We take a more critical look at the LukeRoss VR mod with Cyberpunk 2077 using our top-end PC and Quest 3. The aim here is to determine whether the game still holds the crown as the best VR game to-date, despite not offering motion controls (you can view our original article here). Many people believe that if a game does not offer motion controls, then it’s not proper VR. We totally disagree with this stance, considering the many months of VR enjoyment using the original Oculus Rift, before the Touch controllers became a thing. You can hear our thoughts about the game in VR in the video below and text.
There are some obvious warnings when playing Cyberpunk 2077 in VR. The most notable is the fact that if you want the best visuals, for it to begin to look like a desktop display, then you will most certainly need an RTX 4090. A 3090 is pretty decent too, but just falls short when compared to the power of the 4090. So right out-of-the-gate that’s quite an expensive cost of entry at under £2000. Lesser hardware can easily play Cyberpunk 2077 VR using the LukeRoss mod, but it won’t look as good or play as smoothly if you up the details or resolution (obviously).
Secondly, you can forget max Ultra settings and or Ray Tracing options unless you’re quite prepared to scale things back in other areas to accommodate. We think they are not entirely necessary for VR play but with a bit of tweaking you can strike a balance. Depending on what you want to accomplish in game. If you’re merely sight-seeing and just goofing around, then sure adding RTX features looks great even with a lower resolution. For anything else though and smooth play is much more important.
Using DLSS or similar is likely to cause serious ghosting or artefacts that are very off-putting. Using things like Reshade which are integrated into the LukeRoss mod might mitigate some of this, but there’s a massive visual and performance difference with DLSS off. It’s much preferable this way despite the performance hit. Expect your PC to start chugging a lot of power.
Let’s talk about the lack of motion controls for a moment. Sure, the game would benefit from having this as an option as we see with some of Praydog’s VR mods for REFramework games, but this isn’t an option with the LukeRoss mod. Playing VR games with a controller/gamepad is fine, you still get the immersion into the world, the head aiming takes a bit of getting used-to, but in-general it’s a solid experience like many native VR games that use a controller. As a player, you do not need to physically touch or pick everything up. That novelty can wear off quite quickly. Therefore, the content of Cyberpunk 2077 stands tall where you can ignore the control method just like the millions of desktop players. More so if your character build relies on stealth, or edgerunner attacks.
This article would not be complete without talking about the LukeRoss business model that he has adopted since day one. It’s basically a one-time payment of under a tenner and you get access to quite a number of games including Elden Ring, Atomic Heart, Far Cry 6 and Cyberpunk 2077 etc. A bargain as of now. However, most often is the case, when a game gets updated, the mod breaks and you have to pay again once LukeRoss has fixed it rather than offering a free update for those who already paid. Even if you only want to play one game. We don’t agree fully with this approach, and it’s likely Mister Ross is earning quite a lot of money. Fair play to him, not so much fair play to supporters. Those are the breaks and at least it’s better to support someone who is actually making these conversions. That said, people like Praydog offer their mods for free. Charging for mods has been a long term issue across-the-board. Some people agree, others dont!
To round-off, we have to mention the fakery that is being purported on Social Media with regards to the visual quality of the Quest 3 especially. We think with virtual desktop app and a good wired/wireless connection you can be presented with a pretty seamless stream to the Quest 3. However, the in-game recording might not present the true looks of how the game appears in the headset. In fact looking at our own video, we can clearly see the in-game is not the same visual clarity as the video might suggest if taken at face-value. So we do warn people to be mindful of hyberbole from certain social media individuals and to take the videos you might see with a grain of salt. The game can and does look close though but just be aware that it’s not verbatim.
All that aside though, we still think production values, mods etc. Cyberpunk 2077 is THE best VR game to date. Night City is a joy to walk, run, shoot drive and live in VR. There isn’t any other game on the same level as of now. So if you’re on the fence, we suggest taking into consideration what we’ve said, and going for it with tempered expectations.
