72 / 2 = 36 fps which you got with smart smoothing enabled or I’ve missed something reading your post ? 
I have stable 72 fps (144hz mode with SM ) with PT 1.0 and steam vr 220 % .Performance in IL2 at all maps is great thanks to PT .262 and my GPU utilization is around 93%
My FPS seems also stable, most boosted near the 70+ mark. I DID have the issue where I needed to tickle the GPU once.
Also I removed the GPU scheduling again yesternight after doing 10 minute races each in ACC to compare the FpS, in a race with 20 cars, both averages where at around 68 FPS. So no real gain with using scheduling via GPU, but removing it resolved the issue with the flickering vertikal bars. I guess until more driver updates its not going to be beneficial for a while in most cases.
Do you turn on 72HZ mode and enable smart projection? This mode will be locked at 36HZ during projection and the usage rate will not increase. You should turn on 144HZ mode and use smart projection (PIMAX smart projection cannot reach the specified number of detections within 3 detections, the smart projection will be forced to start)
do you mean steam smart smotthing?
No, Smart Smoothing in PiTool.
I have smart smoothing enabled, but it should not kick in when the frame times are below the max frame time. My frame times are around 10 ms, for 70 FPS the max frame time should be 14.2ms. Smart smoothing deactivates itself sometimes for short period, typically when my frame times fall way below 10ms.
Something else that’s weird is that my GPU usage is at 40% with frame times that are 72% of the max. In other words, my GPU is idle for almost half of the time it takes to finish the frame.
That’s not necessarily PiTool’s fault, could be the game, but I had a good run once just after installing PiTool 262. I wish I knew what’s needed to get these good runs.
My impression is that IL-2 goes more easily out of reprojection with GPU scheduling than without. Not in any significant way, though.
Right, but as I said, it should not be reprojecting. I like to set my settings so that I normally don’t rely on it (too many artifacts), but still have it on when frames drop due to the presence of planes or other objects.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that did not help. My searches on the net show this only really applies to the Steam GUI, which I don’t care about. I have my resolution set to manual, by the way.
Did you try the GPU kick? Alter the mhz of RAM slightly and push that setting to the GPU… It removed the one time stutters I had Instantly…
Edit: I know that sounds stupid, but since it worked somthing in the early days and also pushed my card back to normal behavior I thought it’s worth Mentioning, even if it seems a bit shady
no , its not Rift environment, when SM is enabled you will have always 36 fps in 72 hz mode and your GPU utilization will be pretty low as GPU in limited by PT scenario don’t need to work at full capacity. Disable SM put 90 hz or 72 and you will know that .262 is great !
SM=Smart Smoothing
That’s not true. You will have 72 FPS if it’s within acceptable frame time limits. Try to lower Your settings and You will see (with FPSVR).
That said, I use Smart Smoothing to gain visual fidelity by cranking settings (like You do - or did earlier at least) and so keep it below the threshold constantly… 
BTW - 144Hz with Smart Smoothing enabled giving me solid 72FPS in Dirt Rally 2.0 and it looks gorgeous.
IL-2 is unoptimized, on old DirectX11, and will be problematic until updated. It also won’t support Eye-Tracking, DFR, FFR, or anything similar, even for the driver level Pimax software. It’s no use to complain about that here, it’s an issue with the IL-2 devs’ VR implementation. Other headsets have the same issues with IL-2.
They need to keep updating their engine, get into DirectX12 / Vulkan, use the OpenXR/VR/Comp APIs properly, etc. Their engine has a lot of room to improve. 
But we are talking about IL2 BoX game - in upper right corner game shows only true rendered by gfx cards FPS.
It also shows wrong FOV number. I wouldn’t rely on what they display. Use FPSVR instead.
Absolutely agree, running DR 2 exactly in that way! and I have the same in IL 2 - its so nice experience with perceived 144 frames
And, as I have written, if frame times go low enough, the number jumps from 36 to 72. It’s just that I have to go to ridiculously low numbers to achieve that. Smart Smoothing ON in PiTool does not imply that reprojection is always active.
Do you have 5k+ 202 revision ?
As @JoCool says it must be showing wrong metrics. Sounds weird to me… 
Nice version! 262 build is the best for me after I did full uninstall of previous versions. One thing I noticed is the fact that Smart Smoothing is too agressive (enters in game in many situations that fps is stable with the screen refresh rate).
This is promising.
Hopefully if I do the same I’ll yield same results.
What a silly thing to say. IL2 runs much better than DCS, a sim that has a much bigger user base and much more money to spend. The IL2 developers recently released a deferred rendering update that massively decreased CPU frame times and allowed GPUs to really stretch their legs. You seem to equate DX11 with “unoptimized” which is simplistic at best.
Coco: I tried the 262 on my Artisan and it allowed me to reach 97% CPU usage in 120hz mode motion smoothing off. Sounds like there’s something wonky with your setup, maybe need a fresh install of PiTool or (as others have suggested) there could be something wrong with your SteamVR settings somehow.
weird, most people on here swear.to turn HAGS off, you’re the first i’ve seen get positive results with it on. Are you sure HAGS is making any difference?
Try turning HAGS off with exact same settings and see if framerate is better ir worse or same.