DCS now supports OpenXR natively

[Ulukai]

Maybe a nice to know for the Developers.
The "old" openxr mod 0.6.3  openvr_api.dll  is still working fine with the DCS 2.8.2.... Version, even with Motion reprojection forced on. No freezing no issues per now. It's maybe not DCS itself. I insert it by manually for the test. 

Windows 10, HP Reverb G2 combined with rtx3080 
 

[Mutant_Tractor]

Stupid question:

If I have DCS installed through Steam - Can I launch it in OpenXR native mode? Using a Reverb G2.

My impression is I'd have to add those two command line switches to the default launch params of the game in Steam?

[Baldrick33]

12 minutes ago, Ulukai said:

Maybe a nice to know for the Developers.
The "old" openxr mod 0.6.3  openvr_api.dll  is still working fine with the DCS 2.8.2.... Version, even with Motion reprojection forced on. No freezing no issues per now. It's maybe not DCS itself. I insert it by manually for the test. 

Windows 10, HP Reverb G2 combined with rtx3080 
 

It doesn't work for me if I force OpenXR. If I force SteamVR it does (this is just doing it the old way and hijacking SteamVR to make it run OpenXR)

I guess with today's change if you don't force OpenXR it will run SteamVR by default and then opencomposite will do its thing by having the modded dll in the bin folder.

 

Edit: Just tested it. Today's patch makes the opencomposite dll swap work as before, by changing the priority order, (the same as adding force_steamvr yesterday)

Edited January 27, 2023 by Baldrick33

[Tshark]

16 minutes ago, Baldrick33 said:

I get the same with Windows 10

Same here.  Re-projection still broken.

[Specter]

5 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

updated first post 

• OpenXR is removed from autosearch. DCS has a chain of VR vendors in priority oculus, OpenVR, Varjo, etc. OpenXR was in that chain in top priority, now it is removed from this chain and only available when you explicitly specify it in command line of DCS.
  
  If you need to force openXR in DCS command parameter is --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR

motion reprojection crash is fixed. 

thank you

 

Too many changes in 2 days, I am now really confused!

I have been running DCS OB with Open XR for a while now and had my setup pretty well tuned!  Then came along 2.8.2.35632 Open Beta and all of a sudden it was broken!!  I was suffering the same crashing due to Motion Re-projection Always On as everyone else, so I reluctantly set it to Auto and had a small performance degradation.

I was relatively excited to read that DCS now natively supported Open XR and assumed it was just a case of ED fixing the hang up due to Always On and for me to retune my settings.

I logged on the discord today to see a hot fix.  Was really excited until I found out the hot fix was to remove the auto OpenXR functionality.

I see we now need a command line parameter to get Open XR functionality.  I use  Skatezilla’s DCS Updater Utility to launch DCS.  How do I include a command line parameter in that?

"motion reprojection crash is fixed" isn't really fixed, is it?  If it had there would be no reasong to hide it behind a command line entry.  Has it not just been hidden out of the way so the less inquisitive don't find it again?

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Specter

[diamond26]

2 minutes ago, Specter said:

I see we now need a command line parameter to get Open XR functionality.  I use  Skatezilla’s DCS Updater Utility to launch DCS.  How do I include a command line parameter in that?

@SkateZillaGood question. Any suggestion?

[Baldrick33]

2 minutes ago, Specter said:

"motion reprojection crash is fixed" isn't really fixed, is it?  If it had there would be no reasong to hid it behind a command line entry.  Has it not just been hidden out of the way so the less inquisitive don't find it again?

I believe it is hidden so that it doesn't change the behaviour for all those people that were happily using SteamVR who suddenly found it changed.

Motion reprojection was believed to be fixed but as sometimes happens not for everyone. There are a lot of variables. Hopefully ED can track down the reason it doesn't work for some of us (me included) 

[HoBGoBLiNzx3]

2 minutes ago, Specter said:

 

Too many changes in 2 days, I am now really confused!

I have been running DCS OB with Open XR for a while now and had my setup pretty well tuned!  Then came along 2.8.2.35632 Open Beta and all of a sudden it was broken!!  I was suffering the same crashing due to Motion Re-projection Always On as everyone else, so I reluctantly set it to Auto and had a small performance degradation.

I was relatively excited to read that DCS now natively supported Open XR and assumed it was just a case of ED fixing the hang up due to Always On and for me to retune my settings.

I logged on the discord today to see a hot fix.  Was really excited until I found out the hot fix was to remove the auto OpenXR functionality.

I see we now need a command line parameter to get Open XR functionality.  I use  Skatezilla’s DCS Updater Utility to launch DCS.  How do I include a command line parameter in that?

"motion reprojection crash is fixed" isn't really fixed, is it?  If it had there would be no reasong to hide it behind a command line entry.  Has it not just been hidden out of the way so the less inquisitive don't find it again?

 

 

I wasn't able to get it working with skatezilla, just use the shortcut icon and put in the command line there. It will load you in like it always has. I'm seeing really big performance gains personally. 

People my as well start figuring out how to get their systems to run right on OpenXR because it is what will be used going forward, not just for DCS either.... 

