GTR 2 VR Support! (Not asking, telling!)

[The Iron Wolf]

I really try to avoid physics discussions as I find them a bit pointless without equations, data and actually knowing what and how game does, but, want to share an observation:

Note how wet tires in GTR2 (and rF2) overheat when track dries out. Which to me suggests, they operate at higher temps, and are easier to heat up.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Yes, it can be done by increasing heating in tyre file.
So it can be done and works either way.
Simbin uses the same optimum heat but increases the generated heat, I have set about the same generated heat, but different optimum temperature. So no problem, just wanted some input, if someone know if something else in the game is affected by this

 

[ipeaceonu]

Possibly a dumb question. Is this supposed to run through steam vr , if so does anyone know how to fix my steam vr issue . Whenever i open steam vr it constantly freezes up my pc and uses 100% of cpu.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

If you have installed it correctly it should start SteamVR by itself does for me at least.
Does that SteamVR happen with other steamVR programs too?

 

[ipeaceonu]

Yes, for some reason steam vr just kills my system hence why I was hoping we didn't have to use it ..

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Possibly a dumb question. Is this supposed to run through steam vr , if so does anyone know how to fix my steam vr issue . Whenever i open steam vr it constantly freezes up my pc and uses 100% of cpu.

Yes, I need to update instructions to clarify it uses SteamVR (I thought it is obvious from the property name?). But you do not need Steam to be running (thanks Valve for offering much more configuration options and flexibility than other platforms).

As Bjarne says, game will start SVR automatically. On my PC it takes a while for it to start ~10-15 seconds, and it hogs system badly at that time. But once it starts all works.

EDIT: this post made me wonder about something. I just did a quick test, and I noticed that SteamVR starts more easily if I start it from the script or Crew Chief rather than if GTR2 starts it. I have an idea why is that, but there's no easy/known fix (I will keep thinking about of a way to improve it though). So I would suggest starting SVR before running GTR2, it is a bit smoother experience that way.

 

[ipeaceonu]

I was more asking if it could be used in any way without having to use steam vr. I tried launching without steam opening, same outcome. It isn't anything to do with the sim it's just an issue with steam vr on my system. I will try and open steam vr on it's own first and see if that has any effect. Thanks for the advice anyway, I will keep trying to find a solution as I love GTR2. It does work but isn't playable due to the amount of processing power steam uses. I only have anI7 4770k and a GTX1080 so not the most up to date system.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

I was more asking if it could be used in any way without having to use steam vr. I tried launching without steam opening, same outcome. It isn't anything to do with the sim it's just an issue with steam vr on my system. I will try and open steam vr on it's own first and see if that has any effect. Thanks for the advice anyway, I will keep trying to find a solution as I love GTR2. It does work but isn't playable due to the amount of processing power steam uses. I only have anI7 4770k and a GTX1080 so not the most up to date system.

Your system is more than enough for GTR2 in VR, it should literally fly. And, as I mentioned, you do not need Steam running, just SteamVR

I am not a fan of all those heavy and unstable apps either, and at some point I was even dead set to write an alternative to SteamVR (I worked on parts of the OpenComposite if you heard of it). However, over the time it became pointless - SteamVR is quite configurable, it does not show game promos in your face or desktop unless you want that, and they offer a nice VR platform to program on, I just love their overlay capability. Makes it extremely easy to access Desktop from VR (using Crew Chief). Truly, when game runs SVR doesn't even do much other than help with tracking and manage overlays. Even Steam itself got really nice - you can turn anything you don't want off (promos) and there's thing called SteamCMD which gives you full control, so Valve did a good job over the years.

But I hear you it causes high CPU use on your system - no idea why

 

[mzob]

I'll probably butcher the grammar and I apologize for that beforehand, English is not my native language.

I've tried this this VR mod for GTR 2 and I'm amazed with both the game and the mod, PCars feels like arcade now and I can't make myself to play it again.

