OpenXR Toolkit 2023 and iL-2 VR

[OG__Iceman_VR]

Enjoy

[OG__Iceman_VR]

Make sure you watch my latest videos to keep up with the GPU drivers and Tool kit updates. 

[kestrel79]

Cool thanks! Is this something separate from Open Composite? Or do you use them together? Would OpenXR benefit me with a Rift S?

 

I'm so dumb when it comes to this stuff sorry...

[Drano]

It's separate in that it needs OpencompositeVR/OpenXR to be the VR runtime. So you need to install opencomposite, which adds openxr unless your game already uses openxr. IL-2 doesn't, so you'll have to install opencomposite. Get that running first. You'll know it's working if you can run IL2 without steam. Once that's done you can install the Toolkit. That will provide a bunch more settings as described in the video above. 

[Charger_]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:52 AM, OG__Iceman_VR said:

Make sure you watch my latest videos to keep up with the GPU drivers and Tool kit updates. 

 

I still cant get OpenXR/ Open composite working with a Pico 4 headset. Ive followed every guide - but no luck so far. Got any tips?

[mbucchia]

4 hours ago, Charger_ said:

 

I still cant get OpenXR/ Open composite working with a Pico 4 headset. Ive followed every guide - but no luck so far. Got any tips?

For Pico you need to do the per-game installation: https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/opencomposite.html#alternative-the-per-game-install

 

For step 1) you need to make sure SteamVR is set as your OpenXR runtime:

 

Make sure to follow step 2) and revert previous system-wide installation!

[Charger_]

Yeah OK cheers i will try that. I also just read a recommendation of IL2 being installed on C:Drive, i currently have it in a games folder on D:Drive. 

 

I may try that too. 

 

Gotta get the xtra frames!

 

For reference, the Pico 4 is proving to be a decent VR Headset. Ghosting has been the biggest issue for me. Ive managed to reduce it pretty well, but still some more to go. 5800x3d / 4080 / dedicated wifi6 AP - using VD on Ultra mode. Settings in il2 mostly Ultra with some settings reduced. No SSW. Hitting a consistent 90FPS with only a few dips into 70is FPS

Edited July 4, 2023 by Charger_

[Qcumber]

Have you tried setting VD to "high" and allowing the headset to upscale to ultra. That would reduce the game latency and might not alter the overall quality too much. I run mine on medium and get acceptable quality and 72 FPS (SSW off) with high game settings. No ghosting. 

[Charger_]

17 hours ago, Qcumber said:

Have you tried setting VD to "high" and allowing the headset to upscale to ultra. That would reduce the game latency and might not alter the overall quality too much. I run mine on medium and get acceptable quality and 72 FPS (SSW off) with high game settings. No ghosting. 

 

Yeah i might try that. 

 

I also have upped VD to Godlike again, and with a tweak of a few IL2 settings am able to hit 90fps again. The VD update that uses 400Mbs bitrate helps. The graphic visuals look great, its just that compression ghosting that kind of annoys me, esp when dogfighting. 

[Qcumber]

7 hours ago, Charger_ said:

The graphic visuals look great, its just that compression ghosting that kind of annoys me, esp when dogfighting

Maybe try 72 Hz without SSW to see if that helps with ghosting. You could also try locking the frame rate to 45 FPS through openxr toolkit or GPU settings. Then reproject to 90 and see if that makes a difference. 

[Charger_]

I got OpenXR to work with the Pico, i didnt see the second openvr.dll that needed to be swapped. oops

 

I have the same specs as the OP in the video and followed his settings and hit 90fps. Has a reverb G2. The visuals on the Pico do seem more blocky, i might try upping the render scale. Its good to use the OpenXR features though. 

 

Ghosting seems about the same. 

[Qcumber]

2 hours ago, Charger_ said:

I got OpenXR to work with the Pico, i didnt see the second openvr.dll that needed to be swapped. oops

Even when I swap out both files it runs but crashes when loading a mission and I can't work out why. 

[Panzerlang]

50 minutes ago, Qcumber said:

Even when I swap out both files it runs but crashes when loading a mission and I can't work out why. 

If you're using VD that's most likely why.

[Charger_]

2 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

If you're using VD that's most likely why.

 

Open XR works with VD for me. 

 

But its all rather fiddly this VR stuff. Sometimes i think more time is spent tweaking settings than actually playing.

[Qcumber]

6 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

If you're using VD that's most likely why.

I did get it working before, then I changed a few things (long story) and reinstalled it, and now I can't get it working again. 

 

[mbucchia]

On 7/7/2023 at 8:47 PM, Charger_ said:

i didnt see the second openvr.dll that needed to be swapped

There might only be 1 file btw, the screenshot on my instructions where from a different game that had 2 copies. 

