Crystal Super help needed

[von_Tom]

 

On Thursday I played with my Super showing 90hz in game (game hz indicator) with my test settings and test mission.

Today I get 90hz in the menu screen but 72hz in a quick mission at 5,000m in an F4 with no clouds etc.  I also get 72hz in my test mission but with ghosting.  I cannot get above 72hz for some reason.

Nothing has been changed hardware or software-wise.  So far I have tried different W11 Nvidia drivers and updating Pimax Play (fresh install) and the hardware firmware.  The headset settings are at 90hz with tracking at standard 50hz.

I have checked my monitor is at its native refresh rate of 144hz with G-Sync enabled in fuill and window mode.

My PC spec isn't an issue (9950X3D+5090 etc) and none of my graphics settings have been changed in Pimax Play or in-game.

Does anyone know what the possible fix is, or what the potential problem might be?

von Tom

 

Edit:  My test mission is 8 Spit IXs (mine with a mirror) v 8 He111H-16s at low level over Kuban with flak, and cumulonimbus set to overcast and heavy rain. My settings runs this at 90hz. An F4 at 5000m with no other aircraft and no weather shouldn’t be running as low as 72hz. 
 

Edit 2:  Smart smoothing and eye tracking and FFR are all disabled. 

Edited Monday at 02:21 PM by von_Tom

[TCW_Brzi_Joe]

OpenXR or opernvr? Open vr shows lately wrong ss=1 resolution (correct for my original crystal is about 4390*5100, but steam says about 3300*3400???).

If openxr, then check + apply, then uncheck + apply some settings in piplay/pitool. Sometimes (rare case) it shows wrong, different of what is set there.

Btw you can lock game to 72Hz with openxrtoolkit, or pitool, or nvidia can do it too.

edit; 72 is half of 144, disable that gsync, or half frames in pitool (or smoothing, if that works on your system).

Edited Monday at 11:09 AM by TCW_Brzi_Joe

[von_Tom]

2 hours ago, TCW_Brzi_Joe said:

OpenXR or opernvr?

OpenXR

Thanks for the suggestions, which I've tried.  The weirdness is that I had not changed anything at all until this problem arose - no driver updates (because if it works don't "fix" it).  I've now rolled back graphics drivers with a completely clean install to 581.80 to ensure that smart smoothing is disabled (later drivers remove the option from PP).

It's just weird that the menu screen has 90 showing but in-cockpit it maxes at 72hz with ghosting.  It's as if smart smoothing is enabled or something is throttling the hardware when in-cockpit, but I have no idea what it could be.

von Tom

 

Edit:  I've tried running thnrough SteamVR but the problem persists.  G-Sync on/of makes no difference.

Edit 2:  I have always had image quality at Medium (0.75).  This was not changed until my last test.  Reducing to Low (0.50) does allow 90hz but it looks a lot worse.  I have no idea why medium is no longer low enough.  GPU upscaling is off and Sharpness at 0.4 - nothing has changed.  It's as if smart smoothing is forced on even though it shows as off, and I've enabled/disabled it several times.

Edited Monday at 01:51 PM by von_Tom

[dgiatr]

1 hour ago, von_Tom said:

OpenXR

Thanks for the suggestions, which I've tried.  The weirdness is that I had not changed anything at all until this problem arose - no driver updates (because if it works don't "fix" it).  I've now rolled back graphics drivers with a completely clean install to 581.80 to ensure that smart smoothing is disabled (later drivers remove the option from PP).

It's just weird that the menu screen has 90 showing but in-cockpit it maxes at 72hz with ghosting.  It's as if smart smoothing is enabled or something is throttling the hardware when in-cockpit, but I have no idea what it could be.

von Tom

 

Edit:  I've tried running thnrough SteamVR but the problem persists.  G-Sync on/of makes no difference.

Edit 2:  I have always had image quality at Medium (0.75).  This was not changed until my last test.  Reducing to Low (0.50) does allow 90hz but it looks a lot worse.  I have no idea why medium is no longer low enough.  GPU upscaling is off and Sharpness at 0.4 - nothing has changed.  It's as if smart smoothing is forced on even though it shows as off, and I've enabled/disabled it several times.

Since you are using openXr , why dont you try to enable openxr toolkit to see if there will be any  changes? You can also override resolution using an option which exists in there..

[von_Tom]

2 hours ago, dgiatr said:

Since you are using openXr , why dont you try to enable openxr toolkit to see if there will be any  changes? You can also override resolution using an option which exists in there..

But I have not changed anything at all and the toolkit will only see how things are now, and not how they were when I could play at 90hz.  I have also tried OpenXR toolkit and have no idea what to change or how resolution matches up to the Crystal Super settings.  The toolkit shows a resolution of 5110x4876 but I don't know if that matches image quality of 0.75. If it does then the toolkit won't help.

I cannot help but compare this to my Index that i set once and it just worked.  The visuals of the Super are exceptional but random unexplained changes are just meh.

von Tom

 

Edit:  For some reason the drop in fps is in cockpit, not in outside views which I very rarely use.  In 3rd person view I get around 80-85fps in an F4 at 5k with no weather/clouds.

Using Custom in PP set at 0.75 gives a resolution in the Toolkit at 4836x4490 but I am still capped at 72hz in-cockpit:

[OXRTK] 2026-01-05 16:35:25 +0000: Using OpenXR resolution (no upscaling): 4836x4490.

Edit 2:  If the default Super resolution is 3840x3840 then 0.75 would (to my mind) equate to 2880x2880.  The total for both eyes would then be 5,760 x 5,760 so the resolution shown in the TK doesn't match anything.

Edit 3:  0.65 image quality shows:  [OXRTK] 2026-01-05 17:02:33 +0000: Using OpenXR resolution (no upscaling): 4192x3890, but in my test mision that is limited to 72hz with bad ghosting.  0.75 used to be rock steady at 90 with no ghosting.

I wonder if an Nvidia driver has screwed it all up, even though I have done a full clean using Revo and a clean download/install of an older driver - 581.57.

Edit 4:  G-Sync on/off makes no difference.

Edited Monday at 05:22 PM by von_Tom

[chiliwili69]

21 hours ago, von_Tom said:

If the default Super resolution is 3840x3840

This is not the default ("render") resolution, this is just the physical panel resolution.

The default render resolution is the number of pixels to render for one eye when you set in Pimax Play the custom resolution at 1.0.

Those numbers, for the 50PPD, were 6240x6280

You see that from this video:

 

I don´t know if new versions of Pimax Play they have changed those rendered resolutions.

[von_Tom]

Using OpenXR Toolkit I recorded the following:

 

Low stress mission

FPS: 72

app CPU: 4.1-4.4MS

rdr CPU: 2.2MS

app GPU: 7.3MS

VRAM: 5.2gb (16%)

 

High stress mission

FPS: 72

app CPU: 6-8.1MS

rdr CPU: 3.6-6MS

app GPU: 8-9MS

VRAM: 6.2GB (20%)

 

There is one new change which is that when I turn PP on, as well as an indicator on my monitor that the headset is active I also get a message saying Pimax device is connected - this did not show before.

Changing my monitor refresh rate from 144hz to 175hz makes fps jump to 87-88fps in both missions and that suggests that there is some interplay  between PP or the firmware and the monitor settings as it is always limited to 50% of the monitor refresh rate.

von Tom

Edited Tuesday at 05:14 PM by von_Tom