Stuttering solution! :: SteamVR Troubleshooting

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Jul 10, 2021 @ 4:24am

Stuttering solution!

Summary

The additional view on the main display in some games causes it. Just minimize the game, eg. by using the key combo win+d.

Not a hardware issue

First my specs. I have a build with a Ryzen 9 5900x, 6800 XT GPU and 32 GB RAM. Therefore i consider my hardware beefy enough to run any game in VR pretty smooth. Still i had these stuttering issues in almost any vr game, even the not so graphical fancy ones like Distance. The interesting thing is, that those "stutter moments" didn't happen continuously. They where completely unpredictable. In between these "moments" the games ran butter smooth for some seconds. So assuming my hardware couldn't handle the framerate is clearly wrong.

Tried some advises

Of course i've been reading some posts here and in reddit. Most people suggested turning off some background processes like MSI Afterbrurner, iCUE and other things. Or turning off any hadware LED lights. Nothing did work.

Solution discovery

So i planned to locate the issue on my own. I started with Subnautica which has sometimes some terrible stuttering without any comprehensible reason. After I could see the menu and sea in the index vr headset, i used the win+d combo to minimize the game screen on the main display to start the task manager and record the cpu+gpu graphs. I put on the index vr headset again and started to swing my head around like an idiot to provoke the stuttering.

But no stuttering!

Now i was confused. I checked my settings again. Did i close something else? No. The only thing i did was minimizing the game on the windows desktop. Wait a sec ... clicking on the games icon in the taskbar to maximize the game again ... stuttering! Minimize the game ... stuttering disappeared!

Finally i've been able to reproduce the stutrtering cause in Subnautica! I tested this in other games too, which render the game on the main screen in full resolution while also showing up in the index vr headset. Distance, Zero Caliber, Pavlov VR, Solus Project ... in every game the same behaviour! As soon as i minimize the game on the desktop, it ran without any framedrop in the index vr headset for minutes!

That's also the reason why i've never encountered such stuttering in Half Life Alyx. Because this game shows only up in the index vr headset by default! Unless you turn on the VR view which still isn't a problem because it's a lower resolution view of the actual game! It seems like these problematic games tend to render every frame twice to display them on different screens. The main display and the display in the vr headset without just simply "reusing" the rendered frame for the index vr headset to be used on the main display. Therefore one frame is rendred ... three times in different resolutions i guess?

Conclusion

Two types of games. One does it wrong the other correct:

Wrong: Game shows up in the index vr headset and on your main display in full resolution => Stuttering! Minimize it!
Correct: Game shows up in the index vr headset and offers an in game view only by the vr miniature vr setting => Everything should run fine!

Still some issues ...

Some games go into sleep/pause mode if you minimize them like Alien Isolation with mother vr mod. Other games tend to loose the input device like Subnautica. As soon as i minimize it, i can't use my ps4 controller anymore. I'm using ds4windows. Then there can occur a sound issue like in Solus Project. Everything works fine while minimized even with the PS4 controller, but the sound is gone.

Question

Is there a possbility to force every game to render its frames only into the index vr headset without even considering a fullscreen view of the game on any other display?

Last edited by Bo; Jul 10, 2021 @ 4:51am

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments

Libre

Jul 10, 2021 @ 8:36am

Not sure, but as far as 95% of the games are programed using Unity or UE4, it seems to be an issue related to Unity or/and UE4. I am far to be an expert, just guessing.

--ranXerox-- has SteamVR

Jul 10, 2021 @ 10:18am

are you not in direct mode? sounds like you are not.

Jul 10, 2021 @ 11:36am

@--ranXerox--: How do i check if this mode is enabled or not? Why is this option only available in the developer options? Shouldn't it be enabled by default since this may cause such trouble? Anyway, after i activated it the behaviour still exists. When i start Subnautica the game is still rendered in my HMD AND on my primary screen.