This week, Fallout 4 players will finally be able to experience post-apocalyptic Boston firsthand, thanks to the VR capabilities of the Oculus Rift. However, this isn’t an official patch released by Bethesda; instead, the functionality is being offered up by a third-party, open-source project called Vireio Perception.
Vireio Perception is a VR injection driver that’s currently under development among members of the Meant to Be Seen 3D community. In simple terms, the project is intended to introduce functionality like stereoscopic 3D rendering and head-tracking into games that weren’t designed as VR experiences.
It’s easy to see why such a driver would be of great interest to early adopters, as it dramatically expands the library of games that are compatible with the new technology. While a game using Perception might not be on a par with titles developed specifically for VR hardware, more content for an expensive piece of kit is never a bad thing.
Perception only supports the development kit version of the Oculus Rift at present, but this week’s 4.0 update will introduce support for the consumer release, according to a report from Tom’s Hardware. The new version will also add support for DirectX 11.
The team behind Perception has been particularly motivated to make sure that Fallout 4 is playable as the first DirectX 11 title to be given VR support. Speaking to Neil Schneider of MTBS3D in a recent interview, Denis Reischl of the Vireio team noted that the game had been a ‘priority’ since it was first announced.
This week, we’ll see if the hard work that went into making Fallout 4 play nicely with VR has paid off. It’s easy to get caught up in ideas of exploring the wasteland while completely immersed in the game — but the prospect of a Ghoul attack in VR might be too intense for some.
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