How to play ATS/ETS2 in VR with HTC Vive/Oculus Rift/OSVR

Guide how to run ATS/ETS2 in VR and tune game for better experience. Contain solutions for common problems.

Introduction.

VR support is currently in Beta. Which means that it's currently not technically perfect and polished for regular user who just wants to play the game. But it's already awesome, playable and enjoyed by many users.

Don't get scared away by the size of the guide. All you need to make game running in VR is written in "Setting up" section of this guide. Everything else is optional and can be done later on.

Minimum specs to comfortably run this game are same, as general minimal VR specs by Valve:

4-core CPU or better.
Nvidia GTX 970/GTX1060 or Radeon R9 290/RX 580 
PC-connected VR headset.

Headsets with higher display resolution than HTC Vive/Oculus Rift CV1 such as the Vive Pro, HP Reverb G2 and the Varjo Aero would require more powerful min spec hardware.

Setting up.

To run ETS2 or ATS in VR you need to opt-in to Oculus beta.
First Right click on ATS/ETS 2 in your Library and select properties.

















Then Click Betas and select the Latest Beta.

























Then set launch options.

























For HTC Vive, and any other SteamVR based headsets use. If you are encountering stuttering try using the openxr option as some valve users have indicated that changing from openvr to openxr has improved frame rates.

-openvr

As of version 1.50 For Reverb G2, and all headsets using windows mixed reality use.

Note: Unconfirmed reports suggest that this setting should also be used for Quest 2 and 3.

-openxr

For Oculus Rift

-oculus

You may also want to tick the Unknown Sources box in the general section of the Oculus software, if you haven't done it before.

Now after lauching the game, it will run inside your HMD. If you'll see game running on your monitor instead - press F11 to switch it between monitor and HMD.

Tips: Disable VR Home Theater in Steam client settings, if you haven't done it yet.
Some windows mixed reality headsets can support frame rates less than 90hz, but be aware that your eyes might need to adjust to lower frame rates as you may notice screen flicker similar to looking at older TV sets running at 60hz. But it is an option for smoother gameplay.

Tuning for better experience.

This part require editing of game config file.

















You can find it here

C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg

1. Dealing with framerate.

Theory:

you can skip to Practice, if you just want solution

Since game is quite GPU hungry and can't maintain native 90 frames on most GPUs on the market, we need to use frame generation technics to maintain comfortable 90 FPS for VR.

Configuration depends on which technics available for your GPU and HMD.

Game has homebrew timewarp and reprojection, that were build before Valve and Oculus introduced own solutions. They are still useful and only solution if you have HTC Vive and Radeon video cards older than 4xx or using Windows 7/8.1. AMD atm has asyncronous reprojection support only for Win10 and 4xx+ GPUs. For all other cases disable them.

Practice:

a) In general case. For owners of Nvidia GPUs. For owners of Oculus Rift and Radeon GPUs. For Owners of OpenVR headsets and Radeon 4xx GPUs or newer running Windows 10:

You need to set

uset o_openvr_interleaved_reproject "0"

in C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg

Then go in SteamVR settings, enable asyncronous reprojection and disable interleaved reprojection. Or set asyncronous timewarp/spacewarp if you're an Oculus owner.

b) If you have OpenVR headset and Radeon video card older than 4xx, or OpenVR HMD and any Radeon GPU running Windows 7/8.1.

You need to set

uset o_openvr_interleaved_reproject "1"

in C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg
Then go in SteamVR settings, disable asyncronous reprojection and disable interleaved reprojection. You need to enable Interleaved reprojection back for any VR game except ETS/ATS.

2. Configure in-game options.

Disable depth of field in game settings(this effect is bad for stereo3d).

Disable in-game anti-aliasing(it's only bluring image)

Set in-game Scale to 100%(it doesn't affect VR resolution). For Supersampling/antialiasing configure supersampling below.

