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Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2651280/Marvels_SpiderMan_2/
Enabled technologies
Supported version(s)
The R.E.A.L. VR framework was tested with game version 1.526.0.0, a.k.a. Patch 10 Hotfix, available from Steam at the address linked at the top (I get no commissions). The same version of the title bought from other stores should also work, but I cannot give any guarantees, 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:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Marvel's Spider-Man 2". 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 "Spider-Man2.exe" executable file.
SPIDEY2 is often CPU- and storage-bound, especially when traversing the city, so if you have an NVMe SSD make sure that you install the game on that. With a 4090 or 5090, you should be able to set all graphics options to insanely high values; but if you have lesser cards, scale back accordingly. The camera in this title is so wild that you want all the fluidity and framerate stability you can get!
Resolution and aspect ratio
Use the "Target pixels per degree" slider and "Adapt resolution" button (see here to find out how they work).
The recommended aspect ratio for most headsets with SPIDEY2 is 1:1, but you can select a different one in case your headset has a wider horizontal FOV.
Options
You can set all graphics and gameplay options according to your liking and how powerful your GPU is, but there are a few settings that you must leave at the defaults preselected by RealConfig in order for the title to display properly in VR. Specifically, in the DISPLAY menu:
WINDOW MODE = WINDOWED
ASPECT RATIO = Auto
VSYNC = OFF
NVIDIA REFLEX LOW LATENCY = OFF (counter-intuitive, but there can be a huge performance hit when this is turned on, at least on some systems)
HDR = OFF
FRAME GENERATION = OFF (never turn this on as it doesn't work in VR due to driver limitations, and it will crash your game or even take down your whole system)
UPSCALE METHOD = DLSS. Make sure upscaling is set to DLSS, and select an UPSCALE QUALITY from (ULTRA) PERFORMANCE, BALANCED, QUALITY or NATIVE, so that you can use my DL(S)SS fix to eliminate the shimmering around nearby objects and characters. DL(S)SS might also work with this game if you are running on an AMD GPU thanks to the voodoo magic of OptiScaler (some time ago I wrote a post with details on how to install and configure it for VR, but some of the information in it could be outdated now)
DYNAMIC RESOLUTION SCALING = OFF
and in the GRAPHICS menu:
RAYTRACING PRESET = OFF. My latest fix for Ray Reconstruction (see https://www.patreon.com/posts/155373725 for more details) does work with this title. Despite that, my advice is that you keep all ray-tracing related options to OFF, because full RT (here and in many other modern games) has a huge impact on frame rate. Yes it's fun for a few seconds to look at a perfect Spidey reflection in the window he's sticking to, but I believe that in the larger scheme of things fluid gameplay is much more important. In case you want to check out RT for yourself, make sure to set DLSS RAY RECONSTRUCTION to ON to gain back some of the lost performance
WEATHER PARTICLE QUALITY = MEDIUM or LOW. Don't set this option higher than MEDIUM because it will kill your frame rate without any appreciable benefits
DEPTH OF FIELD = OFF
BLOOM = OFF (recommended, as it will improve image clarity a lot)
CHROMATIC ABERRATION = OFF. Lenses in VR headsets already introduce some annoying chromatic aberration, no need to add another fake layer on top of that!
MOTION BLUR STRENGTH = 0 (you should never enable any kind of motion blur when using R.E.A.L. VR, or the world will look smeared out horizontally)
FIELD OF VIEW = 0
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.
Just a word of caution: again, the camera in this game series is WILD. During both cutscenes and combat, the camera movements and point of view changes will be frantic. In SPIDEY2 in particular, a very long action sequence in the beginning will make even the most experienced players dizzy. If this is your first time in VR, this is probably not the game you want to play. You have been warned :-p
Input
You will want to use a gamepad to play SPIDEY2. XInput-compatible controllers like the ones from Microsoft are generally recommended with my framework, but in this game you will definitely get the best bang for your buck from a PS5 DualSense connected to the PC via USB. The greatly improved haptics, adaptive triggers and built-in speaker will give you a much more immersive experience.
