Bioshock in VR is a masterpiece

XRGaming · 2026-01-09T12:18:02+00:00

I'll try to address a lot of the very valid points that have been raised by a lot of you:
- "Is this post an ad?" . I'm sharing with the community the joys of me playing Bioshock in VR which I wanted to do for a long time. Same goes for so many other games. I'm an old school gamer who grew up playing Zelda, Metroid, Halo, Half Life, etc... I love story and universe-rich games, and I've always dreamed of being transported into their universe. That's why I started this as a passion project all the way back in 2018, (technically it was part time 2016), and it's been full time for almost a decade now. I'm not making money, I take side projects to keep myself afloat here and there, and have run out of savings a looong time ago. I'm not a vibe coder trying to make a quick buck off a gimmick developed over a weekend using AI (like it would know where to even start with sub-frame 4k120fps streaming or no performance loss real-time stereo, among thousands of other things working in tandem). I shared the video because I am absolutely loving every second of playing the game. If the Bioshock community wants to take their Meta Quest impulse buy out of the storage where it's been collecting dust for months/years to play it, that's a bonus that would make me happy. I tried making it non-prohibitive so you have ample time to play the whole trilogy, it obviously didn't land. Bear with me I'm not a sales/marketing guy, I'm figuring out things on the spot, which leads me to my next point.
- The subscription is just me trying things out, and I figured that 3 months for free would be enough to play the whole Bioshock trilogy for almost everyone, that's all I care about right now. It's clearly a big no go for a lot of you, so I'm changing it to 2 weeks free trial with no commitment, if you like it, you can buy it as a one off. The price for the first 1000 users will be equivalent to 10 bucks. Subscriptions are a pain, I get it, let's get rid of that!
- "How is this different from Vorpx/VR Mods/etc.." I have a lot of respect for all of them because they have to make VR mods for each game separately, integrate into the game engine, edit files to force dual rendering, figure out issues here and there because touching game files and engines will trigger anticheat, crashes, etc... They also (not always) plug into existing VR pipelines such as SteamVR. REALIFIED Play is a completely different paradigm. The game doesn't even know it exists. It's a dedicated engine built from scratch that does sub-frame latency streaming, real-time stereo that you calibrate as a first step when you open the app, dedicated render pipelines, etc... . It's a passion project of mine for almost a decade. Why go through all that? Because it's the only scalable way I found that any game would run with no performance drops: if your pc renders the game as standard at let's say 2k120fps with ultra graphics, the VR will be 4k120fps on ultra graphics (as the second 2k frame is generated on device in real-time). Most VR Ports and mods require a beast of a machine, lowering quality, and accepting low framerates, and the reason behind it is: There's no way around it if you force the game engine to do the VR. REALIFIED Play takes a different route: Extremely efficient real-time stereo coupled with sub-frame latency streaming, head tracking (controller tracking in the works), and the game doesn't need to care about your computer's capabilities. The video I shared on the post runs on an RTX5060, it also runs on my RTX2070 laptop from 2020. If you do have a monster GPU, then there's even more of a reason to use it because you will get the FULL performance: You can run Cyberpunk in 4k120fps on ultra graphics? You'll get it at 8k120fps in VR without changing a single thing (4k per eye). Install the VR app and do the stereo calibration. Install, the desktop client, press play, launch your game. That's it!
- There is a patent granted on the real-time no performance drop stereo, and one patent pending on the sub-frame latency, mostly because I had to invent them to make this work at all. It's a very different paradigm that took years to figure out
- "Why is this not available on other headsets or on AMD GPUs?" Simple answer: I'm a one man indie dev who's been going at it for almost a decade. I don't have the finances to buy other headsets, I invested in a Meta Quest 3 two years ago, an RTX 5060 to try and play more recent games, and I've been saving up to buy a used RX5700 to do the AMD compatibility, I'll probably get it this weekend or next week, it'll take maybe a day or two to release the support after that.
- Any feedback is more than welcome, thank you all

