Half Life Alyx + Decent Rig = Very Choppy Performance

[Lruce_Bee]

Hello everyone.
I realise there's probably a few other topics surrounding this issue I have with Half Life Alyx running in VR on an Oculus Quest 2.
I've posted my performance test for VR and you can check out my specs which are reasonable decent on this computer I use for gaming pretty much maxed out on every game I play with zero performance issues and usually very high frame rates. I've also posted a screenshot of my memory specs etc. I think you will agree that my rig is pretty decent.
I don't really know what the issue is regarding really bad performance with Half Life Alyx - really bad stuttering, long loading times, even though I have my games installed on an SSD drive, I should not be getting this kind of bad performance. Slow video update on screen, black image borders when I turn around, generally, everything very choppy. I have the game running on medium settings right now but still get really bad performance etc. Latest Nvidia Game Ready Drivers installed etc. Dropped it from running from 90hrtz to standard 72hrtz but this made absolutely no difference whatsoever.
I also use an official rift cable to connect my Quest 2 so, on paper, this game should run absolutely butter smooth but it really doesn't.
I have a lower specced PC downstairs in my living room and that runs Half Life Alyx perfectly perfectly fine, so what the hell is the bottleneck here?
Does anyone have a clue as to what the issue could possibly be?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
https://i.postimg.cc/pT852CVV/RAM.png
https://i.postimg.cc/bNRbDmxs/Performance-Test.png
https://i.postimg.cc/Z57dj0Dm/Drives.png

[BigBossBubba]

I use an Oculus Quest 2 with an old ass Windows 7 hp and I can somehow run it 60+FPS Perfectly fine with virtual desktop on highest fidelity possible

[Lruce_Bee]

Originally posted by !BAIN!:

I use an Oculus Quest 2 with an old ass Windows 7 hp and I can somehow run it 60+FPS Perfectly fine with virtual desktop on highest fidelity possible

Yeah - this isn't a hardware issue, it's something to do with software somewhere down the line on this pretty high end rig. Like I said, I have a lower spec PC downstairs (still pretty decent) and it runs the game pretty smooth but just can't take it past medium settings to high.
My work rig should be able to run everything maxed out without so much as breaking a sweat but it really struggles.

[andraxius]

I'd try installing nvidia drivers from anytime before March 2020, that seemed to help a bit for me, as the newest drivers have an ongoing vr stutter issue. Also, it's a bit dodgy, but lots of people (myself included), have discovered that the launch build of the game runs way better, if you can find a place to pirate the 1.0 version it'll likely run better. This game is an enigma of performance issues, just wish Valve would address it.

[Moonwalker1138]

Originally posted by Lruce_Bee:

Originally posted by !BAIN!:

I use an Oculus Quest 2 with an old ass Windows 7 hp and I can somehow run it 60+FPS Perfectly fine with virtual desktop on highest fidelity possible

Yeah - this isn't a hardware issue, it's something to do with software somewhere down the line on this pretty high end rig. Like I said, I have a lower spec PC downstairs (still pretty decent) and it runs the game pretty smooth but just can't take it past medium settings to high.
My work rig should be able to run everything maxed out without so much as breaking a sweat but it really struggles.

You have to use virtual desktop, the link cable is complete trash when playing pcvr games. i don't know how other people manage the link cable as it lowers the resolution and stutters like hell. Go wireless with that headest, that is the smoothest way to get good fps.

[Moonwalker1138]

It's not about your rig or drivers. It's just that the link cable sucks ass, I know from a painful experience troubleshooting, and biting the bullet to get virtual desktop working fixed everything.

[Lruce_Bee]

Originally posted by Captain EO:

It's not about your rig or drivers. It's just that the link cable sucks ass, I know from a painful experience troubleshooting, and biting the bullet to get virtual desktop working fixed everything.

Yeah I have Virtual Desktop but not a hard wired gigabit connection unfortunately. My PC's use wireless to connect to the internet, so I only get 400mbps streaming, which just isn't enough. Thing is, I use my Oculus link cable on my PC downstairs and I get zero issues with it - so it's not the link cable that's the problem here. I play Lone Echo at 90htz on full settings and it runs absolutely butter smooth.

[andraxius]

Playing Lone Echo fine further points to a conflict with SteamVR, I'd definitely try doing a clean install of March 2020 Nvidia drivers, somewhere around the 422.74 mark.

[Lruce_Bee]

Originally posted by andraxius:

Playing Lone Echo fine further points to a conflict with SteamVR, I'd definitely try doing a clean install of March 2020 Nvidia drivers, somewhere around the 422.74 mark.

Yes, I'd have to agree with this. This is looking more & more like a driver issue on my RTX 2080. I think I will look at rolling back the driver and see what happens.

[Lruce_Bee]

I can't actually find an RTX 2080 driver older than August 2020. That one is 452.06

[Moonwalker1138]

Originally posted by Lruce_Bee:

Originally posted by Captain EO:

It's not about your rig or drivers. It's just that the link cable sucks ass, I know from a painful experience troubleshooting, and biting the bullet to get virtual desktop working fixed everything.

