Frame Drops and Framerate Issues with Link & AirLink, Regardless of Performance Headroom [+Videos]

[SwirlyMaple]

Who do we have to yell at to get this fixed? Link/AirLink are so bad for PCVR that I am unlikely to ever buy another Meta product. Here are some videos to cut to the chase.

Video 1: Pay attention to the hands. Notice the frame skips as the hands "jump." Quest 2 with Link has done this since release day. Smooth, rapid rotational motion causes these frame jumps, which may be due to latency with tracking feedback. Whatever it is, it's obnoxious and immersion breaking.

Video 2: This is an example of Link (AirLink does it too) randomly dropping frames and generally having all sorts of framerate issues regardless of performance headroom. Many, if not all, PCVR titles do this to some extent. Depending on how demanding the app is, it varies from a random dropped frame every 15-20secs to more severe issues like you see in this video. Nothing makes it go away completely.

Meta support -- don't bother trying to troubleshoot this with me. Trust me, I've already done everything:

• Cabled Link vs. AirLink -- both do the same thing
• I'm using Meta's overpriced genuine Link cable
• I've reproduced this on two completely different PCs, with two completely different Quest 2 headsets. One PC is running Win10; the other is running Win11. The Win10 PC has an overclocked 1080Ti and i7 8700K; the Win11 PC has the latest and greatest i9 and an RTX4090. It's not for lack of hardware! Both have very fast SSDs and tons of RAM. These systems both benchmark in the upper 99th percentile of systems with equivalent hardware.
• I've disabled background processes on both. The Win10 PC has a fresh OS install where literally nothing was installed but necessary drivers and the Oculus supporting software.
• It does this even with graphics resolution settings in the Oculus app pulled back to minimum.
• It does this whether the refresh rate is set to 90 or 120Hz. (I don't use lower settings as I can see the refresh flicker from 72Hz and 80Hz.)
• It does this no matter what you have the dynamic bitrate set to when using AirLink. I've pulled it back to the minimum to where it looks like a blocky mess and it still does it.
• XBox game bar is disabled on both.
• No video capture or system monitoring utilities are running on either.
• Both have clean installs (via DDU) of the latest Nvidia drivers. Drivers are set to "prefer maximum performance" for the GPU. GeForce Experience is not installed on either.
• Neither system is thermally throttling. Both are maintaining very high clock rates for both the GPU (2000MHz+) and the CPU (4.8GHz+). CPU C-states are turned off in the BIOS.
• System power plan is set to Maximum Performance.
• Neither system is getting anywhere near 100% GPU utilization nor CPU utilization.
• Windows settings I have toggled on/off and tested individually:
  • Hardware accelerated GPU scheduling - no difference
  • Game mode on/off - no difference
  • Optimizations for Windowed Games on/off - no difference
  • Core isolation on/off - no difference
  • Virtual Machine Platform on/off - no difference
  • Settings>System>Display>Graphics. Adding all Oculus processes to this list and setting to "High Performance" makes no difference
• Launching the OculusDebugTool and letting the console window run in the foreground makes no difference.
• All of my settings in OculusDebugTool are at defaults.
• Link's communication test gives 2.8Gbps with the cable.

Meta: fix your PCVR support!!! I've been a user since the Rift CV1 in 2017 and you've made such a mess of PCVR. We've had enough! Look at these other threads with the SAME PROBLEM:

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Quest-2-Link-stuttering-and-Link-Details-showing-drop...

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Recent-stuttering-frame-drops-hiccups-using-quest-2-w...

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/v46-frame-drops-stutters-headroom-dips/td-p/997865

[HammerAce42]

Following the update to the v42 desktop software, airlink performance has become unusable. When looking at the console logs,, I see the following error spamming the logs:

{!ERROR!} [Kernel:Error] OVR Error:
Code: -6101 -- ovrError_XRStreamingPluginIssue
Description: 2. Could not retrieve round trip frame timing

I have strong connectivity (Virtual Desktop works flawlessly, and prior to v42, things were also working great). All the settings in Oculus Debug Tools / Oculus desktop software are set to default.

