X-Wing Alliance VR mod

Here you can find help for how to best run and setup your XWA VR experience.
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Re: X-Wing Alliance VR mod

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:39 pm

OK, thanks for the information, I'll try to reproduce the problem on my end too. I'm guessing the squished reticle happens all the time?

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Thu Jul 09, 2020 5:14 pm

blue_max wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:39 pm
OK, thanks for the information, I'll try to reproduce the problem on my end too. I'm guessing the squished reticle happens all the time?
In fact it happens to me too. I didn't give it much importance but I may be able to help if you can't reproduce it.
It happens all the time and also when translating the head, it doesn't point to where the laser hits.

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Post by aaadmiral » Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:38 pm

blue_max wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:39 pm
OK, thanks for the information, I'll try to reproduce the problem on my end too. I'm guessing the squished reticle happens all the time?
yup all the time

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Fri Jul 10, 2020 6:31 am

I got a repro, I'm looking at the problem now.

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Post by isometricbacon » Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:35 am

X-Wing Alliance in VR has been my pipe dream for so long, I was amazed and incredibly excited to hear about this mod.

Unfortunately I'm struggling to get decent performance. Appreciate it's still a work in progress - quite frankly I'm incredibly impressed at how you've managed to hack this 20 year old closed source rendering engine to be improved so much!

After lots of reading and tweaking, I've managed to get Oculus Tray Tool to tell me it's hitting 72hz reasonably consistently, though the cockpit is still extremely jittery.

This is with Steam VR at 50% res, and the in-game resolution set at 640. (XWAUP was installed at 1080p)

My hardware:
Ryzen 3600X
5700XT OC
16gb single channel ram
Oculus Quest, with Link / Virtual Desktop

Things I've tried:
Reinstalling XWAUP with various settings / different cockpits etc.
Different SteamVR resolutions
Updated ddraw.dll posted another page back.

A couple of questions:
Any good way to diagnose potential faults further? The usual Steam Performance Profiler doesn't seem to pick up the game when it's running in VR (though it shows Alliance.exe and the resolution seems to affect it). It stays at 2 ms or so, even though it shows XWA is active.

Any tips for performance improvements?

DirectSBS mode, excuse my ignorance, but what is the best way to test this? Is it referring to simply running in 3D flat screen or should it also take up the entire VR fov? I've been trying to get it to run in Virtual Desktops full SBS mode, but it will crash immediately on starting a mission.

Despite the hitching I had a dogfight in the random skirmish missions and it was incredible!

Ironically enough I think the last time I was here about 20 years ago, with my then PC struggling to hit usable framerates with the awesome updated visuals of XWAUP.

Now, 20 years on, I'm still struggling to hit framerates!

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m0rgg
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Post by m0rgg » Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:07 am

isometricbacon wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:35 am
X-Wing Alliance in VR has been my pipe dream for so long, I was amazed and incredibly excited to hear about this mod.
I can relate :D
After lots of reading and tweaking, I've managed to get Oculus Tray Tool to tell me it's hitting 72hz reasonably consistently, though the cockpit is still extremely jittery.
The performance should improve a bit once blue_max merged one change I have been working on.

There is still some jitter in the headtracking, probably due to the camera pose being injected directly into the process memory.
This is with Steam VR at 50% res, and the in-game resolution set at 640. (XWAUP was installed at 1080p)

My hardware:
Ryzen 3600X
5700XT OC
16gb single channel ram
Oculus Quest, with Link / Virtual Desktop
I haven't tested Virtual Desktop or Link, but I believe with Link you should get lower latency and better image quality.

With that GPU, not sure you are GPU limited. Try increasing the resolution in SteamVR, you shouldn't have a big impact.
A couple of questions:
Any good way to diagnose potential faults further? The usual Steam Performance Profiler doesn't seem to pick up the game when it's running in VR (though it shows Alliance.exe and the resolution seems to affect it). It stays at 2 ms or so, even though it shows XWA is active.
You have the SteamVR advanced frame timing, but not sure there is much to see there.
The main XWA process is xwingalliance.exe. The one you mention is the launcher.
The real way to determine the cause of the frame drops is using GPUview, but it's a bit cumbersome to capture the trace and analyze it. If you have the will, I can try to write a detailed procedure.
Any tips for performance improvements?
Disable the text renderer in ddraw.cfg.
Also check this post

https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewt ... ce#p164943
DirectSBS mode, excuse my ignorance, but what is the best way to test this? Is it referring to simply running in 3D flat screen or should it also take up the entire VR fov? I've been trying to get it to run in Virtual Desktops full SBS mode, but it will crash immediately on starting a mission.
You may be able to get it to work with VD, but the goal was to compare performance and make sure SteamVR is not the culprit.

Patience, I believe there is still room for improvement on the performance side.

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ual002
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Post by ual002 » Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:48 am

isometricbacon if you just posted in the JRS social group, hiya.

Btw, I just bought myself a quest so I could help test VR stuff. Hopefully we can iron out the bugs.
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Post by isometricbacon » Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:59 am

Thanks all!

