Oculus Rift Skyrim setup guides feels like are scattered all over the internet. In Reddit, on Youtube, various tips from who knows where. I collected all the information to put up an ultimate up-to-date guide to get the most epic VR experience you will ever get in Skyrim.
Update 2018: New Skyrim VR For Oculus Rift Review!
If you have been playing Skyrim before, you know that is like a living time vacuum. You dive into this game and you wake up with a beard, looking like Gandalf, wisdom just emanating from you. I played Skyrim for over 300 hours even without VR, and that is considered a low number.
But with VR injected into veins of this game, you can get a serious addiction. Skyrim is also one of the best virtual reality games alongside with GTA 5, Elite: Dangerous and Half Life 2. To play Skyrim, there are two options for you available – VorpX (here is a vorpX review) and Vireio program. Vorpx is considered a better performer with more games to choose from, but then again Vireio is a free program. And luckily, Skyrim is one of the games that work with Vireio. However, lets start with the former (for vireio setup guide scroll down).
First, you need to get a program called vorpX (click to download). VorpX allows you to play the most awesome triple-A games with an Oculus Rift support injected into it. Especially with the latest updates to vorpX, you may get better FPS with it in Skyrim.
Here is the best:
VR Oculus Rift Setup Guide For Skyrim – vorpX
1. Make a character before opening Skyrim in VR mode.
Make him as pretty as possible.
2. Download and install mods (optional).
Part 1: Go to this page and find the part where it says MO DOWNLOAD. Follow those step to install MOD Organizer properly. It will improve your performance by a lot.
Part 2: Got to Nexus Mods and install these mods:
Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Project Reality – Climates of Tamriel
Enhanced Camera
SkyUI
Lower 1st Person Weapons V2.1
Deadly Combat
Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2
Inconsequential NPC’s
Immersive Weapons / Armor / Patrols / Creatures
The Eyes of Beauty – Huge difference
Down here is cosmetic/optional/your preference
Guard Dialogue Overhaul
Improved NPC Clothing
Tamriel Reloaded Grasses
Glowing Ore Veins 300 – HIGHLY recommended
Realistic Force
Convenient Horses
Cloaks of Skyrim
Enhanced Blood Textures – HIGHLY recommended
ApachiiSkyHair
The Hairstyler
Calientes Beautiful Bodies
Birds of Skyrim
Better Dynamic Snow
Unread Books Glow
For this tip credit goes to CsmicPerspective for his help in reddit. Thank you!
2. Leave the game and set Oculus Rift to be in extended mode.
3. Activate VorpX and open Skyrim.
4. Configure VorpX settings.
After you launched the game and vorpX is on, open the vorpX menu and have settings like this:
Main
- Activate VorpX – On
- Display Mode – Rift
- Virtual Cinema Mode – Off
- 3D Reconstruction – Geometry
- Separation (3D-Strength) – 1.05
- 3D FOV Enchacement – 0.00
- Camera Height Modifier – 0.09
Diplay
- Image Sharpening – 1.04 (Play around between 1 and 2)
- Fix Chromatic Aberation – On
- Fix Black Smear – Off
- Game UI/HUD Scale – 1.00
- Game UI/HUD Depth – 1.00
- G3D Shadow Treatment – No S3D
- Aspect Ratio Correction – Letterbox 2
- Image Zoom – 0.68
- 2D FOV Enchancement – 0.00
- Lens Set (eye cup) – Your lense set
- Interpupillary Distance – Your pupillary distance (You can measure it by clicking on “calibrate IPD”)
Head Track
- Head Tracking – On
- HT Sensitivity – 0.61
- HT G3D Latency Ench. – 0.00
- HT Roll – On
- HT Positional Tracking – On
- HT Invert X Axis – Off
- HT Invert Y Axis – Off
- HT Crouch/Jump – Off
Input
- Disable Mouse Acceleration – Yes
- Handle Gamepads Internally – No
- Head Tracking as Gamepad – Off
This is it! You are free to mess around with settings to your own personal preference.
Problems That May Occur
Problem: All the possible problems that may happen, like for example “Failed to initialize renderer. Unknown error creating the renderer”
Solution: Try downgrading your Oculus Runtime to 0.5.1. the newest one 0.6.0 sometimes has problems with compatibility.
Problem: Low FPS.
Solution: Try installing MOD Organizer like mentioned in the mods step. If that doesn’t work, change all your graphics settings to lowest and slowly crank them up until you are on the verge of best visuals and good performance.
I do have to warn you though that running Skyrim and all other games in virtual reality requires more PC horsepower. It is recommended to have a good GPU and CPU. When the Oculus Rift CV1 comes out, recommended GPU will be GTX 970.
Problem: I can’t get into VR mode.
Solution: Try reinstalling vorpX.
See Also: HOW TO: Setup Vorpx and Oculus Rift For Fallout 4 Perfectly
Next page is for Vireio Setup:
