Will VR be accessible from the very beginning? OpenXR, DFR, and other VR questions

[Col.Sanders]

As the title states it is a huge miss to not add DFR to the engine. Like it or not it is the future of VR. The excuse that it doesn't help enough to be worth it is not factual, unless they botched the implementation.

I can understand if they need more time to get it integrated, but stating they are not doing it is a terrible idea. I know many are still flat earthers, but more and more people are jumping on VR as it has got more accessible. Don't lock out future customers cause you skipped DFR. DCS now can run better than IL2 GB due to quadviews DFR. 

 

Edit: sorry I was in the wrong section. This was meant for Korea not GB.

Edited December 16, 2025 by Col.Sanders
Clarification

[Talisman]

Very much agree.  I am currently enjoying DFR/eye tracking with another flight simulation title and would be sad to lose that function.  Although,  I have to say that I can currently run IL-2 GB at a much, much higher level of resolution than other titles, so much so that it makes up for lack of eye tracking for me at the moment.  But, then I do have a powerful rig.  However, perhaps I will not be able to run the upcoming IL-2 Korea at the same high resolution as IL-2 GB.  In which case I will very much miss DFR/eye tracking.  Surely DFR/eye tracking would provide IL-2 Korea with more future proofing.  I am no longer flying IL-2 GB that much as I am waiting to invest my time with IL-2 Korea and hope it will be something I can support in the long term.

Happy landings,

Talisman  

Edited December 17, 2025 by Talisman

[chiliwili69]

By incorporating DFR to Korea the revenue will be boosted in two ways:

- People with lower specs GPUs will get better performance -> more playable for more people -> more people will buy Korea

- High-end VR devices requires very expensive GPUs -> only few people can afford -> DFR will allow to run Korea with high-end VR devices and less expesive GPUs -> more people willing to play Korea

The eye-tracking is becoming an standard in many VR devices:

- Quest Pro

- Pico4 Pro

- Pimax Crystal Super

- Pimax Air Dream 

- Steam Frame

- PSRV2

and now BSB2:

https://store.bigscreenvr.com/blogs/beyond/dynamic-foveated-rendering-with-bigscreen-beyond-2e

[Patricks]

Be nice not having to swap DLL's to get it to work under OpenXR like I do for IL-2 GB (if that will even work)? I need to rum XRNS for the best experience, and OpenVR really is a dead horse.

[Patricks]

I see on the IL-2 Korea webpage it is!

[eggbred]

I was wondering, as someone who plays flight sims in exclusively VR, will IL-2 Korea be playable in VR from the start? 

I preordered the founders addition, and I was very much hoping to play it in VR during the early access phase. It would be a great testing grounds for the community to see what systems can really run it in VR, and it would give those of us in the early access phase the opportunity to adjust settings for maximum performance, and tell others of our findings! I would just really like to know if it will be available from the very beginning.

Sincerely yours, that one weirdo who would love to fly the Meteor F.8 in this sim.

[Avimimus]

4 hours ago, eggbred said:

I was wondering, as someone who plays flight sims in exclusively VR, will IL-2 Korea be playable in VR from the start? 

Il-2 Great Battles supports VR already. It is possible that the new engine updates could have caused issues with VR - but the Ingromir display used a VR headset... so the most recent demo they showed journalists and the public was using VR... this makes me almost certain that VR will be functional at release.

[Aapje]

6 hours ago, eggbred said:

I was wondering, as someone who plays flight sims in exclusively VR, will IL-2 Korea be playable in VR from the start? 

Yes, as the other person said, they already presented the game with VR working.

[eggbred]

21 hours ago, Avimimus said:

Il-2 Great Battles supports VR already. It is possible that the new engine updates could have caused issues with VR - but the Ingromir display used a VR headset... so the most recent demo they showed journalists and the public was using VR... this makes me almost certain that VR will be functional at release.

I've sunk over 1,100hrs into Great Battles over the past few years, and I simply would not have done so if VR support wasn't available. I am sure Korea will have it, and so I will almost certainly be putting a comparable amount of time into it. It was just at the front of my mind, whether or not the early access phase will have it. Regardless, I am excited.

