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Panzermk2
New Participant
November 12, 2020
Solved

White horizontal stripe across screen while using link

Headset seems to work fine stand-alone.  I use the headset with IRacing, and often (not always) get a translucent horizontal stripe across the screen after about 15 minutes or so.  It doesn't feel like the headset is overheating.  This doesn't show up on the screen mirror on PC, or if I "mirror" with the debug tool.  Is this likely a failing display or is there somewhere else I should look?

    PokebertAnswer
    Participant
    March 20, 2023

    UPDATE: POSSIBLE WORKAROUND/FIX USING REGISTRY EDITOR

    As I theorized above, this issue does NOT occur for those who use Air Link. Air Link uses HEVC and uses 1 slice for its encoding, whereas wired Link uses H.264 and 5 slices for encoding. Whenever the white bar issue occurs, it is very likely the final 5th slice experiencing an error in the encoding. If you pay close attention when this occurs, you will likely notice it only occurs in the bottom slice of the screen.

    To use this workaround, open Command Prompt and use the following:

    • reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Oculus\RemoteHeadset" /v "numSlices" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

    I will be experimenting with this for the next few weeks to make sure  I do not get the white bar issue!

    Original Post on REVISITED thread:

    I have noticed that this is related to the horizontal encoding slices that are visible only through the Link Cable. A very easy stopgap solution would be to offer a toggle in the OculusDebugTool that allows us to turn OFF these encoding slices. Additionally, the encoding slices do not appear with Air Link and thus the issue has almost never occurred wirelessly according to both personal experience and these threads.

    View in thread

    1125 replies

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    BatyaFFBK
    Participant
    July 13, 2021

    I fixed this problem for Half Life Alyx by enabling Direct Display Mode in Settings > Developer > Developer settings
    However, this didn't fix other game which is using steam VR. And also I got transparent 4 lines across the screen which are barely visible. Look's like they divide  the screen on 4 equal parts. And one of that part is our artifact that now looks transparent. 

    bdoyle13
    New Participant
    July 13, 2021

    Has their been an update to the quest 2 in last couple weeks? Having changed nothing on my system and this problem starting again makes me think quest 2 has updated itself… 

     

    also those talking of clean install. I tried this in May and it did nothing. The only fix I found was tray tool and now that doesn’t fix it anymore 

    Sp0uny
    Participant
    July 14, 2021

    This is not a Steam VR issue, but an Oculus software issue, that's 100% clear to me.

    Others users have this problem in FS2020 (Microsoft store version), and do not have Steam on their PC, how could it be a Steam VR issue ?
    I think people would save time reading the above pages, rather than trying stupid things that have been tried for months without success. The answers given by Oculus support are a shame (resetting the Quest 2 to factory settings, what a joke and a loss of time).
     I have this problem on several PCs, with different CPUs, GPUs, MBs, with any nvidia drivers, any version of Windows, the only common point to all these problems is Oculus link Software since V24.
    I don't have MSI Afterburner, I don't have Steam VR nor any other software that can cause a problem, because I have reinstalled Windows on several PCs, with only Oculus link and all default settings, and I have this problem. with both PCs.
    The only thing to do to get rid of it is to push Oculus to do something.
    Personally it's been 6 months that I can no longer play my games satisfactorily because of Oculus, and I am not close to repurchasing one of their products or any of their games, and I do not deny myself to let it know everywhere or someone is promoting this product.

    you can do whatever you want guys, it won't change a thing until the problem is fixed by Oculus.

      zheikonileth3
      Participant
      July 14, 2021

      I agree - but realistically, there is 25 pages of text, sorry - not sorry, I am not planning on reading it all. Most of it is just unhelpful without any viable information.

       

      If nothing else, at least we tried with some people and gave them at least some sense of 'we are not idling and activelly trying to find the issue'. We did end up figuring out what you posted - its Oculus Software issue.

       

      Yes, I will not be buying Facebook Product again either - and it is shame that NONE of the major youtubers recommending this product have experienced it, and if they did, nobody talked about it - if I had known, I'd probably go and pay a bit more for better headset without these issues.

       

      Currently though, I have solved it by using Virtual Desktop - the quality of picture is not the same as with Link, but it is much better than AirLink, and it works without issues, .I was able to finish 3 races back to back yesterday playing non-stop for 3 hours without a single hiccup. Maybe give that a try?

      Sp0uny
      Participant
      July 14, 2021

      Yes I know it works with Virtual Desktop, and also with Air Link (further proof that the problem is linked to Oculus Link software), but these wireless solutions are not viable options for most simracing users, races and training last for hours and it drains the battery way too quickly.
      And above all, some of us spend a lot of money for a very high-end PC, an official $100 cable, in order to play in the best possible conditions, not to then significantly degrade the overall experience (visual quality, latency, ...) because of a software problem that they could easily solve if they wanted to listen to their customers and to work on this problem.

