Skyrim and Vireio

[Ardhal]

Hi Guys,

forcefakevideocard=1 in enb.ini and deferredshadows=1 skyrim_prefs.ini disables best of enb´s effects. BUT it does fix shadows. I think most of the new effects are based on deferred rendering.
ALL new effects like Reflections and his own Grass shadows work fine in 3d if deferred rendering is on. Only Skyrims own shadows are at screen depth or jumping around.

Boris and i worked together to fix the 3d vision anomalies a year ago. Boris has added a special folder in which shaders can be put the overwrites the standard shader.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4367

Because he has no stereoscopic equipment his interest in doing 3d fixes wasn´t so high as for adding features. Maybe someone with a lot of shader knowledge can add more/better fixes?

Hey! Didn't realise you were in our midst here. Yeah, from reading the forums earlier, it did look a lot like Boris wasn't interested. And I can understand why, so few people play in 3D.

[virror]

Feel free to add any findings to the wiki so we have everything collected on the same page: http://www.mtbs3d.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vireio ; )

[QUAKE]

Still messing with the relative "strength" of the throws but its pretty fun to just launch shields. I accidentally threw one at myself and saw it did damage, so I went and found a mudcrab and shield-threw him to death, ha.

Firstly, great job!

For strength, I propose adding a trigger setting, so the more a trigger is pressed, the harder the item is thrown.

[norgoth]

guys you are awesome !!!!!!!
thanks for your work. can t wait to try it when i have my rift

[shiva]

Feel free to add any findings to the wiki so we have everything collected on the same page: http://www.mtbs3d.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vireio ; )

I just added a full summary of our brainstorming with Ardhal yesterday (that was quite some internet teamworking ), it's all here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=141&t=17258

[Ardhal]

Feel free to add any findings to the wiki so we have everything collected on the same page: http://www.mtbs3d.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vireio ; )

I just added a full summary of our brainstorming with Ardhal yesterday (that was quite some internet teamworking ), it's all here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 97#p120897

It's a real crime we can't high-five after all this . Good job with the summary!

I'm focusing now on removing all the sudden jumps to third person. With everything else resolved that sorta seems like the next big thing.

[shiva]

Feel free to add any findings to the wiki so we have everything collected on the same page: http://www.mtbs3d.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vireio ; )

I just added a full summary of our brainstorming with Ardhal yesterday (that was quite some internet teamworking ), it's all here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 97#p120897

It's a real crime we can't high-five after all this .

Yeah man, I feel like we just kicked the Kraken's ass using only wooden sticks and petty insults, it's a damn shame we can't celebrate with booze and Odin's personal Valkyries
Great idea working on the immersion-breaking fatalities thing, it's clearly the next step to go to attain full immersion
WHERE ARE YOU YOU GODDAMNED RIFT, DADDY NEEDS SOME SUGAR

[shiva]

I'm focusing now on removing all the sudden jumps to third person. With everything else resolved that sorta seems like the next big thing.

Hey man, you know alot more than I do about Skyrim's config, did you already test this command? set the global variable "killmoverandom" to a percentage probability of a finishing move occurring: "set killmoverandom to <value>" where "value" is from "0" (won't ever happen) to "100" (always happens)

EDIT: just now thought about when your own character dies, and also switch the cam to 3rd person, which is probably more what you were focusing on. So this command won't be enough.

EDIT2: there's a mod to force all finishers to play in first person view. Keep the gore, don't break the immersion. Shiva likes. heheh
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... /?id=11160

EDIT3: this other mod is interesting as it disables the whole player-death animation and gives you a whole new "ghost approach" when facing death, I'll try it in 1st person view tonight to see if it breaks the immersion or not (although it does feel a little like cheating )
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/16311/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7IRitMHbcc

Maybe there is something you can re-use out of these, let us know

[Ardhal]

Yeah there's another one called dance with death someone just reminded me about over on the bethsoft forums. I used to use it, and it basically let's you completely customise what kind of killmoves occur and when. To be honest its a bit far reaching for what we want, but I've been playing around with it.