My point was "replace as many copies as you can find in the game folder".

[Charger_]

After successfully running Il2 with a Pico4 and Open composite, i now get the following error when entering a map. This only occurs for single player career mode, including scripted campaigns. Multiplayer and QMB loads fine. Any ideas?

[Panzerlang]

12 minutes ago, Charger_ said:

After successfully running Il2 with a Pico4 and Open composite, i now get the following error when entering a map. This only occurs for single player career mode, including scripted campaigns. Multiplayer and QMB loads fine. Any ideas?

Exactly what I was getting but before even the loading screen came up. I was told it was because Virtual Desktop won't work with OpenXR, but I've since read it does (from people who are using it with VD).

I decided not to bother again until I have the Crystal.

[Charger_]

1 hour ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

Exactly what I was getting but before even the loading screen came up. I was told it was because Virtual Desktop won't work with OpenXR, but I've since read it does (from people who are using it with VD).

I decided not to bother again until I have the Crystal.

Bugger.

 

I was using VD successfully with open composite until now. 

 

I just reverted back to steamvr, and it definitely doesn't look as good as open XR. 

 

Bugger. 

 

Were you by any chance using XRNecksaver? I wonder if the conflict is caused there....

 

 

[Panzerlang]

6 hours ago, Charger_ said:

Bugger.

 

I was using VD successfully with open composite until now. 

 

I just reverted back to steamvr, and it definitely doesn't look as good as open XR. 

 

Bugger. 

 

Were you by any chance using XRNecksaver? I wonder if the conflict is caused there....

 

 

No, I had the regular one running. Maybe that caused it to flake out.

[Charger_]

1 hour ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

No, I had the regular one running. Maybe that caused it to flake out.

Yeah well, i just unistalled https://gitlab.com/NobiWan/xrnecksafer and fixed my OpenComposite crash error. Maybe it could work for you?

 

While i was fiddling, i went back to SteamVR and the drop off in clarity and FPS was rather evident. 

[Panzerlang]

8 hours ago, Charger_ said:

Yeah well, i just unistalled https://gitlab.com/NobiWan/xrnecksafer and fixed my OpenComposite crash error. Maybe it could work for you?

 

While i was fiddling, i went back to SteamVR and the drop off in clarity and FPS was rather evident. 

I've been very happy with the SteamVR performance thus far, which is why I've not been motivated to try very hard with OpenXR. That'll change once I have the crystal as it'll be more demanding of my hardware.

[Charlo-VRde]

4 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

I've been very happy with the SteamVR performance thus far, which is why I've not been motivated to try very hard with OpenXR. That'll change once I have the crystal as it'll be more demanding of my hardware.

Ditto as I await my Crystal to use with my 13700k and 3090 GPU

[Qcumber]

I found that this is caused by xrnecksafer. If you disable it openxr toolkit works OK with Pico 4. I also had this issue with DCS. 

[Panzerlang]

1 hour ago, Qcumber said:

I found that this is caused by xrnecksafer. If you disable it openxr toolkit works OK with Pico 4. I also had this issue with DCS. 

Ah, that's a bummer. Hopefully Obiwan will update/fix it.

[[CPT]Crunch]

Open up necksafer and hit the OpenXR tab at the top, click on Show Active OpenXR API Layers, if there's more than two showing you got a problem.  Anything besides _MBUCCHIA_toolkit and NOVENDOR_XRNecksafer is most likely causing the issue.  Usually residual crap and you'll have to manually find it and kill it.

[Qcumber]

7 hours ago, Hetzer-JG52 said:

Hopefully Obiwan will update/fix it.

VRnecksafer works though. Unfortunately, this is not as good as xrnecksafer. 

7 hours ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

Show Active OpenXR API Layers, if there's more than two showing you got a problem. 

Mine just shows openxr toolkit and xrnecksafer. If I disable xrnecksafer IL-2 and DCS run fine. If I enable it, both games crash when trying to load missions. 

[Drano]

I've had conflicts with XRNS and the Toolkit in MSFS. I'll have it working just fine then the next time it crashes when switching to VR. Haven't had it happen in IL2 but the cure for it in MSFS was to disable the XR layer in the XRNS settings, then reset the settings in XR Toolkit for the game. After that I can re-enable the XRNS layer and re-do the Toolkit settings. Kind of a pain but it works. It's happened randomly without my making any changes. I can only attribute it to some update that happened borking it. Not like that's a first! 

[Qcumber]

On 7/23/2023 at 3:59 PM, Drano said:

disable the XR layer in the XRNS settings, then reset the settings in XR Toolkit for the game

Thanks. I'll give that a go and see if it works. 

