Some warnings on using the VaM Supersampling slider.

[TToby]

As many of you will know, the image that your graphic card is sending to your VR headset has most of the time a bigger resolution than the physical resolution of your headset screens.
This has technical reasons, like for removing the distortions caused by the lenses, and so on.
How much it differs, is different from headset to headset. At 100%, a Valve Index, for instance, is rendering a 2016x2240 image, which is roughly 1.4 times higher than the visible resolution of 1440x1600. More resolution = more performance needed.

So wide, so far. In the steam settings, you have the option to change those resolution. Many of you know, that going below 100% or 1.0, will reduce the image quality dramatically. With more powerful graphic cards around, many of us are setting this value higher. This is called Super Sampling: the image will be rendered in a higher resolution and is downscaled to the standard resolution again. As you may know from your TV or DVD player, this can enhance the image quality for a certain amount. Not as much as having a higher native resolution, but nearly at the full performance costs.

This is something every SteamVR user will/should know. What is less known is, that SteamVR has a function to select a higher Super Sampling rate automatically, according to the estimated rendering performance of your graphic card. Many of us have switched this off to keep the manual control.

What does this have to do with VaM? Vam has a Super Sampling slider, too!
It is the big fat slider at the top of the tab where you will find the performance settings. If you will use the quality/performance presets, it will be set automatically up to 2.0 which means 200%. Whereas most of us VR users are very cautious to set the Super Sampling slider in SteamVR, many will click on "Ultra" to get best quality without a second thought.
Setting the VaM Super Sampling to 2.0 is the same as pushing the SteamVR SS slider to 200%.

What are the news of this posting? If you will use both sliders at the same time, may it be intentional or because of those automatic SteamVR function,
BOTH VALUES WILL MULTIPLY!

For instance, if you have a newish GPU and your SteamVR SS settings are at maybe 150%, having the VaM SS settings on 2.0 will multiply that value to 300%! This is an enormous render size, your poor GPU has to handle.

How can this guy know this for sure? That is simple: after a lot of testing I gave up and simply asked MeshedVR.
To save him from other users asking the same question again, and to make other users aware of this being an issue, I wrote this warning.

 

[HolySchmidt]

Warning! You will experience a world that looks nearly like the real world, girls sharp as a razorblade and a VR experience that will blow your mind
Just joking around ...

Thanks for the clue, my ingame setting is always at 1.0, the only real difference I experienced with a higher setting was really better looking hair. Of course everything looks better on the edges, textures are sharper, but not like that much sharper. Performancewise it goes down dramatically. But I'll check my SteamVR settings again. Maybe I didn't notice something in the settings. Will try out max scaling for sure. I expect a near-life experience ?

 

[TToby]

I expect a near-life experience

LOL, maybe with one if those 8k-per-eye headsets and a flux-capacitor driven GPU.
In some games like Fallout4VR it works wonders to set SS to 150%. In VaM it has only little effects. But if you have the GPU power but no interesting new VR HMD to buy, every bit of quality gain is welcome. By the way, If I do scenes with more than 1-2 persons or lights , I (have to) put it down to 100%, too. I really don't like low fps in VR.
This warning was mainly ment for users who were clicking the VaM "ultra" quality setting without thinking about this.

 

[keycode]

you ..stard mayonnaise germans!!!! I had a quiet happy fapping rate life before reading (for the n time) this advice about fucking pixel rendering(-s). Should I forget to say that with a reverb I was checking minimum 10 times WMR, then steam VR, then the specific steam VR VAM game setting, then of course my VAM user setting. Maybe I forget also some superfucking nvidia control panel parameter. But probably better leaving it like it is... or even more probably I will leave everything like it is. ????

 

[keycode]

still I hope some talibans could teach one day a solid anal-morality lesson to those steam vr teams for not realizing a better user interface.

 

[HolySchmidt]

you ..stard germans!!!!

Na na na, Du kleiner Schlingel ☝ Aufpassen hier sonst wirds wild! ?

Just keep going, won't disturb you any further.

 

[Case]

you ..stard germans!!!!

Vee have vays of making you think twice about such statements in the vuture ...

 

[keycode]

Deutsche schätzen die raffinierte Gabe der Ironie selten oder verstehen sie einfach nicht

 

[Case]

Deutsche schätzen die raffinierte Gabe der Ironie selten oder verstehen sie einfach nicht

Ironie? Eins von diesen Schwermetallen, die man nur in Österreich findet, stimmts?

 

[keycode]

Ironie? Eins von diesen Schwermetallen, die man nur in Österreich findet, stimmts?

in 15 years of life together, apart from my platinum better half (Austrian Viennese, but with a very Prussian character), do I have to admit that you are right? but it's probably just a cliché.

 

[HolySchmidt]

Schätze der Thementitel muss umbenannt werden, das ja schlimm hier ?

Back to topic ladies and gentleman, otherwise we have to take over the forum, you know we can!

 

[keycode]

Schätze der Thementitel muss umbenannt werden, das ja schlimm hier ?

Back to topic ladies and gentleman, otherwise we have to take over the forum, you know we can!

my fault! I forget sometimes to keep at very banal standard any "topic" intrusion of mine and sorry if I hurted your limits beyond any tolerant inquisitor feedback. Reporting will make you feel better.

 

[TToby]

in 15 years of life together, apart from my platinum better half (Austrian Viennese, but with a very Prussian character), do I have to admit that you are right? but it's probably just a cliché.

Naa, it is not a cliché... whereas other people may first laugh about an ironic statement and then maybe realize they might got insulted, many of us Germans first feel insulted, then think about if it might be ironic. Lol.
So, it is something that works better between close friends.
But... meine Herren, bitte back to the topic!

 

[LooksHunter]

Hmmm so what setting would you recommend for Index, keeping both SteamVR and render scale at 100%/1.0? I mess with those settings sometimes, now I use 100%/1.5.

 

[TToby]

Hmmm so what setting would you recommend for Index, keeping both SteamVR and render scale at 100%/1.0? I mess with those settings sometimes, now I use 100%/1.5.

This strongly depends on your hardware and if you have some performance headroom.
I have VaM SS on 1.0 and SteamVR SS on 150% ( RX 6900xt ). I did some tests and can't see enough benefit from going up to 200%.
For most people having less than a RTX 3070 or 2080 (maybe at least 3060 or 2070 or 1080ti) 1.0/100% should be OK, because IMHO SS does not enhance the quality that much in VaM to live with the performance consequences. But this is highly subjective. You maybe would like to try it out. Remember, that 100% on the Index is a bit of SS anyways.

In the end it does not matters how you will do it. Just keep in mind that both values will multiply.
Some might say they play many other VR games and therefore want to keep SteamVR SS on 100% to not switch back and forth. Those might maybe better use the VaM SS slider, for instance.