As far as I'm aware, there isn't any mod that removes the pop to third person when you, say, start crafting or get on a horse - but my hope is that if you're expecting it to happen, it wont be much of a problem. Its the sudden jumps without warning in combat that are the big ones, and we can get rid of them.

I was also thinking about dying in first person while you ragdoll to the floor. That could be very nauseating! But, then again, it's a nice way to drive home the fact you just died, and perhaps it'd be a good idea rather than a bad one. No way to check yet though.

I also desperatley want hear how it feels to play Skyrim with the rift and having a DoF effect going on. Can anyone try it out and let us know? Pleeease?


Edit:
About that death mod video above! In Oblivion there was a cool mod called ''death has consequences'' and I'm pretty sure there is a skyrim version too. It meant that every time you died you would get long lasting stat reductions that became more and more severe as you went along. It was an old favorite of mine, one of those things that really made you scared when exploring a new dungeon for the first time. Maybe this is sort of unrelated to VR at this point, but I want Skyrim to start scaring me again - and that could be a nice way to do it.

[laast]

@Ardhal
If you want more challenge and thrilling, you can use Skyrim Unleashed, my own gameplay overhaul.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25869

(Sorry for the self-advertising )

[norgoth]

I will use the death has consequence mod when i ll try your skyrim vr. certainly a way to improve immersion

[VadersApp]

Does anybody know why skyrim + enb + vireio crashs after 3 seconds in game? I have checked with different saves and also a new game. I also have tried different enb versions, deactivated all mods, deleted enb effect files. If i set useEffect in enbseries.ini to false it does not crash of course enb is loaded but inactive.

[Ardhal]

Does anybody know why skyrim + enb + vireio crashs after 3 seconds in game? I have checked with different saves and also a new game. I also have tried different enb versions, deactivated all mods, deleted enb effect files. If i set useEffect in enbseries.ini to false it does not crash of course enb is loaded but inactive.

Is it working with just the ENB and nothing else? If this only happens when you are trying to chain them together, post us what the top of your enbseries.dll file looks like.

If you want more challenge and thrilling, you can use Skyrim Unleashed, my own gameplay overhaul.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25869

(Sorry for the self-advertising )

Haha, can't blame you for trying! I'm actually going to give SkyRe a shot when I play with the oculus. I don't want to go too mad with the difficulty (I intend to mount my razer hydra above my head, so I have 360 degrees to spin around) and that will be my only means of turning - so no super fast twitch gameplay from me! I'm focusing mostly on mods that slow down the gameplay and amp up the tension.

Stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fHpUk99Vk (strike that. I thought there was a first person version... But you get the idea!) and disabling fast travel, etc.

[VadersApp]

Here is my current config. It is my own complete enb config with version 0.159, vireo setting and skyrim.ini and skyrim_prefs.ini files (of course not in the correct folder).
If you wanna give it a try, be sure to backup your old enb config.
I think it is looking fantastic, i worked on it several weeks.

The crash always happens 4 seconds after the savegame is loaded (even if i start a new game), it does not crash at the menu.

[shiva]

Here is my current config. It is my own complete enb config with version 0.159, vireo setting and skyrim.ini and skyrim_prefs.ini files (of course not in the correct folder).
If you wanna give it a try, be sure to backup your old enb config.
I think it is looking fantastic, i worked on it several weeks.

The crash always happens 4 seconds after the savegame is loaded (even if i start a new game), it does not crash at the menu.

If it's a custom made enb there are chances you're gonna get unexpected behaviors with vireio.
For me the disappering NPCs were happening with a non-altered, up-to-date version of the ENB Realvision. Works fine by itself, millions of modders using it with no problem at all, fire it up with Vireio and boom, invisible draugrs and sh*t
Ardhal suggested disabling true values to false in the enbseries.ini, until you find which one is responsible for the bug. I dichotomied the whole file until I found my answer, you could try that

[VadersApp]

Which version of realvision enb are you using? I will download and try it.

