Version 2.0.0 with Mafia II: Definitive Edition support!
Added 2021-10-18 17:31:15 +0000 UTCOnce again, thanks to dear friend and VR connoisseur Beardo Benjo, I can open the post with a fun video (it has major SPOILERS though, beware if you never played the game before!) Don't forget to subscribe to his channel if you want more VR gaming news delivered with his trademark sense of humor!!
Quick setup: it's the usual drill. Install Mafia II: Definitive Edition and run it at least once, to make it generate the folders for your user profile. Quit the game, then locate the directory containing "Mafia II Definitive Edition.exe" (for example, I have the Epic Games Store version and my directory is "C:\Program Files\Epic Games\MafiaIIDE\pc") and extract the mod to that directory without changing the folder structure in any way; finally run RealConfig.bat, which should take care of the rest and finish without errors.
When you launch the game again it will run in VR. I modded the custom square resolutions directly into the game, so it will start with 2160x2160 and you'll be able to customize that to your liking in the video options menu. Speaking of which...
Game options: Most can be tweaked at will, but don't change the following video settings (which are automatically tuned by RealConfig.bat) as they are mandatory for a good VR experience:
- "Window Mode" = "Windowed"
- "V-Sync" = "Off"
- "GPU PhysX" = "Medium" or "Off"
- "MSAA" = "Off"
- "Frame Rate Limit" = "Unlimited"
If you use a gamepad (highly recommended for all my mods):
- set "CONTROLS> Aim Assist" to "Off"
Point of view: this should be interesting news, although not yet the major change which prompted me to bump the version number to 2.0.0 :-D
Except for a really intense cutscene, the whole game is played from a third person perspective. There are no first person mods available on the web that I know of, because MDE2 seems to have no headless models and no way to hide the main character. However (and this is the interesting part, on which I would love your feedback), I tweaked all the camera parameters to bring it up close and personal to Vito and his car, and to me now it feels really immersive, almost like 1st person. I always loved games (like the older Assassin's Creed titles, before the series went astray) where the camera hovers really close to your character.
When driving, you will have the choice of:
- the default follow cam (modded to bring it closer, as I was saying): it's good for quick escapes and if you want to appreciate the beauty of your new shiny automobile;
- my customized behind-the-wheel camera, whose position can be further tweaked by the user to adapt it to the many different car and truck models—no bikes or boats in Mafia II;
- a bumper camera which is quite exhilarating if you have the stomach for it, and
- a useless but nice left front wheel camera.
Talking about the behind-the-steering-wheel camera (simulating 1st person driving), from this release there is a huge quality-of-life improvement. Beside the "MDE2" overlay tab, where you'll still find the individual adjustment sliders for the camera offsets, I'm introducing a new control system that makes setting up the perfect driving position when you switch car models a breeze.
Once you have cycled to the correct camera (Mafia II will always default to the follow cam when you enter a car), tap the D-Pad Up button on your gamepad, which will bring you into a special "camera setup" mode. Use the left thumbstick to move the camera left/right and up/down, and the right thumbstick to move it forward/backward. You can also reset the position to my default (which works well for several models) by pressing the left thumbstick. Any other button or trigger will exit the camera setup mode and return control to the game.
So, the typical drill when acquiring (euphemism for stealing) a new car will be: enter the car and press the right thumbstick to switch to the internal camera; if the position does not look right, briefly tap D-Pad Up and move the camera with the two thumbsticks to your satisfaction; then accelerate away. The whole process takes a couple of seconds once you've gotten the hang of it. I already backported it to Mafia: DE too!
VR conversion: everything should be working correctly, at least as far as it's possible with a mod. Gameplay is fluid, and combat (which is a fundamental part of the series) feels very natural, both melee and firearms. The crosshair is placed at the correct depth, as I always do with my mods, and the character points and shoots where you're looking.
Cutscenes have been fully fixed (FOV, camera, etc.). Be advised though: as usual with modded games, but even worse here than in Mafia 1, freeing the camera and widening the FOV reveals that the cutscenes are chocked full of ludicrous stuff going on behind the scenes: broken animations, characters freezing or disappearing, missing props, misplaced objects, twisting necks and arms... the list just never ends, haha! Some cutscenes are prerendered and thus will appear in 2D on a virtual screen.
