Not just 1 or 2... we are Legion

Dear VR fam,

It's that time of the month again. Are you ready for a new game? I know, I know, many of you are still busy killing clickers in The Last of Us two episodes, but there's no rest for the wicked, because London's calling :-D

Release 23 of the R.E.A.L. mod extends VR support to (you guessed it) Watch Dogs: Legion!

[UPDATE 3: Small fix introduced in v23.1.1 for the game not entering VR with AMD graphics cards.

UPDATE 2: Release 23.1.0 fixes the DLSS-related issues without the need to install a third-party mod. No more crashes when closing the map or starting a full motion video, and you can keep DLSS on. I also added a PPD custom resolution slider and patched the input module so the game won't get confused when you're using a gamepad but open the mod overlay using the Pause key.

Far Cry 4: Release 23.1.0 improves on the heuristics used to determine when the game can be patched safely. There should be no more patching/unpatching loops during gameplay, or at least not in the areas where they were reported until now.

UPDATE 1: The cause of the crashes with full motion videos has been found, and we have a solution that doesn't require disabling DLSS!]

What to say about this game? Actually, there's quite a lot to say. First of all, many of you who went through the first two titles in the Watch Dogs franchise asked if I could also make the conclusion playable in VR, so I'm glad to be able to provide that.

But is Legion a good game? Does it actually lend itself to be played in VR? My answers are yes, and yes. The whole franchise has been wildly underrated in my opinion, and especially the third game was the object of much undeserved hate. To be fair, Ubisoft had its part in attracting the negative reviews, because they generated so much hype for the game before release that even a masterpiece would probably have failed to meet the overblown expectations.

Yet, even after all that fuss, the title has its merits. First of all, London looks incredibly realistic, although wrapped in futuristic Cyberpunk-style neon, and in VR I spend half the time just staring at the architecture with my mouth agape. The other half of the time I'm busy with gameplay and missions, and there's where the game fails to deliver on the marketing promises. The "legion" aspect (being able to recruit and swap operatives with different abilities and personalities) doesn't feel so interesting or well implemented after a while, and most of the time I just select the team member who happens to be closer to the next objective. But the missions are solid, and there are plenty of magic moments, especially when controlling gadgets and drones. One example: piloting a laser-equipped microdrone through the perils of a motherboard in order to reach and destroy the cores feels so amazing in VR
[]-D

But before we start hacking with WDL, a few additional release notes for v23.0.0.

DOOM Eternal: I extended VR support to the "Play DOOM Eternal with mods" option. You can mix R.E.A.L. with plenty of third-party mods without issues (of course I cannot guarantee compatibility with each one of the more than 700 mods available, but I successfully tested several of the most famous).

DOOM: The Dark Ages: This release restores full VR functionality for the title after it was broken by the latest official update.

Higher quality AER v2: There were no issues reported for this improved technique (which makes the shimmering around moving things less noticeable), so from this version it is turned on by default and no longer marked as experimental.

Games list

As usual there is only one package to download, which enables all 38 VR conversions you can find on this Patreon. All titles support AER v2, which is my own version of frame interpolation tailored for Alternate Eye Rendering (see this post for a detailed description). Most of the games also support DL(S)SS, meaning that I fixed the DLSS implementation for them so that it will work correctly in stereoscopic 3D. And 5 titles even allow for Ray Reconstruction!!! Here's the complete list:

• Atomic Heart [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Cyberpunk 2077 [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]

• Dark Souls: Remastered [AER v2]

• Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin [AER v2]

• Dark Souls III [AER v2]

• Death Stranding Director's Cut [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• DOOM Eternal [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• DOOM: The Dark Ages [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]

• Elden Ring (with its massive Shadow of the Erdtree DLC) [AER v2 + DL(S)SS when NVIDIA DLSS is enabled with a third-party mod]

• Far Cry 4 [AER v2]

• Far Cry 5 [AER v2]

• Far Cry 6 [AER v2]

• Far Cry New Dawn [AER v2]

• Far Cry Primal [AER v2]

• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade [AER v2]

• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Ghost of Tsushima [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Ghostrunner [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Ghostwire: Tokyo [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Grounded [AER v2]

• High On Life [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Hogwarts Legacy [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]

• Horizon: Zero Dawn [AER v2]

• Horizon Forbidden West [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Star Wars Outlaws [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Stray [AER v2]

• The Last of Us Part I [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• The Last of Us Part II Remastered (new) [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Watch Dogs [AER v2]

• Watch Dogs 2 [AER v2]

• Watch Dogs: Legion (new) [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

Please note that all trademarks belong to the respective owners, and that no copyright infringement is intended or condoned. And of course, you'll need to have a legit copy of the original games that you want to play in VR.

