Legal notice: this post is made available through the Patreon platform ONLY to current subscribers of the "VR friend" tier, exclusively for private reading and/or interacting with comments. Any other use of the contents, including but not limited to reposting, copying, republishing in whole or in part on social media or any other form of disclosure is strictly prohibited, and in violation of Luke Ross's and Patreon's IP rights and terms of service.
[Update May 27: fixed for official patch 1.08.00.
Update May 8: so many improvements! And May 4, fixed for official patch 1.05.01.See here, and/or the bottom of this post, for further details]
Game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3321460/Crimson_Desert/
Enabled technologies
Supported version(s)
The R.E.A.L. VR framework was tested with game patch 1.08.00, available from Steam at the address linked at the top (I get no commissions). The same version of the title bought from other stores might also work, but there are no guarantees.
IMPORTANT: This title is hugely complex and bound to get lots of updates in the future, so the only way I can hope to keep up with them is by focusing my efforts on one version only. Therefore, I really recommend that you get the game from Steam if you want to play it in VR, otherwise you might be sheer out of luck.
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\Crimson Desert\bin64". 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 "CrimsonDesert.exe" executable file.
Resolution and aspect ratio
I was able to interface directly with the engine in order to add the custom resolutions needed for VR. CD can deal just fine with the required square aspect ratios. You will be able to select the resolution you prefer from the game Settings> Video menu itself, without any hassle. Curiously, Screen Mode doesn't seem to matter much for this one. "Window" might be the best choice if you need to Alt-Tab frequently, like if you're streaming or following a walkthrough guide, while "Fullscreen" will stretch the game window to fit your monitor.
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 Settings> Video menu:
Screen Mode should be Window, although as I said above Fullscreen or Borderless Window will also work fine with this one, at least with the current version;
Resolution: pick one with a 1:1 aspect ratio (like 2032x2032 for instance), as they are the best fit for VR. The first two ones in the list, 1280x720 and 1920x1080, are just there for compatibility or in case you need to play some portion of the game with VR turned off;
Upscale Mode, Upscale Resolution, NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction: you will get the most amazing visuals you ever witnessed in VR, no contest, by using NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 L, with Upscale Resolution set to DLAA and Ray Reconstruction set to On. For this game I invested a lot of effort into perfecting my DL(S)SS-RR fix, which will get rid of almost all the shimmering around nearby characters and objects, including most of the obnoxious denoiser artifacts that plague all games with ray tracing. However, such a configuration will make even your RTX 5090 sweat bullets, so please read through the special Performance section I added below in this post (don't say I didn't warn you!);
NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation must be Off (this is crucial as not only FG does not work at all in VR, it usually also crashes the game immediately and sometimes brings down the whole system). If you turned it on by mistake and now the game won't even start anymore, temporarily rename the dxgi.dll file in the game folder to dxgi_bak.dll to deactivate VR, then launch the game and turn FG back off. After that you can restore the dxgi.dll and the game should start normally again;
NVIDIA Reflex should be Off (system-dependent, but for me switching it on tends to have a negative impact on frame rate);
V-Sync must be Off;
and in the Settings> Accessibility menu:
Blur Intensity must be 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);
UI Size, UI HUD Size, Minimum Font Size and Subtitles Font Size should all be turned up to their maximum values, otherwise the information in the HUD will be too small to read in VR;
Depth of Field should be Off.
Everything else can be adjusted according to your preferences. There are plenty of options in the Graphics page, but they all seem to have a small impact on performance, except for the two beasts which are Hell bent on devouring all the cores in your GPU: Ray Tracing set to On and Lighting Quality set to Max. Even the 5090 can barely cope with that (see the next section).
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.
Performance
This game needs specific performance recommendations, otherwise I'm afraid that you won't be able to enjoy it in VR.
First of all: Ray Tracing makes the game look unbelievably good, but it's such a performance killer. Even with my DL(S)SS-RR fix that allows you to enable NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction and have it work correctly in stereoscopic mode, I think it's realistic to say that the RTX 5090 is the only card that can run the game with RT in VR. And even if you have the best GPU currently on the market, don't expect any miracles.
