Please allow me to introduce myself: I am a professional software developer, and have been "Flight Simming" since the mid 1980s.

I'd like to share my recent experience of having a new PC purpose built for Prepar3d / FlyInside / Oculus Rift, and what I found  works (for my system) in terms of tweaks etc (they are few).

I should disclose that I took a break from the hobby for roughly 8 years after my then gaming rig bit the dust. This was around the time FSX had been released, and I was slowing migrating over from FS2004.

When I tried an Oculus Rift, at a local big box store, I bought it immediately and set about trying to get a Flight Sim up and running in VR.

A few years ago I purchased an Alienware Laptop; i7 6700HQ , Nvidia 1070, SSDs, and 16GB RAM. This became my initial FSX PC.

Researching Google (prior to the release of Prepar3d v4), I learned that FSX with FlyInside might be the way to go (at the time) for VR. The experience was OK, but I wanted better visuals and better performance.

When Prepar3d went 64 bit, I moved from FSX to Prepar3d.

After disappointing performance from my laptop using: Prepar3d v4.1 with FlyInside, I decided to abandon the laptop to purchase a top-shelf desktop PC reserved for Flight Sim.

As a baseline: In FlyInside, the Alienware laptop would allow me to run at 22 FPS out of Orbx KORS, in light GA aircraft (from Alabeo and Carenado), with the majority of the Prepar3d sliders set to the lower range, and certainly no weather.

It is noteworthy to add, that I use the max resolution found on the Settings tab of the FlyInside interface.

Using what I learned by lurking these forums, I decided to let the professionals at CyberPower PC build a computer to my specs. After all, the technology had changed drastically since the last time I built a PC. So rather than spend my time and effort learning how to build (again), I ordered a turn-key system:

• Asus ROG Strix Z370 mobo
• Intel i7 8700K OC'd to 4.9 GHZ (water cooled)
• Two SSDs (OS on one, and Prepar3d on the other)
• EVGA GTX 1080 Ti
• 32GB 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM

With the new PC, the overall improvement in the Prepar3d visuals, and the FPS, was great, but not what I had hoped for.

With my frame rate locked at 32 FPS, I am now able to max out nearly every slider (except traffic) in Prepar3d.

Unfortunately, I was experiencing horrible shimmering in the distance, with the the new rig, while flying in FlyInside VR.

I researched, and I tried every suggestion that I could find on these forums, and others, to find a solution to the problem.

I experimented with the Nvidia 3D settings, and the Prepar3d display settings for hours, ultimately netting only a small gain in visuals quality. I was disappointed and getting frustrated.

Honestly, nothing I tried worked.

So, I decided to compare the FlyInside image quality to native Prepar3d VR. To my surprise the shimmering in the distance was present, but certainly reduced.

Unfortunately, compared to FlyInside, I found the native VR implementation in Prepar3d to be too difficult to use. It feels very "beta" to me.

No menus in VR, no ATC, and the lack of world scaling are deal-breakers for me; so native VR will not work for me.

Then I stumbled on the Oculus Tray Tool software. 

The Oculus Tray Tool allows me to set an additional level of Super Sampling (I used 2.0) . The result was the artifacts in FlyInside are (nearly) completely gone. The difference is astonishing.

It may be that such a trick requires a powerful computer, but I'm getting 32 FPS (locked) in the Orbx PNW area (filled with Orbx airports), and the visuals improvement, caused by the Oculus Tray tool 2.0 Super Sampling setting, is remarkable.

Oculus Rift should ship with the Oculus Tray Tool. 

Hopefully this will help anyone that may be experiencing shimmering textures in the distance in FlyInside using a Rift.

Thankfully, my shimmering problem is resolved, and I am getting solid performance out of the new PC.

If there is sufficient interest, I can post my settings.

The only tweaks I am using are:

• PTA (obviously without the HDR stuff)
• TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9
  • setting it to 10 resulted in audio problems in the Rift
  • setting it to 9 resolved the sound problem

Most Respectfully,

Chris L,
Corpus Christi, TX

I agree FlyInside works much better for my needs as well.

You can also use the Oculus provided "Oculus Debug Tool" to set the pixel density and other things similar to the Tray Tool.

        https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/pcsdk/latest/concepts/dg-debug-tool/

Additionally if you have maxed out the resolution within FI to 3840 x 2370 and want to take it higher i.e. what you are doing with the Oculus Tray tool a permanent change can be made by editing the FlyInside.ini file and adding a higher resolution option that will then appear in your FI menu set-up. This accomplishes the same thing I believe and you won't have to open and use the Oculus Tray Tool or the provided Oculus Debug Tool each time you fly.

Path to .ini file to increase the resolution of the rift in the FlyInside configuration file for me:            C:\users\myuser\AppData\Roaming\FlyInside\settings_pro_FlyInside P3Dv4_settings.ini

These two custom resolution worked for many:

4752 x 2675

5664 x 2976

The latter with field of view set to 104% I believe gives a pixel density of 2.0 similar to Oculus Tray Tool or Oculus Debug Tool.

Just edit:

Oculus Target Resolution = X by Y   under [Graphics] in the .ini file

Note when you do this a new higher resolution will appear in the FI menu and you can select it and restart, but if you go back and select a previous lower capped resolution of FI i.e. the 3840 x 2374 this option to select the higher again gets overiden in the .ini file and will no longer show up unless you go back and edit the .ini file again with one of the above mentioned resolutions.

My PC didn't have the horse power to utilize it so I went back to:

    3840 x 2374

    Enable Oculus ASW  Off 

    Asyncronous TimeWarp Mode   Low-Speed/High-Stability

    Enable FXAA   Off   (I use 8 x MSAA in P3D)

    FOV    104%

 

Joe

Is it better than trackir?

Hi all,

I too built a new rig, having handed over my prior PC to my teen.  So, like you Chris, I bought (built) an 8700k machine, my specs are very similar to yours except I am using the MSI Z370 M5 motherboard and currently only run 16GB 3200Mhz DDR4.  (DRAM is $$$ right now, and I monitor DRAM usage during flights, I dont ever see hitting the ceiling here...)  It's OC'd to 4.8Ghz at the moment and I have the ASUS 1080 Ti Turbo with 11Gb.  

Although I've used FlyInside for the last couple of years, I find that switching between VR and back out to 2D is most desirable, especially on long flights.  It is a bummer that FI doesn't support switching back & forth.  I'll use 2D for pre-flight, FMC programming, getting ATIS etc, then jump into VR for taxi, takeoff and climb-out.  After 30 mins, I'm ready to remove the headset for awhile.  

Therefore, I'm using P3D's native VR more and more.   What I've found with P3D 4.2 is an incremental improvement in the Native VR implementation.  And I agree with your assessment of the Oculus Tray tool - it's a must.  One thing I discovered yesterday while testing P3D v 4.2, is that enabling 4xSSAA (versus MSAA) or even 8X brings a world of difference to the outside view, dramatically reducing shimmering of the lights in the distance, as well as in the cockpit.  

 

cheers, 

On 2/12/2018 at 5:24 AM, FernandoDiniz said:

Is it better than trackir?

You have to get used to the lower resolution of the display, but the feeling of being IN, ACTUALLY IN, the cockpits, from tiny claustrophobic cherokee's to massive 747s, it's really indescribable.