Edit: Downloaded the latest version, changes sunrays to false and it crash.

What vireio version are you using?

[shiva]

ENB Realvision http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/30936
Vireio beta 12
And for your enbseries.ini, you don't have the same problem as I did, u crash, I had invisible ghouls and sh*t, so the fix isn't gonna be the same for you (I guess). You have to test each 'true' variable in there and see if it's one or more of them that provoques the crash by turning them off

[Ardhal]

Sorry about the wait, I went to sleep (at last).

Just had a quick look through your config files. Firstly, have you made sure your NVidia/ATI graphics settings are a completely blank state? You could set up a new profile for Skyrim and ensure everything is forced off to be sure it's not a problem on that level.

Your directory structure looks fine. The proxy settings in your enbseries.ini is also set up correctly. Your Skyrimprefs.ini looks fine - a wierd resolution to play at but I saw you added a comment . Your Skyrim.ini looks fine except whats that added ''Verlet'' section at the bottom?

As for the enbseries.ini:

Mind me asking why you have 'fix parallax bugs' enabled? Are you using project parallax, and if so, is that change actually required?
Have you tried ''forcefakevideocard''?
Why is ''useeffect'' set to false in the global section at the top? This turns the added post processing off, and these are what seem to resolve the shadow issues, etc.

Perhaps its the [GAME] Speedhack=true being enabled. This looks to me like a very possible culprit? Maybe because i'm unfamiliar with it.
Try turning off ''enable image based lighting''.
What does ''shadowcastersFix'' do? I have this disabled in my ENB and I'd be cautious with the shadow rendering changes.

Other changes between our enbseries.ini's look like just questions of taste, so I really doubt it's them.

If it's none of this, I would recommened running a resource monitor of some kind so that you can see if it's Skyrim crashing, or your hardware crashing because it can't handle Skyrim. If it IS Skyrim crashing I'd suggest looking through your load order to see if theres anything that isn't playing nicely. Try using BOSS and read the log to see what issues/tips it offers about your mods. Any conflicts with ENBs?

Failing this, move all your enb stuff and Skyrim inis somewhere else and generate a fresh set of them, with a fresh ENB install straight from Boris's website. Also get a fresh copy of percpetion to be sure (latest version). Don't bother getting a specific ENB setup from nexus or anything, just add the proxy straight away with boris's defaults.

FAILING THAT! The dreaded words, get a fresh install. If it's not working on a completely fresh Skyrim with fresh ENB/Perception install then it's for sure some wierd hardware problem. And you should have caught that earlier when I said to monitor your hardware.

Good luck!

[mm0zct]

I don't know why noone else has noticed it or suffered it, but in skyrim my head dracking has a sort of "deadzone", if I move too slowly the game literally doesn't move the aim at all, I have to turn quite fast, but I can move the game with the mouse slower than this threshold, making it seem like a vireio problem. I have mouse acceleration off.

Anyone have any idea how to fix it? I didn't notice it in mirror's edge (although the view rolling incorrectly when you look down is disorientating).

[Neil]

I don't know why noone else has noticed it or suffered it, but in skyrim my head dracking has a sort of "deadzone", if I move too slowly the game literally doesn't move the aim at all, I have to turn quite fast, but I can move the game with the mouse slower than this threshold, making it seem like a vireio problem. I have mouse acceleration off.

Anyone have any idea how to fix it? I didn't notice it in mirror's edge (although the view rolling incorrectly when you look down is disorientating).

I just tested for this, and I don't have the problem. Can you describe the hardware you are using?

Regards,
Neil

[gray]

...
I am attempting to write a comprehensive Guide to getting Skyrim up and running from a fresh Vanilla install to a VR friendly state.

Ardhal, are you in a position to post your guide so far? My rift has just arrived and I'd be interesting in seeing the state of play in person so to speak.

