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Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:11 am
by Driftwood
blue_max wrote:
Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:40 pm
No problem, Darksaber. I actually hadn't seen your report. I bumped into this bug independently.

Back on topic: regarding the problem that CGordini reported on TrackIR, I worked offline with this friend to fix it. We could not fully root-cause the problem; but we found a workaround (it's essentially using FreePIE as a bridge between TrackIR and XWA). I'll post an independent topic with the details of the workaround later.
Bleh. So it worked, now it doesnt?

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 4:56 am
by blue_max
Driftwood wrote:
Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:11 am
Bleh. So it worked, now it doesnt?
So far, this is the only guy who has had problems with TrackIR that I know of.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:16 pm
by Driftwood
Okay, well I'll report if I have issues once I get my system back up then. I really hope it's not busted because I like the simplicity of only needing Track IR with native function.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:12 am
by aaadmiral
hey there, I know this must come up a lot but.. I'm very confused on how to use this VR mod. I can't find an official "click here for newest version" post anywhere or anything so I just keep finding random versions to download via dropbox youtube links..

is this included in the XWAUP installers now, or do I need to install this separately? the newest version I have is "xwa_vr_ddraw_d3d11_v1.0.9.zip"

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:54 am
by m0rgg
aaadmiral wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:12 am
is this included in the XWAUP installers now, or do I need to install this separately? the newest version I have is "xwa_vr_ddraw_d3d11_v1.0.9.zip"
Not included in the XWAUP, but there is now an installer available in the Downloads section (Effects by Blue Max's Version 1.1.2).

If you want to integrate the HUD elements in the cockpit, you also need the Dynamic Cockpits package.

Latest information in this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12475

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:58 am
by aaadmiral
m0rgg wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:54 am
aaadmiral wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:12 am
is this included in the XWAUP installers now, or do I need to install this separately? the newest version I have is "xwa_vr_ddraw_d3d11_v1.0.9.zip"
Not included in the XWAUP, but there is now an installer available in the Downloads section (Effects by Blue Max's Version 1.1.2).

If you want to integrate the HUD elements in the cockpit, you also need the Dynamic Cockpits package.

Latest information in this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12475
ooooooooooo well that's good to know, I did see the VR part of that Effects by Blue Max's but wasn't sure if that was actually including this mod or if it was more like.. support this mod?
so since I have that mod installed I'm OK? just need to mess with the multitude of settings to make it work with my CV1 now? haha

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 7:01 pm
by blue_max
aaadmiral wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:58 am
so since I have that mod installed I'm OK? just need to mess with the multitude of settings to make it work with my CV1 now? haha
If you used the installer for 1.1.2 then yes, you've got the VR mod already, and yes, you need to tinker a little bit with the settings. This video might help:

https://youtu.be/fqPLOXuHVj0?t=22

We're trying to build a database of settings for other users to make this process easier in the future. So once you're done, feel free to share. Although, I believe that for the case of the CV1, people have already posted their settings in this thread.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:09 pm
by aaadmiral
blue_max wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 7:01 pm
aaadmiral wrote:
Sat Apr 18, 2020 8:58 am
so since I have that mod installed I'm OK? just need to mess with the multitude of settings to make it work with my CV1 now? haha
I believe that for the case of the CV1, people have already posted their settings in this thread.
I read through the thread as afaik the only mention was from m0rgg saying he was using CV1 but then all the settings after that are for DK2..?

I tried running the game and when I enter the proving grounds it... sorta works? before you launch the game the cockpit is stuck to your view, but once you launch it acts properly. problem with that is you can't look at some of the screens out of your view to set things up properly.. but anyway.

once in the game I found it really disorentating, I messed with those settings from the youtube video (CTRL+arrows..CTRL+ALT+arrows etc) but the thing that really threw me off was how the starfield background is a flat object stuck in my view.. normal? I read about setting the HUD to infinity and stuff but not sure if that is related or not

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:18 pm
by m0rgg
You can try Trevor's settings.
viewtopic.php?p=162533#p162533

I still haven't managed to get rid of the distortion completely, but I still believe I can get the settings to be set automatically from your HMD data (provided by SteamVR).

