Moving and scaling HUD, and VR sharpening

Hi all,

Ive done a bit of testing, and found out i can do similar things to PC2 with moving HUD and sharpening things in VR.

In the Automobilista 2 folder in Documents, the XML called "graphicsconfigopenvrdx11" has settings for sharpening, near the bottom called "SharpeningStrength", these are the settings i used and is was WAY sharper, if you adjust Sharpening Strength to your liking etc.... :
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Reflection>
<class name="BRTTIRefCount" base="root class" />
<class name="BPersistent" base="BRTTIRefCount">
<prop name="Name" type="String" />
</class>
<class name="GraphicConfigData" base="BPersistent">
<prop name="Build" type="U32" />
<prop name="Version" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Mode" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Vsync" type="Fct" />
<prop name="FrameLatency" type="Fct" />
<prop name="AntiAlias" type="Fct" />
<prop name="SMAAFXAA" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Windowed" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TextureFilter" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TextureResolution" type="Fct" />
<prop name="Brightness" type="Fct" />
<prop name="CarDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="TrackDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="ShadowDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="MotionblurLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="EffectsDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="EnvmapDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="MirrorEnabled" type="Fct" />
<prop name="MirrorEnhanced" type="Fct" />
<prop name="EnvmapReflectionDetailLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="GraphicsLevel" type="Fct" />
<prop name="SuperSampling" type="Fct" />
<prop name="LowSuperSampling" type="Fct" />
<prop name="VRSuperSampling" type="Fct" />
<prop name="SharpeningStrength" type="Fct" />
<prop name="SharpeningClamp" type="Fct" />
<prop name="OffsetBias" type="Fct" />
</class>
<data class="GraphicConfigData" id="0x423F0500">
<prop name="Name" data="" />
<prop name="Build" data="1129" />
<prop name="Version" version="2" />
<prop name="Mode" adapter="0" width="2560" height="1440" refresh_num="143998" refresh_dem="1000" />
<prop name="Vsync" vsync="0" />
<prop name="FrameLatency" framelatency="1" />
<prop name="AntiAlias" antialias="2" />
<prop name="SMAAFXAA" smaafxaa="0" />
<prop name="Windowed" windowed="0" />
<prop name="TextureFilter" texturefilter="3" />
<prop name="TextureResolution" textureresolution="2" />
<prop name="Brightness" brightness="10" />
<prop name="CarDetailLevel" cardetaillevel="0" />
<prop name="TrackDetailLevel" trackdetaillevel="0" />
<prop name="ShadowDetailLevel" shadowdetaillevel="0" />
<prop name="MotionblurLevel" motionblurLevel="0" />
<prop name="EffectsDetailLevel" effectsdetaillevel="2" />
<prop name="EnvmapDetailLevel" envmapdetaillevel="2" />
<prop name="MirrorEnabled" mirrorenabled="1" />
<prop name="MirrorEnhanced" mirrorenhanced="0" />
<prop name="EnvmapReflectionDetailLevel" envmapreflectiondetaillevel="3" />
<prop name="GraphicsLevel" graphicslevel="4" />
<prop name="SuperSampling" supersampling="0" />
<prop name="LowSuperSampling" lowsupersampling="0" />
<prop name="VRSuperSampling" vrsupersampling="0" />
<prop name="SharpeningStrength" sharpeningstrength="1.600000" />
<prop name="SharpeningClamp" sharpeningclamp="0.090000" />
<prop name="OffsetBias" offsetbias="1.030000" />
</data>
</Reflection>

And further into the XML file called "openvrsettings" near the bottom is "HUDSettings", which has X / Y / Z offsets, scale, and X / Y / Z / W rotation.

Im not sure which axis is which, i know changing the numbers works, but i dont know which direction each of the 3 is. I dont know what rotateW is either, so adjust with caution

Another thing before you go, save the settings before you adjust anything, but i changed the IPD Scale setting and that caused the game to lock up when loading. None of the HUD settings caused locking or even any issues.

 

Ok, so ive done some testing.

X offset moves the HUD left-right, the bigger the number the further left.
Y offset moves up and down, the bigger the number the further down.
Z offset moves closer or further away, the bigger the number the further away.
Scale is pretty obvious and self explaining, bigger number, bigger HUD.

X rotate lays the top down as you increase the number.
Y rotate pushes the left or right back further, larger number pushes right side back further away than left.
Z rotate tilts left or right, bigger number lifts the right side/drops left side.

 

Old news my friend.

Also, there is no need to backup the VR settings files before editing. If you mess up, just delete the file and a default version will be generated the next time you start the sim.

 

Yeah that is true indeed, however you may have some other settings you have already added that work well and dont wanna lose

And yes i know it is old news, but no one else i knew seemed to know about it, even though i have been doing on it PC2 for a couple years.

 

Having said that, i looked at that link, and it doesnt show the VR sharpening adjustment, nor does it explain what the different axis actually do!! Not that i can see anyway.

It appears to simply be a file someone has edited to suit themselves, which i can tell straight away from the description wont suit me at all because i increased the size so i can read it, it is very small in a Pimax headset.

Id rather explain how to do it than just copy someone else's file and assume that will suit everyone else that will likely be using a different headset

 

Also note for adjusting HUD and sharpening depending on what brand you are using.

HUD:
oculussettings.xml - all Oculus brand VR headsets
starvrsettings.xml - all Star Vr brand headsets
openvrsettings.xml - is for everything else

Sharpening:
graphicsconfigYOURBRANDHMDdx11.xml - in my case i use a Oculus Rift CV1 so i edit graphicsconfigoculusdx11.xml

 

When playing in 2D mode on a monitor, the HUD shows everything, as you'd expect.
When playing in VR mode on the Rift S, the HUD in the actual headset exists on two vertical planes - there the plane right in front of you(in the steering wheel area), and a separate plane set about 1 metre out in front of you(around the front wheels area).
The closer plane has the timing/positional info, as well as the car/tyre info, whilst the further away panel has the pit limiter, general flag, pit-board, brake bias etc info.

With headsets newer than a Rift CV1, the desktop monitor output of the VR HUD, is overly sized - many of the HUD elements don't appear at all.

Can the further away second plane also be edited?

 

Yep, that will help too!!

Be a while before too many people are going to see a StarVR One i think.

No idea, because in my Pimax is it all on the same plane, similar to the monitor, but by default it is leaning backwards and really quite small. Id have to take a look at the Oculus file and see what it has down near the bottom.

I was pretty sure i saw the SS setting in the VR menu on AMS2, i cant remember now though, i leave it at 1 and adjust it at one of the other 2 places.

 

This is true but doesn’t do anything for me (using a valve index)

 

To be honest i dont recall it doing anything noticeable in PC2 either.

why not use the Steam SS?

 

Always better to use in game SS options when available according devs. SS in game work fine for me (Oculus CV1) at 1.5. I also use the XML trick successfully to sharpen the image, and moved the HUD position too.

 

Does this line work for anyone else?:

<prop name="LimitCars" data="20" />

I thought it might have to do with limiting "Visible Cars" to help improve performance, but when I set it to really low I still see all the cars on track. Not sure what this actually did in pCars2
anyone shed some light on this please? thanks

 

Ive not tried it on this, but found it did little or nothing for me on PC2.

i have PiTool at 1.25 and Steam SS at 100%, which gives about 35xx X 32xx per eye. Itll run that fine at 90fps.

no idea if that works or not, ive never adjusted it in any game, except to increase it.

i know there is also one there to turn off crowds that does nothing as well, i did try that out.

In PC2 you can set the Steam launch option '-skipcrowds' to remove them, but that does nothing in AMS2.