VR experiences IL-2 Korea

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Galraak said:

I play this game too little, because of the optimization, but I wanted to know if we could change the capture mode? When I stream on Discord, to introduce my friends to the game, I have the sight of both eyes, but it's not pleasant to watch.

+1. That would be a wish. Perhaps it's worth adding a separate thread in the Suggestions section? I agree that when playing in VR, the image on the monitor should be displayed from one eye only. That's how DCS or MSFS work, for example. Why do we need right and left eye views at the same time? What's the purpose? The developer should simply make the option available – and the user can choose "when playing in VR, display: right eye image or left eye image" and that's it.

[robzerg]

It's taken a bit of tweaking, but I now get perfectly acceptable framerates in all scenarios (apart from the Black Thursday mission )... 

Setting the Landscape Detail to x3 seemed to solve the texture issue (and curiously didn't affect framerates).  I have the general graphics preset as 'Balanced' and FSR upscaling also as 'Balanced' (Pico 4 set to 'Godlike' resolution in VD). FSR is necessary as I only have an old 6800XT.  Clouds are set to Low as these seemed to affect framerate quite a bit.

I've got used to the floating menu, but I also find the pilot head position is a bit off centre; particularly in the LA11 and Yak 9.

Just having a quick play this morning I was blown away by some of the details and sheer beauty of the landscape - quick mission set to 6am in summer on the coast; the individual lights along the runway and in the nearby villages look stunning. After I (ahem) crash landed near a village I left the cockpit and went for a wander; stood under a lamp post in the village square watching villagers wander about on their daily business whilst the sun rose. I was impressed that the villagers also have physical properties, and will stop and go round me if I get in the way. Morning birdsong. Quite peaceful!

[Aapje]

2 hours ago, YoYo said:

Why do we need right and left eye views at the same time? What's the purpose?

An advantage is that you can see whether the plane is flying straight at a waypoint, because then the left eye view will be to the left and the right eye view will be a similar amount to the right.

I GB I regularly have it on 8 speed when there is a long flight to the new waypoint and then take off the headset, and then watch the flight on the screen.

I haven't tried VR yet in Korea.

Edited July 2 by Aapje

[robzerg]

2 hours ago, YoYo said:

+1. That would be a wish. Perhaps it's worth adding a separate thread in the Suggestions section? I agree that when playing in VR, the image on the monitor should be displayed from one eye only. That's how DCS or MSFS work, for example. Why do we need right and left eye views at the same time? What's the purpose? The developer should simply make the option available – and the user can choose "when playing in VR, display: right eye image or left eye image" and that's it.

I don't really get why there's any need to display to the monitor at all. I generally play GB without a monitor plugged in, but for Korea I seem to have to have it connected in order to enable FSR upscaling. Not sure why. 

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Aapje said:

An advantage is that you can see whether the plane is flying straight at a waypoint, because then the left eye view will be to the left and the right eye view will be a similar amount to the right.

I GB I regularly have it on 8 speed when there is a long flight to the new waypoint and then take off the headset, and then watch the flight on the screen.

I haven't tried VR yet in Korea.

I don't quite understand what you mean  (we only write in VR here in IL-2 Korea), what does displaying two screens on a monitor have to do with sitting in VR goggles and both images are merging into one. It makes absolutely no sense on a monitor. One image from the left or right eye is enough. This is the case with MSFS or DCS. This can be implemented without major problems. Furthermore, such an image on 2D monitor likely consumes more computer power (maybe?).

Edited July 2 by YoYo

[Panzerlang]

Isn't there a place in the startup.cfg where it can be made to output just the left or right VR panel?

Nuts, I googled it. There is.

or_render_eye = 0 puts both panels onto the monitor. 1 or 2 is left or right panel only.

