The VR View will deliver frames at a reduced frequency for (at least) WMR and Oculus headsets

[BOLL7708]

Background

• This issue appears to have existed since SteamVR version 1.10.26 from March 9th, according to reports I've seen. It's been posted about on various forums, researched and confirmed.
• It appears to affect non-SteamVR-native headsets, meaning hardware that use a secondary runtime in addition to SteamVR, confirmed are Oculus and WMR headsets.
• There is a work-around by running an older version of SteamVR, v1.10.20 or older, but it is far from user friendly.
• This mainly affects content creators that use the VR View for capture.

Issue

The VR View will only deliver 30 frames per second for a 90 Hz headset if it is using the WMR or Oculus runtimes.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use a WMR or Oculus headset.
2. Open the VR View from the SteamVR window on the desktop.
3. Run my spinner application which rotates a bar at a specific Hz.
4. Lower the rotation Hz to a fraction of the headset Hz by using up/down arrows or pageup/pagedown (10x), for a 90 Hz headset 30 Hz is a good target.

Result

The VR View will only display one bar at 30 Hz.

Expected

The VR View should display three flickering bars at 30 Hz, this as a 90 Hz headset should provide frames for all three positions.

Notes

• The above test is also affected by the fact the VR View normally only delivers half the headset Hz, so in most cases 45 Hz, this can be seen by 45 Hz delivering a single bar (which might jump around) while there should be two if all frames are delivered.
• The issue does not appear to be true for headsets running SteamVR directly, like the HTC Vive and Valve Index.
• Overlays will still be fluid in the VR View so it appears to get more frames from overlays than the current scene application.
• You can validate that my application works using an Index or HTC Vive set to a known Hz and observing how many bars you see.

Posts about this issue

Personally I have only tested with the Index and I get a full 60 Hz out of my VR View, this as I run the headset at 120 Hz and historically the VR View has always halved the frame rate so 60 Hz should be as good as it gets for me.

This also means I'm reporting this as a community proxy, as I myself have not experienced this problem in person. What I've summarized above are things other people have commented on and made notes of in various places, so if something does not check out, I might have read or remembered it wrong. I'm including a number of references regarding this issue below.

SteamVR Forums

• 2019-04-08 VR View FPS Bug <- lots of discussion
• 2020-05-02 Low framerate in SteamVR mirror display only <- info about reverting to an earlier version of SteamVR
• 2020-08-15 "VR View"(window/OpenVR capture) is only running at something like 20 FPS, making streaming VR games a nightmare on Mixed Reality
• 2020-08-19 SteamVR Mirror still shows low framerate with oculus rift s
• 2020-08-24 SteamVR Display Clone FPS
• 2020-09-04 Spectator Screen Image Stabilization (Like Oculus Mirror) <- as a side note
• 2020-11-21 Default mirror to desktop FoV is cut off; can't use the "VR View" feature cause it runs 30fps?
• 2020-11-24 Change VR View to allow for 60 FPS recording on Oculus/WMR headsets
• 2020-11-30 SteamVR Display View FPS on driver-direct devices
• 2021-01-04 Why all HMDs but Valve Index have proper FPS output for Steam VR mirror or OBS plugin?
• 2021-02-06 Change VR View to allow for 60 FPS recording on Oculus/WMR headsets

Reddit

• 2020-03-29 SteamVR "VR View" Low FPS
• 2020-04-10 SteamVR "Display VR view" has low framerate
• 2020-11-20 After a week of troubleshooting with Steam Support, I figured out why SteamVr Mirror displays half your frame rate for WMR and oculus devices. Unfortunately, it doesnt seem like it will be fixed anytime soon.
• 2021-03-26 OBS - Low fps video output when recording VR - Help!

OpenVR Input Plugin

• 2020-04-09 Apparent framerate drop.
• 2020-05-28 Vive Cosmos Frame issues

[HOllarves]

+1

[KingKrouch]

This issue has been prevalent for a while. I'd really love to see an update that fixes this issue on WMR headsets.

[Stalltt]

This one really scruffs my gruff. With how many people have posted about it I'm surprised there haven't been any solutions beyond downgrading and keeping your version downgraded.

[Da-Nuker]

Can Valve please either acknowledge this issue or provide a workaround?

It's not possible to get smooth 60fps gameplay recording from SteamVR's capture itself right now when it used to be possible on WMR, especially not the Reverb G2 is out and the exact same problem is still there. The fact that menus and overlays operate at 60 fps still is just mind boggling.

We can record the game window but that will mean 3rd party overlay programs are not recorded and it is not a good solution for streaming.

[Stalltt]

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamVR/comments/jxfoz3/after_a_week_of_troubleshooting_with_steam/
It appears that someone contacting support actually got a relevant reply, though it amounted to "we don't care to fix it"

[Proutmouth]

Hello,

Same issue here
Migrated from a RiftS to a G2.

The headset is good, but the mirroring with half the FPS is a regression from the OculusMirror.
Streaming/Recording for video editing with such a low framerate isn't really possible when playing DCS that already need a high end computer.

Is there any news since November?

[Stalltt]

I hope the WMR mirror display is half decent because SteamVR has gone above and beyond to not be helpful on this one.
New year, same issue.

[Proutmouth]

Unfortunately, the WMR mirror has good FPS, but also a lower resolution and require to be foreground to display something (being on foreground on a side screen is OK as long as you don't pop a window above it).

[Proutmouth]

For OP list of posts, new occurrence here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hoggit/comments/mdmxev/obs_low_fps_video_output_when_recording_vr_help/

[CansecoDev]

For Oculus Quest 2 (maybe Quest 1 too but I cant test that) users reading this; the oculus-diagnostics\OculusMirror can provide an usable display at good resolution and fps. But it will only work with either link or airlink (not with virtual desktop)

[Proutmouth]

Hello,

Is there any news on this topic that wasn't posted here ?

[pudimdecana]

Hey!

I kinda found a workaround for this and it may be already known.

I'm on Quest 2 and inside the headset configuration, set it to 120Hz.

I'm using SteamLink VR and the VR View now shows half of that, which is 60Hz/Fps - The batteries go way faster tho.

[Proutmouth]

Hello,

Thanks for the bump.

On my side I also found a working workaround avoiding SteamVR thanks to DCS that allow to use OpenXR.
I use now a plugin for OBS that use OpenXR mirror : https://github.com/Jabbah/OpenXR-Layer-OBSMirror.
(if the key registration doesn't work => Jabbah/OpenXR-Layer-OBSMirror#9 )

Working fine.

[LonleyViper]

+1