Launching Games in VR

Starting with version 4.2.45.0, Sim Commander can be configured to easily launch games directly to VR or to screen and automatically change the default audio device when launching into VR mode.

The basic idea here is to make it simple for the novice who has both screens and a VR headset to easily choose whether the game will be launched to the screen or to the VR headset. Sim Commander will handle any special command lines or settings files changes necessary to make the 'Launch' button launch to the screens and the 'Launch to VR' button launch to the users chosen VR headset.

To utilize this functionality, users simply need to tell Sim Commander what type of VR headset (if any) they wish to utilize.

To begin:

• Click the settings icon from the Sim Commander main screen: 
• Expand the 'VR Settings' section
  
  
• Select your VR Device
  
  
  
• If your VR headset provides automatic audio switching or if you use the Windows Mixed Reality functionality to auto-switch audio, you can leave the 'Default VR Audio Device' set to 'No Change'. When set to 'No Change', Sim Commander will not alter the Windows default audio device when a game is launched.
  
  
• If you select a VR Device that is something other than 'None', your profiles on the Sim Commander main screen will now offer both a 'Launch' and a 'Launch in VR' option where possible. NOTE: Not all games allow us to specify the VR device during game launch.
  
  

What To Expect

When you click the 'Launch in VR' button, Sim Commander will launch the game in VR mode for your chosen headset. Sim Commander will also set your Windows default audio device to the audio device you specified in the 'Default VR Audio Device' setting.

When you exit the game and return to Sim Commander, your default Windows audio device will be set back to what it was when you launched Sim Commander.

This greatly simplifies the utilization of VR for novice users.

Disabling VR Functionality In Sim Commander

As of version 4.2.67.0, if you set your VR headset to 'None' and your VR Audio Device to 'No Change', Sim Commander will not show a launch in VR option on your profiles and will not modify any game settings files to facilitate VR.

Special Notes About Assetto Corsa

Assetto Corsa is one of the few games that does not allow us to pass command line parameters to specify which VR headset to use. As a result, we must edit a settings file before the launch to set which headset to use.

When you click the 'Launch In VR' button, we'll set the Assetto Corsa ini file to use whichever headset you specified in your Sim Commander settings.

When you click the 'Launch' button we'll set Assetto Corsa to use your last used non-VR settings. These will be either TRIPLE or DEFAULT per the Assetto Corsa specifications. However, you can override these in a Sim Commander specific settings file located in Documents\Assetto Corsa\cfg\simxperience_video.ini

The LastNonVRMode default is filled in by Sim Commander in an attempt to remember your last setting for use when you click the 'Launch' button. You can create an OverrideNonVRMode key=value pair if you wish to always override the setting used when you click the 'Launch' button. Here is an example of always forcing Assetto Corsa into triple screen mode wyhen you click 'Launch':

[CAMERA]
LastNonVRMode=DEFAULT
OverrideNonVRMode=TRIPLE

Special Notes About iRacing

iRacing is one of the few games that does not allow us to pass command line parameters to specify which VR headset to use. As a result, we must edit a settings file before the launch to set which headset to use.

When you click the 'Launch In VR' button, we'll set the iRacing ini file to use whichever headset you specified in your Sim Commander settings.

When you click the 'Launch' button we'll set the iRacing ini to use the iRacing default settings. However, you can override these in a Sim Commander settings file in much the same way that you did in the iRacing ini file.

The Sim Commander file you would edit using notepad is: Documents\SimXperience Commander 4\Settings\CommanderSettings.xml

The highlighted entries below mirror those in the iRacing settings file but are in XML format rather than ini format:

<iRacing_Rift_Enabled_Default>1</iRacing_Rift_Enabled_Default>

<iRacing_OpenVR_Enabled_Default>1</iRacing_OpenVR_Enabled_Default>

<iRacing_Rift_AutoSelect_Default>0</iRacing_Rift_AutoSelect_Default>

<iRacing_OpenVR_AutoSelect_Default>0</iRacing_OpenVR_AutoSelect_Default>

If you didn't want any VR prompting when you click the 'Launch' button, you would set the settings like this:

<iRacing_Rift_Enabled_Default>0</iRacing_Rift_Enabled_Default>

<iRacing_OpenVR_Enabled_Default>0</iRacing_OpenVR_Enabled_Default>

<iRacing_Rift_AutoSelect_Default>0</iRacing_Rift_AutoSelect_Default>

<iRacing_OpenVR_AutoSelect_Default>0</iRacing_OpenVR_AutoSelect_Default>

NOTE: Sim Commander reads this settings file once when it is started and writes it when it is closed. Be sure to edit this file when Sim Commander is closed.