Whaaaat? I missed this was being developed. For real?
Yep, it’s real! And the feedback so far has been pretty good, some issues but in general people are saying the experience is great. There’s some nice quality of life enhancements like an image sharpener and a zoom in button (which is usually essential in flight sims with vr like aces high III to spot far away aircraft). I’m about to load er up.
Here’s the patch notes:
Update 2.009
Dear Pilots,
we’re happy to announce that update 2.009 is ready. The most important addition in it is the VR support. In addition to VR itself, graphics as a whole were heavily updated during the VR development, so everyone will benefit from this update. In addition, it contains many improvements and corrections in other subsystems of the sim.
Main Features:
- VR support added via Open VR (HTC Vive and Oculus Rift cv1);
- Optional post-processing Sharpen filter added;
- Hiding the in-game HUD (H key) now stops most GUI routines, which can double your FPS in some situations. You can use this to get a performance boost while playing on a slower PC. After hiding the HUD, you can still turn object markers on by pressing I key (they won’t lower performance since they were recreated for VR in a separate module that doesn’t use ScaleForm like the rest of the GUI);
- New option ‘Show HUD by default’ added which can be turned off so HUD won’t turn on at the beginning of a mission;
- New graphics option ‘Dynamic resolution factor’ added. It adjusts the render resolution and the number of particles in certain effects on the fly to maintain the FPS level chosen in ‘Target FPS’ field (or screen refresh rate if the V-Sync option is checked). In VR, the target FPS is always 90;
- Clouds detail increased for Ultra graphics preset;
- The number of smoke particles decreased for all graphics presets except Ultra. This improves FPS while you’re chasing a damaged and smoking enemy aircraft;
- Trees rendering technology improved, almost eliminating a tree rotation effect when you fly near them;
- Trees LOD levels were reworked to minimize their ‘pop-up’ effect;
- A rare crash has been found and fixed. The sim could crash in missions with more than 120 ground objects (random issue). This issue was fixed, but when there are too many ground vehicles some of them may lack effects of lights. A tip for mission designers: if you don’t need a certain group of vehicles anymore, use Delete trigger instead of Deactivate to free their effects and properties cache;
3D Model Changes:
11. He 111 H-16 bump texture corrected, reflections improved;
12. Yak-1 series 127 rear canopy transparency corrected;
13. Three new skins made by community member Stab/JG52_DiO for Bf 109 F-2, Bf 109 F-4 and Bf 109 G-2 added to the game;
14. Missing glass that covers instruments in Bf 110 G-2 engine nacelles added;
15. Fw 190 A-5 is now correctly visible at large distances;
Physics Changes:
16. Flight stick shaking at high speeds will correctly stop after rudder and elevator loss;
17. Ju-87 D-3 flutter can still happen after rudder loss;
18. Aircraft weapons damage from HE shell hits became rarer;
19. Ammo explosion simulation improved - now it happens at ammo box location instead of aircraft center and the explosion power varies depending on ammo type and its amount left;
20. Sh-37 gun ammo weight corrected for IL-2 mod.1942 and LaGG-3 series 29;
AI and other changes:
21. Single ground target attack from high altitude maneuver corrected (an AI will reduce its altitude first and then begin the attack);
22. AI controlled Ju-87 won’t crash during dive recovery if they failed to drop the bomb;
23. A rare issue in campaign when player flight could disassemble and wingmen could crash into each other was fixed;
24. Vehicle columns that were attacked on a bridge act more reasonably;
25. 61K train or ship mounted AA gun kill will be counted correctly;
26. Trees on the Ryabinki airfield runway removed.
VR Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips & tricks you may already know that will help set up your VR for IL-2 (but it may be useful for other games).
IL-2 Sturmovik uses Open VR interface, meaning you need to have Steam VR application installed on your PC. If you have HTC Vive, it is already installed (or you won’t be able to use it in other games). However, if you have Oculus Rift, you may or may not have it installed. So, the first step would be installing Steam, logging into your Steam account and installing Steam VR from Steam store.
Run Steam VR to set up your Oculus Rift there: run Room Setup. Make sure it works fine for you in Steam VR tutorial. HTC Vive users have this set up already.
