We take an exclusive early look at VorpX, a new commercial 3D Driver from developer Ralf Ostertag which promises to graft Oculus Rift support onto existing games that were developed and released long before the Rift was even a twinkle in Palmer Luckey's eye. How well can it work? Let's find out. Inject VR Into Your Old Games The Oculus Rift Developer Kit is finally in people's hands (including ours!)! in fact, according to Palmer Luckey, all Kickstarter Dev Kits will have shipped to their lucky recipients by the end of May. And despite both the original Kickstarter pitch and Oculus VR's constant assertions since it's spectacular $2.5M successful funding run that this is resolutely NOT ready for the regular gamer, not many listened. To be honest, there wasn't much chance that the most exciting development in gaming for years wasn't going to be snapped up by gamers looking to bring their 90s dreams of Virtual Reality to life. So it's day zero for VR then, which of course means that very few actual games exist with support for the Rift. So, what do Rift owners give their new gadget to feed in the mean time? [caption id="attachment_6246" align="aligncenter" width="598"] Bioshock using Geometry Mode[/caption] Take me straight to the games! What is VorpX? For a Virtual Reality HMD (Head Monuted Display) to deliver a compelling experience, you need to address a few issues that unsupported games suffer from: 1. There's no Head Tracking support. Moving your head has no effect on your view of the game's world. 2. There's no image pre-warping. The Oculus Rift uses Aspheric lenses which distorts light passing through them to achieve it's high Field of View. So, in order for games to 'look' right to the user, the image must be warped (or undistoreted [sic] if you like) to correct this distortion and any aberrations. 3. Stereo 3D support is currently provided as either GPU specific implementations (i.e. nVidia 3D Vision) or 3rd party drivers (i.e. Tri-Def). From the official website: VorpX is a 3d-driver for DirectX9-11 games that is specifically geared towards VR-devices like the Oculus Rift. Additionally to ‘making games 3d’ it offers various features to tackle many of the issues that arise when playing games on the Rift that are not designed for it. To explain further, VorpX hijacks the rendering and input IO pipeline when a game initiates 3D acceleration and maps head-tracking input data from the HMD to mouse commands within the game. Along the way, VorpX also forces the rendering of two in-game 'cameras' so that distinct, shifted views (one for each eye) can be presented to the HMD's screen. Finally, the views are 'warped' to accompany the Oculus Rift's Aspheric lenses and presented to the HMD's display ready for viewing. The practical upshot of all this is that you can (in theory at least) play many games in your library using the Rift, with high-FOV, Stereo 3D and head tracking as if the game had been built with support from the beginning. In theory it's a little more complicated than that (which we'll come to later) but this is the core premise behind the product. For all these reasons, you can understand why VorpX is one of the most hotly anticipated bits of software in the VR community. With that in mind, I spent a couple of weeks with a beta preview version recording my thoughts, observations, configuration tips and gameplay to give you the fullest possible picture on whether VorpX is for you. Know Your Buffers: 3D Reconstruction Explained As mentioned, VorpX forces the rendering of Stereoscopic 3D as part of it's injection process - essentially shoehorning depth where none previously existed - hence 'Reconstruction'. VorpX supports 2 main methods of 3D Reconstruction, Geometry and Z-Buffer (or 2D + Depth) based rendering. It's important to understand the differences between them as it helps illustrate the flexibility and power of VorpX whist highlighting some of the compromises that are needed to make it work effectively. Z-Buffer Mode (aka 2D + Depth) The default mode in VorpX (referred to as 'normal' in the menu), Z-Buffer reconstruction renders depth based on objects position on the Z-axis in a 3D rendered scene. I defer to this excellent article on 3D rendering at Gamasutra: 2D + depth rendering creates the 3D effect in games by sampling the geometry in the scene to obtain the depth-map, and then using it to generate a second point of view from the regular 2D color image. This technique renders the scene for the left eye, and then creates the image for the right eye using a per-pixel displacement based on the depth map -- making the results geometrically accurate. The key advantage to the 2D + depth technique is the low impact that its integration has on production. It requires that the game only render frames once, which has a low performance impact on the game. Features: Extremely fast. Effective at adding depth and scale to first person views. Requires few if any tweaks to game configurations to work. 3D / Parallax effect limited when compared to Geometry mode. Geometry Mode The traditional method of