Help with Skyrim SE

[StratonAce]

If I’ve posted this in the wrong section, please forgive me, and please move it to the correct forum.

Hello. I am a VR newbie and I have just picked up an Oculus Rift Bundle and have been setting it up this evening. I had been holding off on getting a VR headset as I was waiting for some lengthy triple-A games to arrive in VR. With the release of Skyrim VR for the PSVR I was thinking, “Okay, have we arrived?” So I picked up a PSVR and a copy of Skyrim VR. I played it for a bit, thought it was pretty good, or actually very good, but I was missing my mods for Skyrim.

So, I went on youtube to see if Skyrim VR would be coming to the Vive/Rift anytime soon, and if it would support mods. And what did I see but YouTube videos of people playing Skyrim through VorpX, WITH MODS, RIGHT NOW! And they were saying it was amazing and was working really well. That lit a fire under me and I purchased an Oculus Rift Bundle and a copy of VorpX.

My PC has the following specs:
Windows 10 Pro
Intel i7-6900k @ 3.20 GHz
32 GB of RAM
Asus Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard
Nvidia Titan Xp 12 Gig

I got the Rift up and running fine, and was blown away by the Touch Tutorial with the little robot. That was really, really, really amazing to me. Having played both Resident Evil 7 and Skyrim VR on the PSVR, I thought they just could not compete with what I just saw on the Rift with that Touch Tutorial.

So, I excitedly installed the VorpX software. I already had Skyrim SE installed as I think it looks better than original Skyrim, and I run a lot of mods… the Special Edition I find to be more stable with mods.

I started up my Oculus software, then I started up VorpX using the “Start vorpX” icon on my desktop (three vorpX icons were added upon install: Start vorpX, vorpX Desktop Viewer, and Configure vorpX). Once vorpX was started, I right-clicked the vorpX icon down in my system tray and went to Configure… I then went to Game Settings Optimizer in the left side panel and then went down to Skyrim SE, selected it and chose Optimize Settings and then I clicked Apply & Close.

I then launched the game (unsure of what all settings I should make from the Skyrim options panel and to the Skyrim ini files) at a resolution of 1920×1080. I DID turn off V-Sync both through the Skyrim ini’s and made sure it was off in my Nvidia control panel settings for the Skyrim executable.

Upon game start, I had trouble seeing the main screen options as they were far, far down in the bottom right corner of my view, and I just could not see them no matter how I turned my head. So I took the headset off and on my TV screen (this is my living room computer and is normally hooked up to a 4k television set through a 4k audio/video receiver) I was just able to make out the options, so I loaded a save game. Once the save was loaded, my view-point was staring straight up into the sky… So I pressed the Delete key and brought up the vorpX in-game menu, then navigated over to the Direct VR Scan and clicked it (making sure to not move any of my controls). That finished. Things were not looking too good, so I went into the vorpX menu again and changed the 3D Reconstruction from Z Adaptive to Z Normal and that looked at least a little better.

BUT, when I turned my head, the screen/head-tracking would turn in the OPPOSITE direction. So, I didn’t know what to do to correct that, so I just shut everything down and did a restart on everything… This time the screen/head-tracking was turning to match which way I was looking, BUT, the depth just didn’t feel anywhere close to as good as it did in the Rift’s Touch Tutorial. Also everything beyond like 10 feet in the game world was pretty blurry, and when I got close to characters they all had a weird ghosting or doubling of their image.

So, I’m sure it comes down to me not running things properly and having all things set up properly. What is the proper way to run Skyrim SE? What ini settings should I make? V-sync on or off? Shadows on trees, the land… on or off? Ambient Occlusion, yes or no? Ansiotropic Filtering? Antialiasing? What about settings for the Nvidia control panel? Maximum pre-rendered frames? Texture filtering? Triple buffering? Vertical sync?

What should I be changing on the vorpX in-game menu for Skyrim? Also, in the main vorpX config I see Local and Cloud Profiles… Should I be using them with Skyrim? In the Cloud Profiles tab, I see that you can sign in but when I tried with my credentials that I use for these forums the program keeps telling me log-in failed.

