The online racing simulator
LFS + Rift my experience
Well I think I'm among the lucky ones. My 3 years old laptop with GeForce GT540M gives me excellent performance. Just bought the full S2 licence and I'm having time of my life with this incredible simulation. My observations.

- For some reason due to blur I need sometimes switch low persistence off and on (as side effect screen becomes slightly darker and razor sharp)
- V-sync on and screen must be set to 75Hz in native resolution, than in game fps is locked at 75. I have sharp, no blur, and no judder picture when using these settings
- It was really bad vomit inducing experience when I was using no v-sync, uncapped frame rate going beyond 100fps
- Make sure camera is at least 1 meter away (ideally 1.5 - 2m but that goes for all Rift demos) so you won’t lose tracking when your head goes out of bounds. Happened to me when trying to lean to inspect the dashboard or look through side window (checking the front wheel work while leaning is crazy cool)

I would like to thank Scawen for his incredible work supporting the Rift device. I feel like teenager, grinning like idiot while playing LFS.

Did I add that for full immersion the wheel, shifter, headphones and buttkicker is mandatory

Edit: Forgot to add that I get small judder in menus while the game is loading track/cars. But that's only a few seconds. Easily manageable..
Thanks for the feedback!

Quote from tailing :Just some of my experience so far, I have found that v-sync off and not limiting the frame rate gives me the best results in terms of positional tracking. Using either v-sync or having the frame rate limited to the default of 100fps introduces noticeable judder or stuttering when moving my head.

I checked the driver settings and the only option for triple buffering, 'OpenGL Triple Buffering' is set to off. This is for an AMD HD7870.

...

Finally one of the hosts I was on would display a number of messages in large text of different colours as the grid was set each race which introduced some mild judder until the text disappeared.

It's strange how the lag with vertical sync can vary between computers. I'm quite sure this is not a personal thing, but a hardware (or drivers) thing. On my computer (with nvidia graphics) and many others, there is a seemingly perfect prediction (provided by the Oculus SDK) for vertical sync, avoiding any perceptible lag. Without vertical sync there is noticeable tearing which I don't believe anyone could describe as "better". So it seems there is quite a bit of hardware variation.

About the text provided by the host, when you have read it, you can make it disappear by pressing SHIFT+I (I for InSim).

Quote from wasyl00 :- For some reason due to blur I need sometimes switch low persistence off and on (as side effect screen becomes slightly darker and razor sharp)

This is the most mysterious thing for me at the moment. I'm pretty sure it's a bug in the Rift drivers. LFS sends the command to set the persistence immediately after initialising the headset. But sometimes (rarely) the Rift is then in a strange state, that seems correctable by later switching low persistence off and on again. Although this blurring / stutter state doesn't seem to look like ordinary high persistence...

If there was a way to reproduce this then I could make a guaranteed fix. Trouble is I've only seen this problem once and couldn't make it happen again. The only thing I can think of so far as to wait a second or two after the rift has started, then make it switch low persistence off and on again. But that seems like a really ugly workaround...
Rift users, if you haven't already, please give us a rating over at Oculus Share!

Hoping to stay in the top 5 of the Top Rated list!

https://share.oculusvr.com/
Quote from Scawen :Rift users, if you haven't already, please give us a rating over at Oculus Share!

Hoping to stay in the top 5 of the Top Rated list!

https://share.oculusvr.com/

Hi Scawen,

Just a little tip. Recently Oculus team added DK2 category on their share website. Please change Supported Rift Versions to DK1 and DK2. Many DK2 owners will not see LFS game once they use DK2 compatible filter.

cheers,
Adam
Yes, in fact for that reason I am aiming to get this DK2 support into our full version as quickly as possible. I can't claim that LFS supports DK2 while it needs a "test patch". Also why the health and safety warning has been implemented...

EDIT : I can't personally change that setting. What I must do is make all the necessary changes and "re-submit" it for Oculus to test and finally they update LFS on the Share site. So that's why LFS full version needs to be in an acceptable DK2 condition before I can make a change.
I think vsync is needed if your PC dosnt do very high fps

-no vsync here as I have much better & more fluid experience with it off

( over 300fps )
Quote from adrianstealth :I think vsync is needed if your PC dosnt do very high fps

-no vsync here as I have much better & more fluid experience with it off

( over 300fps )

It's hard to believe that you don't get any screen tearing at this fps with no vsync. But as Scawen said different hardware configuration/drivers combination can provide different experience. I hope Oculus will be ready with robust SDK/drivers before CV1 release so everyone can enjoy easy plug and play setup with similar experience.
Quote from adrianstealth :I think vsync is needed if your PC dosnt do very high fps