[KEY = graphics]
    3dhud = 0
    adapter = 0
    bloom_enable = 1
    canopy_ref = 2
    desktop_center = 1
    detail_rt_res = 2048
    draw_distance = 1.00000
    far_blocks = 1
    fp_body_visible = 1
    fps_counter = 1
    fps_limit = 0
    full_height = 2160
    full_width = 3840
    fullscreen = 0
    gamma = 1.00000
    gammaquad = 0
    grass_distance = 200.00000
    hdr_enable = 0
    indirect_lighting = 0
    land_anisotropy = 1
    land_detail = 3
    land_tex_lods = 1
    lod_degrade = 0
    low_memory_mode = 1
    max_cache_res = 1
    max_clouds_quality = 2
    mgpu_compatible = 0
    mirrors = 2
    modeaa = 2
    multisampling = 2
    or_ca = 0.00000
    or_enable = 2
    or_height = 6280
    or_hud_rad = 1.50000
    or_hud_size = 0.75000
    or_ipd = 0.06786
    or_render_eye = 0
    or_rescale = 1.00000
    or_rpm_max = 155
    or_sipdc = 0.00000
    or_width = 6240
    post_sharpen = 0
    preset = 4
    prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = 155
    rescale_target = 1.00000
    shadows_quality = 2
    ssao_enable = 0
    stereo_dof = 5.00000
    upscaler = 2
    upscaler_driver = 0
    vsync = 0
    win_height = 2160
    win_width = 3840
[END]
 

[Aapje]

2 hours ago, YoYo said:

I don't quite understand what you mean

The way human vision works is that your left eye sees things from a different angle than your right eye, and the brain combines these into a single 3D view. Headsets mimic this, and they show a different image to each eye, which is what causes VR to have 3D vision in the first place.

You can test this out yourself by picking an object on your desk and holding out your thumb in front of the object, so your thumb aligns with the edge of the object. Then close your left eye and check whether your thumb just lost alignment with the object, even though you didn't move it. Then do the same with the other eye.

In most cases, you will find that closing one eye causes the alignment to shift, while closing the other eye causes the alignment to stay true. The open eye that keeps proper alignment is your dominant eye.

When you play the game in flat mode on a regular flat screen, the entire game is rendered at the same distance, and your left and right eye see exactly the same, which is why the image is flat and lacks depth. However, it is centered.

The two images that are rendered for the left and right side of the headset are a the view from a slightly different angle, to make them have depth, but the consequences is that if you show the image of one eye on a flat screen, your brain will interpret it differently. It will not compensate for the angle that it is rendered for, because both your left and right eye see the exact same image. So it will interpret the entire image as being offset. However, if your show the rendered image with the angle for the left eye only to the left eye, and the image for the right eye only to the right eye, your brain will automatically be able to recognize that these images are taken from the perspective of the left and right eye, and will combine them into one image with depth and with proper alignment based on that depth.

If you look at content creators that fly in VR, but make flat videos, based on the rendering for one eye, you will see that when they are aiming properly at a target, it will look like their aim is quite a bit off.

Edited July 2 by Aapje

[Panzerlang]

Just now, Aapje said:

The way human vision works is that your left eye sees things from a different angle than your right eye, and the brain combines these into a single 3D view. Headsets mimic this, and they show a different image to each eye, which is what causes VR to have 3D vision in the first place.

You can test this out yourself by picking an object on your desk and holding out your thumb in front of the object, so your thumb aligns with the edge of the object. Then close your left eye and check whether your thumb just lost alignment with the object, even though you didn't move it. Then do the same with the other eye.

In most cases, you will find that closing one eye causes the alignment to shift, while closing the other eye causes the alignment to stay true. The open eye that keeps proper alignment is your dominant eye.

When you play the game in flat mode on a regular flat screen, the entire game is rendered at the same distance, and your left and right eye see exactly the same, which is why the image is flat and lacks depth. However, it is centered.