I realised I hadn't had hook_time.dll installed the second time around, and this time it made a pretty great difference. At 50% I am getting OK framerates in the mission simulator with minimal jitter, though things are pretty blurry.

Tried running some campaign missions - and though the perfromance is pretty spotty, particularly with lots of capital ships on the screen, it feels incredible and is worth it just for the insane panic that happens when you are jousting an enemy, blow him up, then just narrowly miss his craft debris it screams right towards your face in VR :D.

Let me know if there's anything else I can test out performance wise with my setup that may help.

Curious - is there any possibility of disabling the updated models and going back to XWA original models? (albeit with the dynamic cockpit models and updated shader effects) - normally I wouldn't dream of such a thing, but I'm curious if it would make my performance any better.

:Edit: - Also, I don't think i get a squished reticle, but I do have a problem where the sights on the dashboard don't line up with the actual laser convergence point. It makes dog fighting a little more difficult when I have to aim above where it's telling me to get a hit. I've tried both using the period key to reposition as well as swapped the reticle to not use stereoscopic as mentioned in the last few pages.

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ual002
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Post by ual002 » Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:31 pm

I got squished reticle with Rift2. Will report with quest when I get it.

BTW you can have multiple installs. If you install a vanilla game, stop. Copy and paste that, rename the copy and mod that. That way you always have a reference vanilla install to mess with.
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Post by Commissar » Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:32 pm

Just got all this set up, and it's a dream to fly with my Rift S. The 2D menus and pre-rendered videos (like the starting ones) are less great, lots of tearing and low FPS there, but I can just pop the headset off to deal with those on a monitor.

Even my kid agrees!

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ual002
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Post by ual002 » Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:44 pm

Ah there he is. Howdy there Jolly Roger. [Salute]
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Post by Commissar » Mon Jul 13, 2020 5:49 pm

Yeah, it's easier for me to do post things while I'm "at work" than at home.

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Tue Jul 14, 2020 1:07 am

isometricbacon wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:35 am
This is with Steam VR at 50% res, and the in-game resolution set at 640. (XWAUP was installed at 1080p)
The in-game resolution doesn't matter very much. It will affect the size of the text, so choose something that makes things readable. I usually go with 1280x1024 or close to that. The SteamVR resolution does have an impact on performance. I tend to go with something between 50-60% resolution.

m0rgg has been making some performance fixes that were still being tested. It looks like a few users have reported that it's stable, so I'll be merging those changes into my branch soon. That should help a little bit as well.
DirectSBS mode, excuse my ignorance, but what is the best way to test this? Is it referring to simply running in 3D flat screen or should it also take up the entire VR fov? I've been trying to get it to run in Virtual Desktops full SBS mode, but it will crash immediately on starting a mission.
The crashes are probably happening because the DIrectSBS mode defaults to using FreePIE as the tracker. So you need to install FreePIE, or select "tracker_type=SteamVR" in CockpitLook.cfg (although I've never tried that hybrid combination, I'm guessing it should work). This mode should cover the full FOV as well.
Now, 20 years on, I'm still struggling to hit framerates!
There are some challenges associated with running in VR, but your machine is good enough to get a decent (30-45fps) peformance except when the screen is busy with lots of ships or geometry. Sadly, the geometry is still being computed in the CPU, which is suboptimal.

Yes, there's a way to keep some of the old OPTs to get better performance. I think you just have to copy the OPTs and INI files from the vanilla version. Or you can just install XWAUP 1.6 plus the dynamic cockpits and stop there.

I'm currently working on fixing the squashed reticle and HUD.

I believe the others have already addressed your other comments, but feel free to ask questions.

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Post by Britarnya » Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:06 am

Hello! I found this mod on a random google search and now I can say I'm hooked shooting rebel scum in a fancy Tie Interceptor. One issue I have ran into is that the XYZ positional tracking is reversed, so when I stand up, my view lowers deeper into the seat, and etc for each other axis. Every direction is reversed when I try and lean, and couldn't find anything about this issue. I was wondering if there were configs I needed to change on my end. I tried setting positional_x_multiplier to 0, and even -1, with no luck.

EDIT: I seem to have fixed it myself by simply reinstalling the original installer. Seems some .cfgs got mixed around. Thank you for the mod, regardless! This is such a blast to play in VR!

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Post by blue_max » Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:42 pm

Britarnya wrote:
Tue Jul 14, 2020 7:06 am
One issue I have ran into is that the XYZ positional tracking is reversed
Hello Britarnya, and welcome to the forums.

The positional tracking should not be reversed, but if not, then yes, you'd need to flip the signs on the "positional_x/y/z_multiplier" settings in CockpitLook.cfg. I'm glad you figured it out though.

I'm also about to post an update that should help fix the squashed reticle and HUD that some users have been experiencing, so stay tuned!

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Post by cylonsurfer » Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:50 am

Hey, I just tried the latest version of the mod. It seems to have come on leaps and bounds now! No more distortion while moving your head about. Is it still possible to alter the scale of the cockpit? I felt things were a little too small. Great work though! Oh yeah, while I remember, performance seems to have taken a massive hit though, I could barely get through the tutoiral mission without lots of stutter.

