Tomb Raider: Legend VR

A virtual reality mod for Tomb Raider: Legend (PC, Steam or GOG), adding stereoscopic rendering, 6DoF head tracking and motion controller support, a VR third-person camera, and an optional first-person mode where you climb, shoot and swing with your own hands.

It runs as a Direct3D 9 proxy (d3d9.dll) beside a small fork of DXVK, with a launcher that makes the game large-address-aware. It talks to the headset through OpenXR, and falls back to OpenVR (SteamVR) when OpenXR is not available.

Note

This mod was made with heavy AI (Claude) assistance. I want to be upfront about that.

Note

Version 1.1.0. It is playable from start to finish in third person and most of the way in first person. Bug reports with logs are very welcome; see Troubleshooting. What changed is in release/RELEASE_NOTES_1.1.0.md.

Important

Windows may block this mod from running.

Smart App Control (Windows 11) refuses unsigned code outright. This mod is unsigned, so on a machine where SAC is enforced the game will start and the VR mod will not load. SAC has no exclusion list; the only option is to turn it off: Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control → Off.

Ordinary antivirus may also object. What this mod does, replacing a system DLL name and patching a running game's code, looks a lot like what malware does. An exclusion for the game folder fixes that.

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About the game

Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics, 2006) rebooted the series with a new engine, fluid traversal and a grapple. It has no VR support of any kind: one camera, a flat HUD and a renderer built for a 4:3 or 16:9 monitor.

It turned out to be a good fit anyway. Its traversal (ledges, poles, vines, swinging bars, grapple swings) maps naturally onto your hands, and the third-person camera works as a comfortable way to watch Lara from just behind her shoulder.

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Requirements

• Tomb Raider: Legend for PC: the Steam or the GOG release
• A PC VR headset with two tracked motion controllers
• An OpenXR runtime that runs 32-bit games (SteamVR's does), or SteamVR for the OpenVR fallback
• A GPU with Vulkan support (DXVK translates the game's Direct3D 9 to Vulkan)
• Windows

Developed and tested on an HP Reverb G2. Bindings ship for Oculus Touch, Valve Index, WMR and Reverb G2 controllers. Nothing is specific to one headset: field of view, IPD and render resolution are all read from the runtime at start-up.

OpenXR or OpenVR. vr_runtime = auto (the default) uses OpenXR and falls back to OpenVR / SteamVR if OpenXR cannot start. Delete openxr_loader.dll, or set vr_runtime = openvr, to always use OpenVR. The hands sit in the same place under both. The main menu shows the version and the runtime in use.

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Features

Rendering

• True stereo, both eyes every frame. Each draw is issued once per eye into a side-by-side target. No alternate-eye rendering or reprojection tricks.
• Per-eye asymmetric projection from the runtime, so geometry is correct rather than approximated.
• Automatic render resolution. The game renders at SteamVR's recommended size, so SteamVR's per-game resolution slider is the control.
• VR-correct culling. The game's object and terrain culling is rebuilt around the wide headset view, so nothing pops out at the edge of your vision and nothing behind you is drawn for nothing.
• Level horizon. The game camera's pitch and roll stay out of your view; only your head moves it.
• A stable compositor hand-off. The image given to the headset is pinned in video memory (the lesson from the SiN VR mod's NVIDIA crash).
• Picture controls: brightness and contrast for the headset image, which follow the game's own brightness setting by default.
• Movies at their real shape: the 4:3 movies are no longer squeezed on the movie screen.

Third person (default)

• Three camera styles: classic (the game's camera, smoothed, no auto-centring or shake), shoulder (close behind Lara at life size) and board (Lara a few inches tall on a tabletop world).
• Camera collision keeps the view out of rock and walls.
• Smooth view changes: switching between the camera styles and first person glides instead of cutting (view_transition_seconds).
• Scale, zoom and side by hand: turn your off hand palm up to bring out three sliders: the size of the world, the camera nearer or farther, and the camera to the left or right of Lara (over either shoulder). Touch a knob with your other palm or index finger, grip and slide. Each camera style keeps its own; a small notch marks each default, and the knob sticks there with a click. Lara's VR hands scale with it.
• God mode (board): pinch or make a fist on Lara to pick her up, carry her, and throw her by letting go mid-swing. She falls and lands with the game's own physics. A hand leaning on her pushes her body away.
• Body physics: her chest and rear give and bounce as she moves and when your hands touch them.
• Board diorama (board_diorama = 1): in board the tabletop world sits in an open box in a dark room; grab the bar on its edge to move it.
• Theatre mode: cutscenes, and optionally third-person play, are shown through a large window fixed in the room, still in 3D, instead of moving your view. Comfortable for anyone who finds a moving camera hard.
• A 3D gear cross of the game's own item icons floats in front of you with immersive controls; grip an icon to use it. Or, with gear_menu = radial (always, with the classic layout), hold the left stick and push it towards an item.
• Wall touch: walking beside a wall with nothing drawn, Lara reaches out and runs her hand along it, and keeps it there for a moment when she stops.

