VR Passthrough Cockpit¶
Beta
The VR Passthrough cockpit is a beta release. It works end to end, and we're refining it with tester feedback; report anything odd through Report an Issue in the app sidebar.
The VR Passthrough page sets up a mixed reality cockpit: you fly DCS in a headset while seeing your real, physical cockpit through passthrough. The manager installs a special cockpit livery that paints every physical surface of the virtual cockpit in a chroma-key color. Virtual Desktop then replaces that color with the camera feed, so everything below the canopy rails becomes your real pit while the HUD, canopy, outside world, and airframe stay in the headset. The passthrough boundary follows the jet's own 3D geometry as you move your head.
What you need¶
- A physical cockpit to sit in. The livery is built for 1:1 replica pits; every switch, gauge, and panel you see is the real one in front of you.
- A Quest 3 (or similar headset) running Virtual Desktop with passthrough chroma keying.
- The DCS F-16C module. More aircraft profiles are on the way, and you can wire in your own (see Cockpit profiles below).
Install the cockpit livery¶
Pick your aircraft in the profile selector, then click Install cockpit livery. The manager downloads the latest livery, installs it into your DCS Saved Games folder, and adds a small livery-scan helper mod that DCS needs before it will load cockpit liveries from Saved Games. Nothing is written into the game installation for this step.
The livery installs under its own name, so your stock cockpit is untouched. Switch between the passthrough cockpit and the normal one any time in DCS under Options → Special → F-16C → Customized Cockpit. After installing or switching, always close DCS completely and restart it; DCS only scans for liveries at startup.
Remove uninstalls both the livery and the helper mod cleanly.
About that dropdown
The Viper's cockpit-livery dropdown has been broken in DCS itself for years: the cockpit reads the selection from a different place than the options screen writes it. The manager works around this automatically when it applies your settings, which is also why the dropdown starts working once the manager has set things up.
Recommended DCS settings¶
The chroma key works best with specific renderer settings. Reflections paint moving highlights over the key color, shadows darken it, and lens effects bloom across it; any of these can punch holes in the passthrough. The page audits every recommended setting and shows what differs.
Click Apply all with DCS fully closed. The manager patches the settings file directly and keeps a backup alongside it; Restore backup puts your old settings back. DCS must be closed because it rewrites its settings file on exit and would overwrite the changes.
The applied settings are: canopy and MFD reflections off (both the F-16C special options and the global graphics toggle), shadows flat/off, SSAO off, SSLR off, cockpit global illumination off, lens effects off, and motion blur off. Everything else, including your resolution and VR settings, is left alone.
The cockpit lighting patch¶
The cockpit lighting patch fixes two things no livery can reach:
- Magenta light bleed. The keyed cockpit acts as a bright light source, and DCS's cockpit ambient lighting washes that color onto the virtual parts (canopy frame, HUD arms). The patch tames the cockpit's image-based lighting so the bleed disappears. Recommended for all passthrough flying.
- Night flying. At night, DCS's lighting leaves the cockpit too dark for the chroma key to work. With the patch applied, turn the instrument lighting knobs up after dark and the cockpit keys correctly. Day flying with the knobs off is unchanged.
This is the one feature that modifies files in the DCS installation (the F-16C cockpit model and its lighting parameters), so applying it shows a Windows administrator prompt. The manager keeps pristine backups of the original files, and Restore original puts them back at any time. Two things to know:
- DCS updates and repairs quietly undo the patch. Nothing breaks; the cockpit simply goes back to dark nights. Re-apply the patch from this page after updating.
- Strict multiplayer servers with pure-client integrity checks will flag the modified cockpit model. Use Restore original before flying on those servers, and re-apply afterward.
Virtual Desktop setup¶
On the headset, use Virtual Desktop with the VDXR runtime and HEVC 10-bit at the highest bitrate your setup sustains. In the passthrough settings, enable chroma keying with:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Key color | red 255, green 0, blue 255 |
| Similarity | 35 percent |
| Smoothness | 1 percent |
Turn off Virtual Desktop's video sharpening; it amplifies color fringing at the passthrough edges. For night flying, apply the night lighting patch and raise Similarity a few points if dim corners of the pit stop keying.
Cockpit profiles¶
The profile selector at the top of the page chooses which aircraft everything on the page operates on. Profiles that ship with the manager (the F-16C today) carry everything built in: the right folders, the right settings, the loader workaround, and the night patch where one exists.
Add profile... wires in an aircraft the manager doesn't ship a profile
for yet. You'll need the cockpit unit folder name (the folder DCS uses
under Liveries, for example Cockpit_F-18C; the folder button lets you
pick it from your game installation instead of typing it) and the options
section name the aircraft uses in DCS's settings file. The loader section
and release tag are optional and only needed for special cases. Custom
profiles install liveries from local zip files, and Remove deletes
them again; built-in profiles can't be removed.
Updates¶
Invictus cockpit liveries carry a version stamp. The page compares your installed version against the latest release and shows both under the install button; when a newer livery is available the button changes to Update to v.... Livery updates are independent of app updates, so improvements ship as soon as they're ready.
Troubleshooting¶
- The cockpit isn't magenta in DCS. Restart DCS completely; liveries only load at startup. Then check all three status pills on the page are green and that Options → Special → F-16C → Customized Cockpit shows the passthrough livery.
- Glare or reflections punch holes in the passthrough. Run Apply all under Recommended DCS settings with DCS closed. If you changed graphics settings recently, re-run it; DCS sometimes reintroduces reflections.
- The cockpit is green or dark at night, or virtual parts have a pink tint. Apply the cockpit lighting patch, then turn the instrument lighting knobs up at night. If either symptom returns after a DCS update, re-apply the patch.
- A multiplayer server rejects you. Use Restore original in the cockpit lighting section, fly, then re-apply the patch afterward.
- Thin dark trim markings on some panel edges are a known cosmetic residual of the current livery and are purely visual.