Skyrim VR - Whats needed? (mod wise)

lego · 15 Jan 2021 at 13:08

So I've played skyrim on my HTC vive, but not for a year or so now. I've recently upgraded the controllers to the knuckles, and also have a much larger play area now (5m x 8m available), and I also have the wireless adapter.

The last time I played it was completely vanilla with no mods / tweaks. This time I'm looking to get the best out of the game and am wondering where to start? Is the an "ultimate Mod" available that makes things easy?

I have 2 Ryzen 3800X and an RTX2700 so hopefully it will handle any high res mods

Cheers

Ravenger · 15 Jan 2021 at 13:41

Look up 'Wabbajack' and the 'VR Ultimate Essentials Modlist'. It's a mod installer that does all the heavy work for you.

A premium NexusMods account is recommended, to allow auto-downloading of mods, but it's cheap to just get a 1 month sub, and it's totally worth it.

I've been playing Skyrim using that modlist for months and it's totally transformed the game. The only issue is it can make the game more unstable, so frequent quicksaves are useful.

Uncle Petey · 15 Jan 2021 at 13:50

Wabbajack is cool (I'm using it, although I previously had my own 400+ modlist) and I'd recommend it, but the only real issue with it is that because it's such a massive modlist with so many gameplay additions and changes, you might not know what you've actually got or how to take advantage of them.

It's different when you're building your own list or working from someone else's, because you go through each one and check it out.

Ravenger · 15 Jan 2021 at 15:38

The essential mods I'd say are:

Vrik for full IK body, partial finger tracking, and body holster slots.
Sky UI for the better inventory system
Dragonborn Speaks Naturally for voice recognition so you can speak your dialogue lines and equip and use items with user definable voice commands.

These make the biggest difference to regular gameplay in VR without changing the whole game.
The rest depends on what you want to do. I used the Ultimate VR modlist as I'd already completed the game in Vanilla VR and I wanted to start a new Mage character in a fully modded, revamped game to make it more fresh.

Doppleganger · 1 Feb 2021 at 12:50

I'm using VR Essentials mod pack and cannot leave Black Falls Barrow - everytime I do it crashes. Have tried multiple times to no avail.

Anyone else had this and know of a fix? It would be a shame if I had to go back to vanilla Skyrim VR.

Ravenger · 1 Feb 2021 at 13:10

A couple of times I've had to go back to an earlier save game due to crashes on exiting an interior. No idea what causes these transition crashes with the modded Skyrim but it is annoying. It's inconsistent too, as often replaying the same area from an earlier save game will fix the issue.

You could also try quicksaving just before triggering the exit, then quitting the game entirely, and restarting the game from that save - sometimes that fixes those crashes for me.

Doppleganger · 2 Feb 2021 at 00:12

Thanks for the tips, it somewhat works. I made it to Bleak Falls Sanctum and now it crashes coming out of there. So I made some progress!

Man these crashes are frustrating though.

Uncle Petey · 2 Feb 2021 at 00:29

Try this:

Go to X:\UVRE MO2\profiles\The Ultimate VR Essentials List\ or the same relative location and profile for your installation, open the skyrimvr.ini file and change the line bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1 to bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=0.
For some users this ini tweak PREVENTS CTDs, but for others it can increase them, so toggling it over is usually the quickest fix

melmac · 2 Feb 2021 at 12:12

How do I edit the controls? Using the Quest 2. Is there a mod for that too?

Also, the starting point. I downloaded Realms of Lorkan as part of the Simple Lazy mod guide. And it puts you into this Separate area where you can travel to nearly any place in Skyrim. It's looks great, but, it feels like cheating as there is gold, weapons, shrines etc for you for free.

But, I don't want that, I just want to skip the cart ride at the start and begin the game just outside of Riverwood. Is that possible?

Ravenger · 2 Feb 2021 at 12:31

melmac said:
How do I edit the controls? Using the Quest 2. Is there a mod for that too?

You can use the Steam VR control mapping to remap things, but this does break the in-game control prompts. There's also a tool for Oculus remapping here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16627

Also, the starting point. I downloaded Realms of Lorkan as part of the Simple Lazy mod guide. And it puts you into this Separate area where you can travel to nearly any place in Skyrim. It's looks great, but, it feels like cheating as there is gold, weapons, shrines etc for you for free.

But, I don't want that, I just want to skip the cart ride at the start and begin the game just outside of Riverwood. Is that possible?

The mod that ships with the Ultimate Skyrim VR essentials is pretty good: "Live Another Life"

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557

This skips the Helgen escape sequence and allows you to choose your Race, Character and background story.

melmac · 2 Feb 2021 at 12:56

Ravenger said:
You can use the Steam VR control mapping to remap things, but this does break the in-game control prompts. There's also a tool for Oculus remapping here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16627

The mod that ships with the Ultimate Skyrim VR essentials is pretty good: "Live Another Life"

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9557

This skips the Helgen escape sequence and allows you to choose your Race, Character and background story.

