How To Reduce Latency Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop might easily be one of the best and well-nigh useful applications ever made for VR enthusiasts. This is especially true if you lot own an Oculus Quest / Quest 2 headset and want to savor the wonders of wireless PC VR gaming.

But what to do if you just tin not go Virtual Desktop running properly? Diverse lagging, stuttering, and high latency bug are unfortunately quite mutual and tin can totally ruin the overall gaming feel.

Luckily, most of the fourth dimension you lot can solve these issues with a fleck of troubleshooting and that is exactly what nosotros are going to do in this article. And so without further ado, let does dive correct in!

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1) Employ Performance Overlay To Determine Bottlenecks & Mensurate Changes

When you are debugging performance issues and doing any changes, wanting to ameliorate your Virtual Desktop operation, y'all'll surely desire to know if the modifications accept had whatever positive effect. Sometimes it's obvious (e.1000 you get rid of lagging altogether and everything works shine).

Oftentimes, however, the improvements in operation (or deterioration for that matter) are marginal and thus hard to detect with your bare eye. It's therefore of import to measure the performance and the upshot of the changes yous are making to encounter if you are heading in the right direction.

This is where Virtual Desktop functioning overlay comes to help. You lot can enable the feature in Virtual Desktop Streaming settings tab and it will and so show the following information when playing games.

Several of the items listed here just bear witness configurations made in the application settings. The Virtual Desktop performance metrics that help us debug problems and mensurate changes are:

Latency – the average total time information technology takes to complete everything required for gaming (game rendering, network advice, video encoding in PC, then decoding in your Quest / Quest 2). Ideally, you want the latency to be less than 40ms for an optimal gaming experience.
Game – the fourth dimension it takes your PC to render the game. If the metric goes into high values as well oftentimes, it ways you need to lower the VR Graphics Quality and/or VR Framerate. Yous tin can also tune down graphics in the game settings. Wait in your Windows Task Manager for processes that are showing high GPU (and CPU) utilization.
Encoding – the fourth dimension information technology takes the encoder (GPU) to receive the video frames and encode them. If you lot take high encoding latency, effort switching the encoding codec (HEVC / H.264) or lowering the Bitrate. Also, try turning on "Sliced Encoding"
Networking – operation of your home network and the router you are connected to. If network latency is high, brand sure your PC is wired to the router and you are using a v GHz Wifi (with optimized router settings) for the headset.
Decoding – the fourth dimension information technology takes your Quest / Quest two to decode the compressed video. If decode latency is loftier, try switching to H.264 Codec and/or reducing Bitrate.

2) Use Cable to Connect your PC and Router for Lower Latency

No matter how good your WiFi connexion, using an ethernet cable for connecting your PC and router volition e'er provide a more stable and faster connection with lower latency.

Using a wired connection is likewise recommended in the Virtual Desktop frequently asked questions department. So if you were previously using a WiFi connectedness for your PC, be sure to use an ethernet cablevision (Cat v or 6) for reduced latency and lagging.

3) Employ a Dedicated 5GHz WiFi Network for Your Quest / Quest 2

Most of us who are planning to employ Virtual Desktop volition exist using the network router that we were given by our internet service provider. More than times or not, this was a long time ago and the router just doesn't meet the requirements for an optimal Virtual Desktop gaming performance.

To avoid latency spikes and lagging when using Virtual Desktop, it is highly recommended connecting your Quest / Quest two to a (preferably dedicated) 5GHz WiFi network.

What are two.4GHz / 5GHz Band Frequencies? Why Does It Thing?

The band frequency numbers refer to the ii different "bands" that your WiFi can use for its signal. In the estimator world, college is usually better and this is generally truthful in this instance well.

The main differences between 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi ring frequencies are:

Speed – in platonic weather, two.4GHz will provide a maximum network speed of around 300-600 Mbps whereas 5GHz will get up to ~1300Mbps
Congestion – 2.4Ghz band frequency is usually much more congested than 5Ghz. This is especially true if you live in an apartment or condo surrounded past other people which in turn may cause dropped connections, reduced signal quality and network speed.
Indicate Range – 2.4GHz signal has longer effective range and better manual through walls and solid objects (part of the reason it is used more frequently). 5 GHz is more suitable if you are in the same room or near the router.

