Cyberpunk 2077 was inarguably the biggest video game release of 2020. Made by Polish game company CD Projekt Red of The Witcher fame, Cyberpunk 2077 offers an engaging and emotional story with branching paths, leading to many different endings.
But perhaps more importantly for our bottom line here – it features a huge, gorgeous virtual city that's mesmerizing to explore.
Especially after you get yourself the double-jump upgrade ("Reinforced Tendons"), running around and jumping through Night City, or even just simply driving through the world, can be pretty incredible and liberating. And it's even more so in virtual reality.
Because yes, I've clocked in over 97 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 play time… in virtual reality alone. It is possible to play the game in VR, even if it's not through a method supported by its developer.
Instead, it's all thanks to a modder who has managed to hack the game to run in VR, and whether you have an Oculus Quest 2, a Valve Index, or any other popular headset – you can play it too.
But there's one huge factor that will make or break your experience, so let's start by covering that…
First off, let's set some realistic expectations… You'll need some beefy specs
Cyberpunk 2077 isn't exactly an easy game to run even normally, in 2D, let alone in virtual reality, which requires over twice the processing power from your computer. So needless to say, you will need a very, very expensive and powerful gaming rig to be able to pull this off.
I kid you not, I went and bought a gaming desktop computer just so I can play Cyberpunk 2077 in VR at a slightly higher resolution than I could before. It's quite the investment.
Now, you may be able to run the game with a "just okay" gaming computer, but the resolution (visual clarity), as well as the framerate (how smooth the game runs) are the things that will suffer the most.
Below are Cyberpunk 2077's recommended system specs for normal play at a resolution of 1440p. You need to meet those, at the very least:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
RAM: 12GB (8GB works fine too, in my testing)
Graphics card: GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 XT
Video RAM: 6GB
However, if you wish to play at a higher resolution, which is recommended for better immersion, you'll want to have a graphics card that can run the game smoothly at 2160p, such as:
GeForce RTX 2080S or 3070, or Radeon RX 6800 XT
Anything below that, and you can expect a low resolution VR experience, which will still be cool, but not as immersive as you'd wish it would be. So step one is just to lower your expectations, at least unless you have a cutting-edge graphics card.
How to buy the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod
Before you do that, you'll want to make sure that you have the latest version of Cyberpunk 2077 installed on your PC. I personally use the Steam version, which is 50% off at the time of writing this, by the way!
Once you have the game, I'd advise you to just confirm with yourself that you're capable, and willing, to do some tinkering with your game. This is not as straightforward as downloading a game, so you may need a bit of technical know-how to get it going well in VR. We'll help you through the process, but it's still something to keep in mind.
Okay, head on over to LukeRoss' Patreon page – this person is the developer of the VR mod, which itself is called the R.E.A.L. VR mod.
Since this is not a free mod, and downloads on Patreon are locked behind a paywall, you'll need to subscribe to LukeRoss for $10 per month.
You don't actually have to stay subscribed and pay any more than $10 once; you can unsubscribe immediately after you download the mod, but it's always nice to support modders who make cool stuff, so consider staying subscribed if you can afford it.
In any case, once you're subscribed, you'll get access to his mods, which include – of course – the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod.
Download it, and we can move on to the next step – installing it.
How to install the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod
Once you have LukeRoss' Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod downloaded, you'll notice that it's in the form of an archive, named something like "REAL_mod_by_LukeRoss".
What you need to do is extract the contents of this archive, preferably with a program like WinRAR, into the Cyberpunk 2077 > bin > x64 folder. This would be the folder where the Cyberpunk2077.exe file is located.
If you own the Steam version of Cyberpunk 2077, you can find the exact game folder by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, then selecting Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files.
Copy the files from the mod archive into that folder, and replace any files if asked to do so.
Next, run the RealConfig.bat file, which is one of the files you just copied to the game folder. This file will copy some additional files into the correct folders, in order for the VR mod to start working. When it's done, which it likely will be in just a second or two, you can close it.
The last step would be to make sure you have SteamVR running. You can find SteamVR on Steam, so do that and install it. It's a required Steam app for running VR games with certain headsets.
