GTR 2 VR Support! (Not asking, telling!)

[OZ67]

Make sure you pick up the anniversary patch from GTR233 it's a really great update to the game.

Cheers Kenny , what does it do?

 

[Kenny Paton]

Cheers Kenny , what does it do?

So much to cover, I'll link you and you can read it.

GTR2 HQ Anniversary PATCH part-1

----------------------------------------------------- | GTR2 HQ Anniversary PATCH by GTR233 and friends | ----------------------------------------------------- Please read END-USER LICENCE AGREEMENT (_GTR2_HQ_Anniversary_PATCH_EULA.txt)...

www.racedepartment.com

It adds HQ tracks and cars, better shaders, various options for AI, physic improvements, better UI, and lots more.
Very important to follow the installation instructions. It really doesn't take long and is well worth it, Paul (GTR233) is super helpful as well.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Cheers Kenny , what does it do?

HQ Patch boosts stock content to another level visually, tracks/cars look much, much better. And without noticeable perf hit (VR in GTR2 is _very_ sensitive to content optimization).

AI paths seem to be fixed to a level that offers hands down best offline experience I remember in years. I once accidentally launched stock Spa with a full grid - immediatelty noticed AI struggling.

You can also go back and forth between physics interpretations: HQ, Reborn, NAP, Vanilla, all that without copying any files (there's an interactive batch).

Oh, not sure VR is your interest but GTR233 fixed a severe bug in GTR2 stock content (driver hands disappearing), and that is fixed in the HQ patch. So if you enjoy stock series, HQ content is pretty much required for VR.

 

[OZ67]

After 4 hours trying to get a new Steam version to boot up and reading and following all directions and methods from different sources. Forget it. I'm old time is short , 4 hrs is my limit when I have 7 other sims that run without issue. I really was looking forward to GTRs2 Career / championship mode in VR.
I thought steam products would be tested to run on all operating systems before release. Also done separate install with no cd etc. etc. etc.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

this thread gave me an idea. One problem with GTR2 I am aware of is that game fails to enumerate available video modes correctly, and will crash on startup (game age related problem). The workaround is to keep trying different screen modes. I fixed this for VR mode, so this issue won't affect anyone who runs with VR enabled.

However, I decided to add a new option to use the same method of video mode enumeration even if VR is off. This might help with startup issues. A bonus is that if this new feature is enabled, there will be no need to re-run GTR2Config every time VR is turned on or off. This will be released with the next wave of plugin updates.

 

[AndreasFSC]

Thanks for these updates!
(don't have time for gtr2 myself, but very interesting to see what can be done )

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Thanks for these updates!
(don't have time for gtr2 myself, but very interesting to see what can be done )

there's definitely a lot to play and so little time If you are curious, check out what RBR community did. They have the whole separate .dll that fixes dozens of age related issues. This whole effort is inspired by what I saw in RBR.

 

[paokkerkir]

RBR is the prime example of what a dedicated community can do to keep alive a great game.
It helps that it is still the most realistic rally game, after almost 20 years. And it says a lot for the industry.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

RBR is the prime example of what a dedicated community can do to keep alive a great game.
It helps that it is still the most realistic rally game, after almost 20 years. And it says a lot for the industry.

The need to revive GTR2 says a lot as well if you ask me, I am not exactly doing it for fun, I actually _need_ it. I don't recall having such a nice offline experience anywhere else, with damage, flags, safety car, rain, championships, large grids, no major issues in VR, convenience in VR, great AI, easily moddable etc.

Yes, just as RBR, there are areas GTR2 is outdated in, but not overall, overall it is still a very strong competior, especially in offline. And is still one of the most feature complete circuit racing games available.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Anyone who is running GTR2 in VR, I need some inputs.

Someone mentioned to me that he gets a bit more FPS in VR running smaller GTR2 window, say 800x600 vs say, 2560x1440. Does anyone else see that? (while testing, don't forget to turn off ASW/Smoothing etc, all the technologies that halve your FPS if you don't hit 90hz). Note that there's a limitation - window size cannot exceed VR resolution, but that's very easy to workaround by raising SteamVR resolution.

I would not expect window size impacting framerate, but you never know. If more people could confirm this effect, I could have a look into making 640x480 work and try optionally enabling mouse cursor capture so that mouse does not leave the tiny window. Thanks!

EDIT: spent an hour testing this and I see no difference (as expected). Currently, it appears that even if there's difference, it is too negligeble to complicate the code.

 

[OZ67]

Anyone who is running GTR2 in VR, I need some inputs.

Someone mentioned to me that he gets a bit more FPS in VR running smaller GTR2 window, say 800x600 vs say, 2560x1440. Does anyone else see that? (while testing, don't forget to turn off ASW/Smoothing etc, all the technologies that halve your FPS if you don't hit 90hz). Note that there's a limitation - window size cannot exceed VR resolution, but that's very easy to workaround by raising SteamVR resolution.

I would not expect window size impacting framerate, but you never know. If more people could confirm this effect, I could have a look into making 640x480 work and try optionally enabling mouse cursor capture so that mouse does not leave the tiny window. Thanks!

EDIT: spent an hour testing this and I see no difference (as expected). Currently, it appears that even if there's difference, it is too negligeble to complicate the code.

