‘Valheim’ VR Mod Updates Add Room-scale Movement, Snap turn, Spear-throwing & More

Valheim, the popular Viking-themed survival game for PC, doesn’t natively support virtual reality, but thankfully there’s a pretty full-featured mod out there that lets you play via PC VR headsets and Oculus Quest via Link or Air Link. The unofficial VR mod has gotten a few updates now to make it even more immersive, including some missing bits like room-scale movement, snap turning, and a spear-throwing mechanic.

Update (July 26th, 2021):  Two updates released this month (versions 0.6 and 0.7) include substantial gains for users looking for a more VR-native experience. Now Valheim VR has included some of the important things mentioned above, but has also fixed things like anti-aliasing, arms not properly syncing in multiplayer, and Vive wand bindings.

Another nice touch: crouching is configurable for room-scale sneaking and a few mechanics were included such as shield parrying, stabbing, and improved fishing. You can check out the full change log here.

The original article detailing the inclusion of motion controller support follows below:

Original Article (June 21st, 2021): Initially released in February by Brandon Mousseau, not only does the mod let you play in VR in the first-person, but also now includes inverse kinematics for articulated upper body and finger animations, and a full assortment of things you can do with motion controllers. You can now do things like engage in melee combat via swinging and punching, naturally shoot a bow and arrow, hold up your shield, and fish.

There are some things that haven’t changed because of the obstinately flatscreen nature of the game, such as some point-and-click interactions like building, gathering supplies, and interacting with menus. The mod however does now include custom controls for switching and equipping items via a more accessible quick menu, and holstering and unholstering weapons, which is a big step in making it feel more like a VR native.

Check out this video from YouTuber ‘Gamertag VR’ to see the mod in action:

There are still a few caveats to the Valheim VR mod. At the time of this writing, all multiplayer users must have the mod installed, otherwise those non-VR player may see some odd behavior such as missing upper-body and hand animations. Mod developer Brandon Mousseau also says full room-scale tracking is still in the works, as all locomotion is still based on joystick movement only.

If you want to play Valheim in VR, you’ll need a few things outside of a SteamVR-compatible VR headset, VR-ready PC, and a legit copy of the game. You’ll also need to download the BepInExPack installer to inject custom code, and the VHVR mod hosted over at NexusMods.

If you’ve never installed a mod for Valheim, Mousseau also created a handy step-by-step installation guide. You’ll find everything you need there.

Thanks goes out to Twitter user OXIOXI for the tip.