Problems with Perception 2.0 (Most games unplayable)

[duggy747]

Much appreciate the work done for Perception, have been using it since today's release but unfortunately nothing works with very well for me.

I understand the scenario with the .DLL files and placing them in a game's folder as well as tweaks towards some games like the shadows in Skyrim.

Current setup is an i5 2500k (currently at 3.2ghz), AMD Radeon HD 6770, 8GB RAM, running a clone display with Rift as primary (sometimes extended if a game requires it like HL2). I've had no problems with any games and the Rift on this setup, just that it doesn't agree with Perception 2.0

Skyrim is unplayable, it crashes when loading a new or saved game. It seems to ONLY crash when Oculus Track is selected, otherwise the game loads fine and the display appears on the Rift perfectly, though without headtracking.

Strangely enough, the Rift will function properly if I run Skyrim but NOT have Perception running in the background (The .DLLs would still be in Skyrim's folder). However, the graphics are all screwed up with massive lines all over the screen, completely unplayable type. The only way I could tell headtracking was working was because I started a new game and I could make out the NPCs, who were rendered fine, in the cart with me and kept sight of them when I could freely move my head.

The game will load fine until Oculus Track is selected.

Mirrors Edge had been running fine on an earlier version of Perception, I had been playing through that game with it. On 2.0, it feels and acts better on the Rift but there's crazy flickering completely throughout leaving it way too unplayable, the flickering also appears on the into menu where the background city is flickering heavily. It also crashes on startup randomly, especially if your Run As Administrator.

Also, a small screen of what I'm seeing appears permanently in the top left corner. Like a mirror of one of the Rift's eyes, it only appears on Perception 2.0

Left 4 Dead 2 is mostly playable though highlight outlines around objects like ammo, medkits, etc, move and stay center when you move your head but disappear a short time later. The light from the flashlight is also a square, like I'm using a square projector for a light.

Any help is really appreciated, I'm sure something small on my machine is at the root of this causing things to go arseways.

[Neil]

Ok. Several questions:

1. Are both displays running in 1280X800X60Hz?
2. Are you always in clone mode?
3. Have you tried running perception.exe in admin mode?
4. With Skyrim, check skyrimprefs.ini to make sure bdeferredshadows=0. If the setting isn't there, add it.
5. Try another mode like anaglyph without the Oculus tracker. Does it work?
6. Have you stripped all the Skyrim mods to vanilla status? Can you also use the Steam local files utility to verify the integrity of the game cache?

Let's focus on Skyrim to start, and then we can talk about the others. I need a comparable we both have.

Regards,
Neil

[duggy747]

Ok. Several questions:

1. Are both displays running in 1280X800X60Hz?

No, main display is a HDTV running at 1080p, never had a problem until today with this setup. I did set both displays to be at 1280x800 but no difference.

2. Are you always in clone mode?

Whenever I turn on the Rift I set it into clone mode and have the rift as primary. Extended is only used for playing Half Life 2 since the recent VR update requires it.

3. Have you tried running perception.exe in admin mode?

Yep

4. With Skyrim, check skyrimprefs.ini to make sure bdeferredshadows=0. If the setting isn't there, add it.

The only time Skyrim worked was when it was set to "1" but the Rift would only roll left or right and there was the obvious shadow glitch. I changed the setting to "0" and I couldn't load or start a new game. I set it back to "1" but same problem.

5. Try another mode like anaglyph without the Oculus tracker. Does it work?

Tried the different modes, no change

6. Have you stripped all the Skyrim mods to vanilla status? Can you also use the Steam local files utility to verify the integrity of the game cache?

Running in Vanilla with all mods disabled, all files are fine from integrity check, no change.

[Neil]

If you disconnect the Rift and just run on the HDTV, will analgyph mode work without a tracker?

Do you have any other 3D or VR drivers running? Any secondary software that could possibly be interfering with this?

Do you have a Logitech mouse with special mouse software? That is known to interfere with the Oculus tracker.

Regards,
Neil

[duggy747]

If you disconnect the Rift and just run on the HDTV, will analgyph mode work without a tracker?

Do you have any other 3D or VR drivers running? Any secondary software that could possibly be interfering with this?

Do you have a Logitech mouse with special mouse software? That is known to interfere with the Oculus tracker.

Regards,
Neil

Tried it and it worked though Skyrim will work as long as I don't select Oculus Track.

I've no other 3D or VR drivers besides Perception. I closed any software / processes from Task Manager down to the bare essentials to make sure nothing was conflicting but no change.

