Latest Beta Release of the VR mod

Here you can find help for how to best run and setup your XWA VR experience.

Re: Latest Beta Release of the VR mod

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darklord
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Post by darklord » Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:50 am

I have a Samsung WMR headset and it works.

1. Set XWA to SteamVR mode in Babu Frik
2. Turn on your headset and WMR
3. Open up SteamVR and have it running
4. Open XWingAlliance from the shortcut on the desktop or wherever the the application is itself. Don't try to launch it from within Steam.

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:05 am

:-(

I don't have a WMR headset to test, but there is a virtual driver. I might give it a go and see if I can figure something out with that.

@Kodachrome do you know how to capture ETW traces with xperf/windows performance recorder?

However, it will probably be easier at this stage to try to finish the native OpenXR implementation than fixing SteamVR with WMR.

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Post by Kodachrome » Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:58 pm

Ive installed Windows Perf. Recorder but havent used it yet (ever).

On the steps by Darklord:

1. Set XWA to SteamVR mode in Babu Frik
2. Turn on your headset and WMR
3. Open up SteamVR and have it running
4. Open XWingAlliance from the shortcut on the desktop or wherever the the application is itself. Don't try to launch it from within Steam.
= When I open XWingalliance.exe after SteamVR is running, the game opens without VR support and nothing hooks into SteamVR/WMR Portal at all.


If I do it this way however (which is what doing before, just for clarity):

1. Set XWA to SteamVR mode in Babu Frik
2. Turn on your headset and WMR
3. Open up Steam (not SteamVR) and have it running then
4. Open XWingAlliance from the shortcut on the desktop or wherever the the application is itself. Did not launch it from within Steam.
= WMR Portal fades to the Loading VR box, pop up appears in VR: "Opening XwingAlliance - Wait". Game opens with VR support (I can move headset and 2d monitor preview moves) however the VR screen remains stuck at loading and game itself running at the sub 1fps speeds as mentioned.


Ive tried different versions of OpenVR_API.dll as this one is many versions behind but it wont open at all if I swap the dll to a newer one (crashes immediately).

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:32 am

@darklord and @Kodachrome what version of XWA are you running? Steam? GOG? CD?

About the openvr_api.dll, the current implementation is not compatible with the latest releases unfortunately. There were some API changes introduced that break the support in XWAU mod.
https://github.com/Prof-Butts/xwa_ddraw_d3d11/issues/32
Last edited by m0rgg on Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:34 am

I have tested with the WMR simulator and it seems to work fine.

What I did:
- Install Windows Mixed Reality Portal in Microsoft Store
- Install Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR app
- Run WMR Portal (and in my case enable the simulator, which in your case would be to plug-in and wear/enable the headset.
- Run SteamVR. You should see the Steam grey room in the headset. This also started the Steam client minimized.
- Open xwingalliance.exe, and the game runs in the headset properly (in my case in the simulator window, where I can manage headtracking with the mouse).

In case it makes any difference, I have opted-in to the SteamVR and Steam beta.

About capturing an xperf trace, I will create a tutorial on how to do it, I think it will be quite convenient to get traces and analyze performance issues with different VR setups.

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Post by Kodachrome » Sat Jul 10, 2021 4:01 am

I'm on Steam version (though I have the original on CD somewhere!) of XWA. I tried Steam VR beta and latest releases versions.

If you do a Xperf trace tutorial I'll give it a shot, thanks!

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Sat Jul 10, 2021 10:09 pm

Here is the trace capturing how-to.
https://github.com/morallo/xwa_ddraw_d3 ... e-analysis

Let me know if you manage to get a trace and I will try to have a look!

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Post by Kodachrome » Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:04 am

Thanks for the guide, nicely put together!

