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Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3017860/DOOM_The_Dark_Ages/
Enabled technologies
Supported version(s)
The R.E.A.L. VR framework was tested with game version 1.9.43.0, a.k.a. Update 3, available from Microsoft with Game Pass. The same version of the title bought from other stores should also work, like for example the one found on Steam at the address linked at the top (I get no commissions). I cannot give any guarantees however, as there could be differences that cause issues ranging from small defects to showstopping problems in VR.
Older versions or pirated copies are not supported. Official versions later than the ones listed above may or may not work, depending on what was changed. See here for information on how to prevent automatic game updates from breaking VR functionality.
Special setup notes
The folder where you should extract the R.E.A.L. VR archive and run RealConfig is "C:\XboxGames\DOOM- The Dark Ages\Content". You might need to customize the path if you moved your games library or in case you own the game from a different store, but it will always be the folder that contains the "DOOMTheDarkAges.exe" executable file.
If you're using the same version as me (Game Pass), please keep in mind that games installed by the Xbox App can only be injected if you put them in the default C:\XboxGames location. Any other folder on the system will be hard protected by Windows against tampering.
Deactivating VR support for DOOMTDA temporarily, in case you find something wrong with it or just want to play flat, is very easy. Actually there are several ways to do it, but the canonical one which I recommend is renaming the RealRepo folder to a different name (for example adding an underscore at the end, "RealRepo_"), since my Vulkan injection process will look for that folder before trying to hook a game. When you want to go back to playing in VR, you can restore the folder to its original name and my framework will hook again the next time the game is launched. Note that this is only needed in case you find showstopping issues or want to play flat for a long time; if you simply want a short break from VR, for example to try out a hard battle in 2D, all you need do is press the "Stop VR" button in the R.E.A.L. VR overlay.
Resolution and aspect ratio
Use the "Target pixels per degree" slider and "Adapt resolution" button (see here to find out how they work).
Options
IMPORTANT: this title encrypts its saved games and user options files with the unique ID of the player. That means RealConfig will NOT be able to preselect the graphics options needed for VR and you'll have to do everything manually, so please read on and follow the instructions in this section to the letter or the game will not be working correctly.
Before installing R.E.A.L. VR, run DOOMTDA flat (not in VR) and access the in-game Settings menu to set all the following options.
In the GAME tab:
ACCESSIBILITY:
Environmental Screen Shake = Off
In the UI tab:
HUD:
HUD Aspect Ratio = Default
HUD Scale = 0.50 (do not forget this otherwise everything in your HUD will look huge)
SUBTITLES:
Scale = 1.50
In the CONTROLS tab:
CONTROLLER:
Aim Assist = Off
In the VIDEO tab:
DISPLAY:
Window Mode = Windowed
Aspect Ratio = 16:9
Resolution = 1920 x 1080
Vertical Sync = Off
Present From Compute = On (recommended value, but can also be set to Off in case of problems)
VIDEO:
Field of View = 90
Chromatic Aberration = Off (recommended value, since VR headsets already suffer from chromatic aberration due to the lenses' high magnification)
Depth of Field = Off
Film Grain = 0.00 (recommended because the effect doesn't look good in VR)
Resolution Scaling Mode = Off (this will change to Static if you're using DLSS)
Upscaler = DLSS if you have an NVIDIA card. Unfortunately this title is not yet supported by OptiScaler, so if you have an AMD card you will need to select FSR here and won't be able to take advantage of DL(S)SS yet. Check OptiScaler's Wiki every now and then though, as somebody might still find a way to spoof an NVIDIA card in DOOMTDA.
DLSS Frame Generation = Off (no kind of hardware frame generation ever works in VR, and if this is enabled the game will crash hard and might even fail to start)
NVIDIA Reflex Mode = Off (recommended value, as sometimes this can have a big performance hit when used in VR)
DISPLAY CALIBRATION:
Enable HDR = Off
MOTION BLUR:
Motion Blur = Off (you should never enable any kind of motion blur when using R.E.A.L. VR, or the world will look smeared out horizontally)
ADVANCED:
Reflections Quality: Sadly this game follows the modern trend of making ray tracing mandatory, which really kills frame rate even if you have an RTX 5090. You can try to gain back some fps by setting Reflections Quality to Off or Low, which apparently limits ray tracing to shadows and general lighting.
Additional game-specific notes
You can bring up the R.E.A.L. overlay with the Pause key on the keyboard, or by pressing Back+Start (Select+Start) on the gamepad. The controller gesture is always active, even during gameplay.
