OK, first the good news for me. When I first started reading about how to set up my system for wireless VR, I secured a high end tri-band router. I reserved one 5Ghz band just for VR. Over a period of time I tried dozens of different settings, watching millions of YouTube videos and reading dozens of forum threads. I never felt I was getting the kind of performance I should get from my high end system.

Well, yesterday, on a whim, I went out and bought another WiFi 6 router (TP-Link AX1800). My gaming PC has two NIC's (ethernet ports) so I was able to have it connected to the internet through one NIC and just support VR wireless using WiFi with the other.

The result was more than astonishing: Most (not all) of the flickering on the ground was gone. The cockpit was far from crystal clear but was at least 50% better than before.

I guess even though I had a dedicated 5Ghz band for gaming, the router was still busy servicing the other 5Ghz band and the 2.4Ghz band. Best $79 I have spent since building my system.

 

OK, now for the bad news for me: I have never tried to start a single bush trip before earlier today. They won't load. They start to load and then hang part of the way through the load process. I haven't tried every one but I tried two or three and none would load. I need suggestions on what might be going on. I can get the home screen to load and I can pull up a regular flight but the bush trips keep hanging during the load. I welcome any and all suggestions on what to check for this issue.

Follow the basic rule for MSFS - disable everything in the Community folder and see if you can load the Bush Trips. If it works, start adding the addons back.

If it doesn't work - try a repair install of MSFS.

 

Nice - glad you networking performance figured out.

And here are a couple of updated support articles to troubleshoot loading issues. Hope these get your bush trips running (the new Australian ones are pretty epic)

All versions - Loading issues - Checklist – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com)

All versions - Sim freezes or crashes before loading fully – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com)

 

I use a wireless access point which is connected to the same switch as my desktop, and get similar butter smooth VR performance out of an Oculus Quest 2. The switch is connected to my router - but the VR stream never transits the router, since the source and destination are on the same local switch. This solution is pretty cost effective, since it just requires a switch (~ $50 or less) and a WIFI 6 access point (less than $100).

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

Follow the basic rule for MSFS - disable everything in the Community folder and see if you can load the Bush Trips. If it works, start adding the addons back.

If it doesn't work - try a repair install of MSFS.

 

Already had tried with no addons. No luck. Doing a repair install now to see if it will help. Very frustrating, just got the new router yesterday and now another problem to try to troubleshoot. At least if I get too frustrated, regular flights work.

1 hour ago, enright said:

I use a wireless access point which is connected to the same switch as my desktop, and get similar butter smooth VR performance out of an Oculus Quest 2. The switch is connected to my router - but the VR stream never transits the router, since the source and destination are on the same local switch. This solution is pretty cost effective, since it just requires a switch (~ $50 or less) and a WIFI 6 access point (less than $100).

You say the VR stream never transits the router but don't things like photogrammetry, etc, need the internet?

VR does not need internet, it is a local wireless connection from his pc's video out to his VR headset in, instead of a HDMI/USB cable, only the video stream gets transmitted wireless. And soon there will be WIFI 7 with speeds of 30 Gb/sec, then even your cockpit graphics should be crystal clear.

"The change will come in a series of steps, beginning with improvements to Wi-Fi 6, that lay the groundwork for the expected arrival of Wi-Fi 7 in 2024.

"I'm excited about delivering a gigabit everywhere in your house, every nook and cranny," said V.K. Jones, Qualcomm's vice president of technology. "You'll be at the point where wireless is faster than wired."

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/wi-fi-6-is-barely-here-but-wi-fi-7-is-already-on-the-way/

 

Edited February 18, 20224 yr by turbomax

9 hours ago, Rob G said:

You say the VR stream never transits the router but don't things like photogrammetry, etc, need the internet?

Sorry, I should have been more specific. By VR stream, I meant the connection between my desktop and the Oculus headset. There's no low level data like photogrammetry in that signal - it's just a relay of audio and video produced on the desktop, very much like a streaming movie. As turbomax said - it's also like taking your HDMI signal and sending it over WIFI. By keeping the path of that stream as short as possible - you minimize latency, which has the same annoying impact as watching a movie with dialog that is out of sync with the actors lips.

All of the other data not related to the Oculus stream (photogrammetry, weather data, traffic, etc..) does transit the router - in my case via a wired Ethernet connection to my desktop and not via WIFI.

Having said all of this, it should definitely be easier to configure. If Oculus were to produce a dedicated wireless dongle that would attach directly to an HDMI port and stream directly to the Quest - this would all become literally plug and play. I hope they are working on that...

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback, as usual. My problem with the sim getting stuck loading activities, is solved. Turns out the issue was the known problem with leftover entries in the HOSTS file in Windows from the Google Mod app.

Thanx for letting us know Rob!

 

Happy flying!