EternalVR v0.1.82 (alpha)

Gentler foveated rendering at the bottom and the outer edges, and matching screen-space reflections with Parallel Eye Rendering.

Download

• EternalVR-alpha-0.1.82-b3aa954.zip (below)
• SHA-256: 84dafc0df5246e1793b6b65ff8625f33d31703545e8c07aca02860c4338e5e8c
• VirusTotal: scan report (the zip 0 of 67; the mod's DLL and the launcher 1 of 71 each, both Microsoft's "Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.C!ml", a machine-learning guess). Windows Defender on my PC finds nothing.

If you have 0.1.6 or later, the launcher offers this update by itself (or use "Check now" on the Checks and log
tab). Otherwise unzip over the old folder or anywhere new, and run EternalVR.Launcher.exe. Your launcher
settings carry over.

Windows Defender may on some PCs quarantine the launcher or the mod's DLL (layer\EternalVR.dll) as
"Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.C!ml" (or the launcher as "Trojan:Win32/Bearfoos.A!ml"). That's a false positive:
the mod isn't code-signed yet and every release is a new file Windows hasn't seen, so Defender's cloud model
sometimes guesses (the "!ml"). To get it back: Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Protection history,
open the entry, Actions > Restore.

This build was launch-tested on the Steam version (in a level) and the Game Pass version (up to the main menu), on my
test PC with the OpenXR simulator. The changes below haven't been played in a headset yet.

Playing on a lower-end PC? I'd love to hear how it runs:
tell me your card, settings and how it played.

What's new

• Foveated rendering is gentler where it showed. With foveated rendering on (Play tab, experimental, off by
  default), the bottom of the view and the outer edges were shaded at the coarsest rate, and with DLSS shiny floors
  there looked blocky and streaked. Every setting now keeps half rate out to 56 degrees from where your head points,
  so on a Quest 3 only the far corners of each eye get the coarsest rate. On my test PC the bottom of the view is
  much less blocky (a block-edge measure of 2.7 before, 1.5 now, 1.0 with foveation off), and the frame rate stayed
  the same within the noise of my A/B runs. Subtle to Maximum now differ only in how much of the middle stays at
  full detail.
• Screen-space reflections match between the eyes with Parallel Eye Rendering. Floors and wet surfaces showed
  different reflections in each eye with Parallel Eye Rendering on. Each eye now gets its own reflection, the same
  fix the default mode already has, at no measurable cost on my test PC. Puddles can still look a little different between the eyes with it on.

Known issues

• Markers are drawn at the HUD's distance, so while you look at something far away its marker may look doubled.
• With the weapon wheel open, a thin strip of it can show on the wrist or gun ammo panel, where the wheel's
  bottom edge reaches into the ammo block's corner.
• The very first time the weapon wheel opens in a session it can sit at its usual place on the right for a
  frame or two.
• With ray tracing on, some reflections can still differ between the eyes, and screen-space reflections fade
  out sooner than in the flat game at the far left and right edges of each eye. With Parallel Eye Rendering on,
  ray traced reflections can still differ between the eyes.
• Left-handed, a few things are still rough or untried. The first time you bring out each weapon after
  starting the game the arms stay the game's for about half a second, then the gun shifts 1 to 2.5 cm into your
  hand. Glory kills and the Sentinel Hammer haven't been tried left-handed yet. Turning off Show arms (Play tab)
  hides both arms.
• With motion controllers off (gamepad), the capture button combo isn't there: on a gamepad every button belongs
  to the game.
• Swimming left-handed, the glove sits about 11 cm from your hand.
• On a Ballista shot the shoulder end of the arm can jump for one frame (up to about 17 cm), because the whole
  arm rides the gun for that frame.
• The placement was measured on my test PC, not yet in a headset. If a gun or the glove still sits off your
  hand, please tell me which one and roughly how far. The Sentinel Hammer and the Berserk fists haven't been
  measured yet; the chainsaw and the melee are quick moves the game animates itself.
• Foveated rendering on AMD and Intel cards is barely tested. One player reports it working well on an
  RX 6750 XT; Intel cards haven't been confirmed yet. If it looks wrong or crashes, turn it off and tell me.
• Two small HUD texts are still a little under the size I aim for, even at Large: the hint under the mission
  challenges and the Demonic Corruption bar's title (both read fine at the default distance in my headset test). If
  you hid health or ammo in the game's HUD settings, the wrist and gun HUD modes keep the whole HUD on the floating
  panel.
• A few screens still show keyboard keys: tips whose text names a key ("pressing [M]"), the custom weapon
  wheel's reset to default (R), and on Vive wands the Arsenal's customize weapon and equip mod (F, X), which have
  no button there.
• The sights sit a bit above the shot line (about 9 to 20 cm), so up close they point a little above where the
  shots land. Go by the Aim dot.
• With head aim there's no crosshair or aim mark while the Precision Bolt is zoomed in. Shots go to the middle
  of your view. On the Game Pass version head aim may still show the scope's ring.
• Parallel Eye Rendering is still highly experimental and off by default. The full list is under "Parallel Eye
  Rendering" in KNOWN-ISSUES.