The key takeaway here is that with a 5GHz Wifi network, yous will get higher network speeds and a more than stable connexion, provided that you are in shut proximity to the router.

Check If Your Router Supports Dual Band Frequencies

The first thing y'all want to check, whether your specific router supports dual (or tri) band (2.4 / five GHz) frequencies. Go look up your router model and simply google "[your router] frequency ring". If information technology lists equally "dual band" or "2.4 GHz / v GHz" then it'south a good sign and means that you can create separate WiFi networks for the two frequencies.

If you have a single ring (2.4GHz) router, y'all will most likely have to purchase a secondary dual (or tri) ring router for optimal performance (discussed after in the article)

Divide Your 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi Networks

With dual ring routers, you can create divide WiFi networks for two.4GHz and 5Ghz frequency bands. For that, you need to be connected to the router via WiFi or Ethernet and utilize a spider web browser to log into the web management interface.

Follow the data on the bottom of the router (or apply the transmission) to get instructions on how to enter the direction console. Since in that location are also many different manufacturers and routers, yous will additionally take to google how to split the frequencies into two dissimilar networks (if you can't effigy it out yourself)

For example, here is a manual for splitting the frequencies on TP Link routers.

If you have successfully created separate WiFi networks for 2.4GHz and 5GHz, connect all your home devices to the ii.4GHZ and leave the 5GHz network solely for your Oculus Quest / Quest 2 to use.

Note! Sometimes, even if you lot take a dual-band router that supports 5GHz, the performance issues yet origin from the router itself, which just might not come across the requirements for Virtual Desktop gaming. I accept described setting up a dedicated router for VD gaming afterwards in the commodity.

4) Be Close To the Router

As discussed, the 5GHz WiFi band frequency has a shorter effective altitude range and is quite sensitive to walls and other solid objects. For this reason, you want the router to be in the same room as your Quest / Quest 2 with straight visibility to the headset.

If there is no style for you to move the router or play in the same room, you might consider purchasing a dedicated router for your Virtual Desktop setup. Click on the link to navigate to the part of the article explaining this setup in more detail.

5) Fine-Tune Your Router 5GHz Wifi Network Settings

Utilise your router's management console to practise the following changes on the 5GHz WiFi network you previously configured. Make certain yous are editing the 5GHz Wifi network and not the 2.4Ghz one.

five.1) Alter Network Mode to 802.11ac or 802.11ax

Near routers have been configured to use mixed network modes with default settings. You desire to change this and configure it to utilise 802.11ac or 802.11ax only.

Depending on the router you have, selecting 802.11ac/ax only is the almost optimal choice for Virtual Desktop.

5.ii) Observe and Use the Least Congested WiFi Network Channel

In add-on to different band frequencies (2.4 and five GHz), wireless networks as well use different network channels to forward and receive data. These channels can overlap for unlike wireless networks and tin cause degraded operation, especially in crowded urban areas.

In most cases, routers automatically choose which aqueduct to use for your connexion past default. However, you want to choose the channel manually and brand sure that your router is the only device operating on the specific network channel.

One manner to approach this is just to test different channels and run into how they perform. Still, the more methodical and accurate approach would be to use a WiFi scanner for this purpose:

Windows / Mac – WifiScanner
Android – WifiAnalyzer
iPhone (iOS) – Airdrome Utility

Based on the WiFi networks in your proximity (and the channels they apply), pick a channel for your WiFi network that is currently not in use (or used the least)

five.3) Change Aqueduct Width to twoscore or 80 MHz

The channel width is simply the frequency range for the aqueduct(south) used. xx MHz used to be the norm and only selection for channel width but with WiFi v (802.11ac) and WiFi vi (802.11ax), channels can exist bonded together for a maximum channel width of upwards to 160 MHz.

Choosing a larger channel width means higher throughput (which we want for wireless VR gaming), just it also ways a higher probability for channels overlapping and thus interferences.

If you live in an isolated area with non many other 5GHz WiFi networks effectually, set your aqueduct width to 80Hz. If however, you happen to live in a very crowded area with many other networks nearby, test both the 40Mhz and 80Mhz options to see which works ameliorate for you.

