- This topic has 13 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated Dec 28, 2025 9:15pm by
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Updated today and tryied Desktop Viewer + Virtual Monitor.
Found that it doesn’t work as expected and returned to play without virtual monitor.Issue:
Playing with HP Reverb G2. Virtual Monitor suggest default resolution of 2560×1440 (which is for some reson default), but I changed it to 3440×1440 as I want to play with 21:10 so I can turn my head a bit without seeing the edge.I started Ratched&Clank Rift Apart and got a condesed picture. The screen is 3440 wide, but I had black vertical bars left and right. The visible picture is probably 2560 wide, but contains all 3440 pixels, which looked ugly. In addition the tilt settings of the screen didn’t seem to have an effect.
This issue stayed even after switching of virtual monitor by using “Enable virtual monitor” option of the icon in the tray (why is it called “Enable” when it switches off??). Anyway, games played on my main real monitor, but picture was still bad.Then I disabled virtual monitor in the VorpX Config, restarted VorpX and could play again with full 3440×1440 resolution and correct screen tilt.
Hope you understood what I am writing here and can fix this issue so I can use virtual monitor.
The virtual display is just a display like any other. It doesn’t have any say in how a game handles ultrawide resolutions. If you let vorpX hook into the game, you have to adjust the resolution in the game, not on the Windows desktop. In some games that cap/link their resolution list or aspect ratio to the current desktop res, you may have to do both.
Every monitor reports a default res to Windows, 2560×1440 is the virtual display’s default res because that’s a reasonable choice for most current VR headsets. Actual monitors usually report their highest supported res as default, but that doesn’t really make sense for a virtual display that can support up to 8K. Making the virtual display’s default res configurable for power users is already on the requested feature list, but not an ultra high priority, so that might take a while.
Hmmm ….
1) virtual monitor is set to 3440×1440
2) VorpX doesn’t hook the game. I use Desktop viewer
3) Game setting is fullscreen 3440×1440 with 21:9 aspect ratio. Exclusive full screen or window makes no differenceStill the game image is compressed with black bars left and right.
It looks like the virtual monitor is “physically” 3440 wide and the game produces a 3440 wide image, but the monitor or Win1dows 10, or Nvidia DLSS re-scales it to 2560 width because that is the monitor default.I do not see what I could possibly doing wrong and my only option is to not use virtual monitor.
Would be intersting if other users have (no) issues when using virtual monitor with a non-default resulution.BTW: For power users it would be enough to have a ini-file setting for the default resolution (if this makes a difference).
As said above the virtual display is just a display. How games handle ultrawide resolutions is up to the games obviously. A display driver couldn’t even affect that if it wanted to.
Thinkable that the game you try takes the display’s default res to determine its aspect ratio instead of the actual res, is fixed at 16:9, or, or, or. A game can do a million things to break ultrawide resolutions if it wasn’t developed with ultrawide in mind. There are entire websites dedicated to nothing else than ultrawide patches for games that can’t do ultrwide correctly per default.
If this particular game doesn’t handle ultrawide like you want it to, instead simply stick to a slightly higher 16:9 res, move the screen a bit closer and if possible set teh FOV a bit higher. Then you get exactly what you wanted to achieve with the added benefit of more vertical screen space.
I just wanted to say that if you’re using a G2, it’s generally more important to have the highest possible vertical resolution, as it greatly improves image quality.
I would recommand at least 2880p (3840×2880 with 4:3 ratio) and 3840p (5120×3840) isn’t useless with recent games, even with VorpX’s ClarityFX & Sharpness options to enhance image quality even more. You can use these options to optimize but be careful : It is usually better to set the settings to the maximum, but not always (it can be too sharp in rare cases).
Under these conditions, most of the time, you don’t really want to compute horizontal pixels you won’t display, except if your graphic card is powerful enough. So 4:3 is usually a better ratio. As Ralf said, If there is no UI or if you don’t care about it, you can zoom in and raise FOV, so you can look around you in every direction (with high vertical&horizontal curvature). If the game can’t be played in full VR and allows for a high Field Of View, I usually like to configure Immersive Screen display mode with 1.3 to 1.5 curvature (with Vertical Curvature enabled) with 120° horizontal FOV (=90° vertical) and 0 distance.
In Full VR display mode, I generally use a slightly smaller field of view (105 to 120, depending on the game).Well, the game can handle ultra wide and has an own setting for aspect ratio. I am very happy with 3440×1440 in imersive screen mode (desktop viewer) with my real monitor which has a native 3440×1440 resolution. I render only a little bit more to the left and righth than I can see. This way, turnig my head a bit doesn’t break immersion as the screen edge doesn’t come into my view.