[Ardhal]

...
I am attempting to write a comprehensive Guide to getting Skyrim up and running from a fresh Vanilla install to a VR friendly state.

Ardhal, are you in a position to post your guide so far? My rift has just arrived and I'd be interesting in seeing the state of play in person so to speak.

Hey! I'm so sorry but It's not done yet. There's been a fair bit of back and forth as we've been working on it, so I don't have anything in a great state just yet.

It's not very hard though, if you've ever installed mods before! Follow along the discussion we have in this thread and you should be fine. I'll type out a quick, rough list of steps for you here. If you get stuck on any of them, just have a close read of this thread/google and you'll be fine.

1. Install skyrim, latest version.
2. Install Perception Drivers, latest version.
3. Open the ''bin'' folder in the perception folders. Copy/paste ''d3d9.dll, hijack.dll and libfreespace.dll'' into your skyrim install folder (so they are next to skyrim.exe and so on).
4. Rename the ''d3d9.dll'' you just copied to ''d3d9Virieo.dll'' .
5. Download ENBseries from here: http://www.enbdev.com/mod_tesskyrim_v0113.htm .
6. Open the wrapper version and just place the new d3d9.dll in your skyrim install directory. You don't need the other files.
7. Download this specific ENB here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11318
8. Open ''core presets'' And chose a quality setting depending on your system. Copy these files to your skyrim folder, but you don't need the 'data' folder.
9. Open enbseries.ini (located in the same place as everything else) with a something like microsoft notepad.
10. Make sure the top of the text file looks like this:
[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=true
InitProxyFunctions=true
ProxyLibrary=d3d9virieo.dll

Then in the [effect] section change ''EnableSunRays=true'' to ''false''.
If once you start playing you find other effects annoying, you can set that to false here too.

11. Leave your skyrim install directory and go to my games/skyrim. You'll see two more .ini's there. Open just regular skyrim.ini (not skyrim prefs).
12. Add this block of text to the [Interface] section. (If [interface] doesnt exist just add it)
fSafeZoneX=175
fSafeZoneY=50
fSafeZoneXWide=175
fSafeZoneYWide=50
13. Now go to Skyrimprefs. Go to the [display] section and make sure:
bDrawLandShadows=1
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
and a bit further down:
bDeferredShadows=0

Save and exit the .ini.

14) Before you play skyrim, turn on perception like you would for other games but leave the top box as 'disabled'. Just pick your headtracking method.

15) Lastly, when you get in game, press the tilde key (to the left of '1' on the keyboard) and simply type ''fov 110'' without the quote marks. That will stop things feeling so zoomed in.

Now Skyrim should be good to go! ...Sort of. I've been hearing about crashes from people using the tracking, as well as a myriad of other small things. But this is the barebones. UI should work, there should be no artefacts on screen. Good luck! And please report back what you find. You may need sky/water meshes to fix some stuff or all kinds of things, the more comprehensive your report the better ^^.

[gray]

Fantastic thank you for putting that together

[Ardhal]

No problem, I just made a couple of edits so beware if you already blasted through it

I am super jealous btw.

[shiva]

7. Download this specific ENB here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11318

Holy mother of all that is good and pure. I'm trying this one 2night. F*ck sleep.

[Ardhal]

7. Download this specific ENB here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11318

Holy mother of all that is good and pure. I'm trying this one 2night. F*ck sleep.

Argh no! That's the wrong one again, haha. I'm using it atm but I'd like to direct people to realvision first since thats what we're both confirming it to be working on. But superb, supposedly, has 100% compatibility with Nvidia 3dvision so it could be a good candidate for perception. That's why I'm playing with it now.

[mm0zct]

Neil:

My hardware/software configuration is:

Windows7 x64
AMD HD7870
AMD PhenomII 1055t (6 core 2.8GHz)
8GB DDR3 1333MHz
Logitech M325 & Saitek GM3200 mice connected
Generic HP PS2 keyboard

I have a hydra but it wasn't plugged in. I don't have any Skyrim mods. I'll play around with it some more tonight.

