The change allows us to experience in Steam applications the same image quality as in Microsoft Home.
UPGRADE:
Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR has been updated to version 1.0.398, which already includes the last change introduced in the beta to improve the sharpness of the image, i.e. the change from 1 to 2 parameter renderTargetScale. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to opt into beta to have this default value. They remind us that if we had any adjustments in the configuration file, we will have to do it again.
ORIGINAL NEWS (16/01/2019):
Valve has announced that version 1.0.398 of SteamVR for Windows, the application that gives access to the Steam catalog to users of Microsoft viewers, now has a change in the default value of one of the parameters of its configuration file, thus allowing “higher multipliers of application resolution”, which translates into greater clarity in image quality. The parameter in question is renderTargetScale, and its new value is 2 instead of the previous 1.
The company thanks the community for helping to discover this improvement, as it was the Spaniard Gryzor22x who initially reported the change in sharpness when playing with this parameter. According to the Microsoft team, renderTargetScale increases the internal limit of the maximum resolution of the image before SteamVR does the downsampling / upsampling. Setting it to 2, which is the maximum, uses “a little more video memory, but not much”. Therefore, it does not seem to greatly affect performance, as discussed in this forum thread.
Example of resolution limits per eye commented:
With 1440×1400 viewers per eye:
renderTargetScale = = 1: Limit of 1764×1764 per eye
renderTargetScale = = 2: Limit of 2206×2206 per eyeWith 1440×1600 viewfinders per eye (Odyssey):
renderTargetScale = = 1: Limit of 1657×2065 per eye
renderTargetScale = = 2: Limit of 2072×2582 per eye
After the update (if we have the beta), it will have changed the configuration we had before, so they recommend customizing the file again.
