This is a post I've taken from the ENORMOUS
Oculus Rift Discussion thread. Hopefully it should be more accessible and helpful here.
Updated 2 April 2015
If new builds are out when you read this then you should check the most recent posts below to see if there are any discussion of changes. I will try to keep this first post reasonably up to date with new suggestions and findings.
Setup your Rift
- Read the
full Oculus Getting Started Guide and the
DK2 Quick start guide
- Install the
latest Oculus Runtime for your operating system (latest is v0.5.0.1-beta)
- Update the firmware as described in the user guide (latest is v2.12)
- Customise your settings in the Oculus Configuration utility, including the advanced section to ensure you have the correct IPD setting
- Make sure the Positional Tracking Camera isn't too high compared to your eyes, otherwise you will start very low in the cockpit
- If you are having issues then have a look around on the Oculus Developer forums, there is lots of helpful info
- This detailed setup video may also be helpful
http://youtu.be/LFCUogEG7tM (thanks Joe Moore)
Setup your Rift for pCars
- put Rift in extended mode (pCars is not currently fully operational in direct mode)
- Rift does not need to be primary monitor, set it as secondary monitor to make life much easier
- rotate the Rift to portrait position via your Nvidia/AMD control panel
- pCars will automatically detect the Rift and select it's maximum refresh rate, even if the graphics menu suggests otherwise (this can be tested with Ctrl-s when using v-sync)
- some say that matching your standard monitors refresh rate to your rift helps prevent judder, but this had no impact on my system
- some say that turning off aero (windows composition) helps prevent judder, but again this had no impact on my system
Consider using the B lenses
- I've done some side-by-side testing (with one A and one B lens) and found I actually prefer the B lenses - even though I have completely normal vision. I still use the A "Eye cups" setting in the Oculus Config Utility. Your mileage may vary.
- There is increased clarity towards the sides of the B lenses. This is both very functional and very comfortable. It feels much more natural to look around with your eyes more and not need to turn your head as much, eg glance to your mirror and see it clearly rather than turn your head to look directly at it. This is gives the impression of increased "functional" fov. I like it a LOT!
- The B lense don't protrude towards your eyes as much and therefore you can reduce the eye relief setting without your eye lashes touching the lenses (unless your nose gets in the way) which provides a real FOV increase.
- Also, the "screen-door-effect" is significantly reduced. At first I thought this was because I'd left the plastic lens protectors on the B lenses (a tip I saw on the developer forums) but in the end I decided to remove the protector for slightly increased clarity and I still found the screen-door-effect was reduced compared to the A lenses. This gives the image a smoother look, it's harder to see pixels and therefore a little easier to feel presence.
- However, the B lenses may give you the impression that the distance is blurrier and it's harder to focus on it. But it turns out this is somewhat of an illusion. I realise now that when using the A lenses I had been focusing quite a bit on the actual pixels in an attempt to "lock" my eyes on a distant object, and since the pixels are less obvious with the B lenses you can't rely on them as a focal object, and therefore you can get the impression that the distance is blurrier and it's harder to focus on it. However, when you use one of each lense to compare them directly there is actually no difference in the blurriness of the image! It does maybe feel a little easier for your eyes to feel like they focus on the distance with the A lenses, but that's because you're focusing on the pixels (the screen door effect) not the distant object and not because it's any clearer. So, the blurriness in the distance is simply due to the low resolution of the DK2, not the B lenses, it's just more obvious when using the B lenses. I am happy to accept this trade off. But again, your mileage may vary.
Setup pCars Steam launch options
- using -skipcrowds can significantly improve fps
- using /USERNAME yourusername /PASSWORD yourpassword will save you needing to type these in which is difficult with the Rift
- there are no steam launch options necessary to use the rift, it is automatically detected
- you can use -novr to disable the Rift detection (or just turning it off also works)
- you can disable dynamic VR predication with -vrnodynp
- the Rift doesn’t currently appear to work with DX9, so you’re out of luck with a DX9 card
Setup pCars
- delete your profile and graphicsconfig file after each new build is installed and restart your system to ensure maximum compatibility
- make sure you are running the latest Weekly build in the Steam Beta tab (Junior builds may not have full Rift support yet).