First person (optional)

• Your own hands: Lara's hands follow the controllers, with an optional full body (first_person_body = full) that bends her arms to reach them.
• Holsters: reach to a hip and grip to draw the pistols; grip again to put them away. Grip over a shoulder for the long gun.
• Belt and pouches: grab the grapple and fling it, lift the binoculars to your face, take a grenade or flare from the belt, and bring a medipack to your mouth. The pouches show the game's own medipack and grenade models while you carry any. The light's glow and the grapple's rope follow the gear in your hands.
• Two-handed long guns: the off hand on the foregrip steadies the aim.
• Accurate shooting: shots go where the gun points (no random spread in first person), with a VR crosshair at the impact point, recoil and haptics. Lock-on targeting follows your head and is widened for VR.
• Hand-over-hand traversal: grip ledges, vines, chains and swing bars and pull yourself along them; alternate hands quickly to shimmy fast; pull down with both hands to climb onto a ledge. On a vine each grip climbs one way only (up or down, set by your first pull); let go and grip again to change. A one-hand catch is secured by grabbing the hold (or automatically, with auto_secure_catch = bars or all).
• Jumps go where you look off chains and poles; on vines the stick works relative to your view.
• Physical crouch: crouch for real to crouch.
• Roomscale: walk around your room and Lara follows, stopping at walls; a real step plays her walk animation.
• Hand collision: hands stop at walls and floors, and at Lara's own body in full-body mode.
• Body physics (full body): the torso gives a little as she moves, and your hands press into it rather than passing through.
• Finger tracking (finger_tracking = 1): on controllers that report fingers (Quest, Index), Lara's fingers follow yours, with natural poses for carrying items and the grapple flick.
• Hardcore mode (off by default): the view turns with Lara's body through flips, rolls and spins instead of staying level. Not for everyone.
• Holster setup in game: Pause menu → VR Settings → VR Holster Setup lets you place the holsters, belt items and pouches where they suit your body.
• Hand calibration in game: Pause menu → VR Settings → Hand Calibration holds Lara's hands out in front of you; move each controller into its hand and squeeze the grip to lock it. Then aim your pistol at a target and pull the trigger to set your aim. A skips a step. Fixes hands and aim that do not line up with your controllers on any headset.
• Left-handed mode, akimbo or single pistols, and three aiming styles.

Interface and comfort

• HUD on its own layer, drawn at a comfortable size with a gentle head follow; menus are world-locked panels you can look around.

• World markers (caution icons, grapple targets, lock-on) are placed at their real position in the world, not on a flat screen.

• Prompts speak VR: tutorial and context prompts name the VR controller button instead of the keyboard key, including for left-handed play.

• Smooth or snap turning, an optional comfort vignette, and movies and loading screens shown on a world-locked screen.

• Settings panel in the headset: hold both sticks in for 0.6 s (Oculus Touch: hold the left menu button) or press Insert on the keyboard. It floats in front of you; point at it with your main hand and pull the trigger, or use the sticks and A / B. Every change applies at once and is saved to trlvr.ini: cameras, picture, body physics, god mode, theatre, diorama and controls.

• VR settings in the pause menu (immersive controls, during a level): Display becomes VR Settings, and its entries change VR options on the spot and save them to trlvr.ini. Press an entry to step through its choices:

  Entry	Choices
  VR Holster Setup	Place holsters, belt items and pouches
  Hand Calibration	Line Lara's hands and aim up with your controllers
  Theatre	Off · Cutscenes · Always
  Third Person	Classic · Shoulder · Board · All
  Hand Collision	Off · On · On + Body
  Body	Hands · Full
  Left Handed	Off · On
  Hardcore Mode	Off · On

  The On/Off column on the right still shows the game's own setting; the label is what counts.

