marvinthedog

[marvinthedog]

I guess it worked now. Last time I tried to post a comment in a thread it didn´t show up. A couple of days later I tried to post the comment again but then I got an error message saying I had allready posted the same information before (which I had but it didn´t show up).

[marvinthedog]

As far as I understand your hack you are moving the images outwards, which means there always will be parts of the scene farther apart than your eyes. This is not something you want to do since looking at these parts of the scene will make your eyes rotate outwards to fuse the left and right image together.

It seems to me that you might have confused SteamVRs ipdOffset value for another value like maybe the ipd in the hmd. All ipdOffset does is exactly the same thing as the 3D-Strength/Scale slider does in Vorpx, namely changing the scale of the world. It is changing the distance between the eye cameras and not the distance between the eye images. However, since you are looking at a virtual screen in VorpX:s screen mode the indirect effect will be the same as changing the distance between the eye images on that virtual screen, simply because ipdOffset is scaling the size of that virtual screen.

But this will never lead to diverting eyes unless you decrease the distance between the eye cameras so much that it becomes a negative distance (meaning that the right eye camera ends up to the left of the left eye camera, essentially swapping left and right camera views). Diverting eyes is only possible at a negative distance because (atleast in every game I have tried) the sky or other infinitely distant objects is never behind the screen. The sky is allways at the screen distance or slightly infront of it.

But most importantly; I just wish for an official way to have true-to-life depth in Dead Space 1 – 2 and several other games in the screen modes without increasing stereo conflicts of shadows and lights etc. Focal offset would be the solution to this if it didn´t increase stereo conflicts in said games. Focal offset is moving the images outwards but it is also changing the alignments of lighting etc in those images for those games. If there was another setting just like focal offset that didn´t change the alignment of lighting etc (it only moved the pixels) then I really think that would be a great addition to VorpX.

[marvinthedog]

Hi Ralf

First I just want to say that I am greatly enjoying this app!

I can understand that you think it´s important that people avoid the risks of having crappy user experiences. My intention is definately not to encourage users to diverge their eyes. In my post I have talked about specifically that in great detail to warn against it.

No need to tinker with the focal offset expert setting for adjusting the strength of the 3d effect at all. There is a dedicated setting for doing just that in the menu without any ill side effects, which allows you to adjust the strength of the 3d effect within a far larger margin than what would ever make sense in VR.

The only setting I can find that I think you could be reffering to is 3D-Strength/Scale. But no matter what you do with that setting it doesn´t in any way change the distance to the in-game sky. In full VR the sky is usually at its correct depth but in cinema or immersive screen the sky is never more than 3 meters away, and this is for every game I have tried. This makes it feel just like a regular 3D TV experience. Maybe that is the exact point of the cinema and immersive screen modes. But I suspect a lot of users would prefer if they could get the true-to-life 3D depth they get in full VR mode but in the screen modes aswell.

And sure you can get that true-to-life depth in the screen modes by changing focal offset. but in some or many(?) games that seems to increase stereo conflicts of shadows etc. My solution solves that. But even better than applaying my obscure hack, I would like to request it as an official feature in the app. It would do the exact same thing as focal offset (only moving the images and not the cameras) but it wouldn´t increase stereo conflicting shadows etc. It might be more difficult than it sounds but since it worked by hacking the ipd it seems like it should be doable internally in VorpX aswell.

Also I would like to request a virtual ruler or some kind of measuring interface that pops up when adjusting expert settings like focal offset. You could then use this virtual ruler to measure the distance between 2 corresponding points for the left and right image of the in-game sky to make sure that the distance wasn´t greater then your ipd and that your eyes wasn´t diverging.

[marvinthedog]

Huyzer,

Oh boy, I have to much time. I never would have expected that this would take several hours to write. In my mind this would only require a very short and simple explaination. I guess I was wrong :-) And it also turned into a guide about Dead Space mid-way through, lol.

I notice the same thing in Tomb Raider (2013).

I am no expert but according to my observations; If the missaligned shadows is present at default settings you wont be able to improve them. But if the profile happens to lack full depth (the kind of depth where the sky is infinitely far away and your eyes go parallell when looking at it) and you need to increase it, and if doing so with the focal offset slider will introduce further missalignment of shadows, then the ipd hack will prevent this. The ipd hack can increase the depth without further missaligning the shadows because all it does is increase separation, unlike focal offset that sometimes seems to also lock shadows to the screen depth or something to that effect.

So I think in most games you´ll be fine by just using the focal offset if you need to increase the depth. And I think most games allready have full depth in full VR mode. So the situations where you would want to increase depth is if you prefer the cinema or immersive screen modes because they have a very limited depth by default. From my observations the sky in those modes are never further away than 3 meters which is very immersion breaking.

So without having tried Tomb Raider (2013) I am guessing it allready has full depth in full VR mode but lacks full depths in the screen modes. If you prefer the screen modes with full depth and it turns out focal offset introduces further missalignments then the ipd hack will probably be a good solution for you.

(Note: when I am talking about 3D depth I am talking about “separation” which is a different thing than what the 3D-Strength/Scale slider in VorpX does. The 3D-Strength/Scale slider in VorpX affects world scale, just to clarify.)

