Assetto Corsa in VR - Is this as good as it gets??

[interminded]

Hey all,
I'm not new to Sim racing, been doing that for 10+ years now.
I am new to Sim Racing in VR though.
Gave myself an early Christmas present a few weeks ago with an Oculus Quest 2.
And it is A M A Z I N G! For the most part..

Here's the thing though: I'm able to run AC on Ultra settings (where applicable). If I'm in the car (any car), my immediate surroundings (the car, the cockpit, the tires, etc..) look super sharp, really detailed and smooth as heck.
But anything in my field of view (the track itself, other cars, grass, kerbs, etc..) look really grainy, even blurry at times.
I've been playing around with some settings, but I can't get it better.
Now I know, the Oculus Quest 2 has certainly its limitations and is by no means a high end set, but should't it be better?
Or is this as good as it gets??
I hope not.
Any help, tips, tricks are highly appreciated.

 

[James Skinner]

What GPU / CPU are you running and are you using content manager? Let me know and I can share some settings. I have AC running really well now but it took a 6900xt and a 12700k to get there! It ran okay on my 5700 just not very sharp image. Ultimately if you want a clearer image try to run max resolution in the headset link settings (I use 80hz mode as it's fine for me and I can up the resolution), also more SS in Steam VR or Oculus Pixel density can help depending on which you are running - I use OpenVR mode in content manager rather than oculus mode as I find it helps FPS a tiny bit but others find Oculus better. Also, PP is a killer for fps so if I want a super clear image I usually run with it off...

 

[interminded]

What GPU / CPU are you running and are you using content manager? Let me know and I can share some settings. I have AC running really well now but it took a 6900xt and a 12700k to get there! It ran okay on my 5700 just not very sharp image. Ultimately if you want a clearer image try to run max resolution in the headset link settings (I use 80hz mode as it's fine for me and I can up the resolution), also more SS in Steam VR or Oculus Pixel density can help depending on which you are running - I use OpenVR mode in content manager rather than oculus mode as I find it helps FPS a tiny bit but others find Oculus better. Also, PP is a killer for fps so if I want a super clear image I usually run with it off...

My CPU is a AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core 3.60 GHz
GPU is a RTX 2070 Super Gaming X

On my monitor it looks amazing in ultra settings.
I know I can't replicate that with the Oculus, but now I don't even come close.

And which settings are dominant by the way? The one in Content Manager? the ones in Oculus?
One must be overruling the other, right?

 

[James Skinner]

If you mean the resolution setting in content manager, that does not affect the VR resolution, only the screen, but the Oculus 'Pixels per display' setting will act as a supersampling multiplier on top of what you have set in Oculus - it will add extra clarity but at the cost of performance. There are also some settings you can tweak in the oculus debug tool as well (it should be in you Oculus program folder) - ones to look out for are 'encode bitrate' - set this above 350 if possible, 'link sharpening' should be enabled, and also set distortion curvature to 'low' - this effectively gives you a bigger 'sweet spot' for clarity at the cost of a little clarity in the centre...

 

[GeekyDeaks]

Can I just confirm what you mean by 'field of view'? You mentioned immediate surroundings earlier, so I suspect it might mean anything not close to you?

Anything not directly ahead in most consumer headsets looks a little blurry due to the level of distortion required by the lens at the outer edges. I can see this most prominently when I just look around rather than move my head.

For the detail outside your immediate surroundings, it sounds like you might be hitting the limit of the headset pixel resolution. You didn't mention Super Sampling, which can help, but it really hits the FPS at higher multipliers. It basically renders the image on a larger canvas than the headset display, then scales it down with smoothing. One final thing, try turning off FXAA as I found that caused noticeable blurring on high contrast textures, like the kerbs etc...

 

[interminded]

Can I just confirm what you mean by 'field of view'? You mentioned immediate surroundings earlier, so I suspect it might mean anything not close to you?

Anything not directly ahead in most consumer headsets looks a little blurry due to the level of distortion required by the lens at the outer edges. I can see this most prominently when I just look around rather than move my head.

