while I’m waiting for my P8KX I’m still using my Pimax8K which I’m overal satisfied. The only thing I’m bothered are these kind of alias effects which most apparent are visible at straight contrast lines/edges e.g. in the Anaconda Cockpit in Elite Dangerous or looking at the shelves or at the clock in the Standard Steam VR Home environment, especially if I move my head. Basically it looks like I running it at a low resolution.
my settings: Pitool at 1, SteamVR 100% = 4432x3904, latest NVIDIA WHQL and Pitool Beta
I tried with different RenderQuality and Steam VR SS settings but I can not get rid of the effect even with extreme resolutions.
I’m wondering if the effect is normal and you are facing the same? With my older Pimax 4K the effect is only very minimal and way less visible.
Have you set the SteamVR maxRecommendedResolution setting? The SteamVR default is too low for Pimax headsets and it will silently switch to a lower resolution than what SteamVR actually displays in its UI.
There are several files with this info, the CORRECT file to change does NOT start with “000”: “DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE TO CHANGE YOUR PERSONAL SETTINGS.”
The correct file is stored in 1 of several places. Mine is at: C:\Users\ user-name \AppData\Local\openvr\steamvr.vrsettings
You can find the correct file path using the vrpathreg.exe command in this file folder:
…\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64
thanks for the info, I already saw your recommendations in the first impression thread of Neonrazor earlier this evening and applied your recommended 12288 for the “maxRecommendedResolution”. Regarding the alias/jagged line effect I saw no difference but will doublecheck tomorrow. So you don’t have these effects with your settings?
Not that I’ve noticed. I only play ED, which has such bad aliasing (even on my 4K monitor) I have just learned to ignore it, plus, I’m using an 8K headset, so everything is softened (due to upscaling). However, you’ve got an 8K too, so I’m not sure why you see such visible edges (especially in SteamVR Home).
The reason I suggested the maxRecommendedResolution setting is that it looks like your headset res is too low and I can’t think of anything else that might cause that.
I had another thought. The recent nVidia drivers have an Image Sharpen setting. Verify that it is turned off. Sharpen will enhance any aliased edges. (It’s the opposite of anti-aliasing.)
Might be worth adding that SteamVR Home has dynamic resolution scaling (…and no switch to turn it off, that I am aware of), which automatically restricts your render resolution to what your machine can handle without dropping below the target frame rate.
(EDIT: …this is on-the-fly adaption, which keeps stepping up and down, whenever the frame times change, from whether or not you are looking in a direction where there is a lot of stuff to render, unlike the SteamVR dashboard, which is also resolution limited, but in a different way (set at startup, depending on results from a benchmark against HMD base resolution.)
thanks for all the replies and offered help. I only had limited time today to test but it looks like the effect increases or at least will be more pronounced with increased resolution. So on higher resolutions the lines are really jagged and, which is more annoying, the lines quite flicker on movement which make the alias effect really visible. So in terms of the issue pitool render quality 0.5 looks better than e.g. 1.5 . I reverted the nvidia drivers to default settings and doublechecked that the image sharping is off. I also confirmed that the 12288 value is set in both the settings file in the Pitool Folder and in the set SteamVR config path. Hardware is a overclocked 4700k with 4 GHz and a 2080ti. The SteamVR performance graph was always green for the screenshots below.
So again my question before I maybe concentrate too much on the issue and going down the rabbit hole - is this a normal behaviour I face?
some screenshots:
Pitool 1.5, 72hz, normal FOV, PP, FFR, Smoothing all off, Steam VR 100% / 5528x4676
I can for starters inform that the SteamVR compositor/dashbard, that you are using as a measure-stick there, will pick a render resolution atomatically at startup, depending on the base resolution and refresh rate of your HMD, together with how well your computer performs in a quick benchmark. There is no way for the user to affect it (other than through obfuscating benchmark results).
So that would be why you see the effect you describe in that case, at least; As soon as you push up PiTool Quality, the SteamVR compositor will reduce its own render resolution right back down from that high target, to keep its imposed load light.
This is also why you’ll see the dashboard get blurrier and blurrier, the higher you set the HMD refresh rate.
For me, the grid in SteamVR (home is disabled) is much less blurry (lines look less fuzzy/more solid) in 90Hz and 120Hz than 72Hz which I used to use before 120Hz was introduced.
I’m always using normal FoV and the rest of the PiTool settings are also the same.
Hmm… Dunno - have a hard time puzzling that together in my admittedly weak mind. :7
…if nothing else: The better the frame rate, the better the sense of resolution one get from minute head motions, though; Quite incredible how blocky one can go, and still be able to read, by just slowly waving one’s face around a tiny bit. :7
Yeah, not sure what it is so I just settled for the closer to spec thing and let it be…
It’s not like everything is just loads better and more clear in those two modes when actually gaming (at least I haven’t really noticed), but somehow it’s obvious when that dome/grid in SteamVR is showing (the one that’s shown when SteamVR Home and any background is disabled).
BTW - I’ve seen some of the stuff You’ve written on these forums and “weak mind” didn’t come to mind…
Thanks, I will test with the other two refresh rates and will check more games. I can definitely see it in Fruit Ninja as well. I will also roll back to the last non beta Pitool to have a comparison.
indeed switching to 80Hz changed the issue a bit. I also tested with older pitool versions which had no effect. I wonder if it might be connected to the scaler chip. Anyway I try to not think too much about it until the 8KX will arrive and I have a comparison. Thanks for the help