3. Setting Supersampling(Anti-Aliasing). MUST HAVE OPTION!

In-game Scaling option doesn't affect VR version at all. If you want Supersampling for VR you should set it in SteamVR dashboard, or edit game config file

uset r_manual_stereo_buffer_scale "1"

in C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg

For example I'm using 290x(aka 390/480) min-spec VR card. Nvidia analogues would be 970 and 1060. I've set Supersampling to

uset r_manual_stereo_buffer_scale "1.75"

If you find that framerate is not comfortable, you can try to lower Supersampling for better frames.

Note.
SteamVR calculate Supersampling multiplier by increase of number of pixels.
While in-game SS multiplier using increase in screen resolution, multiplying both height and width of the screen. Akin to DSR/VSR Downsampling
E.G. 8k screen would be 2x resolution multiplier in config file and 4x number of pixels in SteamVR dashboard.

Notes for Newer Headsets Headsets like the Reverb G2 and newer are being released with higher and higher native resolutions. Use supersampling with caution as too high settings can cause major fps lag.

Please note that as SCS continues to update the game and scenery, it does appear that a lot of these "Updates" seem to cause lower and lower performance in VR. As the game is not optimised for VR, nor written for VR this is an unfortunate side effect of progress.

Common problems and solutions.

If you have problems with the game, and have mods installed, try to remove mods.

If you don't see game in the headset - press F11.

As of version 1.5 the VR menu is now angled downward. If you don't like this new position you will need to edit your config.cfg in your ATS/ETS 2 save folder.

Find these 2 lines and change the angle from the default to "0' or any angle you are comfortable with.

uset r_manual_stereo_ui_pitch_game
uset r_manual_stereo_ui_pitch

If you want to move the adviser from being right in front of your forward view you could also try changing the follow config line to force the menu to the side.

uset r_manual_stereo_ui_yaw_game

How to change in-game HUD window position.

You may have more comfortable placement of in-game HUD inside VR.

Here is premade solution/mod by FateOfNorns.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562138763

How to capture VR for streaming/show what I'm seeing in VR on my monitor.

It's called mirroring.

There are three ways of enabling it:

1. Use built-in game mirroring mode by adding
   

   uset o_oculus_mirror_mode "1"

   To the C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg
   
2. Run game with -openvr key and enable mirroring in SteamVR settings.
   
3. Oculus users can use Oculus Mirror Software to mirror the game. You can find it here: ...\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics\OculusMirror.exe

See for yourself, which one suits you the most. Also you might want to modify and crop the captured mirror image with your streaming software. Remove one of the eyes and stretch the image for proper aspect ratio. If your streaming software doesn't have this feature - you might try OBS. It's free and provides such option. If you are making a video recording you may want to apply stabilizing filter to the image, so camera would be less wobbly for the viewers. Because viewing direct headset image capture is not very comfortable to watch, it makes viewer feel motion sick.

You should also know, that mirroring is additional rendering and it has impact on game's performance. Use it only while needed, and don't forget to check your game performance with mirroring enabled. It might be necessary to lower your game settings in order to maintain comfortable framerate.

Extra: How to use Steam Controller as Steering Wheel

You can use Steam Controller as a Steering Wheel.
Here is how it looks like(ETS2 at 16:20):

Here is my pre-build config.
steam://controllerconfig/270880/1194008551
You need to send it as message through Steam to make link active.(Yeah, Infinite Beta, Valve Time)
Or you can find my config manually among community bindings for ETS2.

In-game Setup

• Choose Auto GearBox.
  
• Choose Keyboard+Steering Wheel as input device. Input device would look like Keyboard+Xinput1.
  
• Set Steering Wheel Sensitivity as you like it(default is fine).
  
• Set Steering non_linearity to 0.

FAQ part 1

Can I run mods with ETS/ATS in VR?

You definitely can. VR beta is up to date with latest game builds, and absolute most of mods would work.

I highly recommend you to check mods that expand game map like ProMods and RusMap(you need map expansion DLCs to run them). Also many VR players enjoy installing car mods that allow you to travel by regular cars instead of shipping cargo. Heresy!