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:57 pm
by blue_max
aaadmiral wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:09 pm
I tried running the game and when I enter the proving grounds it... sorta works? before you launch the game the cockpit is stuck to your view, but once you launch it acts properly. problem with that is you can't look at some of the screens out of your view to set things up properly.. but anyway.
The hangar doesn't work at the moment, it seems to be using a different mouse function.
the thing that really threw me off was how the starfield background is a flat object stuck in my view.
This shouldn't be happening. It's an object placed at 65km away. It should look distant, not flat. I need to take a look.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:34 pm
by Trevor
Whats the difference between distant and flat? :P ;)

You can try Trevor's settings.
viewtopic.php?p=162533#p162533
I actually updated my settings for the latest version (installer) and no hacking is required, only cfg edits.
viewtopic.php?p=164539#p164539

Oh, well, apart from resolution which now thanks to the new fonts I can set to 960x1080 with hudscale of 1.5

Trev

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:13 am
by keiranhalcyon7
blue_max wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:57 pm
aaadmiral wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:09 pm
the thing that really threw me off was how the starfield background is a flat object stuck in my view.
This shouldn't be happening. It's an object placed at 65km away. It should look distant, not flat. I need to take a look.
The starfield is a skybox, with six sides. If the nearest side appears 65 km away, then the edges will appear 92 km away, and the corners, 113 km away. Could that be the issue? At those distances, I wouldn't think any parallax differences could be perceived.

aaadmiral, what do you mean by "stuck" in your view?

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:24 am
by aaadmiral
Trevor wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:34 pm
Whats the difference between distant and flat? :P ;)

You can try Trevor's settings.
viewtopic.php?p=162533#p162533
I actually updated my settings for the latest version (installer) and no hacking is required, only cfg edits.
viewtopic.php?p=164539#p164539

Oh, well, apart from resolution which now thanks to the new fonts I can set to 960x1080 with hudscale of 1.5

Trev
so those settings are good for CV1 as well not just Dk2?

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:28 am
by aaadmiral
keiranhalcyon7 wrote:
Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:13 am
blue_max wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:57 pm
aaadmiral wrote:
Sun Apr 19, 2020 7:09 pm
the thing that really threw me off was how the starfield background is a flat object stuck in my view.
This shouldn't be happening. It's an object placed at 65km away. It should look distant, not flat. I need to take a look.
The starfield is a skybox, with six sides. If the nearest side appears 65 km away, then the edges will appear 92 km away, and the corners, 113 km away. Could that be the issue? At those distances, I wouldn't think any parallax differences could be perceived.

aaadmiral, what do you mean by "stuck" in your view?
ok so I just tried it again.. I messed around with the settings again too and I think it's actually fine it's just before I couldn't get the controls to work besides speeding up and shooting haha and when you speed up the starfield doesn't actually change since it's a 2D object.. so it felt like space was glued to my cockpit windows and not actually moving.
I remapped my controls and managed to actually fly and now it's less distracting once you can see some other objects near you.

I noticed that when I launch XWA now I have three pilot saves, does changing between those do anything? top is "temp" and other are "test"... strange.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:02 pm
by Trevor
when you speed up the starfield doesn't actually change since it's a 2D object.. so it felt like space was glued to my cockpit windows and not actually moving.
I'm quite sure that the starfield seen from both ISS and the Moon is the same since stars are so far away there is little parallax difference between these 2 locations.

Now, yes, the planets would look different between LEO and GEO, and if you flew toward one long enough you would enter it, however the limitation of XWA is that planets are not real and you never get close to them no matter how long you fly toward them.

BUT, LA never really expected people to fly outside a small battle area to which parallax is almost 0.

I cant help thinking some people are poking holes in VR over things that are just not true or designed that way (like "seeing 3d" at 4km away)

Trev

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 5:33 pm
by blue_max
Trevor wrote:
Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:02 pm
I'm quite sure that the starfield seen from both ISS and the Moon is the same since stars are so far away there is little parallax difference between these 2 locations.
It's pretty much the same. The only way to see any parallax in stars in real life is by looking at them over the course of a year. In other words, if the displacement is about the diameter of one Earth orbit, and even then, the parallax is very very small even for the closest stars.
I cant help thinking some people are poking holes in VR over things that are just not true or designed that way (like "seeing 3d" at 4km away)
Stereoscopic vision breaks down at ~150 meters away. Anything beyond that will just appear flat to our eyes. I agree with you here, Trevor. However, if I were developing a commercial VR game, I would translate these remarks as "I want to see 3D anyway, so make it happen!" Which would mean that people would probably be happy to play with stereoscopic 3D miniatures. I can do this in the VR mod for people who really want their 3D.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 11:33 pm
by stafdady
blue_max wrote:
Mon Apr 22, 2019 6:45 pm
I'm not sure I fully understood your comment, DTM. I'm currently using my PSVR with TrinusPSVR and I activate the mouse-look function on my joystick. After that, I can pretty much look around without problems and even play dogfights successfully.
I am so glad I stopped and read this! I was wondering if there was a way to hook up the PSVR to use with the PC. I'm so going to do this!

