Vive Cosmos Performance

[SkywalkerOG]

Is my computer just not powerful enough or is there some settings I'm overlooking? I have to turn everything to the lowest settings for smooth gameplay in VR. I'm using an i7-10700k and an RTX 2070 Super with the HTC Vive Cosmos

[Hitpawz]

I can 100% confirm that the 2060 and the 2070 don't run this game well. I've ran both and now have a 2080TI and it's better than both of those cards, but it is not great at all. It's still pretty bad with constant stuttering. This game has always teetered on being unplayable due to performance in VR for me.

Make sure you tune the nVidia Control Panel's 3D settings and be sure that the Power Management Mode is set to "Prefer Maximum Performance" so it doesn't ever try to throttle down the GPU under lighter loads, causing hitches.

Set the Virtual Reality Pre-rendered frames to 1

Set Low Latency Mode to Ultra

Set Texture Filtering - Anistropic sample optimization to OFF

Set all Texture filtering options towards increasing performance, not quality.

Don't boost your pixel depth/resolution on the headset.

If you use Multi-Sampling in the VR settings, don't use AA in the game and vice-versa. Don't lower the settings to minimum, it doesn't help and in fact hurts you by putting less load on the GPU. Keep them on high as much as you can to keep the GPU purring at speed. Turn off crowds 100%.

You're not on an AMD processor so that's not hurting you like it does the rest of us.

Confirmed to run smoother with the Oculus SDK and that's just unfortunate in general for all other headsets.

[Kotlarry]

Well... I have i7 4790k and rtx 2060 and it works great. I wont say it has constant over 100FPS but I can see it... :)
What changed my reception was changing 60 Hz tv to 120Hz freesync tv.
It is magic right now.
BUT. I tweaked graphic settings. Although many of them is [are?] set to ultra, there are some lower settings - mostly high. IE crowds i have set to minimum.
In my opinion v-sync kills peformance - but for me I couldn't stand thearing...

[Axe]

CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel

CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz

Operating System Version:

Windows 10 (64 bit)

Video Card:

Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
2560 x 1440
Desktop Resolution: 4480 x 1440
Primary Display Size: 23.50" x 13.23" (26.97" diag)
59.7cm x 33.6cm (68.5cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 8191 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:

Audio device: Speakers (Realtek High Definition)

Memory:
RAM: 32701 Mb

I don't need to play with any Nvidia settings.

Game at full settings apart from motion blur and maybe something else - though choice.

Plays like a dream.

[ialyrn]

Originally posted by Hitpawz:

I can 100% confirm that the 2060 and the 2070 don't run this game well. I've ran both and now have a 2080TI and it's better than both of those cards, but it is not great at all. It's still pretty bad with constant stuttering. This game has always teetered on being unplayable due to performance in VR for me.

I can 100% confirm this is tripe. I use a 2070 with DR2.0 currently, and I get butter smooth performance with DR2.0 in both pancake mode and in VR using high graphical settings. Even while using the Oculus Mirror application in order to capture gameplay footage inside OBS Studio.

I have the same specs as the op, a 10700k and a 2070 super, but I use a Rift S currently.

Game settings to change in VR, no matter the headset used -

Screen space reflections - off (kills the game in VR)

Night light - Low

Vehicle details - Low (weird glitch where headlights when turned on will cause stuttering in VR, vanishes completely when vehicle details are set to "low")

Crowds - Low (known to cause stuttering in ALL codemasters Ego engine games, a long standing issue. Goes away completely when set to "low". This one is also a problem in non VR and in VR)

For extra headroom, any setting that has a "replay only" setting, should be set to either "replay only or off". This one is dependant on hardware, the lower end/older your hardware, the more this one is required.

Multisampling - off (is a known FPS killer in DR2 VR)

If you run the game via SteamVR, SteamVR adds automatic super sampling by increasing the per eye resolution to ALL VR headsets. This is done by default within SteamVR. You can change this setting as a whole, or you can change it per application. I would suggest changing the per eye resolution for Dirt Rally 2 only; and make it inline with your VR headsets specifications for per eye resolution.

It may also be a wise idea to disable SteamVR home as well, as I have noticed a significant GPU draw with that option turned on within SteamVR.

I used to run this game on a 6700k with a GTX1080 with all these things in mind, I used that system for a long time with DR2.0; and tested all this stuff on it once the VR update released. I went through every single graphical option, and even tested some XML work arounds in order to get this game to work smoothly in VR.

This video was recorded on the 6700k/gtx1080 system using a Rift CV1 -
https://youtu.be/Q1ZDEFeFZr0

This video was recorded on the 10700k/RTX2070 system using a Rift S - https://youtu.be/hAILlJPBYzY

A lot of the time it isnt peoples hardware that causes issues, it a lack of understanding on how to set things up, and lack of time testing things when they go wrong. There are a lot of variables within PC gaming. Such as what OS you are using, if that OS is updated, if your device drivers are fully up to date, what programs you have running in the background, if you use a 3rd party Anti-Virus like Norton (known resource hog).

When you add VR into the mix, the variables grow even more; and can include a lot of things that people have no idea about.

Such as the on board USB 3.0/3.1, as an example. Does it work well with VR or not? In some cases, this is a big no. I have an Asus ROG Strix Z490 Gaming-E motherboard with my 10700k system, I cant use any VR headset with the on board USB. It black screens and cuts out constantly. Even with a Rift CV1, at this point; the easiest VR headset in the world to run on PC. So I had to buy a sata powered PCI-E USB 3.0 add-in card to resolve my problems.

My old 6700k system as an MSI Z170 Krait Gaming motherboard in it, and the on board USB3.0/3.1 works flawlessly.

Are you using an extension cable at all for the display/USB with your VR headset. Is that extension cable powered repeating or unpowered?
Is the length within the spec for the distance you want to extend it by?
Will the VR headset/sensors work with the particular extension cable you are trying to use?

So its not as easy as "this GPU does/doesnt work" with "X" video game in "Y" scenario. More often than not, it can be down to a lack of troubleshooting, or just looking to push blame somewhere. Sometimes that blame is warranted, Dirt Rally 2 is a pig to run in VR. But when you know where the problem area's are, and you spend time setting it up for your hardware; it runs exceptionally well.

p.s SteamVR has made a ton of improvements as of late. I can run the game with the same performance these days in both SteamVR and OculusSDK modes. There is barely a difference anymore. SteamVR was the reason Dirt Rally 2 (and other SteamVR games) used to be a pig to run, especially for a non native VR headset.

SteamVR version of DR2 is actually better in one regard though, it doesnt suffer with the colour banding issue that the OculusSDK version suffers with.

Colour Banding Oculus vs steamVR video -
https://youtu.be/GnGWTY0xics