Any ideas on how to get this resolved?

[HammerAce42]

Also wanted to note that adjusting the dynamic bitrate per https://forums.oculusvr.com/t5/Support/Known-Issue-Air-Link-Connections-Lag-or-Low-FPS/td-p/970955 does not appear to solve this issue.

Also, connected via a cable doesn't not exhibit this same issue, so it's only the wireless link that is impacted. In addition to great Virtual desktop performance and great Air Link performance with v41 being strong proof that the wifi signal / connectivity is not an issue, the reported connectivity on Quest shows 5Ghz, 80Hz band, latency in the single digit ms, and wifi connection as strong. The desktop is connected via ethernet, but the Quest curiously does not appear to detect that.

Finally, not sure if it's relevant, but the console log consistently shows HMD state as isRebooting: 1, even when the headset is not rebooting.

[HammerAce42]

Correction to my post above, when plugged in via the cable, there is till some glitching, but it occurs only when the system is being taxed by running a demanding game. It shows as tearing artifacts and the console shows the following error:

[Aggregated 25 times] OVR Error:
Code: -6102 -- ovrError_XRStreamingUSBIssue
Description: WinUsb_WritePipe(handle:0x0000000000000000, ep:255, len:1024) failed: (6) The handle is invalid.

[DShawt]

GIVE US BACK V40!!!

[azmodey]

Dear all,

I decided to create a post about this problem, I invite everybody impacted by this recent problem to create its own post, in order to highlight its criticity.

My specs :

• core i5-9600K
• 16Go DDR4 3200
• 3080 10 Go
• Quest 2
• Asus AX55 + cat8 ethernet cable to PC

Even when running games at minimum quality at 100Mbps dynamic bitrate,  I have unexplained frame drops since several weeks.

It prevents me to play all my oculus CV1 games.

Oculus support asks to me a huge amount of manipulation I have done, I have sent a bunch of logs.

I hope this will be fixed quickly, I intended to buy the quest 3 next year but when I see this kind of trouble and it is handled, I think I have to find another headset, which is a shame because the quest 2 was working great.

While oculus support is, I hope, looking for a solution, we can maybe list the headset that will be released in 2023 ? I need one to play PCVR games as the QUEST 2 is still working fine for native games.

On quest 2 I play beat saber and superhotvr.

PCVR side I play skyrimvr, HLAlyx, B&S, Stormland.

[SwirlyMaple]

I've made a separate post about this issue here, including videos. Let's keep nagging Meta until they finally direct some engineering attention at this! https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Frame-Drops-and-Framerate-Issues-with-Link-amp-AirLin...

[Ansune]

Please help, the issues do still remain and unless resolved will have to sell it and never recommend Meta products to anyone going forward. 😞

[SwirlyMaple]

The thing that really grinds my gears about this is that I have a bunch of money invested in games in the Oculus ecosystem. I (very stupidly) bought many through Oculus instead of Steam, where they were also available. Then Oculus/Meta pulled the rug out from under their PCVR userbase, scrapped their dedicated PCVR products, and left us with the Quest 2 as the only device to continue using our game libraries that many of us spent a lot of money on.

You can't use your Oculus game library without an Oculus/Meta product, so whether their financial people like it or not, they should still be investing resources into making this half-baked Link solution as good as it can possibly be. It continues to regress with each new update. I wouldn't be surprised if they have only 1 or 2 engineers even supporting their PCVR app at this point.

[Bendit74]

I did the same thing, I bought in the Oculus store instead of Steam to support Oculus, thinking that there's less of a glitch risk if it comes from Oculus "natively".

Meta, can you arrange for me to transfer my Oculus game licenses to Steam?

Yeah, right. That will happen...