Mario Kart Wii VR Port

Mario Kart Wii VR Port is a native Windows VR port of Mario Kart Wii. It combines WiiCompiled's static recompilation with a native OpenXR renderer and tracked-controller input. The game runs as native x86-64 code; no Wii emulator, interpreter, JIT, or PowerPC CPU is used at runtime.

This repository distributes the VR port, its installer, and its build tools. It does not distribute Nintendo code, game assets, a translated game executable, or a ROM. You must provide your own clean PAL RMCP01 disc image and compile the game locally.

Download the latest release

What the port adds

• Native OpenXR rendering through D3D12 with a desktop mirror and a safe desktop fallback.
• Three race cameras: the original game camera, a true first-person cockpit camera, and a distant diorama camera. The right-stick click cycles cameras during a race.
• A seated cockpit aligned to the driver's evaluated eye position. The driver is hidden in first person, and the view adapts to small, tall, and temporarily resized characters.
• Physical steering: grab the real kart wheel or motorcycle handlebar with either tracked hand. Native vehicle animation is enabled by default and can be disabled in VR settings.
• Two-hand steering with centre-crossing and brief tracking-loss tolerance, adaptive smoothing, full-turn hand continuity, and a left-stick fallback after both hands release the control.
• Tracked hands depth-tested against the kart and the track, with SteamVR controller models and per-controller button animations in the VR tutorials and menus.
• A left-hand race HUD with the circuit map and item panel. In first person, the HUD is anchored in front of the seat so it stays readable while the head moves.
• An anchored, spatial VR presentation for the camera chooser, VR settings, controller guides, and Mario Kart menus. The first launch offers a camera choice through a VR pointer.
• A first-race controller tutorial, plus a separate first-person tutorial. Both can be reset from VR settings.
• Configurable eye resolution, sharpness, refresh-rate preference, adaptive resolution, world scale, HUD placement, camera trim, steering response, grab assistance, deadzone, haptics, and diagnostics.
• Retro Rewind VR support through WheelWizard, with pack updates, patch preparation, compiled-product repair, and access to the VR installation's saves, friends and Miis. See WheelWizard feature coverage for the local integration and its limits; these changes are not yet included in the published v1.0 release.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• SteamVR installed and running. The VR executable selects SteamVR's OpenXR runtime for its process; start SteamVR and connect the headset before launching the game.
• A D3D12-capable GPU and a driver accepted by SteamVR, OpenXR, and Dawn. GTX 1650 / RX 6400 / Arc A310 or better is a practical starting point.
• About 20 GB free while installing and compiling. The compiled game is about 5 GB, excluding optional Retro Rewind files.
• Your own clean, unmodified PAL RMCP01 disc image. ISO, GCM, GCZ, CISO, WBFS, WIA, and RVZ are accepted. Other regions and modified executables are rejected.

Installation

Guided installer

1. Download WiiCompiled-Setup.exe from the v1.0 release.
2. Start SteamVR, then run the installer.
3. Select your clean PAL RMCP01 image and choose an installation folder.
4. Leave Download and install Retro Rewind automatically enabled if you want both games.
5. Select Install. The setup translates and compiles the game on this PC; the image never leaves the computer.

The installer installs WheelWizard in the WheelWizard subfolder, creates a Mario Kart Wii VR Launcher shortcut on the desktop and in the Start Menu, and opens the launcher when installation finishes. Select Mario Kart Wii VR or Retro Rewind VR from that launcher.

Portable bundle

Download WiiCompiled-VR-Portable-v1.0.zip, extract the complete folder, and run WiiCompiled-VR-Setup.exe. Keep portable installation enabled and keep the folder together. The launcher is at WheelWizard/WheelWizard.exe; the UserData folder keeps configuration, NAND, cache, and logs beside the portable installation. Update-VR.cmd updates the VR runtime while preserving personal and compiled game data.