Run IL-2 Sturmovik. If Oculus Home and Steam VR applications are not active, it should launch them by itself. When the game loads, your HMD should be working already and you should see the VR image from one of the eye screens on your regular monitor. Oculus Home and Steam VR windows may obscure the IL-2 window on your regular monitor so minimize them and click on IL-2 Sturmovik window to return focus to it (that’s how Windows works)
If you launch IL-2 and VR mode doesn’t kick in, make sure that Steam VR (and Oculus Home if you have Oculus Rift) are installed and configured properly, and/or launch them manually before starting the game. If VR still won’t kick in, go to graphics settings of the game and check that ‘Use VR HMD’ option is on. While you’re at it, note the new graphics options there: Sharpen and Dynamic resolution factor.
Sharpen is a post process visual filter that makes everything, well, sharper. This is especially useful to increase clarity in VR so you could read your ‘real’ cockpit instruments better, but it gives good results if you want a crisper picture while playing on a regular monitor as well. It has little impact on the performance, so try it and see if you like the new look.
Dynamic resolution factor is a new method for keeping your frames per second (FPS) steady. Its value can be set from 0.5 (half the original resolution) to 1.0 (full resolution). If you set it to 1.0, you’ll be turning it off and everything will work as before. If you set it to a lower value, you’re telling the game it’s Ok to degrade the rendering quality to this value to keep the FPS close to the value you set in Target FPS drop-down list here. So if you set Target FPS to 144 and Dynamic resolution factor to 0.5, the game will lower the rendering quality up to 0.5 of the original resolution trying to keep that high frame rate you specified. You can experiment with these values to find out what FPS you can achieve on your PC without degrading the visual quality too much. On a regular monitor, quality degradation is more apparent than in VR HMD, so this feature is especially useful for VR.
Please note, that Target FPS value is ignored in VR - it is set to HMD refresh rate (90 FPS or 45 FPS when it is lower than 90 and HMD driver automatically engages ASW if you’re using Oculus and Reprojection for Vive). You can Google what these technologies do - basically, they generate new frames depending on previous ones to show you if PC performance level is insufficient to output 90 FPS. Target FPS parameter is also ignored if you use a regular monitor and check V-Sync option here - in this case it ties to your monitor refresh rate.
Another settings screen, Camera settings, include another new option - Limit VR view. When it is on, your virtual head won’t be able outside cockpit or inside the instruments panel. While it makes perfect sense, it may be uncomfortable in VR - when your real head continues to move (there is nothing to stop it at your home unless you go too far and hit a wall or your PC), but your virtual head in the cockpit stops because it just hit a canopy, you may have a dizzy feeling. It should be noted that other sims don’t have the limited VR view at all, but in IL-2 you can turn this on or off. This option will be ignored (the view will be limited) if Allow spectators option is turned off in difficulty settings (for example, on Expert difficulty multiplayer servers) to prevent cheating.
Now, there are special commands in Camera controls that you’ll be using a lot in VR. First one is Default VR view - you can use it to set up a default view. If you’re off to the side in the cockpit, look straight in front of view and press this button (Numpad 5 by default) - you’ll be positioned in the center behind the gunsight.
Another command is VR camera zoom (hold). This is a special zoom button for VR, press and hold this button and you’ll get 2X magnification to spot distant objects. It may cause nausea if you keep the button pressed and turn your head, beware.
Another tip we can give you to improve the performance is turning the in-game HUD off (H key). VR provides unique ability to read ‘real’ cockpit instruments at a glance, so try to use it! It can give you a huge performance boost, especially in complex missions with many objects. With HUD turned off, you can still see object markers (press I key to turn them on).
When you look down in the cockpit, you’ll see a blue ring. This is Steam VR safety feature called chaperone boundaries so we can’t turn it off in the game. You can turn it by editing a certain file on your PC (maybe it will be made easier in the future), Google ‘turn off chaperone boundaries’.
