Neph’s guide to VR (HP Reverb G2)

[=LD=Nephrill]

Neph’s guide to VR (HP Reverb G2)

 

In this guide you will be shown how I have set up my settings for VR. These apply to the use of the HP Reverb G2 VR headset in combination with a NVIDIA graphics card but I am sure this can also work with the latest AMD cards.

 

These settings were shared already with other  friends and they were quite pleased with the result. Their spotting and situational awareness improved a lot. Other befriended players became also interested so it's time to write a manual. It can be a good baseline to go from. Just give it a try and I hope it will help you too.

 

This guide will consist of two parts. Part 1 will describe how to switch to openXR. Part 2 will show you  the settings.

 

System specifications

 

To run Il2 smoothly in VR with these settings you need a fairly solid system. Here are the specs of my system.

 

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor  (16 CPUs), ~3.6GHz

Memory: 32 GB RAM

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

HDD1: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB

HDD2: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit

 

What apps do you need?

 

You will need the following  apps for this setup. This guide assumes you already have IL2 running properly in SteamVR.

 

·         OpenXR Tools for Windows Mixed Reality

Download from Microsoft store

·         NVIDIA Control panel

Download from Nvidia website

·         OpenXR Toolkit

Download link: https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/

·         OpenComposite Launcher

Download link: https://znix.xyz/OpenComposite/runtimeswitcher.php?branch=openxr

·         XRNeckSaver (Optional, but your neck will thank you though)

Download link: https://gitlab.com/NobiWan/xrnecksafer

 

 

Part 1: Switching to OpenXR

 

OpenXR Tools for Windows Mixed Reality

 

Download and install the OpenXR Tools for Windows Mixed Reality from the Microsoft store.

 

OpenXR Toolkit

 

Download and install the OpenXR Toolkit. We will only set some control settings. The VR settings will be configured later in the in-game overlay. Start the OpenXR Toolkit Companion app and change the hotkeys. I have set them this way so it is convenient for me.

 

 

OpenComposite Launcher

 

With this tool you can switch IL2 from using SteamVR to OpenXR. This will improve the performance a lot!

 

Download the OpenComposite Launcher and unpack it to a location on your computers hard drive. Start the launcher and switch to OpenComposite.

When you click configure you should see IL2 under OpenComposite.

 

Part 2: Settings

 

Windows mixed reality settings

 

Set the Windows mixed reality display settings like shown in the screenshots below.

 

Note: When you start running IL2 at 60Hz it is possible you will see the HMD displays flickering at first. Please hang on though. Your brain will adept and after playing a while you wont see it anymore. Running IL2 at 60Hz will give you a very stable FPS and smooth gameplay. If you are blessed  with a 4000 series NVIDIA graphics card you could try if you can have a smooth gameplay at 90Hz. For me the starts to stutter at 90 Hz.

 

 

OpenXR Tools for Windows Mixed Reality settings

 

 

 

NVIDIA Control panel settings

 

 

 

IL2 in-game settings

 

For the sake of a good screenshot it was taken in 2d. Enable VR HMD should be checked naturally. For better spotting ability and a much better performance Antialiasing is turned off. It is not needed when you use the HP Reverb G2 in its native resolution (around 3160 x 3092).

 

 

OpenXR Toolkit in-game settings

 

If you correctly installed the OpenXR Toolkit and set the Open/down function to the down key you can open the overlay in-game by pressing Ctrl+down and configure the settings. Below are the settings per tab in the menu.

 

 

Note: The Reverb G2 tends to make the cockpit and the surrounding world a bit too small. You can correct this with the World scale setting. For me  110% is OK. Don’t set it too high or your aiming/gunnery will become unpredictable.

Note: Over-prediction reduction will reduce your headshake and stabilize your view a bit. You can compare it to an image- stabilizer in a photo camera.

Note: Reducing the color red to 40 made the game less hazy. This increased my spotting ability.

 

Bonus: Improve the look of the landscape graphics

 

With this trick the landscape will look better and sharper. Also spotting low contacts improved for me. It can be demanding for your system but it is worth it in my opinion.

