Oculus Link FPS drop after latest Oculus DEO VR update

smittypunk

Using an Oculus Quest 2 through Oculus Link.
I run a 10th Gen i7 with Nvidia GeoForce RTX 2070 and 64GB Ram.
After most recent update, my video FPS took a serious dive from 68-72 avg mostly to 34-36 avg, and for some videos it chokes all the way down to 4 FPS. Over 900+ locally played videos all began doing the same thing; all previously worked at proper FPS. Windows 10 did also recently have an update but it wasn't graphic-related and had worked afterward. GeoForce had one of its regular updates for new games. I cannot confirm whether it was working after this update. Cannot confirm recent Oculus update didn't impact. Other system-intensive apps seem to work just fine through Link, so I still suspect something about the DEO VR update specifically impacted operations.

boboweb

smittypunk

Yes many of us have the same issue ... Check these topics:

https://forum.deovr.com/d/513-poor-frame-rate-in-deo-high-frame-rate-in-media-player-classic/

https://forum.deovr.com/d/531-video-lags-when-playing-anything-5k-and-above/

https://forum.deovr.com/d/421-very-low-framerates-in-8k-videos-after-latest-update/

philpw99

smittypunk
You need to dig a little deeper than that.
When playing the video, how much is GPU decoder usage in Task Manager?
Did you install LAV decoder or HEVC decoder? Do you see the LAV icons in the notification area when you play a video in DeoVR?
What happen if you open the video in Windows Media Player, MPC, Potplayer and VLC ?

smittypunk

smittypunk Adding to my previous posts, I compared the older Steam version (which I then opened through Oculus after the first time): my GPU was running at 30% less utilization than with the newest version through Oculus as registered in my Dragon Center monitor for my MSi computer, and everything ran at full frame-rate. I even forgot I had a major download going, so CPU resources were already being taxed some, though not through the GPU. Just saying, night-and-day difference is impossible to deny. Even one version ago, I seemed to be fine, but I can't say whether the increased taxing on the GPU had already begun. Presumably it would've began with the new development environment of DeoVR 9 if it so radically different as I've seen @Yar suggest elsewhere. As I have both versions installed at the same time, I can do back-and-forth comparisons of results if anyone is interested in anything specific. It may take me time to respond; I do not get notifications from this forum. I'll have to check back. And no, I'm not interested in doing any kind of codec clean install; you'll have to take my system how it is.

Yar

Hello!
Сould you please write about this to the support mail and give a more detailed description so that we can investigate this and reproduce it on our own. I also wanted to ask if you are experiencing the same problems with playback through Windows media?

smittypunk

Yar Sorry for the delay; I don't get notifications, apparently. I can do that, though I'm not aware of what the support email is at this time. I did a quick search on the main site and here but didn't see it unless you wanted me to fill out a simple 'contact us' space. Playback in windows/vlc is the same it's ever been. To be honest, I used to sometimes get better playback of 6K and above through DeoVR via link than I would in vlc (I honestly don't really use WMP). I had been running Link at 72Hz and 5408x2736 since those settings were introduced with no problem on 4K-8K videos maintaining frame-rate. Now I had to bump it down to 4864x2448 to get most to stay around 60fps, but many drop to 33-35 fps. I also had to turn on hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling through Windows, which I never had to do before; without it, I had to reduce the resolution settings in Oculus dashboard to 4128x2096.

smittypunk

philpw99 I appreciate your interest in my issue and read through the above different threads about experienced framerate drops, many of which you previously commented on. So, with Task Manager GPU utilization and MSI Dragon Center readouts, my prior experience was that it never came close to maxing out my GPU. With my current now-reduced settings, when running videos at half frame-rate (33-35) it hits 52% in Task Manager/ 63% in Dragon Center. At 60+ fps, Task Manager is pushing 86% and Dragon Center shows it near maxing out. Yes I've installed LAV and HEVC; of course, when I first started out over a year ago that was important for universal video functionality in DeoVR. Assuming you mean in Windows, I have never seen LAV icons. I opened LAV video configuration and enabled system tray icon, but even that did not make anything new appear while utilizing DeoVR. I checked in Tweak Tool, everything relevant is set for lav-splitter and lav decoding. I was already using CUVID setting, too. WMP and VLC all function the same as before; I don't have MPC or Potplayer installed. Other GPU-demanding VR experiences all function the same as they always have.

