VR with BMS and vorpX….
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Howdy Fellas! Long time no see.
So I’ve been futzing around with vorpX for the past few weeks - having a blast with it. I don’t recommend buying it though…although I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth out of it. I have it successfully working with Strike Fighters and all the mods associated, and it is awesome.
The full thread on my vorpX journey so far can be read here - including reasons why I think it is great, and why you still shouldn’t buy it…haha…: https://forums.mudspike.com/t/vorpx-impressions/9628
Anyway - a few days ago someone threw me the bone of “hey…have you tried it with Falcon 4?”. Oh dear. Down the rabbit hole we go. As if Strike Fighters 2 isn’t a deep enough hole.
So. Long story short. I could not get it working with BMS 4.34 for some reason, but I DID get it working in a way with BMS 4.33. The problem is, I can only get it working with 4.33 at what appears to be the default GUI resolution of whatever that is (1024 x 768?) - so it looks like a jaggy mess. It DOES work though. You have to also pair it up with OpenTrack to get the head tracking, but it does work. Now, what you get is only left/right, up down, tilt left and right…I cannot get yaw left/right or lean in/out. But that said, even at the lower resolution, you can see the work vorpX is doing to make the cockpit 3D. The UFC looks 3D-ish with the limited bit of lateral movement you have, and overall things look OK given the poor resolution.
I’ve tried everything I can think of to get the higher resolutions to work. I can get them to work on my 2D monitor, but when I launch BMS using vorpX at those higher resolutions, I get the game running with just a black screen where the action is going on, but I can’t see anything. I tried futzing with game resolutions, refresh rates, V-Sync, G-Sync, running all of the house of cards in different administrator modes, compatability modes, etc…but I have not struck on the solution to get the higher resolutions. I think if I did, the sim would look glorious in this admittedly heavy handed VR technique. Native VR is way better of course.
I don’t know much about much, but vorpX basically just renders two images I guess, slightly offset from one another. I have very good success with some first person shooters, EECH, SF2, and some other stuff that I’m really enjoying.
The reason I’m posting is to simply ask if anyone has any further suggestions on getting the higher resolutions to work? I found that to get the higher resolutions to work in 2D, I had to select the check box in the BMS launcher properties (Falcon 4 BMS 4.33 U1 shortcut) to “disable fullscreen optimizations”. If I have that check box checked, I can run 3440 x 1440 in 2D, but I simply get a black screen in VR. I tried lower values and refresh rates in VR, but those did not work either. It isn’t until I uncheck that box that I’m able to see a screen in VR, and it is a very low resolution one.
This is a short video I took just jamming my iPhone up to the left lens of my Reverb. Sorry for all the swimming image and blurriness, it is kind of hard to hold in there without letting the lens touch and scratch the headset lens.
So whaddya think? A lost cause to find those higher resolutions? I’ll give anything a whirl. I haven’t messed with my NVidia properties at all other than G-Sync…
Good to see you all…!
BeachAV8R -
Tomorrow I might try the alternative launcher to see if maybe something in there can help out (like Windowed Mode). Basically throwing darts at a dartboard at this point…
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I suggest to not try and hack things
Instead it would be better to wait until it’ll come naturally, easier this way, although will take time for sure. -
I suggest to not try and hack things
Instead it would be better to wait until it’ll come naturally, easier this way, although will take time for sure.Uh…OK… (checks to see what forum this is)…riiiiighhtt…
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Keep it going BeachAV8R I don’t think BMS would be where it is today if it wasn’t for a small group of enthusiastic people trying to make it do things it wasn’t designed to do, but here we are. I bought VorpX about a year ago trying to get BMS to work but VorpX is a very deep (learning curve) that I wasn’t willing to get in to, but I may just reinstall and do some testing with you. PM me, I’d love to try your settings and see what I get out of it.
One question for you is, does the HUD seem detached? I read (awhile ago) that because of the way the HUD was written it’s kind of just floating out there behind the glass and it is noticeable in VR apps. Did you see anything like that?
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I have it working…!!! My one and only problem…and it isn’t really a problem more of a preference, is that the FOV setting in the config.exe only allows for FOV to be pulled back to a maximum of 80 degrees. I think - given the headset’s FOV of around 114 degrees - if I could get that set, it would look damn near perfect. Right now, at 80 degrees it still feels a bit too zoomed in. The only way to cure that in vorpX is to zoom out, but at that point you start to see the edges of the screen.
Anyone know of a way to increase the FOV to up around 115-120?
Oh - and the fix for getting it to run at higher resolutions - after literally trying dozens of different Windows desktop features and launch parameters - was to turn OFF Triple Buffering in the Falcon BMS Config menu - no idea why that was preventing the higher resolutions from running, but there ya’ have it. I’ll post a full order of operations later tonight. And a demo video of through the lens…
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One question for you is, does the HUD seem detached? I read (awhile ago) that because of the way the HUD was written it’s kind of just floating out there behind the glass and it is noticeable in VR apps. Did you see anything like that?
I’ll get back to you on that. My initial thought is NO, but let me look closer. vorpX also allow for many different rendering options on the fly as well as “intensity” of 3D rendering, so I will mess around with those settings now that I have the high-resolution working. I’ll report back. I do know that when I tried vorpX with Arma 3 - the helicopter HUDs do not display correctly because of the two lenses shift (I guess to provide parallax or whatever) and so the HUD gets rendered twice. Interestingly, in Arma 2, that is not the case…so I don’t know why that is other than perhaps how the program draws the HUD.
