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White horizontal stripe across screen while using link

Panzer_mk2
Honored Guest

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?

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I honestly haven’t a clue. I just used to work as a VR QA tester at Meta for a long time, before I was hit by the layoffs in January. I kept digging and digging to try and investigate what caused the infamous white bar issue since early 2022 - it wasn’t until I realized I could dig through appdata logs and directly change how the sliced encoding works via Registry Editor that I found the fix. 

(Meta, just saying, I really wouldn’t mind being rehired as a contingent worker!)

OMG!  That's amazing!  Appreciate the recognition but Pokebert with his expert knowledge and experience put us over the top.  As far as my background, I'm a retired federal criminal investigator so I just approached the matter as I would any criminal case.  I do have a M.S. in computer science, though it is dated (back in the old "punch card days" lol!) and I spent a number of years investigating computer crime.  

Thanks.

WOW!  Couldn't have done it without your knowledge and insight.  I was just starting to dig through the appdata logs myself not long before you posted.  However, for me it was looking for a needle in a haystack without actually knowing what a needle looks like lol!  

Sorry to hear they let you go....definitely a huge loss on their part.

I was never convinced it was directly a problem with the headset itself.  The fact that it was so random and seemingly dependent on a variety of factors points to triggers outside the headset.  Another big clue, which you zeroed in on, was that it was always occurring precisely in the same place on nearly everyone's headset.  I just didn't have the knowledge of how rendering and encoding works to follow up on it.

I will also say that I think some apologies are due to the numerous Oculus support folks who chimed in from time to time.  And I'll be the first because I felt the frustration along with everyone else.  But the reality is that the front line support personal in no way could be expected to have the expertise needed to identify the issue.  Nor could they have since it turns out it isn't a headset malfunction directly.  In essence we were expecting them to solve an issue that wasn't an Oculus issue.  And even if they passed it up the chain, which I'll bet was done at least in some cases, when the next levels of support tested they likely couldn't recreate the issue.  

Thanks.

There may still be some confusion with respect to the Oculus Debug Tool (ODT) and what it does.  I know that was the case with me before I started looking into this issue.

It is simply a tool used to send text commands to the app runtime software to instruct on how the CPU/GPU processes and streams the images.  It does not receive communication from the runtime app during processing so the values in the ODT only change if you do it manually or if the ODT is closed and re-opened.  The runtime app on the PC simply polls the ODT (or the third party Oculus Tray Tool (OTT) which works exactly the same way and if you are using one you shouldn't be also using the other) at startup to retrieve the settings a user has coded in the ODT.  Also, ODT settings do not in any way affect, change or impact the data from the PC once it is encoded and streamed to the headset.  However, the settings can be an indirect cause of artifacts if the instructions provided to the runtime cannot be processed as intended due to the limitations of the PC’s software and/or hardware. Be sure to open ODT with ‘Run as administrator’.

Also, the image quality of Link data stream from the GPU is primarily determined by following 5 settings:  Rendering Resolution (Oculus PC app setting), Distortion Curvature, Encode Resolution Width, Bitrate and Link Sharpening.

Pokebert might be able to explain in more detail or correct any of the above.

Also, here is a link to the best explanation of all of the ODT settings that I've been able to find:

Oculus Debug Tool Guide for Quest 2 (Why & How To Use) – Smart Glasses Hub

 

I think the internet is quite amazing really - we interact with some very interesting people without realising. (And I stand by what I said about us not being able to afford you! lol)

Though I stand by the importance of you re-invigorating a rather hopeless forum post, I do agree with what you say regarding Pokeberts expertise.   - Pokebert, you've provided us a practical solution, and that has made all the difference! I regret not giving you more poem time 😛
I'm sorry to hear how rough a time you've had with the layoffs - you're clearly still passionate and engaged, still contributing to the community because you wanted to find a fix.

Skilled and passionate people often don't have an easy time - but there are hundreds of people (probably thousands, including lurkers) who have benefited directly from your insight.

I hope that someone comes across this thread, and rightly goes.... "you know what? I run a VR/tech company, and need someone with passion, domain knowledge and tenacity... I'm going to drop Pokebert a line."

Thank you both again, and for everyone who contributed. Now comes the process of optimising settings!

Xerberuz
Protege

Thank you so much for fixing this issue going on for 2 years!  I used the CMD manual fix and played Demeo for over 3 hours with now white stripe, it used to happen like a couple of minutes into playing.  I wish there was a way to bring attention back to this forum from Meta, and to change the really solution to this change.  This fix has made my week.

"I hope that someone comes across this thread, and rightly goes.... "you know what? I run a VR/tech company, and need someone with passion, domain knowledge and tenacity... I'm going to drop Pokebert a line.""

Well said and I hope so too.

deleted

Did anybody try Airlink after this? I'm seeing a gray bar and some artifacts that are much worst then the one I was seeing in DR2 before this. I'm on the Quest Pro. I will try my Quest 2 just to see if it's doing it. 

Yeah Quest 2 airlink is the same. I will try uninstalling/reinstalling Oculus software

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