Windows 10 VR optimisation guides

Pimax 8K Series
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This was a Post I had in the Brainwarp discussion but was thinking it would be useful to everyone as a general tech guide to getting the most out of VR on Windows 10

It and other optimisation suggestions would be probably worth pinning to the forum.

I have been in the past quite vocal about Il2 Battle of Stalingrad not being multi-threaded. After resorting to some searches and finding a VR optimisation guide on Thom’s Hardware and Windows Central and tweaking my system settings I found out that I was quite wrong with the lack multi-threaded usage in Il2.

The optimisations included:

  • Disabling Hyperthreading in the CPU (i7700HQ)
  • Fixed pagefile which I set to 4096 (not sure why I hadn’t done that earlier)
  • Enabling Maximum Performance Power Setting in Windows 10
    and lastly
  • 2 registry changes
    multimedia class scheduler
    and
    GPU priority / scheduling priority.

Anyway, the 2 sites I referenced for tuning were

Windows Central – 3 Mar 18

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How to ensure the best VR performance from your PC

Low frames per second (FPS) in PC gaming is your worst enemy — in VR it can also be literally sickening. What better reason to give your old hardware some care and keep it performing up-to-snuff for another few months?

and

Tom’s Guide – 4 Jun 16

How To Optimize Your Pc For VR

If You want to optimize your PC for VR this is the right tutorial for you. It is very important to know the required steps you need to make. First check your

With the recommendations there I have found that CPU usage across all 4 cores is greatly improved as well as GPU usage. I am now experimenting with Il2 BoS VR at PiTools set to 1 and SteamVR set to 50%

Using x16 AF and settled on x8 AA settings but in Nvidia Control Panel. With the PiTools = 1 and SteamVR at 50% on my i7700HQ Max-Q 1070 laptop I am getting low but smooth frame rates which will be improved with BrainWarp. The image is crisp with minimal aliasing artifacts on the terrain and detailed would view.

My effective increase in fps was approx 50+%
My laptop runs at low 80’s heat (Celsius).

Attached is Performance Monitor whilst flying Il2 VR

Desktop%20grab%20Il2%20VR
Desktop%20grab%20Il2%20VR3840×2160 777 KB

Hope this helps

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First time I am seeing a suggestion to disable hyperthreading for VR. Has anyone seen any benefits from this?

I am planning on upgrading my CPU but if there’s no benefit from hyperthreading then I’ll just buy a cheaper model.

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There is no benefits on disabling hypertreading unless you want to overclock your CPU.

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‘My effective increase in fps was approx 50+%’ wtf

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It would have helped to test it after each setting change to see which one really made the difference, since it’s a laptop, I’m guessing it probably had most to do with the power settings.

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Within Il2 Battle of Stalingrad - yes, effective increase in fps at various render settings was 50%+

Probably a combination of the reg edits and the Ultimate Performance Power Plan. No stuttering inflight. Equal load distribution over the 4 cores of my CPU and better utilisation of CPU and GPU

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New Tip from the Star Trek Bridge Commander Thread:

Nvidia Control Panel under Adjust Desktop Size and Position No.2 Apply the Following Settings - Scaling

** Set it to No Scaling where it sets Set a Scaling Mode.**

The default Scaling Mode setting is Aspect Ratio.

Changing this scaling setting has improved image quality through my Headset no end. Landscape clarity and focus, less Aliaising - it is like wiping Vaseline off your lenses.

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:face_with_monocle: Worth investigating.

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Feel like way to small pagefile with 4GB, some games use 10-15GB memory + what the rest off your computer needs.

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Computer is a Gigabyte Aero 15X laptop
i7 7700HQ
GTX 1070 Max-Q with 8Gn Ram
16GB Ram
NVM Solid State 512Gb system drive with 1Tb USB SSD storage drive

I have not run into any issues with the 4Gb pagefile yet, in both graphic work or Il2 BoS which is all that I have tested so far.

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Another technique I use to optimize my VR computer is to remove all of Windows 10 Bloat-ware via a script called Windows 10 Debloater. Running some before and after tests I found this gave my VR rig about 10% to 15% boost.

