MSFS-Quest 2 SO FRUSTRATED

[Rob G 60]

Hi everyone. Let me start by saying that I realize that tuning a system for the best experience involves a lot of trial and error and especially PATIENCE. However, there are also a lot of moving parts to getting good VR from MSFS and without a degree of knowledge, all the patience and trial and error in the world won't necessarily get you what you want.

I have had MSFS since it came out and I have a Quest 2. You can see from my signature that my PC specs are very good.

I have watched so many videos on how to set up my system for good performance and visuals and nothing seems to work.

I have tried using the Link cable, I have tried using AirLink, I have tried using Virtual Desktop. But no matter what I do I never can read the cockpit dash very well (mind you I have Reloptix prescription lenses) and the whole image seems to always be shimmering (if that's the right word), in other words never standing still like a normal image.

I have followed Pie in the Sky videos on setting up the Quest 2 and I have followed VRF Flight SIm Guy videos on setting it up and I have followed videos on using Virtual Desktop to set it up.

I watch the videos and the images in the videos look so nice, but then my images look terrible.

I have played with the Oculus app settings, Oculus Tray Tool settings, Open XR Toolkit settings, Oculus Debug Tool settings, and even some registry settings that I read about, but nothing is giving me an experience I can tolerate. The image is so disappointing before I even leave the ground with the plane.

I no longer know where to turn to get guidance on how to set up my system to get the best possible performance from my system using the Quest 2 and MSFS.

I have a dedicated WiFi 6 router which the Quest 2 connects to wirelessly for AirLink or Virtual Desktop. I also have a certified cable if I want to use it.
I know my rambling has not led to actually asking a spcific question, I am just reaching out to the MSFS VR community with a call for help.

At this point I feel like giving up with MSFS since I don't want to use it in 2D mode. I have the Honeycomb yoke and throttle quadrant and some nice rudder pedals. I really thought it wpould be a blast to learn to fly in the sim (not trhying to become a real pilot) and see the world through VR and a plane.

I don't expect sterling visuals or performance but I won't be able to enjoy this at all if I can't even get visuals as good as the videos I am watching on YouTube.

I thought about posting this in Discord buy could not figure out what channel to put it in and thought the responses might be too involved to be given to me as Discord messages.

I will tell you that I would even be willing to pay someone for their time who could work with me to help me get a good setup that I can enjoy, knowing it will never be perfect.

I anxiously await responses........... Thanks in advance for anyone willing to take the time with me ............. Rob

[JacquesBrel 639]

Have you tried other VR games on the Quest 2 through cable/AirLink and is it only MSFS affected by low image quality?

If not, you could try running War Thunder, which is free to play and uses OpenXR, so it should be a similar use case to MSFS.

[Rob G 60]

32 minutes ago, JacquesBrel said:

Have you tried other VR games on the Quest 2 through cable/AirLink and is it only MSFS affected by low image quality?

If not, you could try running War Thunder, which is free to play and uses OpenXR, so it should be a similar use case to MSFS.

Other games using AirLink seem to be ok. They are not crystal clear but they are very clear compared to MSFS.

[JacquesBrel 639]

Have you tested with another OpenXR game?

Have you verified that your headset is set to the right pixel density when running MSFS? You can set hotkeys in Oculus Tray tool to open/close the Oculus debug HUD, and step through the various HUD pages. One of them shows what the current pixel density and resolution is.

[Rob G 60]

7 minutes ago, JacquesBrel said:

Have you tested with another OpenXR game?

Have you verified that your headset is set to the right pixel density when running MSFS? You can set hotkeys in Oculus Tray tool to open/close the Oculus debug HUD, and step through the various HUD pages. One of them shows what the current pixel density and resolution is.

Can you give me some more detail on that? What am I looking for and what would be the correct value(s)?

Thanks.

[JacquesBrel 639]

Pixel density is the value on the rendering resolution slider in the Quest 2 graphics preferences in the Oculus PC app. Same place where you set the Quest 2 refresh rate. If pixel density is lower than 1.0 the image will be low-qualty and pixelated, which could be the problem you describe. Pixel density should always be at least 1.2 - 1.3. Very high values like 2.0 or more are overkill and just eat performance with no visual benefits.

The pixel density you set in the Oculus app settings can be overriden by games/ tools like the Oculus Tray Tool. SteamVR has its own rendering resolution settings that can also override the Oculus setting.

So to check if something could be changing the pixel density setting in MSFS, you should bring up the Oculus debug HUD as described earlier and check the value in the HUD. 

[enright 496]

It is possible to get a butter smooth and sharp experience with the Quest 2 and airlink. I feel your pain  - there are many links in the chain and a weak point in any one of them can cause an inferior experience.

Let's do process of elimination:

- When you run a Quest native app, is it smooth and sharp?

- When using airlink *before* you use MSFS (e.g. at the desktop home screen), and you turn your head quickly side to side, do you need artifacts and/or black areas that take a while to fill in?

- When in MSFS, when you move your head quickly - do you see artifacts or black areas?