Some of our beta testers complained that they see some objects (for example, gunsight reticle) in double vision. There can be several reasons for it, so here are what you can do if you experience this:
- First of all, make sure your inter-pupil distance is set up correctly. Its control is located on the right of your HMD. Adjust it so the on-screen tip shows your inter-pupil distance correctly (you know its value if you use glasses).
- Second, understand that playing in VR is completely different to playing on a regular flat screen, even if you’re accustomed to Track IR or Freetrack. Objects have different depths, you can focus either on close objects or on distant ones, like in real life. If you focus on the cockpit elements or gunsight body, its reticle will be in double vision as well as a target you’re trying to hit (collimator reticle is a virtual distant object). When you’re aiming at an enemy aircraft or ground vehicle, focus your eyes on it, then the reticle should be in focus as well (but your canopy and gunsight body will be in a double vision like they will be in such situation in the real life).
- Third, position your head correctly - your dominant eye should be behind the reticle. You can do this naturally just by moving your head in VR.
- Fourth, this is a highly subjective issue. Some of the users (and us developers) don’t have any problems while using an aiming sight, some resolved them when they accustomed to playing a sim in VR and for some nothing we could adjust helped. This is a highly specialized problem for VR genre - in a usual VR game the developers keep the user from this issue by avoiding situations when you have very close and distant objects at once, but this is impossible in a combat flight sim where a pilot constantly needs to switch focus from close instruments to distant targets. If you have this problem no matter what, it may be best to close one eye and aim with your dominant eye only. You’ll lose stereo perception so it isn’t ideal, but many people aim their guns this way and do fine.
We spent much time to implement the VR support. We hope you’ll like the result and the new immersion level it gives to virtual pilots! See you in the sky!
Excellent news! I’m in next sale.
Hiding the in-game HUD (H key) now stops most GUI routines, which can double your FPS in some situations.
Somebody explain to me how their GUI routines for the HUD are halving frame rates in the first place…? :P
a separate module that doesn’t use ScaleForm like the rest of the GUI
Ah, there’s the answer - Flash. :)
Facebook posts some nightmare fuel.
Now where is the “don’t like” button when I need it?
So are the Qt3 forums going to be like this when Tom gives up and allows the full 3D feature in 2025?
Google just released a new version of Earth VR , with search functionality and finally proper Oculus support!
After reading about a number of you with VR talking about not being able to handle gaming with it very long I have a few questions regarding that. I guess I didn’t consider VR to be anything more than a new display method. Like going to see a 3D movie versus 2D.
Is the physical limitation due to wearing the headsets or is it more nausea related? What is the fatiguing part of VR?
And a side question I guess. We all get gaming dreams from time to time. Does the immersion from VR heighten that, or perhaps make things harder to shake off?
The Oculus headset is physically comfortable, but it’s hanging on your face so after a couple hours you may want a ten minute break. Which isn’t a bad thing. :)
The two main areas of mental discomfit are reported to be:
- The disconnect between the brain thinking you’re moving, and the inner ear saying you’re not.
- The ‘vergence-accommodation conflict’, where your eyes converge on a distant object (the object in the VR world) but unlike reality are accommodating to a nearer object (the screens) rather than the object in VR.
I personally don’t have any issues so it bothers some more than others. I feel it’s also something you can become accustomed to after spending more time in VR.
That’s a fundamental misconception. The world doesn’t appear on a mostly flat screen in front of you. You are literally immersed and surrounded in most games. Turn around and you see what’s behind you. Crouch and you see what’s on the floor more closely, etc.
While not perfect, the technology has gotten good enough to fool your brain into thinking you ARE somewhere else. That disconnect from physical reality can be tiring by itself after a while.
Diego
Hey, Skipper. Like most things, the true answer is “It depends”.
There are two major causes of VR discomfort. The first is a function of the headset design and technology. You’re wearing a 1-lb apparatus on your head, but it’s front heavy. That can be tiring for some after a couple hours. It’s updating at 90 frames per second, using lens and distortion tricks to present plausible 3D information to your brain using a 2D source. The suspension of disbelief is easier for some folks compared to others. Profanicus touched on this. For some levels of sensitivity, it’s possible to desensitize through exposure.
