MSFS2020 will not work on my PC & 8KX = MS support will not help

Games & Software Game On!
1

Cannot get pass the initial VR selected screen… long winded story below with MSSupport. Any ideas on what I can try next?
i7-9700K - 3.6Ghz, #2GB RAM, RTX2080

ONLY gets me as far as “press Spacebar to Centre”

Your request (#146260) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email or click the link below:
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/requests/146260

Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team (Microsoft Flight Simulator)

Feb 10, 2022, 15:16 GMT+1

Hi Menendez

Thanks for contacting Microsoft Flight Simulator Support today.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is compatible with headsets that support OpenXR such as Windows Mixed Reality headsets, Oculus headsets, SteamVR headsets.

The sim has been optimized for the following headsets:

HP Reverb G2

HP Reverb G1

Samsung Odyssey+

Your Pimax Headset doesn’t officially support OpenXR. Therefore we cannot guarantee that it will be compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Kind regards,
Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team

MSFS_Erik

Menendez

Feb 9, 2022, 5:40 GMT+1

Please help

From: A. George Menendez
Sent: Sunday, 6 February 2022 11:16 AM
To: ‘FlightSimulator’ <support+id146260@flightsimulator.zendesk.com>
Subject: RE: [Microsoft Flight Simulator - Request received] Cannot run MSFS2020 on my newly acquired 8KX.
Importance: High

Hi Support

Any suggestions for me please?

Problem is not resolved

Cheers

“George”

From: FlightSimulator
Sent: Monday, 31 January 2022 11:05 PM
To: Menendez <menendez@bigpond.net.au>
Subject: [Microsoft Flight Simulator - Request received] Cannot run MSFS2020 on my newly acquired 8KX.

##- Please type your reply above this line -##

Hi Menendez,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Flight Simulator Support. Your request (146260) has been received. Our team will respond as soon as they are able.

For 24/7 assistance, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator Knowledge base and the [Official Forums](https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/virt

Menendez

Jan 31, 2022, 13:04 GMT+1

Cannot run MSFS2020 on my newly acquired PIMAX 8KX… ONLY gets me as far as “press Spacebar to Centre” as per photo attached…
Pimax headset works great on other games…

PiTool Info
Version V1.0.1.271 Headset Firmware V2.1.255.298 …

Am I doing something wrong in the set up somehow?

CPU i7-9700K-3.6Ghz with 32Gb RAM DDR4, RTX2080, Evo970SSD…DxDiag attached for full system details… would be much appreciated if you can make some suggestions on how to or setup settings please.

Display mode … Full Screen

F.S. Resolution …1920x1080

Render Scaling … 100%

V - SYNC … OFF

Frame rate … … …greyed out ( 60FPS? )

HDR 10 … …greyed out ( OFF ? )

Direct X version … 11

Global Rendering … Medium

Anti Liasing … …TAA

Terrain level of Detail … 50%

Off Screen Terrain Pre Caching … LOW

Terrain Vector Data … LOW

Buildings … … … …LOW

Trees…LOW

Grass and Bushes …LOW

Objects level of detail 50%

Volumetric Clouds … LOW

Texture Resolutions …LOW

Anisotropic Filtering …16X

Texture SuperSampler…6x6

Texture Synthesis … …LOW

Water Waves … … … … LOW

Shadow MAps … 1024

Terain Shadows …256

Contact Shad0ows …LOW

Ambient Occlusions… LOW

Cubemap Reflections …128

Raymarched Reflections … LOW

Light Shafts… …LOW

Bloom… …OFF

Depth of Field …Medium

Motion Blur …Medium

Lens Correctyion… OFF

Lens Flare …OFF

Glass Cockpit Refresh rATE …LOW

Seems to idle at 160FPS on the welcome screen

PiTOOL on Games TAB /Microsoft Flight Simulator

Refresh rate set at 60Hz

Any comments would be very welcomed… I was using a HP Reverb G1 previously but it was consistently unreliable over 12 months and VERY frustrating to get working every time so purchased a PIMAX 8KX as my next move forward.