It's a really good thing they made it native, and while no one likes when things aren't as perfect as they were the day before, it will ultimately end up better in the long run. Just takes some retuning.

[YoYo]

4 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

please make a new thread with your dcs logs and tag me please

thank you

Sorry @BIGNEWY, Im at home now and downloaded the hotfix - I can confirm that nothing was solved for OpenXR:

DCS is freezing in menu, the same like it was. Are you the only VR tester or someone else for WMR? 

Pretty please for Hotfix 2.

Edited January 27, 2023 by YoYo

[Ulukai]

47 minutes ago, Baldrick33 said:

It doesn't work for me if I force OpenXR. If I force SteamVR it does (this is just doing it the old way and hijacking SteamVR to make it run OpenXR)

I guess with today's change if you don't force OpenXR it will run SteamVR by default and then opencomposite will do its thing by having the modded dll in the bin folder.

I may not understand you correctly. You tried The "old" openxr mod 0.6.3  openvr_api.dll ? And it is not working ? 

Steam don't run at all in my case. And it also don't hijacked it.  
I just insert the old dll files, and use the  "--force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR". The game jumps directly into the openxr-VR Environment and the Motion reprojection works like always. It also has the same ugly artifacts like always
I attached the dll files files for you guys to try. They belong into the bin folder.

 

Addition: I forced Motion Reprojection inside game in the openxr menu and lock it by 45 fps. 

greetings
 

D3DCompiler_47.dll opencomposite.ini openvr_api.dll

Edited January 27, 2023 by Ulukai

[Baldrick33]

7 minutes ago, Ulukai said:

I may not understand you correctly. You tried The "old" openxr mod 0.6.3  openvr_api.dll ? And it is not working ? 
 

I may not have had that old a version, I will try again.

No, it hangs with "--force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR" part way through mission load, just like the new dll.

The only way I can get reprojection to work is by using the opencomposite dll and forcing it to run SteamVR, Then it runs OpenXR fine with reprojection enabled.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Baldrick33

[zildac]

I may not have had that old a version, I will try again.
No, it hangs with "--force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR" part way through mission load, just like the new dll.
The only way I can get reprojection to work is by using the opencomposite dll and forcing it to run SteamVR, Then it runs OpenXR fine with reprojection enabled.

If you're trying to use OpenComposite then I'd recommend grabbing the latest DLL from here :
https://znix.xyz/OpenComposite/download.php?arch=x64&branch=openxr

[Morphine]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

Just gave Open XR native a try with my Aero for kicks and grins. Did not have quad screen and image looked good in headset however mouse cursor all messed up, can't really click on anything so it is unusable as is for me in the Aero. Back to Steam VR for now, hopefully ED gets a fix for this pushed asap.

Although the DCS 2D screen no longer shows all 4 screens running with the Native DCS OpenXR, they are still there. It is why you have the mis-aligned cursors. I.e.: mis-aligned cursors = quad screen rendering.

[mbucchia]

4 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

thanks we are looking into it, for me I dont get the crash with motion reprojection forced on so we are trying to figure out why it is happening for some and not others 

 

I can confirm that I am observing the same exact xrWaitFrame() deadlock as before. This is the same issues that certain users of Pimax (not WMR) are experiencing too (and there is no motion reprojection involved there).

This is not an issue specific/related to motion reprojection: this is an issue of frame loop that gets exacerbated with specific frame times. The frame loop seems to entirely skip a frame and go back to the top of the loop (which the first call appears to be xrPollEvent()). The last "good" call before that "skip" is to xrGetActionStatePose() to check for motion controller tracking.

The OpenXR API is agnostic of motion reprojection. This is a bug that could happen even without it.

I would look for what can go wrong between xrGetActionStatePose() and xrBeginFrame() and that may cause the code to hit the top of the loop (xrPollEvent()).

Edited January 27, 2023 by mbucchia

[jurinko]

WOOHOO I run DCS 2.8.2 in OpenXR with repro on!

 

1/ I put some old openvr_api.dll from above post into the game folder

2/ I deleted that  --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR addition from the DCS shortcut

3/ I made sure in SteamVR settings there is SteamVR set as OpenXR runtime (inside dev section)

4/ I checked opencomposite dcs.exe in OpenXR Toolkit

5/ I enabled Motion Smoothing both in OpenXR Tools and in Toolkit in-game transparent menu

 

restarted and for the first time understood what reprojection does (it never worked for me before) - holy man it is smooth, even sometimes the picture blobs like when matrix was disturbed.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by jurinko

[BIGNEWY]

15 minutes ago, mbucchia said:

I can confirm that I am observing the same exact xrWaitFrame() deadlock as before. This is the same issues that certain users of Pimax (not WMR) are experiencing too (and there is no motion reprojection involved there).

This is not an issue specific/related to motion reprojection: this is an issue of frame loop that gets exacerbated with specific frame times. The frame loop seems to entirely skip a frame and go back to the top of the loop (which the first call appears to be xrPollEvent()). The last "good" call before that "skip" is to xrGetActionStatePose() to check for motion controller tracking.