The second is a function of the VR app or experience itself. Apps that contain involuntary movements can induce a level of motion sickness. Apps where you are in direct control of locomotion are less likely to induce motion sickness.
[quote]And a side question I guess. We all get gaming dreams from time to time. Does the immersion from VR heighten that, or perhaps make things harder to shake off?
[/quote]
Mmmm, I haven’t experienced that. There have been VR experience with monster closets and the like that I know are going to startle me, but at the end of the day I know they are just figments in a simulation. Perhaps some number of years in the future when mixed reality is seamless, this may change.
Finally got to try a mate’s Vive over the weekend. I have a DK1, but it’s chalk and cheese. DK1 is fine as proof of concept, but Vive unsurprisingly blows it away.
His was powered by a monster i7, 1080Ti rig, so zero framerate issues (he actually runs some stuff supersampled) and in a 2mx2m play area. Did the Deep Sea, a couple of scenes from Valve’s The Lab and Crows Crows Crows Accounting. Also saw Superhot in action, but did not get a shot myself.
It’s pretty bloody awesome. My DK1 convinced me the tech has legs in this gen, but getting my hands on the consumer version was still like chalk and cheese. Some of the coolest things were:
- poking jelly fish in the Deep Sea
- playing fetch with the robot dog in The Lab
- throwing clipboards in the air and catching them in The Lab
- the general environment detail in The Lab - getting up close and personal with a portal droid (Atlas), close inspection of dial and gauges on the walls, etc
- everything about Accounting (a must if you are a Rick and Morty fan)
- seeing my 3.5yo genuinely convinced he had just been underwater looking at turtles and jellyfish
The first couple just seem mundane, but when you actually do them, you are like “holy shit, this is fucking amazing!”
The last one was the best though. Putting the headset on my little lad and steadying him while he looked around and was transported to another place he thought was real for a few minutes was the clincher. The tech is good enough to give that elusive ‘presence’ and will only get better with successive generations.
I still won’t get one yet, though, and I am not sure there is a killer app right now, but I can definitely see some killer use cases (like education/virtual tourism) once the content comes. And wireless headsets, need those too, ideally. And a common platform base - none of this walled garden bullshit.
This kind of simple thing is surprisingly great. The Rift Touch has a couple of similar demos with lots of little tactile things to play with. One has a control panel dangling on a cable, you can grab and pull it, make a fist and punch it. A table tennis bat you can bounce a ball on. It blows my mind.
i love my rift but i wish its driver would just be a driver and not a stupid playstation home/steam wannabe. i dont want to buy a dumb zombie shooter. i dont want to marvel at a pixelated fireplace. i just want to get in my cockpit with minimum fuss and maximum cpu cycles available.
also as to the thread title, is vr gonna be a success? i dunno. perhaps not mainstream but the flight sim niche has sustained dedicated hardware such as hotas sets and headtrackers for years, even during the time the hobby was considered dead. vr and simulations are a match made in heaven.
for me personally vr is a tremendous success. breaking through a cloud layer in my little yak fighter plane and looking at the cloudscape and bits of rivers and woods looking down through gaps in the clouds over the side of my cockpit moved me to tears. finally i had slipped the surly bonds of earth.
someone get @scharmers in a rift and flying il2 for an hour or so.
Yep, walled gardens will be a significant drag on the advancement of the wider VR ecosystem. That and the challenges it represents - ie each garden being their development target increasing the challenge of hitting a wide enough target audience balanced against the cost of developing to multiple gardens. There needs to be some standardisation.
“Someone” will indeed need to get scharmers a rift, because I certainly won’t be getting one with my recent finances :( I’m just glad to have a HOTAS and my old TIR4 for Elite.
I agree that, in the worst case scenario, VR will simply serve as a replacement for TrackIR.
I don’t think that’s what Zuckerberg was hoping for, though.
The Rick & Morty game was fun, and one of the better VR experiences I’ve tried so far, but I think it crashed on me six or seven times in the two hours it took to complete.
There are dozens of us. Dozens!
fuck zuckerberg and his propaganda machine. hell if oculus gets dropped by him they might even release less awful software in order not to alienate its remaining customers.
scharmers, start a penny jar. it’s worth it!