PC Game launches don’t come much bigger than Grand Theft Auto, and GTA V’s launch just last week has been no exception. Similarly, VorpX’s rapid addition of GTA V support to allow players to experience the game on the Oculus Rift has been phenomenal. But how do you get the best out of GTA V with VorpX? Here’s an official guide from the developer himself, Ralf Ostertag.

VorpX has grown to be an extremely comprehensive and effective way to play your old games on the Oculus Rift since its launch back in late 2013 However, it does offer a bewildering array of options and each game is of course very different.
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VorpX has pre-baked profiles for many of it’s supported games, but as you’re adding virtual reality support to a game title which wasn’t designed for it, you need to take some extra steps to make sure you get the best experience possible.

Happily, Ralf Ostertag, the developer behind VorpX, has produced a detailed optimisation guide for Grand Theft Auto V, which runs you through the options available and the recommended extra enhancements available. It’s printed here in full with Ralf’s permission.

The GTA V / VorpX Configuration Guide

Due to many cutscenes, non-perfect FOV, partially locked viewing angle in cars etc., Virtual Cinema Mode probably is the best display mode to play this game, even in first person.

Playing in Virtual Cinema Mod

For a fully immersive experience in this display mode, I’d like to recommend the following tweaks:

Switch from the lounge scene to either the ambience or the no background scene, depending on what you like better.
Move the screen a little bit closer to you (“Screen Distance Offset”).
Adjust the head tracking sensitivity to your liking. 1:1 head tracking is not desirable in Virtual Cinema Mode as it is added to the head tracking in the virtual environment (hope that makes sense).

Enjoy the ride.

The game is fully playable in third and first person this way and many of the inherent issues mentioned above are mitigated quite nicely. Not 100% full VR, yet still a highly immersive experience.

Playing in full VR

If you want to play in full VR instead of using the Virtual Cinema Mode, the most important thing is to raise the field of view (FOV) above what the game allows, otherwise the image will look zoomed in and looking around may make you sick if you are sensitive to VR sickness.

An FOV hack is available in this reddit thread.

Another option would be Flawless Widescreen. This one also works with many other games and is easier to use.

The exact FOV value you have to use depends on the aspect ratio mode used in vorpX. For the one that fills the entire view (“Pixel 1:1″) you need ~120° horizontal (89° vertical).

Please keep in mind that such hacks tend to break and require an update when a game is patched. Memory hacks in general may also trigger anti-cheat systems. Although that’s unlikely in single player.

if you can’t or don’t want to use an FOV hack, you can also use a combination of “Letterbox 2″ Aspect Ratio Mode and an Image Scale of ~0.75 in the vorpX ingame menu. That compensates for the low FOV (but creates black bars around the image).

To switch to full VR mode in vorpX, simply disable “Virtual Cinema Mode”. Important: cutscenes are quite unpleasent in this mode since you can’t move your head. When a cutscenes starts, click the middle mouse button to switch to Virtual Cinema Mode for the duration of the cutscene. Another MMB click after the cutscene brings you back to full VR mode.

Head Tracking Latency

To reduce head tracking latency, please change the mouse input mode in the game’s options menu to “Windows”. Contrary to what one would expect this seems to have considerably lower latency than the default “Raw Input”.

nVidia users may also consider to set the vsync mode to “Adaptive Vsync” in the nVidia control panel. This helps a lot in low framerate situations. Disadvantage is that it causes screen tearing for framerates below 75fps.

No 3D Glitch

From time to time the depth buffer data that is required for the stereo 3d effect doesn’t seem to be available after the program starts. This is being looked into. Workaround: if you experience that, [ALT][TAB] to the desktop and then back into the game should reliably solve the issue.