Oculus Rift & Arma 3?

[gagagu 21]

As far as I know at least one bis dev is working on vr. Whether this is another project, side project, or getting arma 3 ready is another story .

 

They can make and DLC of it so they are able to earn money for this.

 

I have still big issues with arma (vorpx, opentrack) and my dk2. It's hard to find the correct settings (resolution, ratio, opentrack) to play arma with dk2 and no manual.

All manuals i found are using old programm versions (oculus Runtime, Arma, VorpX, Opentrack) and not usable anymore. :unsure:

[gamerscout 0]

imo Occulus Rift & Arma 3 would be a godlike combination! I'm already excited! :D

[KeyCat 131]

If I get a OR/Vive I would defiantly pay for a A3 VR DLC. VR may not be mainstream yet but I'm sure it will be within a couple of years when price has dropped and HW improved.

 

/KC
 

[glocks999 0]

I hope when i buy it it runs

[NeoArmageddon 958]

Hey guys, I was on the Dreamhack/DreamExpo in Leipzig this weekend and tested the Rift with several demos (Project Cars, Cryteks Dinosaur Island, Asleep (best experience)) and now I am very skeptical that the Rift is a good choice for ArmA3. It is a nice gimmick, but definitly not ready for regular gameplay, especially not with A3. 

 

My bet is on the Vive (or no good VR in the near future).

[Gruman 123]

@Neo

If I may, was that allready the CV or still the DK2?

[sqb-sma 66]

Hey guys, I was on the Dreamhack/DreamExpo in Leipzig this weekend and tested the Rift with several demos (Project Cars, Cryteks Dinosaur Island, Asleep (best experience)) and now I am very skeptical that the Rift is a good choice for ArmA3. It is a nice gimmick, but definitly not ready for regular gameplay, especially not with A3. 

 

My bet is on the Vive (or no good VR in the near future).

 

 

Very inane post, please go into more detail (Rift version, Vive version (if tested) etc)

 

I have used:

Rift CB, Rift DK2 (owned), Rift CV1, Vive DK, Vive Pre1 and of all of these the Rift CV (i.e. what we will get if we buy a Rift now) was the best HMD. 

 

Optics were clearer than the Vive, FOV was similar but noticeably wider in the Rift, more square in the Vive. Tracking was just as good within the 3m playspace I walked around in. 2 Cameras were being used and I noticed no occlusion except one time when I held the touch controller upside down to shoot "gangsta style". The Vive's tracking was far, far less precise but did feel a decent amount more reliable within the 5.5m playspace with 2 lighthouse ems with less occlusion jitter.

 

If I were to choose one HMD, it would be the Rift CV.

 

If I were to choose one handtracker... uh. This ones tough. For shooters it would be the touch, for exploration the Vive (the lack of jitter, and amazingly precise actions on the touch made the difference for me. Occlusion was not as big a factor as I was expecting)

 

Now, on to the present state of Arma 3 in the ORDK2 with VORPX

 

Yes, asynch timewarp works, it's not making a big difference though. Unlike Flyinside FSX this just feels... well I can't tell if it's doing much but I do notice the smoother viewpoint and borders not moving. FPS feels like going from 65-75 in a well configured Rift game (as in, the relative difference) except you're starting at 35fps.

 

The higher the FPS gets, the more this goes away, but there's negative accel on the head movement of the player that gets worse at higher FPS. All mouse accel disabled (none is present when aiming the gun, but pressing alt to move the head independently noticeably introduces neg accel, this is likely why the game makes me feel so sick even with asynch timewarp) everywhere, in game, forced off through a windows mod, disabled at all stages and not present unless moving the head alone. 3D is still not geometry 3D so FOV is still incorrect which drives me insane.

 

It is not currently playable, but, assuming we get geometric 3d and the accel is removed from free head look, asynchronous timewarp will make this game playable. I have no doubt about that. 

 

We may even want to look at in engine asynch player movement and aiming, or decoupled server fps for a single client PC (i.e. run all the AI, physics, ballistics, sound independently and ensure that player control is always updated at a scheduled and forced rate like 60 or 75fps by running them independently. I have no doubt this would be a glitchy mess but it's something I've been thinking about). This would be hard, harder than asynch timewarp for sure. But there is certainly a precedent in racing games for unsceduled processes coming secondary to scheduled, forced, primary processes with fixed update rates. It would take a huge engine upgrade.

 

But what's next? Assuming we get all that?

