Minimum required for VR

[Lesthegringo]

I finally get my new PC bits on Monday, so will start building it immediately. It's going to be dedicated to PC race sims. Due to problems I had in the past with installing stuff to try it, plus using the PC for non sim processes, I was constantly having issues with getting certain things working consistently.

The worst of these was VR; there were days when I literally gave up trying to get it to work and walked away from the sim rig. Other days it would work first time. Most days, it would take me five to ten minutes, a couple of restarts of either the game, the PC or both, multiple re-centering.....

Sometimes I would be able to use the mouse. Sometimes not. Sometimes the little graticule you use in VR to look at a button would actually activate the button, sometimes not. Sometimes I simply couldn't get past the Windows Mixed Reality screen. Those days usually ended badly,

Others resulted in the screen being visible, but the mouse cursor trapped in the top left corner of the screen. In those cases, even CTRL-Alt-Del didn't work, the PC would be unrecoverable and it would be a hard reset using the power or reset button.

I use a Reverb G2 which when working I think is brilliant. What I want is to load the minimum required stuff to get VR working without putting in any extras that will cause a conflict or any of those symptoms quoted above. I intend to use Win 10 due to some comments I have see about Win 11 and the G2 not being a perfect match

So what is essential, and what can be omitted?

Les

 

[simracingfanatic]

Which game(s) will you be playing?
What hardware will your PC have?

I think OpenXR is essential. I also agree with your statement about Win 10 - it's my OS of choice for VR.

 

[Lesthegringo]

My titles are AC, ACC, Dirt 2.0, rFactor2, AMS and AMS2. I will be getting AC2 when it comes out. At the moment I have no intention of getting any of the other titles, being pretty happy with what I have.

Core i5 12600k
Asus TUF H760-Plus Mobo
Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6400mhz (2x16Gb)
Asus Dual Geforce RTX4070 super
Corsair RM750M 80 Plus Bronze PSU
Western Digital WD_Black 2Tb SN770

Cheers

Les

 

[simracingfanatic]

I've only played AC and rFactor 2 on my Reverb G2, and my system is a bit similar to yours (12400, 3080ti, 6000Mhz 16gb).

I use OpenXR, and the OpenXR Toolkit, which allows me to enable Fixed Foveated Rendering. It helps me unlock more FPS. I also use "CAS" at 100%, which greatly sharpens the image.

In AC, I typically have constant 90fps and fluid gameplay in typical race settings, with medium shadows and reflections enabled. There are some noticeable stutters on large maps, like Shutoko Revival Project with traffic, but it's still manageable.

rFactor2 requires me to turn down the graphics settings to the bare minimum to achieve constant 90fps, which is kinda disappointing, but it's still okay.

 

[Lesthegringo]

I'm unfamiliar with OpenXR, is that used in place of or alongside WMR?

Les

 

[GeekyDeaks]

I'm unfamiliar with OpenXR, is that used in place of or alongside WMR?

Les

It's sort of in-line with WMR - similar to the way SteamVR is. Someone did a nice diagram to show the path:

In the example above, it also shows how a non OpenXR app (e.g. DR2, AMS2, rF2) has to also use another piece in the pipeline called 'OpenComposite' to bridge the gap as they don't natively speak OpenXR. Of course, if the title supports OpenXR directly then you don't need OpenComposite.

I have been running the following for about two years now:

Game > OpenComposite > OpenXR > WMR XR RunTime > WMR > Reverb G1

It solved some of the issues you mentioned, like having to correct the environment so that I had 6DoF almost every time I started as well as the mouse quirks. I get an error every now and again if I start a game immediately after boot, but a second try usually works so I think it's a service not starting in time.

Like @simracingfanatic mentioned, it has one other benefit which is you can use OpenXR toolkit to tweak the settings and set things like Fixed Foveated rendering to get you a decent (for me about 20%) FPS boost. You sacrifice a bit of detail around the edges, but it's kinda blurry for me around there anyway, so it's an ok tradeoff.

Not everything is happy using OpenComposite as it doesn't provide a 100% compatible OpenVR API, AMS1 and GTR2 are two I am aware of. You switch between OpenComposite and SteamVR using the OpenComposite app, but sometimes I find it can get stuck using SteamVR and I have to reboot to sort it out.

It's a bit of work to get everything setup, but not really anything more arduous than the usual faff I find associated with this hobby.

 

[Lesthegringo]

ok, so WMR is still part of the process