Stuttering with Oculus Rift

[Konnykoks]

Hey,

I've got a problem with my Oculus Rift when playing Raceroom. I give you an example. I start a race and i am getting constant 45 fps. No single drop. After some time, my fps suddenly drop to ~30 and dont get to 45 again. The framerate stays at ~30 for the whole rest of the race. So my game is stuttering a lot. It looks like there are more than one image at the same time. This happens in every race sooner or later. Sometimes it starts from the first second, sometimes it starts after 8 laps or so.

I am using some kind of medium graphic settings and SS at 1.4. Changing these settings doesn't help. The problem is the same with SS at 1.0 and all graphic settings at low.

Changing the ASW settings with the OculusTrayTool also didn't help. Auto, 45 fps or off, it's the same with all settings. Btw the setting "off" seems to work only in the menu. When i start a race my fps are locked to 45, so it seems that ASW is activating itself in Raceroom.

I updated to the newest graphic driver and reinstalled the game but nothing changed.

Other games are working fine.

r9 290 Tri X
Xeon 1230v3
8 GB Ram
Win 10

Can anyone help me with this problem?

It's Konny.

 

[Konnykoks]

@Ross Garland That are some good ideas and I thought about most of them as well. I am using two sensors connected to USB 3 ports. The Headset is also connected via USB 3. Because you mentioned the sensors, I tested each sensor on their own. I also tried USB 2 ports for the Headset and the sensors. On my desktop PC I dont use any hubs, extension cables or USB card. My laptop only has 3 USB 3 ports, so I have to use a hub for that. Yeah, testing another Rift is not possible at the moment, because I dont know anybody who got one. But all these things shouldnt be the problem because I dont have this kind of problems with other games. Also I thought about software that could interfere with the game but nothing came to my mind.

 

[tlsmikey]

I'm gonna say you just don't have enough GPU/CPU to run oculus properly at those settings. I'm running an i5-4690K with 1080FTW and all settings are on low except for track and car which are set to medium or high. 12 cars shown on track and around 16 shadow splits. I also turn off mirrors on some tracks to get acceptable performance.

If you run oculus debug tool, i'm sure you're noticing you are running out of headroom. Unfortunately, RaceRoom has a long ways to go with VR implementation.

Try turning down your settings. Disable mirrors and report back.

 

[MegamanAT]

I'm gonna say you just don't have enough GPU/CPU to run oculus properly at those settings. I'm running an i5-4690K with 1080FTW and all settings are on low except for track and car which are set to medium or high. 12 cars shown on track and around 16 shadow splits. I also turn off mirrors on some tracks to get acceptable performance.

If you run oculus debug tool, i'm sure you're noticing you are running out of headroom. Unfortunately, RaceRoom has a long ways to go with VR implementation.

Try turning down your settings. Disable mirrors and report back.

Exactly! That's what I told him 2 weeks ago on the first page. But I was ignored/not believed ;-) I am running a 6700k@4,5GHz and also a 1080 and I am also only able to run at medium. So that will never work with a 290 and a old Xeon.

 

[tlsmikey]

Exactly! That's what I told him 2 weeks ago on the first page. But I was ignored/not believed ;-) I am running a 6700k@4,5GHz and also a 1080 and I am also only able to run at medium. So that will never work with a 290 and a old Xeon.

I think the problem is that a lot of people crank everything up, turn on ASW and then say "oh...it works" not totally realizing that ASW is clipping frames left and right as well as blurring edges and components on the screen which leads to a pretty bad experience.

 

[MegamanAT]

Yes, and I get sick when having only 45 fps. whereas I can play for hours having 90 fps. That was the main reason I have spent 900€ for new hardware.

 

[Konnykoks]

@MegamanAT I didnt want to ignore you. Sorry for that. The weird thing is that I was able to do complete races at constant 45 fps with 17 cars at medium/ low settings and SS at 1.4/1.5. That shows me that my hardware should do it. When I did the exact same race again, the framerate was around 30 from the beginning. Even when no other car was around and I looked in the sky, the framerate didnt increased again. For me that doesnt sound right and doesnt look like a typical hardware performance issue. But yeah something with my hardware doesnt seem to be compatible with raceroom otherwise it would work.

@tlsmikey I tried many graphic settings already. Less cars, SS at 1.0 and the lowest graphic settings but it always starts to stutter sooner or later and wont get smooth again even when it ran perfectly fine until then. Its not ASW I am talking about. The behavior is the same with ASW disabled. As I mentioned above, you guys are right that something with my hardware isnt compatible with raceroom because it would work otherwise. Even if its not a typical issue that i would expect from underpowered hardware.

