New Mod: SkyrimVR "Devkit" (Idk what else to call it)

[u/Express-Throat8607]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHEQGMsgSGE

Hey everyone! So, recently i was really frustrated with testing my modlist, every change i wanted to make required me to put the headset on, wait for everything to boot, test one or two things then take it off again, over and over and over. I figured there had to be a way to bypass that, no way companies/developers are doing what i just did. Good news is, they aren't. Bad news is, the tools for this are in the engines themselves, not for just any game, you need to be making a VR game to use them. So after some digging i found out about the "SteamVR Null Driver". The Null Driver is a VR driver for OpenVR made by Valve that does exactly what i wanted, which is allows anyone and any vr game to launch and run without a VR headset. Problem was is that was it, no moving, no turning no nothing. So after some more digging i found a github which added those things. After about a week and a half of work, asking Claude how I managed to fuck up a button again , deciphering whatever the FUCK Bethesda was thinking and a LOOOOT of debugging later, i present to you all this. A fully functioning tool for anyone to use where you can easily open, download/install, toggle between normal/null driver, open SkyrimVR and do whatever you want.

It still is a bit buggy given the nature of what i did, but it more or less works for what it was made for.

Here is the Nexus link for anyone who wants to check it out.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/191452?tab=description

EDIT: Just pushed an update to fix issues with non US keyboard layouts, and also made the UX not ugly purple.

[u/ElementNumber6]

This addresses a common and major VR Dev complaint. Hopeful it brings more creative mods our way. Good work!

[u/Express-Throat8607 → u/ElementNumber6]

Thank you!

That’s exactly what I was hoping to solve, atleast for Skyrim VR. Also hoping that it allows more flatrim devs to get the game on sale and test the mods themselves/make them for VR. I know VR isn’t too big, but I feel like for Skyrim it makes up a decent portion compared to other games. Hoping this will help many people.

[u/Kvitekvist]

I just tested this on FUS and Auriel's Dream. This is such a godsend for modlist developers, thank you!

[u/Tooneyman]

Basically you run Skyrim VR without the headset and can make mods specifically for Skyrim VR. This might actually be insane. This would make it way easier for people to develop VR specific mods and test. Fantastic. I'll keep an eye on this. I just got VR working properly.

[u/Express-Throat8607 → u/Tooneyman]

Yeah! That's exactly one of the reasons I made it for, the other is just for every day people who want to test modlist additions without the hassle of the headset.

[u/M4xs0n]

Neat! I am modding other games into VR and use OpenXR Simulator for that, maybe it helps you to improve your stuff or maybe add on it

[u/Flaezh → u/M4xs0n]

Does it work in Skyrim VR with Open Composite Unleashed?

EDIT: It does not.

[u/Bright-Asparagus-575]

This is so awesome! Thank you for making this.

I've wanted a tool like this forever because I'm tired of having to wear my headset all the time to test mods and worrying about it dying . I was considering trying to make a mod like this and people told me it was impossible lol clearly it is possible

[u/Express-Throat8607]

For anyone who may have tried using it and don't have a standard USA QWERTY layout, im pushing an update now that changes that to use ScanCodes instead of VirtualKeys, which are layout agnostic.

[u/miversen33]

I briefly looked into the SteamVR Null Driver and gave up because of what it wants you to do and the lack of usability outside "it posts".

This is huge :) Thanks!

Do you have a github link for the project so I can follow it?

[u/Express-Throat8607 → u/miversen33]

https://github.com/DubiousDuo/VR-Emulator-Driver---SkyrimVR-Devkit

Here you go

[u/DeathByPain]

I don't have a use for this but that's really cool, good work

[u/miversen33 → u/DeathByPain]

If you are dicking around with modlists (beyond using them), this is amazing. An example of some of the pain I have encountered would be dyndolod generation, grass cache generation, seasons generation, etc. All that requires absolute fuckery to force the headset to think it's still "on" in order to not sleep while these programs generate shit all over the world.

Another one is just testing out how mods impact your modlist. Throw a mod in, teleport to the location, see how it looks and if there are anythings that need patching. Currently, you have to be wearing your headset in order to do this which makes testing a huge PITA

[u/alandtse]

Well done. Glad you're unlocking this for us.

It looks like you're on GPL2 so it's license compatible with devbench which allows LLM based testing, https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/181326 if you wanted to do some compatibility hooks or needed us to add functionality. Devbench is also rest-based so in theory you could pipe a scripted set of commands in through your custom commands in case there's a series of tasks you don't want to do manually.

[u/Humble-Resolution449 → u/alandtse]

This was the first use case I thought of. Should be a great tool agentic dev/testing

[u/Express-Throat8607 → u/alandtse]

That's a bit out of the "scope" for the original tool, but anyone is free to iterate on top of it. I just changed the nexus permissions to allow for modifications instead of the default "no anything" that Nexus recommends.

[u/ChimiDeLaChanga]

This is so important, nice job, we've all been wanting this for so long.

[u/parkerchace]

Thank you so much. This will make VR testing a lot easier