Carcyclopedia works too (although unfortunately this game has no test drive mode), and so do the three DLCs. In the Jimmy ones the camera can be glitchy at certain moments, whereas in Joe's Adventures it seems to work as well as in the main game.
As a personal note, I particularly love Chapter 6 of the main story: in my opinion its scenes (which I will not spoil in case you never played Mafia II) are truly memorable, and such an intense experience in VR that the chapter alone justifies the full price of the game :-) Also, the soundtrack! The Mafia games have always had the best songs, and probably Mafia II is the peak of the trilogy in this regard. Depends on your musical tastes of course, but if That's not Amore I don't know what is!
So, what about the big news? Why did I write that Mafia II: DE might be my best work yet, even triggering a little guessing game among you after the previous post? Why the bump to version 2?
Well, since Mafia II (even in its remastered version) is an older game that doesn't bring all existing GPUs to their knees with the fans screaming for mercy, I was finally able to introduce a new stereo rendering mode that of course I had to call, ahem, R.E.A.L. :-P
The new stereo mode allows for full frame rate VR rendering. It's still alternate-eye rendering (there's no escaping that with titles that do not support simultaneous stereo natively), but it happens at twice the speed. So for example with a typical headset frequency of 90 Hz, it will now be possible for the game to render at 180 fps.
That completely gets rid of any image doubling artefacts, as long as you can maintain frame rate. On an RTX 3090, I find that I can play MDE2 at 2700x2700 and mostly keep my fps around 150-180, which makes for an experience that is as fluid as that of any native VR game (but with the graphics and gameplay richness of a true AAA title). Exploring Empire Bay in VR feels astounding.
The new R.E.A.L. mode is the default for Mafia II: Definitive Edition, but starting from this 2.0.0 release it will also be available for all other supported games (currently Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia: Definitive Edition). However, don't expect miracles.
Specifically, and with reference to a 90 Hz headset: if your system cannot even reach 90 fps as measured by the mod's internal counter, R.E.A.L mode will make no difference whatsoever. If the game you're playing hovers slightly above 90, say 100-110 fps, but with frequent dips below 90 fps, you might find that good old AER is still the best choice, because it will cap the framerate at a stable 90 (or whatever your headset refresh frequency is) and you will experience less unpredictable judder.
Where the new mode really shines is for games, or combinations of graphics settings, on which your system is able to more or less maintain 180 fps most of the time with occasional dips no lower than 120. In that magical zone you will get the native VR game feeling!
Image clarity: Luckily, Mafia II isn't plagued by the modern trend of compulsory TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) that blurs everything even in the best of conditions and looks horrible in VR. Since the game was already so close to perfection, I decided to spend a couple of days removing all post-processing blur effects from both cutscenes and gameplay, so now the image is really sharp and clear. I wish all modern games could have this clarity.
Performance: If the game doesn't feel as smooth as you'd like in the headset, you might want to try tweaking the "GPU Throttling" slider in the "MDE2" overlay tab. Dragging the slider toward the left will give more GPU priority to the game, which will increase your fps but might cause the VR compositor to hiccup and begin skipping frames. Moving the slider to the right will give more GPU priority to the VR runtime, which might hurt your game frame rate a little but could result in a more fluid experience. YMMV: each system has its own peculiarities and you might need to experiment a little. Different games might need different settings.
Throttling is especially important if you want to capture or stream video, because then you introduce yet another competitor for GPU resources: the video encoding process. Move the slider to the right until you get a perfectly fluid mirror window. If even 100 is not enough (it might depend on the system load imposed by encoding and capturing), I also put in an additional slider which adds a custom amount of delay in milliseconds to each frame; it will really kill your fps in the headset but it should allow for perfect capture. Please give me some feedback on this if you can, as I'm always looking for ways to improve game capture by YouTubers and streamers.
