The Lands Between are a beautiful, foreboding place—"like a dream," as all the soapstones put it. That surreal blend of beauty and horror would be quite something to experience through a VR headset, and it just so happens that modder Luke Ross (known for his R.E.A.L. VR mods for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077), is making Elden Ring VR a thing. Click the video above for an exclusive sneak peek.
While Ross is well versed in making third-person VR mods (the Mafia trilogy being a case in point), for Elden Ring he's optimising the mod for the first-person perspective. You'll be able to play in the original third-person view as well, though he doesn't recommend it.
"Third-person in this game is really far away (about 5 meters on average) and that doesn't work very well in VR," Ross told me. "Instead of being in the thick of action, you're kind of like 'Hey, is something going on over there?' Nevertheless, I'm going to leave the original camera as an option for purists. I'll probably also add an intermediate, close-third-person camera. But I think the first-person camera is where it's at."
It's a fair point, though I have to say that in the case of Elden Ring that 'something going on over there' could be a feline stone gargoyle lurking around a corner, or a Tree Sentinel riding in to skewer you while you're slaughtering a band of wandering nobles. Controlling the camera independently of your character can really save your skin. On the other hand, you'll probably be in a much better position to time those parries to perfection when a halberd is heading for the side of your actual head.
I also asked Ross about how he'll address motion sickness in relation to the more herky-jerky aspects of Elden Ring, like all that rolling. "When rolling or performing other scripted animations like the combat moves, the camera follows the character's head (so its position changes) but it remains oriented correctly according to what your head is doing in real life," he said. "So the horizon will stay level and the world will always look stable."
So it sounds like your VR view won't be being flipped upside-down each time you roll, though there'll still be plenty of movement. Ross stresses that his mods are designed for an audience that's "already developed their VR legs," so it looks like you'll either need to be comfortable in VR or just be discerning in your dodge-rolls. The threat of nausea is a great incentive not to just start panic-rolling as soon as you taste the power of Radahn or any of the other shardbearers.
Ross hopes to release the Elden Ring VR mod by the end of the month, but stresses it will still be a work-in-progress at that point. To get it, along with all of Ross' other VR mods, you'll need to subscribe to the R.E.A.L. VR Patreon.
