The creator of the R.E.A.L GTA 5 VR mod has just released a VR support mod for Red Dead Redemption 2. Accessible via modder Luke Ross’s Patreon page, the mod is currently in ‘Early Access’ and will continue to receive more improvements over time. Judging by the footage above (courtesy of UploadVR) it’s looking pretty damn good, and the whole game is playable in either first- or third-person perspective.
Ross explains on his Patreon that building VR support for Red Dead Redemption 2 required a ground-up approach: the code for his GTA 5 mod could not serve as a base for this project. “The game is much more advanced than GTA V from a technical point of view,” Ross explains, “and the graphics API it supports (Vulkan and DX12) are similarly more complex than DX11, on which GTA V was based. I had to create a whole new framework for VR injection: basically everything I had built for GTA V mod was now useless and needed rewriting from scratch.”
The mod is the result of six months full-time work, hence the move to Patreon—you’ll need to become a patron to access the mod at the moment. Ross has ambitions to add VR support to Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as well, which patrons will gain access to if and when they’re released.
While the footage above only shows Red Dead Redemption 2’s dreadfully protracted (and snowy) prologue, it shows how seamlessly the game’s UI has been implemented (at least, if you’re using a gamepad), but do expect some jarring camera hijacks whenever a cutscene arrives.
