Anyone else having MAJOR performance degradation with WMR reprojection...

[Pert Boioioing]

I don't know which update caused this, if it was WMR for SteamVR, SteamVR itself, or an nVidia driver update or what else but recently I've noticed SIGNIFICANTLY worse performance when enabling either

"motionReprojectionMode" : "auto"

or

"motionReprojectionMode" : "motionvector"

in the default.vrsettings file. Enabling either of these settings causes severe stuttering to the point of unplayability.

In Project Cars 2, for example, I might be able to maintain 70-80 FPS with the above motionReprojectionMode settings disabled but the moment either setting is enabled the FPS drops to 30-35 or so. This doesn't make any sense at all since the game is certainly capable of maintaining more than 45 FPS and indeed even more than 60 FPS without those settings enabled. Having the "motionReprojectionIndicatorEnabled" : true setting to show the in-game indicator shows a dark blue box, indicative of a GPU bottleneck, which is as expected because that's the reason for motion reprojection in the first place, to mitigate such a bottleneck.

Prior to whichever update is causing this problem the motionvector reprojection seemed to be working correctly and the gameplay was super smooth. Now, unfortunately, it's garbage.

Additionally I've noticed low, less than 50% GPU usage while the stuttering is occurring. There seems to be plenty of GPU headroom so I don't understand why it's not being properly utilized.

Another example is the racing simulator rFactor 2. Without enabling the WMR motionReprojectionMode settings the game can maintain 90 FPS pretty easily, only dipping in a few spots but even enabling "motionReprojectionMode" : "auto" causes severe FPS drops to the point of unplayable stutters, similar to PCars 2. This again doesn't make much sense since the "auto" setting should not even be invoking the motionvector reprojection because the FPS is naturally over 90.

Relevant hardware:

i7-8700k @ stock 4.3 GHz
16 GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHz
nVidia GTX 1060 6 GB with driver 417.71
Lenovo Explorer HMD

Overall system CPU usage never exceeds 30% in-game and RAM usage never exceeds 12 GB so I don't think it's an issue of being starved for system resources. Despite not having a beast GPU it was previously sufficient for smooth gameplay.

I've checked to make sure supersampling didn't get set anywhere, e.g. in the SteamVR settings where everything is at 100% (i.e. normal). I've also rebooted the system and tried closing all other desktop applications to limit resource usage and avoid unintentional conflicts. Both the WMR Portal app and Windows 10 version 1809 itself are both up to date. I concede that a recent Windows system update might also be the culprit but since the issue is specifically with motionReprojectionMode this is as good of a place as any to ask.

Anyone else recently having performance issues after once enjoying great performance? Any suggestions for things to try to fix this?

EDIT: Strangely, the motionvector reprojection seems to work OK-ish in American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2. In fact I have to turn it to "auto" or else there is a weird double-image in-game whenever the truck is in motion.

[pixelcowboy79]

Yes, terrible performance with it.

[Andrew_WOT1]

Yep, the performance went downhill recently, I had to disable reprojection altogether to play Assetto Corsa.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/719950/discussions/0/1741106440023501942/

[Torzi]

I usually have it forced off for the VR games I've played.

What I do use it for is when I play 3D SBS/OU games in Virtual Desktop. I force the monitor to refresh at 30, or 45 Hz (for headset at 60 or 90Hz), force Vsync through the display driver (gtx1080), then set "motionReprojectionMode" : "motionvector"

This works ok... but just a lowercase 'ok'. Reprojection frequently loses sync and causes stutters, even though the games are putting out a SOLID 30 or 45fps, and I'm only using like 50% GPU, and even less CPU. Like you, system RAM never goes beyond 11-12/16GB.

My VRAM is maxed out though, 8GB full! I can see all kinds of glitching and texture pop-in when the game needs more VRAM. It's almost like the game can't see the VRAM that WMR/SteamVR are using and think that it's available (and they're using 2-3GB+), so it keeps requesting more, but it's just not there. So it has to dump something, then request again, which is when the stuttering starts. That's just what it 'feels' like... no logs or anything to back that up.

