Something Incredible Just Happened With My HTC Vive!!!

[Draverd]

I was messing with different settings to try and improve the Realism on my HTC VIVE even further than what I have done over the past, and I came across something that I have never experienced before in VR... that is until now, and I would call it Absolute Realism. I will Elaborate but I feel inclined that I must explain A few things that lead me to do what I did today (Please Oblige me by reading  the little extra bit of information that I am going to post). Before I bought an HTC VIVE I Purchased The Oculus Rift Development Kit back in the day... and suffice it to say I did not like it... So later on I bought the HTC VIVE on Black Friday in 2006. Before I did this though I tested to see if my PC could handle it through the Steam VR HTC VIVE Ready Benchmark application. It passed but it was just barely cutting it, and only A little bit into the Green. Also to give you further information on everything I should mention that my rig is an Asus AMD FX(tm) -8300 Eight Core Processor, 3300 Mhz, 4 Cores(s), 8 Logical Processor(s), System Model M51BC, and that I upgraded it over time since I got my Vive, but at that time in 2016 it was just the base Components that came with it. Now when I finally got my HTC Vive it was tremendously better than what I experienced on the Oculus DmK, but I could only play some Games that I bought, and others were out of the question because FPS dropped down to about 20, along with Lag as well. So A little later on I bought A better Graphics Card and I was able to play all the Games that I owned just fine (sorry I don't recall what it was at this time). That is when I started to go into the SteamVR file and Super Sample, and Increase RenderTargetMultipler (I could only go up to 2.0 on both before the FPS dropped and it lagged). Next I bought more Ram to the Maximum amount my PC could handle which is 28 GIGS. Once I did that I could go up to 5.0 in the SteamVR File on both Fields, which of course added more realism. I Also must mention that each time I upgraded something that the Screen Door Effect Diminished.

Then I got A $256 Monitor (At the Time) An Nvidia 3D Vision, because it was on Sale for $160. That as well improved the quality in VR. Next I bought A GTX 1080 July 2017 which Drastically improved the Quality of everything in VR. Then I did only A few more things until what I just did today. I read that Users where improving the quality further by switching the USB 2.0 Cord for A 3.0., and plugging the Cord into A 3.0 slot. So that is what I did and it worked (With the Second Cable that is)! But for some reason for A lot of people only two Brands really worked, where as others would not. I initially had that Problem as well and only found that out after I brought home the first USB 3.0 Cable. By later on reading some forums online I found the solution. Note: I am not 100% Tech Savy but generally learn things as I go along. Finally the last thing I did was update my Paging File (I did not know what it was and found out about it one day).

Which leads me to today. I went and got OpenVR Advanced settings and was messing with that. Well according to some youtube Comments some people claimed you could improve things by going beyond the recommended settings, in the SteamVr File (Note: You need to change the Super Sampling and the RenderTargetMultiplerFirst, at least once in the openvr for it to show up in the  Steamvr file) incrementally upwards until the VR started to lag. I was messing with it honestly for A while to no real avail at first. At first I moved everything around, and at one point everything to super Sampling  9, RenderTargetMultipler 9, Resolution 900, and again with no significant improvements. 

Then I discovered something. If I only moved the Render TargetMultipler up, and left everything else at the base level of Super Sampling 1, Resolution 100, that it would improve everything! Well I took A risk and kept on moving the number up incrementally, and the plan was to do so until it started to have A negative effect in VR (FPS Drop/Lag), but it Never Did! I went all the way up to 100 which then the quality shot all the way back down to what it was on 1, but on 99 it is Absolutely Incredible!!! Everything Feels Literally Real!!! Now one other little thing to Note. I noticed that in some Applications that the lighting in the Game can make my Eyes hurt A little bit because it is way to bright. Like the Game Nature Treks (With the exception of the Left most Experience, which is at Night Time in the Game World).

I know Virtual Reality is relatively new and things are still being figured out. Well maybe this is one of the Factors that needs to be looked in to that could possibly change things in VR for the better.

Now if you want to try this... then do so at your own risk... I don't want to be liable for someone potentially breaking something because their pc is below A set Threshold to be able to attempt this. I could have potentially Broken something when I got my HTC VIVE. That is if I had went and tried Super Sampling at 5.0 and setting RenderTarget Multiplier to 5.0 So please keep these things in mind.

On A side note another reason I felt inclined to share what I did over time is because I believe that A lot of people are blind to the fact that making Changes/Upgrades, here and there, can improve the overall VR Experience Tremendously! I have even seen Major Youtube Channels be blind to this Fact. I watch LinusTechTips and he never mentioned that things in VR can be improved by Upgrading/Changing things. I felt like he saw that things would stay the same in VR since he already has A powerful PC, and everything was running fine.

Final Note: In my Manage 3D Settings the only things that I have changed are DSR Factors 4.00x (native resolution), and Virtual Reality Prerendered Frames 4. Also one More thing. I don't think this other factor is effecting anything, but I might be mistaken. Just like how some others are about how Upgrading/changing/tweaking settings can improve VR Further. Anyways my Monitor is 144hz and is of course set to 144hz in Nvidias settings.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Draverd