NWN:EE works in 3D VR via VorpX
SkipBittman
Member Posts: 146
If you're used to fiddling with VorpX and impervious to weird VR side effects, EE hooks into the newest version of VorpX. Clone a Quake IV profile and point it at your nwnmain.exe in your local profiles in VorpX. Running both in admin mode worked and the vibrancy/high contrast settings of EE really suit the Rift. The models and lighting look really adorable and toylike.
Trying to sort out graphics settings and camera issues with a friend also using it who discovered this worked, it's hilarious over voice chat with the built in mic - like playing a living tabletop D&D game floating in space with a disembodied phantom while someone gouges you in the eye with a stick occasionally if you try to look at the lower left hand corner text.
It's a very wonky, supremely weird and hopelessly goofy experience, but if you're stricken with insomnia and want to see your maps in 3D while giggling over a mic, worth a look for the novelty.
That UI overhaul removed from the icebox and roasted in the beamdog oven would go a long way towards allowing us to customize the UI to better suit VR FOV. COUGH COUGH. At least unlock the text upscaling for other resolutions, the corners are brutal.
(Edited to update profile/setup info)
Trying to sort out graphics settings and camera issues with a friend also using it who discovered this worked, it's hilarious over voice chat with the built in mic - like playing a living tabletop D&D game floating in space with a disembodied phantom while someone gouges you in the eye with a stick occasionally if you try to look at the lower left hand corner text.
It's a very wonky, supremely weird and hopelessly goofy experience, but if you're stricken with insomnia and want to see your maps in 3D while giggling over a mic, worth a look for the novelty.
That UI overhaul removed from the icebox and roasted in the beamdog oven would go a long way towards allowing us to customize the UI to better suit VR FOV. COUGH COUGH. At least unlock the text upscaling for other resolutions, the corners are brutal.
(Edited to update profile/setup info)
Post edited by SkipBittman on
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I have been playing NWN in BigScreen (which has a feature named after me!) and that has been working just fine but NWN in VorpX is a whole different level.
I've been playing Diablo 3 in VorpX and it is utterly transformative, everything looks like a living diorama. Cant wait to try this for myself!
I will share my settings if I find a sweet spot!
Quake3 profile here we come!
I have a HTC Vive, a GTX 980 and am using Windows 10.
And as written above by @SkipBittman I cloned the Quake III profile and used vorpx in peek mode.
Firstly AO, Vibrancy, DoF and Contrast all caused the image to freeze but the light from candles etc would move around in 3d.
Once I disabled all shaders I was able to get VR to work in Full VR Mode in Geometry VR. All other VR modes would produce visual garbage.
Almost none of the VorpX options would do anything. VR Strength and Game HUD Depth were the only two that seemed to do anything. Even simple options like background ambiance would not do anything.
However, once shaders were disabled, peek mode was on, middle mouse remapped everything was glorious.
I cranked strength up to it's max as it did not seem to make too much of a difference and my UI was very usable with no doubling with exception to the portrait. Portrait double was helped (but not removed) by cranking up the only other option that did anything, Game HUD depth.
The experience of playing NWN in VR is profound.
NWN's graphics lend themselves really well to VR but the overall effect is a lot more subtle than something like Diablo 3 where everything pops up and looks like you are viewing a play set.
Rather than everything gaining eye popping depth that jumps out at you, NWN just sort of looks... less like it was made in 1997. There is absolutely depth there when you look at buildings and placables (especially when moving the camera) but rather than leaping off the page it all just feels more authentic. More rounded... Like all the models use more than 6 polygons between them.
This is helped by the soft blur of the Fresnel lenses which add a sense of bloom to the games light.
The feeling of presence in NWN added by VR is not extreme but it is very much noticeable. Placables really popped. Small details in the tilesets popped. I was noticing all sorts of extra little details in the Mirkwood Swamp tileset that I had never seen before. Everything also gains this additional sense of verticality. Buildings seemed taller and tiles felt like they were a more natural part of the world.
Everything was subtly improved but all together it just sucks you into the world.
Very much playable for me and I think I finally have the proper nudge to finish the OC.
The downside is that now I know what hacked VR support can add I have a better idea of what official VR support could add and I really, really, really, really want that more than most things on Trello...
Interesting findings, you've described the experience very well -- it's somehow really aesthetically pleasing, the colors look terrific. And "aesthetically pleasing" is not how NWN is described by most of the 2018 population.
Strangely, all the effects work just fine for me, I only disable DOF. Vibrancy and high contrast work well and saturate the hell out of the colors. AO and shadow settings really impact frame rate, so it's definitely relying on timewarp but since it's a comfortable virtual screen and not your face stapled to the game and cutting out frequently, it's very tolerable. Using Rift and a 1070, not getting visual garbage. I wonder what gives? let me doublecheck my settings and see if I missed something that might be useful... about to go in for another round!
Ralf mentioned: "Good base profiles for experiments are Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, Quake 4, Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 and Amnesia, which all use slightly different stereo approaches or settings," so it might be worth trying a few of those profiles as well.
If we can get significant breakthroughs on the UI front from Beamdog for EE, we can really make this even more playable. Moving windows and changing fonts would go a long way.
Experiencing it this way with headphones really makes me want to rework a lot of the ambient sound effect tracks bigtime.
(Oh god, tho - real support with motion controllers, avatars of other players across the gameworld from you... BERNARD CRIBBINS HERE.)
By the way. I had an inspired idea last night and I got NWN2 to work by using the Mass Effect Profile.
However, something felt really wrong with it. I couldnt put my finger on it but it was just... off.
Then again that could just be NWN2.
Really enjoying NWN1 with voice chat, lost track of time late last night with a good dungeon crawl. Haven't tried the other profiles yet, but it'll be nice if we could get control of 3D strength and maybe render some of the shadows better.
Thank you for the tip!
Quake 4, Quake, Amnesia: Better than using Quake 3, Cinema and Immersive screen modes work, and you don't need to remap edgepeek. More flexibility here. Similar subtle 3D depth, strength slider does nothing. You don't need to raise HUD depth tho.
Quake 2: Full VR mode requires edgepeek and works like the Quake 3 profile, but cinema and immersive screen render wrong, big gray block with a smaller window of the game in the center and the HUD on the edges.
JK2: Menus ok, game renders all black.
And some good news from the VorpX dev: "I’ll check NWN1/2 before the next update to see whether an official profile can improve anything. They’re sitting in my GOG library ‘unopened’ for ages. "
GOG edition of 1 didn't work for me, someone needs to lob that man a steam key for EE. That's what all the cool kids that talk in convoluted slang are playing these days. I think. Supposedly.
Hope to see something official from him in the upcoming weeks!
Also, fantastic research @SkipBittman !
Great job in exploring and gently pushing for VR support!
Did Ralf ever get back to you with any further details?
So! Phil mentioned using the new editable camera limits in the ini for a pseudo first person view. Sounds like it's time to give this another shot, see how clunky it is.
EDIT - I've already been enjoying boosting the maximum distance for some really nice long shots that really look tasty on 4k/ultrawide, but for VR purposes I started playing with lowering CameraMinDist in nwplayer.ini to try to get that pseudo first person... but it's too broken inside the model with grey polygon debris in the corners of the screen. Maybe combined with tilt in some way? Somebody ask Phil what settings he was using.