Update: I upgraded my CPU and RAM to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D and 32GB DDR4 (3200Mhz). Game runs and looks great now. I'm updating this guide because I found a better balance of settings during my current playthrough after the latest update.



The game isn't actually unoptimized, it just uses a very demanding renderer and has a lot of demanding visual effects.

Most VR games use the Forward Renderer which is lightweight and better suited for VR however this game uses the Deferred Renderer, which is what most modern 2D games use, because it allows for a lot more atmospheric effects (smoke, fog etc). It's basically an artistic choice with a high performance cost. You can not get the same atmosphere with a Forward Renderer.

As a result of this, the game is "pixel bound" and you'll get the best performance by decreasing your resolution or lowering your refresh rate or both. Alternatively, use SSW (Virtual Desktop's superior version of ASW) which is what I recommend in this guide.

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After testing this thoroughly, I'm convinced SSW at 120hz is the best choice since the game was clearly designed for 60hz with reprojection on the PSVR2 and doesn't scale to 90hz efficiently (unless you have a beast of a GPU).

If you can't maintain 72hz without turning the settings down, you've come to the right place. If you can, you still might find that this is a better experience.

SSW in Virtual Desktop is much better than ASW for Meta and if you run it at 120hz, it's very smooth with minimal artifacting. Also, this way, you get to use High and Epic settings and you get a much more consistent framerate with very few dips.

* I don't recommend SSW at 90hz because the artifacts and latency are much more noticeable. You need to use 120hz and it needs to be Always Enabled.

* All of these steps are important. Follow this guide exactly then tweak settings like Shadows and Shaders if you have the headroom to increase them or if you need more performance.

1. In the desktop app, set Virtual Desktop to use the VDXR runtime in the OpenXR Runtime dropdown.
   
2. Select the HEVC 10-bit encoder with Adaptive quantization set to ON. Same performance (for me) but better colours and less visual noise for VD Medium's preset.
   
3. In the Virtual Desktop Quest app, choose the Medium preset (unless you have a better GPU than me).
   
4. Set the Refresh Rate to 120hz (it will be 60hz reprojected)
   
5. Set SSW to Always Enabled, not Automatic (or else you get stutters)
   
6. In the game's graphics settings, set the resolution to 1.0
   
7. Set TAA to ON (see below)
   
8. Set Dynamic Resolution to OFF
   
9. Set Anti-Aliasing to Epic
   
10. Set Shadows and Shaders to High (Shadows is the most demanding setting but Shaders is also demanding so start at High and turn them down if you absolutely have to)
    
11. Set Anti-Aliasing, Textures and Post-processing to Epic (if you have a 2080S or above)
    
12. Other settings can be set to High
    
13. In the game's other settings menu, turn weapon weight OFF because it makes the game feel more responsive
    
14. In Windows, turn HAGS on or off (see below)

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A lot of the visual effects were designed with TAA in mind (TAA is used on the PSVR 2) so while FXAA looks sharper, it makes the image noisier due to all the aliasing and causes issues with effects like snowfall. TAA is the default for a reason.


Experiment with turning HAGS (hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling) on and off and see how it affects your performance. In Windows, go to Settings > Display > Graphics > Default Graphics Settings.

The general advice is that you should turn it off for VR, however it has matured quite a lot and it actually improves performance significantly in my case. You should try the game with it on and with it off and monitor your frame rate and latency using the VD overlay.