How to get 45 FPS with good quality in MSFS 2024 with the Pimax Crystal Light
Following the initial settings of the Zone for the Pimax Crystal Light (see previous post), I tried to start flying, only to get extremely poor performance - 11-15 FPS!
Having a top of the line CPU (Intel Core i9-14900K with 64GB RAM) and top level GPU (NVIDIA 4090), with NVIDIA app recommending Ultra settings for almost every setup, I expected a plug and play ease with top performance.
Pimax customer support tried to help, sending two links with references for settings. I was not satisfied enough, although the second link helped a lot - VR Flight Sim Guy's settings video on YouTube, so thank you Steve.
After more testing and changing - here is the proof - 45 FPS in Grand Canyon KGCN airport, London City and in New York City:
Getting to it involves 5 steps and two additional apps.
1. Update a value in a User Configuration file within MSFS 2024.
2. Set up and always run AutoFPS before starting your MSFS 2024.
3. Set up your Pimax Play settings for the Crystal Light Device Settings.
4. Set up your Graphics and VR Graphics within MSFS 2024.
5. Set up OpenXR Toolkit (1.3.2).
Let's go into any one of the phases step-by-step.
1. Update the User Configuration File
For Microsoft store installations, to this folder in your operating system:
C:\Users\YourUser\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache.
Inside this folder you will find a file called UserCfg (Type OPT File). Open the file by double-clicking on it. It looks like this:
Scroll down to SecondaryScalingVR. The original value is 1.000000. Change it to 1.500000.
2. AutoFPS settings
If you are not familiar with AutoFPS – this add-on changes the Terrain Level Of Details (TLOD) and Object Level Of Details (OLOD) as you fly to maintain the performance you define – FPS.
You can download it from this page in GitHub:
On the right-hand side of the page you will see a section called “Releases" with a button to the latest release. Click on it to go to the page of the latest release. At at the bottom of the page click on the first asset – the MSFS_AutoFPS-installer…
Install it and set it up as in the following image:
3. Pimax Crystal Light Device Settings
In the Pimax Play app, click on “Device Settings” to get to the settings for the Crystal Light:
Following are the settings for the Pimax Crystal:
4. Graphics Settings in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
To reduce the load on the CPU as much as possible, I first reduced the settings for the General Graphics to the following:
Next are the settings for the Settings - VR – VR Graphics:
Note that your Terrain Level of Details will change as you fly, with AutoFPS setting it up. I frequently saw up to 295 with not degradation of performance!
Changing Buildings settings to Ultra had no impact on FPS but I did not notice any difference in buildings quality.
5. Settings for OpenXR Toolkit
This is one of the tools with the greatest impact. If you are not familiar with the tool, you can download it here:
Note that the developer does not support the tool anymore and even recommends not using it. However, I and others find it working well as of the writing of this post, and it makes a big difference in quality and performance. Here are the settings that work well for me.
5.1 Performance
Here you can check if you prefer to have the Turbo mode On or Off. I did not find a noticeable difference between the two.
5.2 Appearance
5.3 Inputs
5.4 System
This is where you need to make the most important changes for image quality. Set Override resolution to Yes. Change the Display resolution (per eye) to the settings below (3500x4141). You can use Alt-Shift-Right arrow to change faster and without the Shift to change the numbers slower.
5.5 Menu
These settings determine the presentation of OpenXR Toolkit but do not affect quality or performance:
Testing Conditions
Configuration
GPU | NVIDIA 4090 | |
NVIDIA Driver | 572.47 | DLSS 4 (K) |
NVIDIA App | 11.0.2.337 | |
CPU | Intel i9-14900K | |
Memory (RAM) | 64B | |
DirectX 12 | ||
OpenXR Toolkit version | 1.3.2 |
Locations and flight settings
Locations: | KGCN to the Grand Canyon | London Bridge | Statue of Liberty |
TOD Local (UTC) | 10:10 AM 17:10 UTC | 10:02 AM (10:02 UTC) | 12:02 PM (19:02 UTC) |
Weather: | Clear skies | Clear skies | Clear skies |
Air Traffic: | Off | Off | Off |
Do not download and install Pimax OpenXR – it does not work by itself anymore. It seems to be included in the background as part of the Pimax Play installation (Version 1.36.01.01).
For questions contact us at support@flightsimguides.shop
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