Performance with clouds in VR - FS4 4.6.0.4

Hi, I am running FS4 in an Intel 14700K - RTX4070 - 32GB RAM - SSD Win 11 PC. I use a 144hz monitor but setup a maximum of 120Hz refresh on it.

When I run FS4 in the monitor with Tobii ET5, I have very steady 120fps in a simple scenery, from 0% clouds to 100% clouds setup in the configuration.

But in VR, with Steam Link and the Quest 3, with 0% low density clouds setting, I have 90fps in VR which is great (the refresh Hz I have selected in the Quest 3) and with high density clouds 100%, I am achieving 30 fps or less. Is it normal this big difference between the monitor and VR performance? In monitor, the clouds have no effect over the performance, but in VR they affect it a lot.

Image #1: Monitor view, 100% clouds (120fps)

Image #2: VR view, 100% clouds (30fps)

Image #3: VR view, 0% clouds (90fps -> refresh selected in Quest 3)

... Later I saw that there it is a very big difference in my GPU core load and GPU power consume when using 100% clouds, so they are very expensive in GPU processing.

Yesterday I realized that I had selected a maximum of 120fps in graphic settings, and 1920x1080 60Hz in monitor resolution.

After setting up 60fps in graphic settings, keeping the 1920x1080 60Hz refresh, the GPU workload was reduced a lot.

Testing only in the monitor, with 60fps - 60Hz the simulator offer a perfect smooth performance with 100% clouds, without stutters.

I will test if the 60fps selection has any effect in VR view.

Thanks! I hope it can be useful to the developers. Volumetric clouds in FS4 would be awesome.

Edit: the clouds thesis is very interesting!

atmosphere-bac-text/thesis-text.pdf at main · MatejSakmary/atmosphere-bac-text