Meta Quest

Alex

@DrDamn I realise I forgot to include a USB-C to USB 3 adapter like I said I would. I have loads of them so if you need I can pop one in an envelope and post it.

DrDamn

Alex I have a USB-C port on my PC so should be fine. Thanks anyway 😁

BritishBean

Did anyone else experience issues with the Oculus Link test? I’m using the included 1m USB C cable into the USB C port on the laptop. When it did it’s tests it said “plug into a USB 3 port to get full bandwidth”… I’ve got another cable which is USB A one end and USB C the other and plugged it into all USB ports but I still got the same message.

The USB C and 2x USB A ports are USB 3.2 apparently on my laptop so wondering if it’s the cable maybe?

Brave

Yeah you need to get a dedicated link cable matey. That cable (if it’s the one that comes in the box) is just for charging. Link didn’t launch until a few months after the quest 2 came out iirc. So it’s always been sold separately.

It’s a high data rate cable. If you scroll up you’ll find a couple of cheap alternatives to the Oculus brand one; which is expensive imo, but performs a little bit better. I’ve got the cheaper alternative and I’ve never had issues though.

Alex

Yeah you need a proper cable for it. The bandwidth needed by VR is incredibly high, you need thick well-shielded cables rather than the little ones designed to carry .5 amps of power. Also not all USB sockets are equal. You should try it in different sockets on your computer as some provide considerably better performance. Don’t take USB 3.0 for granted, some USB 3 sockets are shite. The Oculus will compress the image if the bandwidth isn’t high enough leading to the picture looking more grainy and generally crappy so having a good performing socket/cable is worth it.

BritishBean

Alex Don’t take USB 3.0 for granted, some USB 3 sockets are shite.

This was bang on. The USB Test wouldn’t start when plugged into the USB-A 3.2 port on the left side of the laptop. However, plugged into the one on the right side and the test ran and confirmed it was compatible and green.

Haven’t noticed any improvement latency wise though so I think it probably had the same bandwidth or similar using the other 3.2 port but the test wouldn’t run for some reason.

Very quickly tried RaceRoom a minute ago. Although textures are somewhat less detailed, it does achieve a low latency performance and pleasing looking graphics out of the box. I suppose the issue is ACC is a lot more detailed graphically?

Having seen RaceRoom run smoothly it really does make me consider iRacing. The costs worry me though.

BritishBean

I’ve borrowed a friends cable and I think my limitation is my laptop. To get it running with 10ms latency which feels ok, the visuals are awful.

If I pic VR Epic the visuals are good but latency is up to 30ms

Brave

That seems odd to me. Is it an actual cable that’s been used to drive oculus link by your friend ?

BritishBean

Brave yes apparently been used with it with no issues before but when I tried the USB test it came up with an error saying it couldn’t start the test. However, I was able to change refresh rate from 72hz to 80, 90 or 120 so assumed that was because the cable was more suitable.

My GPU utilisation is at about 96-97% with VR epic and 20-30ms latency.

My own cable arrives today so will test with that but I’m not holding my breath.

Jogort

BritishBean where are you seeing the latency numbers, don’t think I’ve noticed that. Yeah VR GPU utilisation is high, my laptop 2070 super does ok on the likes of half-life Alyx but I turn settings down for iracing, might have to try ACC on it.

BritishBean

Jogort You can turn it on in the SteamVR menu when the program box is on the desktop screen 👍🏻

I was wondering about iRacing and whether that was more taxing or not than ACC…

Alex

iRacing is much less taxing than ACC for VR. It’s easier to get VR running well and looking decent in iRacing. That’s one reason I don’t do much ACC these days.

BritishBean

Alex interesting. Maybe worth taking up the Steam offer for 3 months to try it out

Brave

Make sure you don’t use steamvr accidentally. Oculus will run anyway in the background and make the frame rate tank iirc. If you have the option with a quest 2, always go the oculus route.

It shouldn’t happen often, but I had steam vr launch with iracing last season and it took me a while to figure it all out.

BritishBean

Brave hmm ok yes I launch ACC through Steam VR but Oculus app is open in the background. I haven’t found a way to launch ACC VR in Oculus

Brave

Some games don’t give you the option unfortunately. If you’re launching ACC from steam do you get a pop up asking you to choose between steam and oculus and flat screen?

Brave

This is what I get. If you see this, choose oculus.

BritishBean

Brave Ah right ok thank you I’ll try. I think I’ve tried opening the desktop app and it told me I’m opening the native version not VR. So I’ll try this route thanks.

Brave

Also bear in mind you can keep any number of profiles of graphic settings inside ACC. I have one for both pancake and vr (much reduced fidelity). I also have a copy of each one slightly tweaked for if I’m running OBS at the same time but that’s an over complication. Just know that you can have a separate set of gfx tweaks to use for vr if you feel the need.

BritishBean

Brave Yes thanks I’ve been using those as I’ve been inputting settings from a ‘LynxSec guide’. The EPIC settings seem to work well on here in pancake mode though so I won’t need too many profiles I don’t think.

I ran the game in the way you showed above and selected Oculus VR mode. I think that might have helped along with disabling the laptop screen when using VR as things seemed smoother and the NVIDIA Performance Overlay showed around 70% GPU Utilisation rather than the 99% I had previously. With that I set to work on improving the image. I’m really struggling with the view in the mid to far distance which is very pixelated. It’s extremely distracting and makes it difficult to focus on driving. I’ve narrowed it down to two main settings which I need to tweak - Resolution Scale and VR Pixel Density. Problem is these two settings seem to be absolute killers on the GPU. Once I turned them both up I had serious FPS issues.
Speaking of FPS, anyone know how I can monitor that in VR? I can use the NVIDIA Overlay on the laptop screen but obviously I have to keep taking the VR off my face to view it, and the overlay options in the Oculus Debug app were very complicated I didn’t know which one meant FPS.

Brave

BritishBean it’ll take some tweaking. But also give it a bit of time. There’s a lot about the vr experience that those of us with seasoned vr legs take for granted but that will definitely distract at the beginning.

I’d choose a setting that gives you a good frame rate above all and then live with it for a few days. You’ll be surprised how invisible some of the things that seem initially distracting will become.

Then once your brain settles down with the experience, tweak something slightly. And try again.

BritishBean

Brave I hear you. I’ve seen what it can be on VR Epic though 😆 sadly the poor quality on settings suitable for my laptop take away from the immersion right now. I’ll try running some races online and see if it eases on my eyes

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