Euro Truck Simulator 2 & American Truck Simulator #
Euro Truck Simulator 2 & American Truck Simulator run fine on their native version. However, the VR experimental branch (oculus branch) is Windows only. As such, you will need to run them in Proton
In Steam, go into your game properties, and switch to the oculus - Oculus+OpenVR+OpenXR beta.
If necessary, you can use oculus_previous or previous oculus branches to use an older version of the game for modding compatibility.
Then, create the following launch option:
-openxr
Keybindings #
Once in the main menu, you will notice the game starting as it was before and no output in your VR headset. Press F11 to switch to the VR view. This actually switches the rendering of the menu from the desktop one to the VR one.
To reset your head position, press F12 to reset your head to the center.
Settings #
These commands can be modified in the game configuration file to adjust some specific settings
In Euro Truck Simulator 2, it is in
<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\227300\remote\profiles\<user-id>\config.cfg
In American Truck Simulator, it is in:
<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\270880\remote\profiles\<user-id>\config.cfg
| Commands | Description |
|---|---|
| r_manual_stereo_buffer_scale | Manually force the game rendering size past the 200% the game allows. Useful for supersampling. Render multiplied by the inputted value |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_mipmap | Manually deactivate the UI texture mipmaps. 0 to disable |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_lod_bias | Manually adjust the UI mipmaps. Values lower than zero increase sharpness. Alternative to disabling the mipmaps entirely |
| r_manual_stereo_mirror_mode | Choose the desktop mirror mode of the VR view. 1 is the default and shows right and left eye views. 0 Disable the desktop mirror mode. 2 zoom in the center of the eye area. 3 display the content of the left eye. For streaming/recording the content of your game, I would suggest you use o_oculus_mirror_mode to 1 instead. |
| r_manual_stereo_in_menu | Activate or deactivate the 3D menu. 1 is the VR menu. |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_fov | Manually control the 3D parameters of the plane on which the UI is shown. This one controls the view of all corners. |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_dist | This one controls the distance of the UI |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_x | This one controls the UI position on the X axis |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_y | This one controls the UI position on the Y axis |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_yaw | This one controls the UI yaw angle |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_pitch | This one controls the UI pitch angle |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_static_fov | Manually adjust the view of the static loading screen in 3D mode |
| r_manual_stereo_ui_radius | Adjust the curve of the UI view. At 0, the default, it is a pure planar view. Otherwise, the value represents a radius of the cylinder the view is displayed on |
| g_hmd_no_artifical_movement | Disable the window lookout animation when moving your head to 85 degrees. In the game, moving your view towards the window allows you to look manually behind the truck, in the dead corner |
| g_hmd_reduced_cabin_movement | Allow you to deactivate or decrease the applied cabin movement reduction in VR mode. |
| r_ipd_scale | Manually adjust your VR headset IPD scale |
| r_hmd_water_pixels_per_deg | Adjust the water reflection size in game. The game multiplies your VR headset FOV with this value |
| r_hmd_draw_controllers | Draw VR controllers if connected in-game. Note that the game doesn’t natively support VR controllers. It is only useful for visualization, like where your steering wheel or desk is in-game |
| t_ignore_hmd_timing | Manually adjust the VR headset frame timing |
| o_openxr_force_symmetrical_fov | Switch from the default asymmetrical FOV to a symmetrical FOV for compatibility purposes |
| o_openxr_max_hor_fov_override | Reduce the maximum value of FOV in the horizontal direction |
| o_openxr_max_vert_fov_override | Reduce the maximum value of FOV in the vertical direction |
| o_openxr_left_left_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the left eye,left side view. |
| o_openxr_left_right_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the left eye, right side view. |
| o_openxr_left_top_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the left eye, top side view. |
| o_openxr_left_bottom_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the left eye, bottom view. |
| o_openxr_right_left_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the right eye,left side view. |
| o_openxr_right_right_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the right eye, right side view. |
| o_openxr_right_top_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the right eye, top side view. |
| o_openxr_right_bottom_override | Reduce the maximum render view of the right eye, bottom view. |
| o_openxr_threaded_submit | Disable the game second thread rendering of finished rendered frames |
| o_openxr_acquire_after_begin | Adjust the amount of time by which rendering can overlap into the next frame |
| o_openxr_async_wait | Experimental async rendering of the next frame |
| o_openxr_one_period_ahead | Modify the game timing calculation to show new frames to use time extrapolated by one refresh period ahead. |
Multiplayer #
Convoy mode does work with the oculus branch and in VR. The main drawback is that it isn’t backward compatible with the other game branches. As such, other players will have to also switch to the same oculus branch to connect to you.
Thankfully, desktop users can safely switch to the oculus branch and play as usual, as the game starts in desktop mode by default and only switches to VR mode via F11.
Modding #
The popular TruckersMP multiplayer mod doesn’t yet allow users to use the experimental VR mode on their servers. However, most mods installed from the workshop or locally, in the Proton Prefix Documents folder, should work fine. Some suggested VR mods would be an edited VR advisor that positions the advisor at a better angle in-game. Made by FatesOfNorns
And on the opposite, for those wanting to play with the advisor UI, this mod helps users doing quick jobs by adding a portable GPS to all quick job trucks that don’t have it (and would require the advisor GPS for smooth navigation). Made by Duke Leto
Notes #
The games do have VR support officially added to official builds since version 1.55. However, they don’t contain all the latest advancements of the oculus branch for virtual reality compatibility.
Starting with 1.55 it is possible to enable VR support also in the normal builds however there are a few extra caveats to that:
Only OpenXR is supported in those builds.
When the build is not part of a experimental* or oculus* branch on Steam, you will need to specify additional command line parameter -experimental_vr to enable VR support.
The VR features in the normal build are likely to lag behind the VR build. VR improvements happening after release of the normal build will be frequently only included in the VR build until the next major update.
It is possible that some VR changes will be initially too big hacks/too experimental to include in the normal build so they will be only available in the VR build until they can be integrated properly.
To use it, on the stable version of the game :
In Steam, in the game properties, switch the compatibility layer to your preferred version of Proton.
This will force Steam to download and run the Windows version of the game, instead of the native Linux version.
Then, create the following launch option:
-openxr
Settings/Further Reading #
Official SCS Thread about the Virtual Reality experimental support
American Truck Simulator Virtual Reality thread