• Five languages: the mod's own text follows the game's language (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish).

• TR7-Menu-Hook built in: with TR7-Menu-Hook installed (the loader the Lara Remastered Player Model Mod needs), its options appear in the settings panel as an ordinary section: refill health, next outfit, game speed, wireframe, hide UI, the debug keypad, and its saved settings. "Open its full menu" still shows its own window. Player model mods with many more bones work in first person and third person.

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Installation

1. Prepare the game

Run Tomb Raider: Legend once normally, reach the main menu, and quit. In the game's Setup dialog turn off:

Setting	Why
Next Generation Content	Its separate renderer gives a black scene in VR

The mod sets three other options itself at every start, whatever the Setup dialog says: Depth of Field off and Fullscreen Effects off (both blur or smear the view in VR), and anti-aliasing (FSAA) on, capped by msaa. Set depth_of_field, fullscreen_effects or fsaa to game to keep the Setup dialog's choice instead.

2. Copy the files

Copy everything inside Main - Copy these into the base game folder into the folder that contains trl.exe. Steam's default:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tomb Raider Legend\

File	What it is
d3d9.dll	The mod (a Direct3D 9 proxy the game loads)
d3d9_dxvk.dll	The DXVK fork that renders through Vulkan
openxr_loader.dll	OpenXR, 32-bit (the default runtime; delete it to use OpenVR)
openvr_api.dll	OpenVR, 32-bit (the fallback)
trlvr_launcher.exe	The launcher (see below)
trlvr_actions.json, bindings_*.json	The SteamVR action manifest and controller bindings

Important

GOG release: GOG ships its own D3D9.dll (a compatibility wrapper) in the game folder. Rename it first, for example to D3D9.dll.gog-dxwrapper, then copy the mod in. Any other d3d9.dll belongs to another graphics mod and must be moved aside too.

3. Start through the launcher

Steam: right-click the game → Properties → Launch Options:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tomb Raider Legend\trlvr_launcher.exe" %command%

Adjust the path if your library is elsewhere, then launch from Steam as usual.

GOG: start your VR runtime (SteamVR), then run trlvr_launcher.exe from the game folder.

Why a launcher?

trl.exe is a 32-bit program without the LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag, so it is limited to 2 GB of memory: not enough for headset-resolution, two-eye render targets. The launcher writes a patched copy, trl_vr.exe, with the flag set and starts that. The original trl.exe is never modified.

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Controls

A fresh install starts in third person with immersive controls on (see below) and the radial gear menu. Every button below still works there except where a gesture replaces it. With immersive_controls = 0 you get the classic layout: the VR controllers send the game's own keyboard and mouse controls, so everything the game can do has a button. Defaults for Oculus Touch-style controllers (Reverb G2, Quest, Rift):

Control	Action
Left stick	Move
Left stick click / double click / hold	Gear menu / recentre the view / pause (Oculus Touch: the left menu button)
Both sticks held in	Settings panel (Oculus Touch: hold the left menu button)
Right stick	Turn
Right stick click / double click / hold	Switch weapons / PDA / binoculars
Left trigger	Action, interact, pull the grapple
Right trigger	Fire; select in menus
Left grip	Throw the grapple
Right grip	Combat lock-on
A	Jump, surface; select in menus
B	Dive, crouch, roll; back in menus
X	Accurate aim
Y tap / hold	Grenade or flare / personal light

The gear menu: click the left stick, then push it towards an item (up health pack, right binoculars, down switch weapon, left personal light). In menus a click goes back.

Index, WMR and per-controller details are in release/VR CONTROLLER BINDINGS.txt. The keyboard keeps working alongside the controllers, and F1 recentres.

Immersive controls

With immersive_controls = 1 the grips become your hands. In first person: holsters at the hips and over the shoulders, gear on the belt, pouches on the chest, the light on a left-hand grip at the left chest, and climbing with your hands. The action trigger aims with a gun out and acts otherwise. X, the long press on Y and the long press on the right stick give way to gestures.

Developer keys

Mostly for diagnosing problems. Each writes what it did to trlvr.log.

