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v0.8.1 - SteamVR / Steam Link support, hand & weapon scaling, quality-of-life

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@mohamad-balouza mohamad-balouza released this 14 Aug 19:18
· 8 commits to main since this release
v0.8.1
916371a

The first batch of post-0.8.0 community-feedback work. All three games, same drop-in install - the zip now carries four DLLs.

SteamVR and Steam Link are now supported

The top request - Index, Vive, WMR and Steam Link setups previously got "no OpenXR runtime" and ran flat:

  • The zip bundles a SteamVR compatibility shim (bvr_steamvr32.dll + openvr_api.dll). SteamVR has never shipped a 32-bit OpenXR runtime and these games are 32-bit; the shim bridges the mod to SteamVR's fully-32-bit-capable OpenVR interface instead. Copy all four DLLs next to the game exe - there is nothing to configure: the mod tries the native OpenXR runtime first and falls back to the shim automatically. (Force a path with %LOCALAPPDATA%\BioshockVR\xr.ini: [runtime] / mode=auto|native|steamvr.)
  • Controller bindings for Index, Vive wands and WMR ship both natively and through the shim. Vive/WMR defaults are partial (the wands have no face buttons) and everything is rebindable in SteamVR's own controller binding UI, which always wins. WMR is untested on hardware. Quest via Virtual Desktop/VDXR remains the primary, most-tested path.
  • Verified on Quest 3 via Steam Link on BioShock 1 and 2. Note: Virtual Desktop's "SteamVR" runtime toggle does not move these 32-bit games off VDXR (that lane is native and faster anyway) - to actually play through SteamVR on a Quest, use Steam Link.
  • BioShock Infinite needed one extra fix: the game builds its graphics on DXGI 1.0, which breaks SteamVR's texture sharing (headset stuck in the void, input dead). The mod now upgrades the game's DXGI factory at launch, and Infinite submits to SteamVR like the other two.
  • Quitting SteamVR mid-game (or SteamVR crashing) no longer kills the game - it drops to flat rendering and keeps running.
  • While the SteamVR dashboard is open, controller input pauses by design; close the dashboard to resume.

New: pause chord

Steam Link sometimes swallows the menu button (the Steam overlay eats it). Press X and Y together on the left controller - it acts exactly like the menu button in all three games on every runtime: tap for the pause menu, hold for the back/select action.

BioShock 1: hand and weapon scaling

The second-most-requested item: the hands and the held weapon can now be scaled independently - F10 > hands section (per-hand 0.2-4.0, weapon 0.3-2.5), vrhands scale/wscale, preset keys handScaleL/handScaleR/wScale. The shipped defaults ARE a headset-tuned calibration (hands 0.793, weapon 0.76), and the aim calibration was re-baked to match - lasers, trims and per-weapon profiles line up with the new proportions out of the box.

Movement feel

"Instant move direction" is now default ON for BioShock 1 and 2 - a fast 180 head-turn while walking no longer makes the walk direction arc to catch up. (F10 body section has the toggle if you prefer the old smoothing.)

Quality of life and fixes

  • Both-sticks-click recenters the view (works everywhere, no F10 trip needed)
  • BioShock 1 now auto-loads your saved preset values at boot (parity with BS2)
  • F10: preset save/load buttons pinned at the top (BS1); the resolution picker warns about exclusive-fullscreen configs; Ctrl+click any slider to type an exact value
  • The zip ships TROUBLESHOOTING.txt - the 32-bit OpenXR registry key, broken 32-bit API layers (ReShade and friends), the SteamVR shim story, resolution guidance
  • Extra diagnostics for the reported BS2 left-eye flicker (issue #31) - a per-minute pairing instrument now watches the layer the previous instrument could not see; if you can reproduce that flicker, an up-to-date log is now genuinely useful evidence

Two gotchas worth knowing

Both are now written up in TROUBLESHOOTING.txt inside the zip.

"No OpenXR runtime" with OBS installed. Several users have had this disappear after removing OBS Studio. Before uninstalling anything, try in order: fully close OBS (it keeps running in the system tray), disable its game/VR capture hooks and any VR-capture plugin, and check the 32-bit implicit API-layer registry key for an OBS entry. If it genuinely only works with OBS uninstalled, please open an issue with your OBS version and plugin list - the mechanism isn't confirmed yet and that's a bug worth fixing properly.

In the headset, but only a flat floating screen? That is not a runtime problem - VR started fine, but stereo and head-tracking are disarmed. It's almost always a saved vrpreset.ini with them switched off, which keeps overriding the shipped defaults after every update (so reinstalling the mod never helps). Fix: close the game and copy the matching preset-bs1 / preset-bs2 / preset-bsi vrpreset.ini from the zip over the one in %LOCALAPPDATA%\BioshockVR\... (deleting yours works too), or arm it live in F10: VR stereo + camera / head drive, or the one-click VR PRESET 1 / APPLY PRESET on BioShock 1 and 2.

Install: unzip, copy the four DLLs into the game's binary folder (Build\Final\ for the remasters, Binaries\Win32\ for Infinite), launch through Steam. Full instructions in README.txt.

sha256 (zip): 7F05EB5757359767C1E2AD69D9C97FD9F22D11D61B991AC27E98CE541F4A8282

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