 

Well... hand tracking.  There are demoes, and I've faffed around with a couple and made tweaks, where you are already shooting using RH, STEM etc. With the touch and vive hand controllers I think many in the arma community would love to see (from the devs themselves) Inverse Kinematics animations for headtracked and handtracked soldiers, handtracked weapon solutions, (and the following as optional or modded solutions) 3D inventory spaces and physical pouch management.

[Incontinentia 339]

Very inane post, please go into more detail (Rift version, Vive version (if tested) etc)

 

I have used:

Rift CB, Rift DK2 (owned), Rift CV1, Vive DK, Vive Pre1 and of all of these the Rift CV (i.e. what we will get if we buy a Rift now) was the best HMD. 

 

Optics were clearer than the Vive, FOV was similar but noticeably wider in the Rift, more square in the Vive. Tracking was just as good within the 3m playspace I walked around in. 2 Cameras were being used and I noticed no occlusion except one time when I held the touch controller upside down to shoot "gangsta style". The Vive's tracking was far, far less precise but did feel a decent amount more reliable within the 5.5m playspace with 2 lighthouse ems with less occlusion jitter.

 

If I were to choose one HMD, it would be the Rift CV.

 

If I were to choose one handtracker... uh. This ones tough. For shooters it would be the touch, for exploration the Vive (the lack of jitter, and amazingly precise actions on the touch made the difference for me. Occlusion was not as big a factor as I was expecting)

 

Now, on to the present state of Arma 3 in the ORDK2 with VORPX

 

Yes, asynch timewarp works, it's not making a big difference though. Unlike Flyinside FSX this just feels... well I can't tell if it's doing much but I do notice the smoother viewpoint and borders not moving. FPS feels like going from 65-75 in a well configured Rift game (as in, the relative difference) except you're starting at 35fps.

 

The higher the FPS gets, the more this goes away, but there's negative accel on the head movement of the player that gets worse at higher FPS. All mouse accel disabled (none is present when aiming the gun, but pressing alt to move the head independently noticeably introduces neg accel, this is likely why the game makes me feel so sick even with asynch timewarp) everywhere, in game, forced off through a windows mod, disabled at all stages and not present unless moving the head alone. 3D is still not geometry 3D so FOV is still incorrect which drives me insane.

 

It is not currently playable, but, assuming we get geometric 3d and the accel is removed from free head look, asynchronous timewarp will make this game playable. I have no doubt about that. 

 

We may even want to look at in engine asynch player movement and aiming, or decoupled server fps for a single client PC (i.e. run all the AI, physics, ballistics, sound independently and ensure that player control is always updated at a scheduled and forced rate like 60 or 75fps by running them independently. I have no doubt this would be a glitchy mess but it's something I've been thinking about). This would be hard, harder than asynch timewarp for sure. But there is certainly a precedent in racing games for unsceduled processes coming secondary to scheduled, forced, primary processes with fixed update rates. It would take a huge engine upgrade.

 

But what's next? Assuming we get all that?

 

Well... hand tracking.  There are demoes, and I've faffed around with a couple and made tweaks, where you are already shooting using RH, STEM etc. With the touch and vive hand controllers I think many in the arma community would love to see (from the devs themselves) Inverse Kinematics animations for headtracked and handtracked soldiers, handtracked weapon solutions, (and the following as optional or modded solutions) 3D inventory spaces and physical pouch management.

Are you using Opentrack out of interest? I get zero lag / smoothing with that set to no filter. Great post by the way. With my DK2, singleplayer is really good except for spotting, which is bloody aweful (but hopefully fixed with CV1). And then there's the unexplained crashes...

[sqb-sma 66]

Are you using Opentrack out of interest? I get zero lag / smoothing with that set to no filter. Great post by the way. With my DK2, singleplayer is really good except for spotting, which is bloody aweful (but hopefully fixed with CV1). And then there's the unexplained crashes...

 

I am using Opentrack... hmm I may mess around further but I did notice negative mouse accel with my mouse (by pressing asterisk to switch to free-look) which was not present in normal look mode. That was a few patches ago and I haven't double checked, time for some testing!

 

I did also have it working via some sneakiness with reshade/reallight (which I love).

 

When that method got broken (and unwilling to give up some of the awesome reallight features and stay on an old MER config) I kinda just lost interest. The vanilla game does not look realistic in the Rift when it comes to colour and lighting and that is not nice in a game that was (fingers crossed your suggestions work) not great Rift implementation anyway.

Edited January 28, 2016 by sqb-sma

[gagagu 21]

What display resolution and ratio settings are you using with your dk2?