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 6:43 am
by MamiyaOtaru
I got a huge performance regression between your ddraw preview dlls on April 10th and April 15th. With the one from the 10th (and earlier) I can run at my full resolution with all the effects cranked and not get significant hitches. With the one from the 15th the framerate tanks, with the same config files.

I ran a git bisect to try to figure it out. The last commit with the smooth performance for me is https://github.com/Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw ... cfcdbba807 (Switched to use the sun texture's center in pixels.) The first commit with the terrible performance for me is the next: https://github.com/Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw ... 3417ad3523 (Merge commit '53ef17e37935ee4e2670e00cc4c1accbc2bed760' of https://gi…).

Unfortunately that's the commit that added the new text rendering, which looks amazing. I don't know why that would kill performance when multiple ships and laser blasts are on screen, but it did for me and has not recovered through to the latest commit. Turning off the bling features (that were all fine before performance wise) mitigates things a little, but the performance is still worse, and I would expect that to be so as the new text renderer is still active. Is there a way to toggle that off for testing? Of course I'd guess it's not the rendering of the text itself that causes slowdowns, but some other change in ddraw made to facilitate it.

*EDIT* digging further: commenting out
this->RenderText();
in PrimarySurface.cpp fixes the performance, though now of course there is no text at all. Removing the RenderCharHook from dllmain.cpp then brings back the old text, and performance is still good. So nice to know I can always take that out if I compile myself, but I would really love to have the new text rendering. Please focus some attention on the performance of that hook! It is (in conjunction with your shader code anyway!) just murdering my framerate, in a way that SSDO, specularity, bloom etc do not!

*EDIT2* removed the RenderCharHook from the latest git, and performance was bad again. Suspecting the other new UI stuff like the brighter radar dots, I commented out the entire
if (IsXwaExe())
clause in dllmain.cpp. It reverts the new (and very much better looking!) UI stuff, but performance is back where it was before. Something about those hooks is not playing nice with performance, at least when paired with your shader stuff.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 7:10 am
by keiranhalcyon7
MamiyaOtaru, the text rendering is JeremyaFr's code, not Blue Max's. I'm curious, does your performance suffer under Jeremy's ddraw.dll?

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 7:24 am
by MamiyaOtaru
of course, but it's merged into BluMax's dll, where it has a deleterious effect on performance. Jeremy's dll (with the new UI effects) causes no noticeable performance degradation for me. BlueMax's latest (compiled without the new UI effects) also performs fine. But BlueMax's dll, with Jeremy's UI changes, performs very bad for me. Something about the combination is not working.

(Win 10, nVidia 2060 super, for what it's worth)

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 7:12 pm
by blue_max
Hello MamiyaOtaru. Thanks for reporting this and doing the investigation! This is very helpful.

Sadly, I don't see any performance difference with our without any of the new Direct2D hooks, so it's going to be hard to figure out what's causing the problem. I've got a few ideas; but without a repro, it's going to be a bit hard. Do you have a consistent way to reproduce this problem?

In the meantime, please download release 1.1.3 and then replace ddraw.dll with this one:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ny7bgyxgnqv7v ... 0.dll?dl=0

I've added code to enable or disable the text and radar hooks with new settings in DDraw.cfg (please add the following lines):

Code: Select all

; Enable the new text renderer. Disabling this setting may improve performance
Text2DRendererEnabled = 1
; Enable anti-aliasing for the new text renderer. Disabling this setting may improve performance
Text2DAntiAlias = 1
; Enable the new radar renderer. Disabling this setting may improve performance
Radar2DRendererEnabled = 1
; Enable anti-aliasing for the new radar renderer. Disabling this setting may improve performance
Geometry2DAntiAlias = 1
Do you have anti-aliasing enabled? That might cause some issues. I've added settings to disable anti-aliasing of the 2D elements. You may try enabling the hooks but without anti-aliasing.

Do you have multiple video cards in your system? Or maybe one integrated graphics card + your nVidia card? Chances are that the 3D content is being rendered on your GPU; but maybe the 2D content is being rendered through software/integrated graphics? One way to force the game to use the GPU is by creating a new profile in the nVidia control panel and forcing xwingalliance.exe to use the nVidia GPU.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 7:24 am
by MamiyaOtaru
desktop system. Of course the i7 has integrated graphics, but nothing is hooked up to its outputs. It's all running through the gtx 2060 discrete card. Nothing like Optimus.

