Category: vr mod

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Valve Hires Creator Behind Popular ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Mod

Like many of Valve’s best titles, Half-Life: Alyx (2020) is a lot more moddable than your average game, which for PC VR headset owners means hundreds of new modes, missions, and mini-games. Now one of the HLA’s most talented modders announced they’ve been snapped up by Valve.

Nate Grove was responsible for two of the best HLA campaign-style mods, Incursion and Re-Education—both of which are uncannily Valve-like in pacing, setting… everything.

Grove says in a tweet that “a HUGE contributing factor to my hire was my work on my Workshop items Re-Education and Incursion. It was a dream for me (and many others) to work at Valve and I think this highlights the importance of supporting integration of community work into any game. It only makes the product (and the industry) stronger.”

While clearly a capable modder of one of the best VR games to date, Grove is no gaming industry neophyte. Now a level designer and artist at Valve, Grove comes to the company from Annapurna Interactive, which is known for publishing award-winning titles such as Outer Wilds, Stray, and What Remains of Edith Finch. Grove also created custom assets for both HLA mods, which is probably par for the course for someone who’s already spent nearly a decade as a professional digital artist and environmental designer.

What does this mean for Valve, VR and everything? It’s too early to speculate, since the company is by nature a black box that only occasionally sneaks possible hints about upcoming headsets in SteamVR updates. In fact, Grove says the announcement above was their “last post here” on X, formerly Twitter.

If it makes you feel better though, you can always comment “Half-Life 3 confirmed” in the comments.

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This ‘Portal 2’ Mod Brings Full VR Support to Valve’s Award-winning Puzzler

Flat2VR, the modding team known for bringing unofficial VR support to games such as Final Fantasy XIV, Half-Life 2, Jedi Outcast, and Left 4 Dead 2, recently released a mod for Portal 2 which finally brings SteamVR support to the iconic puzzle game.

The mod is free, and posted to Giovanni ‘Gistix’ Correia’s Github, a contributing member of Flat2VR. If you need help installing, there are instructions on the mod’s Github page, howevrr you can also head over to the Flat2VR Discord (invite link) for help.

Another pretty handy coincidence: Valve has again put both Portal and Portal 2 on sale for just $1 a piece, or in the Portal bundle for just $1.50 total, giving you basically no excuse not to play this mod—provided you have a VR-ready PC and a headset such as a Valve Index or Quest 2 (with Link).

Check out this 20-minute playthrough showcasing just how fluid the VR mod is:

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‘Half-Life 2: RTX’ Remaster Could Mean Big Upgrades for ‘Half-Life 2’ VR

NVIDIA this week announced Half-Life 2: RTX, a community-made remaster of the legendary game featuring all-new assets, textures, and lighting. Pieces of the remaster are likely to make their way to the already existing Half-Life 2: VR Mod.

When it rains, it pours, as they say.

After years of delays, Half-Life and VR fans have been treated over the last 12 months to full VR mods of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two.

And now it seems that fans are in for another treat; the Half-Life 2: VR Mod is likely to get a range of graphical upgrades thanks to the newly announced Half-Life 2: RTX remaster.

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Image courtesy NVIDIA
Image courtesy NVIDIA

Though it already featured improved graphics and lighting over the original Half-Life 2, the Half-Life 2: VR Mod largely focused on touching up the game’s existing assets, and enhancing some key 3D models while building out full support for VR.

Half-Life 2: RTX, on the other hand, is a complete graphical overhaul says Nvidia.

The project is described as being in “early development,” with developers consisting of a range of experienced Half-Life 2 modding teams, including folks from the Half-Life 2: VR Mod team. The teams are working under the banner Orbifold Studios and say they’re seeking more talented people to work on the project.

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Image courtesy NVIDIA
Image courtesy NVIDIA

According to Nvidia, the project will see “every asset reconstructed in high fidelity,” textures built with physically-based rendering techniques, and RTX ray-tracing support.

And while the project will likely mean that high quality 3D assets will make it over to the Half-Life 2: VR Mod, unfortunately RTX ray-tracing probably won’t.

A member of the Half-Life 2: VR Mod team called modding the full Half-Life 2: RTX game to support VR “just a pipe dream at the moment.”

“Currently RTX Remix [the platform used to build Half-Life 2: RTX] is not compatible with Half-Life 2: VR Mod, since they both hook into the rendering pipeline and abuse it in different and incompatible ways,” they said.

