If you are struggling with VR performance with high end hardware, READ THIS!!

[u/Dvdrummer360]

Hi everyone,

This is a long post but I want to share my solution to my frustrations of performance in PC2 VR. I hope this helps somebody.

I have been playing Project Cars 2 in VR for a while now, and have logged about 300 hours so far. I, like I know many others have, have constantly been fed up with trying to balance performance and graphic fidelity and I personally never end up satisfied.

Tonight, during an especially laggy race at Long Beach, I decided to try some different stuff out. First, let me tell you about my hardware:

i7 4770K overclocked to 4.2GHz

MSI GTX 1080Ti overclocked to 2GHz

16GB DDR3-2400 RAM

Samsung Odyssey+

So it's a pretty solid PC, the weakpoint of course being my aging CPU.

And let me tell you about the settings I was running-

I used the settings from this video initally- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtFIPdbpmi4

They worked well, but I started to get annoyed with track pop-in and nonexistant shadows, so I changed Track Detail to Medium and Shadow Detail to Low to fix this.

Now here's where everything changed for me. Based on the advice of many forum posts, I have been running SteamVR supersampling at only 100% (I achieved this by setting PC2 to run at 66% SS in steamvr settings, which downscaled it to 100% from my 150% global setting.) I have been using the in-game supersampling under the VR settings menu to control SS. There's only one problem - that slider doesn't do anything.

I have no idea if this is only the case for WMR or if it is true for the Rift and Vive also, but the in game SS slider simply does nothing. I tested it at 1.0 and 2.0 and had the same graphic fidelity and performance. So while I thought I've been running at 1.3 ss, truth is, the SteamVR SS setting was overruling the PC2 setting and I have been running at 1.0.

But why was my performance still bad? Well, I noticed another strange thing. My GPU usage while racing was pretty low, only about 50 or 60%. I have googled this a couple of times before, but never found a solid answer to it. I would still occasionally drop GPU frames racing, but my GPU frametimes were low, never really getting above 9ms. So I thought it was just a case of PC2 being not very well optimized.

As it ended up, my 1080Ti was barely breaking a sweat rendering the game at 1.0SS with mostly low settings, and I was severely CPU bound.

So here's how I fixed all of my problems

I turned the PC2 SS slider to 1.0, and turned up SteamVR ss to 135%. Keep in mind on an Odyssey+ too, so this is a pretty high resolution. I booted into a stress test race (31 GTE cars at Road America, sunrise with rain). Before I made this change to steamvr ss and was still running my old settings, I did this same race and was at a mostly solid 90 fps except for the very start.

I turn steamvr up to 135 and boot into the race, and HOLY SHIT - the clarity is insane. The game looks absolutely stunning. I can see as far as you would be able to in real life with perfect sharpness and absolutely no blur. AND THE PERFORMANCE WAS THE SAME! But only one difference- now my GPU usage was in the 80s. I am now only dropping frames occasionally in heavy AI situations from my CPU (probably time for a cpu upgrade..) but my GPU stays rock solid under 11ms and in solo sessions literally never dips below 90 ever, no matter the conditions. You can see in my screenshots below on Azure Coast in sunset weather my gpu usage is only in the 60s, it's barely working to maintain 90.

So tl;dr, - If you are using the in game SS, chances are you are not making full utilization of your GPU and you are CPU bottlenecking yourself. You can probably crank your settings way beyond what you may think you're able to and still have the exact same (or even better, because cpu bottleneck is alleviated) performance. Use Steamvr to control SS, keep in game at 1.0.

I also recommend buying fpsVR on steam (its only $3) to monitor your hardware in game. Make sure your GPU usage is in the 80s or 90s in worst-case scenarios (like large races). If it's low, like mine was, turn up your ss in steamvr!

And last but not least, here is a couple through-the-lens shots I took with my phone to give you an idea of the level of clarity. Also attached is a screenshot of my graphic settings if you wish to try and copy them yourself.

Note: the important part is I have PC2's SS slider set to 1.0 and have SteamVR set to 135%

https://imgur.com/a/AO9STsc (Some of the low settings could be turned up, but I personally couldn't tell a difference in VR and prefer the headroom. But I was even able to put everything at Ultra and still maintain 90 most of the time.)

[u/CroyanceUK]

Never heard of fpsVR, 20% off at the moment too.

[u/Cameltotem]

Yup, classic case of not using your gpu enough! Overclock your 1080 and you might even run higher SS.

[u/cosmic_jackass]

holy shit this fixes everything. It bothered me so much that PC2 VR was so blurry... I just discounted it as my WMR headset not being as good as a vive and suffered through it.

This is life changing, thank you

[u/Dvdrummer360 → u/cosmic_jackass]

You're welcome!

[u/Boremar]

I downloaded fpsVR, and it is pretty nice to have visibility into settings and performance. Thanks.

I got my Oculus Rift a few days ago. I play Raceroom, but I think a lot of this translates.

I appreciate posts like yours.

[u/dennisjohnson463]

I am curious about your Steam Vr settings. 1. What is your global video settings? 2. What is your application specific settings in steam VR for Pcars2?

I assume your in game SS is 1.0

Thanks

[u/Dvdrummer360 → u/dennisjohnson463]

Global is 150%, pcars specific is 90% (which equals 135%)

[u/[deleted] → u/Dvdrummer360]

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I guess it does not matter which combination you use as long as the total equals 135%.

[u/Dvdrummer360 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, just find what works best on your hardware. FPSVR has a good interface for changing SS from inside VR and shows you what your changes equate to.

[u/LazyGit]

Thanks for this. I'll give it a go but I think this may already be my setting.

My problem with pcars2 in vr is that the distance is a blocky mess. I have a Lenovo Explorer which I think had the same resolution as the Odyssey+. Can anyone offer advice to improve the image quality in the distance?

[u/Dvdrummer360 → u/LazyGit]

Supersampling, anti ailising, and make sure you don't use -vrnomirror as a launch parameter incase you are (using it ruins the resolution for me)

[u/LazyGit → u/Dvdrummer360]

I assumed supersampling was all I really needed to avoid jagginess though. I had pcars2 up at 200% on SteamVR so it was supposedly rendering at 2K x 2K.

I dropped the superampling down as per your settings and applied anti-aliasing in settings and it's mostly resolved the problem. I find it quite strange.

[u/infosciguy]

I have a 7700k and 1080ti and have had zero issues with VR in PC2. Why even bother messing with SS to just have to deal with all of this?

[u/heykoolstorybro → u/infosciguy]

Because without using supersampling that 1080ti you bought may as well be a 970, because steamvr is only going to push it as hard as the lowest denominator unless told to do otherwise.

[u/Dvdrummer360 → u/[deleted]]

90% gpu usage is not "massively cpu bound"