Key	Effect
F1	Recentre
F2 / Shift+F2	Object / terrain culling: headset frustum ↔ open (for comparison)
F3	Time the next frame on the GPU (gpu profile lines)
F4	Log every draw of the next frame
F5	Reload hand offsets from trlvr.ini
F7	View prescale fix on/off (for comparison)
F8	Step the ledge visibility marker
F9	Capture the interface textures
[ / ]	Nearer / farther convergence of first-person world markers
\	Switch between first and third person
Numpad 0	Log a snapshot of both hands' finger tracking
Numpad /	Start / stop recording finger poses to trlvr_finger_poses.csv

The game's own keys (Home, End, Delete, Page Up/Down, Insert) are left alone. function_keys = 0 ([developer]) makes F1–F9 do nothing, for other mods that use them.

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Configuration

Settings live in trlvr.ini beside the game, written on first run. Every key is explained in the file itself. Missing settings are added on start-up; values you chose are never replaced. Edit the file with the game closed.

Third person with immersive controls is the default, and the right-stick long press steps through classic, shoulder, board and first person (third_person_mode = all). To start in first person:

[vr]
first_person = 1
first_person_tracked_hands = 1

[controls]
immersive_controls = 1

first_person only sets the view you start in. With immersive controls on, long-press the right stick (or press \ on the keyboard) to switch between first and third person at any time in gameplay.

The settings most worth knowing

Setting	Default	What it does
first_person	0	First-person view through Lara's eyes
first_person_tracked_hands	1	Lara's hands follow your controllers (first person)
immersive_controls	1	Hand gestures: holsters, belt gear, pouches, hand climbing, gear menu; 0 = the classic button layout
first_person_body	hands	full draws Lara's whole body below the view
third_person_mode	all	classic, shoulder or board; all makes the right-stick long press cycle classic → shoulder → board → first person
left_handed	0	Main hand on the left; swaps the triggers' roles
cutscene_mode	normal	theatre shows cutscenes through a window fixed in the room
gameplay_theatre	0	Third-person play through the same window (board excluded)
theatre_backdrop	000000	Colour of the room round the window (a chroma-key colour suits passthrough)
board_diorama	0	board camera: the world in an open box you can grab and move
hand_collision	0	First-person hands stop at walls and floors
hand_body_collision	1	Hands stop at Lara's body (full body)
body_spring / body_soft	1 / 1	Torso and soft-body movement in full body; soft body also in third person (immersive controls)
imgui_panel	1	Other mods' ImGui menus (TR7-Menu-Hook) on a panel over your off hand, worked with a main-hand pointer
roomscale / roomscale_walk	1 / 1	First person: walking in your room moves Lara; real steps play her walk
finger_tracking	0	Lara's fingers follow yours on controllers that track fingers
first_person_hardcore	0	The view turns with Lara through flips and rolls
first_person_hardcore_threshold	20	Degrees of body tilt before hardcore mode turns the view
reset_controller_tuning_on_load	0	Forget hand calibration and aim tuning at each start (handy when switching headsets)
pistol_mode	akimbo	single: each hip draws its own pistol, fired by that hand
aim_mode	hand	hands aims between both pistols; hands_head mixes in the headset
two_handed_mode	auto	Long-gun foregrip: auto (bring the hand close), toggle, hold
turn_mode	smooth	snap turns by snap_turn_degrees (30)
comfort_vignette	off	jumps or full darkens the edge of view while moving
physical_crouch	1	Crouch for real to crouch
auto_secure_catch	off	One-hand catches secure themselves: bars (swing bars only) or all (ledges and bars)
catch_extra_time	4.5	Extra seconds to secure a one-hand catch by hand (first person, about 6 s in all; 0 = game timing)
shake_rumble	1	The game's controller rumble (screen shakes, explosions) on both VR controllers
gear_cross_x_rate	1.0	Third-person gear cross: 0 turns with your head, 1 stays put in the room (look around to find it), in between follows part of the way; recentring brings it back in front
first_person_pullup_anim	266	Ledge pull-up animation used in first person (-1 = the game's choice); replaces those in first_person_pullup_replace (236, the slow one)
first_person_no_spread	1	Shots go exactly where the gun points
camera_collision	1	Third-person view stops short of walls
wall_touch	1	Third person: Lara runs her hand along walls she walks beside
gear_menu	radial	Immersive third person: radial = click the left stick and push towards an item; cross = the 3D gear cross
ui_scale	0.6	Size of the HUD and menus
hud_follow	0.85	How closely the HUD follows your head (1 = locked)
fsaa	on	The game's anti-aliasing: on, off or game (the Setup dialog's choice)
msaa	4	Anti-aliasing strength while FSAA is on: 0 (off), 2, 4 or 8
fullscreen_effects	off	The game's glow/bloom: on, off or game
first_person_object_culling	frustum	open draws every object in a visible room, at a large CPU cost
terrain_culling	frustum	open draws every terrain strip of a visible room
depth_of_field	off	on or game (keep the launcher's setting)
world_scale	291	Game units per metre. Raise to feel smaller, lower to feel larger
vr_runtime	auto	openxr, openvr, or auto (OpenXR, falling back to OpenVR)
picture_brightness / picture_contrast	0 / 1	The headset image; picture_follow_game = 1 also follows the game's brightness
view_transition_seconds	0.3	How long switching camera style glides (0 cuts)
body_rear	1	Third person: her rear gives and bounces
body_push	1	God mode: a hand leaning on her pushes her body away
board_god_hand	1	board: pick Lara up, carry and throw her
god_throw	1	Letting go mid-swing throws her (god_throw_strength)

