If you’re enjoying Fallout 4 you can now play the game in VR too. The vorpX 3D driver received an update allowing players to enjoy the game as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 in VR.
The $40 vorpX driver adds ways to play dozens of games made with DirectX 9 to 11 while a player is immersed in VR in an Oculus Rift development kit. Games like Battlefield 3 and 4, Alien Isolation, World of Warcraft and Bioshock: Infinite have been supported previously. The latest 0.9.1 update brings the VR goodies to the latest Fallout and Black Ops games.
There are some caveats. First, adapting a game not specifically designed for VR can be stomach churning unless you have an iron stomach and can overcome simulator sickness. Anything that simulates movement your body isn’t actually feeling while immersing your eyes fully in VR has the potential to cause this reaction. Second, it is noted if you already have vorpX installed “the update may fail if you already have the Oculus runtime 0.7 or 0.8 installed.” Some workarounds are provided.
I haven’t tried vorpX but some people bought DK2 headsets from Oculus just so they could enjoy their favorite games while immersed in VR using this software. As the Oculus Rift moves closer to a 1.0 software development kit release along with consumer availability it will be interesting to see how vorpX develops. If it gets easier for a larger percentage of players to enjoy their existing games in VR it could be a boon to the budding VR industry. It should be noted Oculus plans to bring traditional games into VR two ways, with older 2D titles playable in a virtual Arcade and newer titles for the Xbox One playable in a virtual theater inside the Rift.
Some developers have tested alternative ways of moving while immersed in VR that seem promising to alleviate the nausea experienced using a controller to move around in a classic game. One idea teleports people from place to place and another called “Tunneling” freezes the view of the environment while showing a small window in which traditional movement takes place. It can be seen here:
The “tunneling” method won the endorsement of Rift creator and Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey. Here’s what he had to say about it on Reddit:
One of the best things about this method is that it easily scales to exactly your tolerance level – at one extreme, you can make the view window fill 100% of the image, allowing people with high tolerance to play the game with basically traditional controls. At the other end, you can scale the view window down to be a tiny postage stamp, though nobody should have to go that far.