[gray]

...
Getting the release point just right is really hard...

Still messing with the relative "strength" of the throws but its pretty fun to just launch shields. I accidentally threw one at myself and saw it did damage, so I went and found a mudcrab and shield-threw him to death, ha.

Weapons could be fantastic, if you're active you might want to start a new thread and we can help you test.

[rmcclelland]

@Ardhal

A few notes to add to your post:

5) There are two directories in the zip file. Does only one get unzipped into your Skyrim folder? InjectorVersion or WrapperVersion? I put the contents of WrapperVersion into my Skyrin directory. Is that correct?
7) Which file should be downloaded? I choose the first one, Option A EdgeAA...
14?) Do you have to run Perception.exe and select Oculus Rift and OculusTrack?

Unfortunately, it crashed on me after a few seconds in the game. Very tantalizing! Any suggestions?

[Ardhal]

@Ardhal

A few notes to add to your post:

5) There are two directories in the zip file. Does only one get unzipped into your Skyrim folder? InjectorVersion or WrapperVersion? I put the contents of WrapperVersion into my Skyrin directory. Is that correct?
7) Which file should be downloaded? I choose the first one, Option A EdgeAA...
14?) Do you have to run Perception.exe and select Oculus Rift and OculusTrack?

Unfortunately, it crashed on me after a few seconds in the game. Very tantalizing! Any suggestions?

Hey! Sorry about the late reply, sleeps again.

5) It's the wrapper version you want. You also don't need ALL the files in the wrapper folder, just d3d9.dll . I'll edit the original post I guess.

7) I actually may have made a poor judgement call when linking to that specific ENB, because it's designed to work with a mod called the realistic lighting overhaul. That said, option A should be the best fit, and it shouldnt matter that you don't have RLO.

14) Don't bother running ''Oculus Rift'' in the top drop-down box. Remember when you copied those files over to your Skyrim install directory from .bin in the perception folder? You just made it automatically apply the Oculus rift 3D effect. If you then select it when you run perception too manually, I can only assume it's like you're trying to do it twice, and it probably while you're crashing. Just choose the tracking.

Edit:
Okay the guide above has been altered to /again/ swap the .enb I'm recommending. It's not really a big deal I just want to keep it as simple as possible for people who don't even know what an .esp file is to get it up and running. I picked superb because I've read a few times that it worked very well with NVidias 3D so maybe it will for us too.

Edit2:
I wanted to confirm my suspicions and see if it did, indeed, crash because you chose 'Oculus rift' in the drop down box. It doesn't. I was wrong. So I don't know what the problem is...
It does, however, crash when I chose ''Oculus Track'' for a tracking solution - but then I can't know if that's the real cause because I don't have a rift so it probably just can't detect anything.

[JamesMccrae]

I have been playing Skyrim on the Rift using Vireio. Amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing! Very playable! I am super impressed at how well it works!

To Cybereality, baristan6, and whoever else had a hand in it, you guys are AWESOME. This is soooo good... Thanks to you guys a lot less work is getting done, but I couldn't be happier!

I read some previous posts - I didn't have to copy any dll's around. For me, setup was simple:

1) Download the Vireio perception (the new one "beta 12" that has Oculus Rift and Tracker support, http://vire.io/download/ )
2) Edit the /My Games/Skyrim/SkyrimPrefs.ini, zeroing out anywhere and setting false any entry that mentions shadows
3) In game, console using ~, "fov 110"
4) Set the mouse sensitivity under "Gameplay" - somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 seems OK for me

(Edit) Tried the UI settings previously mentioned in this thread for the UI, the left menu is not visible and that is an issue, so after a process like gradient descent not knowing what effect the parameters would have, I reached something workable that is actually a huge improvement in usability! You can see the inventory menus properly now, and damage and weight of items, but value is still hard to see. Also the compass is in view, but still to the periphery - with the 150 settings it was too much in the centre for my taste, which takes away from the immersion a bit):

5) Edit the /My Games/Skyrim/Skyrim.ini file and appending:

[Interface]
fSafeZoneX=0
fSafeZoneY=0
fSafeZoneXWide=250
fSafeZoneYWide=80

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING... Tempted to load up on all the DLC for an even newer experience I used to play Skyrim using nVidias 3D Vision kit with the 120hz monitor as close to my face as possible, but this is on another level

Enjoy a new world adventurer!