Attachment(s)
DxDiag-Jan30-2022.txt
pimax 8kx msfs2020 stuck IMG_9834 (002).jpg

This email is a service from Microsoft Flight Simulator. Delivered by Zendesk

[ER64YZ-G4YD]

Support (Microsoft Flight Simulator)

Feb 6, 2022, 1:34 GMT+1

Hi Menendez,

Thank you again for contacting Microsoft Flight Simulator Support today and bringing this matter to our attention. We will need to review the information before coming back to you. We appreciate your patience while we forward your message to our team of experts. Depending on the complexity of your question/issue, they may need several working days before being able to come back to you.

Kind regards,
Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team
Knowledge base Twitter Facebook Discord SDK Q&A

MSFS_Jordan

Menendez

Feb 6, 2022, 1:16 GMT+1

Hi Support

Any suggestions for me please?

Problem is not resolved

Cheers

“George”

Support (Microsoft Flight Simulator)

Feb 5, 2022, 21:54 GMT+1

Hi Menendez,

Thank you again for contacting Microsoft Flight Simulator Support; we sincerely apologize for the delayed response. Please have a look at our general VR troubleshooting steps below.

To troubleshoot performance issues, please do the following first:

Close Microsoft Flight Simulator

In the “Type here to search” field, next to the start menu, type " OpenXR "

In the menu, select Uninstall

Go to Microsoft Apps and click Get

Re-install OpenXR.

Go to your headset manufacturer’s website

HP Reverb G1/G2

Samsung Odyssey+

Oculus

HTC Vive Cosmos

Download the latest drivers for your headset

Reboot the computer

Launch your VR headset application .

Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator

Put your headset on.

Enter the command to switch to VR (please check your bindings for VR in the ‘VR Mode’ tab in Options > General) or click on the button in the ‘VR Mode’ tab in Options > General.

If the problem persists after that, please move on to the following troubleshooting steps:

“THE INITIALIZATION OF VR FAILED” ERROR MESSAGE

From your computer, open the SteamVR app

Head to Settings

Select Show in Advanced Settings

Head to the Developer tab

Click on Select SteamVR as OpenXR runtime

Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator

Put your headset on.

Enter the command to switch to VR (please check your bindings for VR in the ‘VR Mode’ tab in Options > General) or click on the button in the ‘VR Mode’ tab in Options > General.

CTD WHEN SWITCHING TO VR

Close ATC windows and other pop-up windows before switching to VR

Switch from Window Mode to Fullscreen mode

CRASH ON STEAM

Open Steam.

Go to Steam settings > In-Game

Uncheck the "Use Desktop Theater box when launching desktop games while SteamVr is active.

UNABLE TO SWITCH TO VR DURING A FLIGHT

Please verify that your headset is connected correctly and ready to use. You can check your headset’s connection by launching your respective platform’s app. For example, this is the Mixed Reality Portal for Windows Mixed Reality.

FRAMERATE DROPPING AFTER SWITCHING TO VR

There are two graphics settings in the sim: one for the desktop and the other for VR. When you switch between the two modes, the sim dynamically switches settings, briefly impacting its performance.

HOW TO INCREASE THE FRAME RATE.

Render Scale has the most significant impact on the framerate, especially when using higher-resolution headsets.

Reduce the traffic settings in the VR Traffic options (deactivated by default in VR).

Update your graphic drivers to the latest version.

Reduce the graphics settings under VR Graphics options.

LOSING MOUSE AND KEYBOARD INPUT

We recommend using manual input switching if you are using a Windows Mixed Reality headset. In the “Headset display” tab under the “Input switching” section, you can configure this option in the Mixed Reality Portal options.

If you are using a Windows Mixed Reality headset, our input may have been automatically redirected to the Windows Mixed Reality Portal after wearing the headset. The “Win + Y” shortcut will switch focus back to the desktop.

