Thanks for the insights - they were helpful.
Interesting data points I came across:
My HMD's default 100% sampling resolution is 3600x3600. I have dropped this down to minimum (20%), with a resolution of 1600x1600. The results in my previous post were already from Katanga resting at gray screen as you suggested. Now, the resting usage is about the same as VD - thanks for the supersampling suggestion.
I tested out capping the fps to 45. I appreciate that a lot of people don't notice the difference between low fps (<60) and high fps (>60).
Capping at 45 produced unacceptable fluidity to me personally. I forced motion smoothing on katanga, which worked very well to estimate in-between frames. I was able to up the resolution to beyond 1200p this way.
Setting the game fps cap to 45 and then setting VSync on isn't ideal - vsync adds input lag, and if the FPS is capped in the control panel/inside game, then vsync doesn't help with runaway fps and wasted GPU anyway...
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Some points you might wish to summarise/link to in op for visibility.
1.
VR display fov is usually 1:1, so it is best to try and get Katanga's virtual screen as close to that as reasonable possible.
A monitor/virtual screen FOV will be 16:9 by default inside VR, due to the resolutions available only being those that your monitor can support.
For best performance and image quality, create a custom 4:3 resolution, e.g. if your monitor resolution is 1920x1080, then use CRU to create a custom resolution of 1920x1440 (or 1440x1080p if you want more performance/your display can't support a higher resolution - VSync will be off so refresh rate can be set ridiculously low, such as 7Hz to maximise compatibility with the monitor's accepted pixel clock value).
https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thre ... tility-CRU
This way your full FOV and pixels on your VR's display will be filled up much more efficiently without wasting GPU power on pixels you can't see, or huge empty areas above and below the screen - it's all about immersion after all.
2.
Set the steamVR supersampling slider to just above the in-game resolution you set above, rather than the default 100%. Ideally, sampling frequency of Katanga would be double the Nyquist frequency (resolution of the game), however this is a good compromise. We just have to ensure the SS resolution isn't lower than the in-game resolution [on the vertical axis].
3.
-i. Set game FPS cap to your HMD's natural refresh and disable VSync - at low resolutions, this gives ultra fluid gameplay at 90fps, assuming your GPU can handle it.
-ii. Or, if you prefer image quality over fluidity, set the game cap to 45fps (as suggested in OP) and still disable VSync. In either case, having VSync enabled will be trying to sync to your monitor rather than VR, and will give you odd synchronisation between the game and HMD as your HMD tries to sample this out-of-sync refresh meant for your monitor; - this manifests itself as microstutter, giving lower perceived FPS than is actually being output.
Here is a great explanation of why capping the game to 45fps while having VSync on at 60Hz that VR tries to resample at 45fps etc will produce "judder":
https://youtu.be/CuEZIJDEQyo?t=13
4.
FORCE Motion smoothing in SteamVR for Katanga if playing at 45fps (vSync OFF)- this won't be as good as natural 90fps of most HMDs, however it will be far better than 45fps without motion smoothing (for most scenarios), for those sensitive to low fps such as myself. VSync has to be OFF or else the motion estimation obviously won't work well.
5.
Newcomers to Katanga/Helixvision - the controls are behind you! For those seated like myself, this can be very awkward... Maybe there is a document showing these controls I can print out?
If there is something more specific you would like tested, then I am happy to do so...
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On a side-note, Katanga now has sharpening automatically set to something like 1.5 as default which adds a lot to image quality. I personally like higher sharpness - my preferred value is 4.0. I include the reg-file to make this happen, however best back up the original reg key beforehand...
Side-note #2 - Katanga works well with FSR's sharpening pass, by swapping the OpenVR_api.dll in the plugins folder. It doesn't seem to work with fixed foveated rendering which uses dxgi.dll next to the .exe - even if it did work, I doubt there would be a significant performance increase, as it would just be resampling Katanga's viewport, not the actual game.
Looking forward to playing more perfectly fixed games with this, and keeping a close eye on its evolution - thank you once again.
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