 

[Arrowheadrock]

I bought a rift two weeks ago and have the same problem, just as you describe. Did you find a solution yet? I use an overclocked i5 3570k (4.2 GHz) and RX 480 8 Gb and 8 Gb memory.

I don't have the problem with Pcars or Dirt Rally. I did have a lot of stutters in the past on my monitor and adjusting a value in the graphics file helped, but not in this case.

I will look into it further as welll, hopefully we can find a solution...

 

[Konnykoks]

@Arrowheadrock Unfortunately I couldnt find a solution yet. I will post it here when I find one.

 

[Arrowheadrock]

Well, I replaced the RX 480 with a GTX 1080+ and the problem is as good as gone. Only now and then a kind of stutter in a turn. Seems like the performance of the video card is very important (because R3E VR is not very well optimized or it doesn't like AMD cards )

Probably won't help you but it is what it is and seems to confirm what others say about video card quality.

 

[MegamanAT]

Great! Best you could do. Waste of time to spend hours on playing with graphics settings with no chance of success... The minimal rest of your stuttering is caused by your CPU. Replace it with an I7 6700k/7700k and it will also disappear.

 

[Arrowheadrock]

Thanks for the tip. The (minimal) stutters are only with ca 8 cars before me and in some turns. I could do SS up to 2.8 and some low and some high video settings. It seems mirrors do take a lot of cpu load?
I figured an i5 3570k @ 4.2 GHz would be enough but that was my expectation about the RX 480 too, so... VR can be underestimated easily..

Still, I think R3E is very demanding against other simracing games.

 

[UMC 22]

Still, I think R3E is very demanding against other simracing games.

It's still DX9, 32bit and the VR isn't particularly well optimised. It'll get there eventually.

 

[Arrowheadrock]

I hope so as R3E is a fantastic simracer and with the Oculus it's so much more fun. I always found the AI fairly aggresive when using my 27 inch monitor but now, being in the middle of the action, it's not such an issue anymore.

The SDE is there with the current Oculus but the immersion is much more important.
VR has a bright future

 

[whip]

i just bought this and can confirm the vr performance is poor,

the game is seriously bottlenecked, especially with ai cars about, its either poor optimization or the game engine can't do any better

this is on a 6700k and 1070 too

 

[UMC 22]

i just bought this and can confirm the vr performance is poor,

the game is seriously bottlenecked, especially with ai cars about, its either poor optimization or the game engine can't do any better

this is on a 6700k and 1070 too

While it's known that R3E's VR implementation isn't the best, I'm not sure it can be solely blamed for people's performance issues. I have no problems at all on my rig, full graphics, 50 AI on any track, yet my GPU is a 1060 so technically inferior to yours.

 

[MegamanAT]

While it's known that R3E's VR implementation isn't the best, I'm not sure it can be solely blamed for people's performance issues. I have no problems at all on my rig, full graphics, 50 AI on any track, yet my GPU is a 1060 so technically inferior to yours.

The VR implementation sucks! Same problem here: GTX 1080, 7700k @ 4.5GHz. Even with low details it's stuttering an not playable. And that is the one and only game that does not work!

And I really can't believe, that your GTX 1060 can run an Oculus Rift with full graphics and 50AI on track...

 

[whip]

And I really can't believe, that your GTX 1060 can run an Oculus Rift with full graphics and 50AI on track...

of course it can't, because the game is massively cpu bottlencecked because of the game engine

most ppl say everything is fine when in fact they are at 45fps

 

[UMC 22]

And I really can't believe, that your GTX 1060 can run an Oculus Rift with full graphics and 50AI on track...

You can believe whatever you like, makes no difference to me. Runs smooth for me every time, online and off, 10 cars or 50. Sorry it isn't working for you.

 

[Furnace Inferno]

You can believe whatever you like, makes no difference to me. Runs smooth for me every time, online and off, 10 cars or 50. Sorry it isn't working for you.

That's because you are getting solid 45fps, the issues only manifest from people trying to hold 90fps which no CPU has enough singlethreaded performance to do from what I gather which causes ASW to turn on/off which manifesting in stutter.

 

[Konnykoks]

So i played a few hours with the new 64 bit version and the problem didnt occur yet. I hope it wont come back but it looks good.