Microsoft definitely need to focus more on GPU resource management though. We need a priority scheme for GPU like the one currently in place for CPU (only!). Multiple processes using GPU resources are currently not controlled well at all. At the moment, I have to manually cap my framerate/settings to make sure I don't use more than about 90% GPU, or else everything starts breaking down (VR skips and stutters all over, can't maintain tracking).

The other problem I see is that reprojection needs to be tuned differently for every game engine... but the only thing we can do now is turn it on or off. We need tuning parameters. Both microsoft and valve are at fault here, and assume that 'on' will work for every scenario that needs it. Maybe they have some crazy AI leaning controller adjusting things on the fly, but I'm betting not. They have tunable variables set to what 'should' work, and lock those for everything. We need access to those! (so I can write them a crazy AI learning controller)

Take nVidia for example... every game has a profile with tunable settings, and even more available if you use inspector. Most 'Game Ready' drivers aren't adding anything new... they're just changing these (hidden) driver settings for compatibility.

Originally posted by Pert Boioioing:

...but the moment either setting is enabled the FPS drops to 30-35 or so. This doesn't make any sense at all since the game is certainly capable of maintaining more than 45 FPS and indeed even more than 60 FPS without those settings enabled.

Is your monitor using a 60Hz refresh rate? It sounds like reprojection is trying to sync to that somehow, rather than the headset. Haven't played Project Cars 2, but that has a non-VR mode too, right? I wonder what your results would be if you forced your monitor's refresh rate to 45 or 90Hz.

[Pert Boioioing]

Well this is disappointing, though after reading through those threads I'm a bit reassured since other people are having a similar issue so hopefully the devs can look into it and fix it.

Performance was superb for my system even a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately I updated several things at once so that makes it hard to say where the problem would be found. For the record, in the past couple of weeks:

1. Updated Win10 from 1803 to 1809
2. Updated nVidia GPU driver to 417.71
3. Updated the WMR Portal App
4. Both SteamVR and WMR for SteamVR automatically updated

So presumably the problem would originate in one of those things though since it seems to be solely related to the motionReprojectionMode setting I assume it's a problem with WMR for SteamVR specifically.

[Pert Boioioing]

Originally posted by Torzi:

[snip]

Originally posted by Pert Boioioing:

...but the moment either setting is enabled the FPS drops to 30-35 or so. This doesn't make any sense at all since the game is certainly capable of maintaining more than 45 FPS and indeed even more than 60 FPS without those settings enabled.

Is your monitor using a 60Hz refresh rate? It sounds like reprojection is trying to sync to that somehow, rather than the headset. Haven't played Project Cars 2, but that has a non-VR mode too, right? I wonder what your results would be if you forced your monitor's refresh rate to 45 or 90Hz.

I suppose it could be but even then it doesn't make any sense 1. it's not a steady 30 FPS, it can vary between e.g. 32-38 so it doesn't seem to be a half refresh rate of the desktop monitor issue, also the frame pacing is all over the place and 2. the game is capable of maintaining framerates above 60 FPS anyway so even if it was capping to the desktop monitor's Hz e.g. due to vsync or whatever it would likely cap at an even 60.

Still, it's a good suggestion! I'll definitely look into this more since I hadn't considered the possibility. Thanks!

Originally posted by Torzi:

The other problem I see is that reprojection needs to be tuned differently for every game engine... but the only thing we can do now is turn it on or off. We need tuning parameters. Both microsoft and valve are at fault here, and assume that 'on' will work for every scenario that needs it. Maybe they have some crazy AI leaning controller adjusting things on the fly, but I'm betting not. They have tunable variables set to what 'should' work, and lock those for everything. We need access to those! (so I can write them a crazy AI learning controller)

Yes, this. Agreed 100%

[Torzi]

Originally posted by Pert Boioioing:

I suppose it could be but even then it doesn't make any sense

Yeah, I've found that when something just won't work how it should, trying things that don't make sense are exactly what fixes it... usually because the way it was created didn't make sense to begin with.

[Kyokushin]

I described it here, but it seems nobody care:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/3/1741103267304983550/

[Andrew_WOT1]

Originally posted by Kyokushin:

I described it here, but it seems nobody care:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/3/1741103267304983550/

I had that issue, it's something to do with mirror window losing focus. Try hitting Win-Y to get it back next time it happens. Also make sure to enable Direct Mode in SteamVR settings.

