Jyge

299 $ is a bit salty price tag for my presumed needs ...

Every now and then I have a moment that I miss VR Controllers. Also I would like to test couple of other games in VR. So the question is, what is the easiest way to get controllers for Varjo Aero? I saw that there is some - I think Steam application - that emulates Vive controllers, but I think it may not work as, for example DCS does not start SteamVR. The software also costs about 20$ so I do not want to give away that money for nothing. It claims to be able to emulate handcontrollers with two mouse or xbox controller, so basically I might be interested, just do not know if it is of any use with Varjo

I don't really think that the cableless stuff is without performance hit, additionally, I would be loath to recommend anything from Zuckerberg, I am still sour how he shot down the Oculus development, if Oculus would have pursued Santa Fe, it might be that we would have had foveated rendering and depth focus already earlier. But that is besides the point, the headset is maybe a secondary question, I think the selection of a good GPU is where I would appreciate some tips.

A friend of mine indicated interest for rig update and getting into the VR business. Now I myself have had my experiences. I had 1080 Ti for years, it brought me through original Rift, Samsung Odyssey 2 and both HP Reverbs. Once I went for Varjo Aero I updated my own rig and got myself 3080 Ti. Now some might disagree here but I was pretty happy with 1080 Ti and the funny part is that somewhere there coming down from Rift I was always able to reduce the Pixel Density so I actually felt that Reverb G2 was hardly any heavier than the previous low res headsets. With G2 I set it to 1.0 and never touched it ever since. So if I am asked for an affordable solution that runs with an adequate enjoyable experience I would go for 1080 Ti and Reverb G2, but it does not really make any sense to go for 1080 Ti on year 2023 AD, so I am wondering what is the one that matches the performance and comes with a reasonable price tag. I think 2xxx and 3xxx cards costed more than they were worth and 4xxx seems to provide more with less money, so after a quick look I got the impression that 4060 Ti would be the way to go (and Reverb G2). Any takes on this? I personally have not even installed MSFS, so I can not tell how everything works there, not even, if it is heavier than DCS. So I would appreciate some pointers on this one as well.

Just an update. Since I had other problems with headset not coming up after the boot, connection and stuff like that I got a new connection box and cables from Varjo. I do not know if this was the crucial factor, but after I updated my DCS to the latest beta (Varjo base version 3.10.1.14 - fw 0.17.0.486) it just simply worked. I keep my fingers crossed...

So what is the actual take on all this. I have been three weeks on a vacation and this weekend I wanted to fire up DCS. I still have the older DCS build and I do not play online, however, I think it would be still better to get the other improvements, so is it going to work if I update DCS to the latest beta and go for an older Varjo Base? How do I get an older version of Varjo Base? Just in case, does the rollback in DCS still work (DCS_updater.exe update 2.8.6.41066@openbeta) if I give the latest beta a go?

Too busy at the moment with this irritating thing called work, I am afraid it will drag into Friday, but please give an update how it went.

Yes, it works just fine for me now, you will certainly get the feeling and yes, I think the multi-thread version in the end is the way to go.

No, I am actually running the 2.8.6.41066, I'll have to see in one month or so if there is then the next version out and then try that one out. Eventually it will work, it always does.

Like I said I used the command line entry with the DCS Updater - "DCS_updater.exe update 2.8.6.41066@openbeta"

I got my Varjo Aero on Monday and it was running VR only on single thread DCS.exe. And no, the issue was not the checkbox, that was active on my DCS all right. In the end I got the hint on Discord to roll back to previous openbeta. I gave I gave .\DCS_updater.exe update 2.8.6.41066@openbeta and it immediately started in VR with bin-mt/DCS.exe so there is something that was broken on the new version. I hope this information helps to fix it on the oncoming releases.

Ok, somebody gave a hint in discord about rolling back the DCS version. I gave .\DCS_updater.exe update 2.8.6.41066@openbeta and the rollback seemed to work, afterwards I got the VR, most likely with foveated rendering as well, as I installed the Varjo-Foveated-0.2.0.msi somewhere there when I was trying to resolve the VR issue. I even installed the OpenXR toolkit only to be able to disable it... Anyway the rollback seems to be the solution for now. Hope ED will solve this one in the coming versions. I think I need to post the heads-up on that Bug thread as well

Meanwhile I looked at the log in DCS and saw this. 2023-07-19 19:28:22.649 ERROR VISUALIZER (Main): OpenXR exception: runtime is not available Source: Projects\Visualizer\Source\OpenXR\openxr_program.cpp:322 After looking up, I saw this discussion - did not solve my problem though...If I launch with I launch with --force_enable_VR I get this narrow feedback window on desktop, like I usually do when the game is running VR (it does show only single view to DCS, "distorted" like viewing through the headset, not the quad one). If I launch without that force option, I get full desktop size 2D window of DCS. Also the "VR-like" window does not follow headset movement or anything. It is like the game would be running with VR, but completely oblivious to the existence of a headset... P.S at least Varjo support answered - they suspect my connector box or something may be defect and they are going to send me some stuff...we'll see how that will turn out...