rendering 2 distinct views of the same scene, mimicking the way our eyes view the real world. Again from Gamasutra: In comparison, dual rendering creates the strongest 3D effect, and is used for movies as well as in video games. For movies, to create stereoscopic 3D images using the effect of parallax, film makers need to capture two images shot from slightly different angles. This means 3D-compatible cameras are needed in order to record the two images simultaneously. This allows one image for each eye to be projected onto the same screen to create a 3D effect. In the case of video games, to construct a three-dimensional virtual world, game makers need to position characters, buildings and other objects in a manner that simulates a miniature version of the real world. In doing this, they can position two cameras to capture slightly dissimilar images of the same scene, just as the right and left eyes would do. Features: Strongest and most effective 3D / Parallax effect High rendering overhead. Up to 50% slower Lowest compatibility for existing games (shader / lighting and post processing effects can cause glitches) These two methods with their drastically different approaches to 3D rendering clearly both have their strengths and weaknesses. So it's refreshing to note that VorpX not only includes both options, but that you can swap them on-the-fly whilst the game is running, giving you the ability to decide which method suits which game suits which method best. There is one caveat here however, Geometry mode will only work with games which can run in DirectX 9 mode. Anyway, with the science is out of the way, onto the important stuff .. Games! The Games, The Rifties, and the Videos It was important to me that I provided as accurate a view of my gaming experience with the Rift as possible. For each game there's a video which has been cropped down from the Rift's native 16:10 (1280 x 800) aspect ratio to a more YouTube friendly 720p (1280 x 720). This means that when viewing the videos in Full Screen mode, the video should look 'just right' when viewed through the Rift. As YouTube compression can be somewhat heavy handed, for those that want a higher quality version, I've included links to the pre-upload MP4 files too. I'll include screen-grabs (aka Rifties) from the raw FRAPS captures, to further illustrate my ramblings. There's also be configuration tips for each game as a reference so you can get the most out of the games once VorpX finally arrives. Test Machine Specs: Intel Core I5 @ 4Ghz, 16G RAM, nVidia GTX 580, Windows 7 x64 See a more complete list of VorpX game support over at our Games List (see the third-party tab). Skyrim in the Oculus Rift (download high-quality MP4 !coming soon!) Skyrim probably ranks up there as one of the most requested / longed for titles to be VR enabled. It's vast and beautiful open world, with soaring mountains and cavernous depths are built to envelop the player completely - it could have been made for VR, but of course it wasn't. The video includes two short strolls down from the Entrance to Markarth, first in Z-Buffer mode and then in Geometry mode. What's it like? With the VorpX watcher service running and active, I fired up Skyrim through Steam and am greeted with the opening credits in pre-warped 3D. A familiar issue greets me as soon as the opening menu appears however, all options are out of sight beyond the image presented to me by the Rift's Aspheric lenses. No problem, hitting the middle mouse button engages VorpX's 'Edge Peek' mode which unlocks your view and allows you to glance around the full frame of the game's screen. Having started the game, hitting the middle mouse button again snaps the view back and I'm ready to play. I cannot overstate how much this deceptively simple feature saves on frustration when playing games not built for the Rift. Not just for menu navigation, but every time an in-game element is out of sight. With the default Z-buffer mode enabled, adjusting the FOV to 90 degrees was all that was needed to get Skyrim up and running on the Rift. The Rift's FOV instantly pulls you into the game and glancing over the landscape the subtle depth added helps sell the image to my brain and I catch myself just looking around, enjoying the view. Pulling up the in-Rift menu with the 'DEL' numpad key, I couldn't resist cranking up the stereo separation - navigating the VorpX options menu via the cursor keys is straightforward and you can save your choices to be remembered for the next time you play. Being able to tweak things in this way without having to jump out of the game to fiddle with config files or remember hot-key combinations that then interfere with the game itself allows more experimentation and ultimately, often, a better experience actually playing the game. [gallery columns="2" ids="6238,6237"] The defaults are well judged but conservative for me and one of the great benefits of the Rift's partitioned views for each eye is that you don't need to worry about ghosting, so the only limit is what works for you. Having tweaked, I glanced about again