[simon1279 52]

I think the main problem is its price:

700€, seriously? The same price as a new pc...

 

indeed for that price i prefeir to buy a brand new high end top gamma GPU

[sqb-sma 66]

What display resolution and ratio settings are you using with your dk2?

 

 

Well, your comment got me thinking. My resolution has been really low in the Rift and it's getting frustrating. So I fiddled around and discovered something pretty amazing.

 

Normally, we are running that game at 16:9, so the FOV values in the config file are at that ration. i.e. 1.559x2.77 (or something.... can't remember exactly).

 

But the Rift FOV is not like that, is is 960x1080 dimensionally which is then doubled, so it is 8:9 (H:V). Paradoxically, I found a value of 9:8 fit best with the rift  with VorpX in Stretch mode, so set your FOV to be 1.559x1.384 or 1.559x1.24 and test that out. Try the infantry showcase and make sure your weapon's reflex sight is CIRCULAR, not an oval or anything. In pixel 1:1 I *think* the opposite values (i.e. 1.559x1.755) will be accurate. Keep your in game resolution at 1920x1080.

 

If in doubt, you're multiplying by 1.126 or dividing by 0.888 to get the second resolution. If you find the resolution ratio and setting that works for you tell us! These settings made my game far, far clearer. I'm still tweaking it and getting rid of a little warping but there's almost 0 wasted screen space (compared to nearly 50% before).

I also turned off the EWMA filter as suggested, much clearer head movement.

 

Lastly, I found a way to get the current reshade version working with all effects and 3D in the Rift. It introduces one extra frame of thread lag so it's not so advisable... but it can be enabled and disabled on the fly so if the extra frame is bothering you you can turn it off! Huzzah. 

I've also configured my 3D settings to be 1:1 to reality on Stratis (Z-Normal - Separation = 0.25 - Weighting = 0.05) and Altis (Znorm - Sep = 0.35 - Weight = 0.10) These seem fairly accurate but with Z buffer 3D it's hard to say. It's easy to go too far when you're looking for the 3D effect up close, but then you lose scale. So I adjusted it by standing next to a 2 story building and comparing my mind's expected scale to the in game scale. It doesn't look as flashy as 1.2 like some people use, but it does feel more natural after a while. Also my IPD is only 61 so YMMV. 3D does not appear unless FSAA is enabled 2x or greater and sampling is at 100%.

I'll update/new post with some download links and more accurate values once I get back to my PC.

[sqb-sma 66]

Ok, here we go. Closest I could find to 1:1 Aspect ratio. Resolution is almost double what it was previously (so clarity is great). Sceen percentage is closer to 90% (previously it was 45-55%, so ~50% of the pixels were literally not making it to the Rift and were just being wasted!).

 

General tips or how not to crash constantly 

 

• Turn off steam overlay (Steam -> Settings -> In game)
• Turn off any recorders and overlays (yes, even shadowplay, just for now. Shadowplay may work later but I know that most of the rest won't work)
• Download Arma3sync http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=22199- Open Arma3sync, go to launcher options and point it to your steamapps/common/arma 3/arma3.exe file - Then (still on launcher options) tick "No Splash Screen", "Default World Empty", "No Logs"
• Open Opentrack, Arma3sync, everything else that may be running when you run arma3 (ensure trackIR is turned off!) then open vorpx, go to configure vorpx, go to excluded programs. Add everything you see (except arma3.exe if that's running)
• A tip, often arma3 doesn't end the process if it crash or closes in a weird way, this will cause even more issues. Press ctrl+Shift+Esc before launching the game and make sure there are NO arma3.exe processes running

 

Opentrack settings 

 

Tracker:  Oculus Rift 0.8

Protocol: Freetrack - (now hit ... next to freetrack) use trackir hide freetrack

Filter: Blank (none), let the Rift run the filtering

 

Mapping: 1:1 (i.e. a line from bottom left to top right, with no point on it. right click to remove a point) for all axes.

Options: Bind a key to center the rift, the go to the output tab. Disable roll.

 

VORPX settings

Ensure Vorpx has the correct IPD for you, the calibration may be slightly off (by +-0.5 normally) and you can adjust it in game. Make sure it's at a setting where your eyes aren't getting tired/sore. 
 