[Russkly]

I've had to ditch XRNeckSafer too unfortunately - OXRTK just won't work with it with the Pico, which is a shame, since VRNeckSafer simply isn't as good without smooth autorotation.

 

I had to reinstall the openvr.dll's after the latest patch (and indeed the cockpit pilot's notes), so just putting that out there as a possible cause of OXRTK not working any more.

[Qcumber]

4 hours ago, Russkly said:

OXRTK just won't work with it with the Pico, which is a shame, since VRNeckSafer simply isn't as good without smooth autorotation.

That was my conclusion too. I have to use hat buttons to snap rotate. The auto rotate with VR necksafer feels too unnatural. 

[-=LE=-LazyEye]

I got a funny little problem with opencomposite, when i start the sim from my created shortcut on the desktop the sim starts up all fine but when I´m going in to the menus to chose missions the map is all grey and no missions is visible, can´t start a flight. Has anybody got a clue why it is like that? is there a way to make it work? steam account and IL acounts are linked if that matters.

 

Starting it from VD works just fine and sim flies well and oxrtk also works but I´d like to run it stand alone.

[-=LE=-LazyEye]

On 8/7/2023 at 8:29 PM, -=LE=-LazyEye said:

I got a funny little problem with opencomposite, when i start the sim from my created shortcut on the desktop the sim starts up all fine but when I´m going in to the menus to chose missions the map is all grey and no missions is visible, can´t start a flight. Has anybody got a clue why it is like that? is there a way to make it work? steam account and IL acounts are linked if that matters.

 

Starting it from VD works just fine and sim flies well and oxrtk also works but I´d like to run it stand alone.

Might this be the answer to why I can´t play it from the shortcut (text under point B):

[FTC_Mars]

Thanks for the guide!  I refreshed all of my system settings according to it and everything looks a lot nicer now.

 

Before: washed out, difficult spotting.

After: rich colours, spotting is easier, textures are smoother, and the game appears to run more smoothly.

 

The screenshots don't do it justice.  In VR, where the contacts are moving, the difference is immediately noticeable.

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by FTC_Mars

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

I just wondering what is the main reason (option) for washed out colors, HDR in game graphics option or textures quality set to very high in Nvidia panel (as mentioned in video which  made sun more bright)or else maybe?

Edited September 18, 2023 by 1PL-Husar-1Esk

[FTC_Mars]

2 hours ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

I just wondering what is the main reason (option) for washed out colors, HDR in game graphics option or textures quality set to very high in Nvidia panel (as mentioned in video which  made sun more bright)or else maybe?

 

In my case a high Gamma setting was a contributing factor, but I don't think that was the only factor.  It was probably set high for spotting planes against terrain the first time I set up VR.

[III/JG52_Supongo]

 

Hi friends

 

A question for those using OpenXR with or without Opencomposite in VR.

 

What key should I use to access the menu?

How can I change the menu dwell time (in red in the screenshot)?

And while we're at it, does Opencomposite work for you in IL2?

 

Thank you for your answer.

 

Regards

 

Supongo

[Russkly]

52 minutes ago, III/JG52_Supongo said:

 

Hi friends

 

A question for those using OpenXR with or without Opencomposite in VR.

 

What key should I use to access the menu?

How can I change the menu dwell time (in red in the screenshot)?

And while we're at it, does Opencomposite work for you in IL2?

 

Thank you for your answer.

 

Regards

 

Supongo

 

What key should I use to access the menu?

I use the default Ctrl+F2, but you can change this in the OpenXR Toolkit Companion App.

 

How can I change the menu dwell time (in red in the screenshot)?

When in the above menu cycle down to the "Exit menu" value using Ctrl+F2, and use Ctrl+F1 to decrease it and Ctrl+F3 to increase it.

 

And while we're at it, does Opencomposite work for you in IL2?

Yes

[III/JG52_Supongo]

30 minutes ago, Russkly said:

 

¿Qué tecla debo utilizar para acceder al menú?

Utilizo el Ctrl+F2 predeterminado, pero puedes cambiarlo en la aplicación complementaria OpenXR Toolkit.

 

¿Cómo puedo cambiar el tiempo de permanencia del menú (en rojo en la captura de pantalla)?

Cuando esté en el menú anterior, baje al valor "Salir del menú" usando Ctrl+F2, y use Ctrl+F1 para disminuirlo y Ctrl+F3 para aumentarlo.

 

Y ya que estamos en eso, ¿Opencomposite funciona para usted en IL2?

Sí

 

Thank you friend

[Russkly]

1 hour ago, III/JG52_Supongo said:

 

Thank you friend

 

De nada