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

[Tseu]

Same story here for too many years. I'm out too. 

[RuneSR2]

You have much hardware, did you ever test the Valve Index in Steam games? I have no stuttering whatsoever - also not with my old Rift CV1 in Oculus games. 

[Blenkin95]

Unfortunately not but have noticed less issues with the quest 2. I think it just comes down to quest 2, 3 and pro having issues. Whether it be the hardware or the software running pcvr.

[Deathbaron_]

The sad thing is that for me it did work well for a while after the purchase. Up until like 2023 autumn. Then there was some updates and everything went sideways, the Airlink that worked great started having stutters. Doing a factory reset at that time solved it for one or two play sessions, but the problem reappeared. It was fixed later for a brief period, but after another update not even a factory reset helps me with the stutter anymore over Airlink. The latest update again helped a little (from literally unplayable to just utterly annoying), but it is still unusable. I tried the steam link, and that is even worse in it's current state. Currently Virtual Desktop looks stable enough to play with, but tbh i would have preferred not using that.

I did too much troubleshooting, and it is definetly not an issue with my PC, windows or my networking.

It is really annoying that you can't install a specific version of the Oculus software on your PC and a specific version of the OS on the headset, disabling the updates and use a known good state. That alone would solve most of our issues, just rolling back some versions. Not even rolling forward with betas are an option usually.

[TomCgcmfc]

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@Deathbaron_ wrote:

I did too much troubleshooting, and it is definetly not an issue with my PC, windows or my networking.

It is really annoying that you can't install a specific version of the Oculus software on your PC and a specific version of the OS on the headset, disabling the updates and use a known good state. That alone would solve most of our issues, just rolling back some versions. Not even rolling forward with betas are an option usually.

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If your issues with Link or Air Link are not 'actually' due to your PC, OS, or networking, then I'd suggest you either are not using correct settings (windows/nvidia/meta link app/Oculus Debug Tool/SteamVR) or you have a faulty headset.  All my Quest headsets (Q2/3/Pro) continue to work very well with both Link and Air Link with the latest v64 updates.  These also work fine with Virtual Desktop but I don't see any significant improvements using it compared to Air Link.  I actually get the best results with Link (better distance clarity and lower latency) and I tend to use this for flight/racing sims, where being tethered is not a big deal.

I have recently posted my current Link and Air Link settings on the msfs2020 user forum and you may find some of these general (non-msfs2020) settings useful.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/settings-with-qpro-and-q3-using-link-4th-march-2024/632996

Good luck mate and cheers.

[Deathbaron_]

I don't think it is a faulty headset nor incorrect config, but simply some software issue either with the Oculus PC app, nor the headset. It was working before and then it wasn't after an update. Nothing was changed on the PC side, no updates, no hw change, nothing. I did too many troubleshooting and configuration already, including the wifi network, reinstalls, different display drivers, everything i could think of, including all the parameters you mentioned in the forum post.

I got slightly better quality with Airlink in the past compared to VD, hence I would have prefered using that, but whenever I move my head (mostly vertically), it start to stutter making everything unplayable atm. No such issues with VD at the moment.

I will make a snapshot on PC side if this ever gets fixed, and also cuting internet connectivity to the headset (and Oculus app) at that point. It might be able to freeze the working state there, unless there is an update channel i am not aware of.

[TomCgcmfc]

@Deathbaron_  Sorry but I don't think this is a Meta software issue.  Not for me at least. 

I suggest you contact meta support and include your log file.  Maybe they can identify the cause of your issues.  I can't add anything else to this thread so I'll sign off now.  Good luck mate, bye, and cheers.