HTC Vive: Effective settings for minimal issues and great visual quality
- Thread starter Aelemar
- Start date
That looks fantastic.
I'm familiar with the process for switching colors, but what values are you using?
Thanks!
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Thanks for posting that update, Aelemar. Gonna check out those settings now.
This is what I use for my UI colours:
<MatrixRed> 0.15, 0.25, 0.9 </MatrixRed> <MatrixGreen> 0.62, 1, 0.32 </MatrixGreen> <MatrixBlue> 0.48, 0, 0 </MatrixBlue>
I stole it from some reddit thread, it's pretty dope IMO, cool blue with white accents.
This is what I use for my UI colours:
<MatrixRed> 0.15, 0.25, 0.9 </MatrixRed> <MatrixGreen> 0.62, 1, 0.32 </MatrixGreen> <MatrixBlue> 0.48, 0, 0 </MatrixBlue>
I stole it from some reddit thread, it's pretty dope IMO, cool blue with white accents.
Hey there, I have not checked for that. Will experiment as soon as I get a chance.
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Here are the values. This is the same UI as Obsidian Ant
<MatrixRed> 0, 0.2, 0.8 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 0.6, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 1, 0.3, 0.18 </MatrixBlue>
Ok, got the UI color to stick, as you have to go to a different location, the x64 folder. I picked a different blue, but good god that made a massive difference in reading. I can now see all text clearly. Going to try the new updated settings and see if I can handle it. Thanks again!!!
Hey there, I have not checked for that. Will experiment as soon as I get a chance.
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Here are the values. This is the same UI as Obsidian Ant
<MatrixRed> 0, 0.2, 0.8 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 0.6, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 1, 0.3, 0.18 </MatrixBlue>
Thanks very much!
Glad it worked for you! Let me know how the settings work on your end
In other news, I just got my behind handed to me by a Deadly ASP (right now I'm flying a fully kitted Vulture). In normal circumstances, that ASP would've been easy prey (before Engineers).
I had to run with my tail between my legs. For some reason, that makes me happy!
EDIT: Added UI color tip to main post.
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I'm glad it worked for you. I also ended up dropping Galaxy Map quality to Low, it judders too much on any other setting. It's really smooth in Low, though.
Thanks for the pic`s, I was curious as to how good the fidelity would be in first gen VR and it looks good. The next generation should be cheaper and better again hopefully with pascal and higher res displays. Can`t spring for it this time around I`m afraid but I would be tempted.
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The issue is actually there, I assume for everyone. Doesn't seem like there is anything we can do about it. I just make sure I type it correctly just in case lol.
I get away with SMAA on my 2xGTX970 in VR, but you can crank it up as much as you like. Fundamentally, it's what looks best for you and can still deliver the frame rate. Oversampling too high and you'll be wading through cold treacle. Vsync doesn't appear to be relevant when it comes to VR because it either has a frame in time, or it'll guess/judder. However, finding optimal settings in VR - for some people at least - is just like overclocking the last Hz out of your CPU/RAM/GPU.
...and it's for that reason I've got a new GPU on order. Anyone care to guess? [and I wouldn't have been able to do it without a PPI claim through my bank website; the most financially rewarding 5 minutes of my life!]
I have been experimenting further, and have found out something very interesting. While the settings in my main post work well without judder, I noticed last night that on planet surfaces and during heavy combat in RES, the framerate sometimes drops to 45FPS. Of course, this is normal for the Vive, if you can't do 90 FPS, the Vive automatically drops it to 45. You will not notice the difference thanks to the Vive's reprojection feature. It will still be smooth as butter. However:
Personally I would rather stay in the 90FPS range, so I have been experimenting with the settings. Everything at max, (including shadows) with Supersampling at 1.0X (no supersampling) and no antialiasing, the game consistently stays at 90 FPS. However, it's very jaggy on instances.
I tried all the antialiasing options.
MLAA has a big performance hit, and doesn't really help with the jaggies.
SMAA has a lesser performance hit, but still, doesn't do much in term of antialiasing.
I found that, amazingly enough, FXAA works extremely well. Even in Supersampling, some things are still jaggy in the distance. FXAA actually takes care of the jaggies, and the performance hit is minimal.
So the final result is that: FXAA will give you great quality (on an Nvidia card, btw. SMAA is better for AMD cards), at a fraction of the cost of Supersampling. The only issue is that FXAA does not apply antialiasing to text, which looks slightly worse. It is still very much readable without effort if you use a different UI color, though!
About SLI: VR doesn't properly support SLI as far as I know. That, and Nvidia seems to have removed Elite's SLI profile from their latest driver (368.22) try disabling SLI for Elite, your performance might improve.
The latest drivers also introduced some headtracking-related lag, that was not present in previous drivers.
SLI looks to be the black sheep of the GPU family. NVIDIA and AMD support it (probably to sell more GPU's), but they really don't support it that well at the end of the day.