Yes, I merely mention the single thread in order to point out that the system is actually running or that the start options that I am using are correct, indeed I want to get to the multi-thread and foveated rendering and anything that the headset can provide, but I think it helps to narrow down the errors to have hat comparison. Yes, I will try out the discord. That should be fun, I am admonishing my kids all the time since they hang around discord all the time and now I am falling down the same way. I need to close the door and see that they don't catch me red handed...

Is it then so that the single thread executable employs OpenVR? I mean, I have --force_openXR on the command line, doesn't it force it with single thread executable anyway. Where is the actual difference to multi-thread? I could disable the OpenVR switch and try it out both with single thread and multi-thread. Ok, I tried --force_varjo_VR and it did not work with multi-thread executable. I tried switching off the OpenVR and VR worked with single thread but not with multi-thread. So I am kind of running out ideas? Can I somehow try a fresh install of DCS? How would I do it? Copy my actual installation somewhere, uninstall DCS and start installation? I mean I do not even need to reinstall any modules, it is enough to see the GUI comes up? Is there something on Varjo configurations (where ever they are?), should I somehow first disable the foveated rendering completely and see if the multi-thread runs at all without it? As I said I haven't (at least knowingly) installed any wrappers or stuff. Would it help to install that mbucchia's wrapper. I do not run SteamVR, I guess there is no need to start it from Varjo Base?

I think I already mentioned that I tried deactivating and activating the VR checkbox once more. Did not work. I have both of those checkboxes activated in Varjo base.

I actually do not even have that OpenXR Toolkit installed on my rig (additionally, that would effect the bin/DCS.exe as well, wouldn't it?). I did a fresh install on Windows 11 Pro some time ago, I barely got my DCS running after that, played couple of times with Reverb G2 and then I got my Aero, so with my older install I had more of this OpenXR stuff that is meanwhile not required anymore. I made a minimalistic approach but it seems that I probably still have some artifacts. Maybe I could install the toolkit in order to deactivate it, but then on the other hand - why does single thread DCS.exe run in VR but multi-thread not? As for the "no joy" part with bin-mt dcs.exe. I have the VR running succesfully with bin/DCS.exe once I change the path to bin-mt DCS starts on desktop without VR. In the former case Aero recognizes the application and in the latter case it says no application running, although DCS is actually running. I think I will just backup my Save Game Folder and delete it and try once more, maybe there is something there. Other than that, I can only think of a whole new clean install of DCS, which is kind of stupid as clean&repair should normally give me the same result. EDIT: deleting the save game folder did not help anything - Varjo Base says "Headset view - no application running" and DCS is running 2D on desktop. After deleting the save game folder I reactivated the use Virtual Reality checkbox, DCS restarted but still in 2D. So there were no artifacts in User Folder. Other than that I send my grievances with the cables to Varjo Aero - rocky start for 2K $ Hardware... Maybe as next I could try "his is done via mbucchia's Varjo Foveated mod Home · mbucchia/Varjo-Foveated Wiki · GitHub, note that OXTRK is not compatible with quad view and should be disabled." from the big Varjo Discussion, but from what I have understood the bin-mt/dcs.exe should at least start in VR out of the box. I have now tried force_steam_VR and force_openXR and I think also without options, one that I did not try until now was --force_varjo_VR or whatever it. I also do not understand a damn thing about "-OpenXR-InstanceExtension wrapper is required for Varjo OpenXR runtime to disable quad view output (no need for Steam OpenXR runtime). When you update VB, this will also need to be reinstalled."

Ok, no joy with bin-mt/DCS.exe - I am not sure about the Open XR Toolkit, where is it and how would I disable it? What else could it be? I ran the clean and the repair utilities for DCS Updater.exe but it was no use. Furthermore, yes, I put the lighthouses and the headset connector box on a separate extension cable with switch, unfortunately after I switched it on, the base was not really complaining about anything but the headset was again gray, then I did my merry unplugging/plugging number until I got the picture. It is very irritating, I am about to contact the support on this one.

Ok, I guess I will see it tomorrow if the headset will come up. Power it up after the PC is up or already before starting PC? did you actually mean exe called dcs-mt.exe in bin-mt folder or just dcs.exe in bin-mt? There is only dcs.exe on my installation under the bin-mt directory. I have a shortcut with "C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\bin\DCS.exe" --force_enable_VR --force_openXR this is what gives me at least somewhat usable VR (for the 5 min I managed last night). Changing that to point at DCS.exe in bin-mt will give pancake DCS running on the virtual desktop - I will test it again since I was messing around with all of those parameters and mostly without --force_enable_VR, which I think was the decisive one that gave me the VR on the single core DCS in the end... EDIT: tested again, with single core executable - Varjo Base window recognizes the Application running and everything is fine, but once changing the path to point at bin-mt folder, Base says that no application is running - I get the pancake. In comparison to flat-out no VR the DCS window is still this VR-View like window (not filling the whole desktop), but unlike with bin/DCS.exe it does not show this quadview, just a single one and it does not react to the headset motion. So in the end I think I should start with getting the stuff to run with bin-mt/DCS.exe executable in VR - first obvious question is, if my start parameters are the correct ones? After that the question is if I need to clean my install, delete some configs from Users Folders, shaders, cache or whatnot and then comes the question, whether I need to install some mod or wrapper or stuff, but I think there is some artifact from my Reverb G2 messing it up and as far as I can recall I used Reverb only with bin-mt/DCS.exe so it would explain it...somewhat...

