Oculus Quest 2 getting official wireless 'Air Link' mode and 120hz PC support

[Razyre]

Try Virtual desktop now with the SSW update and see what you think.

I had a go with the SSW update - the only app that ever really bothered me for SW was Dirt Rally 2.0, you really notice it at the edges of the screen when you're travelling at high speed. Annoyingly, the SteamVR version of DR 2.0 sucks, the resolution is stuck at a very low level, performance is bad, so have to stick to the Oculus runtime verison (air link/wired link).

Ultimately, it just makes more sense to use a cable when you're sim racing to guarantee a stable connection.

Air Link in general seems a little more stable for me than VD, when they are each working well, it's amazing, each have hiccups for me in their own ways. I think I need a dedicated router on an uncontested channel to improve performance further.

 

[newuser]

Had a go with VD and SSW, could be useful depending on the game but still causes visual artifacts on things like crosshairs. Pcars 2 wasn't terrible running at 60fps and reprojecting to 120 but I have all the overlays turned off. The occasional screen pop ups vibrate in an alarming fashion. Nice to be able to drive in the dark or at night now though.

Yeah, edited to add - meant to say in the dark or in the rain. I've been outside in the sun. Don't recommend it.

 

[RevBillyG]

Anyone know if it's possible to have airlink activated by default to save having to turn it on everytime I start the desktop software?

 

[melmac]

Anyone know if it's possible to have airlink activated by default to save having to turn it on everytime I start the desktop software?

Since it's still in Experimental stage, I don't think there is any way to leave it on full time or have it turn on Automatically when you try to connect.

 

[RevBillyG]

Thought as much. Hopefully they'll add it in a future update.

 

[newuser]

Anyone know if it's possible to have airlink activated by default to save having to turn it on everytime I start the desktop software?

Don't think so, also it turns off if you change the resolution which is a pain as sometimes I'm in a different room to the pc to get some more space. I've used virtual desktop to restart airlink before now.

 

[Kautya]

Seems airlink is also being made available to Quest 1 owners -
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535772/oculus-quest-vr-air-link-wireless-pc-streaming-original

 

[Robert Walker]

THIS!!! This is awesome! Slightly disappointed that I bought a long 3.0 USB cable and now I can just connect wirelessly. Although I'm sure performance will still be better with the wire. Now I need to buy one of those fancy keyboards (until the experimental feature "use me with any keyboard" comes along )

 

[ragp]

Has anyone experienced the issue of poor performance (dropped frames and moving objects stuttering) using Air Link at 72 or 80hz, but not at 90/120?

I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600 with RX6800 and don't recall having this with my 5700XT. But despite a full format of Windows, a factory reset of the Quest 2, and driver updates, the exact same issue remains.

Oculus Debug Tool is showing many Dropped frames and very high Encoding latency (20+ ms) at 72 and 80hz, but not at higher frequencies, as soon as I start Air Link. It remains the same while launching a game/app in the Dashboard environment.

Oddly enough, the stuttering disappears as soon as I start AMD Adrenalin's screen recording functionality, leading me to think it's somehow codec related.

Wired link at 72/80hz is fine by the way.

 

[melmac]

Has anyone experienced the issue of poor performance (dropped frames and moving objects stuttering) using Air Link at 72 or 80hz, but not at 90/120?

I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600 with RX6800 and don't recall having this with my 5700XT. But despite a full format of Windows, a factory reset of the Quest 2, and driver updates, the exact same issue remains.

Oculus Debug Tool is showing many Dropped frames and very high Encoding latency (20+ ms) at 72 and 80hz, but not at higher frequencies, as soon as I start Air Link. It remains the same while launching a game/app in the Dashboard environment.

Oddly enough, the stuttering disappears as soon as I start AMD Adrenalin's screen recording functionality, leading me to think it's somehow codec related.

Wired link at 72/80hz is fine by the way.

That is a weird problem, haven't noticed anything like that myself.