No release contains a ROM or a translated game executable. Compilation is intentionally performed locally from the disc image you select.

USB steering wheels and pedals (source build)

Open VR settings > Hardware wheel (also available in desktop controller settings). Select the steering device and axis; record full left, full right and center. Select each pedal's device and axis, then record its released and fully pressed positions. Separate USB pedals, inverted axes and combined pedal axes are supported through SDL's raw joystick input; the device does not need an Xbox/gamepad mapping. For a combined axis, select the same axis for both pedals and record their opposite pressed positions.

Assign the right paddle to drift and left paddle to items, then enable the physical wheel. Paddle numbers vary by driver, so these assignments require pressing each paddle during setup. Optional hardware buttons provide tricks/wheelies, confirm and pause. The brake pedal brakes, then reverses, in every race camera. It takes priority over acceleration and drift. Mario Kart's acceleration remains a digital game action, even with an analog pedal. VR controllers remain available for menu navigation, camera selection, pause and item aiming. The visible cockpit wheel follows hardware steering. Configuration is saved beside the active config in PhysicalWheel.toml.

Feedback is off by default. Optional light vibration follows the game's original rumble events, including curbs only where the game emits rumble. Effects are short and strength is capped at 15%; no constant torque, spring or centering effect is requested. Rumble support depends on the driver; lack of rumble does not prevent driving. This is not simulated tire-force feedback. An incomplete/disconnected setup gives neutral race input. Close options and release held buttons and pedals before driving. Hardware/driver compatibility needs testing; no universal device support is claimed. These additions require rebuilding and are not in the existing v1.0 download.

Quest and OpenXR controls

The runtime uses standard OpenXR actions, so Quest 2, Quest 3, Touch Pro, Valve Index, PICO, Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Samsung Odyssey, and other advertised profiles use the same in-game actions. Vive trackpads substitute for thumbsticks where necessary. The left menu/system button keeps its headset function; on SteamVR it opens the SteamVR dashboard.

Controller input	Original / diorama camera	First-person cockpit
Left stick	Steer; navigate menus	Steer after releasing the wheel; navigate menus
Right trigger	Accelerate	Accelerate
Left trigger (hold)	Brake, then reverse	Brake, then reverse
A	Accelerate / confirm	Hop and drift / confirm
B	Brake / cancel	Brake / cancel
Y	Use or hold item	Use or hold item
X	Trick / motorcycle wheelie	Trick / motorcycle wheelie
Right stick directions	Directional tricks and wheelies	Directional tricks and wheelies
Left or right grip	Right grip hops/drifts	Grab the wheel or handlebar
Right stick click	Cycle the three VR cameras	Cycle the three VR cameras
Left menu/system button	Pause outside SteamVR	Pause outside SteamVR
X + Y	Open or close VR settings	Open or close VR settings

On SteamVR, tap X for a trick. Hold X for about 0.65 seconds to send one Mario Kart pause press; the SteamVR system/menu button remains available for the dashboard. X + Y always opens VR settings without forwarding either button to the game. The left trigger always brakes and reverses, including when the wheel is held.

In the cockpit, squeeze a grip near the wheel or handlebar to grab it. One or both hands can steer; joining or releasing a hand preserves the current steering target. Releasing both grips returns steering to the left stick. Open VR settings > Driving to change native wheel animation, acquisition range, steering response, tracking-loss tolerance, and grab assistance.

Cameras, HUD, and comfort

The first-launch VR panel asks for the default camera with a pointer and trigger. The choice is saved and used at the beginning of every race. Races begin in the selected camera; the original game camera is used for the short race-start launch animation and returns to the selected camera when the animation ends or is skipped.

The original and diorama cameras show the race HUD, minimap, and item roulette on a panel that can follow the left hand. First person anchors the same HUD in front of the seat. VR settings > Display controls panel distance and width; Camera controls seat trim and world scale.