 

1.       Open the graphics folder in Windows explorer.

Example: “D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics”

2.       Open the “filter_settings.inc” file in notepad. It will have the following content.

 

MipFilter=LINEAR;

MagFilter=LINEAR;

MinFilter=ANISOTROPIC;

MaxAnisotropy=8;

 

3.       Change it to following and save the file.

 

MipFilter=ANISOTROPIC;

MagFilter=ANISOTROPIC;

MinFilter=ANISOTROPIC;

MaxAnisotropy=16;

 

4.       Lastly set the file to read-only. If you don’t the game will change it back at the next start. So if you don’t like this tweak you can simply revert by disabling the read-only option.

 

XRNeckSaver settings

XRNeckSaver is an awesome tool developed by J2_NobiWan and made available to everyone free of charge. It prevents us virtual pilots from breaking our necks. For me he's a hero!

Below you find my personal settings. I like to make it work a bit like Track IR. But there are a lot of options. Use what works best for you!

 

More info about the app in this topic:

 

I hope this guide will help you too. Please let me know.

 

S! Neph

[=1stROF=stevie]

This is one of the best guides which improved my spotting tremendously some months ago.

[1Sascha]

Err... will this work for a Steam version of the game? Got stuck at the OpenComposite "configure" screen... which shows nothing.

Also: XR Necksafer doesn't detect any of my buttons... VRNecksafer didn't have that problem. I also can't read XR's entries because some of the text-entries are overlapping and I can't widen the app's window. I can enlarge it vertically, but not horizontally.. ?

 

EDIT: Nevermind. I was a bit confused about starting the game. Tried to enable VR in the IL-2 settings and then start it normally, but that doesn't seem to work. Started via Steam-button, selecting "run in VR" (which I thought might re-enable SteamVR, but it didn't). After I exited out of the game, XR Necksafer's keymapper suddenly accepted my button-presses and the IL-2 exe did show up in Opencomposite and in OpenXR Toolkit.

 

Game looks so much sharper compared to my Rift-S, but FPS are quite underwhelming with my 3070. I didn't use some of your higher in-game settings (only x2 landscape, medium shadows, etc), but still.

 

Hope the 4070 will help with that, but if not, I guess I should probably reduce resolution.

 

EDIT, EDIT: Just disabled SSAO and HDR and reduced resolution to 90% in the OpenXR overlay. That seems to have done the trick. Steady FPS in Quick Missions and lower VRAM usage than before in SteamVR (was ~ 6.5GB, now it's more like 4.5 GB).

 

S.

Edited August 10, 2023 by 1Sascha

[Voxman]

Excellent guide!!!!!

 

This now makes the game much more playable on my rig (3080ti, i710700K,16GB RAM), especially on the Normandy map, and running a Luftwaffe career where there's lots of action.

I only play SP, and do use ID icons as my old eyes are starting to have problems IDing AC.

 

I had the game setup with Iceman's great guide, but was still getting some issues.  I believe he's running a stronger rig. 

One setting that I may have to go back and revisit is the scaling.  I have it a 160% per Iceman's settings.  It's OK, but I think reducing it may help a little bit more. 

 

[1Sascha]

Update after switching from 3070 to 4070: Ignoring spotting and concentrating more on general visual quality vs performance, I played around with my settings a bit more.

 

The two "sweetspots" I found were:

 

1. Low refresh-rate, very high visual quality:

60 Hz, G2 resolution set to 120%. In-game details set to "Ultra", with clouds and shadows to "High", 100km viewing distance, landscape details x2. Target FPS 60, MSAA 4x, HDR and SSAO OFF.

 

Didn't matter what sort of career mission I threw at the game with these settings, I got 60 FPS all day long like this. The card wasn't even all too stressed about it, either ... but VRAM usage was still quite alarmingly high in career (9 GB+ according to RT-overlay, much less according to OpenXR Tools in-VR overlay - possibly this is "allocated VRAM" vs "VRAM currently in actual use"?).

