The Dark Mod VR v2.10

This is a quick release to bring the VR mod up to par with the base 2.10 release.

Please note that development on TDM VR is currently on hold while I'm working on Half-Life 2 VR. I do intend to return to TDM as soon as I have the time :)

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9

This release is meant to be played with the official 2.0.9 release of The Dark Mod. It contains mostly bugfixes for the base game.

On the VR side, the only notable change is the removal of the OpenVR backend. All VR platforms (SteamVR, Oculus, WMR) will now use OpenXR.

Roadmap for upcoming releases

In the time ahead, I will finally be focussing on adding motion controllers and roomscale tracking. However, this will be slow work and it will be be a long journey before you can actually shoot arrows the way native VR games would allow you to, so please don't expect any miracles :)

The next release will be focussing on basic motion control support. This does not mean immersive controls, i.e. in this first iteration the motion controllers will mostly function like a better gamepad.

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Beta 1

This release is meant to work with the current public beta 2.0.9 of the base game: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20691-beta-testing-209/

Notable changes from the last alpha:

• Shadow mapping has been fixed for VR and is now the default choice as it should provide better performance in most instances. You can of course switch back to stencil if you prefer their stability. You can also experiment with r_shadowMapSize for performance and test setting r_shadowMapSinglePass to 1 or 2, respectively. Depending on the map and scene, one or the other may give better performance.
• Contrast adaptive sharpening filter provides crispier visuals
• Fixed an issue with SteamVR's motion smoothing that would lead to jittery movement when you turn the camera in-game.
• Experimental support for fixed foveated rendering. Note that this is currently probably not all that helpful on average. If you still want to give it a try, enable vr_useFixedFoveatedRendering; you can fine-tune the areas of lowered resolution with vr_foveated[Inner|Mid|Outer]Radius. Has a better implementation on Nvidia RTX cards.

Please delete your darkmod_vr.cfg to prevent issues with outdated settings!

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Alpha 6

• Added experimental gamepad support. See Gamepad support on how to enable and use it
• Experimental support for non-parallel projections (may have some issues still)
• Improved accuracy of frustum culling, should prevent certain edge cases where visible objects were incorrectly culled

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Alpha 5

Changes since last version:

• Bugfix: weapons were rendered without skin
• Bugfix: Linux mouse cursor may have been stuck outside the window, making the game unplayable
• Bugfix: mirror view slowly turning white
• Add a basic comfort vignette which activates on any kinds of movement. Enable with vr_comfortVignette.
• Render spyglass view to 2D to make spyglass at least functional
• Make mouse aim indicator reach further when drawing bow to help with aiming (configurable)

Please delete the glprogs_vr folder if you still have one, and for good measure you may also want to delete your darkmod_vr.cfg to ensure sane default values!

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Alpha 4

Changes since last version:

• fixed a regression that broke lights/shadows and the lightgem visibility in many places
• the compass is now working
• UI elements should no longer appear to be transparent (this might cause unintended side effects, though; you can turn this off with vr_disableUITransparency 0 if needed)
• lightgem is no longer influenced by the headset position
• removed any leaning/camera roll from the VR view to make it more comfortable in VR. Affects e.g. mantling, leaning

NOTE: please delete the glprogs_vr folder and your darkmod_vr.cfg!

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Preview (alpha 3)

Changes since alpha 2:

• There is now a small area in which mouse movement does not rotate the view, to make it easier and less nauseating to target and pick up items. You can configure the size of the area (or even deactivate it) with the cvar vr_decoupledMouseYawAngle.
• Cutscenes are now rendered to the 2D overlay instead of to the eyes to avoid nausea caused by the forced external camera movement.
• Fixed a bug with OpenVR on Linux where only the top quarter of the UI overlay would be displayed in the headset.
• The window mirror view in OpenXR now has proper gamma applied.
• Fixed a bug with the OpenXR backend where the eye views were not properly cleared when going back to the menu.

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Preview (alpha 2)

Changes since alpha 1:

• performance improvements
  • optimize lightgem rendering to avoid CPU<->GPU stalls
  • render hidden area mesh to avoid shading unneeded pixels
  • tighter light scissors
  • minor flow optimizations
• add a mouse aim indicator in VR view to help with frobbing and other tasks depending on mouse aim
• fix ingame text rendering
• get underwater view to work decently in VR
• introduce CVars to allow custom positioning of the UI overlay

Note: Please delete your darkmod_vr.cfg to ensure that all settings are reset to new defaults!

The Dark Mod VR 2.0.9 Preview (alpha 1)

Requires a 2.0.8 installation of the base mod.

The Dark Mod VR v0.1.3

Fixed flickering skybox.