Can anyone show me VR flight sim footage that doesn’t have stutter?

[wunkley]

Bit concerned here. Ordered a G2 reverb today with the hopes of flight sim nirvana, but every video I’ve seen on YouTube claiming to be VR capture is a stuttering **** show.

At the moment I game on a gsync monitor. Overall Smoothness and stutter free/ hitch free / judder free gameplay is 100% more important to me than ‘high’ FPS.

I see VR footage on YouTube of flight sim 2020 with an FPS counter running, and it’s showing 60 plus FPS, yet it stutters or ‘hitches’ to my eyes every 2 seconds. It looks like total **** and I don’t understand how people can’t see it and think it’s ok.

On my system, a 3090 but with an older cpu at the mo, I get around 35-50 FPS on average in flight sim 2020, but it’s mostly totally smooth with very few hitches.

As VR does not have gsync or the equivalent, is totally smooth stutter free gameplay a possibility in a VR flight sim? Can anyone link some decent video capture evidence?

 

[wunkley]

I take it the footage you are talking about is from an external feed not what you actually see from the HMD?

It’s just random videos I’ve watched on YouTube, so I’m not sure. They’re mostly about the G2 but some with the Q2 also.
I’d estimate out of say 20 videos, only 2 had good smooth footage, one was ok and the rest were just a juddery mess.

And generally speaking, smoothness is not all about raw power and high FPS. As mentioned I see footage online of people running sims and other games at 60fps plus, yet it’s still juddery and not smooth. This is why I got into gsync monitors so early on years ago, a consistent smoothness at 50fps for example, is way more important to me than high FPS that judders.

The mostly bad footage I’ve seen of flight sim 2020 looks like it’s actually running at 10fps it’s that bad, even though they say it’s running above 30 FPS.

I think what you’ve questioned there may be key I.e. is the footage of the clips I’m watching from an external feed or from what is seen in the HMD. How would I tell the difference? Will one have stutter and the other not?

I noticed one guy did quickly mention that the footage might look stuttery to the viewer but to him it was smooth. It’s just I know for a fact that some people’s definition of smooth is just not the same as mine. Some people really don’t notice, and don’t seem to be be bothered by micro stutter and hitching in games. It’s a deal breaker for me unfortunately.

 

[wunkley]

Not sure if you have tried VR yet, but for many people, anything below a rock solid smooth 72 fps will make them queazy. For me, it needs to be 90 fps. Anything below that, and I start to feel sick. It's especially bad if it varies. You need to be thinking about what visual compromises you need to make to lock the came at 72fps or ideally 90fps. Reprojection might work for you, taking it down to 45fps, but for me, that made me sick too. I know you are worried about judder, and that's never nice, and won't give you a great VR experience, but FPS is King in VR. I can happily play 30fps and 60 fps in PC and Console games. The variable frame rate doesn't bother me either. I'm as happy with G-sync on or off, I can even live with tearing. But in VR an ugly 90fps is way more playable than a gorgeous 30 to 50fps, no matter how smooth it feels. You need to find a way to get a high FPS that is judder free, unless you have an iron stomach and just don't tend to suffer motion sickness. Are you comfortable surfing on your phone for 30 mins as a passenger in a car with no nausea?

ps. I gave up trying to get FS2020 running on my system, which is just a 2070 Super. Lowest settings on everything and it was still a dog. Stutter, judder, very low FPS. Just unplayable. I uninstalled it and gave up. It's a tough game.

not tried gaming in VR yet no. G2 coming this week. Thanks for the info bud that’s useful.
I hope/ think I have an iron stomach! I’ve never suffered from travel sickness and used to read in the car for a fair bit as a kid. I’ve seen people talk about training up for VR with gradual exposure which is probably a good idea.

Look, you have ordered the Reverb G2. There two possible outcomes. You will either like VR or you will hate VR. And nobody can tell you which it will be until you put on the headset and try it out for yourself.

Most people these days like VR, because the headsets are so much better. So chances are you also will like VR.

Now where is all this leading? If you like VR and the amazing sense of presence and through the roof immersion levels that it brings, then things that you find important in pancake won't matter as much. You will find that you are happy to make compromises to keep that immersion level.

It's really hard to explain, but once you put on the headset, power up your favourite flight sim and find yourself sitting the cockpit of a plane then, hopefully, you will understand!!

heha cheers! I know, I think I’m trying to stave off potential buyers remorse with the G2, maybe thinking I should have gone for the much cheaper Q2 as it’s my first foray into vr. I reckon I’ll love it if I can get it running well.

thanks for all the input fellas, seems like a friendly helpful section in this vr forum.

 

[wunkley]

I’ve managed to find a few videos myself on YouTube of several flight sims, up in the air footage - that is done “through the lens” like suggested above.

All my worries about horrible judder in VR are now gone! Even though they are filmed on a camera phone and rubbish technical quality I can see everything is super fluid and looks silky silky smooth.

Traditional Internal video capture on a capture card of VR footage must be technically difficult or impossible to do (?) because I’ve worked out that all the horrible stutter and jerky footage I’d seen was that style of capture, not through the lens stuff.

Really looking forward to getting the G2 now!

 

[wunkley]

Thanks mate. Good footage, but it’s a prime example of what I’m talking about. In the few moments you look towards the ground you can see it best - every 2 or 3 seconds there is a ‘jerk’. Like a sudden shift in the whole landscape. It’s so so far from smooth and it looks terrible.
And the head movement is also very erratic With no smooth pans in these externally captured videos, yours included.

If it was like that in the headset it would be unplayable for me. As you say though, in actuality in the headset it is smooth. The issue must be with the programs people are using to capture the footage, something to do with a mismatch in frame rates between the footage displayed and then what its saved/ rendered at.

The thing is, all over YouTube there are these externally captured VR videos with terrible jerky footage. It’s such a bad advert for the technology. A lot of people would look at them and think wtf is that stuttering *****, never buying one of those. I would anyway, thankfully though I know better now