A wide field of view is what makes racing in a Pimax headset feel so real. But in VR sim racing, the GPU is always the limit: push for a sharper picture and frames drop, protect your frames and the image gets softer.
Pimax is teaming up with NextLevelXR 1.4.3, the free mod from our Sim Racing Ambassador Next Level Sim Gaming and developer Elhydro, to solve exactly that. The result: a clearer picture on track, steadier frames, and a setup that adapts to your car and your PC.
Here’s the problem it solves, and how.
The problem: your GPU is drawing pixels you never look at
In a cockpit, your eyes stay on the road, the apexes and the cars around you. They rarely look at the roof lining or your knees. Yet your GPU draws every pixel of the image anyway.
The fix: NextLevelXR trims those unused areas and puts the saved power into extra sharpness at the center of your view, where you actually look.
The result on a Pimax Dream Air SE: with the example crop, the game renders about 47% fewer pixels before supersampling. Add supersampling that makes the center 9% sharper than native, and it’s still 36% fewer pixels than the headset’s native image. A crisper picture for less GPU work.
For an extra touch of clarity, Pop adds adaptive sharpening and mid-tone detail without halos, and switches itself off when you don’t need it.
Pop off (left) and on (right), photographed through the headset lens in Automobilista 2.
The problem: stutter pulls you out of the car
Less to render means more headroom. One racer in the community saw GPU load fall from 95‒100% to 50‒60% after cropping. That headroom helps you hold a steady 90 FPS, which in VR is the difference between feeling planted in the car and being distracted by stutter.
So how do you get the most out of it? NextLevelXR makes the setup simple.
The problem: one field of view doesn’t fit every car
An F1 car and a rally car don’t need the same field of view. NextLevelXR includes presets by car type, from a 25° vertical view for open-wheelers up to 60° for open cockpits, with 45° for touring cars as the default. A seat-height offset of up to ±5° fine-tunes the view without changing performance, and each edge can be adjusted on its own.
Choosing the Touring Cars preset, with a small seat-height offset and per-edge margins.
The problem: finding the right supersampling level is trial and error
Your ideal supersampling level depends on your GPU, the sim, the weather and how many cars are on the grid. Instead of trial and error, let Auto SS do it. Press Ctrl+F12 at the start/finish line, and again one lap later. It measures your GPU across the whole lap and suggests the highest sharpness that fits. One click saves it for that game.
An Auto SS result ready to apply. Values shown are examples.
The problem: you can’t tell whether a change actually helped
Once you’ve tuned your settings, check the results. A transparent in-headset panel shows FPS, average FPS and CPU and GPU frame times at a glance (Ctrl+F10). Switch between compact, standard and full layouts with Ctrl+Shift+F10.
The standard FPS panel. The red dot shows a capture is recording.
Want proof that a change helped? Press Ctrl+F11 to record a session, and an HTML report charts every frame, stutter and low, so you can compare settings lap by lap.
Captures list in the Control app, showing average FPS, 1% and 0.1% lows, and CPU and GPU times. Rows are sample data from a test rig.
Want more depth, without paying for it in performance?
3D Boost gives the cockpit and track stronger depth by rendering with your eyes set slightly further apart. It costs no performance, and the headset still receives your real eye positions. Try it and see whether you like the extra sense of space.
The problem: capturing what you see is awkward
Streaming or making racing content? Creator Mode sends a clean, centered 16:9 picture of your view to OBS, with your FPS panel included. No mirror window to capture, no awkward one-eye crop. Choose anything from 720p to 4K, and add optional smoothing for a more comfortable viewing experience.
Creator Mode settings: picture size, field of view, smoothing and eye selection.
Setup is simple: tick “Send what I see to OBS”, add an OpenXR Mirror Capture source in OBS with Jabbah’s plugin, and you’re recording. Creator Mode currently works in Direct3D 11 games.
Works with the sims you race
NextLevelXR 1.4.3 has been tested in iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, F1 25, Assetto Corsa EVO, Assetto Corsa, Automobilista 2, and American and Euro Truck Simulator 2. It detects every current Pimax headset automatically and works with Direct3D 11 and 12 games. ATS and ETS2 need the
-openxr launch option, and Assetto Corsa and AMS2 run through OpenComposite.Free, signed, and easy to install
NextLevelXR is free. Every file, including the installer, app and modules, is digitally signed with a Certum certificate, so Windows shows a verified publisher. Installing over version 1.4.2 keeps your settings.
Get NextLevelXR 1.4.3
The signed installer and a 23-page PDF user guide are available in the #downloads channel of the Next Level Sim Gaming Discord, where the developers also answer questions in #support.
Watch the video here:
Tip: use only one FOV-cropping tool at a time, and check your sim’s rules on VR tools before racing online.
Built for these Pimax headsets
NextLevelXR was tuned and tested on:
Ready to see more of the track? Explore Pimax for Sim Racing →
NextLevelXR is developed by Next Level Sim Gaming and Elhydro. Creator Mode works with Jabbah’s OpenXR Mirror Capture plugin. Next Level Sim Gaming is an official Pimax Sim Racing Ambassador.
