OBSOLETE - rFactor 2 - Oculus CV1 guide on legacy hardware

In this guide I describe the procedure to make the game run in a predictive way using VR with a Oculus Rift CV 1 in an legacy hardware (gaming laptop).

Background

I have been enjoying rFactor 2 in VR from the beginning of 2020, but as I played I have been seen some performance dips in my hardware that make the game simply unplayable given all the shutter and artifacts that appears in the Oculus CV1.

RIG

My hardware is a gaming laptop made of the following components (considered past gen):

• Intel Core i7 6600HQ
  
• GTX 1070
  
• 48 GB RAM
  
• Oculus Rift CV 1
  
• 2TB SSHD

Objective of this guide.

Before optimizing the performance in rFactor 2, I define my performance / quality objectives for my Hardware (taking in to account what is possible in other modern sim racers):

• Mid to High quality
  
• 22 Ai grid
  
• 45 fps ASW

I play the game for the joy of driving, so I prefer eye candy over raw performance; i'm not in to multiplayer or leagues so a big Ai grid is a must, and given that the Oculus Asynchronous SpaceWarp its quite useful in hi-pace game, my objective is to run the game using its target frame rate of 45fps as I use it in ACC and AMS2.
The game can be adjust to be played at native 90fps using my rig, but in order to do it graphic fidelity has to be toned down, and that target is not the objective of this guide.

Drivers

Graphic Driver.

I have been using Nvidia Studio Driver from over a year after having the Game Ready driver crash on me everyday.
The studio driver is a more stable driver, that doesn't has the latest functionalities in exchange for stability, usually used in productivity environments where stability is the priority over some additional FPS. Some benchmark even point this driver to have better performance from the game ready one.

I recommend using the Studio Driver over the Game Ready Driver because of the VR application.

Oculus Driver.

Here's a tricky one. Oculus driver can only be installed from the Internet, and always installs the latest driver without giving the choice to install a previous version and it always force the installation of updates.
Starting 2020 one of such automatic updates bring ACC VR performance to a halt; in the assetto corsa forums a guide to reclaim that loosed performance was publish[www.assettocorsa.net].
In the guide describe the process to revert the driver from the newer version to an older version that had better performance, and also how to stop the oculus software from updating itself. The procedure works flawlessly, but before applying it to your config bear in mind that after aplying the procedure you can no be able to install any app or game from the oculus store.

OpenVR.

rFactor 2 use the OpenVR API as the Composite that runs over the Oculus VR API, the OpenVR it used best for Steam, HTC or any headset that follows that standard.
In the case of the Oculus CV1, when using OpenVR in some games, a very perceivable glitching/flickering occurs in them (Dirt Rally 2.0) and that effect is shown in rFactor 2; making the game unplayable in some instances.
Given that rFactor 2 doesn't have the Oculus VR API implemented, Campbell Suter (ZNix) has created a fork from the Open Composite effort and modify it in such way that it only provide the needed APIS call that rFactor2 use and pas it directly to the Oculus API for it composition.
Follow the installation instructions in his repository [gitlab.com]

Please remember to define the supersampleRatio in the opencomposite.ini file between 1.3 and 1.7 in order to improve graphic fidelity in the headset at the cost of performance, adjust it to taste

Game Settings.

rFactor 2 Laucher.

rFactor 2 game options.

rFactor 2 frame limit.

Given that ASW works only using 45fps from the game and interpolating the rest, there's no point in trying to make run faster because those additional frame would no be shown in the headset.
In order to do so we limit the game to only render 46fps maximum, that give us GPU headroom to increase the graphic fidelity.

To limit the game maximun frames per second edit the file:
rFactor 2\UserData\player\player.JSON
look for the key "Max Framerate" and change it form 0 to 46; each time the game configuration is opened this change gets overwritten and need to be setted again.

Please take in to account that the limit apply when using the Headset AND the monitor. If you decide to play using only the monitor, adjust the parameter back to 0 in order to make the game renders as may frames as it could.

Additional Adjusts

You can gain performance reducing the supersampleRatio in the file opencomposite.ini, reducing the number of cars show to 10 or reducing or disabling reflections in the game options.

Donations

This guide is FREE, but please consider supporting the author so that they can continue to make content like this by donating via PayPal[paypal.me] to [e-mail]
Any amount helps!

[GamingFer]

In a recent update que guide was rendered opsolete. VR subsistem was change for the new UI to work. If you still want to use this guide you must use the old UI option, but can not play online.

[Evoluns]

@terrybrooks
A mi un compañero de steam me comento que arrancara desde la aplicación directa de steam por que no me funcionaba desde ningun otro modo. Arranca desde la biblioteca el juego

[terrybrooks]

just trying to run oculus rift 2 on r factor 2 and with all settings it keeps coming up
error 101 vr path not found
i have looked at my account details as in guides
i have none of these
on my account details
sorry new to this so confussed

[Evoluns]

Se agradece la guia y el tiempo pero yo no consigo que rfactor2 me salga en VR con mis oculus quest2. Tengo todos los demás juegos de simulación y funcionan de maravilla. Con este no hay manera. Agradecería cualquier ayuda por no abrir un ticket de devolución. Gracias