Hogwarts Legacy VR mod could be a dream come true for Harry Potter fans

Hogwarts Legacy VR mod could be a dream come true for Harry Potter fans

Harry Potter fans will soon be able to play the Hogwarts Legacy spin-off with VR headsets. A first tour whets the appetite for more.

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Two days before the official release of Hogwarts Legacy, a video showed just how beautiful the action role-playing game could look in virtual reality. It showed the first detailed scenes from a planned VR mod for the PC version. The original game can only be played on a monitor or TV.

The man behind this mod is well-known VR tinkerer Praydog. It is based on his Universal VR Mod, which is designed to make almost any title developed with Unreal Engine 4 or 5 suitable for VR headsets - with a free view in six degrees of freedom by simply moving your head.

Hogwarts Legacy as VR Game

Since Hogwarts Legacy is based on Unreal Engine 4, it should also benefit from the Universal Mod: The Flat2VR community, where Praydog is also active, promises that "the entire magical world" will soon be available in full 6DOF VR.

Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the 19th century, before the adventures of Harry Potter. As a student, you hold the key to an ancient secret that threatens to destroy the world of magic. You'll learn about life at Hogwarts, find allies and fight against dark wizards.

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Unlike the third-person perspective of the original game, you'll explore the walls of Hogwarts from a free first-person perspective. The perspective only changes during cutscenes and spells.

For example, as soon as you wave your wand, you will see your character from the outside. In the skill tests shown, you use the mouse and keyboard or the controller for input. Motion controls are not yet available. However, users will be able to add this themselves using the Universal Mod. Some examples can be seen in the video below:

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The mod for Hogwarts Legacy does not have a release date yet. The Twitter account of Flat2VR promises that Praydog will present a first version of the mod "very soon".

You need a very fast PC

One downside of the graphical splendor is the enormous hardware hunger that comes with it: The developer explains in the Flat2VR Discord that he gets by with his Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080. The smooth scenes in the YouTube video, however, were recorded with a GeForce RTX 4090.

Furthermore, the mod still suffers from crashes when using Hogwarts Legacy's native rendering method. This native method usually produces the most visually appealing and performant results in the Universal Mod. In this game, however, it may be necessary to use an alternate rendering method such as "AER", according to the developer.

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The framework used for the Universal Engine was originally developed by Praydog for the RE Engine. It has been used to create modifications for numerous games in the Resident Evil series.

He releases his open source projects for free, but also has a Patreon account for voluntary donations. Click here to visit Praydog's Github page.

For a list of UE games that can benefit from the Injector, follow the link. Also check out our list of the best PC VR mods.

Sources: Twitter, Discord