Vive missing frames/grey out question

Allomein

A
I have an unusual situation. When I play ED with the vive, I get missing frames that result in grey outs on a fairly predictable timing when the client is in focus. When the client is minimized I stop getting missed frames and grey outs and can look around with ease and get the various hud screens to open. But sadly neither controllers nor keyboard and mouse will work if the client is minimized. Alt tab back to the client and missing frames start up again. Any ideas? Anyone else run into this? I've seen threads about fixing missing frames but have not seen anyone mention a similar situation where that issue dissapears when tabbed out.

EDIT: I shouldn't have said minimized - I mean unselected. In other words if I alt tab off the client.
 
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Allomein

A
If the client is minimized there are no grey outs and tracking is fine. Can look around, open UI panels when you look around, etc. as soon as you set the client focused again (so controllers work) it starts losing framesand is every second or so. Seems like there must be a conflict causing the loss of tracking/framed when the client is selected but I have no idea what. Switching usbportsdoes not do the trick. It's really strange. If it was happening all the time I would assume a hardware issue. But it is just elite dangerous and not when the client is minimized.
 
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Allomein

A
I was just commenting it is a shame I can't force the controller signals to go to ED when it is not selected. Because if I could everything would be working fine because the grey outs/lost frames don't happen when the client is not selected or minimized. The keyboard and mouse not working in ED when ED is not selected is normal....much like you can't type a word document when word is minimized.
 
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Allomein

A
I don't think it's the mirroring of the graphics that is the issue. It's having the client running as the program in focus that is the issue. My guess is even if it was not mirroring the graphics this would still be a problem since when it is not selected it still mirrors and looks fine.

I have a new machine coming early March and I am hopeful my issue is temporary but wish I could get it figured out in the meantime.

Right now I need to use the mini display cable and perhaps that has something to do with it.
 
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Plopsi

P
you could try to kill the desktop window manager dwm.exe, at least the mirrored window will then not get updated then. But that would, if working, a really dirty solution.

Greying out normally means that the vive lost the tracking - loading should show the grid-room and a loadingbox. This happens quite often to me when the kinect is also running, as the depth sensor uses a frequency near that one the vive uses for it's lighthouse, covering the depth emitter helps here. So maybe something is interferring with the lighthouses on your side too?
 

Allomein

A
Thanks for the responses. A bit of a mystery why I periodically am losing tracking with the client selected but as soon as the client is no longer selected tracking is fine. Even when the client isn't selected, you can still look around the ship. During that time the view is uninterrupted and I can open UI windows by looking left, right, etc. As soon as I select the client again so that my controllers and keyboard/mouse work in game then the grey outs start happening again. This is only happening in Elite.
 

VR Dextrovix

VR Dextrovix
I've not seen this issue, I have both Vive and Rift but have spent a lot of time farting around with SteamVR so I feel the OP's pain, although ED has not been a problem for me.

On Reddit there is a post that shows how to turn off the view on the compositor, even after a title turns it on which I'm assuming ED does:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4f7e20/we_need_the_ability_to_disable_the_desktop_game/

Also, it might be worth the OP opting into the SteamVR betas? Fixes are pushed through a lot quicker than the normal builds...
 

Allomein

A
Thanks - the reddit thread gave me an idea I'll test later. It is possible my issue is related to my current laptop having integrated video plus a dedicated graphics card (new machine coming in March with a much better setup and 1080 card so hopefully this is temporary) and sending video through the integrated card in some circumstances even if the rendering is being done by the dedicated card (or something like that). Will turn off the laptop screen and force to the external monitor and see if that helps. Will update if that fixes it.
 
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Allomein

A
Sadly turning off the laptop monitor did not address the issue. I must have some hardware or software conflict, or when the program is selected it is using more resources and I am just tapping out the machine. New one will be here soon so I am just going to look forward to that at this point and hope my issues are cleared up with that and a 1080 :p

Thanks for trying to point me in the right direction.
 

Allomein

A
I am not certain what the issue was previously, but on my new PC (with 1080 card) it is working wonderfully so at least my issue is resolved :p
 

Korben Dallas

Korben Dallas
El_Labero said:
grey outs means tracking lost. Check your usb and change ports, or turn the camera off.
Click to expand...

No,

In cases that you have not setup the lighthouses correctly greyouts CAN occur, yes. It is the same effect, although the greyout in elite seems brighter, than the out of sync one.

They are however NOT ALWAYS the case of bad or out of sync HMD tracking. My lighthouses are synced by cable (a and b channel) and I still get greyouts. It is also dependent on the game you play.

ED (or at least version 2.2 is very prone to these grey outs) 2.3 a lot less.

Just make sure you set your VR settings lower if you experience a lot of grey outs and make sure your CPU stays below the 50% range in usage and the FPS in the 90s range or in the upper 80's.

That is all.

- - - Updated - - -

Tenshi said:
I get this from time to time as well usually when the game is loading a new system or galaxy map.
Click to expand...


Exactly. It seems to be bound to the CPU not being able to cope with the excess of info thrown at it. I tried to get the game to use less resources using this guide:

http://in2gpu.com/2014/12/16/elite-dangerous-performance-guide/

To get ED in the FPS green numbers and my CPU below 50% usage. Greyout are less frequent, at least on my computer. I also overclocked my CPU using default software that came with it. Helps as well, just keep in mind to cool sufficiently as to avoid overclocking damage.
 
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Allomein

A
In my case, a large reason for the new PC was that my CPU was overheating frequently in addition to my graphics card being dated. So makes sense that this may have been related to the CPU. New machine has had no issues.
 

Aeroshock

A
Having the exact same issue as OP

I know OP solved it by replacing their machine, but in my case, I've got a fairly modern PC and it's not reasonable to replace it.
I posted a thread on reddit, I'll copy/paste it here:

Going crazy trying to fix this grey screen/tracking issue in VR. Anyone experienced this?

Here's a short video of what's happening.
[video=youtube_share;6RMp3xLgOHk]https://youtu.be/6RMp3xLgOHk[/video]
My view is going grey in the HMD, but if the application loses focus, it seems to get better right away. I can't control the game when it's not in focus, so it's basically unplayable in VR for me right now. Strangely, after running into this a couple months ago, opting-out of the SteamVR beta fixed the problem completely, but after taking a week off from playing, the problem is back in full force.

System Specs:
Windows 10 64bit (fresh install due to troubleshooting)
Core i7-6700K
Geforce GTX 980ti
16gb DDR4 RAM
500gb Samsung SSD
Click to expand...

Everything's relatively new, hardware-wise, and runs other games (VR or not) just fine. Drivers are all up to date, though I'm going to try testing older Nvidia drivers next, probably. It's just so strange that I was until very recently able to spend hours playing ED in VR with no issues at all, and now suddenly it's completely unplayable.
 
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