Just in time for its 20th anniversary comes a virtual reality mod for Quake II. Actually, the mod saw its last update this May, but Martin Lammi drew our attention with his video tour of the legendary shooter, which you’ll find embedded below. Created by software engineer Luke Groeninger, and supported by Malcolm Smith, Quake II VR is designed for the Oculus Rift, but Vive owners can get in on the action with Revive. Based on the KMQuake II source port, the mod borrows from RiftQuake, a VR mod for the original game.
Configuring the mod takes a few minutes and a bit of reading, but Lammi’s video offers step-by-step instructions for Vive owners, and Rift users can find instructions here.
Once in-game, players Quake II supports all the control configurations you’d expect from a VR title in 2017:
- Seated or standing.
- 180- or 360-degree view.
- Comfort turning on/off.
- Aiming can be tied to head tracking, mouse look, gamepad, or point-and-shoot with the Vive or Oculus Touch controllers.
- Auto-crouch uses head position to determine if the player character is crouching or standing
While we’re partial to Quake II’s chunky style, players have the choice of enabling supersampling to give the two-decades old game a sharper look. Players also have the option of downloading an HD texture pack, which might not be a bad idea given the original artwork was designed for 13-inch CRT monitors, viewed from a few feet away, at 640×480. The game might need a few texture improvements if you’re going to be looking at it through a hi-res VR display set inches from your eyes.
Quake II VR requires a copy of the original game. If id’s classic hasn’t found its way into your Steam library over the past 20 years, you can find it here for $4.99. Another option is to use the free, shareware version instead.