DOOMTDA has compulsory ray tracing, which kind of tanks the frame rate. Such a weird choice for this kind of game. Anyway, that's why I built AER v2. If you have an NVIDIA card, your best bet is probably to set the Render Mode to 1/2 or 1/3 rate. Fluidity is very important in fast-paced battles. If you have an AMD card, choose Legacy AER and make sure that Camera rotation compensation is enabled (see the "Custom controls in the 'DOOMTDA' overlay tab" section below).
Even Path Tracing is available in VR now, together with NVIDIA's Ray Reconstruction acceleration and my own DL(S)SS patch to make everything work properly in stereo 3D. But will you actually want to turn that on in game? My own personal answer is, I don't think so.
The performance hit of enabling Path Tracing is brutal, and it makes a game that already runs slowly due to the forced ray-tracing chug along at even lower frame rates. That's definitely not the way you want to be playing a fast-paced game like DOOMTDA.
So, my recommendation is to leave Path Tracing off except as a curiosity. If you do switch it on temporarily to see how it looks and performs, please note that after turning it off again the DL(S)SS fix will no longer sync properly until you restart the game. I'm not sure if the bug is in my code or the game's (I suspect the latter because the same behavior does not occur in other games); it might even be a driver issue. Anyway, it's not something worth spending much time on because it only happens during the session when you turn Path Tracing back off, so as long as you're aware of it and restart the game after doing that, you won't be affected by the bug.
Input
You will definitely want to use a gamepad to play DOOMTDA. 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: with R.E.A.L. VR, 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 ;-)
Camera, HUD, gameplay, cutscenes
The R.E.A.L. framework supports 6 DoF tracking, i.e., the camera will follow your head rotation and movement. However, by default full 6 DoF is only enabled in cutscenes and other moments when you don't have control of your character, because during actual gameplay the camera is in a constant "aiming" state, meaning there's always a crosshair or dot displayed where you are aiming.
So during gameplay R.E.A.L. VR will restrict you to 3 DoF, or rotational tracking only, as enabling positional tracking would quickly get your aim out of alignment. If you prefer you can force 6 DoF on at all times (see the "Custom controls in the 'DOOMTDA' overlay tab" section below); just be mindful not to stray from your home position, or if that happens recenter by shaking your head "no".
The HUD rescaling can be finely customized, so you won't miss any of the important information that appears at the sides like health, hints, ammo count and so on. If the default size I suggest doesn't work for you, you can tweak it using the "HUD scale X" and "HUD scale Y" sliders, which will have immediate effect while playing without any need to bump the resolution. Note that these sliders are found in the "DOOMTDA" game-specific overlay tab and are not to be confused with the "Normal HUD size/distance" and "Aiming HUD size" sliders available in the HUD section of the main page in the overlay.
Cutscenes are fully 3D and allow you to look anywhere without restrictions. They have letterboxing (horizontal black bars above and below), but the effect is rendered correctly so it's not too much of a nuisance. Expect the usual missing props, invisible walls, levitating characters and so on in the parts of the scene that you were never supposed to see in the flat game.
Occasionally, some cutscene portions will force you to look in a certain direction (so the world will appear to be headlocked), but that only lasts for a few seconds.
An awesome feature of DOOMTDA is that frequently cutscenes are seamlessly integrated with gameplay, with no visible jump from one to the other, which makes the experience very immersive and visceral.
Custom controls in the "DOOMTDA" overlay tab
You can adjust the camera position finely in 3D space using the Camera sliders.
The "Allow 6DOF in gameplay" will let you disable the restriction to rotational tracking while aiming. I don't recommend doing that since the game is frantic, and you probably don't want your crosshair to get out of alignment all the time just because you moved your head too far from your home position. But the option is there.
"Camera rotation compensation" is only relevant if you are using Legacy AER: it will get rid of the world judder that can be perceived when you use the thumbstick to rotate the camera.
I recommend leaving "Disable depth of field in cutscenes" checked, because the effect looks really exaggerated in VR.
You can change the world scale, from small adjustments to playing with dolls or giants, and even force the game to render to a 2D virtual screen in case you should find a section too hard to play in full VR.
The vast majority of users should not need to touch this setting, but if your system appears to display the 3D effect incorrectly (as though distant objects were actually in front of closer ones) try changing the "Frame delay compensation" value step by step until you get a perfectly stable world image, with proper depth everywhere.
Known issues
Selecting a different weapon in DOOMTDA may cause a sudden change in the direction your character is facing. The impact on gameplay is greatly reduced if you are more or less facing your home direction.
[I'll post new information here as it becomes available.]