PC2 VR Perfomance Issues - Races at Sunset

[Colonel Panic]

Hi Folks,

First post on the forum. Recently started playing Sims and was glad to find this great resource.

Wondering if anyone can provide any tips to improve graphics performance during sunset races?

I'm using VR (Oculus Rift S) and have a pretty powerful setup: 9900k / 2080 Ti / lots of fast RAM. I've followed the recommendations on the VR optimization thread which is here: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/vr-guide-setup-settings-and-general-tips.141693/

However, whenever I have a race at sunset my performance nosedives to the point where the game is barely playable. Major framerate stuttering. Don't have a count but its low - below 20. As the time of day moves to night, things go back to normal.

I assume it's the light rays and reflections so have tweaked those down a lot, but still doesn't seem to fix all that well.

Alternatively, is there an option to change the race time of day in career mode? I haven't been able to figure out a workaround there either.

Appreciate any tips!

Cheers.

 

[andrea1978]

I've got a 9700k+2080+oculus rift S, so a system very similar to yours and pCARS works great with multiclass racing/32 cars. The sunset reduce the fps a bit, but you should not have such problems.

My tips:

1. Do not play SteamVR, pCARS2 works natively with Oculus

2. Max out every ingame but A) disable v-sync (I also disable motion blur, useless in VR); B) set MSAA to high; C) set supersampling to 1.0 (dont worry you will use VRSS)

3. In the file graphicsconfigoculusdx11 in Documents folder set A) sharpeningstrenght=1.3000; B) sharpeningclamp=0.0800; C) offsetbias=1.3

4. Default setting of Nvidia control panel 441.87 or higher

5. Force VRSS via Nvidia Inspector > right button on "driver version" > look for pCARS2 > edit 0x00D5E9C6 to 0x000001 and 0x00D5E9C7 to 0x000002

6. Use the Custom Random Weather Generator: it will provide a less chance of rain and avoid extrem (and unrealistic) condition, and you can manually replace overcast with heavy cloud (or other conditions that you like). Overcast weather is broke, and it will kill your fps regardless settings

7. Use a game booster before play or shut down Nvidia control panel, it cause some stuttering

It should work great.

 

[Oops01]

@andrea1978 where do I find 5, Force VRSS via Nvidia Inspector > right button on "driver version" > look for pCARS2 > edit 0x00D5E9C6 to 0x000001 and 0x00D5E9C7 to 0x000002
I can't find 0x00D5E9C6 to 0x000001 and 0x00D5E9C7 to 0x000002 in the Project CARS 2 profile in Nvidia inspector, where do I look please?

 

[andrea1978]

you need an updated inspector, otherwise you cannot find the keys

 

[Oops01]

@andrea1978 got it lol I was using an old version of Nvidia Inspector,
thanks

 

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks, this sounds really on point. Haven't had a chance to test out - despite lock down, but will give it a whirl tomorrow.

More recently I started the Lambo super trofeo stage in the career mode and noted another performance hit as I went from 16 to 22 cars so looking forward to getting these figured out.

 

[Colonel Panic]

Was working on this today after upgrading nVidia driver to 445.75 that was released yesterday to optimize Half-Life Alyx. Note that nVidia also released a driver update last Friday (March 20) for Doom Eternal.

Anyway, with 445.75 the above VRSS enabling process in nVidia inspector was not working as I could not find the values to edit - see screenshot.

However, I rolled back to the March 20 driver and was able to find 0x00D5E9C6 and 0x00D5E9C7. Interestingly, 0x00D5E9C7 was already set to 0x000002 on my system (for both PCars 2 and AC), though I'm pretty sure VRSS was not enabled in the nVidia control pannel.

I do wonder though if the new driver specifically includes VR optimization outside the scope of previous setups as it's specifically aimed at HL Alyx performance? Have not tried it though as I have noted a couple of people mentioning the new driver impacts performance on PCars 2. More research to be done I guess. In the meantime, I will stick the previous driver as it seems I can now make VRSS work - thanks!

 

[andrea1978]

I use v.441.87.
New drivers are not always better for pCars2, I rolled back many times.

 

[Skinny]

Any suggestions for those of us with Windows Mixed Reality headsets that have to run via SteamVR?

On triples, I can run PC2 maxed out with a full compliment of AI in a thunderstorm and never dip below 60FPS, but trying to achieve any decent visuals in VR @ 90FPS is proving to be impossible. I've got an RTX 2080 Ti but it's sat in an X99 system - i7 5820K @ 4.3Ghz with 16GB of DDR4 @ 3000Mhz. Starting to think my CPU etc is strangling the GPU...