VR (Rift issues) in ED - It's like I have rain on the lenses. Anyone else having VR issues?

mach1ne · Nov 11, 2016

After launching ED tonight and getting to the station service menu I noticed that the graphics look strange and a little stuttery, it looks fine on the monitor output, but not on the rift, so I logged out, rebooted and tried again...But it made no difference. The strange thing is though there were no graphics glitches on the main ED menu screen when looking about through VR.

So checked the graphics settings and reset them and launched again. Same
- Tried a different VR game to make sure that the rift was not playing up, but all was good and no strange rain effects seen
- Checked Nvidia for latest drivers - all good there. Re-installed them to make sure.
-Checked Nvidia settings and made sure SLI was set
- Noticed Win 10 had a cumulative update today (KB3200970), Adobe Flash update (KB3202790) and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (KB890830)
- I do not have any graphics mods or use them

Any suggestions?

KIT -
Oculus Rift CV running latest firmware/drivers

Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz
Chipset
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel Haswell rev. 06
Southbridge Intel Z97 rev. 00
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x8
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 16 GBytes

Display Adapters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter 0
Name NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Board Manufacturer Palit Microsystems
Revision A1
Codename GM204
Technology 28 nm
Memory size 4 GB
Memory type GDDR5
PCI device bus 1 (0x1), device 0 (0x0), function 0 (0x0)
Vendor ID 0x10DE (0x1569)
Model ID 0x13C2 (0x13C2)
Performance Level 0
Core clock 1304.0 MHz
Memory clock 3505.0 MHz

Display adapter 1
Name NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Board Manufacturer Palit Microsystems
Revision A1
Codename GM204
Technology 28 nm
Memory size 4 GB
Memory type GDDR5
PCI device bus 2 (0x2), device 0 (0x0), function 0 (0x0)
Vendor ID 0x10DE (0x1569)
Model ID 0x13C2 (0x13C2)
Performance Level 0
Core clock 1304.0 MHz
Memory clock 3505.0 MHz

Ajax · Nov 11, 2016

Just last night I was thinking something was off. It wasn't glitching but faded in a way, not sure if that's what you mean about the rain effect. I checked my in game settings which were set to Ultra and see they also have VR settings!! low and medium. Now I'm probably an idiot but I swear that option wasn't there when I installed the game, not sure if it was added in an update or what. Anyway I give the VR medium a try and it made a HUGE difference. I can't believe I've been playing this long and didn't know this.

Anyway, not sure why mine went whacky last night and only last night but I'm glad it did. Wish I could be more help, I just thought I'd throw this out there because you post and timing seems a little coincidental. What settings are you running it on?

[HJ]-RedRaven · Nov 11, 2016

mach1ne said:
strange rain effects seen

Stop wearing your Rift in the bath!

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Ajax said:
Just last night I was thinking something was off. It wasn't glitching but faded in a way, not sure if that's what you mean about the rain effect. I checked my in game settings which were set to Ultra and see they also have VR settings!! low and medium. Now I'm probably an idiot but I swear that option wasn't there when I installed the game, not sure if it was added in an update or what. Anyway I give the VR medium a try and it made a HUGE difference. I can't believe I've been playing this long and didn't know this.

Anyway, not sure why mine went whacky last night and only last night but I'm glad it did. Wish I could be more help, I just thought I'd throw this out there because you post and timing seems a little coincidental. What settings are you running it on?

Faded colours usually could just mean your tracking has been lost - not in view of the sensor, or the USB has dropped the connection with the sensor.

Raptoyd · Nov 11, 2016

Have not seen that but that same windows 10 update made my mouse go bezerk I cannot control it and had to tab my way out of the desktop. Did a restart and still getting the mouse going nuts not sure WTH this update did but not happy about it.

