Fix all the things

Happy October folks!!! Halloween is getting near, so let's treat ourselves to some new tricks!

Okay, that was probably not one of my best puns []-|

Anyway, I must admit that I'm very satisfied with where we are. As you will see below, I managed to make a lot of improvements and fixes to the R.E.A.L. VR framework, and all the games run as smoothly as they ever did.

In fact, I believe that we have now reached a point where if you don't go overboard with the most GPU-intensive options like raytracing, and if you have a powerful PC, it is quite possible to make the modded games look as good in VR as they would on a high-res monitor.

It took us a lot of time and effort to get here, and once again, please allow me to express how deeply grateful and humbled I feel about your unfailing support. Thanks to each and every one of you <3

And a special thank you to Brandon, who must have cloned himself a few times judging by how omnipresent he manages to be in the comments, while at the same time helping with game testing, graphics optimizing, tweaking and whatnot!

Okay, let's move on to the changelog before I start bawling all over the keyboard.

[Oct 8: I made two small updates to the post in the Virtual Desktop and VRto3D sections.]

FOV optimizations

I will start with this, because the news here is rather amazing. Both VFOV and HFOV optimizations now work consistently across all games! See this post from September 20 for an explanation of what those optimizations are and what they mean for VR, although the post is outdated already (!) because it says that HFOV is not safe to use with all titles.

That's no longer true, and actually you will find that in most cases both optimizations are now turned on by default.

The performance gains are just insane!

If you see in the mod overlay that for your headset "Optimize VFOV" is grayed out, and only HFOV is available, don't panic: it just means that your headset's field of view is already symmetrical in the vertical direction. A notable example of this is the PSVR 2. However, if both checkboxes are grayed out, then maybe you need to make some changes to your configuration to avoid missing out on major quality improvements. See the following section for details.

Headset support, Virtual Desktop, Steam Link

I did my very best to ensure that every headset on the market can benefit from the FOV optimizations and give you the best VR experience possible. As you saw from the poll, the vast majority of you is using Meta headsets, so of course that must be where the largest efforts are directed; the Sony PSVR 2 is surprisingly in second place, despite basically all gaming websites droning on for months about how low sales for the headset were ^_^; the Valve Index is still in the hands, not just in the hearts, of many of us; but for the rest the market is quite fragmented.

If you have a Meta headset, the best config at the moment is using the Link cable to connect it directly to your PC, and selecting Auto or Oculus as the VR renderer in the mod overlay. Air Link also works, although it's usually not possible to get a rock-solid connection without the video encoder smearing the image horribly from time to time.

I worked with Guy Godin these past few days, and we're happy to announce that Virtual Desktop will fully support the FOV optimizations from their upcoming 1.33 version.

Update: The beta for 1.33 has gone public!! You can opt in by following the instructions here.

Steam Link does NOT deal correctly with the FOV optimizations, so at the moment I must advise you not to use it, otherwise you'd be leaving a lot of performance on the table.

Pico users will also probably need to wait until VD 1.33 comes out, because though I don't have a Pico headset personally, I heard from several users that their streaming software has problems with my mods. If any of you knows differently and has been able to make the Pico streaming utility work fine with R.E.A.L. VR, please let us know in the comments!

If you have a PSVR 2 system, a Valve Index, or any Vive headset or other models that default to OpenVR, please remember that OpenVR is an old API which hasn't been updated in years and which offers no support for the FOV optimizations. The mod will warn you about that in a popup; the recommended solution for all headsets that need SteamVR to work, including the PSVR 2, is to select OpenXR from the "VR renderer" dropdown menu in the mod overlay, after having set up your system so that the active OpenXR runtime is set to SteamVR.

For Pimax users, the way to go is always the same: stick to Oculus emulation mode (selecting Oculus as the VR renderer in the mod). You'll need to have the Oculus/Meta runtime installed on your PC, although it's not necessary to make a Meta account for it. Pimax just came out with a native OpenXR implementation, but although I couldn't test it personally (I don't have a Pimax Crystal) I hear that it still has problems and it won't work correctly with R.E.A.L. VR and the FOV optimizations. Let us know in the comments in case you find a way to make Pimax run natively without Oculus emulation and without artifacts! Oh, and I implemented additional tests to try and detect Pimax headsets reliably, so (fingers crossed) you'll no longer get the ASW popup, which should now only ever show if you're actually connected to a Meta headset.

Star Wars Outlaws

There was an (unannounced) update that broke a few things. This mod release restores full functionality to our latest open-world VR bonanza... and yes, both VFOV and HFOV work seamlessly, so you can finally push your pixels per degree to insane values []-D

Cyberpunk 2077

Since the update that introduced FSR 3, several users (especially with AMD GPUs) have been encountering problems with the game wanting to turn on frame generation and crashing on startup as a result.

Please remember that frame generation never works with my mods, because it's not meant for VR and it conflicts with my own frame interpolation code which is part of AER v2.