Yeah I have Virtual Desktop but not a hard wired gigabit connection unfortunately. My PC's use wireless to connect to the internet, so I only get 400mbps streaming, which just isn't enough. Thing is, I use my Oculus link cable on my PC downstairs and I get zero issues with it - so it's not the link cable that's the problem here. I play Lone Echo at 90htz on full settings and it runs absolutely butter smooth.

Does your "downstairs pc" have a xeon cpu?

[SleeveDagger]

I had the same choppy stutter issues, I got rid of my Oculus link cable and used virtual Desk top. If you don't have an ethernet cable to your PC then that's your issue. There is no other fix for the issue on Quest 2 for Alyx.

[Silenius]

I assume drivers 446.14? No monitoring tools? Try reinstall, or DDU in worst case. Try NVCleanInstall to install only display and hd audio drivers!

Stuttering indeed can be caused by low memory. For some reason game complains for low memory even with 16GB RAM. Try to set both min/max page file to 1-1.5 size of your RAM and see if it helps.

Otherwise minimum should be your RAM size /8, and max 1-1.5 of your RAM size. It is recommended system managed, but it will usually put like 2933. So you may want to try above setting.

If you have NVME put it there, otherwise put it on non system SSD.

Also you can try ISLC to clean standby memory, but it will cause freezes each time it will. You can configure it when it should act.

Check memory compression is disabled. https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/csxv15/att_devs_is_memory_compression_having_issues_with/

Check fps / frametime with RTSS.

Enable in BIOS above 4g decoding. And IOAPIC 24-119 entries, put gpu to msi mode. Google MSI_util v2, on 3d guru.

Check fps and cap it at lowest value, works best with motion smoothing. If you cap it in steam. Try cap it using RTSS. Or google nvidia inspector fps cap. Don't use more then 1 fps capping method at once!

I think V-SYNC also works for VR, but I don't recommend it. Otherwise you could try fast sync. Or this, no idea if this would work with VR, ask: https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4916

Download old game version on SteamDB.

I don't know if VR can be switched to bordeless fullscreen mode, there is new MPO overlay, should be good! Works on DX12, or Vulkan mb.

Oooooh, it uses also DX11. RIght click Alyx.exe and check disable Fullscreen Optimizations! And in game choose DX11.

First go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore, right click key, choose export - to save registry setting (always do this).

Save this as .reg file and apply (this will disable FSO up to DX11):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore]
"GameDVR_DXGIHonorFSEWindowsCompatible"=dword:00000001
"GameDVR_FSEBehavior"=dword:00000002
"GameDVR_FSEBehaviorMode"=dword:00000002
"GameDVR_HonorUserFSEBehaviorMode"=dword:00000001

BTW since DX12/Vulkan devs can choose to not include classic fullscreen mode -called fullscreen exclusive (FSE) into their games. And games are forced to use hybrid fullscreen mode induced by FSO!

Launch game directly in steam.

Turn off monitor.

Turn everything off in steam setting/interface and check low performance mode.

Use process lasso.

Check on Quest forums, it may be something with quest, more quest people complain...

Otherwise try no oc, check for overheating, or thermal throttling. Use 3D mark and HWINFO.

NVCP: (not sure if all settings are used)
Try increasing virtual reality pre-rendered frames.
Power management: maximum performance
Low latency mode off:
Monitor Technology: fixed refresh rate
Texture Filtering: performance
Refresh rate: highest available
Try shader cache on/off

in window's control panel, administrative tools, disk cleanup, try to delete directx cache

win+r write dxdiag check for any problems

Also set HIPM to active (disabled disk power saving): https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/72971-add-ahci-link-power-management-power-options-windows.html

elevated cmd powercfg -h off (disabled hibernation and fast startup)

In bios disable all CPU power saving options, especially C states. And disk power saving features, use AHCI.

Use ultimate power performance plan and disable Idle Saver using process lasso, careful cause a lot of heat. Do a prime95 cpu stress test first!

Download parkcontrol and unpark your cores.

Turn off windows visual effects!

Don't run apps on background, try clean boot.

[Moonwalker1138]

My god this is an awful lot of stuff while I was able to run it perfectly with an old i7 4790 and only 16gb of ram

[Lruce_Bee]

Yeah - I'm not going to those lengths to try and get this running on the better computer. I'll just continue playing on the one downstairs for now I think. I don't mind tinkering a little bit with some stuff but I just don't think it's worth ripping stuff apart and installing/messing with setting too much to to run one game. I do appreciate your input though. I just can't seem to get rid of the massive frame clipping & stuttering on vr games using this computer using steam vr. There's definitely an issue there but no matter what I try, it's just not having it. A shame because I would love to have seen this running on ultra because my hardware is more than capable of running it at that. Just Steam VR not playing ball.

[Lruce_Bee]

I just about gave up on this until I stumbled upon this awesome post from a reddit user called ebi_gwent who provided 2 screenshots on how to resolve the issues I have been experiencing.
https://imgur.com/a/zayQKa8
Launch parametres look like this now: https://i.imgur.com/NhwA0bJ.jpg
This completely eliminated all my issues and it runs absolutely butter smooth on highest settings via a link cable. Oh happy days!