Recommended Settings

This page features the recommended settings for maximizing performance and visual quality for Varjo headsets. Please note that some of the features are not supported yet. Notes are added in the corresponding sections.

See Unreal OpenXR roadmap for estimated timeline for fixing Instanced Stereo and post process effects for OpenXR.

SMOOTH FRAME RATE

It is generally recommended to disable frame rate smoothing for VR. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Engine > General Settings > Framerate and deselect Smooth Frame Rate.

INSTANCED STEREO

Instanced Stereo is not supported for Varjo headsets with Unreal Engine 4.26.

Disable instanced stereo rendering in Project Settings > Rendering > VR. Restart the project.

FORWARD RENDERING AND MSAA

Forward rendering is visually slightly better with roughly the same performance. To use forward rendering, go to Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering and select Forward Renderer as shown in the picture below:

In addition, with forward renderer you can also use MSAA anti-aliasing. Go to Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings and select MSAA in the Anti-Aliasing Method as shown in the picture below:

Performance Tip:

For better performance in some scenes, try: unselecting forward shading and use the Temporal AA anti-aliasing method, instead of the Forward Shading and MSAA.

SCREEN SPACE REFLECTIONS

Due to specifics of Unreal Engine and Varjo bionic display, screen space effects are not working correctly with Varjo headsets. To have reflections, use reflection captures instead of screen space reflections. Screen space reflections can be disabled as in the picture below. Screen Space Reflection settings can be found from PostProcessVolume. In order to disable screen space reflections, tick the Intensity tick box and set the value to 0.0.

VIGNETTE

Vignette is not supported for Varjo headsets with Unreal Engine 4.26.

Vignette settings can be found from PostProcessVolume Details under Lens > Image Effects. In order to disable Vignette, tick the Vignette Intensity tick box and set the value to 0.0.

AMBIENT OCCLUSION

Disabling ambient occlusion improves performance with reduction of visual quality. Go to Edit -> Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings and unselect the option -> “Ambient Occlusion” as shown in the picture below:

BLOOM

Bloom is not supported for Varjo headsets with Unreal Engine 4.26.

It is a recommended to disable the Bloom post-process effect for VR, since it doesn’t perform optimally in VR. Go to Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings and unselect the option as shown in the picture below:

LENS FLARES

Lens flares are one of the effects that work well on the screen, but feel out of place in VR. As a result it is recommended to disable them. Go to Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings- and unselect the option Lens Flares (Image based) as shown in the picture below:

EXPOSURE

Due to specifics of Unreal Engine and Varjo bionic display, the Varjo headset does not perform correctly with auto exposure. This is the reason we recommend using manual and fixed exposure and, for example, tuning off the PostProcessVolume camera settings.

To set the manual exposure in project settings, unselect the Auto Exposure option and set Manual exposure from Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings as shown in the picture below:

In order to disable PostProcessVolume, search from World Outliner for your PostProcessVolume (if you have any) and check the settings related to the exposure and camera there. In the picture below, we have enabled the Manual metering mode which means that we use only camera settings. The camera settings are manually tuned in order to make the VR scene look sharp. We can’t recommend specific values, as these settings heavily depend on the scene, so visual tuning work is needed here. Carefully observe to the darkest and most highlighted areas of your scene while trying different settings. Note that lights set in the scene also affect the result.

MOTION BLUR

In general, motion blur works better on a desktop PC than in VR. Disabling VR motion blur is recommended. Go to Edit > Project Settings… > Rendering > Default Settings and unselect Motion Blur as shown in the picture below:

PLANAR REFLECTIONS

Planar reflections are not supported for Varjo headsets with Unreal Engine 4.26.