Anyone who has played a flight simulator knows that screen real estate is critical. A TV or monitor with an average of 16:9 is fine for most video games, but flight simulators are all about the spatial perception of sitting in the cockpit, staring at a massive console of virtual buttons and screens, and getting an aerial view captured by the windshield of a plane and a window.
A wider screen is best for this simulation, while a great VR headset opens up the virtual atmosphere – but at the cost of VR’s high processing requirements.
Since July 2020, the teams have been responsible for Microsoft Flight Simulator it has been Promise to make VR truly playable out of the game. This covenant began with serious turmoil months later, and then My first examsI’ve warned concerned fans not to prepare their stomachs for a bumpy ride.
The only stutter there should come from the air
This week my tune changed. I now recommend anyone with a powerful gaming PC and VR headset to do everything they can for the test MSFS‘s VR mode. This comes on the heels of a huge patch launched on the side The new version of the game on Xbox Series X / S. The patch targets the game’s CPU-dependent performance and delivers more stable frame rates, whether on a standard monitor or spread across a pair of VR headset lenses.
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This gallery collects real-time footage from my last 90fps VR flight over my hometown of Seattle, which I chose partly because it’s a difficult city to view and partly because I can fly over my home. Each photo is a shot of a single VR lens, which is why it has an odd ratio.
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You can also change the third person view in VR.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
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This is the space needle.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
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This is Puget Sound.
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This is the western view from my cockpit, with thin majestic clouds as I imagine it MSFS.
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This body of water is Green Lake. This recording does not appear to contain a small version of Sam Machkovech riding a bicycle on his bike path while ringing his silly bell at passersby on his way.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
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Even without company signage, I can use contextual cues to tell this is a local department store.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
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While it’s not the most vivid visualization of the city, I can imagine this is a good display option that can now be played in VR at a decent frame rate.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
The biggest difference arises from the direct comparison with the first VR test scenario, since it runs on a platform with an i7-8700K CPU. Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU, 32 GB DDR4-3000 RAM. In December 2020, I indicated that I couldn’t update the game to 90fps with the lowest VR settings while the resolution was scaled back to 60 percent of the original figure. With the same hardware, I can run slightly higher graphics settings this week, run my original resolution at 70 percent and achieve a frame rate close to 90 fps.
The main factor in past poor performance has been on-time rallies. The number of stutters and spikes in the game have been greatly reduced thanks to the latest PC version updates, even when flying over a densely populated city. MSFS Can’t keep up with the 90fps refresh request, the frame rate is still hovering near 80fps.
This optimization is the secret to enduring lower frame rates in VR. You can be content with a slower update within the confines of a slow-moving virtual plane, especially since MSFS It’s about the conscious and accurate experience of realistic planes, not about losing battles. If that means you want to run this game on slower hardware or run different settings to get a maximum frame rate of 72fps or even 60fps, you will get better performance.
Now that CPU-dependent stuttering has been greatly reduced, I can safely say that PC and VR enthusiasts no longer need the most expensive hardware imaginable to know what they can imagine. MSFSVR mode can appear.
As in my tests on the console version, I filmed specific locations I know for my VR tests. Some are filled with huge cityscapes. Others are barren and desolate regions. For some, I had to fly through valleys with harsh terrain and correspondingly strong weather systems. I found that dense cities were more likely to cause a slight decrease in framerate than large expanses of nature, while all scenarios were still prone to occasional and odd stops for up to 10 seconds. I’m not sure how much these pauses will affect game servers that have been bombarded by new console owners, but the snags were certainly annoying — although I do stop the constant stumbles on VR versions and older PCs.
Also be careful: the geometric details are still weird when you get close to them in VR. This is because the slider with a high level of detail makes the challenging game run smoothly. Between this issue and low-resolution elements like textures and water reflections, your brain won’t necessarily be tricked into thinking you’re on a real flight, even if you surround your virtual reality device with realistic and satisfying computer control systems. Unless you have a supercomputer from the future, you are in virtual reality for more visibility and general comfort, rather than photo-realistic. (Although in some places, especially at the Seattle Fair above, MSFS It can still look great in VR because a lot of weather systems work just fine.)
I also tested some VR games with them AMDs RX 6800XT On the same machine I was surprised to see the GPU struggling to achieve similar frame rates. I hope the solution will be small patches for Xbox Game Studios or AMD, especially since I was expecting AMD to win this particular battle (since Xbox Series X/S consoles were already taking advantage of AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU architecture).
One caveat: blurry dashboards
The same improvements can be found in the non-VR version of the game on PC. This is great news for anyone who has tried it before MSFS by timer Game Pass Subscription Then deposit. If that’s you, I recommend flying MSFS back on the computer.
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Graphics settings for gameplay gallery above, part one.
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Graphics settings for gameplay gallery above, part two.
Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
The best way to get higher average frame rates in VR is with lower resolution indoors MSFSVR graphics menus. Then aligned with allowing as few shade-related permutations as possible. Ambient occlusion is a great graphics option to allow for more realistic shadow touches on the objects in your cockpit. At the same time, VR frames drop more than they’re worth.
First, go to the Developer Settings tab in SteamVR and enable Viewport Timing orGPU performance graph. This setting will give you a weird little box at any time. Once this screen is on, start a quick instance of a VR flight in New York City or London, wait a minute for data to stream through the cloud, pause, and find the various graphics settings, then click Click “Apply”. You’ll notice an immediate effect on the frame time graph during the gameplay interval, and you’ll need a count of about 11.1 at 90 fps, 12.5 at 72 fps, or 13.9 at 72 fps. And when you see that number rising approaching one of these refresh rates, pause, shave normally, and see the power fluctuation graph before going back to the menus and tuning again.
Your preferred result will likely require a significant reduction in accuracy. This results in blurry text on dashboards – but also some solid standard workarounds for remote detailing about game smoothing. (In other words, if you like a newer set of VR LED displayAnd HP Reverb G2, or Oculus Quest 2 And look into the distance, the HTC Vive 1.0 doesn’t look that blurry.)
Just make sure to turn off all ‘re-drop’ options in SteamVR for MSFS. This system poorly resolves constantly moving blur in your field of view.
If you’ve immersed yourself in VR as a result of this article, or have been in a hurry since the update rolled out about 24 hours ago, I appreciate the test results and recommendations in the comments section below.
List of photos from Xbox Game Studios / Asobo Studios
