Resources

• vorpX official site
• (Unofficial) vorpX wiki

What is vorpX

vorpX is one of the coolest pieces of VR software that I have ever used and is worth every single penny (and then some). It is essentially a piece of software that can hook into non-native-VR-games (games that were not made to natively support VR headsets) and lets you play them in a VR headset. For some games it supports a full-VR mode, where you get the full stereoscopic 3D rendering (each eye sees a different viewpoint, which results in a very convincing experience), but for those it doesn't, you can usually still play in "Immersive Screen" mode, which is more likely playing a video game on a movie theater sized screen, which still feels very immersive despite not being full 3D.

General Tips and Preferences

Here are some general tips on using vorpX:

• If you want to use your computer with vorpX, but with only the headset as a display and no monitors, you might need to utilize a "dummy" display device. These are also useful for tricking your computer into outputting higher resolutions than you could with a monitor you might have on hand.
  • These are actually very inexpensive; you can get a 4K dummy HDMI plug for about $10 on Amazon
• I've noticed an issue with a large portion of games where the game window won't be getting input after launch, and I have to manually "focus" the window by clicking on it with the mouse before I can use vorpX's input to control it. As such, a general tip is to get a wireless trackpad / mouse, and click on the game window while it is launching to focus it

For preferences: a lot of VR gaming settings come down to personal preference and what works best for you, so take that into consideration. For example, someone that plays VR games daily is going to have built up a tolerance for some of the more nausea-inducing settings that will negatively impact other players.

My personal preferences are:

• Turn head-tracking as input completely off (Input Settings -> Head Tracking as Gamepad), on most FPS games (unless FullVR works exceptionally well)
  • The problem with using head-tracking as input control for (most) FPS that are not natively VR is that the game will not offer an independent control for the weapon aiming vs camera control. In non-VR games, these are almost always the same thing - you have one view control (e.g., the right joystick) and where you are looking is also where the weapon is aiming / where the crosshair is. With head-tracking as input enabled, I find myself getting both frustrated and nauseous, as my manual aiming with the joystick will be fighting against my head movements and if I try to do both at the same time, my brain won't like that there is movement happening that doesn't match my head movements.
  • I have found that for most games, a more pleasant experience for prolonged gameplay is to A) turn off head tracking as input, B) turning Right Stick Y Sensitivity up to 1.00, so I have full manual control over aiming, and C) Try not to move my head much
• Turn off mapping gamepad joysticks to vorpX buttons
  • On most games, or at least modern FPS games, the joystick buttons will be mapped to in-game actions that are frequently needed. E.g., left joystick button mapped to "sprint", and right joystick to "melee". However, vorpX by default binds these buttons to special vorpX actions (Menu and EdgePeek, respectfully). By disabling these bindings (Input Settings -> vorpX Gamepad Button 1, vorpX Gamepad Button 2), you will be able to use these joystick with your game without them conflicting with vorpX
    • I usually find that I only need to disable the right joystick binding, as I don't use EdgePeek that often once a game is running, but bringing up the vorpX menu is more useful and usually the left joystick is also needed less in games
    • If you want the best of both worlds, disable the joystick bindings, but then get a wireless keyboard or second controller that you can map the vorpX actions to, so you can still use Menu or EdgePeek without losing the joystick functionality on your primary controller

Troubleshooting

Make sure to check out the Basic Trouble Shooting guide from Ralf first.

• I can see and hear the game, but input is broken; I can't click on anything or navigate menus
  • Make sure the game window actually has focus; you might need to use an actual mouse input device (as opposed to a gamepad routed through vorpX) to find the game window on your screen and click on it first to focus it, so then vorpX can send input to it
• I can hear audio from the game, but don't see anything in my headset (other than the SteamVR loading screen, or something like that)
  • Try changing the game settings to run in "Windowed Fullscreen" mode, or some other windowed mode
  • Make sure another application isn't stealing focus (e.g., after the game launched, another window popped open and is currently overlaid on top)
  • Check that something didn't interrupt the "hooking" process
• I disabled head tracking, but now I can't manually use the right joystick to move the camera view
  • This tends to be a problem in non-FullVR modes (like Immersive Screen) - try checking if the Input Settings -> Right Stick Y Sensitivity is set to a low value (like 0.3) and crank it all the way up to 1.0 (see this thread for details)
• I can't look up or down with the joystick!
  • Try turning Input Settings -> Try Pitch (Y-Rotation) Lock off