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Having had the PC version of Skyrim for a few days now here are some quick thoughts on how it compares to my Vorpx experience and whether or not it’s worth buying.
I run Skyrim VR on a Win10 1080ti pc and Vorpx Skyrim in the original 32bit version.
Firstly, the main impression I have inside SkyrimVR is that the scale is excellent. Objects, buildings, people and landscapes all feel life-size. Distant areas feel like you can judge that distance accurately just by looking. Roomscale and positional tracking is really convincing.
These elements of scale and tracking are by far the most positive features.
Performance is excellent. It seems that they have optimized textures to give a smooth framerate. Unfortunately they have decided to crop objects at the extreme field of vision, which means you might notice this while turing during gameplay. I did, and it is quite distracting.Combat is in all honesty not good at all. The bow angle is wrong [as in PSVR] and will not feel anything like bows in VR archery games like Apex Construct. The melee weapons don’t seem to be able to block reliably, if at all. Swords and shields are not the way to play this version of Skyrim if you want to feel like you are there. Hitboxes [where you are judged to have connected with a character in combat] are unpredictable and don’t appear to move with you in roomscale. Swords go right through solid objects and stone. No hitting a dungeon wall and seeing sparks fly. This, while expected in VR, is still jarring.
Magic feels good and this combined with archery is probably the best way to play for now.
Even though there is a character generation screen you cannot, as I can in Vorpx, look down and see my character’s body. If your hands are empty of weapons you see your controllers. No 3rd person option, which is possible in Vorpx.
Mods seem to work surprisingly well! Apart from ones that involve complex scripts or SKSE.
In comparison to Vorpx:
I have a heavily modded Skyrim build created with Mod Organizer. 254 plugins and over 400 mods. Also using enb injector for memory. Surprisingly stable with all that.
Vorpx Skyrim looks far better with all those wonderful mods. The world is more interesting and engaging. The detail is fantastic. It is unlikely that the SkyrimVR will ever achieve that level of detail [especially with script heavy mods] that Vorpx can achieve.
It took me a long time, first following the STEP guide, then adding many mods upon that, to get what I have now in Vorpx. I don’t relish the prospect of doing that again. Although it should take far less time knowing all I know now.
Combat in Vorpx is far better than in SkyrimVR because things connect. Swords spark off walls, block enemy blows, scatter objects etc. I suspect it would be like playing with a playstation type controller in SkyrimVR, which is a choice in the menu. I have not tried that yet.
Interior locations in Vorpx look far better graphically and almost indistinguisable from SkyrimVR in terms of scale.
The only real change is outdoors, where SkyrimVR feels better because of the scale and positional tracking. If I could get positional tracking working in Vorpx without the flicker…My Vorpx Skyrim also jitters slightly outdoors, but I suspect that is the ridiculous amount of mods, textures etc.
It’s hard for me to compare performance because my Vorpx Skyrim is so modded, and it would be unfair when SkyrimVR is quite stripped back in terms of textures. SkyrimVR also uses TAA which blurs things beyond what some people might find acceptable.
Conclusion:
SkyrimVR has bugs and I’m hoping it will be better with a few patches. It is expensive given it is one game that and Vorpx gives you far more value for your money with VR for many.
If you are never going to mod SkyrimVR then buy it. If you are planning to mod, but money is a factor, wait for a couple of patches. It is already in a far better state than Fallout4 VR was. If you are deciding between Vorpx and SkyrimVR buy both!
The odd thing is that I am now using SkyrimVR as basically a baseline template to minutely adjust the Vorpx settings to get it as close as possible.
I would certainly not just migrate away from the modded Vorpx version, SkyrimVR is not that good. Once the magic of scale has diminished you will be hungry for something that will allow you to add world detail and new adventures. For that Vorpx is still king.
And of course, for Vorpx there are many more games than just Skyrim :)
To me not being able to go 3rd person in Skyrim VR is a HUGE negative. VorpX is my only option.
I haven’t used VorpX in a while due to some problems with my Oculus setup, but when I was using it I remeber it being very difficult to use the menus in Skyrim. Has that been fixed or is there a mod to make using the UI a more pleasant experience?
BTW version of Skyrim are you comparing VR to, the original or SE?
As I said, the original 32bit version, not SE.
If you want to make the UI more pleasant in Vorpx use SKYUI.
Go through the top UI mods on the nexusmods.