-no vsync here as I have much better & more fluid experience with it off

( over 300fps )

I agree on this but only partly. I feel with VSync the experience is overall the best, but the jittery head motion with small movements is better with very high FPS. Probably due to less motion prediction issues. Timewarp to the rescue please =)
never yet seen tearing so far but I'll give it a oh with a low fps cap to test

my PC geared up to run triple 3d (previous setup before using the rift)

i7 2600k @ 4.8ghz @ gtx Titan @ 1140mhz core

so far it's eating everything alive in the rift

as rift is single screen 2d (although each half of screen is different to deliver 3d)
a small about of resource needed for tracking I guess

p.s I get very fluid tracking too, it really is worth thinking about a CPU/gpu upgrade if the VR experience received is glitchy / lag, no using predictive either
Got my Rift two weeks ago now and I must state: LFS is one of, if not THE best experience out there for the DK2 at the moment!!!

Please keep up the good work Scawen! Thanks!

You are sort of a pioneer now!
Quote from Scawen :It's strange how the lag with vertical sync can vary between computers. I'm quite sure this is not a personal thing, but a hardware (or drivers) thing. On my computer (with nvidia graphics) and many others, there is a seemingly perfect prediction (provided by the Oculus SDK) for vertical sync, avoiding any perceptible lag. Without vertical sync there is noticeable tearing which I don't believe anyone could describe as "better". So it seems there is quite a bit of hardware variation.

I should mention that I have not noticed any screen tearing at all with v-sync off. I might try and have more of a play around this evening testing different options. It does seem to be hardware dependant, for some v-sync works well and they get tearing with it off or v-sync doesn't work well but no tearing with it off.
I have read some people saying the refresh rate of your monitor can cause some of this judder but I don't think mine goes up to 75Hz. I actually wouldn't mind some way to have my monitor sleep whilst in the rift, seems a bit of a waste of energy and even LCDs can develop some image persistence over long periods.
Quote from tailing :I actually wouldn't mind some way to have my monitor sleep whilst in the rift, seems a bit of a waste of energy and even LCDs can develop some image persistence over long periods.

They have a button to switch off, you know?
Is it possible to increase the size of the position list text on the HUD? It is quite small and hard to read in the rift. Bringing the HUD closer doesn't seem to make it any bigger.
Quote from Whiskey :They have a button to switch off, you know?

lol yeah I honestly thought it might cause some issues but trying that today it worked fine. In Titans of Space which uses direct to rift mode when my screen saver came on the monitor it locked Titans up.

Anyway I experimented a bit more today with v-sync etc and v-sync on actually works pretty well overall. Everything is smooth with just the odd little skip or judder. I think the main problem I had initially is actually that 75Hz isn't quite high enough for me, I can notice the overall slight stutter like I would on a monitor at 75fps. Usually in iRacing I need at least 90fps or thereabouts for everything to seem perfectly smooth so I think that is the issue for me with v-sync on. It would actually be usable for me but just not as seamless as v-sync off and unlimited fps.

I also tested v-sync off but with the fps limit and I think I experienced the tearing that Scawen was talking about. The lower the limit the worse it seemed to get. It would be interesting to be able to have more fine control on the fps limit and slowly increase and find the point where the tearing stops.

Overall I think what adrianstealth said is about right, if you can get high fps (I don't seem to ever go below 150 fps) then the best experience is with v-sync off and no fps limit. Otherwise v-sync on works well.
I still think what Scawen has said about each computer giving a slightly different experience is true because for me & my pc the only way I have a stutter free experience is with v-sync on like him. It is also perfectly smooth and accurate for my head position. If I turn v-sync off my fps goes to 333.3, I get no tearing but lots of stutter. It feels like it's running at 40-50fps! For me v-sync on is the only way I can play. (780ti)
Quote from Scawen :Did anyone notice a Rift bug where it seems stuttery / motion blurred when you run it the first time, but this can be corrected by turning off low persistence and then back on again?

What do you mean by 'stuttery'?

I think it's a different issue, but if I'm playing with v-sync enabled then after a short time I start getting very small vertical jitters (image jittering up/down very slightly). This happens even when keeping the headset perfectly stationary. This is different from the 'judder' that many people seem to report which is where the head movement seemingly taking discreet steps as the head rotates rather than a nice smooth movement.

Covering the camera momentarily (or covering the rift's IR LEDs) fixes the jitter issue temporarily but it soon comes back a few seconds after the camera can 'see' the rift again.

