Microsoft Flight Simulator's new PC boosts: Yes, the VR mode is finally good - Ars Technica

The patch targets the game's CPU-based performance and delivers far more stable frame rates, whether on a standard monitor or spread across a pair of VR headset lenses.

In December 2020, I noted that I was unable to get the game up to a 90 fps refresh at the lowest VR settings while the resolution was scaled down to 60 percent of the native count.

Using the same rig this week, I can bump up various graphics settings slightly higher, run the native resolution at 70 percent, and hit a frame rate that hovers much closer to 90 fps.

One huge contributor to the previous poor performance was frame time spikes.

The number of in-game stutters and spikes has dramatically dropped thanks to the PC version's latest updates, so even when you fly over a more populated city and MSFS can't keep up with the demands of a 90 fps refresh, the frame rate still hovers somewhere close to 80 fps.

If that means you'd like to run this game on slower hardware or crank up various settings to reach a maximum frame rate of 72 fps or even 60 fps, then more power to you.

I found that dense cities were more likely to trigger mild drops in frame rate than massive stretches of nature, while all scenarios were still subject to occasional, bizarre pauses lasting as long as 10 seconds.

That's because an aggressive level-of-detail slider keeps the demanding game running at a smooth rate.

I also tested a few VR flights with AMD's RX 6800XT in the same rig and was surprised to see that GPU struggling more to reach comparable frame rates.

Your best path to higher average frame rates in VR comes from lowering the resolution within MSFS's VR graphics menus.

Start by going into SteamVR's "Developer" settings tab and turn on "Display Frame Timing" or "GPU Performance Graph." That setting will put a wacky little box in your view at all times.

Once that monitor is on, boot a quick VR flight instance in New York City or London, wait a minute for any possible cloud-streamed data to trickle in, pause, fiddle with various graphics settings, and hit "apply." You'll see an immediate effect on the frame time graph while paused mid-game, and you'll want a count of roughly 11.1 for 90 fps, 12.5 for 80 fps, or 13.9 for 72 fps.

When you see a count approaching any of those refresh rates, unpause, fly normally, and keep an eye on the graph for performance variance before going back into the menus and adjusting once more.