Disabled SPUD on oculus and quality improved a lot

[HiCZoK]

I got rift in recent sale and Even though it looked ok, there was this film grain over part of the screen. Totally ruining black scenes or just dark scenes. The "dirt coat" even made normal color image look somehow worse.
I disabled "SPUD" in registry and it totally removed mura calibration and that filthy film grain.
Now the screen looks clear and even.
It was probably talked to death here but I recommend to try it and see if it improves quality of the screen.

here is a reddit post about it:

 

[Mut1ny]

Does this make a difference anymore? Better screens at some point? Just did what it says and don't notice a damn thing different...

 

[HiCZoK]

It does make a difference.

Maybe You did something incorrectly? disabling spud registry (after adding it) completely removes grain. But introduces some more glare

 

[QES]

I did this and notice a difference. It's a bit sharper/more clarity overall, but the SDE seems a little more noticeable. Some of the soft glow seems better too but yeah a some extra glare with direct lights.

 

[Mut1ny]

UPDATE: Spud off actually appears to make my shit WORSE. I used "Face Your Fears" as a reference since that's the game that was used in the original post above ("Picture of what I'm talking about").

With Spud ON (set to 1 in regedit) I notice the speckled blacks just on the main menu looking at a all dark scene. Exactly what I've come to expect and what I'm use too given my experience with my Rift.

With Spud OFF (set to 0 in regedit), however, the graininess is still there + now there's this this weird distortion that makes it seem like the SDE is building up to a point right in the center of my vision.

Here's a picture that I tried taking the best I could with my S8. You can see the almost graphing calculator wireframe thingy plus some graininess.

Now with Spud ON the distortion goes away but I still have the graininess. So basically Spud OFF results in the same thing as it ON but with added distortion. Dafuq?

I did this and notice a difference. It's a bit sharper/more clarity overall, but the SDE seems a little more noticeable. Some of the soft glow seems better too but yeah a some extra glare with direct lights.

Yeah, I know I'm doing the instructions right...not an idiot...but I don't really/can maybe sort of maybe see a difference? Maybe it's a tad sharper over all? I dunno...tried spotting differences but it's hard to A/B with something that requires multiple steps to do. Certainly, in my case, isn't some night and day difference...if at all.

 

[QES]

I haven't done much testing between the 2, pretty much have set it and forget it so far. When I get some time in the next week I'll try to do a few comparisons on and off in a few applications. I don't have a decent camera though. On a dumb phone until my G4 gets repaired and sent back. When that comes in in another 10-14 days I can post some pics on which is better of the 2.

 

[Mut1ny]

I haven't done much testing between the 2, pretty much have set it and forget it so far. When I get some time in the next week I'll try to do a few comparisons on and off in a few applications. I don't have a decent camera though. On a dumb phone until my G4 gets repaired and sent back. When that comes in in another 10-14 days I can post some pics on which is better of the 2.

You ever get around to checking this out?

 

[XoR_]

Looking for some Oculus tweaks I found this tip and disabled Spud right away. I am really happy with the result and will never turn Spud on again!
On black background I had a lot fixed very dark gray dots. Not something I really found as an issue because dots weren't very bright or distracting, and I just assumed it is hot it was supposed to look like in VR headset like this.
This Spud thing also made this pattern appear everywhere, something which I only noticed when it was gone and when it was gone clarity improved a lot, like before lens appeared dirty all the time and after everything is clear.

 

[TheSmJ]

Looking for some Oculus tweaks I found this tip and disabled Spud right away. I am really happy with the result and will never turn Spud on again!
On black background I had a lot fixed very dark gray dots. Not something I really found as an issue because dots weren't very bright or distracting, and I just assumed it is hot it was supposed to look like in VR headset like this.
This Spud thing also made this pattern appear everywhere, something which I only noticed when it was gone and when it was gone clarity improved a lot, like before lens appeared dirty all the time and after everything is clear.

The issue with disabling SPUD is it lowers the response time of the display, which in turn causes smearing when there's a lot of movement in high contrast areas that (for some) cause headaches.

Not a big deal for everyone but it's something to be aware of.

 

[XoR_]

The issue with disabling SPUD is it lowers the response time of the display, which in turn causes smearing when there's a lot of movement in high contrast areas that (for some) cause headaches.

Not a big deal for everyone but it's something to be aware of.

I have not noticed any decreased motion performance with this tweak.
Only negative thing I noticed is that grayscale is not perfect anymore with very slight purple tint in darker end of grayscale. Nothing major and actually gamma seems a little higher now which is a plus because for content consumption it should be 2.4 anyway and original seemed even lower than 2.2.
Will try to do measurement later because I am actually curious about Rift's gamut and general color accuracy.
For games this does not matter that much though, certainly less than having or not having something that look like dirty lens XD

 

[XoR_]

Did some more comparison and my initial impressions were exaggerated.
Enabled it back on and noticed that disabling it make blacks worse so it stays on (default settings)