Elite: Dangerous VR CPU bound in WMR headset

[[VR] Mad Life Crisis]

I'm running ED in VR at pretty much the highest settings with a G2 and RTX 3080. Can't be done right? Well probably not at 90 FPS all the time, but can still get very smooth game performance.

Since this thread is really about frame rate, render scale and smooth performance in WMR, here's what I did.

1. Install 'OpenXR Developer Tools for Windows Mixed Reality' which is available for free in the MS Store.
2. Once installed go to the 'Developer Settings' and enable 'Use latest preview OpenXR runtime'. This means you will be using the latest WMR runtime instead of the version that is provided with updates.
3. More importantly, then enable 'customised render scale' directly in WMR. Set it to around 70-75%. This will bring the G2 render scale (resolution) to something that your computer can run smoothly. The G2 max resolution is too high for most computers, even with a RTX 3 series GPU and high end CPU.
4. Then set 'motion reprojection' to 'automatic'. This is like Oculus ASW (Warp), but IMO much better. Sure it means interpolated frames, but I'm happy to sacrifice FPS from time to time in ED to get the best render scale and still have smooth play.
5. Keep the Steam VR resolution at 100% and ED SS and HDR at 1.

Now try ED and see what you think. You should get a smooth game (with high/ultra graphics settings enabled) even around stations. If not fiddle around with the OpenXR render scale until play is smooth. It means you also still get the screen clarity of the G2. My point really is you don't need to chase 90FPS all the time, you just need smooth game play with good graphics. Open XR let's you do this. If you try it and don't like it, then just turn off OpenXR and call me a 'nong'.

The other benefit of using OpenXR is that, once you get the render scale right for your CPU/GPU specs, then t applies to all games. You are basically custom setting the render scale of the G2 for best performance on your rig.

Cheers

I tried the OpenXR Developer Tool and ED ran far worse for me, than with the Steam VR Motion Smoothing.
I wasn't sure whether to enable/disable Motion Smoothing and Legacy Reprojection, so did combinations of on/off for both. I found that even looking at my hands on the controls whilst docked were jerky. I also tried commenting out (and in) the option in the WMR for Stem VR Driver, that decides whether to respect the SteamVR settings, but this didn't help either.

I had OpenXR for WMR installed and up to date as well as the OXR tool.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I have a pretty weak rig for VR (for ED at least), anyway.

Cheers for the info, all the same. I'm sure others will find it useful. It's probably one of those 'Your Mileage May Vary' things.

[EDIT] It works and it's fantastic.

I realised my error after watching a flight sim video on YouTube. I hadn't switched 'Preview' on.
The difference is breath taking. Super smooth on my 1660ti. A couple of brief times I could 'see' the reprojection, a bit like refraction, but nothing that really distracted me. None of the text looked like it was tearing. Close fly by ships don't look jerky during combat anymore. I'm honestly gobsmacked.

 

[BlackSpaceCowboy]

I have a HP Reverb G2 and I can't say I've noticed any issue.

I would consider NMS in VR to be the most demanding game.

Elite is also pretty demanding. It's CPU intensive. But it all depends on your settings.

I think Elite is a simulators and simulators care a lot more about raw single threaded performance. 4Ghz is very low. And I'm pretty sure the CPU is usually the bottleneck for Elite.

Do a single core benchmark score like Geek Bench 5 and tell us the results.