To give you some numbers: I can run CD on my Quest 3 at 2032x2032 resolution on the Cinematic preset, with DLSS 4.5 L set to DLAA, Ray Reconstruction On (which will change the Cinematic preset to Custom), Reflex Off. With all of that, and setting the new magic sliders in the R.E.A.L. VR overlay main page to "Restrict horizontal FOV" = 0.7 and "Restrict vertical FOV" = 0.639, I can sustain 1/3 rate at 48 fps and it looks like I've died and gone to Heaven, except that Heaven has a somewhat reduced field of view. Or in the same configuration but changing only Ray Reconstruction to Off, I can sustain 1/2 rate at 72 fps.
So, if you want all the eye candy (and who doesn't?) even the most powerful card will only be able to get a decent frame rate at the meager resolution of 2032x2032. That in my opinion looks way too soft when you're running a headset like the Quest 3 at full FOV, because you will only get about 15 pixels per degree. But lo and behold, here's the trick: restricting the FOV to 0.7x0.639 will boost the pixel density to 23.4 pixels per degree, which is enough to look almost as good as a high definition monitor.
This title also seems to have trouble with DLSS when any form of upsampling is involved, making both the world and the characters looks grainy and noisy. That's why I'm setting DLSS to DLAA, which is not something I normally do with other games, because you only get the antialiasing quality improvement without any performance gains. My hunch is that the foliage and facial hair are too dense, which is making the motion vectors chaotic, even past the ability of the neural net to resolve the motion field.
So in conclusion, if you don't want to restrict your field of view or have a lesser GPU, then I would say that DLSS is unaffordable, and I actually recommend you try with FSR 3.1. Hair will shimmer a lot, but it's decently sharp and really performant.
Your mileage may vary of course; please experiment and report your findings in the comments! If people love this game in VR, we might be able to convince Brandon to do a post or even a video on scaling and optimization []-D
Input
You will definitely want to use a gamepad to play CD. 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. I haven't had a chance to try the DualSense yet, let me know if it works well for you!
Camera, HUD, gameplay, cutscenes
The R.E.A.L. framework supports 6 DoF tracking. In this title the camera will follow your head rotation and movement in space, and it will be completely decoupled from the direction your character or horse is facing, except when aiming.
All the cameras provided by the game (3rd person with different distances, and 1st person) will work correctly in VR. So nice of the developers to provide many options, although I must warn you that they coded the first person camera to be extremely shy and always looking for an excuse to revert back to 3rd person. Climbing? 3rd. Horse riding? 3rd. Swimming? 3rd. Combat? 3rd. Bumping into something? 3rd. You get the gist.
I will keep improving the HUD with time. It is mostly functional already, albeit with a few problems (see the Known Issues section below). Update: I spent endless hours on this and now I believe everything is working perfectly with the HUD, starting with release 2605.4.2_early_access. If some elements are outside of your field of view or hard to read, you can try to get a better fit by using the sliders available in the HUD section of the main page in the overlay: "Normal HUD size/distance" for cutscenes and menus, and "Aiming HUD size" for normal gameplay.
Cutscenes are presented in glorious 3D, and my framework will give you the ability to look anywhere you like. Even the "backstage" (parts of the scene which you were never supposed to see) seems to render correctly in this game, without missing props, teleporting or rubber-legged characters. The intro animation with the cubes is an exception: it's not a full-blown 3D rendering, but just a shader coded specifically to achieve that particular effect (like in the demoscene) so it will appear headlocked.
IMPORTANT: to get rid of the ugly letterboxing in cutscenes, and to make subtitles look nicer by replacing their solid background with outlines, I strongly recommend that you install this third-party mod. An easy way to do that is with the JSON Mod Manager, which will also help you keep your other mods for this beautiful game organized and not fighting with each other.
Custom controls in the "CD" overlay tab
Many of you requested it, so I extended to CD the capability to unlock the horizon that I first introduced when I started supporting BG3. You will find a new "Camera pitch behavior" dropdown menu that can be set to:
"Always keep horizon locked": the golden rule in VR, and the original setting I used for all these years. When this is selected, no matter what happens in cutscenes or gameplay, the R.E.A.L. VR framework will always keep the horizon, erm, horizontal. This is meant to minimize conflicting inputs to your vestibular system, as many people get sick otherwise.
"Fully unlocked": using the gamepad right stick or the mouse to move the camera will make the world tilt up or down just like it does when you're playing a 3D game on a flat screen. This is potentially very nauseating in VR, and I don't like it personally because it's immersion breaking for me: it gives me the feeling that I'm in a game I control, as opposed to a fixed external reality. But on the plus side, it won't force you to crane your neck up and down when the camera position is far above or below the target you're looking at (which is especially annoying in cutscenes that quickly alternate between the camera pointing straight up and down, as you never seem to be looking at the point where the action is).
