VR mod brings DLSS Ray Reconstruction to four AAA games
PC VR fans can now experience Cyberpunk 2077 and three other AAA games in VR with DLSS Ray Reconstruction using a VR mod.
VR modder Luke Ross has released version 19.0.0 of his R.E.A.L. VR mod on his Patreon page.
It brings functional VR support for DLSS Ray Reconstruction to the following titles:
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Star Wars Outlaws
DLSS Ray Reconstruction uses AI to improve the quality of ray tracing effects such as reflections, global illumination, and shadows, resulting in significantly improved image quality in ray traced games.
Only eight games currently support DLSS Ray Reconstruction. Half of them can be played in VR with the R.E.A.L. VR Mod, provided you have a fast enough computer.
Ross writes in the announcement that "even an RTX 5090 will sweat bullets running this in VR".
"So in a sense it's kind of like a tech demo that you can experience if you want to take a peek at how games will look in a couple of years," Ross writes.
He calls his solution DL(S)SS-RR, where the inserted "(S)" stands for stereoscopy, referring to VR support.
DL(S)SS-RR and his DLSS fix published at the end of 2024 are mutually exclusive. It is not possible to use both at the same time.
Version 19.0.0 also introduces a new, more accurate optical flow estimator for AER v2, which is more demanding on the GPU and is disabled by default.
You can download the R.E.A.L. VR Mod on Luke Ross' Patreon page. Membership is $10 per month.
Ross: Don't expect frame generation for VR headsets
At the end of his Patreon post, Ross talks about Nvidia's frame generation technology and explains why you shouldn't get your hopes up for VR support.
"VR headsets are basically screens with accelerometers and lenses, but despite that they are not seen by the driver as a generic screen, due to engineering decisions taken by Oculus, Valve and the IHVs in the early days of modern VR. So, frame generation doesn't take VR headsets into account, at all. If you were to employ FG on a VR conversion, and for some lucky combination of events the hack didn't crash, all you'd get would be smoother motion on the monitor display with increased GPU usage, but no extra frames at all in the headset," Ross writes.
For VR to benefit from this technology, Nvidia would have to change its policy and make the generated frames available to developers, which he believes is unlikely.
What is the R.E.A.L. VR mod?
Luke Ross has been developing VR mods since 2017.
His R.E.A.L. VR mod is based on Alternate Eye Rendering (AER), which renders an image alternately for the left and right eyes instead of simultaneously, with the side effect of causing ghosting. In March 2023, Ross introduced AER v2, an improved version of the rendering technology that reduces ghosting, for all supported games. This was followed in late 2024 by an update that provides a much sharper image when DLSS is enabled.
The R.E.A.L. VR Mod now supports major flat titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, both parts of Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man and Uncharted 4. You can find a complete list below.
The VR mod comes with 6DoF head tracking by default, but no motion controls support. You have to play witha game pad or mouse and keyboard.
In an interview with MIXED, Ross expressed the view that the VR market should have initially developed along familiar gaming paradigms, i.e. gamepad VR. He described the introduction of VR controllers as a fatal mistake for the industry, as developers had to adapt to completely new forms of interaction, which deterred many studios from jumping on the VR bandwagon.
His VR mods were not always well received. He was forced by Take-Two's lawyers to remove all VR mods for the publisher's games. GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mafia Definitive Edition were affected by the measure.
Here is a complete list of all games supported by the R.E.A.L. VR mod:
- Atomic Heart [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Cyberpunk 2077 [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]
- Dark Souls: Remastered [AER v2]
- Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin [AER v2]
- Elden Ring (with its massive Shadow of the Erdtree DLC) [AER v2 + DL(S)SS when NVIDIA DLSS is enabled with a third-party mod]
- Far Cry 4 [AER v2]
- Far Cry 5 [AER v2]
- Far Cry 6 [AER v2]
- Far Cry New Dawn [AER v2]
- Far Cry Primal [AER v2]
- Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade [AER v2]
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Ghost of Tsushima [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Ghostrunner [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Ghostwire: Tokyo [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Grounded [AER v2]
- High On Life [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Hogwarts Legacy [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]
- Horizon: Zero Dawn [AER v2]
- Horizon Forbidden West [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle [AER v2 + DL(S)SS-RR]
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (new) [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Star Wars Outlaws [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Stray [AER v2]
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy [AER v2 + DL(S)SS]
- Watch Dogs [AER v2]
- Watch Dogs 2 [AER v2]
Do you have experience with the R.E.A.L. VR Mod? Join the conversation on Facebook, Bluesky or X or share your opinion in the comments below.
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