I made two runs (one without Steam VR running first and one with it running). Find them here (MS Onedrive share, expires in 2 days).
https://1drv.ms/u/s!At4ytGOS2tqVi4Y-3k6 ... w?e=0SJ0qN

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Post by CharlieD » Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:14 pm

Gave this a shot after seeing a posting of Tie Fighter Total Conversion on the UpLoadVR web site.
Played on i7-8700, 16GB RAM, GTX1070Ti with a Valve Index (90Hz refresh rate with motion smoothing on). General observations are as follows (only settings I screwed with were those for activating the VR capability):
- Following the directions in setting this up worked just fine for myself.
- Cockpits are huge, to the point where it feels like its a two-person cockpit, and I'm sitting in the back.
- Nearly constant micro-frame skips (i.e. nothing like a strobe light in a disco, but like your hand is having a minor spasm/twitch). The game is playable, but the occurrence of this issue cannot be ignored.
- Degrees of Freedom seems to be mostly locked at 3. Turning beyond my shoulders, for example, seems to make certain aspects of what is being displayed as 'rather flat'.
- Playing with an Xbox controller seems like a gamble for how it will turn out. It is likely because of my inexperience in using the interface (somehow pitch/yaw got correctly assigned to the left joystick; trying to figure out to assign thrust to right joystick/y-axis, and roll to right joystick/x-axis (somehow roll is currently assigned to right joystick/y-axis).
The game is currently being played through a weird mixture of gamepad and keyboard.
I used the Cheat player profile to try out a variety of missions. Tried playing a skirmish with TIE fighters, and by golly, did they kick my arse (I thought I set the difficulty on Easy).

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Post by CharlieD » Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:52 pm

I've had the opportunity to play around with it a bit more, and also installed the TFTC package.
I am playing on a i7-8700, 16GB RAM, GTX1070Ti on a Valve Index. Observations are as follows:

- I've learned how to adjust the button settings for the Xbox controller I am using (haven't screwed with the joysticks yet), so it has made playing the game a lot easier.. What I haven't worked out yet is if there is an option to where a controller button can act as a mouse click (e.g., when looking at a cockpit, and the 'cursor' changes to a double yellow circle when looking at a particular button, could I activate any button within the cockpit by pressing a button on the controller, instead of assigning a specific feature to a specific controller button).

- Use of the Xbox controller while flying around always seems to have a small, constant 'drift' to it (like a car that needs an alignment) with regards to pitch/yaw. While this is not difficult to overcome, it is annoying when looking at one of my information screens and I've seen I've drifted off-course. Is this a feature of the game, or do I need to calibrate the controller for this game?

- I had an incredible amount of micro-skipping when just flying/looking around (combat was not fun). Switching to 80Hz refresh, Motion Smoothing off, and lowering some graphical settings has alleviated this to some extent (I also rechecked settings in the Babu Frick (spelling?) Configuration menu to make sure everything was setting to maximize VR performance).
In areas where there is a lot going on screen, I will get extreme frame-skipping to the point the game occasionally freezes for a few seconds, and then resumes at almost normal speed. Sometimes when trailing a single ship, I will get noticeable slowdown for a few seconds, and then the game resumes at normal speed.
I'm willing to attribute this to my GTX1070Ti.

Overall, game performance is acceptable, minus the occasional slowdown.

- The cockpit issues I was having before (e.g., it felt like I was sitting in the back seat of a car) seems to have been resolved, and I am not sure what I did to correct it. I'm up in the front seat now, and it looks and feels great.

It is slightly weird to play a game where I am switching back between a Xbox controller and a mouse/keyboard to get everything done, but nothing that can't be adapted to. This is a wonderful alternative to playing Star Wars: Squadrons.

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Post by blue_max » Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:03 am

@CharlieD I just posted a new update of the VR mod with some fixes for the jittering issues. You might want to try that. Regarding jittering, please refer to this topic:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13589

There's a way to adjust the POV for individual ships. If you're still having problems in that area, let me know and I'll provide more details.

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Post by CharlieD » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:27 pm

blue_max wrote:
Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:03 am
@CharlieD I just posted a new update of the VR mod with some fixes for the jittering issues. You might want to try that. Regarding jittering, please refer to this topic:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13589

There's a way to adjust the POV for individual ships. If you're still having problems in that area, let me know and I'll provide more details.
Thanks so much for responding. I did go ahead and install the update.
I think I should re-state some prior observations, as I may have left some important information out:

- I am running on a i7-8700, 16GB RAM and GTX1070Ti with a Valve Index and Xbox One controller.

- I am playing as 'Cheater' so I can try out the different levels, and see what is working decently.

