Need help with RF2 and VR

[Spinelli]

Just got a Pimax 5K Super. I'm having a difficult time figuring out how VR works in general with all the "middle-man" programs but I'll try to keep this as specific to RF2 as possible.

1. First off, I'm confused on the resolution. There's the resolution in-game, the resolution in Pi-Tool (the Pimax settings program) then there's the resolution in Steam VR. What is all this? 3 different resolutions that somehow all work at the same time? What is going on???

2. Just for now, I want to run RF2 at native settings for my headset screens which are 2560x1440 each. The problem is, RF2's settings are not detecting the VR headset, instead, they're detecting my monitor and the resolutions and refresh rates are going by my monitor, not my headset. So the max res it shows me is 2560x1440 and the max refresh rate is 240 Hz. How do I set the game to the proper resolution and refresh rate for the headset?

3. I set Pi-Tool resolution to 1.0 which, I'm assuming means native (2560x1440 / eye). However, when I do the same in SteamVR - I set it to 100% - the resolution it shows is 2560 x 2104. So that means SteamVR is going to be messing with the resolution and aspect ratio? I just want to run everything in Native res for now to keep things simple and to avoid image scaling, potential distortions, etc. Other than old-school CRT monitor, LCDs should not be run at anything but there native resolution. Try setting the resolution of your monitor in your Nvidia or AMD control panel to anything but your monitor's native resolution, the image will look like junk.

4. I have Pi-Tool and SteamVR set to 90 Hz but RF set to 240 Hz. How is that possible? Why is RF2 not detecting / knowing that I'm using a VR headset?

5. Pi-Tool and SteamVR are both fairly centred in my VR view but RF2 is on the right-side. So I have to turn my head sharply to the right in order to look straight in the VR world. Why is this happening? How do I fix this?

6. How does the FOV work? Does RF2 automatically detect the VR headset and the FOV I'm using and then auto-adjusts the game's FOV for that particular headset & FOV setting so that it achieves a 1:1 scale with real-life? I want to make sure I'm using the "proper" 1:1 FOV setting.


I feel like I'm not understanding how VR works. It feels like even games with native VR support have only be "hacked" by a modder to get VR to work rather than truly natively. I mean, if VR support was natively built into a game, why do we need Pi-Tool (for Pimax headsets)? Why do we need SteamVR? Why does the game itself (RF2 in this case) not even know/detect I'm using a headset (it's still reporting my regular monitor's compatible resolutions and refresh rates in the games' gfx settings). If a game truly had native VR support, shouldn't we then be able to just boot the game up, select in the graphics options that we're using a particular headset brand & model, select the res/eye, select the refresh and be done?

When I use Nvidia 3D Vision. You still play the game as normal. Set the graphics from the Nvidia Control panel like you normally would, set the resolution and refresh rate from the game like you normally would, etc. etc. Why is it not like this with VR? Why are we setting the resolution from 3 different programs? Lol! I'm so lost...

3 days now I've been messing around and am still completely lost. Sometimes i feel like I should just quit VR, get a refund, and go back to 3D Vision on triple 27" monitors...

 

[xeroborn]

I agree, vr setup is simply absurd right now. I’ve spent many hours over the last month getting various sims up and running with my reverb g2.

For rf2 I use something called rf2 settings widget which is helpful, it’s got some of the 3rd party apps built in. I don’t know how to start the game in pancake mode lol so I guess we have different issues there.

Just a couple general things

- I run 70% res in steam vr and 100% everywhere else. 70% on my system seems to work for every game I want to play.

- open fsr or some other upscaling is pretty much required, but with upscaling I can get 90 fps and respectable image quality in pretty much every game. The settings widget above has open fsr and foveated vr built in.

Games aren’t optimized for vr and you are pushing a lot of pixels at a high fps. Don’t know about you but Frame drops in vr make me sick- the headroom from upscaling gives a nice smooth experience.

- fpsvr on steam is like $3 and will help you figure out your pc perf. I was running a higher res and running out of vram, this program helped me figure that out amongst other things

- I’ve been thinking about why this stuff isn’t built into the vr platform. My guess is high end vr is such a niche no one cares.

- there’s apps on your phone that will measure your ipd. Def worth setting that correctly. On my headset there’s a slider. Others let you adjust it in different ways (software etc). I haven’t otherwise touched rf2 fov settings.

- racing sims (rf2 is my fav) are glorious in vr when set up properly.

 

[Vitor Costa]

In order to get RF2 on VR you have to begin with RF2 Graphics Configuration on Steam and change the VR setting from disable to HMD only (only on VR) or HMD + Mirror (VRscreen)

 

[Vitor Costa]

I understand your concerns, we`re mine too. After some months now I´m getting confortable with VR in the sims I use, AC, ACC, RF2, DR2. Buy fpsvr on Steam, it*s essencial to get precious information about GPU and CPU and it`s cheap. Help me understand my problem was with CPU and get things working when I upgrade to i5-12600K.

 

[Spinelli]

Thanks for the input guys. Really helped me a lot.

I discovered that the way games are rendered with VR, the way the FOV is handled, what resolution is native, how resolutions are handled in general, etc. is completely different with VR headsets. I had no idea it was so different in the back-end. You have to basically forget what you know about regular monitors / TVs. I highly recommended reading some of the info I received here:

https://community.openmr.ai/t/new-to-vr-and-pimax-lost-and-confused/39157/9