VR Review: Freelancer with VorpX
Freelancer is one of my favorite games of all time. Using vorpX, I have begun another playthrough with the Crossfire mod (which adds 3d cockpits to some ships & toggleable 1st person). I've been enjoying it so far, but there are some caveats one should be aware of.
Due to the way the camera works in Freelancer, while full-scale G3D is technically possible, you cannot actually move your head around in-game, thus, disappointingly, making the full-scale aspect practically non-functional (if someone out there could work black magic and make a hack that changes how the camera works to fix this, I would be forever appreciative).
I have been playing in Immersive Screen mode with G3D. The 3D effect is nice, albeit a bit jarring in cutscenes where the camera's FOV & scale constantly change. Here are some tips for a good setup (press DEL to open the vorpX menu in-game):
1. I recommend making the screen large enough so that you can still see your HUD out of your periphery vision.
2. Definitely curve the screen a bit, both horizontally and vertically.
3. Disable head-tracking, as it is useless and simply screws with your mouse (it was on by default for me for some reason).
4. Make sure the ambient background color feature is on (it should be by default). This works wonderful with Freelancer, as when you enter a nebula, for example, the background space all around you will become the nebula's color. Since these colors will mostly be in your periphery vision, it blends in great with where the actual screen ends.
IMPORTANT: You need to download dgVoodoo2 in order for vorpX to actually be able to hook into Freelancer. I have been using v2.75.
- Once downloaded, extract the archive, and locate "D3D9.dll" in "MS/x86/".
- Once you start Freelancer, it will temporarily create a new folder in its root directory called "EXE2" while the game is running. You need to overwrite the D3D9.dll in there with the one from dgVoodoo2. This must be done every time you go to play the game (as far as I know). Sometimes you may overwrite it too quickly, and it will be restored to the normal one - just overwrite it again. You can tell from the file size which one it is (dgVoodoo2's D3D9.dll is 402 KB). Do this before Freelancer reaches the main menu (you have plenty of time with the intro cutscenes), or vorpX won't hook, in my experience.
Overall, I have been having a good experience, and definitely recommend the Crossfire mod for the 3d cockpits & toggleable first person (and the extended campaign, areas, single player content, etc.). Do note that not all the ships have 3d cockpits, including the starting one. I can't wait to get further along my playthrough, and feel fear while flying through uncharted, foggy nebulas out in deep space.
(efhunter)
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