AC 1.13.2 Native Steam VR support on Riftcat and Pimax 4k

[Graham Botha]

Not sure if there is already a SteamVr thread for AC 1.13.2. I'm running the following system:

I7 2600k @4Ghz, 2x gtx980 in sli, 32gb of ram and temporarily Riftcat with the Samsung Gear VR. (Waiting for the Pimax 4k to ship).

I found that the performance on Riftcat has dropped quite a bit with the last Ac patch. I was able to run AC maxed out between 45 to 50fps and now its become a real struggle with sli and with pp settings at minimum. The sli indicator shows that both gtx980 cards are running.

Note that This is an enterim VR solution until my Pimax 4k headset ships and Riftcat running over 5GHz wifi performance can be expected to be less than stellar. I am also fully cognizant of AC having early steam VR support. That said, I hope someone can give some guidance and input and maybe simeone is running a simillar setup with riftcat as well as a Pimax 4k headset.

After the 1.13.2 update I had to disable sli and all post processing to get semi-passible fps (53-57fps Which is still not great I know). When pp and sli are enabled im lucky to get above 27fps which is totally unplayable and almost half of what it used to be...

What can one expect performance wise when running a dedicated pc HMD on a system with similar specs as mine listed above?

Does anyone run a Pimax with a simillar specced Pc and what can i expect performance wise on higher res than the current gen HTC or CV1?


Thanks in advance.


G.
PS: Direct mode does not work with Riftcat. Can anyone recommend any Steam VR settings?

 

[Stelios]

Just a heads up, as far as i know, nVidia doesn't do SLI while at VR, for now.
I haven't noticed any change in VR performance in VR in latest patches to be honest.
Could be the time of day (when sun is low there are more shadows), the number of cars or other factors.

 

[Graham Botha]

Just a heads up, as far as i know, nVidia doesn't do SLI while at VR, for now.
I haven't noticed any change in VR performance in VR in latest patches to be honest.
Could be the time of day (when sun is low there are more shadows), the number of cars or other factors.

I noticed that the SLI-indicator is running but it definitely is everything but optimized and as far as I could find of the web, not recommended. The performance knock seems to be across the board though, any track and any time of day. I haven't run VR with anything but hot-lapping as yet as I'm still tweaking my setup.

 

[Michael Nais]

For me the Pimax 4k works great on my i5 2500k @ 4.2 Ghz; (SIngle-) GTX 1070 OC.
Details between low and middle, 4x AA, post-processing off, constantly 60 fps. Feels fluffy.

Pimax is a dream with AC, only the colors are a little dark without PP-FIlters, and sometimes I have to re-center on every straight. But thats another topic.

 

[Graham Botha]

For me the Pimax 4k works great on my i5 2500k @ 4.2 Ghz; (SIngle-) GTX 1070 OC.
Details between low and middle, 4x AA, post-processing off, constantly 60 fps. Feels fluffy.

Pimax is a dream with AC, only the colors are a little dark without PP-FIlters, and sometimes I have to re-center on every straight. But thats another topic.

Thanks for letting me know. What resolution do you run and which mode do you put the hmd in?

 

[Michael Nais]

It's easy: Piplay -> Pimax Mode and Ingame Openvr mode. The Pimax upscales to "4k" automatically.
I think pp-filters causes 10-20 fps. Thats why I deactivated them.
I'm using it since Saturday and it works and looks much better than expected, but I still need to get into the Pimax and VR in general.

 

[Graham Botha]

It's easy: Piplay -> Pimax Mode and Ingame Openvr mode. The Pimax upscales to "4k" automatically.
I think pp-filters causes 10-20 fps. Thats why I deactivated them.
I'm using it since Saturday and it works and looks much better than expected, but I still need to get into the Pimax and VR in general.

Thanks mate. Cant wait for my Pimax, btw keep an eye open for NoloVr as a possible tracking solution.

 

[Michael Nais]

Thanks for the info! Please let me know what your experience is with Pimax / AC.
I changed one thing: In the standard-AC-VR-App you can set supersampling. I turned it to 120 and recognized a clearer Image without much loss in performance.
Still amazed and wonder why that thing doesn't get more attention..

 

[Graham Botha]

Will do, have you managed to get around the tracking issue yet?

 

[Strikeman]

I have the pimax and the oculus cv1 and I can tell you now you wont be able to sort the tracking issue because the pimax uses just a gyroscopic sensor so there will always be drift unless you can hack a positional sensor/camera in. The pimax in pimax mode will run at the same res as the vive/rift and setting the ac resolution will do nothing to change that. Uping the ss is your only and best bet. The 60fps limit and the pixel persistence is not really good enough for sims in my opinion and the rift is way way better in this respect and yer the pimax has no screen door but thats the only thing that is better then the rift and believe me that is not a big deal compared to the pimaxes flaws.

 

[Graham Botha]

... wont be able to sort the tracking issue because the pimax uses just a gyroscopic sensor so there will always be drift unless you can hack a positional sensor/camera in... The pimax in pimax mode will run at the same res as the vive/rift and setting the ac resolution will do nothing to change that. Uping the ss is your only and best bet...