However there's a huge problem with this mod. My HMD's proximity sensor blocks the mouse cursor when active. I covered sensor's window with some duct tape, but it is clearly not a good solution.

HMD is Samsung Odyssey+.

Have anyone experienced the same problem? And if you have, what's the solution?

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

I got a WMR headset too mine is the Lenovo one.
If you lose focus on the Gtr2 window on the screen you lose the ability to use the mouse.

By losing focus I mean another window / app/program comes in focus. just remove headset and click on gtr2 windows on monitor.
Best way to avoid the issue are to have other windows on desktop minimized.
Also if you right click on mouse it tend to bring another window in focus.

I also use an old game pad as button box and have seat controls on the game pad together with other functions so hardly every have that issue anymore.

Since i have been lucky enough to have been testing trying beta versions for The Iron wolf I can say there are a lot more improvements on the way.
Did update CC this morning but have not tried it yet but he has made it so that the mouse will not leave the window.
You can define a very small window in config like 640 x 480
Small window will save a little on CPU load but it was hard to find the mouse in VR but now it stays focused.

I've tried this this VR mod for GTR 2 and I'm amazed with both the game and the mod, PCars feels like arcade now and I can't make myself to play it again.

Complete;y agree!
Have not even tested the last 4-5 updates for AMS 2 even I am a beta tester.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Did update CC this morning but have not tried it yet but he has made it so that the mouse will not leave the window.

That's not true. I have no plans of doing that becasue the easiest way to avoid click through problem is to run game window sized as Desktop. Window size should not have any performance impact, because VR rendering happens at the same resolution no matter what window size is, but of course maybe on some systems there's difference, you never know Lastly, all mouse updates are released already and I think I am done with it.

I had the same issue with WMR HMD I had, I had to tape the sensor, really unsuccessful decision to use sensor for mouse switching between desktop/VR

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

That's not true. I have no plans of doing that becasue the easiest way to avoid click through problem is to run game window sized as Desktop. Window size should not have any performance impact, because VR rendering happens at the same resolution no matter what window size is, but of course maybe on some systems there's difference, you never know Lastly, all mouse updates are released already and I think I am done with it.

But you did send me a link where it does just that and I used it all last week?

1680 x 1050 will cost about 4-5% fps drop compared to 640 x 480 at the start on Monza with rain.
It is pretty easy to test!
MSi and rival tuner with display gpu and each cpu core load + fps.

Off course +95% of the time I can hold 90 hz regardless of resolution.
But I see no point in handicap the performance when the monitor resolution has no impact on the VR quality.
And you can't run monitor resolution at least on om WMR headsets as you can't reach the lower part of the Gtr2 UI.

 

[mzob]

I got a WMR headset too mine is the Lenovo one.
If you lose focus on the Gtr2 window on the screen you lose the ability to use the mouse.

By losing focus I mean another window / app/program comes in focus. just remove headset and click on gtr2 windows on monitor.
Best way to avoid the issue are to have other windows on desktop minimized.
Also if you right click on mouse it tend to bring another window in focus.

I tried that to no success, unfortunately.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

But you did send me a link where it does just that and I used it all last week?

1680 x 1050 will cost about 4-5% fps drop compared to 640 x 480 at the start on Monza with rain.
It is pretty easy to test!
MSi and rival tuner with display gpu and each cpu core load + fps.

Off course +95% of the time I can hold 90 hz regardless of resolution.
But I see no point in handicap the performance when the monitor resolution has no impact on the VR quality.
And you can't run monitor resolution at least on om WMR headsets as you can't reach the lower part of the Gtr2 UI.

I did test of course, using multiple tools, 3440x1440 vs 640x480, zero difference on my system.

And no, I never implemented the mouse capture. I'll see if more people report lower part being not clickable (I understand what you are saying, but I can't reproduce it here, in my case window is above the task bar. If it affects many people, and I get more confirmations that window size affects FPS, maybe I'll do something eventually, but I really don't want to complicate code for no strong reason.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

Have not felt well so have not yet tested the CC download yet . But assume we talk by each other as the mouse stays in my VR window on menu and that is great!

