Dirt Rally 2.0 VR (Quest 2) performance and optimal settings

[Clouds823 0]

Hi, I love Dirt Rally 2 in VR. Since the legendary Network Q RAC Rally game that came out in 1996 I was always fascinated with Rally Games. So, since I got a Quest 2 I tried getting it to look and feel as good as possible on my mid-range PC: i5-10600kf (@5ghz), 16GB DDR3600mhz, RTX 2070. Here's what I've found to work best with the Quest 2. If you're debating, the Quest 2 is the clearly the best all-round VR headset available. But if you're strictly into Sim-racing I suggest the Rift S (low-end hardware) or the HTC Reverb G2 (high-end hardware). That being said, the Quest2 is totally suitable for Sims.
Enjoy.

--> Always start the game in Oculus mode "duh" ;D
 

1. Anti-Aliasing: Most existing guides are from the time the game came out when people had the CV1, HTC Vive and Rift S. Those always use high MSAA because the lower res headsets were easily maxed out and AA was the only way to push it further. But with the Quest 2 you can go two ways to get a good looking image: MSAA 4x and lower resolution, or use CMAA+FXAA or no AA and turn up the headset resolution as high as possible. I personally use CMAA+FXAA and high rendering resolution because it makes the overall image less blurry and provides a more detailed and clear track, especially in the distance, which is very important. But feel free to experiment what works best for you.
    
2. Oculus Software and Debug Tool
   - I use: 72hz, 1.3, 4848x2448, basically turn this up as much as you can depending on your GPU!
   -->I can only see/feel the difference between 72/90hz when I specifically compare and look for it. In normal gameplay I don't see any difference... But that's just me, if you need 90hz just lower your resolution or buy better hardware 😄
   -->If I want MSAA 4x I need to lower render resolution to around ~1.1-1.2. to keep fps up.
   In Debug Tool: 
   - Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW): disabled; (The problem with ASW in sims, when it suddenly kicks in, you instantly gain around 10-20ms input latency which almost always throws me off track, I rather take a quick stutter but stay on track)
   - Distortion Curvature: LOW (should improve visuals in the center of your view)
   - Encode Resolution: 0 (since oculus software v23 default uses native res of Quest 2)
   - Encode Bitrate (mbps): 250-350. (this is dependent on your USB 3 connection. The USB test gives me 2.3 Gbps and I can use 300mbps without introducing stutters and you won't see any improvement above 350)
    
3. Nvidia system tools (only the settings that are changed):
   - Anisotropic Filtering 16x (looks better than in-game AF)
   - Antialiasing FXAA; on (turn off if you use MSAA, but turn on MFAA instead)
   - Energy mode; Prefer maximum performance
   - Anisotropic sample optimization; on (reduces shimmering)
   - Texture filtering; High performance & Trilinear optimization
   - Threaded optimization; on
    
4. Ingame settings (most important settings for visual fidelity: Shader, Shadows, Ground cover)
   Anti-Aliasing
   CMAA (or MSAA 4x)
   Anisotropic Filtering
   OFF (we enabled this in nvidia tools)
   Shader Detail:
   HIGH (I use LOW only for rainy stages, helps with performance and gives more visibility - otherwise it just looks bad)
   Texture Detail
   ULTRA (no performance impact with 8GB vram)
   Reflections
   LOW
   Screen Space Reflections
   OFF
   Shadows
   MEDIUM (you can turn this to low/ultra low to gain some extra fps on intense tracks)
   Night Lightning
   OFF
   Ambient Occlusion
   OFF
   Advanced Ambient Occlusion
   OFF
   Particles
   OFF (turn on if you want dust and smoke behind your car that you almost never see, costs a few fps)
   Advanced Blending
   OFF
   Weather
   LOW
   Crowd
   OFF
   Cloth
   OFF
   Mirrors
   OFF
   Vehicle Detail
   MEDIUM
   Track
   HIGH
   Object
   HIGH
   Trees
   ULTRA (reduces shimmer an doesn't really affect performance)
   Ground Cover
   MEDIUM-HIGH (costs some fps but improves visuals a lot! I use LOW on certain tracks)
   Skidmarks
   ON
   Motion Blur/God Rays/Chromatic Aberration/Bloom/Lense Flares/Light Streaks/Lens Dust
   OFF