"Tilt for large angles (default)": this is the new preferred option I'm experimenting with. It will keep the horizon locked for normal situations, like when the gameplay or cutscene camera is facing more or less straight ahead; however, it will progressively tilt the world towards you as the camera inclination becomes steeper. So during normal gameplay it will feel like the world is stable, which by all means it should be, but if for instance a cutscene is rapidly toggling the camera between pointing way up and way down (think the classical Romeo and Juliet scene), you will be able to see everything without constantly craning your neck.
It's a rare occurrence, but sometimes the game may roll the camera left and right, for example when you're lying on your side on the floor (it mostly happens in cutscenes). If the effect bothers you, uncheck the "Allow camera roll" box to keep it from happening in VR.
I enabled the dropdown menu where you can set your dominant eye (the default is right-eye dominant, which works for about 2 out of 3 people). However, I'm not sure that it makes an actual difference here, because I haven't progressed enough in my playthrough. If the option has no visible effect on this game I will remove it in future versions.
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. Optionally you can bind the 2D screen toggle to either a keypress or the "left thumbstick + left shoulder button" gamepad gesture to make it easily accessible.
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.
Updates and known issues
[Update May 27: fixed for official patch 1.08.00.
Update May 8: Release 2605.8.2_early_access of the R.E.A.L. VR framework improves support for CD considerably, to the point that it's almost starting to feel like a native VR game. See here for details.
Update May 4: Release 2605.4.2_early_access of the R.E.A.L. VR framework extends support for CD to version 1.05.01 (All Platforms Hotfix). There are also improvements to DS2OTB: see the game-specific post here.
Update April 24: Release 2604.24.2_early_access of the R.E.A.L. VR framework extends support for CD to version 1.04.01 (All Platforms Hotfix). I prevented the game from limiting the field of view to 100 degrees, which would make the world look warped on headsets with larger FOV. I also fixed a recent regression with my OpenXR code that completely messed up the stereo image for all games, and I restored the broken gaze-aiming in DS2OTB after yesterday's official update to PC Patch 1.5.
Update April 23: fixed for official patch 1.04.00, which dropped just a few hours after my first release for the game. Everything works fine again in VR, although you might also need to update any third-party mods you've been using. At Brandon's request, I also added a few more resolutions to the list; maybe he has something cooking that will give us more performance!]
OculusDebugToolCLI: some of you have reported an issue (here and with DS2OTB) where the game won't start in VR and the Oculus Debug Tool complains that it cannot connect to the service. I'm unable to reproduce the problem, so at the moment I can't give any ETA on a fix. A possible workaround could be renaming the OculusDebugToolCLI.exe file in "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics" to something else, like OculusDebugToolCLI_.exe (thank you Sergej for the idea). No need for workarounds anymore, this should be fixed now.
HUD: in this initial implementation, the HUD as a whole still flickers a little in VR, and the interaction prompts and captions that you get when you speak to NPCs outside of cutscenes will be doubled and jittering around. Luckily, important elements like the pointer for precision jumping work correctly instead, sticking to the world as they should. Fully fixed in release 2605.4.2_early_access.
Gamepads: if you are using an Xbox-style gamepad, buttons pressed while the R.E.A.L. overlay is open might leak through to the game. Of course you can always use the keyboard to navigate the overlay. Solved, no more button leaks.
Crashes: Steam Input might need to be disabled, or enabled, or configured to use default settings—depending on your system, the phase of the moon and other factors we haven't been able to pinpoint. Just experiment, and if your game crashes (especially at the start) that's the first setting you should try to change.
DLSS: you might be affected by a bug where, if you had previously used DLSS-RR in the same gaming session, plain old DLSS will no longer work correctly with my stereoscopic fix until you restart the game. It seems to be very random and system-dependent, although it should only bother you when you do your initial experiments. Once you've settled on the config you like, it will no longer be a problem.
Lip sync: outside of cutscenes, words spoken by NPCs seem completely out of sync with the movement of their lips. Most of the time NPCs in groups will move their mouths as if they were talking, but no sounds will be coming out. And if you address them directly, they will speak but the lips will keep moving for quite a while after the dialogue is played out. This does not seem VR-related in any way, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
[I'll post new information here as it becomes available.]