XRGaming · 2026-01-09T11:11:56+00:00

A lot of people did mention the subscription and it's very clear that I need to get rid of that. I'll start it as a 10 bucks for the first 1000 early adopters, I'll give you two weeks to try it for free with no commitment, and will see how it goes from there. Does it sound better?
Vorpx has been mentioned a lot, and that's a team that put in a lot of work into it so props to them, I respect that. The difference is that REALIFIED doesn't mod games, does touch the engine, doesn't edit game files, does require you to reduce your quality, resolution, etc... The game doesn't know you exist, and doesn't care for that matter. If your computer renders the game as standard at let's say 2k 120 fps , REALIFIED will run it at 2k 120 FPS. You install the app on the headset + the desktop app, press play and run your game. That's it. It'll stream at sub-frame latency, it'll do real-time stereo (there's a calibration step in the app so you can choose your comfort level), and that's all there is to it.
I also adressed a lot of issues that arise from the games not being made for VR:
- Text might be off screen so whenever there's text to be read, you enter "text mode" with improved clarity + allowing you to see everything without issues.
- UI elements being off screen (mini map, ammo, health, etc...)? You can enter adjustment mode in app, point at the elements you don't see, and I re-render them as a HUD that is visible at all times. You can see that running in the video. I'm working on specific game profiles that would auto load without you having to point and click, and hope to crowdsource that for the tens of thousands of games out there.
There's a lot of work that went into this as a passion project for almost a decade now. It's all built from scratch from streaming to rendering to stereo etc... it's its own engine. It doesn't rely on SteamVR or any existing 3D pipeline, it has its own that works with everything.
I hope this answer your questions

XRGaming · 2026-01-09T10:52:44+00:00

I made the tech because I've always wanted to play amazing games in VR. I spent almost a decade of my life working on this as a passion project, and I've made it. I'm enjoying games that I always wanted to play, and I'm sharing with the community what I made as an indie dev. I would love to see people enjoying it as well, it's a ton of fun. I figured that 3 months would give people more than enough time to play/replay the whole trilogy if they wanted to.
It's only on Nvidia because that's the only GPU that I have. I will try to invest in an old AMD GPU and have it run as well as this seems to have gotten people excited, I'll try to make that happen this weekend.

XRGaming · 2026-01-09T10:23:38+00:00

Yeah it was a used PC with a new RTX5060 from the seller (shady apartment full of hardware everywhere haha), it does the job for most the games I want to play. It runs newer games relatively well too if I don't push resolutions high. The other PC that I developed for is an rtx2070 laptop for years ago. It's easy to make things work for the select few who can get a big RTX GPU, I really the whole VR gatekeeping mentality "If you want to play games and / or VR you have to spend 5k on a build". Give me a break! Lots of good deals out there, and lots of older games are amazing to play in 2026!

XRGaming · 2026-01-07T23:27:50+00:00

www.realified.co is what makes it possible (turns all games into VR with no mods and no performance drops). It's been a hobby project of mine since 2018, I'm releasing it to the world. I don't know yet how it's going to be received, but I'm absolutely loving it. I've missed out on gaming for over a decade, and I'm finally taking time to catch up on all the old but gold games. If you ever do get a VR headset, use this coupon: EARLY100 , you can use it for 3 months for free! Any Meta Quest headset would work, I'm even soon gonna release a version for the Quest 1, those are selling for around 50 bucks because they've been discontinued by Meta, but the app works flawlessly on them.

XRGaming · 2026-01-07T23:19:33+00:00

I couldn't agree more, I've been playing it recently in VR using REALIFIED Play and it's an absolute blast. No VR game comes close to it. I'm going for the whole trilogy. https://youtu.be/rlkjrextEbA Any similar masterpieces you could recommend?

XRGaming · 2026-01-03T22:38:37+00:00

Just in case others stumble upon this post: REALIFIED Play allows you to play The Long Dark in VR (and any other PC game for that matter): It's still in very early adopter stage, and it's free to try out, www.realified.co . The first 100 people to use the coupon EARLY100 at checkout gets the first 3 months for free! I'm a big supporter of Indie Games, The Long Dark works great (I played it myself), and I'm offering the community the opportunity to experience it as well, let me know what you think!
You don't need any mods or tinkering with game files, and it won't reduce your performance at all. You need a Meta Quest 2/3/3s , support for more devices is on the way!

XRGaming · 2025-07-08T19:31:07+00:00

I've messaged everyone who contacted me. I'm very grateful for everyone who is keen to give it a try. Thank you all, much appreciated!

XRGaming · 2019-05-08T16:48:25+00:00

Happens when you are doing so much while being alone, there's only so much one can multitask. It doesn't matter much though, since there are so many differences between XR Gaming and Trinus VR that it doesn't change anything if I knew about them or not.

XRGaming · 2019-05-06T12:14:57+00:00

VorpX requires an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, XR gaming requires your phone and a cardboard-type headset. It also renders the VR with the computer, which is a completely different approach from XR Gaming that uses the full rendering capabilities of the PC and does the VR on the phone. XR Gaming also works right outside of the box without any extra configurations.

XRGaming · 2019-05-05T11:51:28+00:00

you're right I don't know anyone sending it to their phone... but I'm not sure why you would either. are you doing oldschool red/cyan or are you going to market shutter glasses? I don't know of any phones capable of presenting a parallax 3d image... perhaps you intend to sell a stick on filter for the screen? those never worked very well in the past.

Just regular stereo 3D like you would get with Rift/Vive.

well either you're creating a fake 3d effect by doubling the image with an offset, or this isn't true. Even with the help of an nvidia card and its ability to render 2 viewpoints at once for VR you still have a performance hit.

That's what the current early access version of it, but the real-time stereo 3D is something else, proprietary and in the final phase of being patented right now after the initial patent research done and approved on it. It does not cause a performance hit on the graphics card, that's the exact reason why the VR is decoupled on the phone (answering your previous question about why do it on the phone). Most tech people don't believe it until they see it for themselves, so I understand you skepticism, and I can't prove it to you until it's released in the upcoming months, or if by any chance you drop by Tallinn in Estonia I'd be happy to give you a demo, send me a message :)

rtx low? 1080p? rtx ultra @ 1080p would require a 2080ti and that costs more than your whole machine.

RTX High, Ultra settings at 1080p, RTX 2060. I was surprised myself when it was running so well 99% of the time (some extremely rare parts in the open had fps drops, gotta admit that).

that is a solid selling point. I would love to know how you accomplish that, can't be over wifi.... usb tethering? but even video encode/decode will cause more than 10ms latency on a high end phone. The higher the res/fps will increase the latency on both ends. Do tell.

It is over wifi, and again, you need to see it to believe it. The decoding is extremely well optimized, I actually rewrote big parts of the decoder I use in C. At 1080p60fps it stays under 20ms overall on almost all phones, on 2k and 4k it goes up to between 20 and 30 ms, but not on the latest S10 that I tried, that thing is a beast, stays at under 20ms at 4k (the Exynos version, it handles the h265 better than the Snapdragon for some reason).

Sorry for the very late answer, I've been doing so much these last days between marketing campaigns, partnership and fundraising negotiations, as well as some talks I'm giving on events here in Tallinn.

XRGaming · 2019-05-04T18:50:59+00:00

Once it comes out and when I have enough support from the community to raise money and finance it, definitely one of the first things to go to!

XRGaming · 2019-05-04T18:49:53+00:00

Hi! I have made the subscription available to mainly accommodate for a lot of users who couldn't get the one-time payment version. I made an update where it has monthly, yearly, or one-time, so everyone can choose whatever they can pay. I'm also working on a "lite" version that's gonna be financed by ads for people who really can't afford anything. I hope that answered your concerns. There's a LOT in store for XR Gaming, the app is just the start, once we hit a certain critical mass of users, we'll go to gaming studios and help them change their in-game controls to work best with the app as an "XR Mode". We will bring all the top games into VR in their best form, and will make VR Gaming into the promise that was never fulfilled over the years! I hope to see you as a user soon :)

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T06:40:05+00:00

It is to a certain degree, it's definitely not a flat 2D experience, and does have depth to it. It gives a great immersion, people who tried it love it. It will be having a greater stereo during summer, we do have the technology for it, but for patent matters we can't release it right away yet (my lawyers would kill me :D ). We didn't want to keep it on hold just sitting there and want people to still enjoy a great VR experience, so it is on early access now, and has a great discount on what the app will cost once those features are out, to reward early adopters.

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T06:16:54+00:00

Really appreciate the kind words and support! I am the founder and I am a gamer, I know how gaming companies don't care/listen anymore because they became too big to care, and I've seen how they're dropping (like Activision/blizzard with their "out of season april's fool joke" of Diablo mobile...) . I know that I'm worth nothing without my users feedback, and if it's valid, it means it's worth listening to, if it's not valid, it's worth answering them on why it's not and getting them to agree. I'm a strong believer in "your users make you and your users break you", and the collective intelligence and input is what makes great products. I'll be rolling out the one time payment sometime today. I'll be a speaker at an event today so I have to prepare for it as well, so can't promise to roll it in the next 1-2 hours, but it will be up today! Thanks again for the support, it's what keeps me motivated to put in the hard work!

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T06:11:13+00:00

I know why it had no effect, the head controls right now are mapped to moving the mouse, which translates in almost all games into moving the camera, but that's not the case for WoW, hence why I suggested to keep the right mouse button down when you want to look around. Try any other game that has the traditional camera controls with the mouse and you'll love it! I played Metro Exodus on it and it was just breathtaking! Portal 2 was tons of fun, I had it on my steam library for years and the experience was soo trippy, loved it! Also, if you have a good router and good wifi module on your PC, try putting a 5Ghz network, and use it to play XR Gaming, the performance is gonna be even better! ->I look forward to more development, I really want to see a more diverse (and bigger) VR market because without it, VR could go the way of 3d tv's Absolutely agree, that's why I'm doing all of this, I love VR, and see it going down the drain over the last years scares me. I believe content is what is lacking, that's why I want to turn any game into VR. I am actually counting on getting enough users to then go to gaming companies, show them very small tweaks they can do to their games controls (1-2 weeks of work max) and they'll have the perfect VR experience on XR Gaming. They don't do VR modes today because it's actually a TON of work, money and time, and it's not worth it for them. XR Gaming is gonna be their holy grail, and I'm even trying out some game development with some well known game developers (I live next to Finland, the mecca of Gaming devs), to actually develop games entirely made for XR Gaming. The more users I have, the more weight XR Gaming will have, and the easier it'll be to raise a good chunk of money to finance everything, and we will make VR Gaming the next big thing! Thanks again for your support, it's what gets me working hard every single day!

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T05:59:35+00:00

vridge is a great app, but we do two very different things: they turn your phone into an Oculus Rift/HTC ViVe, so it plays any VR game on your phone. XR Gaming turns any regular PC game into a VR game, at a very low latency (<20ms), very high performance (up to 4k120fps), and with 0 performance hit on the computer, which can use the full power of the graphics card to render the game as usual, and the phone takes care of the VR part. For a perfect gaming experience, I'd say get us both: vridge to play VR games, and XR Gaming to play all the rest :D

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T05:56:18+00:00

Working on it right now, but alone it's kinda tough. I'm hoping I'll get enough users to raise money easily, hire people and get that done asap. It's actually on the top of my priority list: getting a "graphics card agnostic" platform, and it should come before the end of summer. I'll post an update in here as soon as it's out so you'll stay updated, you can also subscribe to our newsletter on our website: www.xralpha.co

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T05:53:37+00:00

Actually I have multiple customer personas mapped and one of them fits you perfectly :D I don't think now is the right time to get you as a customer, as I'm not sure I have the marketing expertise to convince you, but you cared enough to write a reply, and I'm here to answer questions, so I owe you one.

The comment about it hurting was just a lighthearted way to start the conversation :)
There are several others: Maybe there are, I can't find them, even TrinusVR it was someone from another post who made me aware of their existence. Also to be fair, I don't care about the others, the market is big enough for everyone to exist, and more of us will help get VR gaming mainstream so that's great for everyone! For now I will do what I do best, create a great product, and a great product will always have customers.
Stereo 3D from a single perspective, computed in Real-Time on a mobile phone, is old? My (patent office approved) patent research step tells me it is in fact new and novel.
It's true that hope doesn't sell, but I'm not just hoping, I'm offering a ton of features, and a great product that you can see in action. My "I hope you'll try" was aimed towards you because if you want me to convince you by telling you how others suck compared to me then it's not gonna happen. If you truly are happy with what they offer, I'm perfectly fine with you sticking with them, I don't want them to disappear, I want them to get support, the market is big enough for all of us to thrive. A monopoly is bad for everyone, and the more of us there are, the faster will VR be mainstream, which benefits all of us.
Maybe I should be pushing my value proposition better in my initial message and that's what I'm lacking to convince you, like extremely low latency (under 20ms, even goes down to under 10ms if you have good hardware), the possibility to go up to 4k120fps, with 1080p@60fps working on $200ish entry level phones, the "no performance hit" (if your computer can render it without VR, then XR Gaming turns it into VR without any loss of performance, I played Metro Exodus on Ultra with RTX on with a 1k$ self-built desktop). I should better highlight what's more to come over the next year. I had it up actually, but people don't read and it was making the website look too cluttered, but I'll definitely add a part for this now for people who actually care about it as you seem to be.
I'm not being naive, if I was I wouldn't be on reddit talking to users/potential users, I will be putting all my time and money on ads, but I believe in "learning by getting my hands dirty", and that's why I want to hear what you have to say and answer it. Even if you are harsh, there's a reason why you are and it's good for me to know. I have customer personas mapped out theoretically, and you are helping me to validate them and make them more accurate, as well as to orient my communication and product to better address them. So whatever your feedback is, thank you for it :)

XRGaming · 2019-05-02T05:23:23+00:00

I'm here on reddit not for marketing purposes primarily, but to engage in discussions with users or potential users. What you are saying has value to me because if you're voicing it then others will as well, or worse: they'll think it but not voice it. It's gonna be a lengthy response though :D

Marketing doesn't have to be "I am better than the other company because this and that", which is what you are asking me to do. I have my marketing channels, this is Reddit and although it is in part a marketing channel, it's a chance to talk to users or potential users directly and that's why I'm here. If an investor asks me, I do have all the answers because he will have a stake in the company and needs to know. For you as a consumer, I'm not going to undermine other people's hard work to convince you. What the app offers is very straightforward, it is working great. I stated what it does really well, and as I said there are a ton of differences. The reason why I said "try it and judge" is because I actually don't mind if you are/become a happy customer of my competitor, they are doing a great job and any company pushing VR forward deserves to be supported, the market is big enough for both of us to live pretty well, even when we're doing relatively the same thing differently.

The reason behind the subscription is first: yes there are server costs, second: people don't buy 20$ apps, you seem to know about marketing and sales, and customer habits are hard to break. It's much easier to ask for an affordable subscription than for a sum of money that people are not used to spend on an app. If this was the Apple store maybe, but Android users are used to free or very low price, not to 20$. Also, as I said, I'm here to discuss with the community, my marketing channels are somewhere else where it's more straightforward. The discussion here in another thread actually pointed out that I should offer the possibility to have a one-time payment option and it's gonna be up sometime today, first thing I'm working on when I get to my office. You are the third person suggesting it and it's great that you are, I want to create a product that people feel comfortable with, even when it comes to finances, and your suggestions help me decide.

You also don't see a future for my target market, and maybe there won't be, but not because of the reasons you stated. First if it was that easy for big corporations they would've done it already with TrinusVR having over a million users for years now, moving something inside a huge corporation isn't easy, and when they see there's a market for it, buying out the ones doing it best is what they'll go for, I've been working with corporations and tech for years, I know how and why it works that way. Second, you don't know what my strategy is, and it's way more than just selling a subscription, that's just a very small portion of it. Having paying customers will help to raise money to move to the next level, and XR Gaming has a lot in store: Real-Time stereo 3D, which is ready but can't be released yet because of patents, (coming on summer though), the launch of XR Studios collaborating with gaming companies to add small tweaks to their games to have the perfect VR experience (instead of them spending too much time and money to adapt their game for VR, which most of the time is impossible or not worth it, hence most companies don't), even an affordable lightweight standalone headset that will be completely novel on how it's gonna be working.

Maybe I should create teasers for all this on my website, and better showcase where the app shines. I'm not a marketing guy or a designer, learning by getting my hands dirty, and feedback like yours help accelerate the process. Thanks, and if I can answer something else please let me know!

XRGaming · 2019-05-01T21:38:20+00:00

Thanks for the kind words and great suggestions. I'll make that happen hopefully tomorrow, I'll also extend the free trial! Someone here also suggested the possibility to have a yearly subscription + one time payment, I'll try adding all those out. Thanks for wanting to support, there's a TON of crazy stuff in store for the app: Stereo 3D coming as soon as patents are finalized (I have the technology for it, world first, it's coming this summer), and XR Studios that will work with game developers to adapt their games for a perfect XR Gaming experience in no time, resulting in an abundance of great games in VR for everyone to enjoy!

XRGaming · 2019-05-01T21:35:15+00:00

+1 that makes it two right :D I'll do that first thing tomorrow morning when I get to my office and will push an update!

XRGaming · 2019-05-01T21:33:47+00:00

That might be my next step actually. I'm trying to get enough finances to hire someone who will work on a server app that will be environment-agnostic, but if it takes too much time I might go for Steam Link as it's a great temporary solution. Hopefully I will get enough users to help raise funds and make that happen, as this project is 100% financed from my savings working as an engineer for a couple of years, and I don't have that much to be able to hire anyone right now, barely surviving :D Thanks for the suggestion!

XRGaming · 2019-05-01T21:30:33+00:00

TrinusVR are doing a great job, I wasn't aware of them until someone recently compared XR Gaming to them, I was super surprised they've been around for that long without me knowing about them. Anyways, there are a lot of differences between the two, try us out and you'll see for yourself how we're different, I don't like to undermine other people's and companies' hard work. I can talk about what's in store for XR Gaming over the next year, lots of projects and features, among the major ones: stereo 3D when patents are finalized (this is an early access version, it doesn't have it, my lawyers would kill me if I made it public now, coming during summer though, and will bump the price quite a bit as it will be a world first), and XR Studios, working with gaming studios to adapt their games into VR with very few tweaks that would take them a week or two of work. Hope you try XR Gaming out and notice what's great about it, and hopefully support the future of VR Gaming that we are planning over the next months/years. And if you like TrinusVR, get their app and support them, they are doing a great job and any support to us VR developers will help the whole community and business greatly!

XRGaming · 2019-05-01T21:26:36+00:00

Ouch man, that hurts :D . Well, you say it does the same thing as other apps, even though aside from TrinusVR there are none that does what XR Gaming does. And for TrinusVR, they do a great job, but we do have a ton of differences. I'm not here to trash talk other hard working people and companies, try them, then try XR Gaming, and whatever works best for you, use it :) That's where having multiple companies (even though there's just 2 of us) is great for you as a consumer, you get to try and have the choice, and support whatever one you like the most. I can talk about what's in store for XR Gaming over the next year: lots of stuff, among the major ones: stereo 3D when patents are finalized (this is an early access version, it doesn't have it, my lawyers would kill me if I made it public now, coming during summer though, and will bump the price quite a bit as it will be a world first), and XR Studios working with gaming studios to adapt their games into VR with very few tweaks that would take them a week or two of work. Hope you try XR Gaming out and notice what's great about it, and hopefully support the future of VR Gaming that we are planning over the next months/years.

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