White horizontal stripe across screen while using link

[Panzer_mk2]

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?

[ChronoIndeks]

hey, i just want to say THANK YOU.

I didn't believe this would work, i tried each and every one of the workarounds/solutions here and none worked. I literally couldn't play anymore and was so salty

Your solution worked, it saved my weekend. Thank you so so much

[Zyphrono]

Thanks! I'm experiencing this issue too and I'll give your provided workaround a try.

[Forsakenzombi]

I personally am having the issue when playing Pokerstars VR. It never used to happen though. It started happening for me in like late january and I play this game all the time. Its been happening rather consistently since then but doesnt seem to happen to anyone else in the game... though im not sure how many are using link but noone i have spoken to has had the issue before. I am using a 2080 super currently. 

[damispeedVR]

Just want to say to Pokebert thank you soooooo muuuuch!!!!

It´s been more than a year without using the Quest 2 in Assetto Corsa because of the white stripe.

Lucky for me I still had the CV1. Finally thank's to you I can fully enjoy the headset despite Meta has abandoned us with this issue.

Again thank you so much. 

Please META link the "go to solution" button to the REAL (by now) SOLUTION

[benji94]

COMGRATULATIONS ON BEING THE 1000th REPLY!!!

As I've mentioned I haven't had the issue for quite some time, since early January if memory serves.  And I've been racing with it a lot and for periods of nearly four hours at a time.  Not a hint of the white line showing up.  So accordingly I haven't implemented the change to reducing "numslices" and I confirmed via ODT that the GPU (RTX 3090) was encoding the default 5.

Then last night out of the blue I was in a race and the issue started developing within just a few laps of the race.  It continued to get worse and ended being a pink horizontal band across the bottom of the display instead of white.  

So what changed?  I've made no setting changes in either the Oculus PC app, nor ODT, nor in game (iRacing).  I did upgrade the Nvidia display driver last week to version 531.41 however I was in the headset quite a bit since the update and it didn't develop.

Other than the Nvidia update, the only difference was last night I was running the Bristol dirt track with about 30 other cars in the field.  Dirt racing adds a ton of more textures, colors, and particles like smoke, dust, and dirt that is being modeled.  With 30 cars out there it is a LOT of extra rendering that the GPU is asked to do.  It is not surprising to me that the issue redeveloped once I got on a dirt track and, I think, likely similar to what the Dirt Rally crowd experience.

So I think this is good circumstantial evidence that the issue develops as a result of an application that requires more rendering/encoding capabilities than the available hardware can accommodate.  Even a 3090 with 24gbs of VRAM ends up struggling when the amount of stuff that needs to be rendered and encoded exceeds its capacity to keep up.  Checking the resulting oculus log showed an increased number of "frame drops due to encoder backup" entries.

So once again I don't see it as an Oculus problem if the above is the case.  It very much explains why over all this time the issue is so random and affects some and not others.  It appears to all depend on each user's application, hardware capabilities, and graphics settings (Nvidia, in game, ODT, and Oculus PC app).  When all are in sync everything works great.  But when just one or more of the pieces of this very complex system becomes too much for the rest of the system to handle this problem, and likely other issues for some, develops.

The reason for encoding slices instead of the entire frame is to reduce latency and I'm sure Oculus devs wanted to reduce it as much as possible.  No doubt their testing with 5 worked just fine and gave the best latency reduction results.  However, for some of us 5 doesn't work due to application/hardware/settings and so Pokebert's solution of reducing to 4 (or 3, 2, or 1 for some) at the expense of some added latency solves the problem (probably giving the encoder a smidgeon more time to do its job).

So I have implemented Pokebert's solution and made the registry entry setting numslices to 4.  I just finished a about an hour test and all was good though I was the only car on the track.  Checking the log revealed a significant fewer "frame dropped due to encoder backup" entries.  The real test will be this afternoon when I run another race with no changes except the numslices set to 4 fix.  I fully expect it will work flawlessly and will advise.

UPDATE:  After changing the number of encoder slices to 4 over the weekend I ran two more identical races (same track, number of cars, etc.) with the exact same settings (ODT, PC, Nvidia, Oculus PC, In-game, etc.) and no white stripe appeared.  Just another confirmation that Pokebert's solution works.

