Quest 2 settings, not sure if that is correct or not but there are a number of rendering resolutions to select and have mine currently on 3616 X 1840.

Click on picture hopefully for better view.


Will try different settings on let you know of any differences.

Regards
Nigel.

[TSR2]

The refresh rate should always be set to thd nativ Ed refresh rate of the monitor (or in your case VR headset). The native refresh rate of the Q2 is 90Hz. If it was affecting your performance in a negative way, you could try running it at 45Hz if possible.

I don’t have VR of Xplane, but this is just standard fair.

[Nigel H-J]

Ben, just did a few test flights where scenery is a frame killer for my rig, London City R/W 27 facing to the city itself.

Graphic Settings as per screen shot.

Rendering Resolution all set at 3616 X 1840.

Aircraft Carenado F50 used in tests after take-off right turned and flew for 5 minutes in each setting.

Quest 2 Headset at the recommended settings of 72Hz Refresh Rate: 17 - 18 fps Very poor but strangely silky smooth.

Setting 80 Hz: 19 - 20 fps silky smooth.

Setting 90 Hz: 22.5 fps silky smooth

Setting 120 Hz 22.5 then quick dip to 15fps back to 22.5 silky smooth even with the dip in fps. I have no frame lock set in game or on video card.

So overall, even though the recommended setting is 72Hz - fps are improved by using 90 Hz and strangely they remain firmly at 22.5 all the way in a flight from London City to Leeds Bradford with the Carenado Saab 340 with both airports being Orbx.

When using light aircraft the frame rates are much better. So it appears that using a higher refresh rate does improve fps even if only by 4-5 fps.

Regards
Nigel.

[TSR2]

Hi Nigel, the 90Hz is the native refresh rate for your VR headset as published in their specs and this is what should be used. I don’t know who’s recommending 72Hz, or maybe it’s old info, but it’s certainly not the current recommendation.

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Ben, whenever I go into the graphic preferences there is a list of different settings with the top one being 72Hz and to the side in brackets it is written recommended setting.

Guess I always thought that because this was written there, that was the setting to use. I'm afraid I am one of those who don't

So many thanks for telling me that 90Hz is what I should have used since buying the bl**dy thing!!

Regards
Nigel.

[TSR2]

It my be that the refresh rate on the hardware has been updated by firmware since they were originally released, but yes, as far as possible always try and match the hardware rate (or a factor of it)

[Vc Ten]

Quest 2 was originally shipped with 72 hz refresh., and as Ben suggested, firmware updates unlocked to give 90 and later 120 hz Not all games support the higher rates which is why Occulus still recommend using 72hz https://uploadvr.com/every-game-120hz-quest-2/
Dale

[TSR2]

Cheers Dale, that makes sense. 72 is a strange refresh rate. Anyway, glad it’s all sorted.