As many have already commented how earlier versions removed their problems, it would seem the new development environment is not playing nice with many people’s previously sufficient systems, demanding more from the GPU while getting less. It’s not simply a Steam version issue as I use Oculus. If the problem started weeks ago for some, it would seem maybe the problem has only gotten worse with the latest update demanding even more, taxing even better setups (the ones many spoke of in the other threads were either equal or less than my rig). Ultimately for many of us, what worked great stopped working. Another thing I noticed is that even when a video will give me the expected FPS, if I go one to one that drops in framerate and then I return to the first one without exiting back to the file menu, it will stay at the reduced frame rate and carry through to every video, never recovering. That’s clearly not simply because of my system. I’d revert back to an earlier version as some have, but again I run through Oculus. Perhaps I'll consider finding the Steam version and pulling it into Oculus until things get straightened out, but I will miss the 200 degree setting for recorded Oculus hmd video.

To be fair, I did previously have an issue like this a few months back (creating jittery lag with a reduced fps), but it was affecting just a handful of videos in my 1K file collection, and an update came along that got them back to normal and I forgot about it until now. They weren’t specifically higher resolution videos; there was no obvious greater demand from the videos alone; it was random and frustrating…but not as much as this.

Yar

smittypunk Try to select the Unity player in the settings (Settings - Developer- Unity player) and reopen your video and check the fps again.

philpw99

smittypunk
I agree that the new DeoVR uses more resources than the previous ones, but I think they did it for a reason. Otherwise who will give up tons of existing working code and use a new environment?

Right now the new DeoVR relies heavily on Unity Player, or whatever that is. I googled it but only found "Unity Web Player", obviously they are not the same.
Any way, the Unity Player also relies on HEVC codec from Microsoft. So please check your HEVC Video Extensions in "Apps and Features"->"Advanced options", and see if which version you have. Mine is 1.0.41483.0, and it works fine in my system.

smittypunk

Yar Turning on Unity killed the avg fps. And just to be sure it was running as intended, I restored default, turned Unity on, exited the entire oculus environment and re-entered, still caused it to drop from the struggling 33-35 fps to 3-11fps. I used a standard 4K 180 degree video for testing, located locally on the machine I run Oculus Link through. And to be clear, I restored my Oculus settings to 72Hz, 5408x2736 resolution setting that previously worked prior to this version and obviously works on my now concurrently installed older version. Typing this made me realize hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is still enabled; I've yet to turn it back off to see how it effects the older version (never had it on prior to this current version not functioning properly) and how it further effects the current version, if at all at these settings.

smittypunk

philpw99 For whatever it's worth, mine is the same version.

philpw99

smittypunk

Wow, your problem seems quite serious and strange. My rig is much less powerful than yours, yet the playback in DeoVR was never lower than 30 fps for 6k or 7k videos, no matter the settings. To top it off, it seems your GPU decoding is utilized, not idling. How is it possible that, with hardware decoding, a mere 4k test video can only play at 3-11 fps ??!! Your case certainly beats all my knowledge.

Maybe you can post your VR settings here?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings

Let's see anything wrong in it?

smittypunk

philpw99 Again, I don't run it through SteamVR. The one giving me trouble is the Oculus (Rift) version. Not sure where to go for that readout. In theory I could try the current SteamVR version to see if it also gives my machine fits. If not, then it would localize the issue to Oculus integration. I'll consider it. As I may have mentioned in my original post, I do believe an Oculus update followed the day after the most recent DeoVR update so it's hard to pinpoint what was the last environment in which it worked properly; there has been one more Oculus update since, as well.

smittypunk

philpw99 So I did install it through Steam. Pretty much the same results as running the Oculus Store version. Notepad++ showed this for the VRsettings file:

{
"DesktopUI" : {
"pairing" : "571,109,800,600,0",
"settings_desktop" : "709,109,800,600,0"
},
"GpuSpeed" : {
"gpuSpeed0" : 891,
"gpuSpeed1" : 830,
"gpuSpeed2" : 941,
"gpuSpeed3" : 970,
"gpuSpeed4" : 919,
"gpuSpeed5" : 788,
"gpuSpeed6" : 908,
"gpuSpeed7" : 879,
"gpuSpeed8" : 872,
"gpuSpeed9" : 956,
"gpuSpeedCount" : 10,
"gpuSpeedDriver" : "Unknown",
"gpuSpeedHorsepower" : 901,
"gpuSpeedRenderTargetScale" : 0.8399999737739563,
"gpuSpeedVendor" : "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design",
"gpuSpeedVersion" : 2
},
"LastKnown" : {
"HMDManufacturer" : "Oculus",
"HMDModel" : "Oculus Quest2"
},
"audio" : {
"enablePlaybackDeviceOverride_Oculus_Miramar" : true,
"playbackDeviceOverrideName_Oculus_Miramar" : "Oculus (Oculus Virtual Audio Device)",
"playbackDeviceOverride_Oculus_Miramar" : "{0.0.0.00000000}.{35e9c572-f624-46e3-b524-e6a2479af528}"
},
"input" : {
"leftThumbstickRotation_oculus_touch" : -1.2584280742081999,
"rightThumbstickRotation_oculus_touch" : -4.2327687371818996
},
"steam.app.1051200" : {
"resolutionScale" : 118
},
"steam.app.966870" : {
"resolutionScale" : 100
},
"steamvr" : {
"background" : "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\resources\backgrounds\night_mountains.png",
"haveStartedTutorialForNativeChaperoneDriver" : true,
"installID" : "1137416074114592902",
"lastVersionNotice" : "1.18.6",
"lastVersionNoticeDate" : "1625523050",
"showAdvancedSettings" : true,
"showPerfGraph" : true
}
}