I am pretty sure Air Link and Wired Link use the same codec. However, I wonder is it something going into low power mode when you are using 72/80 Hz over Air Link. And that running the screen recording is keeping everything fully on. Are you using a wifi adapter on your PC for the Quest 2? Or do you connect through a router and the router is connected by network cable to the computer?

 

[ragp]

That is a weird problem, haven't noticed anything like that myself.

I am pretty sure Air Link and Wired Link use the same codec. However, I wonder is it something going into low power mode when you are using 72/80 Hz over Air Link. And that running the screen recording is keeping everything fully on. Are you using a wifi adapter on your PC for the Quest 2? Or do you connect through a router and the router is connected by network cable to the computer?

What brand and model GPU do you have?

I don't know if the codecs are the same. I could imagine Wired has a higher throughput and would require less compression (and hence a different codec) compared to Air Link. But that's just guessing from my part.

My thoughts were also going along the line of a low power mode, most likely one from the GPU. I turned off Link state power management in the Ryzen power profile, which is the only GPU related power setting I could think of, but it had no effect. What made me doubt that this is the issue is that at low resolution + 90hz the issue is not present. Even though I would expect it to be easier on the GPU than max resolution + 72 or 80hz.

I configured a router as a dedicated VR access point connected by cable to the VR computer. It uses its own 5Ghz band and it's lag free and fast as far as I can tell. I tried my regular home router as well, which struggled with 100mbit/s, but it showed the same difference in stuttering between 72/80 vs 90+hz. Which makes me rule out the network connection.

To visualize the issue: At 72hz you can see the Red line in the top-left graph, which I think is Encoder latency, be extremely high together with consistent dropped frames. Somehow the Frame rate (hz) shows 0.

At 80hz it starts to spike between 45-75hz and the latency almost becomes normal:

At 90hz the latency is fine and Frame rate consistently at 90, as well with no dropped frames

 

[melmac]

What brand and model GPU do you have?

I don't know if the codecs are the same. I could imagine Wired has a higher throughput and would require less compression (and hence a different codec) compared to Air Link. But that's just guessing from my part.

My thoughts were also going along the line of a low power mode, most likely one from the GPU. I turned off Link state power management in the Ryzen power profile, which is the only GPU related power setting I could think of, but it had no effect. What made me doubt that this is the issue is that at low resolution + 90hz the issue is not present. Even though I would expect it to be easier on the GPU than max resolution + 72 or 80hz.

I configured a router as a dedicated VR access point connected by cable to the VR computer. It uses its own 5Ghz band and it's lag free and fast as far as I can tell. I tried my regular home router as well, which struggled with 100mbit/s, but it showed the same difference in stuttering between 72/80 vs 90+hz. Which makes me rule out the network connection.

To visualize the issue: At 72hz you can see the Red line in the top-left graph, which I think is Encoder latency, be extremely high together with consistent dropped frames. Somehow the Frame rate (hz) shows 0.

At 80hz it starts to spike between 45-75hz and the latency almost becomes normal:

At 90hz the latency is fine and Frame rate consistently at 90, as well with no dropped frames

Thanks for the info. Not so sure it's power saving thing now. I was kind of hoping that you were using a Wifi adapter on your PC for the Quest 2.

When you go into Air Link can you select 200Mbps or are you stuck with 100Mbps?

 

[ragp]

Thanks for the info. Not so sure it's power saving thing now. I was kind of hoping that you were using a Wifi adapter on your PC for the Quest 2.

When you go into Air Link can you select 200Mbps or are you stuck with 100Mbps?

100Mbps because my GPU is an AMD card.

 

[melmac]

100Mbps because my GPU is an AMD card.

Looks like you were right with your first guess. It's a ****** AMD codec problem.

Two suggestions. Have you tried lowering the bitrate down to 50Mbps or less? (until the stutter goes away?)