I got my Varjo Aero today and it is anything but straightforward. Firstly, I got plenty of disconnect and so on messages, somewhere there the base showed me the desktop pic with tracking following the headset movement but the picture in the goggles themselves remained gray. After pulling cables in and out and restarting like 20 times I got the picture. Well, once I shutdown the PC the headset kept running the fan so I unplugged it - same problems with disconnects and the stress before I got the picture again. Is there some graceful way of disconnecting the headset, so that I don't have to go through that hell, or does one just leave it plugged all the time? Is there maybe something wrong with my hardware? I have no idea what I did in order to get the picture back, but the process sure as hell did not please me. In my Reverb 2 I just pulled out the power cord from the connector box? I mean I can also leave the Display Port cable and stuff like that into PC, but I do not really like the idea of the headset running all the time. I saw that there is this a mile long general guide, but it just did not do the trick, at least as a simple starting point, it was too complex insider information about mods and wrappers and what not. Until now I was running multithread executable, worked just fine with my old Reverb G2, but here I did not get DCS to start in VR at all with Aero, I only saw the desktop in the 3D Hanger and the flat DCS came up on the desktop. Finally, when I went for the single-thread DCS.exe and --force_steam_VR option I finally got into VR but the picture looked funny, like my head rotation center was misaligned or something. When I went for --force_openXR I got these four mirrored windows on Varjo Base but at least the game was running in VR and it did not look too bad.

Mine is shipping, I could not resist the special deal with the beacons. I saw that there are some mods for the audio, but some users just seem to be happy with the included headphones. Now, I do not mind a good sound, I am happy with the sound in my G2, I just do not know what's in there. Couple of questions: -If I connect some wireless headphones to my PC via bluetooth, does not it mean that there is no feedback for the sound direction when turning your head (is it called spatial sound), audio is then decoupled from headtracking? Is there any coupling anyways, even when using the 3.5 mm jack on the headset? -Do I actually have any coupling with Reverb G2 - sorry stupid question, I do think that there is, but I have not had it plugged on for three weeks now, because my "homeoffice" is going through a reconstruction and I can not really check it out. What is the situation with the external speakers, my engine is in the back so normally I should hear it from the surround speakers and turning my head should actually give correct feedback, no need for headtracking? Apple Airpods would offer Dolby Atmos, with its own headtracking, but I think, that it is also lost here? -Additionally to the previous question, I formerly had windows 10 and I think that I bought myself some spatial sound whatever, dolby or whatnot. I updated just about a week ago to windows 11 pro and I do not actually see any spatial sound enhancement - well there is an option for "windows sonic for headphones", but at the moment my spatial audio is "Off". I have 5.1 speaker set in my "office", but I am not doing much of home-cinema or stuff like that so I have no idea really if the dolby or dts brings anything for me. (Windows store indicates that I have Dolby Access purchased, so I could actually install it, but no idea if it starts begging for some more money for some abonnement or stuff like that - I simply hate the whole abonnement crap) I think that DCS would have to output stuff in dolby or dts to get any use out of them, right? I am not much of an audiophile, I do enjoy the result, but I really have not dug into the details, I would appreciate if somebody could give a short heads-up with rather simple words.

Yes, that should suffice, at the moment I have a G2 without controllers as well, I am just doing flight-simming with VR.

Is it actually ready to go with that set-up? I just saw some adapters and what not and was wondering if you still need to invest on some accessories and stuff?

Well I saw this YouTube video and looked at the headphones they linked. Affiliate Headphones would not really be that difficult to make custom brackets with 3D Printer, but maybe simple in-ear headphones would do the trick as well. Might just take the road as it comes. The more important question is in fact, whether I want to bleed out 2k for it. I usually clock couple of hours on Saturdays and Sundays, but I am really a sucker for Helo flying in VR since my first trials with Oculus Rift. Back then the vision and experience was like cheap Russian Vodka, Pervitin from -45 and spiced up with ayahuasca, but I immediately sold my trackIR and haven't flown whole 2 minutes pancaking after that. Only later on I learned what Mandalorian said about the VR flying- "this is the way" - that's all there is to it, I guess. Any links for a clinic, buying some badly treated kidneys through the backdoor?

Got me on the fence with this one, but 2k is still a sh!tload of dough. I was too cheap to pay that even for my 3080 ti. I have G2, so the question is, is it really worth it? I might give the G2 to my son and sell his G1 in ebay, but I don't think you get much for that... Then I would be interested to hear if there are some solutions for the sounds or headphones? I do not want to use real over the ear head-phones with that. I might consider getting some bluetooth noise-canceling ones, like JBL reflect aero, but what do the people generally do with varjo aero?