The information from WiFI analyzers can assistance you lot determine how "crowded" WiFi networks are in your area and thus whether to utilise 40Mhz or 80MHz channel width.

v.four) Disable Smart Connect

Smart Connect is a feature bachelor in many modern routers that automatically switches devices between different band frequency connections (2.4GHz / 5GHz) based on signal strength, network congestion and other factors.

For our specific Virtual Desktop scenario, we want our Oculus Quest / Quest two connected and locked into a defended 5GHz WiFi network. So go ahead and disable the "Smart Connect" option from your router settings.

five.5) Disable Quality of Service (QoS)

Quality of Service (QoS) is a feature of routers that prioritizes traffic so that more important traffic can laissez passer commencement. The setting does not match too well with Virtual Desktop and has caused issues for numerous people. Disable QoS on your router and see if the performance improves.

six) Adjust Virtual Desktop Settings

Next, nosotros are going to dive into the settings you lot can modify within Virtual Desktop. Since each of us is running on slightly different hardware, it's impossible to give the best "ane-fits-all" settings that are applicable for everyone.

Yous are but going to take to change the settings and test things out to discover the optimal balance between graphics and operation. The general rule for debugging lagging bug would be to start with "depression" settings and move up from at that place.

half-dozen.one) Change Codec to H.264 (Streamer App)

Switching the codec from "Auto" to "H.264" in the Desktop Streamer app has shown to reduce latency and give meliorate performance (especially for Oculus Quest 1 users).

Try out H.264 first and see if your overall experience improves. If non, and then test HEVC besides to constitute a comparing signal betwixt the two codecs (and which one to proceed forward with).

6.2) Arrange VR Graphics Quality and VR Frame Rate

In case of performance issues and lagging, start with setting your VR Graphics Quality setting to "Medium" and VR Frame Charge per unit to 72 fps. You lot tin then start going upward from hither if you see improvements regarding your overall gaming performance.

If y'all know that your PC specs are on the lower end then you could also go for "Low" and 60 fps. With the lowest settings, you might just not exist satisfied with the overall gaming feel even if you go rid of your lagging issues.

6.3) Reduce VR Bitrate

Video bitrate is the amount of video information transferred in a certain period—the lower yous have this gear up, the more than "compressed" the video volition look.

The first thing you lot want to do is determine an optimal value range for Bitrate that your network can handle. To exercise this, enable "Automatically adjust bitrate" in the VR Streamer App. When this option is enabled, Virtual Desktop automatically determines an optimal VR Bitrate value each time you launch the application.

Do a couple of test runs to come across what Bitrate value Virtual Desktop thinks is virtually optimal for you. Once you lot have a general thought of what the "optimal value" is, plough off "Automatically adjust bitrate" and set the Bitrate to a lower value (from your headset nether the "Streaming" tab)

Examination the performance with a lower Bitrate and see if you run into any improvements in performance and the lagging/stuttering bug you were having.

vi.4) Sliced Encoding / Actress Latency mode / Video buffering

Information technology'southward hard to give a single all-time recommendation regarding how to set these settings, as people have had so many different results. One combination that has worked well for many people:

Sliced Encoding ON – causes frame encoding to exist forwarded in parts, thus improving throughput and reducing latency.
Extra Latency mode OFF – an internal function of Quest headsets that adds one frame of latency to help with consequent frame delivery.
Video buffering OFF – Feature of Virtual Desktop that queues one frame (but just at the bespeak a frame is dropped and but and then will it add latency).

If you find there is no improvement with the given settings, try enabling both Actress Latency mode and Video buffering. Although Sliced Encoding ON generally gives better results for most people, be sure to measure your performance when it is also switched off.

7) Disable SteamVR OpenVR Input Emulator Addon

Although you probably installed the addon for a reason, OpenVR Input Emulator has been reported to create a wobbling event and reduced framerate. For testing purposes, disable the addon and see if your performance improves.

viii) Uninstall OpenVR Avant-garde Settings

OpenVR Advanced Settings has acquired people numerous dissimilar issues when used together with Virtual Desktop. The definitive method to remove the addon and restore SteamVR to defaults is to do a clean reinstall by following this transmission.