[joran6]

@Pokebert or anyone else, I'm interested in trying the reg edit solution but no information is offered on how to change it back if it's not the right solution for us. Can anyone help with that? Do I delete this line? Change the "numslices" back to 5? I want to try it, I just want to understand how to undo if needed. 

[muammeriyice]

It is very valuable that many friends share their tests and experiences on this subject, and especially that some friends handle the work with an extremely scientific methodology and convey their results.
What I understand is that; Meta Quest II headset or meta software is not responsible for this. Benji's determination is extremely reasonable and satisfactory.
The game we run, the game settings and the system and hardware we use are the main responsible for this.
Considering all the components, Nvidia is the one that can solve this problem best. Because all pc hardware is based on traditional pc games and when VR is involved in the design, the requirement and power demand are almost doubled. coming out.
Maybe nvidia can reduce the workload by disabling the pc screen while the vr is in use with a new software, or improve it in a clever but simple way that I can't think of.
Because with the updates and developments in all games, let alone the RTX4090 ti, even the RTX9090 ti will not be enough to run the games at the highest settings with their perfection.
Thanks everyone.

[benji94]

First thank you for the kind words.  LOL!....I just got tired of visiting this thread and reading all of the hand wringing and disparaging remarks putting blame on one entity or another without any actual proof.  So I decided we are not all just a bunch of idiots here and it was time to roll up the sleeves and start digging into the details of what we collectively knew and what we needed to find out.  Then by incrementally sharing new additional information there would be others joining the search and sooner or later someone would hit on the solution.  And that's pretty much what happened.

Honestly I can't point the finger of blame at any entity at this point.  Nor is there yet any clear evidence that any one of the necessary components to make all this magic work is "broke."  The Oculus headset works just fine for millions and millions (otherwise this thread would have been a magnitude longer than it is).  Nvidia makes great graphics cards and they too work flawlessly for most users most of the time.  Same thing with CPUs, USB controllers, Windows, etc. etc....all of the many components the all need to work seamlessly for us to have the best VR experience.

But in the real world..as soon as Nvidia makes a more powerful graphics card there are vr game developers who will develop their game software to take the fullest advantage of it.  Headset developers, whoever it is, will likewise add new features to take advantage of the more powerful CPUs and GPUs.  Then we, the end users come along and what do we do???....always pushing every setting we can get our fingers on to have the very best visual gaming experience.  And so it becomes and endless circle with everyone in the circle pushing for better, faster, and more.  

So when one component is pushed too far and an issue develops, such as this one, it becomes a real nightmare to track it down.  Each entity looks at their individual device or software and as far as they can determine the problem isn't theirs.  And they are not incorrect.  But there is just no big office someplace where the devs of each component can get together and hash out a solution for a problem such as this one.

On a side note, even if Meta had discovered the solution that Pokebert found (and who knows maybe they did) I seriously doubt they would want to be in the position of recommending to Quest users that they futz around with their PC's registry keys.  Can you imagine how many potentially bricked PCs could occur?....good grief!

Anyway, preaching to the choir here, I know.  So the bottom line is that unless we dive even deeper into this there is no way to say it is the fault of any one component.  And on that note I'm still going to continue to dig a bit further.  I really would like to know what it is that causes the artifact (the white line) to display in the way that it does and when it does.  If I find out anything further I'll post it.

[muammeriyice]

I totally agree and appreciate your effort.
Perhaps the best wish is, as you said, if the manufacturers of the components could establish a mechanism to produce solutions together and not leave the principle of customer satisfaction in word.
I'm sure this issue will be fully defined and resolved somehow.
Thanks again.

[anpeaco]

I've been battling this issue for a few weeks now. I don't know exactly what triggered this for me but it seems to be getting worse. I'm on a Quest Pro and 2, 3080ti, genuine link cable and only really play DCS World. I've tried from 1-5 on numslices, nothing seems to help. With it set to 1 my whole screen turns pink after 10-15 minutes. It feels like there are so many variables at play that trying to work anything out is very difficult. I really hoped mumslices would be the answer.