The two images that are rendered for the left and right side of the headset are a the view from a slightly different angle, to make them have depth, but the consequences is that if you show the image of one eye on the screen, your brain will interpret it differently. It will not compensate for the angle that it is rendered for, because both your left and right eye see the exact same image. So it will interpret the entire image as being offset. However, if your show the rendered image with the angle for the left eye only to the left eye, and the image for the right eye only to the right eye, your brain will automatically be able to recognize that these images are taken from the perspective of the left and right eye, and will combine them into one image with depth and with proper alignment based on that depth.

Which is why all youtube videos of VR gameplay look cockeyed, they're recorded a one-panel output off their monitor.

[Aapje]

1 minute ago, Panzerlang said:

Which is why all youtube videos of VR gameplay look cockeyed, they're recorded a one-panel output off their monitor.

Exactly, it looks like they have horrible aim, and are consistently shooting either to the left or right of the target, depending on which eye they record for the video.

[von_Tom]

22 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

I've had some success with the Pimax Dream Air SLAM by switching to SteamVR (!) and using the Sboys3 1.3 driver via Pimax EVO.

Performance is generally good in the air (90fps), with lower fps near the ground (35-55 fps) while also getting fairly good visuals with almost no aliasing.

I can finally play a little bit instead of being focused on the settings and tweaking them.

I've tried using EVO/Sboys3 but it tanked my FPS.  Plus of course SteamVR Home comes up every time and that bugs the hell out of me... I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the way I start the game is:

1  Start EVO

2  Launch game (goes into SteamVR)

3  Faff around using the controllers to get rid of SteamVR Home

Reverting to OpenXR and all is good.

How are you running it?

von Tom

[von_Tom]

On 6/25/2026 at 10:13 PM, platypus65 said:

After tinkering with settings, I have a steady 90 FPS on my Dream Air Slam. I started out trying the OpenXR and was frustrated with the FPS. So I tried OpenVR using the SBOYS3 driver and set my upscaling to FSR Balanced. That gave me a steady 90 FPS – with occasional choppiness. I then set my SteamVR resolution to 3852 x 3256, and that smoothed things out.

I do have a beefy machine wth an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, 96 GB of Ram, and a Nvidia RTX 5090.

Same system and VR headset, though 64Gb RAM.

In EVO I have the graphics at balanced - 0.75.  Does SteamVR have to mimic that?  I can't get to your resolution as 100% in SteamVR is 3892x3124.  I canm get 3852x3092.

What % do you have SteamVR set at?

von Tom

 

Edited July 2 by von_Tom

[Jade_Monkey]

8 minutes ago, von_Tom said:

Same system and VR headset, though 64Gb RAM.

In EVO I have the graphics at balanced - 0.75.  Does SteamVR have to mimic that?  I can't get to your resolution as 100% in SteamVR is 3892x3124.  I canm get 3852x3092.

What % do you have SteamVR set at?

von Tom

 

 

Im leaving EVO at Auto, so cannot tweak there. I put 80% in Steam VR.

Regarding Stam Home, you have to uncheck that in the SteamVR settings, it's so annoying. 

Do you have Openport and Sboys3 set up with the 1.3 driver?

 

[YoYo]

4 hours ago, Aapje said:

The way human vision works is that your left eye sees things from a different angle than your right eye, and the brain combines these into a single 3D view. Headsets mimic this, and they show a different image to each eye, which is what causes VR to have 3D vision in the first place.

You can test this out yourself by picking an object on your desk and holding out your thumb in front of the object, so your thumb aligns with the edge of the object. Then close your left eye and check whether your thumb just lost alignment with the object, even though you didn't move it. Then do the same with the other eye.

In most cases, you will find that closing one eye causes the alignment to shift, while closing the other eye causes the alignment to stay true. The open eye that keeps proper alignment is your dominant eye.

When you play the game in flat mode on a regular flat screen, the entire game is rendered at the same distance, and your left and right eye see exactly the same, which is why the image is flat and lacks depth. However, it is centered.