[laast]

I have been playing Skyrim on the Rift using Vireio. Amazing amazing amazing amazing amazing! Very playable! I am super impressed at how well it works!

Thanks for giving us so much hope! Can't wait to try it! I'm also playing Skyrim in 3Dvision and it is really amazing, so I'm really curious about the "next level"...

You can remove the compass, set bshowcompass to 0 in the .ini

Did you use sky/stars meshes fix?

[Ardhal]

Very exciting! Thanks for the new values with the UI, too!

Also, how pronounced is the 3D effect?

[JamesMccrae]

Did you use sky/stars meshes fix?

I am going to have to look into that. The current problem seems to be (as it is for many games shown in stereo) that the sky "box" (or sphere, whatever shape they pick) has a very small radius around your head which they render, then clear depth buffer, then render the normal scene. The result when you add stereo separation is that the sky looks super close, when in fact you should observe no disparity, because it should be at near-infinity. Two potential solutions would be: 1. make the scale of the skyboxes large (a hunch of what I think they did in the fix without looking into it), or 2. have just the skybox also translate with each "eye" in the modelview transforms (not sure this is even possible, given the pathway for stereo rendering).

Very exciting! Thanks for the new values with the UI, too!

Also, how pronounced is the 3D effect?

In short, it's great! The 3D effect is customizable, but I have found a setting that works well. Presently you use F2/F3 to adjust eye separation, and F4/F5 to do convergence (cross-eyedness, also F5 is a painful key because it's bound to quicksave in-game). My strategy here is to get the convergence so that view directions are near-parallel, then I set the separation to 0 (hold down F2), and then bump it up with F3 looking down at e.g., a floor and a table until I feel the relative distance and scale of things resembles reality. The vireio perception program seems to save the settings between game executions (awesome!) and I found a config file under Perception/cfg/profiles.xml which looks relevant and I'm attaching. (My numbers might not be optimal, but they're working for me)

Again I can't stress it enough this is so AWESOME. That kid in me wanted Skyrim working really, really badly Last night when Irileth and I killed the first dragon by the watchtower, I crept inside it's ribcage like it was a cavern (probably a very strange thing to do, but with the Rift it was too cool not to, hahaha )

[Ardhal]

Oh man nice, thanks for the profile! That'll be a nice starting platform for other people to tweak perfectly for their own eyes too.

I feel like I need to pry as much info from you as possible, no one seems to really be extensivley playing the game in the rift yet. Just trying it for a few hours then backing out again. So please answer any you see fit to keep up sane

How does the resolution feel, with specific regard to Skyrim? This is the only thing I feel like is going to dishearten me, when I first look at how great it all is on my monitor and then being bumped down. Any thoughts on that?

How do conversations with NPCs feel? Does the headtracking allow you to look about comfortably? Are you playing with a 360 controller? (I believe that would affect how the cutscenes play out).

How is the combat? Are you using anything to stop the jumps to third person all the time? If not, how bad/wierd does it feel when it happens?
How is combat in general, with all the staggers and blurr effects?
Do you feel like you're floating about as you explore tamriel? Like you move unnaturally fast?
Have you got any mods going at /all/?

What are the snowy areas like? One of the greatest things about the old epic citadel demo's was the snow - does skyrim feel the same? I would guess if that's true, the falling autumn leaves in the forests about Rift should feel pretty great too. (And the rain?)
How does the stereoscopy compare indoors to outdoors?
Whats your average FPS while playing? Has it impacted your immersion at all? Get much stutter when loading new areas?