Miscellaneous: When you're on foot, the radar (minimap) in the lower right corner of the HUD can be quite distracting and/or get in the way of what you want to see. Unfortunately the Mafia games do not provide an easy way to toggle it on/off: Mafia requires lots of button clicks to enter, navigate and exit the options menu; Mafia II does not even have an option for it. So I modded the HUDs and exposed two gamepad shortcuts for hiding the radar (quality of life is everything!): with the new Mafia II use the combo Left Trigger + Left Shoulder; with Mafia use D-Pad Left + Back/Select. The combos are still experimental and might not register at all times; especially with Mafia II, sometimes the radar seems to get "stuck" and it takes briefly pausing/unpausing the game to make the combo functional again.
Some of you asked about Windows 11: just like most tech websites are doing for the moment, I too advise you to wait before installing it on your VR gaming system. It offers no practical advantages whatsoever and, until all the bugs are ironed out—which will not happen in a matter of days or weeks but will probably take months—you're just asking for trouble. Although my mods should run on Windows 11, I will not support it or make performance evaluations on it for quite a while.
So much stuff!! I hope I didn't forget anything... enjoy the mod and tell me what you think!!!
Comments
"GPU Throttling" slider in the "MDE2" overlay tab. Where is that?
2021-12-26 17:33:29 +0000 UTCHi Luke, is there any way to get the Mafia 2 DE VR version to work with the first person shooting mod that is available. The mod worked on the 2D mafia 2 DE and almost works with your VR mod but crashes went entering a cutscene. Thanks for all your amazing work!
Greyhaim
2021-11-09 12:29:54 +0000 UTCPlease please please implement the new stereo rendering mode to your GTA VR mod!
2021-11-03 02:46:47 +0000 UTCAny way to make the crosshair in m2 smaller and thinner?
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-31 14:05:16 +0000 UTCWith the Meta San Andreas vr port. Would we possibly get one here first on the definitive or regular versions. Tall order, but first person of some type too.
God's love sent Jesus to save us, not judge us.
2021-10-30 21:18:19 +0000 UTCHaha, sorry if it sounded a bit like a lecture!!! Just wanted to dump what information I found out during my modding sessions :-) Initially I too was under the mistaken impression that the 3 games shared the same engine, that's actually the reason I chose the Trilogy for my next endeavor. Oh well, one lives and learns...
LukeRoss
2021-10-30 21:01:18 +0000 UTCMany thanks for the history lesson! Not only are you giving us the time of our virtual lives, we’re getting educated to boot :). Not just history, pc inner workings, vr optics and techiques and more, all for a tiny sum of money once a month. Thank you Luke!
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-30 20:17:41 +0000 UTCMy mod has special tricks that make it possible for the game to run in higher windowed resolutions than the display supports (of course the entire game window won't be visible in 2D, but it will be correct in VR). Full details and steps are here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54090413
LukeRoss
2021-10-30 19:37:34 +0000 UTCNot quite. The engine got a lot of changes during the years. Mafia (the original version) was a very simple engine (but wonderful for its time). Mafia II came out about 10 years ago, and the graphics are now pretty dated in 2D, but they still look great in VR because let's face it, VR makes everything look awesome!! Mafia III was a new, evolved version of the engine, with more modern graphics and the capability to render a HUGE world. Then came the Definitive Editions. Mafia 1 was totally redone (not ported) using the Mafia III engine with little changes. Mafia 2 was NOT redone but just "remastered" with slightly better lighting and textures, but basically its original engine from 10 years ago. Finally Mafia 3 had no changes in the DE. So the end result is that the engines (and performance) for MDE1 and MDE3 are very similar, whereas MDE2 uses a much older (and thus more performant on today's cards) engine.
LukeRoss
2021-10-30 19:17:38 +0000 UTCHow is it that performance is significantly better in M2 DE compared to M DE? My fps are almost double at the default mod resolution. Went up to 35-something and still above 120 fps. I thought all the DE versions ran in the same engine?
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-30 15:10:56 +0000 UTCCan someone tell me how to use DLSS with RDR2? Is the fact my laptop has a 1080p screen what is limiting me to 1080x1080 and thus when I use DLSS I'm limited to that resolution (which looks horrendous in VR as DLSS removes render scaling). Or is there another trick? Runs perfectly smooth and is pretty clear when I use Medium settings, taa high 5/2 scaling, but would love to use DLSS to get a bit more eye candy in there. I'm using a quest2, rtx3070 laptop. Maybe I have to use another render scaler (maybe in the headset?) in conjunction with DLSS, but I have a feeling that just wouldn't work?