RealConfig will now automatically turn off all frame generation options for you, so just update to this new release of the mod and run RealConfig to reset your options to values known to work well in VR.

Another thing worth mentioning: although they do work in VR, upsampling techniques like DLSS, FSR, XeSS and so on are not really meant to be used in a VR environment, where you're seeing each pixel magnified as though under a microscope O_O

Those techniques were designed to deal with insanely large resolution monitors where the pixels are so tiny as to be invisible, so yes, they will give you a higher res almost for free, but if you use them in VR they will also accentuate any image defects like the thin halos around NPCs that TAA makes when running in 3D.

Basically the same can be said about raytracing. It looks nice in 2D and adds a touch of realism, but it tends to make everything hazy and washed out in VR.

For this reason, RealConfig now defaults to no upsampling for CP2077, and no raytracing. Of course you're free to experiment and find the compromise you like best!

Oh, and one more thing: for Cyberpunk 2077, the game window on the monitor will no longer be huge :-) It will resize itself at each resolution change so that it fits the monitor, which makes it possible to navigate everything (game menus and mod overlay) with a mouse if you so wish.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

I revised both games so that there will be no more instances of world swimming due to wrong FOV. The regression had been introduced when I implemented support for scoped rifles; sometimes my code was wrongly detecting them and changing the FOV when it shouldn't. While I was at it, I also got rid of the (very slight) barrel distortion that the engine adds to the rendering, and now I must say that these two titles are among the very best looking of all our collection!

Watch Dogs 2

Everything should be working correctly with the game now. VFOV and HFOV are fully supported without any need for restrictions, so you won't need to turn off options like screenspace reflections or SMAA anymore. RealConfig has been updated accordingly. By the way (this applies to every game) remember that if you messed up your settings and the game won't start anymore, or won't enter VR, or looks horrible, the first solution to try is always to quit out of the game and run RealConfig once more. Most of the times that will automagically fix things :-)

Grounded

Many. Official. Updates. All the time. Breaking-breaking-breaking the mod. Fixed it. Again. 'Nuff said.

But how amazingly beautiful it looks!

VRto3D support

For users who prefer 3D displays to more immersive solutions, due to various reasons that we discussed, I implemented a special rendering path that will automatically zero out the headset poses and inhibit any camera adjustments done by the mod, except for the horizontal frame-to-frame movement that produces the stereo 3D effect.

Updated info: This special path is now activated automatically when the VRto3D driver is detected (download the release attached at the bottom of the post again, as it's been refreshed). In case the automatic detection should not work, you can force it by hand-editing the RealVR.ini file and adding the line "IgnorePosesFor3DDisplaySupport=1" (without the quotes) to the [RVR] section.

Please note two things: 1. unless you are using the VRto3D driver in order to play the modded games on a 3D display/projector, do NOT add this line to your file, as this special mode is not compatible with an ordinary VR headset and it will probably make you sick due to the world swaying around as you move your head; 2. I can offer no support whatsoever for this, as my focus is making VR mods, and as you saw from the poll it's the needs of the many vs. the needs of the few. I love the 3D community and it will always hold a very special place in my heart, but the virtual world has moved on <3

Miscellaneous

Custom resolution support has been reworked across all games and it should now behave a little more like expected. For games that implement the PPD slider, the mod will now remember the last PPD value that you set, and upon your next gaming session using the same headset it should apply the PPD automatically when you launch that game again in VR. If you find a title for which this mechanism doesn't work, or if you get unexpected results like super-grainy images and the such, please let us know in the comments.

The "Overlay" tab now has two additional controls. The "Undock overlay" near the top of the page will finally give you a way of (you guessed it!) undocking the overlay so that it's possible to resize it and move it around using only a gamepad. As a reminder, if you need to do that, the sequence is:
1. use the game-specific controller gesture that brings up the overlay (it's either both thumbsticks, both triggers, or Back+Select, depending on the game; the mod will tell you which one it is when you run a game in VR for the first time, or again after you delete RealVR.ini);
2. keep the X button pressed (I'm referring to the Xbox controller button names) and use the shoulder buttons to navigate to the "Overlay" tab;
3. use D-Pad Down to highlight the "Undock overlay" button and click on it using the A button;
4. now if you keep the X button pressed you'll be able to use the left thumbstick to move the overlay around, and (still with X pressed as a shift) the D-Pad buttons to resize the overlay window.

I know that the overlay navigation interface is not the most intuitive, but I'm relying on Dear ImGui for the UI and that's what its conventions are. I added a "User interface guide" section to the Overlay tab so that you'll have a quick reference, and I'll try to expand on it in the future.

At the very bottom of the same Overlay tab you'll also find a new slider to customize the distance of the FPS counter from the center of the screen, so that you can adapt it to your headset FOV and make it more legible.

That should be all for now... Have fun and let me know what you think! Thanks again for making this possible!!!