6... 5... Far Cry 4! (Patreon)

Be sure to wear something warm, because this time we'll be going to the Himalayas!

Release 11.1.1 of the R.E.A.L. VR mod, attached at the end of the post, adds Far Cry 4 to the list of titles that we can play in virtual reality.

Check out the stream by content creator and player extraordinaire Ian "Ah but I'm a good kisser" Higton for almost one hour and a half of gameplay and humor (also please support the amazing work he does by liking and subscribing to his personal channel, Platform32, and don't forget his awesome VR corner on Eurogamer).

Finally, of course Cyberpunk 2077 had another official update, so I took care of that too (see the "Additional fixes" section below) :-/

Instructions for Far Cry 4 are in the Setup section a little further ahead. Enjoy the superb scenery and solid gameplay that this game offers, and beware of the Yetis!!!

Games list

As usual the mod archive is common for all supported titles, and the updated list is now:

• Atomic Heart
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Dark Souls: Remastered
• Elden Ring
• Far Cry 4 (new)
• Far Cry 5
• Far Cry 6
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Ghostrunner
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• Grounded
• High On Life
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
• Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Stray
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

All games implement AER v2.

Additional fixes

Cyberpunk 2077

The 2.11 official update to CP2077 broke two of my patches, preventing the game from entering VR. Full functionality is now restored with release 11.1.1. As usual, do not forget to run RealConfig.bat after unpacking the new mod archive.

Setup

I developed and tested the Far Cry 4 mod using the Ubisoft+ version of the game; other editions should also work, but if you encounter issues please upload your RealVR.log file somewhere so we can try to sort them out. Also, make sure that your video drivers are updated to the latest version, even though FC4 is an older game.

Run the game flat (not in VR) at least once, so that it will generate its config files and you can check that it works correctly. Then quit out of it and extract the mod archive into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Far Cry 4\bin" folder. You might need to customize the path if you own the game from a different store, but it will always be the one that contains the "FarCry4.exe" executable file.

Finally run RealConfig.bat. It will perform a few required operations (including the v-sync fix for NVIDIA drivers) and preselect graphics settings that are known to work well in VR. Remember that running RealConfig is mandatory; if you omit this step the mod will not work.

At this point, the next time you launch Far Cry 4 it should automatically display in your VR headset. You'll still need to tweak a few things in-game however, in order to get the best possible experience.

Setting the resolution

Good news here! With FC4 I was able to mod the custom (square) resolutions directly into the game. You will be able to select them from the game VIDEO menu itself, without any hassle. Just make sure that "Aspect ratio" is set to "Auto" and that "Window Mode" is set to "WINDOWED".

FC4 will also remember the resolution you set across sessions, so once you find the right compromise between detail and fluidity you should be able to play the rest of the game without touching the resolution again.

Cutscenes

This time I disabled the cinematic black bars, because they didn't work correctly in VR. As usual you can look around freely during cutscenes, which occasionally can reveal missing portions of scenery in areas you were never supposed to see.

Some cutscenes (notably the rather long intro) were prerendered and stored as movies, so there's nothing I can do about them. Those will be projected on a virtual screen and look flat.

Game options

You can set all graphics and gameplay options in the game menus according to your liking and to how powerful your GPU is, but there are a few settings that you must leave to the defaults preselected by RealConfig in order for the mod to work properly:

• Aspect Ratio = Auto
• Window Mode = WINDOWED
• V-Sync = OFF
• Motion Blur = OFF

It's also recommended to avoid NVIDIA GameWorks-enabled settings because they tend to hurt performance. I play with Ambient Occlusion set to SSBC and Anti-Aliasing set to SMAA.

Post FX on High has been reported to be buggy, making shadows too dark at certain times of day.

Input

You will want to use a gamepad to play Far Cry 4 (XInput-compatible controllers like the ones from Microsoft are the best for my mods). Keyboard and mouse sort of work too, but there might be issues, like mouse clicks activating other windows at random or some entries in the game menus being unreachable with the cursor; thus, in order to have a smooth experience, using a gamepad is highly recommended.

Don't worry about console-player syndrome: in my mods aiming is gaze-driven and extremely fast, intuitive and accurate, so even if you're used to playing FPS with your mouse, give your gamepad a chance ;-)

Gameplay

When your weapon is not drawn, the Far Cry 4 mod supports 6 DoF tracking, which means that the camera will follow your head rotation and movement, and the HUD will float in space in front of you.

However, in Far Cry 4 that is basically limited to cutscenes and driving vehicles, because in normal gameplay your character will almost never holster his weapon (erring on the side of caution?) :-D

To achieve proper gaze-based aiming and to always keep the crosshair correctly aligned, whenever you have a weapon drawn 6 DoF will be limited to 3 DoF, i.e., without positional tracking. For accurate, intuitive ADS (Aiming Down Sights), remember to set your dominant eye in the "FC4" tab of the mod overlay.

Binoculars work and will allow you to zoom in, but please be careful as the change of FOV can be a little intense! So, if you're not a VR veteran, try to move your head around slowly when using binoculars.

All kinds of weapon scopes should work too.

The "FC4" tab of the mod overlay will also allow you to change the world scale, from small adjustments to playing with dolls or giants. Additionally, you can force the game to render to a 2D virtual screen in case you should find a section too hard to play in full VR.

Updates and known issues

• The hang glider controls almost as well as other vehicles, but it sort of forces the player to look in the forward direction (I assume it's for safety reasons, haha). If you rotate your head too much to the sides, the camera will be forced to realign with the glider, which can have a disconcerting effect.
• There might be frame rate drops when exiting buildings and/or immediately after cutscenes. I cannot reproduce them, so I don't know whether I'll be able to fix them, but luckily there seems to be an easy workaround: entering the game menus for a moment will restore normal frame rate.
• At least on my system, the Ubisoft launcher insists that it wants to install some VCredist every single time you try to run the game. The installer displays a UAC prompt, so you'll need to click on that before putting your headset on, otherwise the game will never start.
• If the game seems to display with the wrong aspect ratio in your headset, try switching "Window Mode" from WINDOWED to BORDERLESS and then, after playing for a few seconds, going back again to WINDOWED.
• Frame rate might be locked at 60 fps when navigating the game menus. That should not be a problem, because the 60 fps cap will not apply during gameplay.

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That's all I have for now. Thank you, dear friends, for yet another month of this incredible adventure together!!!