So I've just bought vorpx and now…

[HalloMolli]

… I am wondering whether I can find a tutorial anywhere (in form of a vid would be great) that describes how to start, what I have to do first to make a game play out smoothly etc.

Well, what I did first was to download Skyrim and to Change the graphic Settings to medium, then I started the vorpx Desktop Viewer and eventually Skyrim. The game loaded up in VR (to my surpise) without any Problems. However: Ingame I hit “alt+l” to make vorpx scan my game. After that the fov was changed but the Resolution was still (sorry for the phrasing) garbage. Is there a way to Change it in vorpx? I couldn’t find anything useful in this regard? Also the fps were not optimal at all, it wasn’t smooth but very ‘rough’ and laggy (is there a way to toggle the fps Display ingame?).

But the worst Thing was that my headtracking was dysfunctional (it only worked correctly when I was in peek (?, sorry, forgot the Name of it) mode after pushing the middle mouse button) –> I was not able to look around, e.g. to the side etc. . Also the view was inverted (when I look left, the camera moves right). It didn’t fix the issue even after I turned the “ht invert x- and y-axis”-setting off in the vorpx menu.

Overall the short experience resulted in a big headache and made me sick for an hour. But it’s alright, I want to learn since the potential is huge.

My PC:

CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K 4x 4.00GHz
GPU: Inno3D GeForce GTX 1080 iChill X3
MOBO: Asus ROG Maximus VIII Ranger
OS: Windows 10, newest update
16GB DDR4-Ram + 500 gb SSD

Do you suggest to play Skyrim on low Settings? Maybe it will help a little bit with the fps. And I let vorpx scan my game 3 times.

[Ralf]

You can use any resolution you want with vorpX.

The default recommendation of 1280×1024 is a compromise between quality and performance. For higher image quality choose 1600×1200 or 1920×1440. 1920×1440 provides the same pixel densitiy as native apps.

If your PC can handle it, you can use even higher resolutions for super sampling. Your main goal should be to get at least 45fps for smooth game play. You can check the current frame rate with ALT+F. That first value (Game FPS) is the one to check in this regard.

A list of shortcuts can be found in the config app, you also find some useful help documents there, for exampele the Performance Optimization guide may be of interest, it pretty much answers your questions in this regard.

If you use the Special Edition of Skyrim, you should also consider the original version if possible, it probably will perform considerably better.

Before you continue, please make a full factory reset (config app/trouble shooting page). Your head tracking symptoms are likely caused by settings you may have changed that should have been left alone.

[HalloMolli]

Hi! Thanks for your fast Reply! This might Sound stupid but where exactly do I Change the resoulution? In Windows? Geforce experience? Ingame? In the game .ini?

And to behonest, I didn’t touch anything there. I just started the Viewer, then skyrim (to start a fresh save file) AND then was the plan to look for certain Settings I can use to optimize the game. But since Skyrim decided to boot in VR I was fine with it. The only Thing I did was to run The scan and to toggle the invert x- and y-axis Settings. Anyway, will give it another try as soon as I find out how to Change the Resolution (at least in the Skyrim menu I couldn’t find the numbers you are suggesting; Edit: 1280×1024 is there acutally)! Thanks again!

[Ralf]

You can change the resolution in the game, just like you normally would do when you play the game on your monitor. In Skyrim that can be done in the Skyrim launcher.

Might make sense to choose a windowed resolution in the launcher, that will allow you to choose higher resolution than your monitor can display.

4:3/5:4 resolutions are best for vorpX, not widescreen resolutions!

[HalloMolli]

Ralf wrote:

You can change the resolution in the game, just like you normally would do when you play the game on your monitor. In Skyrim that can be done in the Skyrim launcher.

Might make sense to choose a windowed resolution in the launcher, that will allow you to choose higher resolution than your monitor can display.

4:3/5:4 resolutions are best for vorpX, not widescreen resolutions!

Alright, thank you. It worked fine now, I got sick again but that’s probably because I am still not used to VR. Will try out the Cinema mode, maybe that works better!

[HalloMolli]

Well, it’s me again. I was playing Skyrim for 2 hours fine today in the morning, it was really a pleasure (granded, graphics suck but still…). Had to settle down with medium graphics but the game ran fine (average 45~ fps). I played in Cinema mode with the display in the nearest position possible, even headtracking was working (~180°).

Then I had to stop for 6 hours, came back home, started steamVR, vorpx and eventually skyrim. To my surprise the game looked so much worse than before + the Direct VR Scan failed almost all the time + in Cinema mode the headtracking stopped working + my fps are much worse now.

