VBS 10 second drop outs; trying to diagnose

[Tausendberg]

So, I'm attempting to diagnose why in seemingly every SteamVR app/game I try in VBS I get in the span of a couple of hours several VERY BAD drop outs.

I was able to confirm that I seem to have plenty of CPU and GPU headroom, good frametimes in SteamVR, according to wifi commander there appears to be no wifi interference in the router's fixed channel, and yet, randomly, I will get these intense drops where it almost always goes like,

first the screen goes black except for the VBS loading animation for about 3-4 seconds, then steamVR seems to come back for two seconds but I don't have any control and it's like the camera is slowly floating and the image doesn't line up with the screens, and then another two to five seconds of VBS loading logo and then finally I'm back.

Tonight, this happened at least 7 or 8 times in two hours. What should I be looking at as the issue?

Windows 10
RTX 4090
ASUS - RT-AX86S AX5700
Vive Focus 3

[sebastian_holocafe]

Did you check for DFS sweeps? Just in case you have your router set to a channel that is intersecting with DFS, then radar sweeps will cause your router to shut down any signal temporarily.
Cutting out to the black screen with loading bar can also be related to another issue: Tracking. If there are areas that the headset has problems tracking (e.g. tiling, blank walls), this could also be an indicator of a brief tracking loss.

[Tausendberg]

Thank you for your insights!

Do you know of a good way to check for DFS sweeps? Either way, thank you for the lead, I'm moving soon but I do actually live quite close by to a naval station so this could be the culprit and would explain the otherwise seeming randomness of the drop outs.

As for tracking, moving soon so my new space will be much better but yeah, my current room is small and a bit cluttered and not optimally lit, I know that when I experimented with hand track, the hand tracking really struggled when I faced certain directions in my room vs others. I always use SteamVR with a center and directional marker so I'm going to pay attention to which direction I'm facing when the drop outs happen and see if I can spot a pattern. 

[Tausendberg]

So, I don't think it's a DFS sweep cause according to the link I am using what, in the United States, is a non-DFS channel (a 40mhz channel centered on 48)

I'll investigate the tracking issue next.

https://www.aami.org/medical-device-connectivity/medical-device-connectivity-faqs-standards-802-11#:~:text=For the U.S.%2C there are,and 5.73 GHz frequency range.

[sebastian_holocafe]

Typically, your router logs should indicate sweeps. Depending on the country you live in, different channels may be reserved for DFS. You can look that up online. Typically, some lower bands will be free of DFS. So unless you got significant interference from nearby devices on the same channels, you could try to configure your router to a static band that is outside of DFS range and see if that improves your issues.

There is an environment scanner app to give you feedback on the environment quality for tracking, but I believe that is only for LBE customers. As a general rule of thumb: The tracking is particularly good with distinct geometric shapes. We use the devices for co-located VR in our venue where you have other moving people in the same tracking volume. We use high-contrast markers with geometric patterns on the floor and walls to give the headset something to latch onto.

[danwrong]

We also have intermittent but pretty serious drop outs from VBS when wifi signal is otherwise strong and the machine has plenty of CPU/GPU headroom.  For us it tends to happen once after ~10 mins of stream time and then work fine from that point. 

[Tausendberg]

"tends to happen once after ~10 mins of stream time and then work fine from that point"

I have also experienced this!

But yeah, I suspect it might be tracking issues. I would try changing my room but I'm actually moving very soon, so I'll just go ahead and see if things are different in my new VR space in a few weeks.

I did try turning my lights all the way up and that seems to help. 

[Tausendberg]

Does VBS or the Focus 3 itself have any kind of event log feature that makes notes of drop outs that could give details as to why this keeps happening?

 

[Tausendberg]

Good news, I'm pretty sure it was something wrong with either my ethernet adapter driver or ethernet advanced settings.

First, I updated my RTL8125 ethernet adapter driver to 10.63.

Then, I followed the recommended Ethernet settings on 'Optimizing Ethernet Adapter Settings for Maximum Performance' at Flexradio.com by Tim Ellison. (look it up, htc doesn't like it when users post links to external sites)

And took the Focus 3 for a test drive for about 30 minutes and I have had no more of those awful 5-10 second long dropouts. 

C.T. if you're reading this, I would suggest that HTC maybe publish a list of recommended Ethernet settings and Router settings since they really can make an enormous difference. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Tausendberg
'ethernet advanced settings'

[thedrone]

There is definitely something weird going on at an interval of 10 minutes. In my case, the first 10 minute blip is barely noticable, then there's a bigger blip at 20 minutes (which is sometimes enough to have to restart the session) and then these minor blips every 10 minutes. I don't think it's tracking related, because of how precise the interval is and also because these networking settings you suggested helped minimize the 'big blip at 20 minutes' issue (thanks!).