• Aspect Ratio - STRETCH (this takes the image and compresses it from H:V 16:9 to 8:9
• Head tracking ON - Sensitivity = 0 (so it doesn't move your gun when you move your head) - Roll ON. 
• 3D Set to a separation of 0.2-0.5 (map dependent and FOV dependent, with this new FOV I'm using 0.45-0.5). Depth weight at 0.05. It's tempting to set this up too high, DONT. 
• Under Vorpx Config (whilst not in game), go to excluded programs and add everything you can see. Add opentrack, trackir (the actual trackir program shouldn't be running, but the process will show up because opentrack is pretending to be it), vorpx itself, arma3sync. EVERYTHING. You should have a blank list. The only thing not to add is arma3.exe. I know vorpx is normally smart enough not to be fooled... but sometimes it gets this wrong.

 

 

 

In Game Settings + Config settings 

 

In your config file (Documents/Arma3 Other Profiles/ < The profile you play on > you will see two settings, fovtop and fovleft. These should ALWAYS be at the same aspect ratio as the rift which is 8:9 ratio

I use approximately 110 FOV

 

To calculate what values to enter go ti Hi,A3's wide-angle FOV calculator http://hia3.com/tools/ArmA_3_wide-angle_FOV_calculator_online_by_Hi,A3.htm

Set your resoltuon to 960, 1080

Enter 110 as your desired FOV you should get

 

fovTop=2.05;
fovLeft=1.82;

 

(Arma may extend these to 8sig figs, e.g. fovLeft=1.8200001; no worries)

 

Make sure your game resolution is still 1920x1080 because we are going to be rendering that FOV/weird aspect ratio TWICE (left and right eye). This means in the Rift you will see two screens at 960x1080 (or 1:1 resolution draw vs physical screen res)

 

In game, make sure sampling is 100%, FSAA 2x or higher. I'd turn off bloom, DOF, blur etc if I were you. Texture settings above "high" caused crashes after 10-30 minutes for me, likewise for objects above "medium", turn down your draw distances (terrain to 3km, object to 500m) and use ACE mod's FOV based object draw distance so when you zoom you can see distant objects.  

 

controls (in arma 3)                                            

Turn off headtrack zoom, headtrack headmovement etc. Make sure you're only using the rotation values. Arma doesn't support proper positional values for headtracking and more messing around in opentrack is required before it is accurate for vehicles. I'd keep it off for now.

 

Optional: Reshade that works with vorpx

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_mNCkKm_WQtc19RdjJiUmxqUWc&usp=sharing

 

Delete any previous reshade (you may keep your settings in the reshade folder, or replace them with my own. I'd recommend the latter if you get crashes etc. My settings are a subtle variant on Solano/Sore6's RealLight)

 

Drop all the files (and single folder) into your arma3 directory

 

 

How to start the game

 

1. Ensure Opentrack, Enbinjector, Arma3.exe, Vorpx, Arma3sync, trackir and any overlays/recording software are closed by closing them and double check in task manager. 
2. Open opentrack, hit start
3. Open Arma3sync (double check that nosplash, nologs, default world=empty are still there, arma3sync loses your setup if it crashes)
4. (if using reshade) navigate to your arma 3 directory and run enbinjector.exe
5. Start Vorpx
6. Run the game

No crashes (yet)

[sqb-sma 66]

Update: Crash after 20 mins on MP, seems to be related to TFAR? (weird as that may sound)

Elsewise, surprised at having no crashes WITH RESHADE and Vorpx together... Vorpx crashed enough on its own before.

 

So yeah, MP not doable currently.

[Incontinentia 339]

Update: Crash after 20 mins on MP, seems to be related to TFAR? (weird as that may sound)

Elsewise, surprised at having no crashes WITH RESHADE and Vorpx together... Vorpx crashed enough on its own before.

 

So yeah, MP not doable currently.

This is brilliant, I'll be testing later. I've had crashes every 10 minutes previously so really keen to see how some of your tips stop that! I reckon Arma 3 (when it's working) is one of the best first person non-cockpit sim Rift implementations purely because of the lack of gunface. Makes life so much less nauseating. Cheers! 

[sqb-sma 66]

This is brilliant, I'll be testing later. I've had crashes every 10 minutes previously so really keen to see how some of your tips stop that! I reckon Arma 3 (when it's working) is one of the best first person non-cockpit sim Rift implementations purely because of the lack of gunface. Makes life so much less nauseating. Cheers! 

 

 

Best of luck, I also found slightly better stability starting the game with FSAA Off (turned off 3D effect) and open track running but not "started" (tracking). Then turning them both on once the game's going. 

Tell me if anything pops up, yeah? Especially if you manage to solve it!