Thanks Ravenger!! That's exactly what I was looking for

dirtybeatfreak · 2 Feb 2021 at 20:13

Havent tried it myself yet but theres a Skyrim VR mod I seen people raving about called HIGGS. Adds Half life Alyx type picking of stuff and ability to holds items etc properly. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/43930?tab=description

Description

Hand Interaction and Gravity Gloves for Skyrim (HIGGS) VR adds some much-needed VR mechanics to Skyrim VR. This mod:

Adds collision to the player's hands

Lets you pick up and throw objects with both hands (actually hold them in your hands, as opposed to the springy distant grab that exists in the vanilla game), and put them into your inventory by placing them over your shoulder

Lets you pull objects towards you with gravity gloves-style mechanics.

Lets you pick up and move bodies, which is a feature missing from the base game

Lets you loot armor off of bodies by pulling it off

Uncle Petey · 2 Feb 2021 at 20:55

I've been using it as part of wabbajack and it's very good. It's basically like having force powers and you can jiggle all the bewbs you want :eek:

Ravenger · 2 Feb 2021 at 22:17

Higgs VR (coupled with VRIK) turns the game into a proper VR experience - what the game should have been released like in the first place.

VRIK adds a full IK body, and arms, body holsters, and gestures for casting spells, etc.

Also add Dragonborn Speaks Naturally so you can say lines and voice activate spells, items and if you can be bothered to set everything up you can play the game without having to constantly access the menus which makes for a far, far more immersive experience.

Doppleganger · 2 Feb 2021 at 22:23

Uncle Petey said:
Try this:

Thanks for this. Changing the value to 0 got me out of the dungeon but now I crash randomly in the open. Very weird.

melmac · 3 Feb 2021 at 22:31

Ok, have finally it all setup and played a bit today. And I have to admit it does add an lot to the game. The immersion level is massively increased by the mods. When I think about the base game versus the modded game, I would have to say that the base game is flat and basically unplayable. Bethesda should be ashamed of themselves for the zero effort they put to make it a good VR experience.

Ok, rant over

Now I have just a couple of things that are still bothering me.

Do you guys use ENB or Dyndolod at all? Was thinking of trying Dyndolod, but, I setup all the mods to use billboards, so I would need to reinstall them. Just wondering do you guys notice much of an increase in visuals? And is it worth the performance drop? I am on a 2070 Super.

Second thing, I am trying out opencomposite VR.(openOVR) Does anyone have this working Virtual desktop??

Lastly! Why does playing Skyrim hurt my back so much?? I can play Doom3, Beat Saber, Pistol whip etc for ages, but after about 20 minutes of playing Skyrim I am in pain!!

Doppleganger · 3 Feb 2021 at 22:59

melmac said:
Ok, have finally it all setup and played a bit today. And I have to admit it does add an lot to the game. The immersion level is massively increased by the mods. When I think about the base game versus the modded game, I would have to say that the base game is flat and basically unplayable. Bethesda should be ashamed of themselves for the zero effort they put to make it a good VR experience.

Ok, rant over Now I have just a couple of things that are still bothering me.

Do you guys use ENB or Dyndolod at all? Was thinking of trying Dyndolod, but, I setup all the mods to use billboards, so I would need to reinstall them. Just wondering do you guys notice much of an increase in visuals? And is it worth the performance drop? I am on a 2070 Super.

Second thing, I am trying out opencomposite VR.(openOVR) Does anyone have this working Virtual desktop??

Lastly! Why does playing Skyrim hurt my back so much?? I can play Doom3, Beat Saber, Pistol whip etc for ages, but after about 20 minutes of playing Skyrim I am in pain!!

Yeah it's a big difference to vanilla SkyrimVR - I couldn't go back to it. I am quite prepared to change the value of bPreemptivelyUnloadCells every so often if it means I can experience how it's meant to be played.

I've not deviated from the VR Ultimate Essentials build myself. I'm using a 3090 and always interested in better visuals so may look into.

Finally, it's not my back that goes it's my backside - it's getting a great workout though. I'm gonna end up with an ass the Kardashian's would be proud of this carries on.

Uncle Petey · 3 Feb 2021 at 23:05

@melmac
ENB is usually a no in VR, due to performance hit. You'd probably need more GPU for that, but it's worth a try.
Dyndolod is a noticeable improvement and totally worth it. Saying that, setting it up manually is a PITA. It does come all set up and good to go in UVRE though.

melmac · 3 Feb 2021 at 23:39

Uncle Petey said:
@melmac
ENB is usually a no in VR, due to performance hit. You'd probably need more GPU for that, but it's worth a try.
Dyndolod is a noticeable improvement and totally worth it. Saying that, setting it up manually is a PITA. It does come all set up and good to go in UVRE though.

Hey Petey!!

I am a sucker for punishment, I setup all the mods myself. As long the Dyndolod is worth it, than that's ok. Will give it a go tomorrow.

melmac · 3 Feb 2021 at 23:42

Doppleganger said:
Finally, it's not my back that goes it's my backside - it's getting a great workout though. I'm gonna end up with an ass the Kardashian's would be proud of this carries on.

Are you using realistic movement, sneaking etc? I find I am hardly moving at all, apart from turning. Maybe that's why my back is hurting, in the other games I mentioned I am moving all over the place.

Well done on getting a 3090. The game must look fantastic on that!!