Setup

I developed and tested the mod for Watch Dogs: Legion using the Steam version of the game. It should work if you get it from other stores as well, but if you encounter issues please upload your RealVR.log file somewhere so we can try to sort them out.

Generally speaking, if you own a game in a different version than the one I modded, or the game just had an official update, it's always a good idea to take a quick look at the log. It's conveniently accessible from the mod overlay itself, with a search function. The usual symptom if a version diverges too much from the one I modded is that some patches will fail to apply (you can search for keywords like "patch", "error", "fail" etc.). If you give me that information, I might be able to fix it quickly.

Also, always make sure that your video drivers are updated to the latest version. That's especially important for NVIDIA due to a flurry of regressions in driver releases since the RTX 50xx series came out; we have now gotten to the point where new games refuse to launch if they detect that the driver version is not the specific one they were tested against :-(

Run WDL flat (not in VR) at least once, so that it can generate its config files and you can check that it works correctly.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the graphics API selected for the game is DX12 (VIDEO> QUALITY> DirectX must be set to 12). The mod won't work at all with the DX11 renderer.

Quit the game and extract the mod archive into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\WatchDogs_Legion\bin" folder. Note that you might need to customize the path if you moved your library or own the game from a different store, but it will always be the folder that contains the "WatchDogsLegion" executable file.

Finally run RealConfig.bat. It will perform a few required operations (including the v-sync fix for NVIDIA drivers) and preselect graphics settings that are known to work well in VR. Remember that running RealConfig is mandatory; if you omit this step the mod will not function.

At this point, the next time you launch WDL it should automatically display in your VR headset. Read on to find out how to get London to look astounding in VR!

Game options

Configuration for Watch Dogs: Legion is very simple. RealConfig will choose suitable defaults for the required Options settings, as follows:

in the GAMEPAD menu:

• Aim Snap = Off

• Aim Magnetism = Off

in the VIDEO> DISPLAY submenu:

• Window Mode = Windowed

• V-Sync = Off

• FPS Limit = Off

• Field of View = 70

• Menu Position = Auto

• Multimonitor HUD = Auto

in the VIDEO> QUALITY submenu:

• DirectX = 12 (I chose to support DX12 in this game because it allows for higher, more consistent frame rates)

• Depth of Field = Off

• Motion Blur = Off (this must never be turned on in my mods, otherwise everything will look smeared horizontally)

• in the ADVANCED section, make sure upscaling is set to DLSS (Performance, Balanced or Quality) so that you can use my DL(S)SS fix to eliminate the shimmering around nearby objects and characters. DL(S)SS should also work with this game if you are running on an AMD GPU thanks to the voodoo magic of OptiScaler (see my previous post for details on how to install and configure it for VR).

in the VIDEO> IMAGE submenu:

• HDR = Off

Cutscenes

Most cutscenes are fully 3D and allow you to look anywhere without restrictions. There can be black bars above and below, which usually work correctly in VR and give that "cinematic" look without overly restricting your field of view.

A few cutscenes were prerendered by the developers and stored as movies; they will appear as if projected on a virtual 2D screen in VR. They are quite rare fortunately!

Resolution and frame rate

This time too, I was able to mod the custom resolutions needed for VR directly into the engine. Watch Dogs: Legion can deal just fine with the required square aspect ratios. You will be able to select the resolution you prefer from the game Options> VIDEO> DISPLAY menu itself, without any hassle. Just make sure that "Window Mode" is always set to "Windowed".

[New in release 23.1.0] If you want to squeeze out every last bit of performance though, making sure that the game aspect ratio is set to the optimal value for your headset FOV, you can bring up the mod overlay and look for a slider in the main "R.E.A.L. VR" tab named "Target pixels per degree". Set it to a value approximately in the range 15-30 depending on your GPU, then press the "Adapt resolution" button to set the game resolution to your preferred value. You can do that at any moment, even during actual gameplay; the target PPD you choose will be remembered and re-applied automatically across sessions.