Ajax · Nov 11, 2016

Yeah I had that fading before, I figured it out that it was the sensor pretty quickly. Last night was different than that. Anyway it's not doing it now. I was loving the VR setting for a bit but it adds little jaggies to the shadows. So I tried switching back to Ultra again to see if it was still doing it and it's running fine now.

mach1ne · Nov 11, 2016

Thanks for the reply guys. The VR options have been there since 2.2 I think, I did notice them the other day.
I have tried different settings but the effects are still the same. The problem isn't the fading effect as I know about that when my cat decides to sit in front of the Vr sensor!! It does look like rain or another way to describe it, it is as if you are looking through a jam jar and as you roll the jar the thing you are focusing on ripples.
The other thing someone has mentioned was the jaggy lines, I've noticed that a lot more and they seem to jump about when you keep your head still as well as the station menus looking like they are shaking a little. Also if you scroll up and down a list, for example the commodity screen the text goes all funny.
Might try and roll back the windows update and see if that helps.

horizone · Nov 11, 2016

The strange/stuttery effect in the stations menu could be the Asynchronous Space Warp in effect. It produces artifacts when moving the highlighted item through the menus.

mach1ne · Nov 11, 2016

horizone said:
The strange/stuttery effect in the stations menu could be the Asynchronous Space Warp in effect. It produces artifacts when moving the highlighted item through the menus.

I did some more investigating this morning before work, I tried rolling back windows to see if i might have been the updates...Damn it! Still the same. I also swapped around the usb ports for my sensor and headset and yet again no difference.
One thing to note though is I tried Project Cars 3 in VR and I noticed the strange bubble/water effect when i looked out the cockpit at the passing lamp posts, so it is NOT just isolated to Elite Dangerous.

So tonight i am going to roll back the nvidia drivers and test, if that does not work maybe i'll re-install all the oculus software and drivers...trouble is though doesn't that delete all your downloaded oculus content and take a massive download hit of around 60gb?
Next step after that ? Back to Oculus I suppose....

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

Well the saga continues...I have been in contact with Oculus and they asked me to provide some video evidence so that they can see what i'm talking about...If anyone is interested then here's the link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV9FwI-We9c

Starlanced · Nov 12, 2016

That's the asynchronous space warp, that causes that effect.

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

Starlanced said:
That's the asynchronous space warp, that causes that effect.

Is this 'asynchronous space warp' unique to Elite? as it happens in otherVR games too. And why has this just started happening in the last few days, when i've had the rift since July without seeing this?

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

mach1ne said:
Is this 'asynchronous space warp' unique to Elite? as it happens in otherVR games too. And why has this just started happening in the last few days, when i've had the rift since July without seeing this?

I've just watched a few vids on youtube about ASW, i'll add the reg entry tonight after work and see if it resolves the issue. Hope so!

TorTorden_VR · Nov 12, 2016

mach1ne said:
I've just watched a few vids on youtube about ASW, i'll add the reg entry tonight after work and see if it resolves the issue. Hope so!

You don't need to add anything, that's precisely one of the ASW defects, it's also a little trigger happy so it drops fps to 45 and start interpolation before it normally would.
I know this effect well from TVs etc that use frame interpolation and an object passes quickly over a grid or lined pattern, like fences etc.

And station menus are just a performance mess and has been for a while.
I just ignore it.

If you play in open or a large group, networking could impact performance and last night was fairly bad.

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

TorTorden said:
You don't need to add anything, that's precisely one of the ASW defects, it's also a little trigger happy so it drops fps to 45 and start interpolation before it normally would.
I know this effect well from TVs etc that use frame interpolation and an object passes quickly over a grid or lined pattern, like fences etc.

And station menus are just a performance mess and has been for a while.
I just ignore it.

If you play in open or a large group, networking could impact performance and last night was fairly bad.

I just want it working as it was a few days back...Never seen these glitches in the past.

- - - Updated - - -

Starlanced said:
That's the asynchronous space warp, that causes that effect.

So do you have this issue then? It would be good to hear that i'm not alone, that way I might not worry that my rift is busted

TorTorden_VR · Nov 12, 2016

It's probably not recognised as an issue since THAT is how the ASW works.
Try hitting CTRL+numpad 1, I am testing that in station now and the ingame FPS counter jumps from 45 to 70+ give or take.
You can try these:

You then have to toggle ASW with hotkeys:
CTRL+Numpad1: Disable ASW, go back to the original ATW mode
CTRL+Numpad2: Force apps to 45Hz, ASW disabled
CTRL+Numpad3: Force apps to 45Hz, ASW enabled
CTRL+Numpad4: Enable auto-ASW (default, use this first)

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

TorTorden said:
It's probably not recognised as an issue since THAT is how the ASW works.
Try hitting CTRL+numpad 1, I am testing that in station now and the ingame FPS counter jumps from 45 to 70+ give or take.
You can try these:

You then have to toggle ASW with hotkeys:
CTRL+Numpad1: Disable ASW, go back to the original ATW mode
CTRL+Numpad2: Force apps to 45Hz, ASW disabled
CTRL+Numpad3: Force apps to 45Hz, ASW enabled
CTRL+Numpad4: Enable auto-ASW (default, use this first)

Thanks TorTorden, So the above commands work without me editing the reg etc? basically I should already have this in place is what i'm saying

TorTorden_VR · Nov 12, 2016

Not entirely 100%, but if you have updated to oculus 1.10 then ASW is activated by default.
If you don't, and haven't added this to the reg, and still have these EXACT artefacts I have been seeing and know is from interpolation then that would be very very strange.

Also, there might be a few seconds for the ASW mode changes to take effect.

mach1ne · Nov 12, 2016

TorTorden said:
Not entirely 100%, but if you have updated to oculus 1.10 then ASW is activated by default.
If you don't, and haven't added this to the reg, and still have these EXACT artefacts I have been seeing and know is from interpolation then that would be very very strange.

Also, there might be a few seconds for the ASW mode changes to take effect.

Rift Firmware Version - 708/34a904e8da
Sensor Firmware Version - 178/e9c7e04064ed1bd7a089
Oculus App Ver - 1.9.0291603

So looks like i'm on the old one still

[HJ]-RedRaven · Nov 13, 2016

Going by the video, I agree, definitely looks like the ASW effect. It doesn't look that bad normally (I just see some minor bleeding on the solid coloured menu bar as you move it around).
If it is just ASW, there's nothing wrong with your Oculus. However, you are running a low-end GPU, which actiavates ASW more often and for more frames.

Your GPU is struggling because ASW is obviously making up 2 and possibly 3 frames for each actual frame - so the distortion on straight lines etc can be quite... bad.

Your version numbers are the same as mine. If there's an update out, its not being forced yet.
Recommend adding the registry key if it isn't in there and you're still on v1.9 - then just press Ctrl-Numpad1 and it turns ASW OFF and only ATW will fill in frames.

But on your GPU you will need to turn some settings down... make sure you have SS in ED set at 1.0, and HMD Quality set at 1.0, and judge it from there.
For your GPU, turn off motion blur. Turn off ambient occlusion, turn off depth of field. Turn shadows to medium or low.

If you have th Oculus SDK installed, use it to get the APP Render Timings HUD up when you're in a game- you can see the time it takes for your CPU nd GPU to render 1 frame - if its near 11.1ms (the max time allowed at 90fps) then ATW will insert a synthetic frame - before you miss the 11.1ms deadline and you actually drop a frame entirely (bad, especially for those sensitive to motion sickness).

In stations, you'll be missing frame submits a lot (even a GTX1080 does), but in space etc, it should be few or none.

Try it and see.

mach1ne · Nov 13, 2016

[HJ]-RedRaven said:
Going by the video, I agree, definitely looks like the ASW effect. It doesn't look that bad normally (I just see some minor bleeding on the solid coloured menu bar as you move it around).
If it is just ASW, there's nothing wrong with your Oculus. However, you are running a low-end GPU, which actiavates ASW more often and for more frames.

Your GPU is struggling because ASW is obviously making up 2 and possibly 3 frames for each actual frame - so the distortion on straight lines etc can be quite... bad.

Your version numbers are the same as mine. If there's an update out, its not being forced yet.
Recommend adding the registry key if it isn't in there and you're still on v1.9 - then just press Ctrl-Numpad1 and it turns ASW OFF and only ATW will fill in frames.

But on your GPU you will need to turn some settings down... make sure you have SS in ED set at 1.0, and HMD Quality set at 1.0, and judge it from there.
For your GPU, turn off motion blur. Turn off ambient occlusion, turn off depth of field. Turn shadows to medium or low.

If you have th Oculus SDK installed, use it to get the APP Render Timings HUD up when you're in a game- you can see the time it takes for your CPU nd GPU to render 1 frame - if its near 11.1ms (the max time allowed at 90fps) then ATW will insert a synthetic frame - before you miss the 11.1ms deadline and you actually drop a frame entirely (bad, especially for those sensitive to motion sickness).

In stations, you'll be missing frame submits a lot (even a GTX1080 does), but in space etc, it should be few or none.

Try it and see.

Thanks for the detailed response, i'll give it a shot. ta