2021-10-30 07:07:16 +0000 UTCSure. Use Steam or Epic (depending on your game version) to verify the game files. Then copy only "ingame.sds" from pc\RealRepo\MDE2\sds\tables to pc\sds\tables
LukeRoss
2021-10-29 13:12:25 +0000 UTCIs there a way of bringing the camera out, its way too close and makes the whole thing unplayable for me, I liked how it was in MAFIA 1 mod
Gramsci
2021-10-29 12:28:31 +0000 UTCGetting 144hz with 150 fov on gta5 in vr. Time travel is fun. From old west to 1920's, 1950's and present day gta. Thanks Lukeross. Jesus loves all you.
God's love sent Jesus to save us, not judge us.
2021-10-29 11:49:58 +0000 UTCSan andreas coming to quest 2. Nice we can play now gta5 for no charge in vr. It's still my favorite in vr. I have no problem supporting Lukeross for rdr2 and mafia titles. I would of paid for gta5. Farcry would be cool in vr.
God's love sent Jesus to save us, not judge us.
2021-10-29 11:45:06 +0000 UTCFixed it. GPU throttling was set to 80, knocked it down to -1 and no more stutter.
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-28 19:41:18 +0000 UTCIm getting terrible performance with an RTX3090 and MI DE (around 70 fps) at low resolution and graphics settings. Starting to suspect nvidia drivers. Has anyone else had issues with the latest drivers?
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-28 18:12:40 +0000 UTCHmm. Thank you for the help! Unfortunately after following your instructions it almost feels worse, but looks the same or slightly better. I notice my latency hovers around 100-120ms, do you have any tips for lowering this?
2021-10-25 00:27:47 +0000 UTCHi Orion, which game are you talking about? If it's Mafia II: DE, it should definitely run with much higher fps than that, even on a laptop
LukeRoss
2021-10-24 08:44:34 +0000 UTCHope you don't mind me asking, but what settings do yall think I should be running to achieve a steady 80fps, on a Quest 2 thru Link wired, on a RTX 3060 (laptop) & i7-11800H? Currently only achieving about 45-50fps in-game, ran the bat on High, will try Medium next, and keep working my way down if needed
2021-10-24 08:09:39 +0000 UTCApologies, you are quite right - that should read version 1.1from: https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr/releases/tag/fsr_v1.1 I alter the openvr_mod.cfg for Mafia I and Mafia II, within the cfg. "applyMIPBias": false," there is a section in there that explains "IMPORTANT: if you experience issues with rendering like disappearing textures or strange patterns in the rendering, try turning this off by setting the value to false. "applyMIPBias": true," Apart from that change I use the other presets in the cfg as is. For RDR2 I don't change anything - just dropped in both files. Will check my render settings and report back - are you asking what settings I use in the REAL pause menu?
Stuart
2021-10-24 02:50:11 +0000 UTCI managed to find an App version via google that lets you easily install\reinstall FSR and change settings, I'm not seeing FSR ver 1.3 though only 1.1, but it's still looking a lot better for me. I can tell by the signs on the road when I align myself with 2 cardboard boxes, the signs are less distorted by flicker. I also noticed something though when at 3240x3240 If I put that slider to either 99% on GPU throttle I get 100fps, but If I move it to 40% I get 130fps. What Render scale and sharpness and radius settings are you using Stuart if you don't mind me asking?
Boat Kettle Cheese
2021-10-23 20:09:17 +0000 UTCWelcome - be interested to see if you notice the improvement.
Stuart
2021-10-23 00:18:47 +0000 UTCChopsticks, really? Sounds like a remedy Arthur would use :-D Weird that Valve doesn't ship directly to Australia!