The physical wheel and camera are stabilised during impacts, spins, airborne tricks, and Lightning scale changes. This keeps the view and hand controls attached to the kart without making the world rotate with a damage animation. Show control tutorials again resets the first-race and first-person guides.

VR settings

Open VR settings with X + Y in the headset or F10 on the desktop mirror. The menu includes:

• Graphics: per-eye resolution, sharp rendering, preferred headset refresh rate, FPS display, adaptive resolution, and menu shader quality (Off, Low, Balanced, High).
• Camera and Display: default camera, first-person head offsets, world scale, HUD width and distance, and seat reset.
• Driving: native steering-wheel animation, kart and motorcycle steering range, acquisition depth, grab assistance, smoothing, tracking-loss tolerance, and haptics.
• Input: controller profile diagnostics and stick deadzone calibration.
• Tutorials and Diagnostics: replay guides and export VR-diagnostics.txt beside Config.toml.

Changes are saved to Config.toml. Resolution and some refresh-rate changes take effect after a restart; camera, HUD, steering, shader quality, and diagnostic options apply immediately.

WheelWizard and Retro Rewind

WheelWizard is bundled as the launch and mod-selection front end. It has two local VR entries:

• Mario Kart Wii VR, using the base compiled game;
• Retro Rewind VR, using the separate Retro Rewind static profile.

The upstream WheelWizard updater is disabled for these local VR bundles so it cannot replace the VR-specific launcher integration. Retro Rewind is optional during setup and requires its own local compilation from the same clean PAL image.

Troubleshooting

• The headset stays on the desktop mirror: start SteamVR first, check that it is the active OpenXR runtime, and restart the game. required = false falls back to desktop mode when OpenXR cannot create a session.
• The game is not visible in WheelWizard: run the copied setup from the installation folder, select the clean PAL RMCP01 image, and let the local compilation finish.
• The wheel is difficult to grab: use VR settings > Driving to increase acquisition depth and grab assistance, then reset the seat position. Both grips can be used independently.
• Tracking or performance problems: lower eye resolution or menu shader quality, disable adaptive resolution if frame pacing is unstable, and export VR-diagnostics.txt.
• Logs: the runtime writes OpenXR and compilation diagnostics under %LOCALAPPDATA%\\WiiCompiled\\Logs (or UserData\\Logs in a portable installation).

Building from source

Building requires .NET 8, CMake, Ninja, LLVM-MinGW, and a clean PAL RMCP01 image. The supported release target is Windows/D3D12 with OpenXR enabled. The main build scripts are:

dotnet build translator/Translator.sln -c Release
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Launcher/Build-Installer.ps1
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Launcher/Build-Portable.ps1 `
  -SetupExecutable Launcher/dist/WiiCompiled-Setup.exe -Version 1.0

The build boundary deliberately excludes translated game code and game data from Git and releases. See OPENXR.md for the implementation details, configuration keys, controller profiles, and validation notes.

Credits

• WheelWizard by Team WheelWizard, integrated as the local launcher and Retro Rewind front end.
• BigWalkVRInstaller by CircuitLord, whose controller tutorial presentation inspired the attached callouts and pointer flow.
• @XorDev for the Dielectric shader used as the animated spatial background around the VR menus. This port adapts the shader from the FragCoord.xyz reference for stereo, translated rendering and exposes quality levels in VR settings. See the attribution note.
• aurora for the native GameCube/Wii graphics and windowing layer used by the port.
• OpenXR, Dawn, Dolphin Emulator, Pulsar, AnimalCrossing-VR-MR-Standalone, and Cyberpunk VR port for APIs, references, and implementation ideas used during development.

Bundled component licenses are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. The controller tutorial notice is in licenses/BigWalkVR-MIT.txt.

License and legal notice

The WiiCompiled source in this repository is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3. Mario Kart Wii is a trademark of Nintendo. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo and does not contain Nintendo intellectual property. Dump and use your own game disc according to the laws that apply where you live.