Cyberpunk 2077 in VR is INSANE! (Mod by Luke Ross)

Luke Ross did it again. With his newest mod you can explore Cyberpunk 2077 in full stereoscopic VR, with 3D effects and 6DoF tracking, and seeing that massive open world around you is stunning. I’d already finished the main story, so I played two random side missions with only minor spoilers, to show how the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod plays. Below: what happened, what I thought, and how to install it.

What you need

• A PC. I played on a Quest over Air Link, and the mod works with most major VR headsets.
• A keyboard and mouse or a gamepad. There’s no motion controller support.
• The game itself, bought separately. Cyberpunk had a rough, buggy launch, but a lot has been fixed and it’s quite enjoyable now.
• A membership on Luke Ross’s Patreon, which is how you get the mod.

Side mission one: the book of spells

I started in Night City, and the scale of it in VR is incredible. At the Afterlife club I met Nix, who had a job: someone was selling an old Book of Spells edition from before the first net crash, and he wanted me to buy it for him.

A few things stood out right away:

• Re-centering: when the view drifts, you re-center by shaking your head.
• The phone pops up right in front of you, which is nice.
• Driving in first person was heavy on my stomach, and hard. You can switch to the third-person view, which is easier on the stomach, though it didn’t improve my driving. The views with the radio on were amazing.
• I hit someone, got a police star next to the minimap, and had to hide until it went away.

The seller wanted her money first, so I had to steal the data from her instead. You can’t use weapons in that area, so I hacked it, and the hacking minigame works fine in VR. You aim with your head, which is pretty cool, but I had to lean forward to read the computer screen. The stash held an encrypted shard I decrypted in the menu, then I fast-traveled back to Nix and got paid.

Side mission two: a gig with more shooting

For more action I picked a gun-for-hire job. I called my motorcycle, rode to a club, talked my way in and went looking for a man named Jack. It turned into a big fight.

• Aiming: your aim follows your head, which I liked better than aiming with the joystick. When you use your weapon, the HUD follows you, so you can turn with your body.
• Combat looks great and gory in VR, and yes, I used a bazooka.
• The finish: I found Jack (wearing lenses like a VR headset, which made me laugh), carried him out and dropped him in a car. Gig done, lots of money.

What I think of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod

I thought it was good, mostly because the views are incredible in VR. The mod makes the graphics convincing enough that it feels like you’re actually there. I’ve finished the game, so I can’t promise everything works, but most of what I do a lot has been great. A few things take getting used to:

• Turning: it’s best played with joystick turning, because then the game knows where you face and the HUD stays in front of you. If you turn with your body like I do, you have to re-center a lot. Shaking your head is easy, but it takes you out of the immersion. I would have liked the mod to track where I’m facing at all times, though I understand it’s done this way to keep the HUD readable.
• Motion sickness: VR mods for games that weren’t built for VR are tough. Scenes where the camera moves on its own, like getting into a car, made me feel sick. You’ll want strong VR legs.
• Performance: much better than I expected, given Cyberpunk isn’t known for being well optimized. I got around 60 fps while recording, so a bit more without, and it was good enough for me.

Braindance in VR

Braindance is the in-game mechanic where you relive someone else’s memory with all senses, using something that looks like a VR headset with a brain-computer interface. Doing that while wearing a real VR headset is like Inception. I’d finished the game and couldn’t find a mission to try it, but Luke made a video of it and it looks really cool.

The free alternative

Full motion controller support would make it better, but that’s hard to add to a game not built for VR, so I’m already happy someone like Luke is doing this. There’s also a VorpX version that’s free and adds motion controller gestures, which isn’t full motion controls but is interesting. I covered Luke’s mod because the other one you can just try yourself for free. Luke’s mods cost money, but he updates them regularly, and some people prefer his method.

How to install the mod

It’s very easy:

1. Download the mod from Luke Ross’s Patreon and unzip it. You get three files.
2. In Steam, right-click Cyberpunk 2077, choose Properties, then Local Files, then Browse. That opens the game folder.
3. Open the bin folder, then x64, and put the three files there. Overwrite files if it asks.
4. Double-click the file called RealConfig. It sets everything up, including the ini settings.

Who it’s for

If you like Cyberpunk and have a PC and a headset, I recommend it, as long as you have decent VR legs and don’t mind a gamepad or keyboard instead of motion controls. A flat video doesn’t do it justice. If the mod helps you enjoy the game, support Luke for the work.