      VR really brings something exceptional to simracing, but certainly not with the Oculus Quest 2 because of this issue. For Beat Saber, yes the Quest 2 is great, but I bought it above all for simracing.

        zheikonileth3
        Participant
        July 14, 2021

        I hear you man! I have it primarily for Simracing only as well. I will do Alyx from time to time just for the story and Beat Saber for some excercise.

         

        Air Link is rubbish, like seriously bad - I tried a quick 15m race in ACC with it, and within 5 minutes the quality started degrading really badly.

         

        I have the quest 2 still plugged into my PC using the link - for charging while gaming. Even though it is plugged in, the quest is communicating with Virtual Desktop via Wifi - 5ghz and the router is in same room literally 2 meters away from the headset in direct sight.

         

        with VD it works really well - sure the quality is a bit worse than via link, but I can do 3 hours of racing/practice/Quali in a row and have no trouble with it at all. I was originally scared of the latency and that you will feel the difference as you start steering but the picture steers delayed, but its nothing like that. When it comes to this I would not be able to tell a difference. And that comes from a guy who will easily spot the difference between 60hz-120hz screen from afar.

         

        But when it comes to it, I am just as pissed as you are that it is not working as advertised, we have paid good money for it and are not getting the basic features it came with - especially after spending 100quid on a god **bleep** cable - if I had known, I wouldnt bother.

         

        But I have already paid for it, so I am going to use it with VD while I have to and hope for future patch to fix the issue

        ShawnSkay
        Participant
        July 15, 2021

        Moderators are systematically deleting my post about this serious issue. That's enough! How arogant company. 😕

          bdoyle13
          New Participant
          July 16, 2021

          **bleep** thing started again..... I'm using Tray tool. If I set 45hz or above it does the white line. If I set at 30hz it does not do the white line.... very odd. Still trouble shooting. Since Oculus doesn't want to help we have to keep updating thread. Also I like #stripegate

          BatyaFFBK
          Participant
          July 18, 2021

          I think I will refund this product. They said "I'm not from supported country so they won't help me"
          Complete waste of money.

          BatyaFFBK
          Participant
          July 19, 2021

          I noticed that white stripe appears after FPS drop below ~ 30-40. So if you can keep your fps high then you can get rid of it.  

          gosupersheep
          Participant
          July 20, 2021

          Posting to register that I am also affected by this.

          Consistently occurs in Dirt 2.0 and Assetto Corsa. Translucent band appears consistently with other images posted on this thread. Very occasionally happens faintly in Assetto Corsa Competizione, but nowhere near to the same extent or frequency. Once it happens, when going back to the Oculus 'white grid' home area, the issue sometimes persists.
          Can sometimes be shaken off by enabling camera pass through and then returning to game, which is less disruptive than closing and re-opening the link connection.

          I have noticed that there appears to be compression artefacts in the translucent band that are not present over the rest of the screen.

          This occurs irrespective of the temperature of the headset, or my pc. Does not occur over airlink, only over link cable. PC specs are more than ample for the purpose - on an Nvidia 30 series card.

           

          Have followed all fix suggestions in this thread, no dice. Appears to be a bug in the compression over the link cable. Unfortunately, first line support appear not to be equipped with an answer for this at the moment, so there is no point engaging with support at this point. Hopefully an Oculus dev comes across this thread and figures it out!
          Dear Oculus Dev, if you manage to fix this, I will write you a poem* of your exploits.
          (*Though heartfelt, I can give no guarantees about the quality or length of poem)

          Anonymous
          July 22, 2021

          This is happening to me too using iRacing, it appears after around 15-40 minutes of gameplay. Seems to appear more quickly when the GPU is taxed. 5600x, 3090, and I've tried 3 different cables. 

           

          Id you're using iRacing you can get rid of the line by looking up and down very quickly while in the car (won't work on the loading screen). Look at the sky, then your feet. It will reset the white line, but it will appear again in about 1-2min. 

           

          Has been happening since ~v26 or for the last 2 months. 

           

          The quality of patches from Oculus have been wretched this year for link, one version locked frame rates at 72hz, then USB-C link cables plugged into an x570 mobo stopped working, and now this white line. 

           

          Hopefully v31 fixes this, but it's more likely it breaks something else. 

          JamesButlin
          JamesButlin
          Participant
          July 23, 2021

          I know it isn't really a solution for anyone else but I've managed to fix this issue for myself and I thought I'd share what fixed it, in case it helps anyone else figure it out - 

           

          I previously had a FE 3070 and had no trouble at all with it. I swapped to a 3080ti and the issue started happening frequently and consistently for me. I tried everything and nothing seemed to fix it - it was working fine on my HP Omen laptop with a 2060 in. I managed to pick up a FE 3090 at MSRP, so I sold my 3080ti and installed the 3090.. No issues since, I didn't even uninstall any drivers and it just started working fine.

           

          It seems to me that this symptom can be caused from a few different sources, but for me at least it must have been some incompatibility with that GPU specifically.. 🤷‍. I know people can't just go out and buy different GPUs, especially in this climate, but maybe it could help other people diagnose the issue.

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