LukeRoss
2021-10-22 06:53:12 +0000 UTCThe sharpen filter is a huge improvement
Stuart
2021-10-22 02:03:38 +0000 UTCLuke have you tried to inject FSR 1.3? The improvements are phenomenal... Installed it just now to MII and to get it working one has to alter the open_vr cfg to ""applyMIPBias": false," It's here: https://github.com/fholger/openvr_fsr
Stuart
2021-10-22 02:02:40 +0000 UTC2.0 is da bomb! Loving it. Although, as my cable is dicey (steam are sending the replacement on to the US - to then to be sent on from my freind in the US to me in OZ). I have had to rig a spline to my index cable using a combination of chopsticks and electrical cable ties, if i sinch it and splint it in jsut the right spot my headset kinda works. Which allowed me to test MII!
Stuart
2021-10-22 02:01:13 +0000 UTCNo, that's not a good idea :-) Due to the distortion that the VR runtime has to apply to the image to compensate the one introduced by the powerful headset lenses, and also because of the technique that my mods use to create stereo from games that only render in mono, there is no relation whatsoever between the headset screen resolution and the game resolution. The best resolutions for performance are the square ones. If for instance you selected 1920x1080, the image visible in the headset would be exactly the same quality as if you had chosen 1080x1080, but the GPU would have to render 77% more pixels just to throw them away!
LukeRoss
2021-10-21 10:58:43 +0000 UTCTried to put in a custom res in the XML matching reverb2's res but it switches to a lower res unless it is one of the ones contained within your mod. I Tried 4***X2*** in MDE1 and it was working. Am I right in thinking id get a bit better pref doing this at the sacrifice of interface not fitting etc?
Boat Kettle Cheese
2021-10-21 10:32:28 +0000 UTCHi Sofian, welcome! Unfortunately Virtual Desktop doesn't support my mods.
LukeRoss
2021-10-21 08:20:36 +0000 UTCAny idea why I can't get Mafia DE to run with VD/SteamVR without extrem lag, even at the lowest resolution? (RTX 3090)
2021-10-21 08:14:27 +0000 UTCIt is! No ETA yet though :-)
LukeRoss
2021-10-21 06:37:13 +0000 UTCWOW!!!! I've been playing MDE with your mod for a few weeks now. I just enabled the new REAL mode in MDE and it blew me away. This is awesome
Bob Douglass
2021-10-21 04:45:05 +0000 UTCHow did you put the mod in i cant get it to work
2021-10-21 03:36:44 +0000 UTCIs Mafia 3 DE in the works for this as well Luke?
Momentum
2021-10-21 02:22:04 +0000 UTCJust tried 2.0.0, what a stroke of genius getting rid of the double vision! Excellent work Luke, thank you very much for this. Tried it in MDE and look forward to MIIDE in the near future. Now try to slow down a bit so I can catch up!
Solomon Ginsberg
2021-10-20 19:34:14 +0000 UTCUnless you're noticing something wrong with the stereo image, I'd give you my doctor's usual advice... remember to make frequent pauses and to stay hydrated!
LukeRoss
2021-10-20 14:44:20 +0000 UTCThe mods from Mafia 1 and 2 are really great, I don't know why, but both of them give me a bad headache :-(
Toshie27
2021-10-20 14:24:27 +0000 UTCFantastic mod....absolutely amazing. But it desperately needs a first person on foot cam like mafia one....still, love it
Dave Duignan
2021-10-19 12:29:15 +0000 UTCThanks zer0! Do you have the Steam version of Mafia II? If yes, did you disable Steam Input for the game?
LukeRoss
2021-10-19 06:35:59 +0000 UTCWhich headset are you using?
LukeRoss
2021-10-19 06:34:39 +0000 UTCInteresting find, I'll check it out!
LukeRoss
2021-10-19 06:33:52 +0000 UTCBesides spell checker... wow.
zer0
2021-10-19 04:29:22 +0000 UTCMan! Luke strikes again. Let me first say congratulations on another sweet achievement and thanks for giving us all real vr experiences. I was hoping you could tell help me access the overlay? In Red Dead 2 VR the overlay didn't work for the first few versions, then you added a vesion you said fixed the overlay, and I could do the trigger holds in the menus for the overlay. This didnt work in mafia and none of the versions fixed it. I used your overlay key change method in the real VR.ini file and it worked, in mafia 1, but now in mafia 2 it doesn't, and the triggers in menus still isnt working even though you dis something to make it work in a red dead update. Is there anything I can try?
zer0
2021-10-19 04:27:02 +0000 UTCHello everyone, has anyone launched an openxr environment? I put it in the game (menu pb), but nothing happens, only the openvr works.