I have no idea how all of this could happen. Nothing has changed since today morning. I restarted my PC, made a factory reset (vorpx) and even tried to Play on “low” Settings (it helped a Little bit with the fps but the grahic Quality is so bad, you can see every Pixel and it still runs bad).

Anybody has a suggestion? How could it break after 6 hours on its own :( .

[chisel316]

Hi HalloMolli,

I just got vorpX yesterday and spent all night getting the original Skyrim working and I’ve finally narrowed it down to these steps:

One time setup:
1. Restore factory defaults for Skyrim profile.
2. Run the Game Settings Optimizer for Skyrim.

Each time you play:
1. Start vorpx (not desktop)
2. Start Skyrim.
3. Make sure Gamepad override is set to full before you scan.
4. Scan using ALT-L.
5. Set Gamepad override to off.

I’m using an Xbox controller. If you use the mouse/keyboard, you may not need to worry about toggling the Gamepad override. I will say that if the Gamepad override is on when you scan, it will lock the world to your head movement which is undesirable and will make you feel sick. When everything is setup correctly, looking around will seem natural and will not be locked to the world view. I hope this makes sense. On the lowest graphic setting, I get about 90 FPS in Geometry mode. It drops to about 45 FPS on the highest setting. I get better performance in Z-Buffer mode, but there are glitched bars on the right and bottom of the view that I can’t seem to remove.

Hope this helps!

Peace \/
chisel316

[Ralf]

The gamepad override should be turned off automatically in case of a successful scan. Could you please report back here if that is not working for you? As soon as the scan succeeds, your gamepad should work natively. Probably would make sense to indicate that in the vorpX ingame menu to avoid potential confusion.

Currently the menu setting would still show “Full”, but it is supposed to be overruled after a successful scan since the override isn’t necessary anymore then. This setting is best left alone for the most part. If the override is set, there usually is a reason for that, e.g. the game not allowing mouse and gamepad to be used together.

[chisel316]

Hi Ralf,

The gamepad override is not turned off automatically on a successful scan. I have to manually switch it back off every time I play. What is the scan doing and why is it dependent on the controller setting? How come you have to scan every time and how come it only unlocks the tracking and gives you a natural world view when the gamepad override is set to full when you scan? I’d like to get a better understanding of what the scan is actually doing.

Thanks,
chisel316

[Ralf]

You’re right, sorry. I made some changes to this when the Vive/Touch controller support was introduced. I’ll see whether I can bring back a smarter auto disable that first checks for VR controllers and then disables the override if no VR controller is active but a gamepad is present. That’s how it was planned, apparently it was forgotten before the last update.

The override is necessary without Direct VR since quite a few games (including Skyrim) don’t allow mouse (required for head tracking without Direct VR) and gamepad to be used together. In such a case vorpX overrides the gamepad with its own gamepad emulation to allow head tracking to work.

[chisel316]

Is it possible to setup a game that doesn’t support Direct VR to have the head tracking feel natural so when you look around the whole world doesn’t move as if your head is locked to your view or is this a feature of Direct VR only? Why do I have to scan every time?

Thanks,
chisel316

[Ralf]

Yes, of course. Normally you just need to adjust the head tracking sensitivity in the vorpX menu for that. Since it depends on the mouse sensitivity you have set in the game, it will usually require some adjustment to feel natural.

And you need to leave the gamepad override where it is per default! If it is on, it usually has to be on without Direct VR, since otherwise the mouse/gamepad conflict described above occurs in games that do not allow mouse and gamepad to be used together (like Skyrim for example), which would disable head tracking without the override.

[chisel316]

Why do I have to run the Direct VR scan every time I play the game? Also, I found a bug. You can’t remap the Direct VR scan to a different key. It looks like it’s remapped, but when you go back into the config screen, it’s reset back to ALT-L.

Thanks,
chisel316

[Ralf]

With Direct VR vorpX writes the camera rotation etc. directly into a game’s memory addresses. Not in all, but in many cases these addresses change when you restart a game. In some cases even when you load a new level or savegame.

[rtoast]

I had the head locking problem as well and figured out that it was due to my game pad being turned on already before launching skyrim. I posted more about it in the technical support forum so check that out if you think your issue might be related to mine.

I never bothered to check what the vorpx in game menu was saying about the override, I just know that it worked perfectly if I followed this start up sequence and that just from playing I could tell that game pad emulation was completely off

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