[Torzi]

For me, disabling game mode and all of the windows overlays, and running in fullscreen exclusive mode performs way better than any form of windowed mode (including the default "Fullcreen" which is just another windowed mode, at least in 1809). The Win+Y toggle has been a pain in the ass, since you can't see it if you're looking at a mirrored display, and it breaks fullscreen exclusive.

I broke down and put a piece of masking tape over the sensor, but I still have to pull it off every now and then, and it still resets with each and every dang system permission prompt. No way to get rid of the notification in cliffhouse either if you have input set to desktop.

Does Direct Mode do anything for WMR headsets? I thought it was just for Vive.

[Pert Boioioing]

Originally posted by Torzi:

For me, disabling game mode and all of the windows overlays, and running in fullscreen exclusive mode performs way better than any form of windowed mode (including the default "Fullcreen" which is just another windowed mode, at least in 1809).

Hmm, I didn't think of running fullscreen exclusive, gonna have to give it a try.

The Win+Y toggle has been a pain in the ass, since you can't see it if you're looking at a mirrored display, and it breaks fullscreen exclusive.

I broke down and put a piece of masking tape over the sensor, but I still have to pull it off every now and then, and it still resets with each and every dang system permission prompt. No way to get rid of the notification in cliffhouse either if you have input set to desktop.

[snip]

Yeah the Win+Y thing is *so* annoying. I hate that so much. In Euro Truck Sim 2 for instance you have to use the mouse to control the in-game UI, even in VR, but WMR constantly blocks mouse usage so I have to alt+tab out of the game, Win+Y to get mouse usage, alt+tab back into the game then hopefully something else like the WMR Portal didn't get focus in the meantime. Assetto Corsa has a similar problem. There should be a system-wide toggle somewhere like in the WMR Settings or something so once you set it you don't have to keep manually hitting Win+Y every time you put the HMD on.

[Andrew_WOT1]

Little trick for Win-Y
Install VoiceAttack and just map it there.
Just like that
https://ibb.co/yyxmm6L

[Torzi]

Originally posted by Pert Boioioing:

Hmm, I didn't think of running fullscreen exclusive, gonna have to give it a try.

In order to get the 'disable fullscreen optimizations' checkbox to actually do anything in 1809, you need to set the following reg key:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore
GameDVR_DXGIHonorFSEWindowsCompatible = 1

yes, microsoft actually added another reg key which basically says 'should we really enable the option you selected, even though we put it there with a check box and everything?'. If you don't set this, that option does exactly nothing. I also noticed this got reset after the last windows update.

while you're there, set:
GameDVR_HonorUserFSEBehaviorMode = 1 (another one!)
GameDVR_FSEBehavior = 2 (create if not there, DWORD)
GameDVR_FSEBehaviorMode = 2

Also, go through the standard settings to disable game mode, and any game recording features. Those reg keys should do it, but there are a lot of new settings listed in 1809.

I really wish game mode and all of these features worked well for me, but they just don't. They never have since 1703, spanning 4 different systems. Windows just doesn't perform any better for me than when I disable all the junk they want to 'enhance' my experience with. I read about people having success with it, and I recommend people try it to see if it works for them (I try it with each new release), but I've always been better off without it.

Originally posted by Andrew_WOT:

Install VoiceAttack and just map it there

This! I have autohotkey installed to catch a few extra mouse buttons that don't map right... remapped Win+Y to RtCtrl+? , much easier to find with the headset on :D

[Andrew_WOT1]

When do we expect fix for this?
Last WMR update was month ago
Retested today with the latest StemVR update, the issue is still there. Severe performance drop with reprojection on auto.

[Torzi]

Apparently, there's no point to this steam forum except to allow users to vent... every reply from MS says to say the exact same thing you just said through their feedback hub.

While I appreciate some form of response... while they're here, couldn't they just create the issue themselves through the hub? I've seen them do it every now and then. Why not always?

I would suggest MS just pin a topic to the top of the forum saying "This isn't where you go for support"

[Andrew_WOT1]

The product only exists on Steam and only used by SteamVR/WMR users, why not provide support there where all user base is.
BTW, submitted issue via Feedback Hub, still nothing.