But, the member says there are plans to “work with other members of this new super-team [that’s working on Half-Life 2: RTX] on back-porting as much of the shiny new HD content as we can to the old source engine, and putting them into our Half-Life 2: VR Mod graphics update.”

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Image courtesy NVIDIA
Image courtesy NVIDIA

There’s no timeline at the moment for when that might happen, but hey, these things, they take time.

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Brand New Half-Life Alyx: Levitation Trailer Appears on the PC Gaming Show

During the week that’s definitely not E3 there have been a number of companies sticking to tradition, hosting events with lots of new videogames to announce. Amongst them was the PC Gaming Show yesterday which just so happened to have a tasty virtual reality (VR) update, a brand new gameplay trailer for Half-Life: Alyx mod Levitation.

Half-Life: Alyx - Levitation

The work of modders FMPONE and Corey Laddo – and a few others behind the scenes – Levitation has been gaining plenty of attention ever since it was unveiled earlier this year. While we’d all love an official update from Valve, thanks to the Steam Workshop Half-Life: Alyx is highly moddable with dozens of excellent community additions, and Levitation is gearing up to be one of the best.

Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is going to be a 4-5 hour adventure in City17, set in an area called Sector X which houses a mysterious floating building. G-Man is set to make a return alongside your mate and inventive engineer Russell. Even with the new trailer, little else has been revealed regarding the narrative. At least it’ll serve as a nice (unofficial) side-mission for fans eager for more Half-Life in VR.

From the looks of the gameplay trailer Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is going to be heavily action-oriented, once again pitting Alyx against Combine soldiers and the ever-reliable headcrabs.

Half-Life: Alyx - Levitation

Two years after its release Half-Life: Alyx is still regarded as the pinnacle of VR gaming, offering just the right mix of action, immersive interaction and puzzling that the franchise is known for. “A stunningly rich experience from start to finish, Half-Life: Alyx is one of the best VR titles available, a perfect showcase for what VR gaming is capable of,” gmw3 said in its review.

Currently, Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is expected to arrive later this year. While you’re waiting other Half-Life: Alyx mods include Return to Rapture, a two-episode addition set within the Bioshock universe. Or how about VR mods for non-VR titles? Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Quake 3 Arena, Resident Evil 2 and 3, and more have all been given the unofficial VR mod treatment.

For continued updates, keep reading gmw3.

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‘Firewatch’ VR Support is Now Free as Unofficial Mod Goes Open Source

Ricardo ‘Raicuparta’ Lopes has been working on a VR mod for the award-winning adventure game Firewatch for nearly a year now. Although the mod is heading into “maintenance mode,” which means there aren’t any new features coming down the pipeline, Lopes has decided to make the so-called ‘Two Forks VR’ mod open source and free to anyone.

Lopes, who is also known for adding VR support to The Stanley Parable and Outer Wilds, has made the source code of the Two Forks VR mod available on GitHub, so anyone who owns Firewatch on PC can play it with a SteamVR-compatible headset.

The mod lets you physically interact with the game’s many items, including the world map and compass, and play the entire game from start to finish in VR.

It also includes a number of VR-specific settings, such as snap and smooth turning, a way of ‘driving’ a ghostly version of your avatar around and then teleporting to the destination, and either showing or disabling avatar legs.

In the mod’s most recent update, Lopes also added LIV support, so you can take mixed reality footage of your in-game adventuring like you see below.

If you’re interested in checking out mods for The Stanley Parable and Outer Wilds, head over to Raicuparta’s Patreon for access.

Looking for more VR mods? Thanks to dedicated modders, you’ll find a host of PC VR mods out there, including Cyberpunk 2077, Valheim, Resident Evil 7 & Village, and more. Check out our coverage here for more.

The post ‘Firewatch’ VR Support is Now Free as Unofficial Mod Goes Open Source appeared first on Road to VR.

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Quake 3 Arena Now Available As Meta Quest VR Mod

Yes, you read that correctly, id Software’s classic Quake 3 Arena now has a VR mod available for it. It seems as though virtual reality (VR) mods are dropping on a daily basis as the VR community refuses to be hampered by such problems as not being made for VR headsets. This latest one Quake3Quest comes from DrBeef and can be found via Sidequest.

Quake VR Arena

DrBeef is the modder behind such VR mods as Doom3Quest and Quake2Quest, so he’s very well acquainted with bringing this type of frantic flatscreen gameplay into VR. The mod allows Quest owners to enjoy fully online-multiplayer battles on VR-only servers even if they don’t own the videogame outright.