The two images that are rendered for the left and right side of the headset are a the view from a slightly different angle, to make them have depth, but the consequences is that if you show the image of one eye on a flat screen, your brain will interpret it differently. It will not compensate for the angle that it is rendered for, because both your left and right eye see the exact same image. So it will interpret the entire image as being offset. However, if your show the rendered image with the angle for the left eye only to the left eye, and the image for the right eye only to the right eye, your brain will automatically be able to recognize that these images are taken from the perspective of the left and right eye, and will combine them into one image with depth and with proper alignment based on that depth.

If you look at content creators that fly in VR, but make flat videos, based on the rendering for one eye, you will see that when they are aiming properly at a target, it will look like their aim is quite a bit off.

I still don't understand what you mean about the image on a 2D monitor (because that's what was discussed). What you're describing is called a stereoscopic image (3D image), which is how we see the world in 3D in VR and this is obvious and it applies to VR. What does this have to do with a 2D image on a monitor - that was the request to remove it and provide one 2D image instead of two on monitor, not in VR (which is obvious too) but like in DCS or MSFS. I don't understand how a split screen like this is supposed to help you on a monitor. Let me know because I really have no idea why you would want to keep it.

How can you claim that such an image is better? Let me know, because I'm curious about the need to watch such videos 🙂(example from IL-2 BoX):

You watch movies like this in VR as 3D ? Is that what you mean? I've generally watched some VR content on YouTube, and it was indeed a 360-degree VR video, but I consider it a complete niche and rare occurrence. I watch YouTube videos on YouTube, on a monitor, smartphone, or tablet, but not in VR in 99.9% of cases.

Edited July 2 by YoYo

[Aapje]

@YoYo

I'll try one more time. When rendering for VR, the GPU renders two images:

- Left eye perspective

- Right eye perspective

When rendering for a flat screen, the GPU renders one image:

- Middle perspective

If you show the perspective of a single eye on a flat screen, the things on screen that are at different distances/depths, are not lined up properly. So what you see on screen, is then not actually accurate. You may be flying directly at a waypoint, but the screen will then show the gunsight to the left or right of the waypoint.

The advantage of showing the perspective of both eyes is that you can look at both screens and see whether the gunsight lines up with the waypoint, by basically doing the same thing that your brain does naturally when you get the left perspective in the left eye, and the right perspective in the right eye, which is to combine the two images into a coherent view. Of course, in that case it doesn't happen naturally, and you have to use reasoning, and the end result is not that you actually see the combined image, but you have to build up a mental model of what the combined image is.

The way I use this, is as follows:

- I point the plane at a far away waypoint and press autolevel (and x8)

- I take off the headset and go do something else

- I look at the screen now and then to see if the plane is still flying in the right direction and to see how close to the waypoint it is.

A small error at the start of a long leg can cause a significant deviation when getting closer to the waypoint. So it regularly happens that I notice a significant deviation that I want to correct. So then I:

- Take the plane out of autolevel and turn the plane to properly point at the waypoint again, and turn autolevel back on.

Now, perhaps you never do this. Perhaps you always fly the entire route yourself. Perhaps you use autopilot instead of autolevel. Perhaps you always have the HUD off. But for the way I use it, it is a benefit to see both eyes.

Edited July 2 by Aapje

[YoYo]

9 minutes ago, Aapje said:

@YoYo

- I take off the headset and go do something else ...

What? You mean you start the game in VR mode and next can take off the VR headset and do something else while you watch what's happening in split-screen from afar?  
Let's be serious. You're probably the only person who came up with something like that. I will say that this is very strange and I honestly do not find this idea convincing, but of course, if you want to fly in VR mode without VR headset ... well, I respect and admire that and I'll treat it as a curiosity to tell stories over a beer ;). I will only add that if you trim the plane well to the wind (there are calculators for that) and give it autolevel, it will also keep your heading, even without looking at the monitor, so I still consider it pointless, sorry.

[Dai-San]

I think the difference here is that @YoYo and @Galraak are talking about it from a recording for footage point of view and @Aapje is using it for a different purpose entirely.