Only mouse I have is a Microsoft Wireless mouse but I don't have the software running for it, just basic drivers.

An IR software that's used for the remote for this machine caused the Rift not to be recognised until I disabled it, I spotted on day one when I got the Rift.

Ok, just as I was typing this I got the BaseDirect3D9 error randomly since I had Perception open. The software that just caused it was Flash Player plugin from Firefox and it caused the browser to stall until I cancelled it. Could that be something, I wonder?

EDIT: Seemingly not, I exited out of Firefox and closed anything remaining but that made no change.

[duggy747]

Ok, fully unplugged the Rift from the machine and ran Perception WITH Oculus Track and the game loaded fine.

So it's when the Rift is connected that the problem occurs with Skyrim, though I have no processes other than the basic running.

Hmmm, plot thickens......

Thanks for the replies, Neil, much appreciated.

[Bloump]

Hello! Having same\similar issue here, i only got dirt 2 and 3 to test, but basically it just doesn't work..
Tried the same things suggested to duggy but nothing, any mode;
the weird thing is before i've put the dll's in the exe game folder, it gave me the d3d error, so that must mean that dirt saw perception.exe
running.. after i added the dll's, error's gone but simply doesn't work..also tried the dirt2\3.exe rather than dirt2\3_game.exe.. but nothing.
also dirt3 it won't freasking go in fullscreen at launch and i'm getting insane, but this is another story
I'll test Mirror's edge tomorrow to see if i's a dirt problem.. any other idea? like windows packages, open al,nvidia\amd issues..
Thanks a lot btw, for the work you've done!

[Neil]

I'll give this some more testing on the weekend on my AMD machine. This does seem peculiar.

Regards,
Neil

[EisernSchild]

Skyrim is unplayable, it crashes when loading a new or saved game. It seems to ONLY crash when Oculus Track is selected, otherwise the game loads fine and the display appears on the Rift perfectly, though without headtracking.

Maybe you need to adjust the "minVRboostShaderCount" value in the profiles.xml file for Skyrim. It is set to "40" currently and should always be greater than the shader count you have during the loading screen. Start Skyrim (without tracker selected) and start the BRASSA menu, go to "Overall Settings" and read the vertex shader count at the bottom of the menu. This shader count avoids VRBoost memory rules to be applied while you are not in gaming mode. If that does not work try to "Force Mouse Emulation HT" in the menu and try it with mouse emulation.

Hello! Having same\similar issue here, i only got dirt 2 and 3 to test, but basically it just doesn't work..

Unfortunately we did not find time to test DiRT in any way now. At least i have a Demo of DiRT 2 and hope to find some time to test that soon. (Damn Christmas rush....)

[Rift_Astro]

Can I ask a question? I'm sorry if it seems stupid. I got my rift in the last week and am abvsorbing knowledge by the boat load to get myself up to speed. I have gathered a number of versions of perception (2.0, D3D, 1.0) and it seems to me that I need to use different version to get different games to run. Is this intentional or do you intend 2.0 to be backwards compatible with the games that were working in previous releases?

Just FYI, Skyrim runs fine for me on a laptop using HD5850 1gb, i5 (1st gen) 2.4ghz, 6gb ram, win7 64. Works better without the mods I'd installed to get it running on D3D version of perception (skyui, smmi, custom ui etc). I even took off high res texture pack which was provided by Steam. Actually made no difference running with or without high texture pack so to boost fps a little it's probably running better with lower res textures due to the lower res of the DK1.

Portal (1) doesn't want to work with 2.0 (works with D3D). It renders two displays on screen but they are split so far apart. I only fired up, saw this and closed. I will try to play with the various settings when I get home after work (was just on lunch! - note to self, driving after VR gives you cross eyes, you need to wait a minute before driving).

Portal 2 does work although the frame rate is so low (maybe 5 fps or less). Not sure if this is a driver issue or my gpu just isn't beef enough.

Deus Ex HR wont to split into two screens. Tried putting DLLs locally, no joy. Also can't find a FOV mod in the menus as suggested in the pdf. Only a Depth of Field available in my menus. the 3Dstereo options are red in the menus, indicating I can't touch them.

I have Fallout NV installed, but didn't get this to split on first load up. Will try this a bit more tonight.