How does that work? Well, the game – which needs to be sideloaded from SideQuest – comes with the official id software demo so you can start playing right away on DEMO marked servers as well as the first tier of the Single Player bot tournament. Want more, you’ll need to purchase Quake III Arena from Steam or a similar online store.

Being a sideloaded videogame there is a bit of faff involved to install Quake3Quest but DrBeef has outlined the process with step-by-step instructions. Even so, that does mean you can download Quake3Quest and start playing now for free. If you want to see it mod in action check out Gamertag VR’s latest video.

Quake VR Arena

What’s great to see is the full VR support on offer. Unlike the recent Elden Ring VR mod which gives you 360-degree viewing but you still have to play using a controller, in Quake3Quest the weapons are fully tracked to make the experience as immersive and naturally VR intuitive as possible. Plus there are added extras like bHaptics vest support.

Also on its way from another VR modding master, PrayDog, is full 6DoF VR support for Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8 Village. That’s due this week so keep an eye out.

For further updates on the latest VR mods, keep reading gmw3.

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‘Resident Evil 7’ & ‘Village’ Are Getting Near Perfect PC VR Support with This Unofficial Mod

If you’re looking to jump into either Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) or Resident Evil Village (2021) on a PC VR headset, you’ll need a mod to get your kicks. Now modder ‘Praydog’, who has developed a number of unofficial RE mods, says a new controller update is coming to both games soon which will bring full 6DOF support, which means you’ll soon be able to take on the universe’s myriad of wicked creatures mano a mano.

Praydog has released unofficial VR support for RE2, RE3, RE7 and RE Village (aka RE8), however neither of Capcom’s latest feature full motion controls.

According to Eurogamer’s Ian Higton, who went hands-on with the mod on both Resident Evil Village, the new motion control support lets you shoot, manage a shoulder holster-style inventory, block by holding your hands in front of your face, and heal yourself by pouring medicine on your hands—many of the things you’d consider smart features for even VR-native games.

Some scripted movements, like falling through a floor or placing a baby in a cradle, are decidedly less immersive, although they’re likely impossible to avoid since the game relies heavily on forced camera changes during specific action sequences. Check out some gameplay from Higton’s video below:

Higton says along with 6DOF support, the addition of the full body inverse kinematics (IK) models “ups the immersion dramatically and it makes some of the more hectic battles in Village feel nail-bitingly realistic.”

Village also looks absolutely incredible in VR. The highly detailed environments were a joy to explore and some of the distant views across the village at the mountain ranges beyond it legitimately took my breath away. One of the most impressive things about playing Resident Evil Village in VR though, is finally being able to understand the true scale of some of the enemies. Lady Dimitrescu in particular feels way more imposing in VR compared to in flat and it turns out I had completely underestimated how much she towered over her daughters.

The motion controller updates are slated to arrive at some point this month. You’ll find them over at Github for free, however Praydog also runs a Patreon for users who want to support their work.

Of course, there are some official VR versions out there if you want to get your bio-mutant-slaying fix. On Quest 2 you can play Resident Evil 4, which was reworked from the ground-up by Armature Studio and Oculus to offer higher-res textures and VR-native touches of immersion. There’s also Resident Evil 7 on PSVR, although it admittedly doesn’t feature full body IK that Praydog’s PC VR mod does.

The post ‘Resident Evil 7’ & ‘Village’ Are Getting Near Perfect PC VR Support with This Unofficial Mod appeared first on Road to VR.

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New Teaser Appears for Cyberpunk 2077’s VR Mod

Mention Cyberpunk 2077 to any gamer and you’ll likely hear a groan because the most hyped videogame of the last few years was a bit of a letdown. That’s not stopped prolific virtual reality (VR) modder, Luke Ross, from taking a stab at bringing the game to VR fans, releasing a new trailer for the project over the weekend.

Cyberpunk 2077
Image credit: CD Projekt Red

Having first revealed his plans to mod Cyberpunk 2077 back in December, the teaser trailer goes fairly in-depth regarding the mod’s features; from showcasing map navigation and driving in third-person to talking to an NPC and, of course, some combat. And from what’s been shown so far the VR mod is shaping up very nicely for a game that was never designed with VR in mind.

There are always challenges to mods like this but Ross has previously created them for Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V. Just like these titles, the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod won’t employ motion controls but it will have full head tracking. That can be used for aiming and locomotion. Ross’s mods have all previously used gaze-based aiming (crosshair and ADS modes are supported) with the developer also saying on his Patreon account that the: “sights perfectly aligned with your dominant eye.”

