VR in P3Dv4 with Windows Mixed Reality headsets

[Daube]

Hi all,

I am finally the owner of a VR headset and I started using it in P3Dv4, using the native VR of the simulator (no FlyInside, for now...). It works well but I'm looking for more information, tips and tricks, etc... in the P3Dv4 context.

Of course, the VR experience is really stunning, as everybody has read several times already (and yes, it IS beyond anything you could read).
However I'm still trying to understand the various settings, with various questions like:
- What does this or that mean?
- Should I adjust this in StemVR or somewhere else ?
- Should I use any additional software (like, does the Occulus traytool work/is necessary for my WMR helmet?)

I'm not sure how many people took the plunge and went for a WMR headset.
I know a few of you guys went for the Occulus Rift or the Vive, which have their own settings and software, but there is little to no feedback at all regarding the WMR headsets. That's why I created this topic.

If anybody has any tips to share, or even just questions to ask, you're welcome here

[Navy Chief]

So you got the Samsung Odyssey WMR? NC

[Daube]

No, I couldn't buy it at good price. It's not sold in Europe, and people selling them are obviously taking advantage from this situation.
I got the Lenovo Explorer instead. Same headset as my brother, who let me try it for a few hours in the past few months. Not the best choice on the technical level, but the safest one for sure.

[Daube]

I'll just take the opportunity to describe how I installed the headset on my computer.

First of all, the computer itself is an i7 8700k not overclocked yet (3,7 GHz), coupled with an NVidia GTX 1070ti and 16 GB of RAM, running on Windows 10.
I have not activated or connected the two controllers, as I would need a bluetooth key for them to work, and I don't have that at the moment.
Also, these controllers are useless for P3Dv4 native VR for the moment, so I just kept them in the box.

I have connected the headset to the computer using a USB-3 connector on the motherboard and the HDMI connector on the video card.
As soon as it was connected, Windows 10 recognized it and triggered the download of the Windows Mixed Reality program. That took a while (half an hour) because of my slow internet connection.
Once the WMR was installed and running, I launched Steam and downloaded these two products (download for free):
- SteamVR (1,6 Gb if I remember correctly)
- SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality (6 Mb, very fast)

The last thing to do was to launch P3D. I rebooted the computer first, just in case...
In P3D, after launching a flight, I went to the menu and an item about VR appeared. Inside it, a choice was there to enable the VR, and clicking on it triggered both WMR and SteamVR, and the display appeared in the helmet.

I had to edit my settings to tune them down quite a bit to achieve a smooth movement in the headset. Fortunately, in the headset, the far objects are not so visible, so I could decrease drastically the lod radius, the shadow draw distance and the autogen draw distance, while keeping the autogen density to the max. This gave a comfortable balance thanks to the FPS boost, and I couldn't recognize the loss of quality in the headset display.

Now the only problem I have is the readability. Not only for gauges, but also for distant objects. The low res display is the origin of these limitations of course, it's not a secret for anybody anymore. But I'm still trying to find any tweaks/settings that could bring any kind of improvement

[Navy Chief]

Unfortunately I can't be of much help with the readability difficulty. Do you wear glasses? I do. Actually got fitted for contacts JUST to use the Odyssey! NC

[Daube]

No I don't wear glasses, so adapting to the headset was quite easy for me, fortunately.
Your choice of lenses is not bad at all, I think. Probably the most comfortable solution.

[LouP]

Turn up the supersampling in steam vr and pump up the antialiasing. The readability may get better but the best solution is to increase the resolution in the hmd which is why I got the Odyssey. Still looking forward to higher resolutions someday. I gave up on Flyinside after that last fiasco with P3D v4.3 and actually am preferring the native vr at this point. Nice to have HDR back and the convenience of switching seamlessly between vr and pancake mode. :-)


LouP

[Daube]

Thanks for the feedback, LouP, but could you show me which settings you're referring to exactly ?
I have found the StemVR settings for the headset, including a slider that is, per default, on 100%. However, the strange thing is:
- at 100%, the "resolution per eye" is already 50% superior to the actual resolution of the explorer: they tell about 1900 pixels width or something like that, while the Lenovo has only 1440... So I guess the SuperSampling is already set to 150%, although the slider says 100% ?
- I'm not sure of the meaning of the other option (checkboxes) in the "developper" section of the settings :/

[Dangerous Beans]

The only problem with readability I get is that in a lot of planes the gauges and any text on the panel seems to shimmer.

The trick I use to fix it is to load any gauge and panel textures that are affected into DXTBmp, on the right side there is a box marked "MipMaps", make sure there is a tick next to "include when saving" and then save them.

The shimmering is usually gone after that.

If you try it don't forget to back them up first just in case.

[Daube]

I get the shimmerring as well.
Might be a good idea to try your suggestion indeed.
However, does that mean you have activated the "mipmap vc panels" option in P3D graphics settings ?

[Dangerous Beans]

I get the shimmerring as well.
Might be a good idea to try your suggestion indeed.
However, does that mean you have activated the "mipmap vc panels" option in P3D graphics settings ?

I just checked and it is enabled but I don't remember ever changing it so I think it was enabled by default.

[YoYo]

I read many very GOOD opinions about HP Reverb (IL-2, DCS, X-Plane 11).
Im thinking about buying this set.

Is it work with P3Dv4.5?

[kalong]

I'm Using Samsung Odyssey+, this WMR compatible with P3D v4.5+
I prefer using default P3D virtual reality rather than flyinsider.

default P3D VR:
- stable in all camera view.
- can't click any button ( or I just not found yet, how to make it works).

Flyinside:
- long respond if change camera view with so many artifact ( not good at all). stay in 1 view all the time is better ( i.e. virtual cockpit), but I didn't like it.
- position always change after loop a view camera. not going back to origin position.
- flyinside made change to sim setting, without making any backup. became a problem if want to revert back.
- every button, knob and switch can interact with mouse.

that my sort experience using default VR software and flyinside. both have plus and minus. if both plus combine, stable view and clickable, than there no better stuff than that when using VR.

[Daube]

Any clickable button remains perfectly clickable in the P3D native VR.
If you cannot click in your cockpit, then it's probably because of the blue ribbon "Press Windows+Y..." from Windows Mixed Reality.
Try pressing Windows+Y keys, your mouse pointer (white round dot) should appear again in the cockpit.
I'm using the native VR of P3D with a Lenovo Explorer (WMR) and I don't have any problems to click anything.