9) Disable Nvidia in Game Overlay and Shadowplay

If you are using an Nvidia graphics card and accept Geforce Experience installed, be sure to disable the in-game overlay and likewise Shadowplay features. Both of these features have been reported to crusade a multifariousness of errors and performance issues when used together with Virtual Desktop.

10) Disable Windows Xbox Game Bar

If you accept Windows Xbox Game Bar installed, and so become ahead and disable it from the game bar settings. If enabled, the application might be utilizing your GPU resources and thus degrading the performance of Virtual Desktop.

xi) Fix Periodical Lag Spikes (Windows Settings)

Sometimes yous don't run into constant lagging / stuttering when using Virtual Desktop, but instead periodical (e.g every minute) latency spikes. At that place might be several reasons for this.

Take note of the Functioning Overlay metrics to narrow down the possible root cause of the stuttering issues. If yous see spikes in the "Game" metric, and then most probably it has to do something with your PC. Employ the tips in this article to possibly solve the result. Additionally, monitor the performance of your PC using Windows Task Manager, to make up one's mind whether annihilation stands out during the fourth dimension when the lag spikes happen.

When the latency spikes happen because of the networking metric, there could again be several reasons for this. A couple of possible solutions you could attempt to solve the problem:

Use Windows "Resource Monitor" to troubleshoot network spikes.
Turn off automatic WiFi scanning
Disable Hotspot ii.0

The output of the Windows Resources Monitor (accessed via Job Managing director) is shown below. From here it is possible to decide whether any specific applications are causing the network spikes.

To disable automatic WiFi scanning, start "Command Prompt" in administrator mode and utilise the following control:

            netsh wlan set autoconfig enabled=no interface="your wifi interface proper noun here"

To disable Hotspot two.0 in Windows, follow this manual. Exam and run across if the post-obit methods help you remove the periodical lag spikes you were facing.

12) Update Software & Drivers

Make sure that ALL your software and drivers are up to date. This includes:

Oculus Quest / Quest ii firmware
Virtual Desktop Streamer and Client
GPU Drivers
Apply Windows x Updates

At that place are loads of examples where outdated graphics card drivers take acquired a multifariousness of functioning issues. The same goes for other items on the listing. And then just make sure everything is up to date and exam your Virtual Desktop operation once more.

thirteen) Test Operation With Oculus Link

One method that will not directly solve your issues with Virtual Desktop but might give valuable information is to test your gaming performance with Oculus Link.

If you see that the aforementioned game has lagging and stuttering issues with Virtual Desktop simply works without problems when using Oculus Link, you can plough your attention to Virtual Desktop and network-related settings and problems. When neither option performs well, it most probably has to do something with your PC.

14) Utilise a Divide Dedicated Router for Virtual Desktop

When you seem to take tried everything and the performance issues are all the same non resolved, information technology is quite probable that the current router yous are using is just not good enough for Virtual Desktop gaming purposes.

At that place are loads of examples where people have taken hours and days trying to solve their problems, only to observe out that there was nothing they could actually do.

If you are serious about getting your Virtual Desktop setup to work and are willing to spend some money to purchase a separate router, the setup itself is actually not difficult at all. The basic topology is following:

Connect a cable from Internet service provider Router (LAN port) to the WAN port of the new router
Connect PC to the new router via Cablevision
Prepare the router in "Access point" mode
Make the configuration optimizations described earlier in the article

The routers that Guy Godin (developer of Virtual Desktop) has personally recommended in Virtual Desktop Discord are following:

Low Cease – TP-Link Archer A6
Mid-range – Asus AX55
Loftier End – Asus RT-AX86U

If you are unsure virtually how to exactly connect and configure the defended router, you can either read the article I wrote or sentry my step-past-step instruction video below. Y'all can also ask for help and recommendations from the Virtual Desktop Discord.

And that's information technology! I really hope this article was useful for you and helped yous solve the Virtual Desktop performance and lagging bug you were facing.

Defended Router For Wireless VR

TP-Link AC1200 (A6)

Wireless PCVR gaming does not accept to exist expensive! TP-Link AC1200 router (recommended by Guy Godin, developer of Virtual Desktop) has proven to offer excellent performance at a reasonable toll! See my step-by-footstep video tutorial on how to set the router up.

Source: https://smartglasseshub.com/fix-virtual-desktop-lagging-issues/