- the menus are not currently in 3d, only the actual game, so it can be useful to disable the Rift and load the game to edit your settings, eg controller, graphics, track, car, weather, etc, then exit pCars and restart the Rift and restart pCars
- you can actually learn to navigate the menus quite well from inside the rift, you left eye sees most of the left half of the screen, while the right eye sees most of the right side
- alternatively, when you finish a race and go back to menus, simply click the "off" button on top of the rift. The display will then jump back to full single screen on your monitor. Turn the rift on again when you start a race. (thanks flibberflops)
- another alternative is to use
OBS to mirror the Rift display to your desktop, some have found that this drops their fps, others love it
- if you set the graphics settings using your normal monitor then you’ll only be able to select the resolution and refresh rate of your standard monitor. However, as mentioned above, pCars will automatically, detect the Rift and select it's maximum refresh rate, even if the graphics menu suggests otherwise (this can be tested with Ctrl-s when using v-sync)
Setup pCars controller settings
- it's very important to map a button on your keyboard or wheel to “Centre VR Headset”
- also map buttons to the seat up/down, forward/back controls and use them to adjust your eye position from the default if needed
Your frames per second (fps) MUST always be higher than your refresh rate of 75
- this ensures smooth tracking and prevents nausea
- your fps will drop significantly in the DK2 compared to your normal monitor, perhaps by 25% or more, so to get 75fps in the Rift you'll need at least 100fps constant on a standard 1080 monitor
- you can view your fps in game with either Ctrl-s or using software such as RTSS (with OSD coordinates adjusted to x300 & y500)
- drop graphics detail to achieve 75fps at all costs
- 75fps is much more important than graphics detail!
- got it?
Experiment with Vsync on/off, capping fps at 75, and simultaneously using a 75fps cap and Vsync
- v-sync off (internal tracking movements can be stuttery/juddery, while positional tracking is smooth, see
here)
- v-sync on (can cause lag and unnatural world movement)
- fps cap of 75 and v-sync off (can provide excellent very-low-lag tracking with tearing, however I get almost no tearing if I use 32bit instead of 64bit)
- fps cap of 75 AND v-sync on (can provide less lag than using vsync alone with no tearing)
- a higher cap (eg 80 or 100) actually creates blur and stutter, so stick with 75!
- You can use either the vsync in the game or via your graphics card control panel, the ingame vsync is clever enough to disable itself if you drop below your refresh rate (thanks Griff)
- you can cap your fps with software such as Nvidia Inspector or RTSS built into MSI Afterburner
- you can view your fps in game with either Ctrl-s or using software such as RTSS (with OSD coordinates adjusted to x300 & y500)
Setup camera settings
- Go to options > camera > movement and set the following:
- High Speed Shake... default is no, it's quite bumpy if you use with the Rift
- World movement... default is 50, 0 locks eye position relative to the horizon, 100 locks eye position relative to the car position (like in LFS)
- G-force effect... default is 50, try 0 to turn off or 100 to exaggerate
- show helmet = (automatically disabled when Rift detected)
- helmet depth of field = (automatically disabled when Rift detected)
- helmet look to apex = (automatically disabled when Rift detected)
- helmet leaning = (automatically disabled when Rift detected)
- camera leaning = (automatically disabled when Rift detected)
Setup pCars with reasonably low graphics settings to ensure 75fps, for example
Visual FX:
- Post processing = on
- Lens flare = on
- Sun flare external and internal = full
- Bloom = on
- Heat haze = off
- Detailed Grass = off
- HDR mode = photographic
- Global Specular Irradiance = on
- Exposure Compensation = 1.0
- Rain drops = yes
- Vignette = yes
- Particle level = low
- Particle density = low
- Crepuscular rays = no
- Stretched Headlight Reflections = yes
- Stretched Lamppost Reflections = yes
Fidelity:
- Resolution = ignore, pCars automatically sets 1920x1080 at max refresh rate
- Windowed = no
- Texture resolution = high
- Texture filter = 16 (you could drop this to 8 but it usually has very little fps impact)
- Vsync = see section above for more info
- AA = off
- FXAA = off
- SMAA = off
- Reflections = low
- Environment map = low
- Car detail = high
- Track detail = high (though there seems to be more pop-up in the Rift compared to the same setting on a normal monitor)
- Shadow detail = off
- Motion blur = off
- Render ahead = 1
Hardware:
- VR Predict = 1.0 (doesn’t seem to make any difference on my system)
- Use shared memory = no (unrelated to rift)
- Jitter Tweak = 4.0 (not specifically related to the Rift)
Increase graphics settings once you are sure you can always maintain 75 fps
- add either MSAA or DS2X (MSAA is better on vertical jaggies, DS2X is better with lines on road, some people have reported that MSAA might be causing a "slight movement of the world for one or two frames" issue, but this might be fixed by now)
- increase Reflections, Environment map and car detail (but you might not notice a difference in the Rift)
- increase particle level and density (but you might not notice a difference in the Rift)
- 2560x1440@75hz does not seem to provide improvements to image quality like it does in LFS and Elite Dangerous, perhaps because 1920x1080@75Hz is forced automatically
Don't worry, more DK2 updates and optimisations are on the way
- I know its hard, but please try to be patient
Any suggestions? I'll try to keep things updated as we go along.
Originally Posted by matt2380
This is a post I've taken from the ENORMOUS Oculus Rift Discussion thread. Hopefully it should be more accessible and helpful here.
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