Payday 2 (2013), the popular FPS with four-player co-op, has now updated to include access to the VR beta for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The beta is free, and will see updates in discrete phases, the first of which is now available for owners of the game.
Update (11/18/17): Overkill has issued a hotfix for Oculus support so the game can natively recognize Touch. The developers warn Rift users that the game still requires a room-scale setup, so the three-sensor setup is required to properly play.
Original article (11/17/17): The goal behind the beta is to give players on PC and VR access to the same Payday 2 content. For now though, some weapons aren’t available for VR players, something that will hopefully change in successive beta phases.
Although technically running through SteamVR, the game currently only officially supports Vive, and only renders Vive controllers. Some users have reported that Windows VR headsets work fine as well. Oculus Rift users will have to do an extra step to emulate the Vive’s controller and remap Touch’s buttons however. Reddit user ‘ElectrickMedic’ put together a handy guide on how to install the OpenVR Input Emulator to get the beta working for Rift.
Since June 2017, the game has only been available in its ‘Ultimate Edition’, which includes all the DLC for a total of $45. At the time of this writing, the base game sans DLC doesn’t appear to be available anywhere.
To get access to the VR beta, you’ll have to opt into the beta branch on Steam:
Find PAYDAY 2 in your Steam library and right-click – select Properties. In the Properties window – select the tab called “BETAS”. In the drop down menu in the BETAS tab – select “open_vr_beta” and close the window. This will automatically push the beta branch update. You can opt out at any time by reverting back to the stable branch.
Overkill recommends playing on window 8 or higher and with a
GTX 980 or better.