I'll stop now before I put you off.

[JamesMccrae]

Hahaha, you are crazy dude, but for a fact I was too while I was waiting for mine (interesting fact - the Rift I'm using isn't mine, it's being borrowed from someone close by! I'm number 58xx in the Rift queue). Yes, I do feel like the luckiest SOB in the world - the Rift I've got was in the first 2x shipped

OK to your questions:

How does the resolution feel, with specific regard to Skyrim?

Compared to playing on a monitor, the resolution is definitely low. The ratio of size of number of pixels compared to the solid angle in your view is quite small. A bird circling in the sky high above may only be 3 pixels wide. Speaking subjectively, generally objects which are distant from you are pretty hard to make out. All that said, it's still AMAZING. The benefits of high field of view + stereopsis + head tracking completely trumps the resolution. The experience is still awesome.

How do conversations with NPCs feel? Does the headtracking allow you to look about comfortably? Are you playing with a 360 controller?

The conversations are a little weird because your view direction is locked, except when your mouse cursor touches the window extents (which you can control with your head, so it's like your head is an input to a rate of motion controller as opposed to being connected to your view direction 1 to 1).

Aside from that though, when your view direction is not constrained, it works pretty great. You have to configure the mouse speed but that's an easy one. Also, since the head tracking is emulated in a sense through mouse input (providing a change in orientation rather than specifying an absolute one), you have this issue where you might be looking forward in reality but looking up in game. So you need to use the mouse to sort of "ratchet" or recalibrate that looking forward is forward. Not a big deal though.

No 360 controller, I use keyboard and mouse. I can even ~ and do the fov 110 thing without needing to do the trick where you tilt your head up and look down the ridge of your nose to see.

How is the combat? Are you using anything to stop the jumps to third person all the time? If not, how bad/wierd does it feel when it happens?

My main experience has been doing archery, but I have dome some melee as well. Overall it's great - this one time a wolf came at me and scared the crap out of me. Same with spiders. It's pretty awesome. There is an issue where your weapon is not rendering at the correct depth (the separation causes it to appear more distant than it should be), again this problem is pretty pervasive to first person games.

Haha, yeah. The first few times the slow motion third person thing happened I was like "what... the hell", but now I take it as "sudden out of body experience.... ah yes, the fatal blow". Given the option to have it on or off though, I think I might disable it. But it was pretty cool that the last arrow I shot to kill the dragon, I "rode that arrow" off the watchtower into him.

Do you feel like you're floating about as you explore tamriel? Like you move unnaturally fast?

I guess there is a "gliding" motion, but my head is not really keeping perfectly still, and the setup is such that your head dictates what direction you walk so you will be making minor corrections. I don't think the running is unnaturally fast, I feel like the walking might be a bit slow though

Have you got any mods going at /all/?

None. Sorry

What are the snowy areas like? One of the greatest things about the old epic citadel demo's was the snow - does skyrim feel the same? I would guess if that's true, the falling autumn leaves in the forests about Rift should feel pretty great too. (And the rain?)

I've seen some debris and things floating around in the air here and there, but haven't yet made the trek up to the throat of the world (the big snowy mountain ) If I had to guess though, I think slowing down such particles would actually help - in the Tuscany demo the particles have a slow relaxed flow and your brain has a moment to resolve where they are in space, whereas the quick kind of particles I think might pass by so fast they will just be blurry.

How does the stereoscopy compare indoors to outdoors?

Speaking subjectively, in the outdoors you have these very distant views of the mountains around you. It is picturesque and grand, however since the objects are so distant there does not appear to be much variation in depth to them, so they are not as interesting in that way. It's as you move closer to things and the separation comes into play that you get a better sense of where these surfaces are hanging in space. So both situations have merits. I have been through "bleak falls barrow" through the dungeon there - the really tight cramped spaces are very cool to take your time and walk through - very cool but also unpleasant and scary too hehe

Whats your average FPS while playing? Has it impacted your immersion at all? Get much stutter when loading new areas?