In rare cases some of the mods can introduce Stereo 3D artifacts. In that case I recommend to report them to mod developers. Since ETS is a 3D game, such artifacts are mistakes made by mod developer.

How to disable camera jumping outside the truck when looking behind?

You need to set

g_hmd_no_artifical_movement "1"

in C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\config.cfg
If it doesn't work, try to edit this file instead:
C:\Users\-username-\Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\profiles\<your profile>\config.cfg

FAQ part 2. How to play ATS/ETS2 VR in multiplayer.

Official Convoy multiplayer mode by SCS has VR support!

It works out of the box, no additional setup needed.

Notable features:

• Up to 8 player in one session. And probably more in the future.
  
• Cross-platform multiplayer. VR and flat screen users can play together.
  
• Your game - your rules.
  
• Mod support
  
• Currently connection is peer-to-peer. Possibly devs will make ability to host dedicated servers in the future.

Further reading:

Convoy FAQ.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/americantrucksimulator/announcements/detail/5232606492431163808
Convoy MOD support.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/americantrucksimulator/announcements/detail/3032604331699128048

What about TruckersMP?

Sadly, TruckersMP unofficial multiplayer mode does not support VR. Instead without rhyme or reason developers of TruckersMP been showing hostility towards VR community's requests. But if you still want to try your luck, ask them through TruckersMP developers forums, or official Discord server.
https://forum.truckersmp.com/
https://truckersmp.com/blog/35

Post Scriptum

If this guide was helpful to you - give it a thumbs up to make more visible for others.

Fell free to correct me on mistakes and put your suggestions on what should be added to the guide in the comments below.

[jasonmclaren007]

Try using this in config.

r_manual_stereo_mirror_mode

[FahQ]

Hi, is this thread still active? The newest version of the beta VR doesnt have the openvr mirror setting in the config. is there a new way to mirror what my headset sees onto my monitor?

[Arc]

Seems they have changed some bits and pieces.
The in-game resolution scale slider now affects VR output resolution (pretty eye-popping to see 80ms/frame all of a sudden).

[jasonmclaren007]

Phobos. Agreed, I have done extensive testing and found this to be true for around the last 2 or 3 years.

Overclocking the cache gave me the best results, but that can only go so far.

[phobos2077]

The statement about the game being GPU heavy seems outdated now. I have a mid range GPU 4070 Super and even on pretty high resolution on Quest 3 my GPU Core load is pretty low in 90Hz compared to some other games (and certainly flight sims!). The game is actually CPU limited. Seems rendering code that's on CPU wasn't fully optimized for VR and my CPU times are twice as compared to flat mode. I have Ryzen 5600X.

[Rafreaky187]

Finally found a guide that actually works with PSVR2! Certain config settings i did not have, or on the SteamVR settings but I did make changes to my nvidia settings as well. Also changed some settings in the config file under gfx. Game is so much smoother. I'm still working on trying to get the small jagged edges smoothed out, i.e, around my gauges, cb.
I can definitely play without any tearing, glitches or bad frame rate's. I know I'll never get it perfect like on monitor, just trying to getter dialed in a bit more.

[MRFJORD]

works!

[jasonmclaren007]

@☭Ryan gosling gaming☭
What are your PC specifications and what headset are you using?

[Ryan Gosling gaming 🌠🔥]

I don't know why my game in VR is so TERRIBLE. In game, when i driving, time going like 1,5 or 2 or even 3 times faster then normal and this alternates every second: for a couple of seconds everything is fine, after a second everything speeds up and it feels like i driving Formula 1 car... My PC is not that bad, i set ingame settings ALL in lowest, pointless.... Help me.....

[jasonmclaren007]

@WanderingFido
uset o_openvr_interleaved_reproject is still in the config file. But Time warp seems to have been deprecated for some time now. You'll find it under the many openxr cvars.