[kremator 1065]

Following this closely as I have a CV1 ordered for end of March :)

[Incontinentia 339]

Best of luck, I also found slightly better stability starting the game with FSAA Off (turned off 3D effect) and open track running but not "started" (tracking). Then turning them both on once the game's going. 

Tell me if anything pops up, yeah? Especially if you manage to solve it!

It worked mate! Cheers. I think it was the texture quality settings that were crashing the game after all. I also set the malloc to system and haven't had a crash yet. Finding combat a lot harder in the oculus, mainly because I keep jumping out of my skin when some shoots at me! It's immersive as hell. Can't wait for the CV1's resolution though. Feels a bit like pixel hunting at the moment. Apart from flying missions which are very cool. 

[Incontinentia 339]

Best of luck, I also found slightly better stability starting the game with FSAA Off (turned off 3D effect) and open track running but not "started" (tracking). Then turning them both on once the game's going. 

Tell me if anything pops up, yeah? Especially if you manage to solve it!

Have you ever had the mouse pointer appear when in game and disappear from the menu? Having a weird issue now where 5-10 minutes in, the mouse pointer appears when it shouldn't and disappears when it should be there. I suspect it's something to do with ACE but I am not quite sure yet. I'll keep testing. 

 

EDIT: The cursor issue has nothing to do with ACE, it's the Vorpx in-game cursor. Activated by pressing Alt + C. Along with lots of other helpful keybindings that are also used in Arma (depending on your setup!). Check Vorpx in-game keybindings before you play Arma or you may find strange things happening from time to time. Now the final hurdle... access code violation crashes....

[Mozkelby 39]

My performance would go full potato if I used Arma 3 with an Oculus Rift.

[Incontinentia 339]

My performance would go full potato if I used Arma 3 with an Oculus Rift.

You'd be surprised. The idea that you need 70 FPS (or 90 with CV1) is complete rubbish now that asynchonous timewarp has been introduced in Vorpx. Everybody who makes this claim is peddling outdated information. As long as you can get 35fps + and you've got a decent GPU (so your FPS is CPU-bound, as it mostly is in Arma), then you'll be fine with Arma in the rift. This is because the headset remains at 70+FPS and manipulates the image according to where your head has moved. That way, it appears completely smooth and does not make you sick. 

 

Mostly when people can't get 35 FPS +, it's either because they have an inadequate CPU (AMD / older intel) or they are playing poorly optimised missions. 

 

My FPS are exactly the same in the Rift as they are using a monitor, because for me, Arma is only bottlenecked by my CPU. Meaning, I can get 35+ when playing complex ALiVE missions, and it feels smooth. 

[Mozkelby 39]

You'd be surprised. The idea that you need 70 FPS (or 90 with CV1) is complete rubbish now that asynchonous timewarp has been introduced in Vorpx. Everybody who makes this claim is peddling outdated information. As long as you can get 35fps + and you've got a decent GPU (so your FPS is CPU-bound, as it mostly is in Arma), then you'll be fine with Arma in the rift. This is because the headset remains at 70+FPS and manipulates the image according to where your head has moved. That way, it appears completely smooth and does not make you sick. 

 

Mostly when people can't get 35 FPS +, it's either because they have an inadequate CPU (AMD / older intel) or they are playing poorly optimised missions. 

 

My FPS are exactly the same in the Rift as they are using a monitor, because for me, Arma is only bottlenecked by my CPU. Meaning, I can get 35+ when playing complex ALiVE missions, and it feels smooth. 

 

If I know it's not going to badly affect my fps then I might even dip in a little cash to get one. Always wanted to try an Oculus.

[roshnak 41]

This article from Oculus covers the benefits and limitations of asynchronous timewarp.

[gagagu 21]

Hi, i have some trouble with the head tracking. VorpX will move my mouse on moving my head and ingame (e.g. in an car) the head movement will turn the car. I've checked every option many times. On VorpX Menu mosue acceleration is off. But the head movement will still moves the mouse, tool. Any solution for this?

 

Thanks forward

[jumpinghubert 49]

Singleplayer maybe, but if you play a lot multiplayer such high fps are hard to get, nearly impossible.

 

I have a good setup, i7 4790k + a gtx 980ti and 50% of the time i played this game mp i had a hard fight to get more then 20fps. It still happens often enough that i get less then 10fps.

 

Reducing the setting from high to low does not helped me, when i have these low fps the game does not care if i run it on high or low.

Give fred´s malloc a chance. I pushed from 24fps to 37 minimum fps in mp. On the other hand there is no chance of high fps if the server is crap.