Never measured my average FPS - but it's smooth. I've played in various resolutions but had the most luck rendering 1280x800 (though I find rendering higher actually improves the sampling post-distortion and makes edges appear smoother - kind of a "post distortion anti aliasing". Quick side story: the guy who borrowed the Rift from, had a PC and video card a few years old, while it could render at 1280x800 at a pretty consistent framerate, it wasn't perfect and the aliasing (we tried Tuscany) was pretty severe. I tried it on my own PC at 1920x1080 and BAM instant improvement, much less aliasing caused by edges, or by foliage whose texture has an alpha component transforming in the fake breeze, etc. Anyway...).

No stutter. My PC has an AMD 1055T processor (I'm cheap ) and a GTX670 video adapter (I'm not that cheap after all ). Desktop is cloned across screens, desktop compositing disabled (windows 7).

Immersion... oh man.... most immersive thing I've ever played. That's why I can't stop going crazy about how AWESOME it is, and it seems every time I come on here, there's a new tweak or fix to make things even better.

I can also verify you can have a few non-virtual meads, and it is still awesome, you don't get nauseous. That's verified.

[gray]

Hoping to do some decent testing soon (again thanks for the install instructions), I'm just trying to build up a tolerance to the motion sickness. I get it really bad IRL so it's super bad in the Rift. Been pretty much sick all week .

How does the resolution feel, with specific regard to Skyrim? This is the only thing I feel like is going to dishearten me, when I first look at how great it all is on my monitor and then being bumped down. Any thoughts on that?

First impressions of most people will be that the resolution is super low, and looks lower than it would appear on a monitor because you are so close to the Rift's screen. You can see the RBG components of the pixels, screen door etc. If you've ever sat right upclose to a CRT television it's a similar effect though better resolution. Any motion causes slight blurring. But, once you stop looking at those things and get on with exploring/playing the game you forget about it and feel like you're actually in the world. It's almost hard to remember what it's like once I'm 'out' because it's so far from what we're used to with monitors. It's a paradigm shift along the lines of playing Doom1 when you've seen 2D sidescrollers all your life.

[Sinsinful]

Amazing work Lads! I've been following this thread from the start and every time I see a new tweek to improve the experience it makes me glad i decided to order a Rift dev kit. I see there is a hud fix on the thread now and was wondering does it do anything to make the menus readable? I recently read a very negative article stating that the text in the menus will never be readable in a rift headset, what do you guys reckon?
I'd also like to thank all the guys working on the perception drivers.
Keep up the great work guys!

[spire8989]

What are the snowy areas like? One of the greatest things about the old epic citadel demo's was the snow - does skyrim feel the same? I would guess if that's true, the falling autumn leaves in the forests about Rift should feel pretty great too. (And the rain?)

I've seen some debris and things floating around in the air here and there, but haven't yet made the trek up to the throat of the world (the big snowy mountain ) If I had to guess though, I think slowing down such particles would actually help - in the Tuscany demo the particles have a slow relaxed flow and your brain has a moment to resolve where they are in space, whereas the quick kind of particles I think might pass by so fast they will just be blurry.

Try the college when you get a chance. The 3d effects are always stunning there when I play in 3d on my projector, I bet its amazing on the rift.

[MisterPete]

Cymatic Bruce, have you tried setting up helixmod using the proxy dll method? Does that still result in 'shadow slipping'? helix fixed deferred shadows for stereo 3d after skyrim 1.5 and before 1.6 when I had pointed out that you could disable deferred shadows and delete a few of the helix shader files to remove the helix shadow fix.

If you really get into skyrim you'll want helix's patch anyway since it fixes the water depth issue (along with a few other things like sky/aurora/stars depth and adjustable hud depth). Basically the water refraction shader has to be disabled and that can't be done with the ini files. Unless somehow vireio doesn't have the water depth issue that nvidia's 3d vision does, which would be good to know.