I have Dirt3, I appreciate there is no support specified for this game. I would like to try and get it to work. Is there a way I can use the toolset you have provided in 2.0 to try all the DX9 games I have installed? I would like to understand if there is a specific path that I can use to try and make profiles to share for the various few hundred games I have installed via Steam. Want to contribute by creating these profiles but need a bit of a tutorial to understand how to get the game to fire up with 2 screens. I can then go on and configure all the other options in the toolset you have provided and share them if that's possible.

[kieth890]

If you disconnect the Rift and just run on the HDTV, will analgyph mode work without a tracker?

Do you have any other 3D or VR drivers running? Any secondary software that could possibly be interfering with this?

Do you have a Logitech mouse with special mouse software? That is known to interfere with the Oculus tracker.

Regards,
Neil

Tried it and it worked though Skyrim will work as long as I don't select Oculus Track.

I've no other 3D or VR drivers besides Perception. I closed any software / processes from Task Manager down to the bare essentials to make sure nothing was conflicting but no change.

Only mouse I have is a Microsoft Wireless mouse but I don't have the software running for it, just basic drivers.

An IR software that's used for the remote for this machine caused the Rift not to be recognised until I disabled it, I spotted on day one when I got the Rift.

Ok, just as I was typing this I got the BaseDirect3D9 error randomly since I had Perception open. The software that just caused it was Flash Player plugin from Firefox and it caused the browser to stall until I cancelled it. Could that be something, I wonder?

EDIT: Seemingly not, I exited out of Firefox and closed anything remaining but that made no change.

Is the vrboost dll present in the bin folder that the perception exe is in? The random direct3d error is something that will occur if you leave perception open, it will try to attach to anything it can.

Can I ask a question? I'm sorry if it seems stupid. I got my rift in the last week and am abvsorbing knowledge by the boat load to get myself up to speed. I have gathered a number of versions of perception (2.0, D3D, 1.0) and it seems to me that I need to use different version to get different games to run. Is this intentional or do you intend 2.0 to be backwards compatible with the games that were working in previous releases?

Just FYI, Skyrim runs fine for me on a laptop using HD5850 1gb, i5 (1st gen) 2.4ghz, 6gb ram, win7 64. Works better without the mods I'd installed to get it running on D3D version of perception (skyui, smmi, custom ui etc). I even took off high res texture pack which was provided by Steam. Actually made no difference running with or without high texture pack so to boost fps a little it's probably running better with lower res textures due to the lower res of the DK1.

Portal (1) doesn't want to work with 2.0 (works with D3D). It renders two displays on screen but they are split so far apart. I only fired up, saw this and closed. I will try to play with the various settings when I get home after work (was just on lunch! - note to self, driving after VR gives you cross eyes, you need to wait a minute before driving).

Portal 2 does work although the frame rate is so low (maybe 5 fps or less). Not sure if this is a driver issue or my gpu just isn't beef enough.

Deus Ex HR wont to split into two screens. Tried putting DLLs locally, no joy. Also can't find a FOV mod in the menus as suggested in the pdf. Only a Depth of Field available in my menus. the 3Dstereo options are red in the menus, indicating I can't touch them.

Right now it is not backwards compatible with all the games it used to work with, but we do plan to eventually achieve that and much more. On portal 1 we do not really support it yet, portal 2 should work but it is probably running slow due to the hardware. Laptops are always a killer on performance, especially when they have to render the game twice. Deus ex should work, not sure on that.

[duggy747]

Ok, I did a complete cull on Skyrim and reinstalled bringing it 100% back to vanilla state and, lo and behold, it worked straight away I must've had some rogue file / texture / mesh / etc from a mod I put in a looooong time ago.

It works wonderfully, albeit with the few minor graphical problems that everyone is aware of like the shadows trailing when you move your head (have deferredshadows set to "0", anyways)

Otherwise, I'm back in action for Skyrim which should give me something to work with on the rest of the games.

Thanks a million for the help guys. Will update if I get progress on the other's like Mirrors Edge which still has that crazy flickering.

[Paintbrush]

I'm also interested about Mirrors Edge. The flickering is really strong and makes the game unplayable, but otherwise it looks great with Vireio2.

[marcoalexander]

Please tell me something with this mirrors edge problem x.x It's the only game i can't get working and i can't seem to find a solution.

[Neil]

Haven't optimized that game yet. We'll get to it eventually.

Regards,
Neil

[refer2me2]

Haven't optimized that game yet. We'll get to it eventually.

Regards,
Neil

Hi, any word on Mirror's Edge? I'm having the same issue as described above with flickering and a screen duplication in the upper left.

Thanks,
refer2me

[refer2me2]

Bump