▶ Watch the trailer on YouTube
Play FlatOut 2 in VR. A free mod for the PC game: the races in true stereo 3D with head tracking, smooth at your headset's refresh rate, with the HUD on a panel in front of you. You drive with the game's own controls (gamepad, wheel or keyboard) or with your VR controllers. Works with the GOG and the Steam release.
- Download
FlatOut2-VR-<version>.zipfrom the latest release. - Extract it into the game folder, where
FlatOut2.exeis. - Start SteamVR, then the game. On Steam, choose "Play FlatOut 2", not the Mod Manager.
Sit in the car as you want to sit and press F8 to recenter the view. Playing through Virtual Desktop without SteamVR? Change one line in the settings: see Runtimes.
- Stereo 3D and head tracking in every race camera: lean out of the window, look back at the wrecks behind you. Each eye gets its own render of the scene, not a shifted copy.
- A cockpit: the game's camera inside the car puts you in the driver's seat, with the driver's hands on the steering wheel, the dashboard, the roof, the pillars and the glass around you (the game itself shows none of it there). The side mirrors, convex as real ones are, show what is behind. The gauges, position, lap, map and the rival's name stand on the dashboard on one curved band, laid out the same in every car. Thrown out through the windscreen, you fly on in the driver's head. The first race with the mod starts in the cockpit; C switches the camera, and the game keeps your choice.
- Smooth motion at 72 / 90 / 120 Hz: the physics steps once per headset frame, so the world moves evenly at any refresh rate. The game's own steps are capped at 100 a second.
- HUD on a floating panel: position, laps, speedometer, map and the pause menu. Menus between races are shown on a large virtual screen.
- Effects made right for VR: the sun's glow and lens flare, particle streaks and sparks, the stunt cars' jet flames, the speed blur and speed zoom, the colour grading, and the stunt stadium's video screens. Each matches in both eyes. Fades to black cover the whole view.
- Longer view distances for the headset: full model detail and grass much further out. Everything is configurable.
- VR controllers and gamepads: drive with the VR controllers (thumbstick and triggers), and work the menus with them or with an Xbox controller (the GOG release's menus take only the keyboard otherwise). The game's force feedback vibrates the VR controllers and Xbox controllers (it has no vibration for those otherwise). Game controllers and the game's sound work whether or not the game's window on the monitor has the focus.
- FlatOut 2 for PC, version 1.2: the GOG release or the Steam release (with ZOOM Platform's updates).
- Windows 10 or 11 and a graphics card with Vulkan support.
- A PC VR headset with SteamVR or Virtual Desktop (see Runtimes).
Tested on a Quest 3 (Virtual Desktop over USB at 120 Hz, and SteamVR over Link) with an NVIDIA GPU, with the GOG and the Steam release.
The mod talks to the headset through OpenXR. Choose the runtime in scripts\FO2VR.ini:
- SteamVR (default):
Runtime=steamvr. Any headset SteamVR runs, including Quest over Link or Air Link. Start SteamVR before the game. - Virtual Desktop (VDXR, no SteamVR needed):
Runtime=C:\Program Files\Virtual Desktop Streamer\OpenXR\virtualdesktop-openxr-32.json. Connect the headset in Virtual Desktop before the game.
Meta's own OpenXR runtime (Quest Link without SteamVR) does not work with 32-bit games.
Runtime= holds also when the game runs as administrator (for example started by a Steam that runs as
administrator): OpenXR's loader would then ignore it and start the system's active runtime, so the mod loads
the runtime itself.
winmm.dll: Ultimate ASI Loader, which loads the mod;scripts\dxvk_d3d9.dll: the 32-bit DXVK (itsd3d9.dll), which the mod needs to hand the game's picture to the headset: the mod loads it for the game in VR (without VR the game draws with Windows' Direct3D, as without the mod);scripts\FO2VR.asi,scripts\FO2VR.ini,scripts\openxr_loader.dll,scripts\wineopenxr.dll: the mod.
To uninstall, delete these files.
Use a 16:9 resolution in the game's settings (1920x1080 or higher): the HUD panel is drawn at the game's resolution.