The game runs pretty well on modern hardware, and you can choose to have beautiful reflections on the omnipresent glass panes and rain puddles (Ray Traced Reflections = Medium, High, Ultra) without having to pay the huge tax on frame rate that full path tracing entails. However, driving through the city can still bring your fps down, so in order to have a smooth experience the Render mode will default to 1/3 rate. You can also try 1/2 rate to get more fluidity and less artifacting, but you will probably have to leave something behind in terms of graphics options and resolution.

Just like WD2, this title renders distant terrain and buildings with the dreaded checkerboard dithering pattern, so they will never look perfectly sharp; however, DLSS does a much better job than older antialiasing techniques in resolving the dithered mess into an acceptable quality image.

Input and cameras

You'll want to use a gamepad to play Watch Dogs: Legion (XInput-compatible controllers like the ones from Microsoft are the best for my mods). Keyboard and mouse sort of work too, but there might be issues, like mouse clicks activating other windows at random or some entries in the game menus being unreachable with the cursor; thus, in order to have a smooth experience, using a gamepad is highly recommended.

Don't worry about console-player syndrome: in my mods aiming is gaze-driven and extremely fast, intuitive and accurate, so even if you're used to playing FPS with your mouse, give your gamepad a chance ;-)

Specific to WDL: occasionally the game might fail to recognize your controller inputs, or keep switching the button hints over to the keyboard version [this problem used to occur after you used the Pause key to enter the mod overlay, but that's been fixed in release 23.1.0]. If it happens to you, an easy workaround is Alt-Tab'bing out of the game and back, which will restore normal gamepad input.

HUD and gameplay

The Watch Dogs: Legion mod fully supports 6 DoF tracking, i.e, the camera will follow your head rotation and movement. There's a big difference from most other games in my VR modding collection though: "hacking" (targeting NPCs and world objects with your phone) is also gaze-based, which makes it very quick and intuitive, almost as if the game was a native VR experience. But that also means that the HUD is always headlocked, because to all intents and purposes you're constantly aiming, even when your weapons are not drawn.

The crosshair will remain properly aligned as long as you don't move too much (physically, in real life) from your home position. Of course you can always recenter the view, which in all my mods is performed simply by shaking your head "no" once.

All weapons should work correctly. I didn't find any rifles with telescopic sights, so I have not implemented any special fix for that case.

In the "WDL" tab you can change the world scale, from small adjustments to playing with dolls or giants, and even force the game to render to a 2D virtual screen in case you should find a section too hard to play in full VR.

Since some elements in the UI can sometimes be a little hard to read (in particular the classic Ubisoft tutorials that pause the game and display three captioned images side by side), you can optionally bind the 2D virtual screen toggle so that it's quickly activated/deactivated by pressing both gamepad thumbsticks. Another thing you can do is tweak the "HUD scale X" and "HUD scale Y" sliders in the same tab, with changes visible in real time during gameplay.

Camera

The game is designed to be played in third person, and luckily the camera position is not too distant by default. However, the developers decided to remove the first person driving camera that was present in WD2 (probably because they got some flak about the low quality of car interiors, especially the instrument panels).

So I recommend that you install the third-party "First person vehicle camera" mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/watchdogslegion/mods/43 ). It works very well, apart from a lot of clipping into your character's head. I fixed it for most cars by pushing the camera further forward; there might be some combinations of character's hair and vehicle model where it still clips, but you should be able to work around that by sitting a little forward while you drive.

Updates and known issues

Release 23.1.0: There should be no more crashes with prerecorded videos or upon closing the city map, and you no longer need to install the third-party Quick Start mod or to disable DLSS. I also added a target PPD slider and stopped the engine input module glitching between keyboard and gamepad after using the Pause key to bring up the mod overlay.

Nodes in network bypass minigames can often be flickering or completely invisible. It seems to depend more or less randomly on the angle between the node and the camera direction. Usually I can make the node visible if I look straight ahead (i.e., not craning my neck up or down), or if I rotate the world a little with the right thumbstick. There are only a handful of different node types though, so even if a node is not visible it's easy enough to understand what it does from the behavior of the red and blue lines connecting to it.

Once in a while, after a few hours of play, the HUD might begin vibrating horizontally. If that happens, you don't need to restart the game: just bump the resolution one notch to reset the renderer, then you can bring it back to the previous value and the HUD will be fixed.

[I'll post new information here as it becomes available.]

Have fun hacking the system with the most lovely British accents!!!