For the detail outside your immediate surroundings, it sounds like you might be hitting the limit of the headset pixel resolution. You didn't mention Super Sampling, which can help, but it really hits the FPS at higher multipliers. It basically renders the image on a larger canvas than the headset display, then scales it down with smoothing. One final thing, try turning off FXAA as I found that caused noticeable blurring on high contrast textures, like the kerbs etc...

Let me explain by an example:
I'm in AC, sitting in an F1 car, P14 on the grid, waiting for the race to start.
Everything in my car (cockpit, steering wheel, body, tyres, suspension) is really sharp, really detailed.
But if I look to the car in diagonally in front of me, it's already blurry, like it's in a lower resolution.
Same goes for the track, trees, billboards, etc..

 

[GeekyDeaks]

But if I look to the car in diagonally in front of me, it's already blurry, like it's in a lower resolution.

Does the blurriness go away when you turn your head to face that direction? If so, then that sounds like it's due to physical limitations of the lens. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a lot you can do about this, but I would say that whilst not ideal, see how much you notice it during race conditions, as I have personally found it to be quite acceptable, especially compared to things like the restricted field of view.

 

[interminded]

Does the blurriness go away when you turn your head to face that direction? If so, then that sounds like it's due to physical limitations of the lens. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a lot you can do about this, but I would say that whilst not ideal, see how much you notice it during race conditions, as I have personally found it to be quite acceptable, especially compared to things like the restricted field of view.

Unfortunately, no.. it stays the same.
Tried adjusting the lenses, but that didn't help anything.

 

[onearmedbandit46]

Let me explain by an example:
I'm in AC, sitting in an F1 car, P14 on the grid, waiting for the race to start.
Everything in my car (cockpit, steering wheel, body, tyres, suspension) is really sharp, really detailed.
But if I look to the car in diagonally in front of me, it's already blurry, like it's in a lower resolution.
Same goes for the track, trees, billboards, etc..

Yeah that's definitely not right. I see on reddit someone advised you to run AF at 16x in NividaCP and turn it off in AC, did you try that?

 

[BrightCandle]

It might be an idea to mirror the screen either via SteamVR or the games settings and provide a few pictures. It sort of sounds like an LOD issue but since its graphical its probably easier to provide some images, I would assume this appears at least in the warped image for VR and the mirror if it isn't in the games original rendering, if it only appears in some and not others it will certainly narrow the options as to the cause.

 

[interminded]

It might be an idea to mirror the screen either via SteamVR or the games settings and provide a few pictures. It sort of sounds like an LOD issue but since its graphical its probably easier to provide some images, I would assume this appears at least in the warped image for VR and the mirror if it isn't in the games original rendering, if it only appears in some and not others it will certainly narrow the options as to the cause.

I'll give that a shot

 

[interminded]

It might be an idea to mirror the screen either via SteamVR or the games settings and provide a few pictures. It sort of sounds like an LOD issue but since its graphical its probably easier to provide some images, I would assume this appears at least in the warped image for VR and the mirror if it isn't in the games original rendering, if it only appears in some and not others it will certainly narrow the options as to the cause.

Hope this makes it a bit more clear

 

[James Skinner]

This is pretty normal for VR tbh - to render things in distance with the clarity of a monitor would take huge resolutions, in some more expensive headsets different lens technology helps I think. What resolution are you running in your Oculus link settings?

 

[interminded]

This is pretty normal for VR tbh - to render things in distance with the clarity of a monitor would take huge resolutions, in some more expensive headsets different lens technology helps I think. What resolution are you running in your Oculus link settings?

3200 * 1632 at 120Hz

 

[James Skinner]

3200 * 1632 at 120Hz

Okay cool that might be one of your issues - if it works for you try lowering the refresh rate to 80 or 90hz (I am fine with 80hz, but some are more sensitive to refresh rates and feeling of smoothness than others) and boost your Oculus Link resolution setting. I am running at the max 5408 x 2736, which makes a huge difference over what I could run on my older GPU, but see far how you can go with your GPU, unfortunately VR is a balancing act, even with todays' powerful GPUs and CPUs...