philpw99

smittypunk
Nothing is wrong in the VR settings, as far as I know.

One thing in your detailed posts that I want to be clear: you said "when running videos at half frame-rate (33-35) it hits 52%..." Is this 52% GPU "3D" utilization or "Video Decode" utilization ? How about the CPU utilization at that same time ? This is important to me to figure out what exactly happened.

smittypunk

philpw99 I believe those numbers referred to 3D utilization as that number most closely mirrored the GPU utilization I was seeing through my MSi system monitor. At this point all I can tell you is what it's doing now as I returned it to previously mentioned max resolution in Oculus. I just tested another 4K video as a sample. 3D utilization bounced from 25-95% as the video struggled anywhere from 4-36fps. Video Decode sits around 20% and Encode at around 40%. I then tested the smallest file size video I have (400mb, 2K). It ran at a steady 33fps, about 80% utilization 3D, 40% Encode, 20% Decode when looking through Task Manager. Actually, the 3D utilization stays solidly around 50% just from having the app open, no video playing, and even the app 'load screen' appears jittery as it opens. With both videos, CPU utilization sat around 24% at about 4.15GHz, but only about half that utilization is attributed to the video playing, it mostly drops in half when the video stops.

boboweb

smittypunk

You can try check "alternative method" in DeoVR settings - this could improve a little your fps .
Otherwise downgrade steam DeoVR to version 8.55 - then you could play all smooth with highest possible fps ...

For best results i could suggest you to run DeoVR via Virtual Desktop , you can set Ultra resolution with that RTX 2070 , 120hz and you can try SSW enabled for really smooth playback .
Using VR set without cable is such great relief ... lol You just need a good 5ghz AC or AX router !
Feel free to share your experience if you try this 😉

Good luck !

smittypunk

Appreciate your reply. Yeah, Yar had me try that a few posts ago, but it made no difference (he had me enable it/Unity through the developer setting, but it ticks off all the same in the player settings under alternative when you do that). I already started running ver. 8.55, and through that it works just like it did before version 9.7 (I'm pretty sure I was still good with ver. 9.6 although I cannot say if everything was working harder ever since the 9.0 releases though I have my suspicions). I do miss the 200 degree setting and being able to set a button config for grab/move screen, though; also miss the 'always present' close button (I championed for that!). With a better setup, I'd do Virtual Desktop (I do own it), but currently I'm too far from my router to make the connection worthwhile. Eventually, I'll buy myself a wifi 6 router and place it right next to everything with the computer rig plugged directly in so I'll get a nice consistent connection. I'll pop back in somewhere relevant with those results if I do that.

philpw99

Ah... Now I see ! The Oculus Link does things very differently !
For my setup, there is no need for Video Encoding. The pipeline is video file->GPU Decode->3D Projection->Headset.
But for your Oculus Quest, the pipeline is now video file->GPU Decode->3D Projection->GPU Encoding->Headset.
Therefore, GPU Encoding could the the bottleneck where you stuck with 10 fps.
Think about it, the decoding is only 20%, but encoding is 40%, which means the GPU need to work much harder to encode the video and send the result to the Quest. This is why your system is struggling even with 4k videos.

After a little more digging, seems it was me who knew nothing about the Quest 2. OK, you already did what you need to do (lower the resolution, GPU Scheduling) trying to reduce the problem. So I don't really have a solution here.... Sorry!

smittypunk

If anyone is curious, DeoVR pushed a 9.8 update for Oculus that "fixed a lot of bugs" in 'What's New.' For me, from limited observations, it did seem to stabilize the frame-drop issue, but only to the degree that everything will now run at about 33-35fps (again, I'm still set at 72Hz, highest resolution, no GPU scheduling--all as it was when working fine before the latest updates). So there's possibly been improvements made, but still not there yet. The app also seems less jittery outside of video playback. I will edit this post if I take the time to look at wider range of files to see if that frame rate stays consistent throughout.