the depth struck me as impressive, especially distant scenery - really enhancing the scale of the scene. In this mode, nothing had to be disabled in order for the scene to avoid glitches. It was fast and playable with all effects enabled and anti-aliasing maxed out. Benefits not to be sniffed at. I had to do a little more work to test VorpX's Geometry 3D Reconstruction mode, as expected (see below notes for details). Once done and in the game, the drop in framerate was noticeable but not nowhere near enough to be an issue. What hits you first is the more natural representation of in game objects when close. Geometry is rendered as you'd expect and object pop is much more pronounced. However, somewhat unexpectedly, this mode wasn't quite as effective for me at increasing the sense of depth when viewing Skrim's vistas. There's also what looks to be some rendering issues with the Skybox, causing separation / distance rendering to appear 'off'. Of course, the gameplay is still mouse driven, but having the ability to casually glance around feels much more natural and absorbing, even if your weapons / hands stick stubbornly in front of you at all times. Adjusting the mouse sensitivity and then tweaking VorpX's separate HeadTracking sensitivity allowed me a comfortable match and after a little while the combination felt complimentary and playable. The Z-Buffer based 3D reconstruction 3D effect was impressive but not as naturalistic as I would have have liked. The trade-off however is speed and keeping all those lovely effects in place. Geometry mode loses you some fidelity but makes up for it with a stronger 3D effect with close and middle distance objects. Game config notes coming soon Dear Esther (download high-quality MP4 here) TheChineseRoom's wonderful and often beautiful experiment with interactive narrative is not really a videogame at all. And in many ways this makes it all the more suitable for an effective VR experience. The pacing is slow, the world is painstakingly and stunningly rendered and the music and audio is emotive and absorbing. What's it like? Frankly, Dear Esther is one of those stand-out moments in VR Gaming that will stay with me. The sheer amount of work that's gone into rendering this desolate, beautiful Hebridean island begs to be scrutinised and enjoyed in ways only possible in the Rift right now. The video excerpt above captures my favourite segment in VR. Rendered using VorpX's Geometry mode, only FOV adjustment (to 90 degrees) and head-tracking adjustment were required to get going. I played through the game originally on a 120Hz monitor and Nvidia shutter glasses and was impressed, but the subtlety and completeness of the stereo depth and expansive FOV when in the Rift using VorpX blew me away. The underground caverns with it's plummeting depths, other-worldly illumination and claustrophobic eeriness caused my jaw to drop or my spine to tingle more than once during this playthrough. Game config notes coming soon Bioshock (download high-quality MP4 here) Bioshock needs no introduction to gamers, but I'm going to introduce it anyway. It stands as a rare example in gaming where raw, visceral playability meet with first rate production design and a gripping storyline to produce something a little bit special. Critically acclaimed at release it's still one of my all time favourite gaming experiences, which is why I was delighted when I found VorpX supported the title. What's it like? Bioshock's PC port was renowned at release for being, shall we say, a little bit quirky. In order to get mouse and head tracking to work as expected, I had to reduce mouse sensitivity to zero and then tweak VorpX's Headtracking sensitivity to find a happy medium on control. FOV again needed to be adjusted to 90 degrees in the game's config (details below) and disabling shadow maps in game removed any rendering glitches whilst in Geometry mode. Again, choosing between Z-Buffer and Geometry will be down to personal preference. Z-Buffer was blindingly quick with no depth based artifacts with no tweaking. Geometry mode however rendered the gameworld in a more convincing manner with it's better sense of parallax and more subtle graduations in depth. The video above is rendered using Geometry mode with shadow maps disabled and is my chosen mode for this game. Playing through the epic and now legendary opening sequence again, this time in ghost-free, high FOV 3D was a real treat and illustrated to me the value of drivers like VorpX (and of course Vireio) - they allow you to re-experience your favourite gaming memories but greatly enhanced. Wandering around Rapture again, taking the time to glance at incidental details, I saw things I simply didn't before. As Cymatic Bruce has pointed out regularly, having that cohesive aesthetic in a game's production design trumps resolution in most cases. As is the case here. The soaring, broken architecture with views into the ocean's depths never looked more convincing. [gallery columns="2" ids="6246,6247"] If you remember Bioshock as merely 'a little bit creepy' when you originally