Main branch: 1.73 - for everyone

The 1.73 build is now the main branch for everyone. Nothing to do; Steam updates it. On top of 1.72 it fixes a crash on Start from the SteamVR dashboard tab with a Varjo headset (report #95, thanks), the Steam build now carries the bridge that Unreal Engine games need (report #92), and crash reports now hold the last part of the log - the part that matters - instead of its beginning.

Develop branch: 1.79 - for testing

Develop moves on to 1.79, and we need your help testing it before it goes to everyone. The headline is ReShade depth at true scale: FlatVR can now find the game's own camera, and the world in the headset is then its real size. Also new: smooth head turns when the game's frame rate is not the headset's, a SteamVR overlay output, and a long list of fixes from your crash reports.

ReShade depth at true scale

• Find camera - ReShade page, under Depth at true scale from the game's camera. The add-on looks for the camera the game draws its world with: field of view, near plane, which way its depth counts. With it FlatVR knows how far away every pixel is in metres, so the second eye is shifted for your own eye distance and the world is its own size, as with real stereo. Press it in the game world, not in a menu; once found, the camera is looked for again on the game's next launch. Needs the FlatVR add-on 2.18 or newer - this update brings 2.19.

• Fit screen to the game, right next to Find camera: sizes the screen - and moves it nearer or further when the size runs out - so it covers exactly the game's field of view. Then nothing in the world is scaled at all.

• Moving or resizing the screen no longer bends the world. A screen pulled close no longer pushes distant things past what your eyes can fuse, and a screen pushed back no longer flattens the scene against it: the world keeps its shape, and only its scale follows the screen.

• Pop-out Limit is now on the ReShade page as well and works at true scale: things nearer than the screen are tamed instead of jumping at you.

• The game's units: if the world looks like a model or a giant's, pick what the game measures in - Auto, metres, centimetres (Unreal), inches (Source), or your own number.

• Games that render at a lower resolution and upscale (DLSS and the like) gave FlatVR a depth map squeezed into one corner. The add-on now sends only the part of the depth buffer the scene is actually drawn into.

Smooth head turns at any frame rate

• When the game runs at a different rate than the headset - 60 fps on 90 Hz, say - the screen fixed to your head showed each picture's turn late by a different amount every frame, and head turns juddered. The add-on (2.19, Direct3D 10-12 games) now stamps every picture with the moment the game presented it, and FlatVR places the screen where your head was when that picture was made.

• It switches on by itself when your head turns the game's camera (Head Tracking Output: Mouse or OpenTrack). Games without stamps on the ReShade page sets it to Always or Off, and Game delay is learnt from the game's camera when Find camera has it, or can be set by hand.

• Leave out late pictures (on by default): a picture that arrives older than the one already shown is skipped, so an old frame no longer flashes back after new ones.

Screen and output

• SteamVR Overlay in Output Display: FlatVR's screen as a SteamVR overlay, over other VR apps.

• Curve Around Me: the curved screen is centred on you. Every column of the picture is as far from your eyes as the middle, so it is equally sharp from edge to edge, and the bend follows the screen's size and distance by itself.

• Move to Main Monitor beside Move to Virtual Monitor, so the game window can go there and back. The Virtual Monitor page now shows the monitor as Windows has it right now.

• The screen fixed to your head now follows the head completely, tilt included.

Stability

• Stopping and starting FlatVR many times in a row on SteamVR used up graphics memory step by step, until the driver could fail mid-game. FlatVR now keeps one graphics device across sessions instead of making a new one on every Start.

• Fixed FlatVR closing without a word a few seconds after its SteamVR dashboard tab came up.

• Fixed a hang on Stop while capturing a monitor, and a hang when a captured window changed its size.

• When the graphics driver resets, the FlatVR window now restarts instead of crashing.

• FlatVR no longer loads another program's OpenVR runtime at start - with OpenComposite set as the system runtime it crashed every time.

• Play on a link no longer freezes the window.

• The settings window stays responsive while the VR runtime is slow to start or answer.

• More crashes now reach us as reports: if another program takes over FlatVR's crash handler, FlatVR puts its own back and notes which program it was.

• Unreal Engine games (UEVR): FlatVR's bridge no longer switches on Direct3D 12's crash tracking in every game, which cost the game some GPU time.

What to test on Develop

1.79 goes to the main branch for everyone as soon as these are confirmed on your machines - every report brings that day closer:

• True scale in your games. Run a game with ReShade and the FlatVR add-on, tick Depth at true scale from the game's camera, press Find camera in the game world, then Fit screen to the game. Does the world look its real size? Then move the screen nearer and further and make it bigger and smaller - the world should keep its shape and stay comfortable to look at. Tell us the game, whether the camera was found, and what The game's units had to be set to.

• Games where Find camera does not find anything, or finds a camera that gives obviously wrong depth - the game's name helps us a lot.

• Head turns with a game below your headset's refresh rate, with Head Tracking Output on Mouse or OpenTrack: are turns smooth now, and does the world run ahead of the turn or trail behind it? If it does, try Game delay and tell us which value felt right.

• Stop and Start several times in a row on SteamVR, and switching between SteamVR and Virtual Desktop or Quest Link between sessions: the picture should come up every time, from the first frame.

• SteamVR Overlay output over another VR game or app.

• Games with DLSS, FSR or another upscaler on the ReShade path: the depth should cover the whole picture, not one corner of it.

When it gets slow

If FlatVR runs fine for a while and then slows down, tick Record diagnostics (for slowdowns) on the Status tab. When it happens, press Send diagnostics now - or Ctrl+Shift+F11 in the headset - and the report of that very moment reaches us.

How to switch to Develop

Right-click FlatVR in your Steam library → Properties → Betas → develop. To go back, pick last_stable. Your settings are kept either way.

If something breaks, a crash report or a message in the discussions is all it takes - and if something works well, we would like to hear that too.