I will note, after my post being moved to this one, I am rather bummed knowing there's little to no chance of DFR. As another said, it really is the future of VR simming, and it's quite a shame that it wont be present in this one. 

[chiliwili69]

On 1/4/2026 at 5:26 PM, Patricks said:

I see on the IL-2 Korea webpage it is!

Yes, indeed. This is new to me as well.

Is there anything from the Dev blogs that I am not aware?

Is OpenXR the default API for IL-2 Korea?

Attached here the API of IL-2 GB based in OpenVR.

[LuftManu]

49 minutes ago, chiliwili69 said:

Yes, indeed. This is new to me as well.

Is there anything from the Dev blogs that I am not aware?

Is OpenXR the default API for IL-2 Korea?

Attached here the API of IL-2 GB based in OpenVR.

Hi!

From Dev Blog 52, they wrote this: New options include the choice of virtual reality API (Open VR or Open XR), the degree of image scaling using FSR technology, the inclusion of the pilot’s body in the first-person view, and a special VR-optimized graphics preset.

https://media.il2-korea.com/news/dd_52



Kind regards,

[Aapje]

3 hours ago, eggbred said:

I will note, after my post being moved to this one, I am rather bummed knowing there's little to no chance of DFR. As another said, it really is the future of VR simming, and it's quite a shame that it wont be present in this one. 

Keep in mind that we are just at the beginning of the new game engine. It is very likely that we'll get a bunch of improvements after the release.

[Aapje]

1 hour ago, chiliwili69 said:

Is there anything from the Dev blogs that I am not aware?

Is OpenXR the default API for IL-2 Korea?

In the Reddit AMA from 3 months ago, they still didn't seem that hyped about OpenXR. I quote:

"OpenXR will be supported. It have it's advantages and disadvantages, but there will be an option for that."

My impression is that they have been getting more positive about OpenXR over time. Perhaps they fixed a bug or other issue with OpenXR in the recent months?

[chiliwili69]

Well, I think it is a good step to use natively standards like OpenXR so people don´t need to play with .dll files and versions.

Supporting OpenXR would be also a good step to support in future DFR, although it looks like every headset has still their own specific ways, but I have no idea.

It is also interesting to incorporate FSR technology. Do we know what version of FSR is supported? I have no idea about how good it could be to reduce GPU load vs. increase graphics quality.

[Aapje]

They have not said which FSR version will be supported. But in theory you can upgrade the DLL yourself if they have at least 3.1.

And we may also be able to use DLSS using OptiScaler:

Although I don't know whether the cheat protection for MP will like that.

[Charger]

DLSS 4.5 is pretty amazing. Such a shame Korea won't be using it. 

 

In warthunder it works very well, even in VR. Boosted frames and reduced ghosting.

 

It's tech that future proofs medium priced hardware. With the future looking grim for high end PC prices, tech like DLDS that squeezes the most out of older and mid tier hardware will be crucial for genres like flight simming.

Edited January 14 by Charger

[Reisen]

Let's hope they add DLSS support, even if it is after the initial launch. The devs need to be doing all they can to make sure the game runs well on current mid-range hardware given the fact that most of us can't expect to upgrade anything for the next few years.

[dryheat94]

Game developers are in a very bad position right now. With AI driving the prices of the chip/RAM markets, devs can no longer be sloppy and will be required to tighten up their coding practices as consumers are being priced out of the hardware market. RAM is now unaffordable, and GPU prices are at ridiculous levels. Technology like DLSS will be necessary going forward for many of us. I think in the future many with older systems will just move to the console market for gaming. PC gaming is in real trouble right now. I hate AI so much for what it is doing to the world, and the hobby we all love.

[Col.Sanders]

On 1/6/2026 at 4:47 AM, Aapje said:

Keep in mind that we are just at the beginning of the new game engine. It is very likely that we'll get a bunch of improvements after the release.

Definitely will see improvements, the issues with DFR is that they are choosing not to include it. They have stated that it only makes a minimal difference, which is either them using it wrong or poor implementation. Thya could have said it will come later but instead chose to exclude it cause they don't think it helps.