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:40 pm

cylonsurfer wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:50 am
Is it still possible to alter the scale of the cockpit? I felt things were a little too small. Great work though! Oh yeah, while I remember, performance seems to have taken a massive hit though, I could barely get through the tutoiral mission without lots of stutter.
I removed the option to scale the cockpit, but you can move the POV. Look at POVOffsets.cfg. If a cockpit feels small then it probably was modeled small. The TIE fighter, for instance, feels really small and I think some rebel fighters have the seat a little too high too (almost felt at chest level). However, you can change the IPD using your HMD settings too.

For the performance, make sure you've got ProcessAffinityCore=0 in DDraw.cfg. Also check that you've got the latest hook_time.dll. Reduce the SteamVR resolution (I've got it at 50%). You may also reduce the FOV a little bit (Ctrl+Alt+Shift + Left/Right Arrow) so that XWA renders less stuff. I was able to play the second tutorial mission the other day without problems. Yeah, there's some occasional hiccups here and there, but the framerate was good enough to be playable.

I'll be merging the changes by m0rgg soon, so that should help improve the performance as well. He has done a very good job in that area, so stay tuned!

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Post by Ace Antilles » Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:25 pm

Going to move this topic into the new XWA VR Help Forum area.
Chief XWAU Team annoying nitpicker.
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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Sat Jul 18, 2020 1:49 am

I just posted a new update for the VR mod here:

https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 36&t=12793

The reticle and HUD should not be squashed anymore. I'll focus on improving the performance in the next update by merging the work that m0rgg has done.

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:35 am

cylonsurfer wrote:
Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:50 am
Performance seems to have taken a massive hit though
Hey, I just thought of something. What is the refresh rate of your monitor? If it's above 60Hz, try setting it to 60Hz.

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Post by isometricbacon » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:54 am

Ran a few subsequent tests, including returning all the original OPT models (simply by copying the original directory back over).

The original geometry didn't seem to make that much of a difference performance wise. A very slight improvement, but still appeared to be quite hitchy performance in hangars and tour missions. Note - this still had the general XWAUP updated effects and dynamic backdrops and so forth.

Recording my Radeon stats through a playthrough (with XWAUP models) revelead that the GPU jumps up and down a fair bit, but does hang around 90 - 99% load pretty consistently. CPU hovers pretty much consistently around the 22% usage mark.

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Trevor
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Post by Trevor » Sun Jul 19, 2020 1:26 pm

Bug in Jul17 beta
Lights don't shine on objects but space does...
So, a face directly illuminated (perpendicular) by a sun will appear black while a face parallel to the sun will appear full-bright

Code: Select all


  X Sun

black
____
    \  0.5 bright
     \
      |
      |  full bright
     /
____/ black
black
Trev

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:05 pm

I can't say I like SteamVR. About a month ago I started noticing that the VR Compositor starts consuming so much CPU that I can't even move my mouse around and I have to shut it down... even when no HMD is connected! This also happens with the Null driver (i.e. without any real VR hardware). It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens frequently. So, what I'm saying is that having CPU at 22% usage doesn't necessarily mean that the game is consuming that much CPU. I wish I could go back to the SteamVR from a year ago.

Anyway, @isometricbacon: try setting ProcessAffinityCore=0 in DDraw.cfg and make sure your monitor is set at 60Hz, you can also try this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i260h2hbzauqt ... 9.zip?dl=0

I've merged m0rgg's performance changes with my version, so this is functionally the same as the beta from July 17, but it should have better performance. Personally, I can't tell anymore because SteamVR is weird.

@Trevor: can you post a pic? Illumination can be a bit tricky.

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Post by Trevor » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:14 pm

great news that settings such as positional_x_multiplier and 3d_window_size are no longer required (or used) and my rendering looks awsome.
I measured 1m ingame and real and they match.
My IPD is 65mm in both real and game
and I love the new aspect corrected 2d elements (although still changing ingame res to match HMD is the best as it "Squares up" the HUD

As for pic, yeah here

And headlights still work as expected.


Trev
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Post by aaadmiral » Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:33 am

blue_max wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 5:05 pm
I can't say I like SteamVR. About a month ago I started noticing that the VR Compositor starts consuming so much CPU that I can't even move my mouse around and I have to shut it down... even when no HMD is connected! This also happens with the Null driver (i.e. without any real VR hardware). It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens frequently. So, what I'm saying is that having CPU at 22% usage doesn't necessarily mean that the game is consuming that much CPU. I wish I could go back to the SteamVR from a year ago.

Anyway, @isometricbacon: try setting ProcessAffinityCore=0 in DDraw.cfg and make sure your monitor is set at 60Hz, you can also try this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i260h2hbzauqt ... 9.zip?dl=0

I've merged m0rgg's performance changes with my version, so this is functionally the same as the beta from July 17, but it should have better performance. Personally, I can't tell anymore because SteamVR is weird.

@Trevor: can you post a pic? Illumination can be a bit tricky.
wonder if things will improve with OpenXR..

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