Only when using virtual monitor I have the issue with the compressed image. Maybe it is the fault of the game, I will see this when trying the next game in a few weeks. But on the other hand, there is obviously some difference between the real and the virtual monitor that made the game to behave wrong. The only difference I see is the default resoulution.
… Thinkable that the game you try takes the display’s default res to determine its aspect ratio instead of the actual res …
… or maybe its highest, its lowest or whatever.
That aside:
If you are in any way unhappy with the result you get using the virtual display in a specific game, and you also don’t want to use the alternative suggestions others took the time to lay out for you, then simply don’t use the virtual display for that game.
There are plenty of games where ultrawide resolutions work perfectly fine with the virtual display. Your issue very obviously is related to something your game does, whatever that may be.
Again for your convenience, in case you missed that before:
- A monitor driver is just a monitor driver. All it does is reporting its list of resolutions to a game. What a game does with that is entirely up to the game.
- Setting the default res for the virtual display, which might or might not make a difference re your particular game, is already on the requested features list, not with high priority though.
Hope that helps.
It may not be a solution here, but using headtracking with Immersive Screen also provides you more range to look around you. It’s especially great with FPS but it sometimes works well with TPS (close to the character) if you’re not too sensitive to motion sickness.
The advices I gave aren’t always the best, and it’s a matter of taste, but it allows to get something very close to full VR with Immersive Screen mode.
As long as the camera isn’t locked in a first person game, I think it’s better. Of course it can still be useful to play wide screen in Immersive Screen mode, especially when the camera is locked or partially locked, to see more than you were supposed to. With TPS, you may not want to zoom too much but it still depends on the game.
In my opinion, VorpX isn’t meant to simply be a giant 3D monitor. When the game’s design has a good compatibility with VR (3D engine, not too much UI or not at the edge of the screen, high FOV available, first person or third person very close to it), it’s magic ;)
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Technically, as Ralf said, you seems to have a problem with the way the game choose the resolution.
You probably know it, but you can hook with the Virtual Monitor (at least with the right version of VorpX like V23, V24 and V25) if the game has a profile. VorpX should create a default profile if there is not.
A solution may be to :
– configure the game in windowed mode (so it won’t have any reason to use the default res or the physical monitor resolution).
– use an higher horizontal & vertical resolution than you need on the Virtual Monitor.
– then hook the game (with the desired resolution in .ini / .cfg files if possible, or change it later in the game if you added It in the VorpX list, and if the game allows you to change it)You can test this method without the virtual monitor by using a tiny window first (smaller than your physical monitor res). This way you can test the ratio. If it doesn’t work, it probably means the game don’t allow it.
I used this method on Metro 2033 (Original) to get 3840×2880 resolution with 4:3 ratio.
Of course if the game don’t like the desired ratio it still won’t work.
If you are in any way unhappy with the result you get using the virtual display in a specific game, and you also don’t want to use the alternative suggestions others took the time to lay out for you, then simply don’t use the virtual display for that game.
Thank you for your time, Ralf.
I have read the other suggestions, but have reasons to not use them. If I zoom in the screen gets wider, but also higher. For me this is too much immersion. To feel healthier I need the top and bottom borders as a fix point so I know I am looking at a giant screen and I am not “in” the game. But I understand that other people want exactly this.
Yes, I put virtual monitor aside for this game and will try it again when I start a different game.using headtracking with Immersive Screen also provides you more range to look around you.
Yes, that is what I do. But picture moves only a bit, I think I have factor 0.5. By moving the head a bit I see more of the game but still don’t see the left and right edge in wide imersive screen mode.
In my opinion, VorpX isn’t meant to simply be a giant 3D monitor. When the game’s design has a good compatibility with VR (3D engine, not too much UI or not at the edge of the screen, high FOV available, first person or third person very close to it), it’s magic ;)
Yes, but is a very good 2nd use which I use more often than the 1st use case.
You probably know it, but you can hook with the Virtual Monitor (at least with the right version of VorpX like V23, V24 and V25) if the game has a profile. VorpX should create a default profile if there is not.
Correct, but there is no official profile and the user made one doesn’t give any 3D effect. No idead why, as DirectX12 game it should work with Z3D, but it looks flat regardless what settings I tweaked. Hence I use VorpX as giant screen in SBS mode, which gives a perfect 3D picture.
A solution may be to :
– configure the game in windowed mode (so it won’t have any reason to use the default res or the physical monitor resolution).Tried this, didn’t made a difference. Hence I initialy thought it must be a virtual monitor issue.
I used this method on Metro 2033 (Original) to get 3840×2880 resolution with 4:3 ratio.