Tried the new DLL. Turning off 3d antialiasing didn't make a noticeable difference. Turning off the new 2d rendering did. Without it, I'd see FPS dip to 30 sometimes in really busy scenes, but usually much higher. With the new 2d stuff, framerates were frequently good but occasionally dip into the teens, in not particularly busy scenes.

Old 2d rendering:
http://chattypics.com/files/no2d1_g62k5bmjjl.jpg
http://chattypics.com/files/no2d2_gzfgo8poq2.jpg

new:
http://chattypics.com/files/2d1_hj6hlpkkg5.jpg
http://chattypics.com/files/2d2_xuzpzorxv2.jpg

Those are without antialiasing.

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the dips. If there's nothing to be done about it, having config options to toggle them off is great, but I'd of course much prefer to have the new effects :D

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 5:07 pm
by blue_max
I'll keep the new settings to toggle the new Direct2D rendering; but if you happen to find a way to consistently reproduce the problem, please let me know -- I would also like to keep the new rendering system *and* keep a good framerate!

Thank you for your help!

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 2:12 pm
by CaptainKoloth
vbodo78 wrote:
Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:23 am
Sure. For Oculus Quest, I set the per-eye resolution to 640 x 711 using xwahacker.exe. In SteamVR, I'm using the 100% render resolution for 2000 x 2192 per eye. My VRParams.cfg and FocalLength.cfg follow. I'm also including CockpicLook.cfg because that's relevant to the VR setup.

VRParams.cfg

Code: Select all

; VR parameters. Write one parameter per line.
; Always make a backup copy of this file before modifying it.
; If you want to restore it to its default settings, delete the
; file and restart the game. Then press Ctrl+Alt+S to save a
; new config file with the default parameters -- however the
; VR mode may need to be set manually.
; To reload this file during game (at any point) just press Ctrl+Alt+L.
; Most parameters can be re-applied when reloading.
; VR Mode. Select from None, DirectSBS and SteamVR.
VR_Mode = SteamVR

; IPD is measured in cms; but it's an approximation to in-game units. Set it to 0 to
; remove the stereoscopy effect.
; This setting is ignored in SteamVR mode. Configure the IPD through SteamVR instead.
IPD = 6.5
; stereoscopy_multiplier amplifies the stereoscopy of objects in the game. Never set it to 0
stereoscopy_multiplier = 0.300
3d_window_size = 1.700
3d_window_zoom_out_size = 1.000
; The following value scales the final 2D images sent to the HMD. However, this may cause
; blurry vision so it's better to try 3d_window_size instead.
; Set the following to 1 to start the HUD in zoomed-out mode:
zoomed_out_on_startup = 0
concourse_window_scale = 12.000
; The concourse animations can be played as fast as possible, or at its original
; 25fps setting:
concourse_animations_at_25fps = 1

; Specify the aspect ratio here to override the aspect ratio computed by the library.
; ALWAYS specify BOTH the Concourse and 3D window aspect ratio.
; You can also edit ddraw.cfg and set 'PreserveAspectRatio = 1' to get the library to
; estimate the aspect ratio for you (this is the preferred method).
3d_aspect_ratio = 1.350
concourse_aspect_ratio = 1.430

; Lens correction parameters. k2 has the biggest effect and k1 fine-tunes the effect.
; Positive values = convex warping; negative = concave warping. SteamVR already provides
; it's own automatic warping effect, so you probably shouldn't enable this in SteamVR mode.
k1 = 2.100000
k2 = 0.720000
k3 = 0.000000
apply_lens_correction = 0

; The following parameter will enable/disable SteamVR's lens distortion correction
; The default is 1, only set it to 0 if you're seeing distortion in SteamVR.
; If you set it to 0, I suggest you enable apply_lens_correction above to use the internal lens
; distortion correction instead
steamvr_distortion_enabled = 1