- The biggest contributor to frame-skipping, as far as I can tell, is having the Motion Smoothing feature in the Steam VR settings turned to 'Off'. If turned ON, everything starts skipping. Whether the refresh rate is 80 or 90 Hz on the HMD seems to make no difference. I did not screw with the FOV setting yet.

- With Motion Smoothing OFF, in-cockpit performance is pretty good (minus when there is a lot going on in the background, as reported previously). However, things like the Hangar/Shuttle sequences (like when taking off or returning to the hangar after dying) are consistently frame-skipping, no matter what (this does not bug me much).

-Overall, the TFTC is really working well, and seems to be providing the most stable experience, no matter what ship I am using or level I am on (minus previously reported slowdown when a lot of things are happening on the screen.

On the XWUA side, things are less stable:
- When using the Falcon (Death Star Levels), the HUD displays are stretched out over the entire FOV (I mean, like way outside the cockpit), and unless I lean slightly forward, turning my head left or right results in my vision being partially obscured by some grayed out block. It's not too bad, but definitely feels like 3DOF.

- As can be guessed, the Death Star levels run slowly, with so much on the screen (I guess because there is so much being presented). It was still fun, but certainly choppy.

-X-wing cockpit positioning seem to fluctuate throughout any level I play. Starting out on a level is fine, but if I have to enter hyperspace, I have to physically lean forward to hit the space bar on my keyboard. This results in my HMD positioning as being tied to the physical location I was at when hitting the space bar (so instead of being in the right spot in the cockpit, I am now in the far left corner of the cockpit).
Now once I am out of hyperspace, I am back in a semi-normal position, but now seem to be sitting slightly further back in the cockpit, or occasionally feeling like I need a booster seat to see out of the cockpit.
- It should be noted that when turning my head in an X-Wing, everything worked great; it felt like a 6DOF experience.


As far as configuring the Special Effects, the only things I screwed with were:
- Bloom (turned to low)
- Shading type (for VR)
- Active Cockpit (for VR)
- Head tracking (chose SteamVR)

Thanks again for responding, and I hope the above statements help to better explain what I am experiencing.

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Post by blue_max » Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:30 am

CharlieD wrote:
Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:27 pm
- The biggest contributor to frame-skipping, as far as I can tell, is having the Motion Smoothing feature in the Steam VR settings turned to 'Off'. If turned ON, everything starts skipping.
Yes, motion smoothing is known to cause these problems.
- With Motion Smoothing OFF, in-cockpit performance is pretty good (minus when there is a lot going on in the background, as reported previously). However, things like the Hangar/Shuttle sequences (like when taking off or returning to the hangar after dying) are consistently frame-skipping, no matter what (this does not bug me much).
The hangar is a weird place in this game. If you monitor's refresh rate is above 60Hz you'll get skipped frames *even without VR*. We're not sure why, but this is another known limitation.
-Overall, the TFTC is really working well, and seems to be providing the most stable experience, no matter what ship I am using or level I am on (minus previously reported slowdown when a lot of things are happening on the screen.
Yes, if the screen is busy your framerate will drop. The root cause of this problem is that the game is not multithreaded: it still runs on a single core in your CPU. We can't fix this yet. For now all we can do is use models with lower polygon count and judicious use of LODs.
- When using the Falcon (Death Star Levels), the HUD displays are stretched out over the entire FOV
The Falcon and other YT-series craft haven't been updated to use the Dynamic Cockpit yet, so you're seeing the original HUD. We are aware of this limitation and we'll update these ships in the future.
-X-wing cockpit positioning seem to fluctuate throughout any level I play. Starting out on a level is fine, but if I have to enter hyperspace, I have to physically lean forward to hit the space bar on my keyboard. This results in my HMD positioning as being tied to the physical location I was at when hitting the space bar (so instead of being in the right spot in the cockpit, I am now in the far left corner of the cockpit).
This sounds like you need to recalibrate your HMD. Just press the period key twice while looking straight forward. This should re-center your view. You also said that your experience is otherwise 6dof, so let's begin by trying this.

You experience sounds otherwise more-or-less normal and expected. Yes, there are several limitations, but the main experience should be playable.

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Post by m0rgg » Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:04 pm

Hello XWA VR users!