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I was curious about how resolution is set up for a tethered HMD especially if you would like to run it a bit higher. Around tracking, see that there are a number of tutorials online that allows tracking to be done using PS eye cameras and move controllers. Depending on how bad the HMD drifts, I may have to look into that.
The PiMax is an interim solution until such time as the second gen HMD devices are out there and I can do a new system build based on that requirement. The 60fps limit is ok for the time being, seeing that I can barely maintain 50+FPS as my system currently stands (GTX980 x2 is just not worth it from a VR perspective) using Riftcat, although head tracking with the GearVR is quite good, I was hoping the PiMax would be similar in that respect.

 

[Graham Botha]

I believe one can set the resolution in PiPlay to 2K? Have you by any chance fiddled with that? I'm curious to know whether there is a similar performance knock to setting the steam VR Super Sampling settings to above the default values.
Also, I noted on the PiMax forums that users requested the functionality to disable the gyro based tracking and that it was apparently implemented in a beta build of the software in Dec 2016. The users who requested that, didn't verify it. Do you know whether it is in the current software build? I'm looking into alternatives for tracking at the moment but cant verify anything in the software until my HMD arrives...

 

[Graham Botha]

BTW, I found that having full screen rendering enabled in AC causes serious graphical issues in RiftCat. Black banding and flickering in the HMD that makes it impossible to use.

 

[Strikeman]

I believe one can set the resolution in PiPlay to 2K? Have you by any chance fiddled with that? I'm curious to know whether there is a similar performance knock to setting the steam VR Super Sampling settings to above the default values.
Also, I noted on the PiMax forums that users requested the functionality to disable the gyro based tracking and that it was apparently implemented in a beta build of the software in Dec 2016. The users who requested that, didn't verify it. Do you know whether it is in the current software build? I'm looking into alternatives for tracking at the moment but cant verify anything in the software until my HMD arrives...

Yer if using pimax in directmode/pimax mode you cant change the res but if you use extrended mode and an old version of the oculus runtime you can but I have not tried this. Im not sure of the super sampling effect on the performance/fps. Yes you can now disable the tracking gyro in the pimax software so you could use an alternative method to track the hmd.

 

[Graham Botha]

Seeing that gyro tracking can be disabled in PiPlay now, I found the following product that can at least provide full 6DOF head tracking for RiftCat as well as PiMax.
Were not talking room scale here, but hey, when it comes to simulator type games (AC, War Thunder, Eve Valkyrie etc. and seated VR scenarios), this is could very well be just what I need. It is similar but seemingly more robust than the TrackIR and way less expensive. It also looks like it supports more titles as it is opensource based. I ordered two TrackHat Clip Head USB based tracking kits. There is a plus model that does not require USB and runs off rechargeable batteries but at significantly more cost and also a cap based solution.

http://trackhat.org/shop-cfk4

Check it out, NOW MORE YAW DRIFT

 

[Michael Nais]

Thanks a lot! Just ordered one basic clip set, too.
The drifting is my main issue on the Pimax. At the last session the tracking even got invertet while driving. I never had sickness issues before, but looking left while moving the head to the right made me almost mess up my rig.

How is your experience with the often criticised 60fps-cap?

 

[Graham Botha]

Hope the clip behaves as expected. Well here is my thinking with a bit of history...(sorry for the essay).
I run 2x GTX980 cards in SLI(although SLI is not recommended). I've noticed that I can run close to 60 fps in Riftcat using both cards, but when I run a single card, I can only get a semi-acceptable frame rate (50 - 55 fps) provided I disable all post processing, minimal AA and super sampling settings. So it works, but its a bit bland and ugly... like driving with Vaseline in my eyes - LOL
In Riftcat with SLI, I get between 52 and 57 fps with everything maxed out except reflections, shadow detail and SS on default, but I don't seem to be having any issues apart from a corrupt video stream every once and a while as it runs over 5Ghz wireless and head tracking lag. Yaw drifting doesn't happen too much at this point but it does happen from time to time... If fps drops below 52 fps though, the whole experience starts to suck. So that's why I bought the PiMax, in hope that I may have a stable experience via HDMI and perhaps better imagery as close to a stable 60fps as possible, seeing that I don't get sick at +-60fps as long as it remains above 52.
At these frame rates, I found the head tracking IMO has quite some lag, but I'm not sure if it is a tracking, wifi or a fps issue. So the clip may help with that because I don't have to use the Gyro data in the Wifi stream. I haven't detected any input lag and fps from a driving perspective is perfect, although I haven't had exposure to the Rift or Vive, so unlike Strimeman, I have nothing much to compare it to.
That being said if I get close to 60 fps and the lag around tracking is sorted out by the Trackhat clip, then I'd be very happy to stick with 60fps and increase the resolution to as much as a new high-end GPU would allow( once I can sell my soul to the Devil for a 1080TI). IMHO 60 fps being criticized is pointless because it depends on one's personal preference and also tolerance for VR that runs at less than 90 fps Perhaps playing games that are more action oriented would warrant higher fps but as having a look at my current experience 60 fps seems fine...