Community developers launch VR mod for Portal 2

Beyond merely relying on game developers to introduce new VR titles, a contingent of community developers are enriching the VR content repertoire for players by crafting VR mods for conventional games. According to MIXED, following the advent of “Half-Life 2: VR”, another quintessential Valve game, “Portal 2”, has been graced with VR mod support.

The developer, Gistix, unveiled this mod along with its source code on GitHub just yesterday. Gistix’s alacrity in updates is evident, as at the time of reporting, the mod has already been refined to version v0.1.5. In terms of size, this mod is rather svelte, weighing in at a mere 2.42MB.

This mod was conceived building upon the VR mod for “Left 4 Dead 2”, incorporating code from VirtualFortress2 (the VR port of “Team Fortress 2”), gmcl_openvr (the VR mod for “Garry’s Mod”), DXVK, and the Source SDK 2013.

It boasts a 6DoF VR visual experience, motion controls for the portal gun, and level intractable, and, intriguingly, it not only caters to solo gameplay but also embraces content from the Creative Workshop maps.

Simultaneously, Gistix annotates in the documentation that, while the VR mod is playable, there remain hitches to be addressed, such as unresolved in-game UI, a pending pause menu, and suboptimal CPU utilization.

Currently, the mod is exclusively available on GitHub. It remains nebulous whether it will grace the Steam store, akin to the aforementioned “Half-Life 2: VR”. Enthusiasts can procure the mod and peruse the installation guidelines through the provided link.

Worth a cursory mention, even when maneuvered through conventional means like keyboards or controllers, “Portal 2” has been known to induce sensations akin to “motion sickness” in some players. Hence, its VR iteration promises to be a formidable test of one’s mettle.