Also, just like Ralph pointed out, there is a very fine line between full depth and beyond full depth. Your eyes should allways go parallell when looking at the sky. They should NEVER diverge. If they converge to some degree it´s way better than diverging even if it´s immersion breaking. On a physical 3D screen it is easy to set this up right to the limit. Just put a ruler onto the surface of the screen and measure an object that is suppose to be at infinity like for instance the sun or the stars. The distance between a pixel on that object in the left view and the corresponding pixel in the right view must never be bigger then your ipd. On a virtual 3D screen in VR it is much harder to set this up because you don´t have access to a virtual ruler. You will just have to “eye” it.

can you talk about the reasoning behind the number changes you make

Sure. The file I edit is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings”. You should probably make a backup of the file before changing something. In the SteamVR directory of the text file you should find “ipdOffset” : 0,. If it´s not there you can simply add it. What this value does is increase or decrease the distance between the virtual eye cameras (the cameras that render your left and right view). It´s probably a little easier to wrap your head around this if you think of it in terms of only moving the right eye camera. A positive value will move it further to the right and a negative value will move it further to the left.

One mm (millimeter) is 0.001 so this value will move it one mm to the right. If your headset is set to an ipd of 63 the distance between the eye cameras will now be 64 mm. -0.001 will instead set the distance at 62 mm. 0.063 would double the distance, -0.063 would put both camera in the same position (which would result in 2D) and -0.126 would but right camera 63 mm to the left of the left camera (which would essentially swap the left and right rendered views).

The effect the ipdOffset has in any other VR app is different than the effect it has in VorpX. The effect it has in any other VR app is scaling the size of the world up and down, simply because the world gets smaller or larger in relation to the distance between your eyes, or atleast that´s how your brain interprets it. The headtracking doesn´t scale with it so changing ipdOffset can be very nausea inducing because your head seems to move smaller or larger distances than it is suppose to.

The effect ipdOffset has in VorpX is different because of the fact that you are looking at a virtual 3D screen representing a virtual world rather then looking directly at a virtual world. (Atleast in the screen modes and probably in full VR aswell iirc.) Rather than scaling the size of the world the ipdOffset will scale the size of the screen (and the distance to the screen). This doesn´t scale the size of the world on the screen so much but instead scales the perceived distance to every object in that world. It affects the distance to objects in the background more than it affects the distance to objects in the foreground.

In other words in VorpX ipdOffset affects the 3d depth much more than it affects the world scale. It´s pretty much the same difference you perceive between watching a 3D movie on a small TV and a large cinema screen. The 3D depth is much bigger on the cinema screen. To go back to the ruler measuring example; The bigger the screen is, the bigger is the distance between two corresponding pixels between the left and right image on that screen, and if the distance between two corresponding pixels of the sky (or some other infinitely far of object) matches your ipd then you have full 3D depth (since your eyes goes parallell).

Guide for Dead Space in immersive screen mode:

So what is a good value for the ipdOffset? I can tell you what works for me in Dead Space with immersive screen mode. My ipd is 63,5 mm and I have set the idpOffset value to -0.06. This means the distance between the left and right eye cameras is only 3,5 mm apart. This essentially scales the VorpX cinema room up to the size of a sports stadium. And this gives me a very true to life 3D depth in the game. It actually felt like I could go a little further with the value but I was to afraid that my eyes would start diverging so I am satisfied for now.

This value works in conjunction with all the other settings I have in VorpX and in the game, which are:

In-game resolution: 1920 x 1080

In VorpX main settings:
Play Style: Immersive Screen Mode
Expand the Immersive Screen Settings:
Screen Distance Offset: 1.00
Screen Curvature: 0
Screen Curved Verical: 0
Background: Ambience
Expand 3D Stereo Settings:
3D Reconstruction: Geometry
3D-Strength/Scale: 1.00
3D FOV Enhancement: 0
Focal Offset: 0

Widescreen Fixer:
And most importantly the FOV hack that enables a true-to-life fov. VorpX own 3D FOV Enhancement setting doesn´t work right since objects dissapears in the periphery. You will have to download Widescreen Fixer from this adress instead:
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1754-widescreen-fixer-v34-r737/
Start up Widescreen_Fixer.exe and set the fov to 0.7 for Dead Space. Atleast this setting is what looked good for me. Once you are in the game you enable the larger fov by pressing cltrl + shift + enter.

I am using an Index by the way. With the Index fov the immersive screen:s corners just about touches the borders of the Index lenses. The VorpX Ambience setting does a great job of masking out the unvisible areas outside the immersive screen. This setup has a great balance between sharpness and performance imo.

With the true to life 3D depth and fov this is definately one of the most immersive experiences I have had with VorpX. And this concludes my guide for Dead Space.

Summary about the ipdOffset:

In most games it might be unecessary to change IpdOffset since the focal offset slider in VorpX does essentially the same thing. But I suspect there are many games where increasing the focal offset will lead to further missmatch of shadows, reflections and such. So far I have noticed this in Dead Space 1 and 2 and Portal 2. IpdOffset doesn´t have this problem.

Increasing 3D depth by using either of those 2 options is very usefull in the cinema or immersive screen modes because those modes do not have correct depth. In every game I have tried the sky is only 2 or 3 meters away. Increasing the depth with either focal offset or ipdOffset makes the screen look like a window into the world which is much more immersive.

I hope you will find this valuable :-)

[marvinthedog]

Geometry 3D. With the ipd hack (plus a fov hack i downloaded) the game is super immersive! :-)

I am just perplexed there doesn´t seem to be a regular 3D depth setting that doesn´t affect lighting and shadows. In my mind all that should be needed is to increase seperation between left and right view, because that is what the ipd hack does.

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