Remember that while you can use the DualSense in wireless mode, hardware limitations will prevent you from accessing certain important features like the gamepad's internal speaker or advanced haptics, so I recommend always connecting your DualSense via USB.
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 misaligned/unreachable with the cursor.
Camera, HUD, gameplay, cutscenes
The R.E.A.L. framework fully supports 6 DoF tracking, i.e, the camera will follow your head rotation and movement.
There is no first-person implementation. The combat system requires full spatial awareness (you always need to know where the next hit is coming from if you want to survive) so third person is a must.
The UI in SPIDEY2 is very complex, with hundreds of elements and special cases. I believe I managed to split most of it correctly ("splitting the UI" is what I call the operation where I sort out which elements should be displayed on a virtual screen because they're part of the HUD, like for example subtitles, game hints or the minimap, and which elements should instead be pushed into the 3D world because they're associated to a world object, like icons over NPCs' heads or the round markers that appear on building ledges where you can land).
But there will be some occasions in which the heuristics I devised to split the UI will fail. If you get stuck during gameplay because some UI elements are not visible, just briefly turn on the 2D virtual display using the gamepad combo D-Pad Left + Left shoulder button (the combo needs to be activated first: see the "Custom controls in the 'SPIDEY2' overlay tab" section below).
Scripted events where you must press or mash specific buttons can be a challenge sometimes, because the button prompts tend to appear in unexpected places (they may be off to one side, or all the way above or below you). You will die many times ;-) But if you're really stuck, the 2D virtual screen can help here too.
All cutscenes are fully 3D and allow you to look anywhere without restrictions or black bars. So much better than 2D prerendered videos! However, this is one of those games where artists only cared about stuff that would be visible from the scripted cutscene camera, so if you turn your head around expect to see Spidey freezing in the air or clipping through walls, NPCs glitching in and out, etc.
Custom controls in the "SPIDEY2" overlay tab
Many UI elements looked too large when viewed in VR, so I implemented a fix to make them smaller. You can control their size using the "Rescale icons/prompts" slider which defaults to a value of 0.5. The "Fix minimap" box should always be checked, otherwise the minimap will tend to jitter.
If combat becomes too frantic for you, there's a "Time scale (game speed)" slider that you can use to slow down action sequences; this is particularly recommended if your VR legs are not 100% robust yet, or if you just want to enjoy the beautiful animations and special effects to the full.
From the same tab you can change the world scale, either for small adjustments or playing with dolls or giants, and even force the title to render to a 2D virtual screen.
Since the game is very complex, with a myriad of side quests, there might be circumstances in which completing a mission becomes impossible in VR because of some quirk like a misaligned object or whatnot. When that happens, I find that the quickest solution is briefly switching to the 2D virtual display using the gamepad combo D-Pad Left + Left shoulder button, which can be activated by ticking the corresponding checkbox.
Known issues
Some HUD elements might be misplaced, flickering or invisible when using Pimax headsets in OpenXR mode. It is unfortunately a problem in their runtime that I cannot fix on my side (this is confirmed by the fact that the same user interface elements can be seen correctly with other headsets in OpenXR mode, and also with Pimax headsets in OpenVR mode).
SPIDEY2 is one VRAM-hungry game, especially when raytracing is enabled, so if you tweak the graphics settings many times in a row the game might become instable or crash. Select a lower resolution when you want to experiment with the settings, so as to avoid memory overallocation; when you have found the right combination you can dial the window resolution back up. Also make sure to never run other memory-intensive applications like Chrome together with the game.
Occasionally the camera might start to spin (it was observed during testing but only in one specific spot). Moving the right stick a little should immediately fix it.
Some minigames and/or tutorial sections might fail to start in VR. When that happens, just briefly switch to the 2D virtual screen (see the end of the "Custom controls" section above).
Here and with other games, you might experience crashes if Steam Input is turned on. It seems to be highly system-dependent, and some players reported the opposite behavior (crashing when Steam Input is turned off). YMMV: if you have this issue please try both configurations.
[I'll post new information here as it becomes available.]