EternalVR v0.1.92 (alpha)

A fix for the black screen at the start of the first mission in 3D cutscenes, pickup animations that can turn
the view with the game's camera, a clearer thumb-rest wheel option, and more ways a rare failure stays inside the
mod.

Download

• EternalVR-alpha-0.1.92-8166b5f.zip (below)
• SHA-256: a2ebe355ba9a0c49fc4b3ae382e6c0f83fb62c106a4f9f7137bd1ea2c900ef26
• VirusTotal: scan report (the zip 1 of 65, the mod's DLL 1 of 71 and the launcher 0 of 71 engines; the 1 is DeepInstinct, a machine-learning engine that has flagged the mod's DLL in earlier builds too). 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. Not tried in my own 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.

Fixed

• The black screen with the Slayer symbol at the start of the first mission (with Stereoscopic cutscenes on,
  the default) showed a thin strip of Mars at the edge of each eye, the left edge in the left eye and the right
  edge in the right, so the eyes didn't agree. In 3D cutscenes the subtitles and other game text sit a little in
  front of the movie screen so they stand out; a full-screen black layer there didn't quite cover the movie behind
  it. While the game shows a full-screen layer like that, it now sits right on the screen. Thanks to cyto for the
  report. Checked on my test PC, not in a headset yet.
• More rare failures stay inside the mod instead of taking the game down: a zoom setting that couldn't be read
  back is put back later instead of left changed, settings read for the first time inside the game's calls can't
  fail there any more, and a few things a failed step could leave behind are now cleaned up.

New

• Pickup animations on the Play tab. At some pickups (a Praetor token, for example) the game turns its camera
  to show the item. By default nothing changes: your hands play the animation in front of you and the view stays
  where your head points (Still view). Camera moves (intense) turns the view with the game's camera for the
  few seconds of the pickup (a few degrees down and back up for the token), and puts it back on your head right
  after. That one moves the world while your head is still, so it's off by default and hasn't been tried in a
  headset yet.

Changed

• Thumb-rest wheel, While touched: the launcher now says that it works from either thumb rest, and that while a
  thumb rests the other stick picks weapons and doesn't move or turn you. So a thumb left on your turn hand's rest
  while you walk makes the walking stick pick weapons instead (with Weapon by direction no wheel shows, so it can
  feel like the stick stopped). Lift the thumb and it walks again. The behaviour is unchanged for now.
• Pickup animations known issue: on my test PC the view no longer freezes at a pickup; it stays with your head.
  If it freezes for you at a pickup (it did at the chainsaw in an early test), please tell me which one.

Known issues

• Virtual Desktop may not tell the game the headset is asleep, so the 8-frames-a-second slowdown may not
  happen there yet. If your frame rate still drops step by step over a long session with breaks, an export after
  one shows what's going on.
• Long sessions on Virtual Desktop can slow down (90 fps falling to the low 70s over an hour or so). Virtual
  Desktop's beta works around it, and stepping out of the game and back in brings the frame rate back.
• OFXR Bridge runs in its fallback mode with EternalVR (it gets no DLSS motion vectors from the game). That's
  expected for now.

The full list is in KNOWN-ISSUES.md.