Just wondering if anyone has found a way to get rid of the double vision (judder) in DCS. I have read a lot about this, tried every setting combination imaginable, but have yet to find anything that really helps. It’s so annoying because this would be such an awesome experience if this were eliminated. My current specs: Intel i7 8086, 32 GB DDR4 3200, Nvidia 2080ti Founders Edition, Pimax 5k+. I’m open to upgrading hardware if anyone can point to a change that helps. Thanks!
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The only confirmed and universal fix for the judder (if we are talking about the same problem - the old frame hanging and smearing across the view with head movement) is to roll back to pitool 144 and revert firmware.
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I’m not sure if this is the same problem (maybe it is?). I’m talking about the issue where head movements cause a double vision effect. It also shows up when your head is stationary, but you roll the aircraft quickly. In that case, the terrain, or other aircraft again appear as double images. For example, the faster you roll or move your head, the farther apart the two images of the same aircraft separate. As you slow down, they come back together again as one aircraft. If this is a fix for that, what firmware version? Also, is there a link to the old pitool and firmware? Thanks.
Here is what I could find.
https://community.openmr.ai/t/pitool-changelog-download/10305?u=heliosurge
https://community.openmr.ai/t/download-all-pitool-installers-here/11382?u=heliosurge
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Perfect. Thanks. I’ll report back after I try this.
I have dealt with this problem extensively. The latest versions of PiTool Beta, PiTool Firmware, and NVIDIA drivers, with stable version of SteamVR, all work, and have for many months.
You do not want to revert to PiTool 144 unless absolutely necessary. Yes, some of the older versions of PiTool did not incur type 1 of this problem, which can be difficult to fix otherwise. However, more recent versions have improved stability and performance significantly.
There are exactly three causes.
- Some kind of one-time software/firmware glitch. Launching DCS World exe file from PiTool, just once should fix it. Something interestingly definitely is happening when this is done. You may have to temporarily disable DRM modules (eg. Flaming Cliffs) to make this work, but they can be re-enabled and used after this first launch is done.
- Power management issues. Sometimes the headset would power down, and when it turned back on, tracking would be glitchy. Running VirtualDesktop, and adjusting super-sampling a bit, would make this go away without restarting SteamVR/PiTool. However, this has not been a problem for several months.
- Borderline CPU/GPU frame latency. Disable all forms of shadows. Keep resolution and pixel density reasonable, to a total of 1.5x. Due to rather strict single-threading, and some unreasonably poor graphical quality options, it is easy to encounter problems. Download FPSVR. Absolutely no other tool will allow this to be diagnosed accurately, especially not the graph from SteamVR settings.
See these two files for maximum fully tested settings for a hardware setup roughly equivalent to yours. Includes PiTool settings, SteamVR settings, NVIDIA Control Panel settings, DCS World Quality, and DCS World Pixel Density.
https://github.com/mirage335/extendedInterface/blob/master/app/DCS/config.txt
Finally, since you have a ‘Nvidia 2080ti Founders Edition’, overclock it. If you have one of the factory overclocked cards like mine, it has been prebinned, and should be overclockable to a steady 2085MHz Core, 8000MHz VRAM, and 120% power target without doing anything that could break the card or void warranty. This difference is just enough to make-or-break DCS World framerates at high resolutions.
Since you are open to hardware upgrades, if your GPU cannot be clocked near 2085MHz, or cannot hold that frequency under load, you could consider this, which is also a Founder’s Edition card, but has been pre-binned for maximum overclocking.
Keep in mind that in no case will ‘factory overclocking’ settings be anywhere near 2085MHz. You must download and manually configure some trivial software.
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This is because you’re not running at full FPS. Any time the fps is lower than the panel display refresh rate, you’ll see this - with all firmware.
This is why I fly with 64Hz display - with some settings tweak, 64 fps can be reached with your setup (I have the same).
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Respectfully, that is not necessarily true. As I explained above, DCS World has some other specific problems in addition to that. Reverting to certain PiTool/Firmware versions is indeed sure to fix this, but it is better to try other things to use newer versions if possible.
Also, if the GPU is overclockable, and there are not hundreds/thousands of custom objects bottlenecking the CPU, 72 fps should be achievable at very high resolution, and this shows less tearing than at 64 Hz.
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So I’ve spent some time testing your settings and have some mixed results. If I launch from pitool, the results are MUCH better than before. The “double vision” seems to be mostly resolved. However, there are some oddities. First, fpsvr will show 72 fps in the DCS menu. As soon as an aircraft is loaded, the frame rate cuts exactly in half to 36 fps and locks. However, the DCS feels like it is still running at a much higher frame rate–no double vision, etc. I don’t know if this is an issue with fpsvr (maybe a known one?), but I find it suspect that the frame rate drops by half and stays there, not moving by even 1 fps. Second, I can only get the improved performance by launching from pitool. If I launch from the desktop, its back to the old (terrible) performance. I haven’t tried the shader mod yet. I am still trying to figure out how to use your files. Thanks.
That sounds like smart smoothing.
Launching from PiTool uses the game-specific settings. Launching from the desktop uses the general game settings.
Take a look at the game-specific settings and update your general game settings to match. When both methods use the same settings, the performance should be the same, regardless of which method is used to run the game.
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Half frame rate is normal. Smart smoothing will interpolate half the frames, unless you can maintain a steady 72Hz. If you cannot even maintain 36FPS solid - no red spikes in the FPSVR graph on either GPU/CPU side - then you will get the ‘old (terrible) performance’.
You will notice some artifacts with Smart Smoothing, particularly when rolling aircraft fast. This is also normal, and you will get used to it.
Unless you have a very strong GPU, are running a map with minimal CPU load, and use the fast settings I have provided in the 000-param_fast.ods file specifically for DCS World, you will NOT be able to maintain even a full 64Hz. Since I have the fastest pre-binned hardware money can buy right now… don’t expect to get rid of smart smoothing.
Getting the ‘old (terrible) performance’ every time DCS is not launched from PiTool is not normal but highly informative. First, you probably did have a software glitch that launching through PiTool directly does resolve, either permanently, or only whenever launched from PiTool. Second, that the problem did not stay gone suggests neal_white_iii is correct - you are not setting global settings in PiTool.
I generally do not use PiTool’s per-app settings, instead toggling these settings manually for each application. There are too many applications to launch with too many different profiles and PiTool is not flexible or robust enough for this.
Shader mod is kind of hit-or-miss. Results have been anywhere from +50% to +0%. You don’t have to use it, and in some places, you can’t. Some servers will not allow it, because putting some polish on your canopy is considered cheating in some highly competitive situations. So plan on not being able to use it all the time if you care about multiplayer.
Regarding my files, I am very glad someone is starting to use them, but please do keep in mind they are still a work in progress. I will be happy to answer any questions.
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