BLACK STENCILS - OCULUS HEADSETS

Update to the latest Beta version of the Oculus software, which should solve the issue. When seeing black stencils in your Oculus view:
If that doesn’t work:

Go to the Oculus Debug tool (Default folder should be C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics)

Open the Oculus Debug Tool

Turn the option “Use FOV Stencil” to Off

Disable/enable VR in MSFS

YELLOW SCREEN

HDR causes this. We have a fix in the works, but for now, we recommend you deactivate HDR when playing in VR.

BLACK SCREEN

HDR also causes this. Turn off HDR on Windows and in the sim. The HDR option should be disabled in VR graphics.

NO SOUND DURING FLIGHTS

Please see this solution shared on the forums: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/sound-no-longer-working-during-flights-12-23-2020/339594/20

If the issue persists after doing all of the above, please re-open this ticket, and we’ll investigate further.

Best regards,
Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team

MSFS_Jordan

Menendez

Jan 31, 2022, 13:04 GMT+1

Cannot run MSFS2020 on my newly acquired PIMAX 8KX… ONLY gets me as far as “press Spacebar to Centre” as per photo attached…
Pimax headset works great on other games…

PiTool Info
Version V1.0.1.271 Headset Firmware V2.1.255.298 …

Am I doing something wrong in the set up somehow?

CPU i7-9700K-3.6Ghz with 32Gb RAM DDR4, RTX2080, Evo970SSD…DxDiag attached for full system details… would be much appreciated if you can make some suggestions on how to or setup settings please.

Display mode … Full Screen

F.S. Resolution …1920x1080

Render Scaling … 100%

V - SYNC … OFF

Frame rate … … …greyed out ( 60FPS? )

HDR 10 … …greyed out ( OFF ? )

Direct X version … 11

Global Rendering … Medium

Anti Liasing … …TAA

Terrain level of Detail … 50%

Off Screen Terrain Pre Caching … LOW

Terrain Vector Data … LOW

Buildings … … … …LOW

Trees…LOW

Grass and Bushes …LOW

Objects level of detail 50%

Volumetric Clouds … LOW

Texture Resolutions …LOW

Anisotropic Filtering …16X

Texture SuperSampler…6x6

Texture Synthesis … …LOW

Water Waves … … … … LOW

Shadow MAps … 1024

Terain Shadows …256

Contact Shad0ows …LOW

Ambient Occlusions… LOW

Cubemap Reflections …128

Raymarched Reflections … LOW

Light Shafts… …LOW

Bloom… …OFF

Depth of Field …Medium

Motion Blur …Medium

Lens Correctyion… OFF

Lens Flare …OFF

Glass Cockpit Refresh rATE …LOW

Seems to idle at 160FPS on the welcome screen

PiTOOL on Games TAB /Microsoft Flight Simulator

Refresh rate set at 60Hz

Any comments would be very welcomed… I was using a HP Reverb G1 previously but it was consistently unreliable over 12 months and VERY frustrating to get working every time so purchased a PIMAX 8KX as my next move forward.

Attachment(s)
DxDiag-Jan30-2022.txt
pimax 8kx msfs2020 stuck IMG_9834 (002).jpg

2

Reinstal game. Painfull process but solved my issues with entering to vr.

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3

:rofl::joy::rofl::joy: I like their excuses. It’s always someone else’s fault.

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4

Did you run the pitool room setup? I haven’t played MSFS2020 on my 8KX in a few months now but I do recall having to room the pitool room setup before I could get VR to work properly. I’m not sure why it mattered because other games always worked fine without doing that.

2 Likes
5

Just a passing thought and its probably not the problem but does your msfs window have “focus” before u press spacebar? What i mean is is the desktop msfs window maximized and ready for keyboard/mouse etc inputs? Because if another window (app) has focus, such as pitool or steamvr, pressing spacebar won’t work.

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6

This guide topic may help

https://community.openmr.ai/t/ms-flight-sim-2020/37456?u=heliosurge

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7

ahh, have you deinstalled the wmr software?

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8

Good point… i haven’t thought of that as I only play sims… will try it now… Thanks

1 Like
9

Yes its well focused…

10

No I have not uninstalled WMR … I will put it on the list of things to try… thank you.