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One other thing - I got this working on 4.33…now that I know about the triple buffering glitch, I’ll give it a whirl on 4.34 and report back. Might not be for a bit though…
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I just tried 4.34 and it does work, but head tracking doesn’t so I think if I turn off head tracking in Vorpx and just let trackIR do it then everything should be ok, unless you did something different to get head tracking to work right. Mine - when I turn my head it turns the whole display so no matter which way I turn I see the same sight picture. If you can export your vortex profile I can test that one as well. I have a HTC Vive original.
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I have it working…!!! My one and only problem…and it isn’t really a problem more of a preference, is that the FOV setting in the config.exe only allows for FOV to be pulled back to a maximum of 80 degrees. I think - given the headset’s FOV of around 114 degrees - if I could get that set, it would look damn near perfect. Right now, at 80 degrees it still feels a bit too zoomed in. The only way to cure that in vorpX is to zoom out, but at that point you start to see the edges of the screen.
Anyone know of a way to increase the FOV to up around 115-120?
Oh - and the fix for getting it to run at higher resolutions - after literally trying dozens of different Windows desktop features and launch parameters - was to turn OFF Triple Buffering in the Falcon BMS Config menu - no idea why that was preventing the higher resolutions from running, but there ya’ have it. I’ll post a full order of operations later tonight. And a demo video of through the lens…
You could set your FOV with any text Editor by editing your user/Config/falcom bms.conf file
Read the BMS Technical Manual in your BMS/Docs Folder p. 56
FOV can be set to any value between 5° and 180° -
Hello, Beach. I remember fondly reading your AARs at Frugal’s, back when I was ~16 or so… 17 years ago!
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Uh…OK… (checks to see what forum this is)…riiiiighhtt…
Well, I’m suggesting what is sane. You can go on and play with it
Regarding maximum FOV, check your config file:
g_fMaximumFOV is set to 80 by default, probably try to increase it…Regarding tripple buffering - It could be somehow that your stuff (vorpX, whatever it is) API when trying to hack the BMS Swap chain, with tripple buffering on is maybe somehow gets stuck on the UI resolution thinking it should be the 3D resolution, so it might make some sense.
Just don’t waste too much time, when BMS will be unleashed with VR, you won’t need any of this…
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I just tried 4.34 and it does work, but head tracking doesn’t so I think if I turn off head tracking in Vorpx and just let trackIR do it then everything should be ok, unless you did something different to get head tracking to work right. Mine - when I turn my head it turns the whole display so no matter which way I turn I see the same sight picture. If you can export your vortex profile I can test that one as well. I have a HTC Vive original.
I’m using OpenTrack to provide head movement. Seems to work fine with 1:1 movement. I cannot get lean in/out or slide left/right working though…
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I figured out high resolution. In the BMS Config.exe program there is a selection for Triple Buffering. After spending two hours messing with desktop resolutions, Windows scaling, launch parameters, admin modes, etc…I finally stumbled upon unchecking that box. And vorpX will now run in full selected resolution (3440 x 1440 for me).
There is still the issue of the FOV setting not being able to be set wide enough. The widest FOV you can set in the Config.exe is 80°, whereas I would probably best be suited running at about 115° (or 114°) to match my headset FOV.
I’ll ask on the BMS forums if and where this can be changed. (EDIT - Thanks guys…I see the suggested edits for FOV!) As a result of only being at 80°, the view seems a bit too zoomed in in VR. The fix for that is to just open the vorpX menu on the fly, and start zooming out - which does solve the problem, but you get so far zoomed out that you will start to see the edges of the screen.
Here is a very brief video taken through the lens. Apologies for the vertical video, I have to hold my camera upright in order to get the lens close enough to the VR lens. Given that I’m using 1:1 head tracking with OpenTrack, if I tilt the headset sideways to get the camera in there, the view tilts 90°. So the actual FOV in the game is much, much wider, clearer, and…well all around better than what you see here. I’d guess the FOV might be triple what this video shows. Worth mentioning too that the sim runs glass smooth in VR/vorpX…
(video still processing…might take a few minutes to go HD)
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Hello, Beach. I remember fondly reading your AARs at Frugal’s, back when I was ~16 or so… 17 years ago!
Yes, it’s been a while huh? Glad most of us are still kicking…
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Well, I’m suggesting what is sane.
Oh - I completely agree with you. And you have to be a little warped in the head to mess around with vorpX anyway…haha…
Regarding maximum FOV, check your config file: MaximumFOV is set to 80 by default, probably try to increase it…
I think it was 60 default and I could only get it to go to 80. I’ll need it to go to about 115.
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You could set your FOV with any text Editor by editing your user/Config/falcom bms.conf file
Read the BMS Technical Manual in your BMS/Docs Folder p. 56
FOV can be set to any value between 5° and 180°Awesome…I’ll hop on this and report back!
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Oh - I completely agree with you. And you have to be a little warped in the head to mess around with vorpX anyway…haha…
That’s why I’m suggesting to not hack, we are warped in the heads and we are going to get things working, for real
I think it was 60 default and I could only get it to go to 80. I’ll need it to go to about 115.
Possibly you missed me. Open your User\Config\falcon bms.cfg and edit:
set g_fDefaultFOV [b]60[/b] set g_fMaximumFOV [b]80[/b]
Default is what you have when entering 3D, that changes the DirectX projection matrix and so affecting FOV directly, the max setting will just allow you to go beyond 80.
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Super…115 FOV works and looks great. Quick and dirty video showing it. Again, FOV is wider and clearer than this video simply because of limitation on how far into the headset I can put my iPhone to record. I also can’t fly while holding my phone and headset, so best I could do was waggle the rudders. You can see a bit of the 3D effect toward the end as the perspective on the UFC changes a bit.
Maybe a dumb question, but is true 6DOF available for F4 BMS? Using Open Track I can’t lean in/out or slide left right…are those axes normally available through TrackIR?
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yes with open track and 3 point IR tracker you can have six dof. I have since day one I started with bms
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