VR in IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 / BAT works! OMG! Meaning of life found!
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I know this topic has been discussed at times in SAS, but I figured I would share my experience. As a huge fanatic of military aviation, particularly WW2, on 7 Dec, I watched “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, IMHO the best movie on the Pearl Harbor attack. But I did a little more, with support from the wife and kids…
Bottom line:
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I had IL-2 / BAT work in VR for the first time using the Oculus Rift S VR set using the vorpX software.
Background:
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I have been saving some money for a VR set so I could use it in the new IL-2 Great Battle series and weighting features I decided to go for the Oculus Rift S for my PC (Alienware Aurora 7 Intel i7 / 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080). After some digging I got it to work, and the new IL-2’s VR support, although in need of some work, is incredible, I can’t really describe it… like a little-boy-dream fulfilled… If you are supporting it, I highly recommend you to read the posts on the subject (
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/109-virtual-reality-and-vr-controllers/).
But of course I still enjoy the good old IL-2 Sturmovik, which evolved into BAT. Without previous knowledge of vorpX software, I started wondering and seeing if there was a way to allow applications with non-VR 3D view to be “converted” to VR support. I saw a few Goggle results referring to the vorpX application and decided to look further. I read all the reviews and support.
To save some time in this post, I decided to take a chance and buy the software (
https://www.vorpx.com/). At first I could not make it work (I could have IL-2/BAT display in a large screen, but no VR experience). Today I did some digging and found that someone was able to make the vorpX software work for IL-2 Classic (all versions up to 1946 and mods). The post described the steps to enabling VR (
https://www.vorpx.com/forums/topic/il2-1946-working/).
But without going through all the steps in that post above, there is AN EASIER WAY I found; there is a profile that you can download that works with IL-2 Surmovik (based on the il2fb.exe). More below.
The Experience:
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So when it all worked, I was amazed. I was able to fly several QMB missions and single missions using VR. Particularly today I flew on BAT’s He-100, He-112 and Fw-189 for fun against some large bombers. Flying with VR in our beloved IL-2 is just indescribably awesome.
Flying in one of the TBD3 single missions, I flew as the nose gunner and that was also very cool. Additionally I flew on the Bf-109E-7/Z and P-39 single missions.
Obviously I need to tweak some of the features, but the experience was enjoyable nevertheless. vorpX works with the Oculus application and binds to the IL2 executable. It also allows you to see the Oculus hand controllers in the application and you can use the Edge feature to zoom out of VR to have a larger view. I will have to read the vorpX docs to make custom modifications, but as it is I am super happy. My wife saw today not a man, no… not a man, but a happy little boy! (me…)
BAT
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Yes, it works with all versions of IL-2, including BAT. To have 3D in VR, do not use PAL’s 3D features (I only tried it once, but it stopped working, and vorpX inherently creates a 3D environment. However, I did use the “walking pilot” feature to jump out, walk around, and then jump back into the plane. That works well, but you have to do some working in how the POV-hat button interacts with the interface.
Cons…
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There are always butts, I mean buts. At first you need to get used to VR and using the view controls to re-center the view, but once I started using the interface and zooming features, and remembering to close one eye when looking at the sight, it was super incredible. It is a whole different world with VR, being able to track where your Wingmen are, seeing if a plane crashed, looking at ground targets.
Like I said, there are things you need to get used to. In some instances in my rig, when there is gun firing, there are some fast flashes. Today was my first day using this feature so I need to do some research. Either way, I still think this is totally worth it. Even watching other objects from outside F2 view is incredible.
How to make this all work
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1) First, you need to have a PC that not only runs BAT well, it needs to be able to support VR, as in the VR set you want to invest on. It needs to have enough CPU/GPU power to support the set you want. vorpX supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. I can only speak for the Oculus Rift S, which I purchased.
2) Second, you need to invest some money on a VR set. For vorpX software, like I said, it supports Oculus Rft and HTC Vive. I chose Oculus because of the ease of use and reviews. It is a significant investment. In the USA/EEUU, you can get the “Oculus Rift S” for US$400 dollars plus VAT (tax) through various vendors including Oculus (
https://www.oculus.com/) and Amazon. Unfortunately, in some places it can be more expensive.
3) Make sure your VR set works. Use their tutorial and get familiar with its functions.
4) Buy vorpX software at their site (
https://order.shareit.com/cart/add?vendorid=200277000&PRODUCT%5B300849428%5D=1&backlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vorpx.com). Currently it is on sale for US$33.99/24.99 Euro/23.16 GPB plus VAT. Once you buy it, download and install it, you will need to send an Email to them (as explained in the receipt), make sure you include the name you used in the order and the code generated by the software in your PC. You will receive an email within an hour with the enabling code for the application. I recommend also getting a profile in their Forums. This will take 12-24 hrs to get enabled.
5) Assuming Oculus application and VR set is working, run vorpX. You have to enter the name and code from vorpX’s email to activate the application. Once that is done, you can scan the currently supported games/sims (Battlefield series, Hidden and Dangerous, Star Wars Battlefront series, and many more…).
6) Select in vorpX the Cloud Profiles, you will need to create an account with a user ID and password. Then you just type “IL” and press enter… there will be cloud profiles for both IL-2 and IL-2 COD (Cliffs of Dover… which I will try later this week). Select the one called “IL2 1946 [Ekull]” and “Import profile”. Now that one will be in your “Local Profiles”. You don’t need to do anything else at first until you want to tweak vorpX commands and on-screen menus.
7) Making sure that VR is working, and Oculus application is running, make sure that vorpX is running. Now run IL-2 1946 / BAT, etc… (il2fb.exe). In the VR app you will see the splash screen for BAT in enormous faction. You can use the Oculus right controller squeeze button to zoom in out (Edge) or “Braille” yourself around to your mouse middle button.
Mess around with the IL-2 interface until you are ready to fly a mission. When you get into the mission, you will be in the 3D VR cockpit. It will take some getting used to, and I am still optimizing the experience (as far as going back and forth amongst VR controllers, HOTAS joystick, mouse and keyboard).
9) For vorpX, you can just take the VR set off and work with IL-2 in the monitor to do all other things, then put it back on when you are ready to start/continue flying. Like I said, it is a whole new world, and it is awesome.
If I find better ways to do things, I’ll post them here. All I can say is that this is short of a dream come true. Who am I kidding? This is a dream come true, in which you can be “inside” the IL-2 world.
FINALLY, I want to make it crystal clear that I am not talking about just making IL-2 look big in a VR set “cinema” view, this truly an adaptation of VR. It is quite cool to see the objects in the cockpit look like 3D objects.
Not sure if anyone cares, but here it is.
Anyone that wants to go through these steps, I’ll try to help.
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Edited on 9 Dec 2019:
* Please scroll down for some screenshots of vorpX
* NOTE: The auto update of vorpX to 19.3.1.3 disabled some profiles (including IL-2 1946), that that is easily fixed by checking the "Use alternative hooking method" in the General settings, as stated by one of the developers at
https://www.vorpx.com/forums/topic/vorpx-updated-automatically-now-my-profile-wont-work/#post-190856* It is working again, yay!
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Topic: VR in IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 / BAT works! OMG! Meaning of life found! (Read 19819 times)
