Let's open Pandora's box

I remember when the first Avatar movie came out like it was yesterday. Nobody had ever seen anything like that, on the silver screen or elsewhere. Each single aspect of that movie was magnificent; it was a true 3D masterpiece. I lost count of how many times I watched it, first in theaters and then on Blu-Ray 3D. For a while then it seemed quite possible that its spectacular success would tip the industry over to filming everything using real stereoscopic cameras.

We all know in hindsight how that turned out, but I'm still baffled by the events that unfolded. I mean, when sound was first introduced in motion pictures there was some resistance, but pretty soon it became clear to everybody that it would make no freaking sense to drop back to silent movies. The same happened for the transition to color. It's something that makes the real world so much more interesting and fascinating, why should it be left out of the equation when technology allows for it?

These days, nobody is keeping a director from filming in black and white, or without sound, but it is considered an artistic choice which is meant to achieve a particular effect. Nobody in their right mind would go back to having a crippled experience without any sensible reasons.

And yet that has happened to stereoscopic 3D. More than once, in fact. Being a 3D lover, I seriously cannot wrap my mind around the fact that in 2024, 15 years after Avatar was published, 99% of the new movies that are coming out are 2D only.

So, let's do something about it! Release 16.0.1 of the R.E.A.L. VR mod, attached at the end of this post, adds Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to the box of unforgettable dreams that we can now turn into (virtual) reality :-D

[In a lucky coincidence, the game is now on sale from the Ubisoft store at 60% off, until Jan 2 if I'm not mistaken!] 

And yes, this release makes DL(S)SS available!!! Deep Learning (Stereoscopic) Super Sampling. Get all the gory details here for what that means. But in short... Santa was so tired of always being expected to bring gifts, that this time he came early and took something away from us instead: the shimmering!!!

Just kidding. Santa's not a thief. If you want your shimmering back, it's still there, hidden behind a checkbox in the game-specific page of the mod overlay that allows you to disable the DLSS fix, so you can easily compare "before" and "after" the cure. Actually from the overlay you can even bind a key to the fix toggle. Why? Because at least for a while I know that you won't be able to resist turning it on and off, then on again, just to see what an amazing difference it makes ;-) How do I know? Because that's what I'm doing all the time these days instead of actually playing the games XD

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!!! Thank you for another year of unstoppable fun, and please scroll down to find specific instructions for Avatar!

[Latest updates for the game will be added at the bottom of the post]

Games list

As usual the mod archive is common for all 27 VR conversions. Here is the updated list, complete with information about which special features they support:

• Atomic Heart [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

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

• Cyberpunk 2077 [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]

• Dark Souls: Remastered [AER v2]

• 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]

• 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]

• Horizon: Zero Dawn [AER v2]

• Horizon Forbidden West [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]

• 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]

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 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora mod using the Ubisoft+ version of the game; other editions should also work, but if you encounter issues please upload your RealVR.log file somewhere so we can sort them out. Also, always make sure that your video drivers are updated to the latest version.

[Note: There is a hotfix driver from NVIDIA that improves stability for the Snowdrop engine (the one used by both Avatar and Star Wars Outlaws). Grab it while it's hot! It doesn't seem to appear on the main driver search page but you can find it at https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5608/~/geforce-hotfix-driver-version-566.45 ]

Run the game flat (not in VR) at least once, so that it can generate its config files and you can check that it works correctly. Then quit out of it and extract the mod archive into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\AFOP" 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 "afop.exe" 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 work.

At this point, the next time you launch Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora it should automatically display in your VR headset. You're almost ready to experience your new life as the tallest Smurf ever, but I recommend that you first tweak a few things in-game, in order to get the best possible experience.

Setting the resolution

You will need to play in windowed mode. The high resolution needed for VR can be set very easily by bringing up the mod overlay and looking 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.

New in this release: the mod will try to guess the starting resolution/PPD value automatically depending on the specs of your GPU (NVIDIA only). I am using a very rudimentary technique for the moment, so it might work acceptably or fail miserably. Let me have your feedback on this please!

Cutscenes

Cutscenes are fully 3D and allow you to look anywhere without restrictions. The cinematics quality is mostly very good, although as usual there will be some missing props, feet below the ground, levitating characters and so on in the parts of the scene that you were never supposed to see in the flat game.

There are two notable exceptions to the "good 3D" rule, and unfortunately they occur right at the beginning of the game :-/ The intro credits video where you fly into the forest looks weird in stereo (many plants and flowers show at the wrong depth). And the subsequent root menu scene has incorrect FOV, so the world is swimming a little.

The intro flight cannot be fixed, because it was recorded in such a way that it only appears correct from the exact point where the camera is expected to be in mono. As for the menu background, I didn't bother fixing it because it only lasts for a few seconds before you load in the level. All other in-game menus will work correctly and have the proper FOV.

Game options

You can set all graphics and gameplay options according to your liking and how powerful your GPU is, but there are a few settings that you must leave to the defaults preselected by RealConfig in order for the mod to work properly. Specifically,

in the CONTROLS menu: Aim assist must be Off.

In the VIDEO menu:

• Windowed mode: Windowed

• Aspect Ratio: Custom

• Temporal Upscaler: must be set to Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling if you want the new DL(S)SS technology to work!

• Frame Generation: Off

• Scaling Quality: you can change this to your liking, and it should look very good all the way down to Performance mode.

• Scaling Mode: Fixed

• V-Sync: Off

• Frame Rate Limit: OFF

In the GRAPHICS menu:

Motion Blur: OFF (this is very important in all my mods to avoid everything looking smeared and blurry)

Fog Blur: it works, but I suggest leaving it to OFF for added clarity.

Depth of Field: Off

Everything else can be set according to your preferences. Note that the game has mandatory ray tracing, so if your card doesn't support it in hardware... well, it's time to ask Santa for a new card :-)

After the Christmas break, maybe we can ask Brandon to do a post and/or a video on the best settings for the game. He spent a lot of time optimizing it and he'll have invaluable advice :-)

Input

You will want to use a gamepad to play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (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 ;-)

HUD

I did my best to put all the visual indicators in their proper 3D positions, but this game draws the HUD in a really complicated way, and the heuristics I had to employ in order to separate the elements that are supposed to be drawn at screen depth from the others that belong in the world can be quite fragile. So don't expect perfection from the HUD, although in most situations it will be good enough for the job.

Gameplay

The Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora mod supports 6 DoF tracking, i.e, the camera will follow your head rotation and movement. You are going to experience the full impact of that when you're flying on your Ikran!

In the "AFOP" 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. You can optionally bind the 2D virtual screen toggle so that it's quickly activated/deactivated by pressing both gamepad thumbsticks.

Updates and known issues

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

Release 16.0.1: This should fix the issue of Avatar not entering VR on systems with an AMD graphics card. Please let me know if it works for you!

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I wish you the best of holidays, and I hope you will enjoy both the new game and the improvements to the experience!!! See ya in 2025 []-D