 

2. High refresh rate, less eye candy.

90 Hz, G2 resolution 80% at first (still a bit too choppy for my taste) then 70% which did the trick.

In-game settings changed from 60 Hz run: Preset to "Balanced", Shadows to "Medium" 70km viewing distance. FXAA x2 or x4, doesn't seem to make much difference. Target FPS 100 (there's no 90-option), HDR and SSAO still very much OFF.

 

Runs 99.5% as well as the 60 Hz option - even in career mode. GPU is quite a bit more stressed here (go figure), but the picture looks crisper to me than 60Hz and I *think* the visual sweetspot problem with the G2 is less noticeable with these settings, too.

 

I can't really make up my mind which setting I prefer, but I think I'll keep it at 90 Hz for the time being.

 

 

Here's a short clip I took with the 90 Hz settings (QM, though) - sadly, the stupid WMR-bar was blocking the CPU-info again, but as you can see from the graph, it's not really getting stressed here.

 

 

S.

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by 1Sascha

[kestrel79]

Could I use all these software downloads and settings to setup my Rift S instead of a G2? Or do I need some different software? Looks like a great guide thank you.

[=475FG=Dobs]

On 8/15/2023 at 7:42 AM, 1Sascha said:

Update after switching from 3070 to 4070: Ignoring spotting and concentrating more on general visual quality vs performance, I played around with my settings a bit more.

 

The two "sweetspots" I found were:

 

1. Low refresh-rate, very high visual quality:

60 Hz, G2 resolution set to 120%. In-game details set to "Ultra", with clouds and shadows to "High", 100km viewing distance, landscape details x2. Target FPS 60, MSAA 4x, HDR and SSAO OFF.

 

Didn't matter what sort of career mission I threw at the game with these settings, I got 60 FPS all day long like this. The card wasn't even all too stressed about it, either ... but VRAM usage was still quite alarmingly high in career (9 GB+ according to RT-overlay, much less according to OpenXR Tools in-VR overlay - possibly this is "allocated VRAM" vs "VRAM currently in actual use"?).

 

2. High refresh rate, less eye candy.

90 Hz, G2 resolution 80% at first (still a bit too choppy for my taste) then 70% which did the trick.

In-game settings changed from 60 Hz run: Preset to "Balanced", Shadows to "Medium" 70km viewing distance. FXAA x2 or x4, doesn't seem to make much difference. Target FPS 100 (there's no 90-option), HDR and SSAO still very much OFF.

 

Runs 99.5% as well as the 60 Hz option - even in career mode. GPU is quite a bit more stressed here (go figure), but the picture looks crisper to me than 60Hz and I *think* the visual sweetspot problem with the G2 is less noticeable with these settings, too.

 

I can't really make up my mind which setting I prefer, but I think I'll keep it at 90 Hz for the time being.

 

 

Here's a short clip I took with the 90 Hz settings (QM, though) - sadly, the stupid WMR-bar was blocking the CPU-info again, but as you can see from the graph, it's not really getting stressed here.

 

 

S.

 

Stupid question but how do you get the linda blair view with VR?   Is that necksaver at work?  I'm working my ass off to check six, and now I understand why no one else seems to be struggling to see me at low 6...

 

[1Sascha]

On 12/19/2023 at 6:06 PM, =475FG=Dobs said:

Stupid question but how do you get the linda blair view with VR?   Is that necksaver at work?  I'm working my ass off to check six, and now I understand why no one else seems to be struggling to see me at low 6...

That is Necksaver, yes.

 

I don't fly multiplayer, so I don't worry about "cheating", but I figure that given what traditional head-tracking will allow you to do, Necksaver is a bit of a must in VR. I mean.. technically, TIR/Opentrack is VR Necksaver on steroids, but for monitor-users.

 

Plus: You still *can* get that Linda Blair view without it, it's just (literally) a pain in the neck to do so.

 

I should probably also note that my video up there was shot with cockpit-restrictions disabled.

 

 

S.

Edited September 3, 2024 by 1Sascha