The game's controls are unchanged.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| F8 | Recenter the view (sit as you want to sit in the car and press it) |
| F9 | Hide the HUD while racing, or bring it back (it still shows for the countdown, the pause menu and the results); kept for the next game |
| Numpad 8 2 4 6, + - | Move the view against the car while held: up, down, left, right, forward, back (slowly at first), e.g. to sit a little lower in the cockpit. Numpad 5 puts it back. The view stays where you left it for the next game. Num Lock must be on |
| F11 | Screenshot of the monitor, both eyes and the HUD (into scripts\shots\) |
They drive as they are, beside the keyboard, with the keyboard chosen in the game's Options > Controller options > Controller (as it is at first). Choose VR controllers there to change their controls in Configure controls (the keyboard still drives beside them), and turn Force feedback On there for their vibration in crashes. Until you change them:
| VR controller | In a race |
|---|---|
| Left thumbstick | Steer |
| Right trigger / left trigger | Accelerate / brake and reverse |
| A / B | Nitro / handbrake |
| X / Y | Change the camera / reset the car |
| Menu button | Pause |
| Right / left grip | Gear up / down (manual transmission) |
| Right thumbstick pressed | Look back |
| Both thumbsticks pressed | Recenter the view (as F8) |
In the menus (whichever controller is chosen) the thumbsticks move, A selects, B and the menu button go back. Index and Windows Mixed Reality controllers work with what they have of these.
To drive with the keyboard, put the VR controllers down. A Quest then tracks your hands, and Virtual Desktop makes controllers of them (a pinch pulls the trigger), which would take the throttle and the brake from the keys. So the triggers and grips count from a thumbstick moved or a button pressed until the keyboard steers, accelerates or brakes; with Virtual Desktop's own runtime the hands are left out altogether.
The menu button is on the left controller, under the thumb that steers. To pause with the right hand, set
PauseButton=RightStick (the right thumbstick pressed) or RightGrip in scripts\FO2VR.ini: that button
then pauses and continues the race, and does nothing else (with RightStick, move Look back to the left
thumbstick pressed in the game's Configure controls). The game's Configure controls has no Pause of its own.
A race also pauses when SteamVR's dashboard, the Quest's menu or Virtual Desktop's menu comes over the game
(through SteamVR the menu button may open the dashboard instead: it then pauses all the same).
Experimental, off by default (GrabWheel=1): steer by holding the cockpit's steering wheel. Reach for it
as you sit (recentered), squeeze a grip at its rim and turn it with your hands; 90 degrees is full lock, as
the cockpit's wheel turns (WheelTurn).
The game's menus take only the keyboard; with the mod an Xbox controller works them too: the left
thumbstick or the D-pad moves, A or Start selects (and skips the intro videos), B or Back goes back, and Start
pauses a race (the Steam release does this itself in its menus and races, much the same, and the mod leaves those
to the game there). With Force
feedback On in the game's options, an Xbox controller vibrates in crashes (and with EngineRumble with the
engine's revs). In VR the game goes on, with its controllers and its sound, when its window on the monitor
loses the focus: switch to another program and the game's window goes under it. Other programs may not take
the focus from the game by themselves (SteamVR's windows did as it started); Alt+Tab or a click switch as
usual.
The cockpit's steering wheel turns as the game steers the car: 90 degrees at full lock, which your wheel
reaches only at its own (450 degrees on a 900-degree wheel), and slower and less at speed. Set WheelRange=
in scripts\FO2VR.ini to your wheel's range from lock to lock, in degrees, as set in its software (900 for
most), and the cockpit's wheel turns as yours, as far and as fast, up to its lock at 90 degrees either way,
where the driver's hands stop (the game has no animation past that).
In VR a wheel with force feedback is the game's as without VR while the game's window (on the monitor) has the
focus, and shared, still steering but without force feedback, while it has not; other game controllers are read
whether or not it has. scripts\FO2VR.log says how each was opened. In the Steam release a wheel works the
menus too, as there without the mod (that release's own controller support).