Although if you're using the Quest 2, it may be enough to just have the Oculus app running on your PC, so you can give that a go without SteamVR first.
In any case, finally you're ready to put on your headset and launch Cyberpunk 2077. The game will now launch in virtual reality, as opposed to normally, in 2D.
Time to enjoy exploring the night city in virtual reality!
As for how to optimize the game to run better, as well as how to improve your immersion with some extra mods, feel free to read on…
Best free mods to get for better Cyberpunk 2077 VR immersion
So there are two mods I would definitely recommend to anyone who is already running Cyberpunk 2077 in VR successfully.
Note that the following mods will require you to have an account at NexusMods, which is a popular website for video game mods. So if you're into the modding game, you may already have one. It's free.
The following mods will also require you to download and install an additional mod, called Cyber Engine Tweaks, which is a core mod most other mods use, in order to to function.
The Sit Anywhere mod
Don't you love it when all the information you need to know is in the title? Indeed, this free mod will let you sit in-game on many of the chairs around night city, that are normally unusable by the player.
Now, realistically, you won't actually be able to sit just "anywhere"; there are some limitations, as well as oddities aplenty, that may cause V to sit in weird angles. But generally, this mod works great, and when it does – it really adds to the immersion.
Sit down around your friends at the Aldecaldo camp, and just take in the atmosphere for a bit.
The Appearance Menu mod
While this mod's main function is to let the player take cool screenshots of the game, the reason I personally started using it, and would recommend it to anyone, is because it also lets you spawn companions, who will follow you around and enter your car, as you explore Night City.
At some point, without this mod, you might feel a bit lonely just driving around and exploring on your own, so why not spawn some of your favorite characters from the game to accompany you?
Panam, Kerry, Johnny Silverhand himself – anyone, including minor characters and even random street NPCs can be spawned and made your companions, with this mod. They won't say a single word, unfortunately, but will always be around to keep you company as you explore Night City in virtual reality.
Troubleshooting
It's pretty inevitable to run into some hiccups when attempting to run one of the heaviest games ever, under extra heavy conditions – in virtual reality. So here are the most common problems you may face as you're trying to get Cyberpunk 2077 going in VR, and how to deal with them.
The VR mod doesn't work!
Make sure you've updated your Cyberpunk 2077 game to the latest version. The VR mod itself has different versions that specifically work with different versions of the game.
For example, at the time of writing this, I am running the 1.6 patch of Cyberpunk 2077, so in my case, I had to download the VR mod that's compatible with 1.6 exactly.
You can check which version of Cyberpunk 2077 you're running in the main menu of the game. The version number will be on the bottom left.
Alternatively, your VR mod installation may not have gone as it should have, in which case you can try to install it again, or contact LukeRoss on Patreon for support with your particular issue.
The game is very laggy, how can I optimize it?
The most important setting you can change, in order to make the game run smoother, is to lower the display resolution.
Pause the game during gameplay to enter its main menu, then select Settings. From the menu at the top of the screen, navigate to Video.
Here, under Display, you'll find the Resolution option. Change the resolution to a lower one, to greatly improve the performance, but do remember that this will also make the game appear blurrier.
The good thing is that the changes you make will be applied immediately, so you can quickly test for the best balance between resolution and performance for your particular gaming rig.
In my case, I stick with a resolution of about 2100 by 2100 pixels per eye, which looks clear enough without tanking my performance.
The game is blurry, how do I make it clearer?
The whole thing is a balance between graphical clarity and performance, so if you're running the game at a low resolution, it will perform better, but the visuals will indeed be blurrier than you may be comfortable with.
You can raise the resolution, which will make the game clearer the higher you go, but you will also need a more and more powerful graphics card to keep the framerate smooth.
Like mentioned above, to change the resolution, pause the game during gameplay, then select Settings, then Video, and scroll down to find Display, under which is the Resolution option. To make the game appear clearer, you'll want to set that to something higher, but not so high that it will start lagging.
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Rado, a tech enthusiast with a love for mobile devices, brings his passion for Android and iPadOS to PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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