- Do you have anti-aliasing on and set to the highest level?

- Do you have render resolution set to at least 100?

- If you are using SU10 beta, have you tried using DLSS?

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by enright

[Rob G 60]

3 minutes ago, enright said:

It is possible to get a butter smooth and sharp experience with the Quest 2 and airlink. I feel your pain  - there are many links in the chain and a weak point in any one of them can cause an inferior experience.

Let's do process of elimination:

- When you run a Quest native app, is it smooth and sharp?

 

If by Native app you mean an app installed on the Quest itself, then yes, clarity and performance are very good, even if I bump up the graphics resolution with Sidequest.

[enright 496]

3 minutes ago, Rob G said:

If by Native app you mean an app installed on the Quest itself, then yes, clarity and performance are very good, even if I bump up the graphics resolution with Sidequest.

Well, that's a good sign - you can factor out your prescription interfering with your ability to focus on the image, which would be the most difficult problem to solve. Added a few more questions to the list - I accidently hit submit too quickly. LOL.

[Rob G 60]

- When using airlink *before* you use MSFS (e.g. at the desktop home screen), and you turn your head quickly side to side, do you need artifacts and/or black areas that take a while to fill in?

- When in MSFS, when you move your head quickly - do you see artifacts or black areas?

- Do you have anti-aliasing on and set to the highest level?

- Do you have render resolution set to at least 100?

- If you are using SU10 beta, have you tried using DLSS?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before I answer the questions above I just want to take a second to thank you very much for working with me 🙂.

Let me back up a second: In order to activate AirLink I have to have the Oculus app open on the PC. What refresh rate and render resolution should I set in the Oculus desktop app in order to answer your questions?

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Rob G

[enright 496]

1 hour ago, Rob G said:

 

Before I answer the questions above I just want to take a second to thank you very much for working with me 🙂.

Let me back up a second: In order to activate AirLink I have to have the Oculus app open on the PC. What refresh rate and render resolution should I set in the Oculus desktop app in order to answer your questions?

 

No worries! I've been in the hair pulling stage you are at now. With airlink - the sharper the image, the more data it takes to transmit - so you are always trying to strike a good balance between sharpness and smoothness (frame rate). 

Here are my settings. I have a 3080 and a 5600x and am pretty happy with both sharpness and frame rate, so your setup should outperform mine:

Oculus Device settings:

- 72hz refresh rate

- 4128 x 2096 render resolution

- Airlink bitrate - dynamic (100mbps)

MSFS VR Graphics Settings (make sure you have switched from "PC" to "VR" at the top of the graphics settings page)

- Anti-aliasing TAA (try DLSS if you have SU10 beta)

- Render Scaling 100 (you can probably go higher with your 3090, but try 100 first)

- Most settings to high or ultra (make sure texture resolution is ultra)

That should produce a fairly sharp image. If it doesn't- you might have a bandwidth issue that is forcing the video stream to compress (much like a youtube video does when you have low bandwidth). 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by enright

[enright 496]

One other tip - if possible, connect to the router via wired ethernet from your desktop - otherwise both your desktop and Quest will be transmitting the stream via wifi over the same channel.

Desktop -> wired ethernet -> router -> WIFI6 -> Quest 2

[Rob G 60]

2 hours ago, enright said:

One other tip - if possible, connect to the router via wired ethernet from your desktop - otherwise both your desktop and Quest will be transmitting the stream via wifi over the same channel.

Desktop -> wired ethernet -> router -> WIFI6 -> Quest 2

That's how I have it. With a dedicated WiFi 6 router just for this usage.

I am setting things up now try to get the answers to your questions.

[Rob G 60]

- When using airlink *before* you use MSFS (e.g. at the desktop home screen), and you turn your head quickly side to side, do you need artifacts and/or black areas that take a while to fill in?  (YES)

- When in MSFS, when you move your head quickly - do you see artifacts or black areas? (NO)

- Do you have anti-aliasing on and set to the highest level? (TAA - NOT SURE WHICH LEVEL YOU MEAN)

- Do you have render resolution set to at least 100? (100)

- If you are using SU10 beta, have you tried using DLSS? (YES - FRAME RATE GOES UP BUT CAN'T READ ANYTHING IN COCKPIT)

On the OTT Render HUD display, the App Missed Submit Count is going up very fast. The CPU render time is like 16-20ms and the GPU render time is around 20-25ms. These seem like really high numbers but I don't know what to do about them.

[JacquesBrel 639]

12 minutes ago, Rob G said:

On the OTT Render HUD display, the App Missed Submit Count is going up very fast. The CPU render time is like 16-20ms and the GPU render time is around 20-25ms. These seem like really high numbers but I don't know what to do about them.

The render time values are normal, depending on how dense the surrounding scenery is. The missed frames count will always be increasing in MSFS as you are unlikely to run at max frame rate anywhere in MSFS even with your hardware, except maybe if you're flying somewhere in the desert in the middle of nowhere.

Please try and bring up the pixel density HUD page and tell me what value you have.