- This topic has 14 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated Jan 24, 2023 11:05am by
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Rhetorical question obviously. Nothing is more annoying in terms of setting up vorpX for the best possible experience than adding over a dozen resolutions to the OS…
That is about change for good. Watch out for the next beta release this weekend. Now that all relevant game information can be displayed in the headset on launch instead of in the monitor window, there finally is an opportunity to tackle this annoying issue:
The next beta will come with a brand new virtual monitor with all relevant custom resolutions predefined. No more manual custom resolution setup, and as a bonus finally a fully working custom resolutions solution for AMD users.
Usage couldn’t be simpler: 1. Launch the (improved) desktop viewer. 2. Switch off your actual monitor. 3. That’s it. vorpX automatically switches on the virtual monitor when no other monitor is connected.
All optional, of course. If you don’t turn off the main monitor, everything still works as it always did.
Sounds neat. Could this mean we are no longer bound to the resolution limitations of our physical monitor? My 1440p monitor won’t accept anything beyond 2880p for example.
And can we add our own custom resolutions to the virtual monitor if we wanted?
I’ll add a bunch of uber-hires resolutions up to 8K. Currently the resolution list is hardwired. Free configuration would be no problem technically and *may* come later, but don’t hold your breath for it. The main goal here is to make custom resolutions easy, adding yet another page of config options would be the exact opposite of that.
Anyone tired of tediously adding custom resolutions?
Not at all Ralf.I add them once to the OS and thats it. Perhaps adapting the idea of “gamestarter” would be an idea. With just one mouseclick you switch res. and start the game with the desired resolution at the same time. The included “setres” is even (IIRC) free for commercial use. No need to switch the monitors res. manually.
At first sight this might sound unnecessary for more tech-savvy users, but not everyone is. Also AMD has no easy way to freely add custom resolutions, so this is huge for AMD users.
However, it’s also *super-useful* for what you have in mind (games that don’t want to launch in resolutions above the desktop res or always launch at the desktop res):
The headset desktop res on the virtual monitor can be set independently from your physical monitor’s res to anything the virtual monitor supports, making it unnecesary to switch the desktop resolution before launching certain games in the first place.
All governed by simply switching on/off your physical monitor. Couldn’t be simpler. Also a much more consistent user experience: launch desktop viewer, switch off monitor, everything beyond that point happens in VR.
Thanks Ralf. I know my questions were aimed against the true purpose of the new feature.
It just happens that I recently acquired a Varjo Aero, and currently debating with myself the need to pick up a 4K monitor to follow. I’d like to see what vorpX games could look like when pushing the Aero’s full potential. In MSFS2020 native vr, 100% render scale sets to 42xxp height in the Aero at 39ppd.
I’d be satisfied if you could config a handful of steps between 6k up to 8k (7680×4320). 16:9/16:10 fit best for Aero, but a few 4:3 might be useful for Reverbs.
Wishlist for this feature however would be a render scale slider in vorpX, that would calculate and create the custom resolutions accordingly.
I have added a bunch of resolutions up to 8K for all aspect ratios.
Render scale slider:
I thought about binding the virtual monitor res to the headset res myself, but in the end decided against it: many modern games per default open in borderless windowed mode. Better to have a fixed decent looking, but not too demanding default res for cases like that. Otherwise users with mid tier GPUs would be greeted with entirely unplayable framerates at default settings on modern high res headsets in borderless windowed mode.
The headset desktop res on the virtual monitor can be set independently from your physical monitor’s res to anything the virtual monitor supports, making it unnecesary to switch the desktop resolution before launching certain games in the first place.
SUPERB ! I wonder if the follwing case can be handled that way:
On my 1080ti together with my monitor i can use a maximum res of 4400 something in resolution asuming the monitor is the reason i cant gat higher. Would i then be able to run a game in 7680 x 4320 for example (max 1080ti res) ? Oh boy couldnt wait to test that on Fallout 3 :-)))))Had to try that right away. Technically worked, BUT: full 8K seem to be too much for 32bit games, which can only address 2GB of GPU memory. vorpX creates two extra copies of the backbuffer to send it to the headset efficiently, and with G3D also many of the game’s rendertarget textures have to be held in memory twice. Switching to Z3D and then back to G3D freed some resources and improved the situation, but still:
Each 8K full size backbuffer/rendertarget alone has roughly 125MB.
7680 * 4320 * 4 (BytesPerPixel) / 1024 / 1024.Not hard to imagine how even older games in 8K can eat up 2GB of GPU memory fast, especially with G3D, where rendertargets and backbuffers get duplicated.
No such issues with newer 64bit games, of course. There GPU performance and the actual amount of GPU memory are the only limits.
You are crazy ! (meant the nice way ;-)))
Playing Old/new 32/64 DX9/11 will still be a ballance act resolution wise i guess, but exceeding monitor res. is definately a huge step ahaed !
you know i got ideas sometimes ;-) How about changing res. on the fly ? I guess that wouldnt be too easy because you in most cases dont where the game stores its res. settings. Oh wait, dont games read res. into Memory ? Keyword: “intercepting res. values” ? … Or is that even covered already ?
Keyword: “intercepting res. values” ? … Or is that even covered already ?
It actually is, but only works in a handful of games. Ancient DX9 feature, but still functional where it works. DX9 Skyrim is one of the games where it worked. You can still check it there. Not on the fly, but it has an ‘Internal Resolution Upscale’ option in the vorpX menu that does precisely that: intercept the actual resolution at various locations in the code (when creating the D3D device, when passing parameters to shaders etc.) and changing it to a larger one.
There are a few more DX9 profiles that have this option enabled, which I don’t recall currently, but in the end the fairly complex endeavour wasn’t really worth it. The more complex games got, the more difficult it became.
Having a monitor (real or virtual) with higher resolutions is the better solution to the same problem, requires a lot less unreliable and generally hacky stuff.
This is exciting news! I’m one of those people who’ve played for thousands of hours with vorpX, but my patience for fiddling with settings is limited. I rarely bother trying to make use of custom resolutions, although I’m sure some games I’ve played have suffered as a consequence. This new approach sounds like a great way to improve the chances for more people to have a streamlined experience with less fiddling and more playing.
The only thing that makes me,say ahh no
I usually capture footage from the game window to obs
I am assuming thats out the window?
Actually this is quite useful for video capturing too, although not with the physical monitor disabled. While that’s the main purpose, I’ll also add an option to the vorpX tray icon that let’s you enable the virtual monitor manually while the physical monitor is on. That way you can run games on the virtual monitor (only visible in the headset) while your actual desktop is free for OBS and any other apps you may have running during the capture process.
Should be a good way to capture games that let you select an output monitor manually in their options (which are probably most not older than 10 years or so). vorpX even has the ability to force games to a specific monitor from a time before VR headsets were its own device class for Windows. Might make sense to utilize that again for the virtual monitor.
On a sidenote: The virtual monitor is also a good starting point for an internal video capture function. Don’t hold your breath for it, but *maybe* I’ll add that later.
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