played it, try it again in the Rift and re-evaluate that opinion. Plunged into darkness with nothing but flickering sparks and the mutterings of Rapture's insane inhabitants you really do feel the panic. Oddly it's in these more tense moments of the game I discovered some gameplay benefits to this hybrid Rift + Mouse combo. I found that while the majority of rotational movement and larger head movements are best handled by the mouse, more subtle movements were really effective when moving your head to affect things like aiming. It takes a little getting used to, but it does work very well which I was surprised by. Of course this is retro-fitted VR, so there are some compromises in experience and they're demonstrated well in the video. Cross-hairs at the stereo depth I chose might be distracting for some (I got used to it very quickly however) - it can of course be disabled if required. During the hacking mini-game you'll also notice the mouse-cursor incorrectly rendered in only one eye. Again, pretty easily dealt with by either temporarily enabling Z-buffer mode via the VorpX in-Rift menu or (as I did) shut one eye - you can see it didn't hamper me overly much. Game config notes coming soon. Fallout 3 (download high-quality MP4 here) Fallout 3, the 2nd Bethesda title in the Preview and the last game on the list. I included this as it's regarded by many as Bethesda's best work, a flawed masterpiece in many ways. Personally, whilst I've spent many hours in Fallout's post-apocalyptic gameworld, I was never it's biggest fan (please, no hate mail). I've seen it listed as a game many would like to see VR-Enabled, so here it is. What's it like? Again Fallout 3 worked as expected (with the exception of FOV), 'out of the box' in Z-Buffer mode. It was the most troublesome game in Geometry mode of the four games tested here however. Z-buffer mode was again quick and did add an nicely enhanced sense of depth to the gameworld. Tight interior locations lacked convincing depth but external and larger scale locations looked impressive, especially when the Stereo Separation was tweaked upwards a few notches. Stepping out of Vault 101 for the first time in VR felt genuinely liberating. Geometry mode faired better on both interior locations and objects and structures conveyed a more convincing sense of parallax and depth when up close. Again though, depth in large-scale scenes was more subtle in the middle to far distance than Z-buffer. It was obviously noticeably slower than Z-buffer mode too. There were also issues with in-game menus, including the PIP Boy interface. For all these reasons, I'd recommend the faster, more compatible Z-buffer mode here. [gallery columns="2" ids="6250,6251"] Game config notes - coming soon. In Conclusion and To be Continued ... Remember, VorpX is still in Beta so my time with the VorpX has been parts wonder, rediscovery and occasionally frustration. But I've been almost universally impressed by the product's maturity and Author Ralf Ostertag's drive for the best User Experience possible. Features like the slick in-Rift menu system and the massively useful 'Edge Peek' are there to try to ensure you have to leave your game experience as little as possible in order to tailor your VR experience. Game compatibility with the default Z-Buffer mode is excellent and the list of officially supported games (currently around 80 with Stereo 3D) is growing with many more not on the list just 'working' as I tried them. We'll try to cover more games in the next article which will also explore VorpX's extensive menu system in more detail. Oculus Rift owners should count themselves very lucky indeed. It's been less than 3 months since Backers started receiving their Dev Kits and already we have a raft of Tech Demos, Concept Games and Full Triple-A titles to play with. 3D Drivers like VorpX and Vireio help plug the gap between the promise of future, dedicated VR titles and classic gaming experiences from the past. My aim with this article was to temper my views with detailed videos and images so that you can judge for yourselves as to what your opinions on VorpX's capabilities are. Hopefully I've achieved this for the most part. The comments section and forum are open for feedback and questions which I'll try to answer Release Date and Price Ralf is a self-confessed perfectionist and is continually tweaking and refining the product it seems so won't be drawn on exact release dates, but he confirms that initial introductory pricing for the driver will be around $45 / 35EUR. We also understand that there will indeed be a trial version of the product available, so those wishing to try before they buy can do so. Thanks to Ralf Ostertag for enduring my endless barrage of questions and to my wife for putting up with me lost in other worlds whilst I put this article together. We'll be back with a follow-up article based on feedback and questions and we'll also be covering the open-source and free Vireio drivers very soon. Feedback can be added as comments to this page or over in a dedicated thread in our forums here.