Second, If I was you, I would buy Virtual Desktop and test it out. You can chooses what Codec to use(HEVC or H.264). Try it, see how you like it. You can return it afterwards.

If it is a codec problem, there is nothing you can do only wait for the next Air link release. It's still experimental after all.

 

[ragp]

Looks like you were right with your first guess. It's a ****** AMD codec problem.

Two suggestions. Have you tried lowering the bitrate down to 50Mbps or less? (until the stutter goes away?)

Second, If I was you, I would buy Virtual Desktop and test it out. You can chooses what Codec to use(HEVC or H.264). Try it, see how you like it. You can return it afterwards.

If it is a codec problem, there is nothing you can do only wait for the next Air link release. It's still experimental after all.

Yep tried the lowest bitrate possible and can still see the choppy movement...

VD has been running poorly before I formatted my pc with either Codec. I'll give it a go but my generally impression was that Air Link should offer superior performance (when running correctly).

 

[Admir]

Yep tried the lowest bitrate possible and can still see the choppy movement...

VD has been running poorly before I formatted my pc with either Codec. I'll give it a go but my generally impression was that Air Link should offer superior performance (when running correctly).

It's a half-year old post, but still actual, I think, to someone at least.

My opinion: With switching to 72 or 80Hz the render resolution is also higher than 90 or 120Hz (with automatic setting enabled ofc). That's might be a problem, because the encode resolution is somehow linked to the render resolution. The AMD encoder can't encoding that fast enough. You can test it, if you set the encode resolution in ODT to any lower value than the render resolution (preferably 90Hz automatic render resolution).

 

[zero71]

It's a half-year old post, but still actual, I think, to someone at least.

My opinion: With switching to 72 or 80Hz the render resolution is also higher than 90 or 120Hz (with automatic setting enabled ofc). That's might be a problem, because the encode resolution is somehow linked to the render resolution. The AMD encoder can't encoding that fast enough. You can test it, if you set the encode resolution in ODT to any lower value than the render resolution (preferably 90Hz automatic render resolution).

I found that if I changed anything from the defaults in the debug tool, it was a complete **** show. Running on defaults in ODT and then setting the resolution and refresh rate in the regular Oculus app to something I was happy was (90 and I dunno, 1.2, 1,3, something like that) was the way to go. It was instantly better than VD and the link cable once set to defaults on ODT.

 

[Admir]

I found that if I changed anything from the defaults in the debug tool, it was a complete **** show. Running on defaults in ODT and then setting the resolution and refresh rate in the regular Oculus app to something I was happy was (90 and I dunno, 1.2, 1,3, something like that) was the way to go. It was instantly better than VD and the link cable once set to defaults on ODT.

With Airlink (and perhaps with VD, I don't know) ODT best bitrate settings are the defaults. But the encode resolution can't be set anywhere else. I have an old RX580 and the default encode resolution setting is laggy, the encode latency is about 17ms. I have to set the enc. res. to 2200, that is work fine. I know my GPU have way worst encoder than any 6xxx AMD GPUs, but as I have heard AMD encoders are weaker than NVIDA ones. My oppinion is the default settings are tested with NVIDIA.

BTW is your problem still exist wit 72 or 80Hz?

 

[ragp]

It's a half-year old post, but still actual, I think, to someone at least.

My opinion: With switching to 72 or 80Hz the render resolution is also higher than 90 or 120Hz (with automatic setting enabled ofc). That's might be a problem, because the encode resolution is somehow linked to the render resolution. The AMD encoder can't encoding that fast enough. You can test it, if you set the encode resolution in ODT to any lower value than the render resolution (preferably 90Hz automatic render resolution).

My issue was fixed since more recent AMD graphics drivers!

 

[McBain]

Is there a better method of reporting performance over air link than the HUD you get with Oculus debugger? I saw someone on Youtube who had a really nice grey box thingy at the bottom that was much nicer than some HUD that's just stuck in the middle of the screen.

Edit: seems the box im talking about is a virtual desktop thing.