Occasional stutter/judder issue finally solved by Pimax!

[SweViver]

The new version will be released today, any time now. Im currently testing it internally. @Heliosurge will make it public once he is online.

[SweViver]

In this version, we have also added the ability to enable/disable Screen Saver mode and Standby mode (GPU saver mode, which puts the headset into 15fps or so).
Unfortunately it got called “Open the screen saver” and “Open the standby mode”, but we will rename it later on in next version…

Another fix is the random disconnection/shut down of the headset after longer use, which is now fixed.

So far so good, seems stable and I cant see any stutters on my both PCs.

[GramboStorm]

Do we know if they resolved the 45min - 1hour resets people have been having - memory leak?

Update - thanks for pointing it out…: YES!

[Cdaked]

@SweViver

Another fix is the random disconnection/shut down of the headset after longer use, which is now fixed.

You just got it in the message above.

[tonka]

@SweViver

It seems this issue is caused by insufficient rights in Windows for Pitool to store all changes in the common settings.json file. On some windows installs with maximum UAC security enabled, it prevents PiTool to save settings. This means the common settings file is simply not saved in the folder:
c:/users/user/appdata/Roaming/Pitool/manifest/PiTool/

Have a look if you even have a file like that. If you dont see it, you better do some adjustments in the UAC - or reinstall PiTool with Administrator rights , start it, save settings and check if the common settings.json file is there now. This should prevent settings to be forgotten.

As I told you I don’t use UAC and that file only contains the Games settings and not the HMD settings so I don’t know where the refresh rate is held maybe you can find out.

[GramboStorm]

You might be able to use something like Process Monitor from SysInternals (Microsoft now) to see what files are read and written to disk. You can filter on specific file names to see if they write/fail to write and find out why.

[Cdaked]

In the Basic Release Notes of the Pitool 1.0.1.255
Appears : “Image stutter optimized”? That sounds that still has problems?

[Heliosurge]

@tonka

As I told you I don’t use UAC and that file only contains the Games settings and not the HMD settings so I don’t know where the refresh rate is held maybe you can find out

It’s been awhile since I looked but check the pitool install directory if mem serves there is a json file there.

[SweViver]

@Cdaked

In the Basic Release Notes of the Pitool 1.0.1.255
Appears : “Image stutter optimized ”? That sounds that still has problems?

The stutters seems gone now. We have done a lot of testing. But I also know the engineers are still looking for further improvements, and you cant know for sure its fixed in every single scenario, so they prefer to call it “optimized”…

[Heliosurge]

Check your PM regarding new features. There is 2 additional layout options for posting pics vs the default.

[SweViver]

In the release notes, I would rather say:

Basic Release Notes

1. Enable/disable screensaver/screen protection mode added
2. Enable/disable standby/sleep mode added

Or something like that. Because these features were already existing, but always on before.
@Heliosurge

[Heliosurge]

Yeah just got a basic set. As you have been testing it out give me additional info and will update.

Still need to get them to post info like “Compatible with Oculus.sdk vX.X”

[Cdaked]

Congratulations to Pimax engineers; the people who are testing this new version find it much more stable and, at least for the time being, they do not detect any problems.
Although they comment that they feel that it loses some performance, although they are not sure.
In any case, they seem to prefer this version 255.

[SweViver]

Yes, it somehow does make a hit on the performance, at least compared to 254, but I much rather prefer 255 solving the occasional stutters and stability.

[tonka]

@Heliosurge

It’s been awhile since I looked but check the pitool install directory if mem serves there is a json file there.

The hmd_settings.json is in the Runtime folder in Program Files and PiTool doesn’t seem to be writing to it. How do I get it to do that?

[SweViver]

@tonka

The hmd_settings.json is in the Runtime folder in Program Files and PiTool doesn’t seem to be writing to it. How do I get it to do that?

Did you try to uninstall PiTool, remove all Pimax-related folders, and reinstall PiTool with Administrator rights?

The folders are:
C:\Program Files\Pimax
C:\ProgramData\pimax
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Pimax
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Pitool
C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\Pimax
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\PiTool

[Heliosurge]

To be honest will need to take a better look when I get a chance. There maybe json files in one of the sub directories. Won’t have time to take a look til later tonight.

[SweViver]

Please lets discuss the new PiTool here instead:
https://community.openmr.ai/t/new-pitool-1-0-1-255-released/26217

[Fitzy]

Yeah, a small loss in performance is definitely worth it. First and foremost you need to be stable, then you can start thinking about performance.

[mirage335]

With most things, I would agree with that logic. However, with VR, at least on the sim side, we are pushing well within 10% of failure to render at any usable framerate.

Consequently, both performance and stability are absolutely non-optional.

Hopefully, I will find the performance loss is a multi-threaded CPU issue, so it does not actually add to frame latency in the more critical use cases.