This update reunites the regular and the ‘cutting edge’ branches. For those who until now used the regular version it brings three major new features: motion controller gestures, a rewritten desktop viewer and a virtual monitor.
Those who already used the cutting edge build can skip to the full changelog at the bottom of this page to check what has changed since then.
If you don’t own vorpX yet, you can buy it here:
Supported headsets: Oculus Rift, Rift S, Quest 1/2 (via Oculus Link), HTC Vive, Valve Index, Pimax, Windows Mixed Reality and other SteamVR compatible headsets.
If you already own vorpX, it should auto-update when you start vorpX Control next time. If it doesn’t for some reason, simply use the web installer that you received when you purchased vorpX. It will download the latest version available.
Motion Controller Gestures
You can now map predefined motion controller gestures to key presses and gamepad actions. Aminig down sights, reloading, melee combat, steering wheels and a lot more gestures are available to turn flat games into more immersive VR experiences. While not every game benefits from gestures in the same manner, some (e.g. first person shooter games) can actually feel close to native VR that way. Even seated just a handful of gestures can tremendously improve immersion compared to playing with a gamepad or mouse/keyboard.
Various profiles already have gestures predefined, try e.g. Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield, Titanfall 2 or Aliens Colonial Marines. More will follow. For other games you can easily define gestures yourself. Be amazed how easy that is and how well it can work. Check the video below for a brief introduction.
Desktop Viewer Rewrite
The rewritten desktop viewer now handles high GPU load a lot more stable and also addresses a bunch of annoyances the old desktop viewer had, e.g. the inability to display Windows admin rights prompts.
If vorpX can’t hook a game, try the new desktop viewer. Especially in tandem with the third new feature the vorpX desktop viewer now is the ultimate VR flat game cinema.
Virtual Monitor
The new virtual monitor makes running games at higher resolution than your actual monitor allows a breeze. All important resolutions are predefined, and you can easily add more if you want in the config app.
Added benefit for desktop capturing and playing games unhooked with the desktop viewer: the virtual monitor always runs at the refresh rate of your headset, which removes any form of micro stutter that normally is the result of capturing e.g. a 60Hz monitor and displaying it on a 90Hz headset.
The easiest way of using the virtual monitor is launching the vorpX desktop viewer and putting on your headset. Per default vorpX will then switch to its virtual monitor.
Full Changelog
Biggest changes from official (21.3.5) to last cutting edge build
- Motion Controller gestures that easily let you map VR controller gestures to key/button presses. vorpX gaming as close to native VR as never before.
- A virtual monitor has been added that lets you play games at arbitrarily high resolutions and always has the exact same refresh rate as your headset, which is especially great in cunjunction with the desktop viewer. The smoothest VR desktop experience ever.
- Desktop viewer rewritten to minimize CPU/GPU usage, get rid of a few annoyances, and work great with the new virtual monitor.
Biggest changes since 24.1.0
- Redesigned rendering/post-fx pipeline that significantly reduces the amount of GPU memory used by vorpX at high resolutions.
- Custom memory manager that keeps memory allocated by vorpX separated from game memory as much as possible. Improves general stability everywhere, most notably when using high resolutions with some 32-bit games, e.g. Dragon Age Origins, Venetica.
- Special treatment for 32-bit games able to handle more RAM than the usual 32-bit 2GB limit. vorpX can now detect and directly utilize the extra memory. If you encounter crashes with 32-bit games at high resolutions, check the internet for tools that make them ‘large address aware’. Note that trying that with modern 64-bit games has no effect, those can use all your RAM per default.
- Major (ongoing) spring cleaning continued: lots of internal changes and refactorings that improve general stability and/or help keeping the developer of this Tower of Babel happy.
Noteworthy smaller changes/fixes since 24.1.0
- Optimized texture sharing between game and vorpX threads. Fixes DX12 black screen caused by nVidia driver 580.88+ and in general may/should be a bit smoother under high GPU load.
- Improved cursor tracking. Fixes cursor flicker in some games (e.g. AC:Valhalla/Odyssey).
- Cinema mode uses reduced lightmap sizes in 32-bit games that aren’t large address aware to squeeze out some extra GPU RAM for higher resolutions.
- DX9: Some rarely/never encountered StateBlock related stuff handled. Just in case.
- DX9: Some hooking related changes that may improve hooking reliability in some edge cases.
- DX9: Generic 3D/Headset modes did not work on some AMD GPUs
- DX9: Fixed an issue that could cause games to hang on device creation.
- DX9: Fixed an issue that could cause games to crash on display mode change (e.g. Venetica).
- DX9: Fixed an issue that could cause games to crash on load (e.g. GTA IV).
- DX9: Fixed an issue that could cause games to hang in fullscreen mode (e.g. Splitter Cell 3).
- DX9: The start scene had some weird render glitches in ‘Generic VR headset’ mode.
- DX10: Potential exception on init (e.g. Crysis DX10)
- DX11: Various additions that deal with rarely used DX11 features (e.g. WoW non-legacy DX11)
- DX11: Various changes for improved performance, up to 300%! Don’t get too excited though, that is an outlier. Usually expect anything from 0%-15%.
- DX11: More efficient multithreading. Improves FPS in heavily multithreaded games (e.g. Elex 2).
- DX11: Image was garbled in some games, e.g. ArmaA III (24.1.0 regression).
- DX11/12: Optimized shader code bookkeeping. Can save hundreds of MB of RAM (e.g. Horizon: ZD).
- DX12: More efficient resource bookkeeping. Improves performance by up to 20% (e.g. Uncharted 4).
- DX12: Optimized multithreaded handling. Fixes hiccups/uneven FPS in some games (e.g. The Last of Us/Uncharted 4).
- DX12: display mode switching/window resizing could fail for some games (e.g. Far Cry 6)
- DX12: various authoring hotkeys did not work.
- Tracking: The jump/crouch detection didn’t work correctly anymore.
- vorpX control: Fixed an issue that could cause the app to crash on startup (24.1.0 regression).
- vorpX control: Fixed an issue that could cause the app to crash after installing hook helpers.
- vorpX control: Fixed an issue that could cause the app to hang after running for a while.
Game Profile Changes/Fixes since 24.1.0
- Cyberpunk 2077: support for latest game version.
- Dark Souls III: scalable HUD didn’t work under some circumstances.
- The Elder Scrolls Online: shader fixes for latest game version.
- The Witcher 3: The mod portion of the profile could activate itself without vorpX running.
- World of WarCraft: vorpX did not work anymore after removal of the D3D11 legacy renderer
- Abzu: ini changes were applied on each launch instead of just once.
- Hellblade: ini changes were applied on each launch instead of just once.
- Observer: ini changes were applied on each launch instead of just once.
- Prey (2006): resolution wasn’t set as intended due to a typo.
- Conarium: improved DirectVR memory apply on/off check
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution: various fixes.
- The Surge: motion blur hint added.
- Morrowind: MGE shader chain could become unavailable when changing .ini settings.
- dgVoodoo2: support for versions > 2.7+