I am not sure if a resolution higher that the headset resolution will have any benefit. At least you need a system that can handle this or will have to downgrade some grafic options. But here we go off topic.
I am not sure if a resolution higher that the headset resolution will have any benefit.
It greatly improves image quality in most games when you play in Full VR or when you zoom enough in Immersive Screen. I usually play at 3840p (5120×3840) without DLSS, FSR, etc if I can. But I have an RTX4090 so I can do it with most games (with max settings).
2880p is enough with a lot of games (especially old ones and ones with G3D). With the G2, you can achieve very impressive results, especially in large outdoors environments. Sometimes I use FSR with max quality if the game is too demanding (Frontier Of Pandora, etc.) but with very high resolution to compensate as much as possible. There may be other way to improve image quality, but it’s a very simple and effective way. Most games (at least the most recent ones) are much more accurate at long range with very high resolution.
But for you, if you don’t zoom at all, it’s probably not useful. 2160p should already be great.
Anyway, It’s surprising than you can’t tilt the Immersive Screen. It never happened to me. I think Cinema and Immersive Screen don’t tilt in the same direction (I don’t use Cinema mode anymore). I usually tilt down because of the way I wear the G2 (with a BoboVR M2 strap, so it doesn’t touch my face/forehead at all).
It greatly improves image quality in most games when you play in Full VR or when you zoom enough in Immersive Screen. I usually play at 3840p (5120×3840) without DLSS, FSR, etc if I can. But I have an RTX4090 so I can do it with most games (with max settings).
Now I understand! If you zoom into the scenery, you loose pixels (that you do not see anymore). So basically you look through a small window and thus view the game at a lower resolution. Sure, you can compensate that with a higher monitor resolution so that in the end the portion of the screen that you actually see matches the headset resolution. Too bad that (I think) the size of this window cannot be determined.
But for you, if you don’t zoom at all, it’s probably not useful. 2160p should already be great.
Yes, since I don’t really zoom in, I don’t need to scale up. The part of the 3440 wide screen I see is probably the headset resolution.
Anyway, It’s surprising than you can’t tilt the Immersive Screen. It never happened to me.
I can tilt and always use it so I don’t have to put my head into the neck. Only when using the virtual monitor the tilt didn’t work. Not sure how this can depend on the game, but Ralf ensured that my problems are a game specific issue. Hence I will continue to use my real monitor which has the proper resolution as default.
To tilt the screen, make sure Play Style is set to ‘Immersive Screen’, click on ‘More Immersive Screen Settings’ and then use the ‘Screen Tilt’ option. That always works and has nothing to do with your game’s ultrawide issue.
Now I understand! If you zoom into the scenery, you loose pixels (that you do not see anymore). So basically you look through a small window and thus view the game at a lower resolution. Sure, you can compensate that with a higher monitor resolution so that in the end the portion of the screen that you actually see matches the headset resolution.
It’s a little bit complicated.
More details are computed by some games (it depends on the game engine, graphics settings, etc.) if the resolution is higher.
Some games even have an option to compute at higher resolution and rescale it to your resolution (like Metro Last Light Redux), and you can use it with an even higher resolution using VorpX, so it’s even better (it actually works very well !)
You can see every details miles around in a lot of games but objects close to you are also usually more beautiful.
It was especially true with recent games like Metro Exodus (in Z3D mode) or Frontier of Pandora which benefits from ultra high resolution (3840p).
Most of the time, it’s hard to use more than 2880p with G3D, and anyway it doesn’t seem necessary to get a perfect result, at least with official profiles (DX9 games like Bioshock 1&2 originals and some DX11 games are particularly impressive from my experience). Besides, you have an additional option in G3D games to enhance textures.
I also noticed full VR display mode is usually less clear&sharp than Immersive Screen, so you need a bit higher resolution to achieve the same result (when it’s possible).
So you need a very good computer to get the maximum from your G2 with demanding games, but it worth it. Anyway, I used 1440p immersive screen too with my GTX1080 and I already loved it. You probably can experience 2160p or even 2880p G3D full VR with some older games like original Bioshock 1 (or even Bioshock Infinite).
Too bad that (I think) the size of this window cannot be determined.
You’ll get used to it. I usually use more or less always the same FOV value (with 4:3 ratio), and adjust zoom without even thinking about it. The size of the window doesn’t matter. The important thing is to adjust the FOV to maximize immersion and minimize distortions (while the sweetspot can be bothering in some cases like strategy games, the G2 is great to play FPS in Full VR mode because you don’t really have visible distortions compared to other VR headsets like Quest 3 or Aero and 3D works very well).
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