scripts\FO2VR.ini, section [VR]:
| Setting | Default | |
|---|---|---|
RenderScale |
1.0 | Eye resolution relative to the headset's recommended size |
MSAA |
4 | Antialiasing samples (0 = off) |
WorldScale |
1.0 | Head movement scale |
Hud, HudDistance, HudWidth, HudHeight |
1, 1.2, 1.3, 0.0 | The HUD panel: on/off (2 = not while racing; F9 switches it and writes it here), distance, width, height (meters) |
Cockpit |
1 | The camera inside the car is a cockpit (0: as the game shows it, from in front of the driver's head with no driver) |
StartInCockpit |
1 | The next start puts the game's race camera inside the car, once; the mod then sets it to 0 (the camera you choose with C the game keeps) |
CockpitHud |
1 | In the cockpit the gauges (with the nitro's flames), position, lap, map and the rival's name (with the crash bonus, "SLAM" and the like) stand on the dashboard as cards on one band curved round the driver's eyes, laid out the same in every car: the gauges in the steering wheel's opening, the position left of the wheel, the lap and the rival's name right of it, the map below; the HUD panel keeps the messages, the countdown and the pause menu (0: all on the panel) |
CameraOffset |
0 0 0 | The view moved against the car, meters (right, up, forward): in the cockpit from the driver's eyes; the numpad keys set it |
Mirrors |
2 | In the cockpit the side mirrors show what is behind, as real mirrors do, set for the driver's eyes with the car's side just in sight, on their glass only (not on a frame painted round it), under the car's windows, bent with the mirror and until it is knocked off: 2 one picture for each eye, so what the mirror shows stands at its depth, as in a real mirror (each mirror in view costs two more small renders of the scene, some 0.6-1 ms); 1 one picture for both eyes, flat on the glass (half the cost); 0 the game's dark glass |
MirrorRadius |
1.4 | The side mirrors' glass is convex, of this radius in metres, as real side mirrors are: they show more of what is behind, smaller (objects in them are closer than they appear), the near one some two and a half times as wide a view as flat glass, the far one five or so; larger is flatter, 0 flat glass |
NearClip |
0.05 | The cockpit's near clipping plane comes no nearer than this (meters); it is kept as far out as the roof and the sides allow |
CockpitGlass |
0.3 | How much the car's windows show in the cockpit, 0 to 1: their reflections, the sun's glints on them and their tint (0: no glass, 1: as strong as the game's own glass, which from inside darkens the view through the windscreen by half and turns the side windows into a bright haze). The sun and the dust beyond show through; broken glass looks as in the game |
EjectView |
1 | When the driver is thrown out of the car (a heavy crash, the stunts' launch) the view stays in his eyes as he flies, from the cockpit: it follows his head without tumbling with it (level, turning with your head only) until the car is reset (2: also from the cameras outside the car, as in the stunts, whose cars have no camera inside; 0: the game's cut to its camera behind him) |
ScreenDistance, ScreenWidth |
2.0, 2.4 | The menus' virtual screen (meters) |
Mirror |
1 | The monitor shows the left eye (0: the game's own view, costs a third render); 2 for recording a video of what the headset shows: a steady view cut from the left eye, following your head smoothly with its horizon level with the car's, the HUD where it hangs in the headset (record the game's window, e.g. with OBS's game capture) |
MonitorFov, MonitorPitch, MonitorSmoothing |
85, 10, 0.3 | Mirror=2: the view's width (degrees), how far it is aimed below where you look (degrees: the dashboard and your hands on the wheel in view) and how long it takes to follow your head (seconds; 0: with it). It is cut from the left eye's picture, which sees only some 40 degrees right of straight ahead: the eyes are rendered wider than the headset needs for it (the headset gets what it always does), some 20% more pixels at 85 degrees and 10 down, 30% at 90 |
PhysicsAtHeadsetRate |
1 | One physics step per headset frame (0: the game's 10 ms steps) |
LodDistance |
0 | Level-of-detail distances times this (0 = always full detail) |
GrassDistance |
5.0 | How far grass is drawn, times this |
ViewDistance |
3.0 | How far the world is drawn, times this |
FloatDepth |
1 | The eyes keep depth as 32-bit floats, reversed (near 1, far 0), set in DXVK by the mod: what lies close together far away, such as a turn sign's arrow on its board, stays apart instead of showing through in crawling bands (0: 24-bit depth as the game keeps it) |
SpeedBlur |
1 | The game's speed blur, this many times as strong (0.5 half as strong, 0 off, up to 2) |
SpeedZoom |
1.0 | The game's widening of the view at speed: 1 = as on a monitor, 0 = off |
LargeAddressAware |
1 | FlatOut2.exe may use 4 GB of memory, not 2 (see Memory): when the game starts, the mod sets the flag in the file (the original kept as FlatOut2.exe.2GB.bak) and starts the game anew with it (0: leave FlatOut2.exe as it is) |
MotionControllers |
1 | The VR controllers as a game controller, "VR controllers" (see VR controllers; 0: none) |
PauseButton |
(none) | A button of the VR controllers that pauses and continues a race besides the menu button: RightStick, RightGrip, LeftStick, LeftGrip, X or Y (the game then no longer sees it) |
Rumble |
1.0 | How strongly the game's force feedback vibrates the VR controllers and Xbox controllers (up to 2; 0: not at all) |
EngineRumble |
0 | The engine as a light, steady vibration while driving (VR controllers, an Xbox controller's light motor), stronger with the revs and the throttle, at most this strong (0.2-0.5: a hum under the crashes'; 0: none) |
GrabWheel |
0 | Experimental: the VR controllers' grips take hold of the cockpit's steering wheel, which your hands then turn (instead of shifting gears) |
WheelTurn |
90 | How far your hands turn the wheel for full lock, degrees (at 90 the cockpit's wheel turns with them; more: slower steering) |
WheelRange |
0 | A steering wheel as the game controller: its range from lock to lock, degrees (as set in its software; 900 for most). The cockpit's steering wheel then turns as yours, up to its lock at 90 degrees either way (see Steering wheels; 0: as the game steers the car, slower and less at speed) |
The log, scripts\FO2VR.log, usually says what went wrong.