 

[Fiberoptix]

This is pretty normal for VR tbh - to render things in distance with the clarity of a monitor would take huge resolutions, in some more expensive headsets different lens technology helps I think. What resolution are you running in your Oculus link settings?

I agree, VR is a compromise, stuff in the distance looks blurry even with a high end display, that's just the limitation of what the current resolutions allow ( at least with mainstream headsets) I run a HP G2 with a 3090, I up the resolution to 180% and run CSP, it does look good but if I load into my ultra wide monitor instead it looks like a different game regarding clarity.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Now I know, the Oculus Quest 2 has certainly its limitations and is by no means a high end set, but should't it be better?
Or is this as good as it gets??

Yes VR in AC can be as good as it get. Better than anything else, but, it is not as easy as in racing games using the SMS engine. A little work is required.

first of, you need latest CSP preview and proper weather effect PP. then you need to tweak until you are there.

It is worth all the efforts, if you are committed.

I am using preview 177.1, Control script Sol 2.2, Weather script SOL, PP filter _Sol.Extra with all PP filter settings at Maximum.

AC in its present form of development offers more than all other SIM and racing games put together, if one takes the time and commit to use what is there, we already have the next gen experience. Since no DEV is stepping to the plate to really advance the state of the art, we are so fortunate that modders are filling the gap and they deserve our support and efforts to at least use what is there for us to enjoy.

 

[interminded]

Yes VR in AC can be as good as it get. Better than anything else, but, it is not as easy as in racing games using the SMS engine. A little work is required.

first of, you need latest CSP preview and proper weather effect PP. then you need to tweak until you are there.

It is worth all the efforts, if you are committed.

I am using preview 177.1, Control script Sol 2.2, Weather script SOL, PP filter _Sol.Extra with all PP filter settings at Maximum.

AC in its present form of development offers more than all other SIM and racing games put together, if one takes the time and commit to use what is there, we already have the next gen experience. Since no DEV is stepping to the plate to really advance the state of the art, we are so fortunate that modders are filling the gap and they deserve our support and efforts to at least use what is there for us to enjoy.

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm going to play around with it. Maybe I can get to a level that I can accept..

 

[interminded]

Thanks everyone for replying!
Really appreciate it.

 

[Aidy Burrow]

It took me a while to adapt from viewing everything on a monitor to the differences in a VR headset - everything in the distance looked like there was a permanent heat shimmer and moving my eyes out of the sweet spot was blurry - I even went to get my eyes tested as it felt that bad.

In VR, it's like running two instances of AC at the same time on two different screens - one for each eye that are rendered independently and differently, so even if it did this on two monitors, the performance and quality would suffer greatly.

I then thought it was the Vive Pro resolution, so (after I got an amazing deal) I upgraded to the Vive Pro 2 (from 1400 x 1600 per eye to 2448 x 2448), thinking the higher resolution would make things clearer, however this wasn't the case for two reasons:

1. You can't buy a graphics card powerful enough to run the 4896 x 2448 resolution (an RTX 3090ti will apparently do it ok but I'm not paying triple the value to get one)
2. Fresnel lenses - these aren't very good but are less likely to suffer barrel distortion and also reduce the potential for motion sickness in a percentage of users (makes sense to make VR more enjoyable for the majority)

I think the Quest 2 has some kind of hybrid lens, so you don't have it as bad as the Vive lenses, so it's about tweaking the settings as talked about above.

If you don't use Content Manager (CM), then this will make tweaking easier and will also allow you to see the framerates from last session, along with giving an indication of performance hits of graphical tweaks. CM makes it easier to change the settings and them jump straight into an AC session to see the results.

For me, I have now switched back to the Vive Pro (the Pro 2 is back in it's box) and after watching many videos on Youtube, I've swapped out the fresnel lenses for the Galaxy VR lenses. Taking a sharp screwdriver and prying out plastic lenses from an expensive piece of hardware was not something I took lightly but it was pretty simple to do.

The result? It's like changing your TV channel from SD to UHD on a big screen, or watching a video on Youtube in 480p and then changing the settings to 4k - it's that different.

Anyone using a HTC Vive series headset, the Galaxy VR lenses will be the best upgrade you'll make for AC.