I’m at a loss and I’m not sure what to do or where to start. I’m fairly technical but totally new to VR, the Occulus and to vorpX. Any help that anyone can provide, well, I’d certainly appreciate it. :)

Also, the PSVR has a quick way to re-center or re-set your VR view if it gets off-kilter, do we have anything similar with vorpX or the Rift?

[red]

Start with a fresh install of Skyrim SE without mods… you can add them one at a time later (and see if any break the game). Don’t worry about how far you’ve progressed with your current character… you’ll want to play it all again in VR.

The original Skyrim textures look better in the Rift than the Special Edition and the frame-rate is better. Personally I’d buy and use the original.

Adjust your expectations of a Skyrim/VorpX game-world looking as crisp and clean as the Touch Tutorial. A native VR app will always have better graphical fidelity than a non-native app retrofitted to work in VR. The Skyrim/VorpX experience is wonderful though and well worth the effort.

Run the game without VorpX to get through the Options (start with medium graphics at first) and the introduction sequence Check gamepad X/Y and any other settings you might want (have a look at the forum posts for details), then create a save and exit.

Change the resolution to a VorpX-friendly 1920×1440 in /User/Documents/MyGames/Skyrim/SkyrimPerfs.ini -> ‘iSize H=1440’ and ‘iSize W=1920’.

Launch Steam, Oculus Home and VorpX. Import the new cloud profile if you’re still using Skyrim SE (https://www.vorpx.com/forums/topic/skyrim-special-edition-profile-update-111027/).

Launch Skyrim (but don’t change the graphics options as this will overwrite your ini) and load your save game.

When you’re in-world start the DirectVR scan (ALT+L) and maybe recentre your headset (ALT+Space).

How’s that? You should be correctly oriented, able to use the gamepad to move, use your head position to view and if you squint a bit the HUD is visible (middle-mouse button for edge-peek mode gets round this for now… mods will take care of the HUD later).

tl;dr Get the basic mechanics working in VR via VorpX first. Then tinker with specific problems and mod to your hearts content.

[StratonAce]

Thank you for the reply and the pointers. I think I’ll try to use the “old” Skyrim instead.

[StratonAce]

Wow. Original Skyrim made a world of difference! Looks MUCH better in the headset overall than did the Special Edition.

[dellrifter22]

If the more vibrant colors is what you liked about SE, you can nearly match them by adjusting the color saturation and brightness level sliders in the vorpX game menu (press Delete key while playing, arrow over to the “Image Settings” page). While you’re there, slide the sharpness up as well.

I also use the Imaginator mod from Nexus to further adjust color lighting. Grab the Enhanced Camera mod as well, great for first person pov.

If you want to further increase performance you can add a custom resolution to your SkyrimPrefs.ini like 1080×1200 or 1296×1440. These match your HMD screen ratios without waste. Also a good idea to add them to your custom resolutions list in Nvidia Control panel, and test if they will pass on your TV first.

If you do this however, you may need some additional mods to adjust the hud and dialogue system like: EZ2C Dialogue Menu, Less Intrusive HUD, SkyUI away (for easier looting), etc.

Things should look and preform pretty decent this way, it may give you enough boost to try Geometry 3D if you want.

[Tiggerdyret]

I think you can fix the big hands issue in normal Skyrim with the Enhanced Camera mod. Install and enable experimental third-person hands in the mods .ini.

[Thick8]

dellrifter22 wrote:

If you want to further increase performance you can add a custom resolution to your SkyrimPrefs.ini like 1080×1200 or 1296×1440. These match your HMD screen ratios without waste. Also a good idea to add them to your custom resolutions list in Nvidia Control panel, and test if they will pass on your TV first.

So would I be better served by using my HMD resolution? I have an Odyssey so would I use a resolution of 1440×1600 (one screen) or 2880×1600 (two screens)?

[Ralf]

The per eye aspect ratio would be the right choice. In your case 1440×1600.

Always have an eye on your frame rate though. At least 45fps are just as important as image fidelity for comfortable VR. The 1080×1200 or 1296×1440 suggested by dellrifter22 are probably the better choice for demanding games.

Be aware that unusual aspect ratios don’t work for every game. I such cases prefer a 4:3 res over widescreen.

Hint, hint: The next vorpX version will come with a new settings optimizer that is aware of what works resolution wise for about 100 games and can automatically choose the best possible resolution depending on a selectable quality preset for these games.

[Author]

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