I have published a new testing release of the VR mod with a fix for the positional tracking jitter here:
https://github.com/morallo/xwa_ddraw_d3 ... 11117_beta

I think it finally gets rid of most of the jitter without breaking anything, but I need some testers!

I have only tested SteamVR mode. If there are any TrackIR and FreePIE users that can test it, I would appreciate it. Once it has been tested by more people, @blue_max will publish a new official version.

Let me know if you notice an improvement!

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Post by a1adin » Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:33 am

sorry if this is a noob question:
I have just installed XWAU2020update_v5.0.exe recently.

Do I still need to install EffectsByBlueMax_beta_v2021-11-28.zip?
And how do I install it? by copying everything to XWA folder?

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Post by Ace Antilles » Tue Nov 30, 2021 2:31 pm

a1adin wrote:
Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:33 am
sorry if this is a noob question:
I have just installed XWAU2020update_v5.0.exe recently.

Do I still need to install EffectsByBlueMax_beta_v2021-11-28.zip?
And how do I install it? by copying everything to XWA folder?
No it's not necessary to install it.
All the latest fixes thar came out are included in Update 5.
The current beta has some new stuff that we are testing internally. It won't affect Update 5 right now
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Post by a1adin » Wed Dec 01, 2021 6:55 am

thanks for the reply.
finally, I compare the date of the files in EffectsByBlueMax_beta_v2021-11-28.zip,
and I find out that some of the files have newer date compared to update 5.
so I think I will try it.

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Post by a1adin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 6:56 pm

Wow,
I must say compared to the previous version, the latest version works much better on my system:
xeon x3470, gtx 1060 6gb, 16gb, quest2 w/ link.

I have much smoother experience with a lot less stutters.
yes there are still some frame drops when lots of things happening,
but I think the latest version is a big improvement.

thanks blue_max and others (sorry I do not know all the names) :D
keep up the good work!

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Post by blue_max » Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:06 am

a1adin wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 6:56 pm
I have much smoother experience with a lot less stutters.
...
thanks blue_max and others (sorry I do not know all the names) :D
In this case it was all thanks to @m0rgg. All these improvements wouldn't have been possible without his genius.

But wait, there's more! We're still actively working on this and we have some interesting updates in the near future. So, stay tuned!

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Post by Bman » Fri Dec 03, 2021 5:16 am

EffectsByBlueMax_beta_v2021-11-30.zip is now available. "Post" xwa update 5 release. :-)
W-I-P: TFTC, MC Viscount Cr., ISD-II Avenger, NL-1 Platform, Ton-Falk Esc. Cr., & Misc.

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Post by a1adin » Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:12 pm

what? another update already?
do you guys ever sleep? :D :D :D

thanks m0rgg for the update,
you are really a genius.

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Post by Ace Antilles » Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:33 pm

a1adin wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:12 pm
what? another update already?
do you guys ever sleep? :D :D :D

thanks m0rgg for the update,
you are really a genius.
Again it's error correction for internal XWAU testing.
All the VR updates are the same as in Update 5 right now.

And no we don't sleep! Lol I'm busy trying to make stuff work in our next release, whenever that will be :D
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Post by a1adin » Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:33 am

ok thanks Ace.
I am looking forward to your next release. :D

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Post by blue_max » Sun Dec 19, 2021 8:00 am

It's out now: a new release of the ddraw beta. In this version (1.1.6.2) m0rgg has again improved the tracking for SteamVR. The gimbal lock is now gone from the cockpit camera. This version also has experimental support for nVidia's 3DVision. Check it out!

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Post by m0rgg » Sun Dec 19, 2021 10:14 am

blue_max wrote:
Sun Dec 19, 2021 8:00 am
It's out now: a new release of the ddraw beta. In this version (1.1.6.2) m0rgg has again improved the tracking for SteamVR. The gimbal lock is now gone from the cockpit camera. This version also has experimental support for nVidia's 3DVision. Check it out!
Great job @blue_max, as always! To be fair, I just hacked in the new tracking mode and you fixed everything that broke as a result :D

Is the new mode used as default or is the config switch still there?

The new tracking also includes a different frame sync point, hopefully allowing for some performance improvement.

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