The OpenXR API is agnostic of motion reprojection. This is a bug that could happen even without it.

I would look for what can go wrong between xrGetActionStatePose() and xrBeginFrame() and that may cause the code to hit the top of the loop (xrPollEvent()).

 

thanks added to the report I made for the team

[Whirley]

My desktop shortcut points to the DCS_updater.exe. Which is nice as it always updates automatically before launching DCS.exe. Is there a way to pass " --force_OpenXR" to DCS.exe through the DCS_updater.exe?

[YoYo]

42 minutes ago, mbucchia said:

I can confirm that I am observing the same exact xrWaitFrame() deadlock as before. This is the same issues that certain users of Pimax (not WMR) are experiencing too (and there is no motion reprojection involved there).

This is not an issue specific/related to motion reprojection: this is an issue of frame loop that gets exacerbated with specific frame times. The frame loop seems to entirely skip a frame and go back to the top of the loop (which the first call appears to be xrPollEvent()). The last "good" call before that "skip" is to xrGetActionStatePose() to check for motion controller tracking.

The OpenXR API is agnostic of motion reprojection. This is a bug that could happen even without it.

I would look for what can go wrong between xrGetActionStatePose() and xrBeginFrame() and that may cause the code to hit the top of the loop (xrPollEvent()).

 

You are the hero!

Just now, Whirley said:

My desktop shortcut points to the DCS_updater.exe. Which is nice as it always updates automatically before launching DCS.exe. Is there a way to pass " --force_OpenXR" to DCS.exe through the DCS_updater.exe?

No, for DCS.exe only.

[Swamp Fox Loader]

Today's patch worked for me after some trial and error.  I did not uninstall Open Composite. The  "--force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR"  never worked, no matter what shortcut I used. Motion Reprojection in Open XR Toolkit works as well.  I also have noticed that textures that took 10 or so seconds to load, now load as they used to.  I have also enabled exterior shadows to flat, and it appears to not have the frame rate degradation that it used to have.  Good news.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Swamp Fox Loader

[Gadreel]

On 1/26/2023 at 9:52 AM, BIGNEWY said:

DCS now supports OpenXR natively 

 

Depending on which headset you have select the openXR runtime and DCS will work without any third party apps. 

Edit:

• OpenXR is removed from autosearch. DCS has a chain of VR vendors in priority oculus, OpenVR, Varjo, etc. OpenXR was in that chain in top priority, now it is removed from this chain and only available when you explicitly specify it in command line of DCS.
  
  If you need to force openXR in DCS command parameter is --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR

motion reprojection crash is fixed. 

thank you

Is that not pretty complicated from a consumer point of view? Shouldn´t starting the game be straightforward no matter whether I use VR or not. Maybe some kind of selection on startup would be possible to decide whether I want to play VR or 2D. Maybe different .exe would be possible. 

How do other games cope with different headsets? I have a Reverb G2, I select the runtime Steam or openXR in the Headset software and when ingame (in another flight simulation) a button press switches between VR and 2D. 

Maybe VR is still experimental. No matter what, I really enjoy DCS in VR and all the personal effort to get it running is worth the xperience. 

[Morphine]

28 minutes ago, Whirley said:

My desktop shortcut points to the DCS_updater.exe. Which is nice as it always updates automatically before launching DCS.exe. Is there a way to pass " --force_OpenXR" to DCS.exe through the DCS_updater.exe?

As far as I know the answer is No... the command line argument must be for the dcs.exe.

[halufpv]

I'm still praying for the ability to swap between VR and non-VR without having to close the game, like MSFS can do. So many bugs with the VR runtime would be a non-issue if you could just pop in and out to restart the VR engine

[YoYo]

10 minutes ago, halufpv said:

I'm still praying for the ability to swap between VR and non-VR without having to close the game, like MSFS can do. So many bugs with the VR runtime would be a non-issue if you could just pop in and out to restart the VR engine

Yes, this is awsome function. The same was in P3D so not only for MSFS. Its possible to do it.

[bonfor]

Just installed latest patch, still freezes as soon as I enter the menu in VR (Reverb G2) with reprojection always on (work when set to auto).

Also when loading missions or the menu, a black screen appears. It's not as annoying as the epylepsy-generating flickering you get with stem VR, but...

So far this is a step back compared to opencomposite

Edited January 27, 2023 by bonfor

[Tshark]

1 hour ago, Swamp Fox Loader said:

Today's patch worked for me after some trial and error.  I did not uninstall Open Composite. The  "--force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR"  never worked, no matter what shortcut I used. Motion Reprojection in Open XR Toolkit works as well.  I also have noticed that textures that took 10 or so seconds to load, now load as they used to.  I have also enabled exterior shadows to flat, and it appears to not have the frame rate degradation that it used to have.  Good news.

 

Took me some trial and error, but I got MR working now.  After today's patch, what I do now is make sure OXRTK has both DCS and Opencomposite checked.  I then start "Mixed Reality Portal" (Not the STEAM version), Voice attack/Vaicom, then DCS (without the --force_enable_VR --force_OpenXR) .  Now re-projection works as it did before.