 

[Jason Mullin]

I’ve got this running, sort of.
hp reverb g2
2060 super

I think I should revisit the install instructions, whilst loaded I’m sitting 20 feet above the car, looking far left crashes steam vr. The tree tops and looking way down on track looks fantastic
The sim and crew chief sound great through the headphones.

How exactly are you all launching in VR? Do I need to enter specific launch instructions in steam?
Being fairly PC illiterate I’m having issues locating or verifying if I have the correct files for vr installed correctly.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

I’ve got this running, sort of.
hp reverb g2
2060 super

I think I should revisit the install instructions, whilst loaded I’m sitting 20 feet above the car, looking far left crashes steam vr. The tree tops and looking way down on track looks fantastic
The sim and crew chief sound great through the headphones.

How exactly are you all launching in VR? Do I need to enter specific launch instructions in steam?
Being fairly PC illiterate I’m having issues locating or verifying if I have the correct files for vr installed correctly.

ughh crash, I hate crashes.

Are you using cockpit camera view? You could press numpad 5 upon entering the car to reset the center position. But crash indicates that there's some difference about your configuration that plugin does not handle yet.

The supported configuration is described in the main post, it is very important to follow it exactly as there's only one supported way to do it. I have many GTR2 copies outside of steam, one per mod, and I just launch gtr2.exe by pressing enter on it in the Explorer. I am not starting steam at all, game will start Steam VR automatically.

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

I think I should revisit the install instructions, whilst loaded I’m sitting 20 feet above the car, looking far left crashes steam vr. The tree tops and looking way down on track looks fantastic
The sim and crew chief sound great through the headphones.

How exactly are you all launching in VR? Do I need to enter specific launch instructions in steam?
Being fairly PC illiterate I’m having issues locating or verifying if I have the correct files for vr installed correctly.

What The iron wolf said.

Make sure you are in cockpit view. You can set that as default view on the first page of option
Or use Left shift to cycle the cam views.

On my WMR headset I start WMR home/ Cliff house first.
Then in VR open a desktop window and start Gtr2 from there.

As said above do not run it strait from the steam install .
Verify the steam install and copy the entire Gtr2 folder to another place like D:\games\
in the new install make gtr2config.exe to run as administrator.
Also do that for Gtr2.exe at least on first run.
Then stop Gtr2 again and change the values you want to change in Crewchief.ini in plugins folder.

In WMR you can't use full windows size of your monitor! Just set it to 800 x 600.
It has no influence on VR quality.

If you want full screen size you need to download a program called WMR Tray tool.
That can make the cliff house invisible and you can use same window size as on your monitor.
It is nice but also a bit of a pain the WMR Tray tool.
wmrtt.baltools.de/dl/WMR_TrayTool_V0.4_Alpha.zip
Make sure you read the instruction if you use it!

Hope you are or get up running.
Special interested in how Gtr2 looks and runs on a HP G2

 

[Jason Mullin]

As said above do not run it strait from the steam install .
Verify the steam install and copy the entire Gtr2 folder to another place like D:\games\
in the new install make gtr2config.exe to run as administrator.

This is what I failed to do.

Birthday for me today out on the motorcycles, but tomorrow I will definitely have a go with a proper install.

Thank you both for replying.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

This is what I failed to do.

Birthday for me today out on the motorcycles, but tomorrow I will definitely have a go with a proper install.

Thank you both for replying.

Happy Birthday!

If you have CrewChief.ini in the Plugins folder already, you are in luck, because you could set:
disableMyDocumentsProfile = 1
useVRVideoModeEnumerationFor2DRendering = 1

Above will make GTR2 operate like it is running as Admin, without running as Admin.

So, yes, set GTR2Config.exe to run As Aministrator, but running GTR2.exe as Administrator (and with compat settings other than DPI scaling) is not a supported VR configuration and is not needed at all especially after enabling the fixes above.