These are all the UI mods I use, you can search using name or id:mod_id on nexus / mod_installed_name / mod_version
27371,”Better Dialogue Controls”,”1.2.0.0
28170,”Better MessageBox Controls”,”1.2.0.0
37347,”Customizable Camera”,”1.82.0.0
3222,”Immersive HUD – iHUD”,”3.0.3.0
98,”KenMOD – Time on loading screen”,”5.0.0.0
35154,”Less Intrusive HUD II”,”1.1.0.0″,”
95,”Main Font Replacement”,”2.0.0.0″
12625,”No Boring Sleep-Wait Menu”,”1.7.0.0″,
7901,”No Menu and Loading Smoke”
25501,”Paper World Map”
29624,”RaceMenu”,”3.4.5.0
26490,”Simple Lockpicking”,”1.20.0.0″
74434,”Simple Reading – Remove Book Menu UI”,”1.1.0.0″,”Take and Steal-74434-1-1.zip”
2317,”Smaller Cursor”,”
57046,”UIExtensions”,”1.2.0.0″Pretty sure they all require SKSE.
They also load in the above order for my game.
Some might interfere slightly with Vorpx fov if you are in full vr but you can always disable/alter those in the menus.
Hope this helps.I think the devs of those “VR” games do not realize that vorpX exists and first of all how good it is. Otherwise they would probably not waste so much money in programming a game which afterwards performs even worse then the original with vorpX.
The same with Hellgate London for example. The original with using VorpX performs so damn good that i will never need to buy the VR version when it comes out.
Nice to read that vorpX performs so good on Skyrim.
I’m absolutely with you when it comes to your enthusiasm for Vorpx but I wouldn’t want anyone to think I am saying not to buy SkyrimVR. For many people who don’t have the time or patience or just sheer persistence to mod, they will have a great time with it.
The positional tracking brings unexpected benefits. If you are talking to a character and you move your head slightly they will keep your gaze and turn to look into your eyes. That’s really great.
Books float in front of you when you read them. Lockpicks are in 3d, floating like an object in front of you. Things like that are pretty nice.Combat however is not really that satisfying.
SkyrimVR will probably convince a lot of people that VR is worth investing in, which is a good thing. Vorpx is precisely the same thing, software that makes you realize how much VR is the future.
I admit that I did like the fact that only those with Vorpx could experience Skyrim in VR, it was nice to have an experience that was exclusive, but there are many other games for which that is still, and probably always will be, true.
Skyrim VR looks ugly as Skyrim SE. But a few mods fixes that.
the best is here and I love the way it looks like Oldrim (No more Mario Sky)
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8089/Skyrim VR is way smoother than VORPX in exterior locations. Even though I get 50-60 fps in VORPX it still feels jittery and uncomfortable in exterior locations. Even with settings on low and better frame-rate, still often feels jittery/flickery. Skyrim VR always feels buttery smooth and comfortable everywhere. In interiors both versions are perfectly smooth.
Skyrim VR has very annoying and terrible unplayable bug with shadow occlusion culling at peripheral vision so when you turn your head shadows pop in and out of existence. Terrible!!! I don’t know if this an Occulus only problem or if it occurs on Vive and WMR too????
Had not much time for gameplay yet but spells and arrows with tracked controllers seems like fun. Gameplay with VORPX has always been fine but weapons do have the HUGE HANDS bug.
So in the end there are problems with both versions. If only there was a way to get a mixed Frankenstein version that would have only the best part of both versions and none of the issues , that would be ideal :S
Summary
Skyrim VR
advantages: Always SMOOTH comfortable frame-rate :) , tracked hand weapons
problems: pop in shadows in peripheral vision (very distracting!)VORPX
advantages: looks great, no graphical glitches or shadow problems at all !
problems: jittery uncomfortable/in exterior locations (even with mid to high frame-rates). No tracked weapons and HUGE HANDS bug.There is no huge hands ‘bug’ in Vorpx, although many people seem to talk as if there is.
Go into the Vorpx settings and change ‘player fov’ to something high and that will put your hands and weapon at a proper distance.I’ve started modding SkyrimVR out of interest but without SKSE and all the mod configuration it provides, it will always be poor in comparison. Maybe in a couple of years. Currently, few people have pc vr technology or the gpus to drive it, so there won’t be pressure to convert everything that might need a VR version. Textures and meshes are fine. Scripted mods are another thing.
I went back to compare them again and I don’t think I could exchange the rich world I created through modding and Vorpx just for perfect tracking and waving swords.
Playing the official port made me appreciate even more the great work Ralf has done with the Skyrim profiles. So again – a big thank you to him for the hundreds of hours I got to spend in Skyrim (and Bruma and Enderal) in the past year and a half.
I do believe that for a sitting playthru or a melee build Oldrim + VorpX is a better option than the official port. But generally I can’t decide completely which one is better.
In short – SkyrimVR runs really well and can handle lots of heavy texture mods with no problem, the controller relative locomotion is great, been free from the animations of the player character makes everything more fluid. But some of the decisions Beth made when porting – the controllers rendered in game, the lack of player character and 3rd person view, completely destroy Skyrim as a roleplaying game. I think I need 10 – 20 more hours in SkyrimVR to decide which one I actually prefer.I’m also planning to someday do full playthrus of Oblivion, FONV, Kindom Come and others with VorpX.
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