Fixes for stutter/jidder, Audio and shimmering for Quest 3 PCVR.

[Puppylotion]

EDIT 1: I start all apps possible through the oculus app. Launching them through SteamVR seem to add a bit of overhead. A lot of steamvr games seem to be able to start in oculus mode. This is important because i haven't tried these fixes in the steam enviorment. ALSO, make sure that whatever one you use, oculus or steam, set it to be using the OpenXR runtime. This can be done in either client's settings.

So i've spent days on the stutter problem. These are all my findings, what worked for me will be at the bottom, but there are some additional solves for other problems as well, so you should atleast skimm the rest. I mention this because i myself didn't know initially that they were problems. Hopefully this helps someone, and if it does, please report back. 

Relevant info: I'm on: 3080, 7700k, 32gb ram, using powerd link cable, cable speeds 2.0 - 2.2 GBit/s.                                                       To fix you need to use: Oculus Debug Tool and OpenXR Toolkit.

The encode bitrate seem to have an effect on the audio. If it is to high you seem to get crackeling and distortions in the sound. This is not something i'm 100% on fixes the audio problem for everyone but it did for me so far atleast.

And if you're using AirLink use H.265 instead of H.264 and experiment with the encode bitrate yourself. Start low at around 50 and work yourself up.

1. COMP TIMES: My computer is good enough and no amount of graphics tinkering seem to solve the stutter. I've tried every possible combination in the debug tool. I've noticed that a encode bitrate of 700 reduces the compositor comp present buffer (ms) by a large magin. Did not improve the stuttering though. A lower number is better so you should tinker with this until you find what works for you. Max encode bitrate possibe is 940.
2. SHIMMERING: Shimmering referes to the effect seen when stationary objects wobble, usually text and such. It's a lack of AA effect if i'm not mistaken. setting the resolution to 1x in the oculus app and increasing the pixel per display override in the debug tool reduces the shimmering in games where that occures by quite a bit. I didn't set the pixel overdrive higher than 1.7. You shouldn't either, this setting is computationally expensive.

           3. STUTTERING/JITTER: At first the only solution that has worked for me was reducing the refresh rate                of the display to 72 hz in the oculus app. As you might imagine this was not a good solution so I keept                      working on it. It turns out that games that run with OpenXR seem to want to control the framerate, and               this seem to put the headset out of synch with the frames being delivered by your GPU. So, if you install               the OpenXR toolkit and remove frame throttle and target framerate in the games that use it, all the                         stutter  problems seems to go away. 

Extra: If you have a similar setup to mine, my overall debug settings if want to copy them are, in no  perticular order: 

a. Encode Bitrate: 800 (write 800 somewhere else, copy it then paste it in the debug tool)
b. Encode Resolution Width: 4128 (still figuring this one out)
c. Link Sharpening: Quality 
d. Asynchronus Spacewarp: Off
e. Adaptive GPU Performence scale: Off
f. Distortion Curvature: High
g. Video Codec H.264
h. Sliced Encoding: On

[agentdb]

What resolution are you running at by the way? Did you end up sticking with 1.0x?

[Puppylotion]

at the moment i'm back to 1.5x in the oculus client trying things out. I might be blind but the resolution seems similar or slightly worse than going with 1.7 on pixel overdrive. And the shimmering is back in full vengence in ancient dungeon ofc. 

Im trying to find a reason and hopefully a fix for when the headtracking turns vomit-mode. Seems to be related to apps screwing with the upscaling. Do you have any of these problems?

[agentdb]

The stuttering has been the main issue for me. I've been running at 1.5 as well at around 400 for the bitrate but it still occurs even when I lower the bitrate to around 300. Going to try what you posted about OPENXR toolkit when I get home but I don't know if I can use it to fix Half Life Alyx.

[Puppylotion]

No, I don't think Alyx uses OpenXR. Maybe it can be enabled for it somehow? Worth looking into later.

I did get Alyx to run a bit better for some time though. Try the increasing bitrate and see if you can get your comp times to around 3-4 ms. And if that doesn't help at all, se if the stutter disappears if you go full 75 hz on all relevant apps. SideQuest aswell if you use it. 

If that fails maybe these launch commands work: -console -vconsole +vr_fidelity_level_auto 0 +vr_fidelity_level 3


I'll work on alyx when i wake up. I have work in 4 hours xD.

[Puppylotion]

Couldn't wait.

Bypassing SteamVR entirely might be the way to go. OpenOVR seems have an API that translates the old OpenVR standard to the new OpenXR standard. I'll be trying this out later, but if you want you can try it out ^^

The Git:
https://gitlab.com/znixian/OpenOVR

[Puppylotion]

I have found a solution that should help people who use Nvidia GPUs at least. If you go to Msconfig and then to services and uncheck Nvidia display container, most, if not all, the stutter goes away.  I think the Nvidia container is the biggest problem but cant be sure.
So, it wasn't the USBdriver as i expected in a previous post. This is in regards to video stutter that is. Audio stutter seems to be connected to the chosen encode bitrate.

This should work for most people me thinks. If it does, please share, it would be great if other people didn't have to go through the painful onslaught of tests and ideas i had to go through... 

Edit: you also need to uncheck the load startup items on selective startup to get it to work. I'll narrow it down even more later. This works wonders for me but it seems a little like a brute force approach.

Edit 2: Update: All you need to do to get rid of the stutter is do this in msconfig.
 

Then this

[grip77]

Hey!
Thanks for this, trygin to remove re-occuring microstutter that happens about every 5 seconds.
So far nothing has removed it, usink link cable, tried all settings possible everywhere including debug tools and guides to enable debug logging etc etc, wanted to try out the OpenXR-Toolkit you mentioned as its the one thins I've not tried, but I can not get it to display any menu?
Started the app and the windows is open and using the hotkeys when in-game (Dirt Rally) no menu appears?

[Mr.Abarth]

I was having stutter issues as well. When playinf with oculus link cable. (I play HL Alyx).

This works for me:

1. on de pc/laptop, first start the oculus debug tool. You can find it in this folder:C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics 

2. Leave the debugtool running

3. Start de oculus client app. 

4. Enjoy gaming without stutter.

I don't know why it works. You'd think it will use more memory and processing power if you run an extra application. But it really works for me.

Hope this helps.

[SirLoony]

This is the only thing that I have tried from posts I've seen on here and on Reddit about the stuttering thing, I followed your instructions and it has almost completely gone. I'll take it! Thanks