11

will follow this … thanks for the reply… Uninstall and Reset Windows Mixed Reality in Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

12

Dealing with FS2020 support made me feel a LOT better about Pimax support! I had similar experiences with MS FS support. It’s like hitting your head with a brick. It feels so good when you stop.
Still, Pimax does need to go to openxr and I think that’s the plan for the 12k at least.

1 Like
13

Hi All… got it sort of working… can play the game but its stuttering? a bit like im playing it on windows 3.1.1 again…lol… Just need to start tweaking things now… So what I did was the following…
Followed ACEGAMER advise and did the room set up… i didn’t know this could be a problem but it is definately a step in the fix
Followed TYKEY6 advise and actually used Pitool NOT Steam to start game… IMPORTANT STEP.
Following Heliosurge advise and setting up the software tweaks
Followed DSTAR advise and uninstalled WMR
Thanks for your help to you … can’t wait for the Pimax Console/PC to come out next year…
now to keep playing … …

4 Likes
14

try in the settings, FOV Small, Pitool Render to 1.2, ingame resolution 100%, SteamVR Supersampling lower, so that about 2700pixels are rendered vertically. (iam not on pc at time, mean round 40-60% or so) This gives you a good basis from which to feel your way forward.

Parallel Projection or None (more FPS but with artifacts at the edges) is your personal choice

Ahh, and Clouds ingame not on Ultra!! Biggest Performance Eater

3 Likes
15

Hi Dstar…

Thank you for your advise. I have taken it on board, so now my settings are as follows but will increment upwards as i get more familiar with everything until performance gets compromised …

On Training Take Offs and Landings … these settings would be comparable to when used a HP Reverb G1

PC spec = i7-9700K-3.6Ghz, 32GB RAM, 21H2win10, 970-2tSSD, RTX2080 Pimax 8KX

I wasn’t sure what to do on some, such as V-Sync and Anti aliasing and many others ( LOL )

MSFS2020 settings

Display mode FULL Screen
F.S Resolution 1920x1080
Render Scaling 40
V-Sync OFF
Global Rendering Quality LOW END
Anti Aliasing FXAA
Terrain Level of Detail 25
Off Screen Pre Caching LOW
Terrain Vector Data OFF
Buildings LOW
Trees LOW
Grass and Bushes OFF
Objects Level of Detail 25
Volumetric Clouds LOW
Texture Resolution LOW
Anisotropic Filtering OFF
Texture Super sampling OFF
Texture Synthesis LOW
Water Waves LOW
Shadow Maps 768
Terrain Shaqdows OFF
Contact Shadows OFF
Windshield Effect LOW
Ambient Occlusion OFF
Cubemap Reflections 96
Raymarched reflections OFF
Light Shaft OFF
Bloom OFF
Depth of Field OFF
Motion Blur OFF
Lens Correction OFF
Lens Flare OFF
Glass Cockpit refresh MEDIUM

2 Likes
16

I use steamvr ss 100%, pitool quality 100%, msfs render scale 100%, most msfs settings on low/medium apart from clouds on high. LODs on 100.
I use Normal fov in non intensive locations i.e. small cities & countryside and Small fov for big cities like New York.
Parallel projections on. I get about 30 fps.

Do you use the Open XR toolkit?

Tutorial for it:

Gives me about 20% fps increase.

2 Likes
17

They made WideFOV support “planned” but for 2023. No month or quarter. Such a slap in the face!

2 Likes
18

New release Openxr toolkit will have FFR/VRS should release in couple days! mbucchia assured Pimax is supported at least as best he could without giving him a headset. He was really cool and was nice enough to drop an experimental feature to adjust the focal points in case they didnt line up for canted headsets (as I noted with PP modes with fholgers FFR). Cant wait!

1 Like
19

Yes. The 12k was reportedly openXr more directly. The layers confuse me.

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20

Yeh i follow mbucchia’s thread on msfs forums too, the extra fps from ffr can’t come soon enough for our hmd’s.

1 Like