- A window says "Waiting for SteamVR..." or "VR did not start". The game waits for the VR runtime and
goes on in VR by itself once it is ready; the window says what went wrong when it fails, with Try again,
Play without VR and Quit. Start SteamVR (or connect the headset in Virtual Desktop) before the game, and
check
Runtime=inscripts\FO2VR.ini. If SteamVR hangs while it starts (its window never shows the headset), close it, endvrserver.exein the Task Manager if it stays, and start SteamVR from Steam: when Virtual Desktop's Streamer runs as administrator, the SteamVR it starts may not come up. When another program's OpenXR API layer does not load into the game (ReShade's does not, set up for OpenXR in another game), the mod starts VR again without such layers; the log names them. - Memory: a track does not load (the game stands still at the loading screen;
FlatOut2_d3d9.logends with "Memory allocation failed"). FlatOut2.exe is a 32-bit program and, as released, may use only 2 GB of memory, which it shares with the VR runtime and the graphics driver; larger tracks can run out of it in VR. The mod lets it use 4 GB by setting a flag in FlatOut2.exe (LargeAddressAware=1) and says so when it cannot, e.g. when the game's folder is not writable. To set the flag yourself, close the game and run this in PowerShell (with the path of your FlatOut2.exe; it keeps a copy asFlatOut2.exe.bak):$f = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FlatOut 2\FlatOut2.exe" $b = [IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($f); $o = [BitConverter]::ToInt32($b, 0x3C) + 22 if ($b[$o] -band 0x20) { "already 4 GB" } else { Copy-Item $f "$f.bak"; $b[$o] = $b[$o] -bor 0x20; [IO.File]::WriteAllBytes($f, $b); "done" } - The game closes with "The graphics driver was reset". The graphics card stopped with an error and Windows
reset its driver (the system's event log has it, as
nvlddmkmon an NVIDIA card); the game cannot draw after that, so it closes rather than standing still in the headset. Start it again. If it keeps happening, open an issue withscripts\FO2VR.log. - The Steam release does not start:
FlatOut2.exeruns (the Task Manager lists it) but shows no window. If an earlier version of the mod put DXVK into the game folder asd3d9.dll, delete that file: DXVK comes asscripts\dxvk_d3d9.dllnow (the mod puts the old one away by itself, but only in a game that starts). The Steam release starts Direct3D as the game loads (itsfo2_zoom.dll), and with DXVK in the game folder that hung the game on some PCs. - The log says "the game does not run on DXVK".
scripts\dxvk_d3d9.dllfrom the archive is missing. - The log says "unsupported FlatOut2.exe". The mod needs version 1.2 of the game (the GOG or the Steam release).
- The HUD looks stretched. Choose a 16:9 resolution in the game's settings.
- The VR controllers or the gamepad do nothing in a race. Choose them in the game's Options > Controller options > Controller: the game drives with the one chosen there (the keyboard works besides).
- Steam release: a steering wheel does nothing in VR, or has no force feedback (without VR it works). Seen with a Steam Frame: while SteamVR runs, Steam hands the game the headset's controllers as a gamepad (even with Steam Input turned off for the game), and the player's wheel then did nothing; the same wheel worked in VR in the GOG release, which Steam does not start.
- It stutters in the headset. Each frame has to be ready in the headset's time (8.3 ms at 120 Hz); the log's
frame avg/max mslines show how long the eyes take. Inscripts\FO2VR.ini,[VR], these cost the most:Mirrors(1 halves the mirrors' cost, 0 drops it),MSAA(2 or 0),RenderScale(0.8 or 0.9),GrassDistanceandViewDistance(lower), andMirror=0(the monitor's own view, a third render: keep it 1). A lower refresh rate in the headset (90 or 72 Hz) gives each frame more time.
Something else? Open an issue and attach
scripts\FO2VR.log.
Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools (x86, C++), CMake and Ninja: run build.cmd. It builds FO2VR.asi
and wineopenxr.dll and copies them, with the OpenXR loader, into ..\scripts\. The repository is
meant to be checked out inside the game folder.
tools\package.ps1 -Version <n> packs a release archive from the build, with the ASI loader
(winmm.dll) and DXVK (scripts\dxvk_d3d9.dll) taken from the game folder.
MIT (see LICENSE). Third-party parts:
- OpenXR SDK headers and loader: Apache-2.0 / MIT
(
third_party/openxr). - Vulkan-Headers: Apache-2.0 / MIT
(
third_party/vulkan). - In the release only: DXVK (zlib) and Ultimate ASI Loader (MIT), with their licenses.
FlatOut 2 is a trademark of its owners. This mod is not affiliated with them and contains no game files.