But either way, the answer given was entirely correct.

In the startup.cfg file:

or_render_eye = 0 is the Stereo output to your monitor. (for @Aapje).
or_render_eye = 1 is the Left Eye Only or 2 is the Right Eye Only output to your monitor (for recording footage).

Thanks @Panzerlang, everyone's a winner!!!

[=ILS=_Abu_27]

32 minutes ago, YoYo said:

什么？你的意思是你在VR模式下开始游戏，然后可以摘下VR头显去做别的事情，同时远距离分屏观看发生的事情？
说正经点。你大概是唯一想出这种东西的人。我得说这很奇怪，老实说我不太觉得这个想法有说服力，但当然，如果你想在没有VR头显的情况下以VR模式飞行......嗯，我尊重并钦佩这一点，我会把在啤酒;)中讲故事当作一种好奇。我只想补充一点，如果你把飞机调整得很好，顺风（有计算器可以做到），并设置自动水平平衡，它也能保持航向，即使不看显示器，所以我还是觉得没什么用，抱歉。

or_render_eye = 1
 

[YoYo]

29 minutes ago, =ILS=_Abu_27 said:

or_render_eye = 1

Well, there we have it. Just add it to the user menu and all will be happy. Thanks for the tip. 👍

[von_Tom]

8 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

Im leaving EVO at Auto, so cannot tweak there. I put 80% in Steam VR.

Regarding Stam Home, you have to uncheck that in the SteamVR settings, it's so annoying. 

Do you have Openport and Sboys3 set up with the 1.3 driver?

Ok interesting about auto in Evo.

Yes I have Openport on and the 1.3.0 driver installed.  I do not run the CustomHeadsetGUI at all.  I only ran it once to have a look.

Steam Home is always there for me even when I toggle it off.  It is very annoying!

von Tom

[Flameout]

In VR the game often crashes for me. I wanted to see if people with a similar setup as me are having similar problems or is it specific to me. I'm running a Quest 3, cable linked to my PC, win 11 pro, 32 gig, 3080T 11GB vid card, stock settings on the quest and no mods. INtel-9700. I'm using the OpenVR setting in the game. I've tried cranking practically all the settings down or off in preferences, including the textures to 2k.

I'm just using the free flight in the Sabre.  It might run ok for a few minutes, then crash.

Edited July 2 by Flameout

[von_Tom]

5 hours ago, von_Tom said:

Steam Home is always there for me even when I toggle it off.  It is very annoying!

I mean the dashboard, but that can be disabled in steam/steamapps/common/steamvr/resources/settings/default.vrsettings and set "enableDashboard": true to false.

von Tom

[brickcommander]

6 hours ago, Flameout said:

In VR the game often crashes for me. I wanted to see if people with a similar setup as me are having similar problems or is it specific to me. I'm running a Quest 3, cable linked to my PC, win 11 pro, 32 gig, 3080T 11GB vid card, stock settings on the quest and no mods. INtel-9700. I'm using the OpenVR setting in the game. I've tried cranking practically all the settings down or off in preferences, including the textures to 2k.

I'm just using the free flight in the Sabre.  It might run ok for a few minutes, then crash.

You probably want to use openxr actually... is there a reason you chose to use openver rather than the openxr native to the quest?

[Flameout]

3 hours ago, brickcommander said:

You probably want to use openxr actually... is there a reason you chose to use openver rather than the openxr native to the quest?

I will try that!  No good reason, I just thought that was what others were using.  I'll try that thank you!

[=ILS=_Abu_27]

35 minutes ago, Flameout said:

我会试试的！没什么特别的理由，我只是以为别人用的就是这个。我会试试，谢谢！

你看看自己有没有开opentoolkit，这次他们会冲突。

[Qcumber]

The main thing that puts me off IL-2 Korea is lack of support for QVFR. It's essential now for a decent VR experience.