2021-10-19 02:05:22 +0000 UTCI would definitely back up the original file, it could completely screw up the game but so far it hasn't, definitely worth a look, not sure if you tried it Luke, hope this helps, any plans to do it natively for your mod like Mafia 1?
The Merote
2021-10-18 23:41:43 +0000 UTChttps://videogamemods.com/mafia/mods/first-person-shooting/
The Merote
2021-10-18 23:35:14 +0000 UTCI've tested the First Person mod, it works and looks freaking awesome BUT it crashes while entering Joe's garage. the shooting is a bit odd and finally Driving is now only 3rd person. I still prefer it this way around personally. I'm sure there can be some tweaking though, its just a simple file called tables that needs editing, or maybe not so simple to edit, I've not used SDS tools or what ever else is needed but its promising.
The Merote
2021-10-18 23:33:25 +0000 UTCNo, the on-foot camera cannot be tweaked on the fly. I brought it much closer to Vito, but there's no way to make it first person
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 22:18:58 +0000 UTCI've not had s chance to play yet, but I checked out Beardos video, can you tweak the camera settings when on foot, like you can in the car?
Dave Duignan
2021-10-18 21:28:31 +0000 UTCThanks! From the Advanced section of the "R.E.A.L. VR" overlay tab, click on it to expand it
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 21:15:50 +0000 UTCAmazing work. Just curious, how do I enable the stereo rendering for Mafia:DE? I did not see an option for it in the .bat installer
2021-10-18 21:13:39 +0000 UTCFrom the Advanced section of the "R.E.A.L." overlay tab
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 21:04:29 +0000 UTCThanks Luke, but how do you turn on the double Frame rate on in MDE1 its still only displaying 90 max on the count. You said said it's on by default from 2.0 in mafia 2 but there's no option I can see to enable it in the other games?
Boat Kettle Cheese
2021-10-18 21:03:27 +0000 UTCThanks John, and welcome to the Patreon!
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 20:48:32 +0000 UTCThank you Andre!!!
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 20:47:20 +0000 UTCWith the default settings it already runs beautiful, much better than Mafia 1. The cam movement in the car and the radar switch work great too. Only played for an hour but had to come here to post that I'm as always very impressed with your work. Back to the game now :)
Andre Warringa
2021-10-18 20:43:04 +0000 UTCVery nice mod, Excellent Work
John Zigmont
2021-10-18 20:12:26 +0000 UTCAny errors from running RealConfig.bat?
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 20:01:35 +0000 UTCI bought the game through steam and it doesn't go into VR at all.
Derrick taylor
2021-10-18 19:53:58 +0000 UTCThanks Toshie! Mafia was completely remade last year, so it looks and plays like a contemporary game. Mafia II was basically only given a fresh coat of paint, so it looks and plays like a game from ten years ago :-D But it was incredible for its time, and... 180 fps!!!
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 19:42:01 +0000 UTCthank you since we can finally play more or less in first person throughout the game I will finally be able to make a video on my Youtube channel to explain it to my French audience how to play in VR😊😊
Dyroo91
2021-10-18 19:40:52 +0000 UTCOld games: cannot say that the thought hasn't crossed my mind. New games are what most people want to talk about, but old games play so much better in VR. Install first and ask questions later: you're a veteran and you don't need instructions :-) However, unless you read the post you probably won't discover the new camera setup and radar hiding features!
LukeRoss
2021-10-18 19:29:50 +0000 UTCConclusion: Hereinafter you must do old games ;) As always, I'll install the MOD an read the instructions later :P
Cercata
2021-10-18 19:06:37 +0000 UTCThe mod is great but graphically part 1 is worlds better. In the first part you could drive a car yourself and the person looked much better. is that due to the manufacturer?
Toshie27
2021-10-18 18:44:16 +0000 UTC
