Experience 2D games in VR: Modder works on Super VR mod
A developer is working on a universal VR mod that will bring more than 15,000 games to VR. With 3D stereoscopy and room tracking.
Gabriel Pizarro aka TheNewJavaman has an ambitious goal. He is working on a mod for 2D games developed with Unreal Engine 4 that retroactively gives them basic VR features - regardless of whether they use a VR plugin.
UnrealVR, as the super VR mod is called, is intended to work with any UE4 game that uses DirectX 11. That's more than 15,000 titles. The list includes high-profile titles like Borderlands 3, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Sea of Thieves, GTA Trilogy: The Definitive Edition, and the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy.
The modder promises the following features:
- stereoscopic 360 degree view
- Support for 6DoF movement in space
- Button assignments for VR controllers
UnrealVR: first release incoming
How does UnrealVR work? According to Pizarro, the injector taps into the Direct3D runtime environment and replaces certain elements of the graphics pipeline with those of the XR industry standard OpenXR so that they run on PC-VR capable VR headsets.
Currently, there is no release version of the mod, "but a lot of the work is already done," according to the Discord of the PC VR modding community.
The first beta version is halfway to release, according to Pizarro. OpenXR output and stereoscopic view is already implemented. Currently, the modder is working on spatial tracking. Next, he plans to work on further optimization of the graphics pipeline, a configuration menu and VR key mapping.
PC VR modding: a lively scene
There are already quite a few 2D games for which individual VR mods are available, including GTA 5, the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Valheim. The benefit of a universal VR mod would be that you could experience lesser-known titles in VR, even if they are probably less optimized for it.
UnrealVR would also go much further than, say, vorpX, which supports many 2D games but only renders a stereoscopic view and requires users to make fine adjustments for optimal results.
If you want to support Pizarro aka TheNewJavaman financially, you can do so via Patreon. If you use Discord, you can talk to him and other modders on the UE4 VR Mods > #ue4-general channel. The project is already available on Github, but there is nothing to download and try out yet.
A more comprehensive list of UE4 games that can benefit from UnrealVR can be found behind the link.
Read more about PC VR:
- Resident Evil 7: PC VR mod trumps original
- Meta Quest 2: New PC VR feature - what it does and how to activate
- Long live PC VR! Why the platform remains relevant
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