Given the level of GPU performance today, SLI really isn't needed for top end VR.
Here's a good article on the different types of anti-aliasing. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...mage_quality_video_card_review/4#.V07iMlaDFBd
Given the level of GPU performance today, SLI really isn't needed for top end VR.
Here's a good article on the different types of anti-aliasing. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...mage_quality_video_card_review/4#.V07iMlaDFBd
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Well, I both agree and disagree here
The problem with SLI/Crossfire is not entirely Nvidia/AMD. Game developers also need to implement support in their games. No matter what drivers Nvidia/AMD push out, if the game itself doesn't support it, it just won't work well, if at all.While GPU power is indeed pretty good right now, it's still not reliable for VR. (as we can see from the performance issues on Elite in VR). True, the technology is new and all that, but Elite is probably one of the only AAA games that have been pushing for good VR support since the start. So if the GPU doesn't perform well in Elite, how would it perform in less optimized games?
Thing is, we have to look at the resolution on the Vive. While it's not as high as a regular monitor, we have to understand that we are basically running two monitors (three, if you include your mirror window on your normal screen).
The Vive renders at a resolution of 1080x1200 per eye. Not very impressive in itself. But since you are rendering two screens at this resolution, you are basically rendering at 2160x2400. Now that's a lot different.
If you apply Supersampling to that, let's say, 1.5X, you are then rendering at 3240x3600 total. (2160x1.5 = 3240 and 2400x1.5 = 3600). Increase that to Supersampling 2.0 and you are putting a very heavy load on the GPU. (Read the article shadragon referenced to, if you are curious about how different antialiasing methods work).
Not to mention, GPUs have to deal with extra overhead since they are rendering stereoscopic images instead of just flat 2D images (remember Nvidia 3D? You needed a beefy computer for that).
We all know that there is still not a single GPU that can handle 4K reliably. Even the new GTX 1080, despite all Nvidia's promises, falls short when it comes to 4K.
So what's the possible solution? Properly implemented SLI or Crossfire could deal with the VR performance issues once and for all. In an ideal scenario, each card in an SLI configuration could be used to render each eye individually. So, instead of one card rendering both eyes, or both cards trying to render both eyes, split the workload evenly. Card #1 for eye #1, card #2 for eye #2.
Can it be done? Definitely yes. HTC/Valve proved that SLI or Crossfire is perfectly viable for VR, with their "VR Performance Test". Before switching to my GTX 980Ti last month (should've waited for the 1080, lol), I had two R9 290X in Crossfire.
Using one card, the performance test showed my VR readiness at 6.7 out of 11. With Crossfire enabled, VR readiness jumped to 10.8-11 out of 11. So Valve showed that with proper in-game implementation, Crossfire/SLI could be used to increase performance dramatically.
Fun Fact: Did you know that AMD's Crossfire usually scales better than SLI? I don't know the reason, but with two cards sometimes I used to get as much as an 90% performance scaling on the second card. I have yet to achieve something like this in SLI (I've had a bunch of Nvidia or AMD cards, I don't pick sides
I usually go with best bang for buck or performance depending on budget XD)Lastly... Nvidia hyped the 1080 up into the high heavens. True, it's a great card. And even faster than the 980 Ti or Titan (not enough to warrant an upgrade, though), but: 4K is still not possible at a consistent FPS. And DX12 performance seems to be horrible. Nvidia really, really needs to get on their DX12 performance issues. Now, the 980Ti and all previous Nvidia cards were unable to do asynchronous shaders at the hardware level, and as some of you may know, this is very important for VR.
It remains to be seen whether the 1080 fixes this issue. If it does not, Nvidia might have a loser in their hands.
AMD, on the other hand, has supported asynchronous shaders for quite a while now, at the hardware level. The fact that the 290X, which is an extremely old card could get a rating of almost 7 in the VR test, is a good demonstration of the importance of the shaders. And yes, lower settings, but the 290X could handle Elite just fine in VR with some tweaking. It's no secret that AMD performs much better than Nvidia in DX12. And as of late, AMD has also been very timely (and good) with their drivers. This time around, Nvidia really needs to step up their game.
My advice to you: Don't bother with the 1080. If you have a Titan X, or a 980Ti, it's not worth it. If you have anything lower, then yes
Personally, I will probably wait for AMDs Polaris or even Vega next year.
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Well, I both agree and disagree here
Its actually 2160x1200. Two eyes, double the resolution, not 4 times the resolution; or to put it another way, double the resolution across, but same resolution up and down, rendering two 1080x1200 images side-by-side.
Is there anyone with a GTX 1080 who can comment on what settings they're able to get with usable frame Rates? Seeing conflicting reports of the 1080 not being able to run VR high without frame rate drops which sounds like kind of a big disappointment! (I've got a 1080 preordered...)