When it comes to performance the new gameplay trailer was shot and recorded using a Core i9-9900K and RTX 3090 at 2160p and 60fps. The dev says when not recording he usually gets 80-90fps which is essential for VR.

Cyberpunk 2077
Image credit: CD Projekt Red

He adds that while the VR mod will support full-blown raytracing with Ultra settings on to make Cyberpunk 2022 as gorgeous as possible, it’s not recommended. It “actually makes for a hazier view in VR,” plus the FPS will likely tank.

Most importantly, after initially planning a January release Ross is now aiming to make his Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod available in early March. “No matter how things turn out, at this point I’m going to release by the end of next week,” he notes.

For continued updates on the latest VR mods, keep reading gmw3.

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Cyberbunk 2077 VR Mod Gameplay Debuts Ahead Of Release

Enthusiast VR modder Luke Ross dropped new gameplay footage of his VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077, which is set to release soon.

The footage shows the player walking around Night City and engaging in some gun fights, showing off the various features available in Cyberpunk that have been transferred into VR.

Ross has created a few other VR mods for PC games in the past, most notably for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. These mods still used a gamepad for movement and general controls, not offering complete VR motion controls, however they did support full VR head tracking that could be used for movement and aiming via your dominant eye.

The upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 mod will follow suite, offering a very similar control scheme that merges gamepad controls with VR head tracking. You can see how it works in the video embedded above, which features five minutes of new gameplay using Ross’ upcoming mod for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077.

As you can see in the footage, it looks like a remarkably good translation, on par with Ross’ other conversions in the last few years. The mod was announced last year, originally aiming for a January 2022 release. Having missed that window, we can expect a release at some point in the near future, available exclusively on his Patreon.

On his Patreon page, Ross gave some more details about performance and options for the mod, stating that the former was “unexpectedly” good. The video above was captured using Core i9-9900K and RTX 3090 at 2700×2700 resolution. As you can see on the UI, the FPS hovers around 60-65 for the video, but Ross says when not recording he gets a stable 80-90fps.

Ross also says he’s found the best way of playing in VR is to “keep most graphics options on low with no DLSS” which gives you a high level of clarity and detail that he call “astounding”. While you can enable the Ultra settings, along with raytracing, Ross’ opinion is that this looks good in screenshots but “actually makes for a hazier view in VR.”

You can read more details over on Ross’ Patreon page. There’s no set release date just yet, but we should find out more soon. With Cyberpunk’s recent 1.5 update improving performance and fixing many bugs, there’s never been a better for the mod to release either.

Will you be checking out Luke Ross’ Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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Resident Evil 2 & 3 Can Now be Played In VR

Resident Evil 2

The virtual reality (VR) modding community has done some truly exceptional work over the years with titles like Alien Isolation and more recently MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. The latest comes from creator praydog, who released a VR mod on New Years Day for Resident Evil 2 and 3.

Resident Evil 2 VR mod

In development for several months, praydog uploaded the mods to GitHub allowing anyone who owns a PC copy of the survival horror to jump back in, this time ramping up the scares thanks to VR’s immersive capabilities. The modder achieved this thanks to another one of their projects, REFramework, which is capable of adding 6 degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) VR support to most RE Engine titles.

Bringing a Resident Evil videogame into VR is no easy task simply because most are in third-person, VR tends to work best in first-person; especially where atmospheric horror is concerned. So not only are Resident Evil 2 and 3 now in first-person, but the mod also offers essential features like full gun control and weapon collision. You can point and shoot just like you normally would in a VR shooter, you can throw grenades and physically use the knife to dish out damage.

Resi fans know that the games tend to feature a lot of cutscenes so you will find sequences where you’ll jump between a first-person viewpoint and the various cameras each title employs. These are 3D cutscenes, however, rather than in a virtual window, ensuring the immersion isn’t broken too much. Even so, Resident Evil 2 and 3 in VR both look like worthy additions to the franchises ever-growing VR roster.

Resident Evil 2 VR mod

This originally began back in 2017 with Resident Evil 7 Biohazard supporting PlayStation VR. Then last year you had the excellent remake of Resident Evil 4 specifically for the Meta Quest 2.

Can’t wait to play either Resident Evil 2 or 3 in VR? Well, take a look below at a couple of gameplay videos to see both versions in action thanks to leadergamer1 and Gamertag VR.

Plus there’s more on the horizon from the VR modding community. As VRFocus reported in December, experienced VR modder Luke Ross is working on a version of Cyberpunk 2077 that’s expected to arrive at some point this month. For further VR mod updates, keep reading VRFocus.