Each day I click on the Steam GTR2 play button and hope for a miracle , also change resolution settings in GTR2 each time but Still no luck , tried all compatibility modes in windows and with & without Admin rights. Hoping for a windows or nvidea driver update miracle.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Each day I click on the Steam GTR2 play button and hope for a miracle , also change resolution settings in GTR2 each time but Still no luck , tried all compatibility modes in windows and with & without Admin rights. Hoping for a windows or nvidea driver update miracle.

What OS is this?

On Win10, clean Steam GTR2 does not need anything. You do not need Admin, no need for compat modes (in fact VR requires to not have any compat modes set!). Clean Steam GTR2 should just run.

Yes, there's a problem with video mode detection. Try 800x600 16bit to start with. Do not worry - you won't have to run like this, this is just to get started. The very first step is to get GTR2 to run without any additions.

Another suggestion is: copy Steam GTR2 drop out of Steam. You do not need Steam to run GTR2, and you can have many drops, I use one per mod.

One more thought: what OS locale are you running? I heard game is not working well if locale uses "," for real number separator.

 

[OZ67]

What OS is this?

On Win10, clean Steam GTR2 does not need anything. You do not need Admin, no need for compat modes (in fact VR requires to not have any compat modes set!). Clean Steam GTR2 should just run.

Yes, there's a problem with video mode detection. Try 800x600 16bit to start with. Do not worry - you won't have to run like this, this is just to get started. The very first step is to get GTR2 to run without any additions.

Another suggestion is: copy Steam GTR2 drop out of Steam. You do not need Steam to run GTR2, and you can have many drops, I use one per mod.

One more thought: what OS locale are you running? I heard game is not working well if locale uses "," for real number separator.

Yeah Win10 , I'll try your suggestions , Not sure about your last sentence? Thank you IronWolf

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Yeah Win10 , I'll try your suggestions , Not sure about your last sentence? Thank you IronWolf

What language is your Windows in? If nothing works, try setting it to English region/language.

Let me know how it goes, and it sucks that it doesn't work, it sounds like you've put a lot of effort. But game seriously just runs here, no tweaks needed.

If it doesn't work, I have a change to the plugin that will allow different video mode detection method, that'd be coming with next CC update.

 

[OZ67]

What language is your Windows in? If nothing works, try setting it to English region/language.

Let me know how it goes, and it sucks that it doesn't work, it sounds like you've put a lot of effort. But game seriously just runs here, no tweaks needed.

If it doesn't work, I have a change to the plugin that will allow different video mode detection method, that'd be coming with next CC update.

I uninstalled and deleted all folders , turned off antivirus re installed and now works in all Resolutions , I think it may have been Antivirus being on during install. Next up Anniversary Patch , do I need no cd patch or anything ? Cheers for your help

 

[The Iron Wolf]

I uninstalled and deleted all folders , turned off antivirus re installed and now works in all Resolutions , I think it may have been Antivirus being on during install. Next up Anniversary Patch , do I need no cd patch or anything ? Cheers for your help

I suggest you start with this, this has all the info needed:

Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin Setup Instructions, Known Issues and Changelog

The Manual: https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/GTR2_CC_EP.pdf It is updated often to match the new/changed features, so I suggest simply bookmarking it for viewing in the browser. You can see the changelog at the end of the Manual if you want to see what’s changed. Plugin itself is...

thecrewchief.org

First get it to launch in VR. Let me know if you are stuck or confused. No no-cd, only Steam .exe is supported (but you can hex edit it for you-know-what)

If you plan to race stock content in VR, HQ Anniversary patch is highly recommended. But it is best to do things step by step, not to add too many things at once. CC and VR should run on clean Steam GTR2 no problem.

 

[OZ67]

I suggest you start with this, this has all the info needed:

Crew Chief GTR2 Enhancements Plugin Setup Instructions, Known Issues and Changelog

The Manual: https://thecrewchief.org/downloads/gtr2/GTR2_CC_EP.pdf It is updated often to match the new/changed features, so I suggest simply bookmarking it for viewing in the browser. You can see the changelog at the end of the Manual if you want to see what’s changed. Plugin itself is...

thecrewchief.org

First get it to launch in VR. Let me know if you are stuck or confused. No no-cd, only Steam .exe is supported (but you can hex edit it for you-know-what)

If you plan to race stock content in VR, HQ Anniversary patch is highly recommended. But it is best to do things step by step, not to add too many things at once. CC and VR should run on clean Steam GTR2 no problem.

I started CC and it automaticly installed it into Steam gtr2 plugin folder started gtr2 and thats when it now won't start, so uninstall again re install gtr2.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

I started CC and it automaticly installed it into Steam gtr2 plugin folder started gtr2 and thats when it now won't start, so uninstall again re install gtr2.

I wonder if your antivirus is blocking CC binaries. You may want to exclude GTR2 folder from your antivirus scans, but of course that is entirely up to you.

2 more things:
* if you delete d3d9.dll CC installed, CC should still work, but CrewChief.dll might be flagged as well.
* if you enable VR, you have to re-run gtr2config.exe
* I do not recommend CC auto install capability and rather put binaries manually. CC auto install does not support copy pastable games well, it is better to understand what files are used and where they go.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

I started CC and it automaticly installed it into Steam gtr2 plugin folder started gtr2 and thats when it now won't start, so uninstall again re install gtr2.

one more thing - do not install/uninstall/reinstall GTR2. Simply copy it out - save the clean copy as a backup, and work on copies of that copy. Who knows maybe steam interferes with binaries - you do not need steam running.

 

[OZ67]

Installed the Anniversary patch and it works , not going to install VR CC patch yet , until I find why it stuffs the install, even with all antivirus off.