I’ve recently been experimenting with VorpX, OpenTrack and Virtual Desktop in order to play older sims with the Oculus Rift. So far, I’ve had decent success with Il-2 1946 and Il-2 COD. They’re playable and the resolution is only slightly worse than in native VR games like DCS or Il-2 BOX.
Unfortunately, the main sim that I have in my sights, Falcon 4 BMS, has not been playing nicely. Namely, it crashes if I start it with Oculus Home running. I need to troubleshoot some more because I’m dying to see if it’s possible.
Would any of y’all be interested in me detailing the settings I’ve been using? I’ll be upfront, it’s playable, but definitely not as slick as a native VR game. Then again, there aren’t many native VR sims with F6Fs…
Stupid question perhaps because I don’t know what the limitations are for older programs - but would Enemy Engaged: Comanche Hokum be a candidate to try VorpX with?
Frankly, I can’t remember if EEAH and EECH can use TrackIR. Basically, you output the video display in fullscreen in the Rift, with the screen locked in front of your vision (like a helmet visor vice a movie screen). Then, OpenTrack translates your head movement into a TrackIR signal. It actually works pretty well. The main hang-up is latency; You need to have enough overhead to run the sim and the Rift with high frame rates. No ASW, unfortunately.
I need to reinstall EECH and give it a shot. The graphics are probably just right for the Rift resolution, too.
Alas, I broke my Warthog stick yesterday, so I’m working with an old Suncom stick. The good news is I’ve learned what and exactly how much a new articulation sphere costs! Unfortunately, I’ve been messing around with this vice trying new sims in the Rift, or Harriering.
I was getting up from my pit and tweaked my center mounted stick, causing the ‘articulation sphere’ to crack. It gave my stick about 45 degrees of free twisting play and caused the tracking to go all out of whack. Thankfully, I’m not the first person to do this, and someone on the Russian Il-2 forum has already made a 3D printer compatible CAD drawing of the part. $18 from Sculpteo and I have a nylon replacement on expedite. I’ve also heard there is a 3rd party brass upgrade/replacement in work.
It is also making me seriously consider a different stick base. I like my Warthog stick, but I’m worried the nylon articulation sphere won’t last very long.
So I was reading a Reddit thread about the coming update of VorpX…people’s opinions vary on it…but what is this Direct VR they are referring to? From what I can extract from the conversation, it doesn’t require as much finagling as some other VorpX setups maybe?
It’s hard to tell what is hype and what is legit about it. Some things sound appealing…I’ve never played Half Life 2 or GTA5…so to play those initially in VR might be cool if I don’t have a non-VR experience to compare it to and be jaded… $40 isn’t cheap for something that has such a wide range of praise and criticism.
I haven’t looked at any of their upcoming updates, so I have no idea. Frankly, a lot of what you can do with VorpX is also possible through VirtualDesktop. I did get Skyrim working with VorpX (before there was Skyrim VR) and it was pretty slick.
So far, my biggest hurdle has been simply nausea. I’m perfectly fine in flight sims in VR, but movement in older FPS style games gets me after a while.
When my WT sphere broke I was forced to buy a complete base from TM. I was angry enough to start looking at replacing it. I have not done so because I have not found anything compatible.
I haven’t tried it. Honestly, I haven’t played SF2 in any of it’s forms in quite a long time. Frankly, I didn’t really like the A2G mechanics. But, if it’s TrackIR compatible and can run with blazing frame rates on a modern system, it’ll work!
I was actually playing Il-2 COD/Blitz today in VR and it’s awesome! The Beaufighter is a bomber killing machine and no mistake.
Most of these titles run great with just OpenTrack and Virtual Desktop. So far, I’ve only needed VorpX for Il-2 1946. Falcon 4 BMS needed a bit of tweaking within the F4 configuration, and the MFDs are pretty unreadable unless you zoom in. It really makes me want to try a Pimax, though it doesn’t have native head tracking, right?
Dang…it’s almost worth getting VorpX just for the possibilities…even though I suspect I’d just throw a controller at my monitor. I think it requires some patience and joy of tweaking - two things I’m not really known for.
I think it does. It just shares the hand controller and HMD tracking tech with the Vive, i.e. the Lighthouse system.
For the Virtual Desktop use, are you seeing things like IL-2 COD in 3D, or is it just reprojected like a flat 2D globe around you? I’ll have to give it a go, as I have Virtual Desktop, but so far only had a quick go on Rocket League and the like.
For the Open Track, what’s the steps to set-up like?
Man, don’t say that. I’ll be forced to buy one soon and then I will never leave my garage again. I’ll waste away, pee into bottles, etc…
I used this for the basic setup. Falcon 4 BMS took a little bit more finangling. Each sim needs slightly different settings. So far, COD has actually had the worst head tracking. I got a lot of XYZ axis movement, so I had to dial them all down in OpenTrack. Turning my head was resulting in head movement all over the cockpit. I’m still figuring out all the various settings in OpenTrack.
I’ve had the best luck with flat 2D. VorpX let me see Il-2 1946 in 3D, but tracers and a few other effects made it a little wonky. I actually preferred it in 2D. Frankly, I don’t miss the 3D effect that much. You still get that ‘Wow’ VR effect, even in 2D, thanks to the 1:1 head tracking.
It certainly does. And it makes you appreciate native VR sims even more. I really wanted to see what Il-2 1946 and Falcon 4.0 would be like. They’re 75% there. With higher resolution and decreased latency (or ASW) they would be 99%.
Just tried this, so some steps if it helps anyone. Set up I used:
Opentrack is essentially taking the position data from your Rift/Vive headset and converting it to TrackIR output, so that the older games receives trackIR data. I used the most recent OpenTrack version here:
So for a Rift, used the Input as the 1.4 runtime and output Freetrack.
Note: Do go to options and set up a ‘recenter’ key, as you’ll need it.
Next up set up Virtual Desktop to run your game. I added the ‘Launch’ binary of Cliffs of Dover Blitz (and renamed it in VD, as it was called ‘Launcher’ or something):
So essentially click on the ‘Games’ tab of Virtual Desktop, hit ‘Add Game’ (bottom left) and pick the .exe that gets run. I turned off ‘multimonitors’ in Virtual Desktop, but other than that changed nothing.
Run Cliffs of Dover by hitting that big ‘Play’ button in Virtual Desktop. I set it up as follows (although this might be a personal thing of settings):
a. I used the Virtual Desktop touch controllers two ‘grab’ buttons to zoom my desktop in a bit, as it was not full screen. How do you like to run yours @SierraAlphaMike? Do you have a VDesktop environment showing or do you have a ‘full screen’ globe or something?
b. Once in the air in Cliffs of Dover, I went to the Settings / Controls and changed the ‘Camera’ bindings for the ‘Field of View +/-’ to some keys. I could then set up a nice ‘zoom’ level for where I was in the cockpit (plus used that opentrack ‘recenter’ key I had bound earlier).
c. Fly! It’s not in 3D but it’s far nicer than TrackIR. Performance was great.
So, worth a try, plus let people know settings that work for older games.
$40 isn’t cheap for something that has such a wide range of praise and criticism.