Disabling v-sync does seem to entirely eliminate the issue so that's what I've been doing for the time-being.

I get similar problems in some other (but not all) Rift enabled apps, Whirligig being another where the issue is particularly noticeable.

I attempted to make a video showing the issue but if I'm running OBS to mirror the rift's image to the primary monitor the jitter isn't visible there ...only on the rift display itself. I've not yet got around to sticking a camera inside the eyepeice to record the issue directly but will probably have time this evening or later in the week.
Quote from DEADBEEF :What do you mean by 'stuttery'?

I think it's a different issue, but if I'm playing with v-sync enabled then after a short time I start getting very small vertical jitters (image jittering up/down very slightly). This happens even when keeping the headset perfectly stationary. This is different from the 'judder' that many people seem to report which is where the head movement seemingly taking discreet steps as the head rotates rather than a nice smooth movement.

Covering the camera momentarily (or covering the rift's IR LEDs) fixes the jitter issue temporarily but it soon comes back a few seconds after the camera can 'see' the rift again.

Disabling v-sync does seem to entirely eliminate the issue so that's what I've been doing for the time-being.

I get similar problems in some other (but not all) Rift enabled apps, Whirligig being another where the issue is particularly noticeable.

I attempted to make a video showing the issue but if I'm running OBS to mirror the rift's image to the primary monitor the jitter isn't visible there ...only on the rift display itself. I've not yet got around to sticking a camera inside the eyepeice to record the issue directly but will probably have time this evening or later in the week.

This seems like issue with tracking. Make sure you do not have any heavy source of light behind you (in camera view) or reflection. Best to test in complete darkness. Second try mounting camera really far away, like more than 1.5 meter. Test using Oculus "desk" demo where you can switch on/off camera tracking box.
Helmet view
I wonder how difficult would be to include proper helmet view in to the LFS for max immersion also this could eliminate square like Fov border in exchange for cool effect of wearing the helmet. Do you think this could be good idea? Or chopping a little of fov is not recommeded.
Quote from wasyl00 :I wonder how difficult would be to include proper helmet view in to the LFS for max immersion...

This could be a toggle in game options. Why not.
Quote from wasyl00 :This seems like issue with tracking. Make sure you do not have any heavy source of light behind you (in camera view) or reflection. Best to test in complete darkness. Second try mounting camera really far away, like more than 1.5 meter. Test using Oculus "desk" demo where you can switch on/off camera tracking box.

I don't think it's due to any light sources as the problem still occurs with all the lights off (and curtains closed).

You might be right about it being due to the camera's distance. On the rig I'm currently using it with it's kinda haphazardly taped t ... ' from your head position. I'll make a better mount tomorrow when I get a minute.

Odd that disabling v-sync seems to completely resolve the issue though.
Quote from DEADBEEF :Odd that disabling v-sync seems to completely resolve the issue though.

Can I ask you to do something that sounds like a bit of a random test... just in case...

I think from what you said, it was OK at first with vertical sync enabled. If so, can you start like that until the problem comes up, then switch low persistence OFF then ON again. Just to see if somehow this fixes the problem (temporarily).
Quote from Scawen :Yes, in fact for that reason I am aiming to get this DK2 support into our full version as quickly as possible. I can't claim that LFS supports DK2 while it needs a "test patch". Also why the health and safety warning has been implemented...

EDIT : I can't personally change that setting. What I must do is make all the necessary changes and "re-submit" it for Oculus to test and finally they update LFS on the Share site. So that's why LFS full version needs to be in an acceptable DK2 condition before I can make a change.

It would also be great to get support into the full version to be able to upload Oculus times to LFSWorld. It doesn't seem to work with the test patch version. I'd love to put the first times with the Oculus there

Many thanks again for the awesome Oculus support. Like many others already mentioned, this is by far the best DK2 implementation!
Quote from willec :It would also be great to get support into the full version to be able to upload Oculus times to LFSWorld.

Test patches are not allowed to upload hotlaps, just in case they have some advantages over the final release (or previous).
yes, hopefully, soon the 0.6G version will be released
(release => explanations written => Westhill progress included etc ... )
Quote from Scawen :2) To reset your seating position, there is a text command /reset rift which is assigned by default to the F8 key.
- Key assignments can be edited in Options - Game - F1 to F8

Scawen, is it really /reset rift, or have you changed it recently? Because it says /rift reset on the Oculus VR site, and also in your previous posts.
This thread is closed

TEST PATCH 0.6F12 (Rift DK2)
(832 posts, closed, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG