**Smarter than the Steam Frame: inside the VR mod that's brought virtual reality to hundreds of games**

When Valve recently announced its Steam Frame, the gaming world was abuzz with excitement over this new twist on VR headsets. Not only could it stream games from a powerful PC, but it also boasted the ability to run less demanding games on its own internal hardware – a feature that seemed revolutionary at first glance. However, as impressive as the Steam Frame's capabilities may be, they pale in comparison to a more innovative solution: a mod.

Meet Praydog's UEVR (or Universal Unreal Engine VR), a free, open-source tool that has quietly turned hundreds – if not thousands – of Unreal Engine games into playable, room-scale VR experiences. This isn't just about running flat games in a 2D theatre view; UEVR actually changes the way these games interact with your headset and controller, allowing for true stereoscopic 3D rendering, head tracking, and motion controllers.

So, how does it work? In essence, UEVR injects VR support into Unreal Engine games (currently those on versions between 4.8 and 5.4) by hooking into Unreal's built-in stereo rendering pipeline. This allows for a seamless transition from 2D to 3D, effectively making flat-screen scenes feel like real physical spaces. What's more, UEVR remaps in-game actions for VR input, so you can interact with the game world as if it were designed specifically for virtual reality.

Let's take The Outer Worlds, for example. In a 2D theatre mode, the game looks great – but it's still just another sci-fi RPG playing on a big virtual rectangle. You're limited to whatever camera angles and movements the developers set up; you can't lean around corners or duck behind crates to get a better look at your surroundings. But fire it up through UEVR, and suddenly you're immersed in the game world, able to physically interact with environments that were previously just static backgrounds.

The results are nothing short of astonishing. I've played several games using UEVR, including Borderlands 3, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and Dead by Daylight – each one offering an entirely new level of immersion and engagement. In the case of Dead by Daylight, for instance, the ability to hear the killer's footsteps getting closer and see their shadow stretching across the ground in front of you is deeply unsettling; it's as if the game has been rewritten specifically for VR.

But what about new releases? The good news is that UEVR can adapt surprisingly quickly. Oblivion Remastered, for example, received VR support within hours of its surprise launch – demonstrating just how versatile this mod truly is. With thousands of titles already compatible and the user community actively working to add more games to the list, it's clear that UEVR has become an essential tool for any serious VR enthusiast.

Of course, there are some caveats: you'll need a strong PC to run UEVR, as it effectively asks the game to render twice (once for each eye) on top of its usual hardware demands. However, this shouldn't be a significant issue for most gamers – and with support available for any OpenVR- or OpenXR-compatible headset, from the Valve Index and Meta Quest family to the HP Reverb and Pimax series, there's never been a better time to explore the world of VR gaming.

In conclusion, while the Steam Frame is an impressive piece of hardware in its own right, it pales in comparison to the ingenuity and innovation of UEVR. As a mod that has quietly revolutionized the way we interact with games in virtual reality, Praydog's Universal Unreal Engine VR has single-handedly provided more reasons than ever to put on a headset – and experience gaming like never before.