SoMVR: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor in VR

A VR mod for the native Linux version of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Feral Interactive's port).

Disclaimer: this is vibe coded and still in a rough state.

• A stereo first-person view with head tracking.
• Tracked hands, with a motion-controlled sword and bow.
• Menus you point at in VR, and comfort options.

Status: alpha, work in progress. It is developed and tested on one machine: Linux (Nobara), an AMD GPU and a Meta Quest 2 streamed with WiVRn. The scripts still assume that machine's folders, and there is no ready-made download yet.

How it works

somvr.so is loaded into the game with LD_PRELOAD. It patches the game in memory: the camera, the per-eye rendering, the input, the combat. A Vulkan layer (mod/somvr/vklayer/) hands each eye's image to an OpenXR runtime (WiVRn or Monado). The game's files are not changed, and the game still needs Steam: the mod does not touch its ownership check.

docs/re-*.md are the reverse-engineering notes for the Linux build: addresses, structure layouts and how each part of the game works. docs/design-*.md are the design notes.

Building

You need your own copy of the game on Steam (the Linux version), gcc and python3.

1. Run scripts/fetch_third_party.sh. It downloads the headers into third_party/ and checks them against pinned hashes: the OpenXR SDK 1.1.61 and Vulkan-Headers v1.4.341 (headers and licences only).
2. Run mod/somvr/build.sh. It builds mod/somvr/build/somvr.so and the Vulkan layer. build.sh --check also runs the unit tests; it reads the game binary from SOM_BIN.
3. Run scripts/som-vr.sh --make-release to copy a build into release/. Then set /path/to/scripts/som-vr.sh %command% as the game's Steam launch option. With a headset connected the game starts in VR; without one it starts as the normal flat game. The other scripts are the author's test tools; they expect this folder at ~/Projects/flat2vr/ShadowOfMordor and the game in Steam's default library.

Third-party files

• mod/somvr/assets/generic-hand/: a hand model by Amazon (MIT, LICENSE.md there).
• The text font in mod/somvr/somvr_font.c is based on the IBM PC VGA 8x16 font.

Notes

• Not affiliated with or endorsed by Warner Bros. Games, Monolith Productions or Feral Interactive. No game files are included: you need your own copy.
• Licence: MIT, see LICENSE. Third-party files keep their own licences.