Best Flat To VR Mods
As any gamer knows, PC Gaming offers the most flexible way to play games. If there is a game, you love to play and you want to tailor it to your wants, PC Gaming is the way to go. If you have a powerful enough PC, any game can be modded to be better.
This is even more true for VR gamers. The current PCVR landscape is devoid of AAA titles. With the dominance of Meta in the VR space, very little, if any, PCVR game development is taking place. The standalone market is the focus of much VR game development. There have been technical strides on the standalone front, but a very visible gap remains. There is also another gap, game depth.
Besides the developers that Meta has, most VR games remain in the domain of Indie developers. Standalone VR games with high production values like Meta’s Batman and Asgard’s Wrath 2 will be the exception rather than the rule. VR gamers want games with the same depth as flat games. It’s a void no one is capable of or willing to fill. As mentioned, PC VR games are few and far between. What we want is hybrid games. Sony seems poised to fill that market but, beyond GT 7 and paying Capcom to do VR Modes of RE 4, 7 & 8, they have left the Indie VR developers to sustain the PSVR 2 headset.
Fortunately, on the PC front, modders have come to the rescue again. They have filled the void the mainstream gaming companies continue to ignore. There are so many flat screen games begging for VR Mods from classic shooters like Doom or Crysis or System Shock to current AAA shooters like Cyberpunk. If you have a PC with enough grunt, then almost any game you can imagine in VR, you can play in VR.
Types of Flat To VR Mods
VR Mods generally fall into three camps: mods for specific games, Luke Ross mods, or Unreal Engine VR(UEVR). The first two categories require modifications to game files while UEVR injects itself into a game. UEVR only works with Unreal Engine 4 & 5 games. Also, UEVR requires the most tinkering on a per game basis to get the best VR experience possible. Game specific mods and UEVR are free, whereas with the Luke Ross mods are behind a $10 Patreon paywall. The other two methods operate on a donation basis.
Despite being restricted to Unreal Engine games, UEVR has the largest library of VR Mods. They are a dedicated website and Discord channel where you ask for advice and help. The UEVR Injector has the functionality to import game specific configurations that minimize the amount of tweaking you have to do. They also have a large test database where you can see how well a flat game you are interested in does in VR.
Note – there is also an injector for Unreal Engine games but it is earlier on in development.
Website, UEVR Profiles categorizes games according to their VR performance. Returnal, Aliens Fireteam Elite, Kena, Life Is Strange Remastered, Pacific Drive, Stray, and The Outer Worlds are among the games reported to function perfectly. The other categories are Works Well, Works OK, and Works Poorly. There are over 300 game profiles to help you out, plus more are being added every day.
Luke Ross’s mods are on his Patreon page hosts, which cover a smaller selection of games. His mods are more robust but require changes to the game code. His focus is on more recent AAA games so you will find support for games such as Atomic Heart, Cyberpunk 2077, Dark Souls Remastered, Elden Ring, Far Cry 4 – 6, Far Cry New Dawn & Primal, Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth, Ghost of Tsushima, Hogwarts Legacy, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first Spider-Man games, Uncharted 4 & Lost Legacy, and the first two Watch Dog games.
Choose Your GPU For VR Wisely
For optimal performance of Luke Ross mods, use a Nvidia GPU. His software is based around it and the drivers it uses. You can run his mods with an Amdahl GPU, but you will have an inferior experience. As a single entity, there is only so much Luke Ross can take on.
Finally, there are the mods for individual games that further enhance a PCVR game or do a total conversion. The Mad Dog VR mod for Skyrim VR is an example of the former. The Cabalistic mod for the original Crysis game is an example of the latter. There is also the excellent Mother VR conversion of Alien Isolation. On Steam you can find free VR mods to convert the Half Life 1 & 2 games plus the additional episodes for Half Life 2. There’s even a free VR mod for Portal 2!
In short, if you are interested in virtual reality gaming and want a top-tier experience, you probably can find modifications to achieve that. This article has pointed out some of them. If you have a favorite game you want to play in VR, do a web search and chances you will find a mod for it. Just make sure you have the PC to run it.