; Depth for various GUI elements in meters from the head's origin.
; Positive depth is forwards, negative is backwards (towards you).
; As a reference, the background starfield is 65km meters away.
HUD_depth = 1.700
; If 6dof is enabled, the aiming HUD can be fixed to the cockpit or it can "float"
; and follow the lasers. When it's fixed, it's probably more realistic; but it will
; be harder to aim when you lean.
; When the aiming HUD is floating, it will follow the lasers when you lean,
; making it easier to aim properly.
floating_aiming_HUD = 1
GUI_depth = 0.595
GUI_target_relative_depth = -0.025
; GUI_target_relative_depth is relative and it's always added to GUI_depth
; This has the effect of making the targeted object "hover" above the targeting computer
Text_depth = 0.450
; As a rule of thumb always make Text_depth <= GUI_depth so that
; the text hovers above the targeting computer

; This is the depth added to the controls in the tech library. Make it negative to bring the
; controls towards you. Objects in the tech library are obviously scaled by XWA, because there's
; otherwise no way to visualize both a Star Destroyer and an A-Wing in the same volume.
Tech_Library_relative_depth = -2.000

; The HUD/GUI can be fixed in space now. If this setting is enabled, you'll be
; able to see all the HUD simply by looking around. You may also lean forward to
; zoom-in on the text messages to make them more readable.
fixed_GUI = 1

; Set the following parameter to lower the brightness of the text,
; Concourse and 2D menus (avoids unwanted bloom when using ReShade).
; A value of 1 is normal brightness, 0 will render everything black.
brightness = 0.950

; Interleaved Reprojection is a SteamVR setting that locks the framerate at 45fps.
; In some cases, it may help provide a smoother experience. Try toggling it
; to see what works better for your specific case.
SteamVR_Interleaved_Reprojection = 0

; Cockpit roll multiplier. Set it to 0 to de-activate this axis.
; The settings for pitch, yaw and positional tracking are in CockpitLook.cfg
roll_multiplier = -1.000
CockpitLook.cfg

Code: Select all

; tracker_type selects what tracker to use. Valid options are:
; FreePIE
; SteamVR
; TrackIR (also compatible with OpenTrack when the output is freetrack 2.0 enhanced + TrackIR)
tracker_type = SteamVR

; The multipliers for roll and positional (x,y,z) are in vrparams.cfg
yaw_multiplier = 1
pitch_multiplier = 1

; Offsets that can be added to the pitch and yaw
yaw_offset = 0
pitch_offset = 0

positional_x_multiplier = 2.0
positional_y_multiplier = 2.0
positional_z_multiplier = 2.0

; These limits are in meters.
min_positional_track_x = -25.0
max_positional_track_x =  25.0

min_positional_track_y = -25.0
max_positional_track_y =  25.0

min_positional_track_z = -25.0
max_positional_track_z =  25.0

; Enable this setting to move around the cockpit using the keyboard arrows.
keyboard_lean = 0

; If sticky_lean is set to 0, then the cockpit will return to its home position
; when the arrow keys are released. If set to 1, the position will stick where
; you leave it. Press the dot key twice to reset your position.
sticky_lean = 0

; Set this to 1 to limit the amount of cockpit lean. Set it to 0 for free-roam.
limit_cockpit_lean = 0

; +/- Limits for the keyboard lean. If these aren't specified, they default to infinity.
cockpit_lean_x_limit = 0.30
cockpit_lean_y_limit = 0.15
cockpit_lean_z_limit = 0.50

; Set the following to 1 to invert the keyboard lean on the y axis
invert_cockpit_lean_y = 0
FocalLength.cfg

Code: Select all

; The focal length is measured in pixels. This parameter can be modified without
; VR, so, technically, it's not a 'VRParam'
focal_length = 454.000000
Hey everyone:

This is amazing! Thanks so much for all your hard work on this, I had no idea this existed.

This is sort of working for me with these exact settings with a Dift and GTX 1080, but I'm getting really bad stuttering in VR, to the point where its unplayable. Am I doing something wrong? Is there anything I can try to fix it? When I look around the head tracking is working but ships and my cockpit will jump around a lot; I assume fundamentally its a low framerate issue but I'm trying to follow the steps that seem to work for others and just not getting comparable results.

Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 2:21 pm
by CaptainKoloth
I should add that its not just low framerate per se. If I reduce resolution all the way down to 640x480 (or whatever thats getting mapped to for the Oculus aspect ratio) the starfield and so forth responds smoothly when I look around, but the cockpit, other ships, and strangely, images of nebulae on the background jump around wildly.

I've tried to add a video of what it looks like here:
https://youtu.be/43m9WgaVHS0
That's something of a kludge as I'm trying to record it on my screen as I move the Rift around by hand, but it sort of gets the idea across. The effect actually looks worse than this in the headset itself- those jumps look to my eye like they happen more frequently in the actual Rift than in this screen view.