I know that someone posted a thread here about using Windows 10 LTSB and that’s an option but there are restrictions on the LTSB version I don’t care for.

This script removes all the Bloat that comes with Windows 10 such as… 3DBuilder, Appconnector, Bing Finance, Bing News, Bing Sports, Bing Weather, Fresh Paint, Get started, Microsoft Office Hub, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Microsoft Sticky Notes, OneNote, OneConnect, People, Skype for Desktop, Alarms, Camera, Maps, Phone, SoundRecorder, XboxApp, Zune Music, Zune Video, Windows communications apps, Minecraft, PowerBI, Network Speed Test, Phone, Messaging, Office Sway, OneConnect, Windows Feedback Hub, Bing Food And Drink, Bing Travel, Bing Health And Fitness, Windows Reading List, Twitter, Pandora, Flipboard, Shazam, CandyCrush, CandyCrushSoda, King apps, iHeartRadio, Netflix, DrawboardPDF, PicsArt-PhotoStudio, FarmVille 2 Country Escape, TuneInRadio, Asphalt8, NYT Crossword, CyberLink MediaSuite Essentials, Facebook, Royal Revolt 2, Caesars Slots Free Casino, March of Empires, Phototastic Collage, Autodesk SketchBook, Duolingo, EclipseManager, ActiproSoftware, BioEnrollment, Windows Feedback, Xbox Game CallableUI, Xbox Identity Provider, and ContactSupport.

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This is great advise here tomohm, so many complainers I feel need to realize that the demands of VR with the addition of high resolution hmds require a well optimized computer, if not a fully dedicated one.

I have not used the Debloater script but have definitely tried many other ways on my computers to get them to run optimally. Thanks for the suggestions.

I think the real problem is so many new Pimax users do not understand this and maybe have little experience and are expecting plug and play and a great performance on there bloated bogged down computer.

I’ve looked at others computers in horror seeing what they use on a daily bases complaining how slow there computers run and try to offer help with such methods, Na they say, I’m ok, it seems they’re afraid of change even though slow.

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Is this tool ok to be used by a “noob” as myself?? It wont remove anything that Pimax or other HMD manufacturers will need for operation will it? My VR PC is only used for gaming.

Thanks

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This tool won’t prevent you from using your Pimax or other HMD’s… VR headsets don’t rely on bloatware to operate. It also wouldn’t affect you from installing and running PC games except those crappy games that came with Windows 10. Those would be removed. I would have two suggestions though if you’re a concerned “noob”…

  1. Before you run the operation… do an image backup of the computer. I use Acronis backup before I do anything that concerns me on any of my PC’s… including upgrading the Pimax software… though I never needed to restore my system after running this script or upgrading my PiTools software. There is also a free Image backup program that comes with Windows 10 that you could use as well. Not Windows backup though, Microsoft includes an Image backup program… but they buried it in menus for some strange reason.

  2. Copy this script file (from GitHub) to a folder on your desktop. Right-click the file .ps1 and select “Run with Powershell”. This is an easier method of installation.

If you need additional information or help with this process… let me know. But if this PC is used solely for gaming… this will help get you more performance and it doesn’t harm your PC for that functionality in anyway.

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Awesome thread. Thanks, fellow Pipeeps!

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And you can somehow exclude the necessary applications from the deletion? (I use StickyNotes, it always hangs on my desktop for notes, I would not want to delete it)

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Looks like there is a new version of this script that came out a month ago that I wasn’t aware of… looks like the author of the script added a white list to the script to do that. I’ll have to look into this feature as I’ve not seen this version of it.

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Ok, I hope there is a way not to remove StickyNotes, and at the same time get rid of all unnecessary Microsoft applications. it would be great, thanks :+1:

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I think the worse case scenario would be that you would have to re-install Sticky Notes…

But I would carefully read the instructions of the script if you wished to use the whitelist feature… you would have to modify the script… sorta like modify the Window’s registry…something that I don’t think is for Noobs.

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Great, somehow I did not immediately realize that you can simply install it again :grinning:
Then I will probably try this tool after some further study of the instructions in order to free some of the resources from Microsoft garbage.
(If anything, I always have a backup with all the installed programs. So I’m not afraid to break anything by and large.)

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