Performance

The game is old but the work is doubled for two eyes, and some of it runs on the CPU. In rough order of effect:

1. SteamVR's per-game resolution (Settings → Video). The mod reads it at start-up, so restart the game after changing it.
2. Keep the culling settings on frustum (the default). open costs a lot of CPU in busy rooms.
3. msaa: 2 or 0 frees GPU time (or fsaa = off).
4. Turning off Water Effects, Reflections and Shadows in the Setup dialog.
5. If 90 fps is out of reach, a fixed half-rate with Motion Smoothing in SteamVR usually feels smoother than a frame rate that keeps jumping.

trlvr.log gets a perf: line every 5 seconds: frame rate, GPU and CPU time, and the costliest objects. It says why an area is slow.

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Building from source

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 (or Build Tools) with the C++ x86 toolset; the scripts find it with vswhere.
• The Vulkan SDK installed under C:\VulkanSDK (headers and glslangValidator).
• Python 3 with meson and ninja: py -3 -m pip install meson ninja.
• OpenXR (headers and loader) is included in third_party/openxr, OpenVR in third_party/openvr and Dear ImGui in third_party/imgui.

Everything is built 32-bit: trl.exe is a 32-bit process.

Build

build_dxvk.bat      :: the DXVK fork  -> dist\d3d9_dxvk.dll  (slow the first time)
build.bat           :: the mod and launcher -> dist\d3d9.dll, dist\trlvr_launcher.exe
mathtest.bat        :: tests for the VR maths
test.bat            :: loads the proxy in a test host

build_dxvk.bat clean reconfigures the DXVK build from scratch.

Install or package

install.bat dxvk ["<game folder>"]   :: copies the build into the game folder (Steam default if omitted)
package.bat                          :: the drag-and-drop release in %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\TRLVRmod

The DXVK fork (dxvk-trlvr/) adds Direct3DCreateVR9 (src/d3d9/d3d9_vr.*), which hands the Vulkan image behind a Direct3D 9 surface to the VR runtime, and a DXVK profile for trl_vr.exe. The shipped d3d9_dxvk.dll is a modified DXVK build; report problems with it here, not upstream.

Layout

Path	Contents
src/proxy	D3D9 and swap-chain proxy, MSAA cap, GPU profiler
src/vr	VR session and submit, cameras and first person, culling, input and gestures, UI, water
src/common	trlvr.ini settings and the log
src/launcher	trlvr_launcher.exe
src/vr/physics	Body physics: soft chest, rear, body push and volumes
src/vr/godmode	God mode: pick-up, carry and throw
src/test	Maths and proxy tests
input	SteamVR action manifest and controller bindings
release	Player documentation shipped in the package
dxvk-trlvr	DXVK fork
third_party/openxr	OpenXR headers and loader
third_party/openvr	OpenVR header and runtime
third_party/imgui	Dear ImGui, for the settings panel

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Known limitations

• Next Generation Content is not supported. Its renderer gives a black scene. Keep it off.
• Water looks flatter than on a monitor. The game's water reflection and full-screen water effect only exist for one eye, so they are skipped.
• Graphics options can only be changed in the Setup dialog. Changing them in game rebuilds the display, which VR does not survive, so during a level those entries are VR settings instead (see Interface and comfort).
• Cinematics play in third person. Theatre mode shows them on a screen in the room instead.
• Some wet-rock decals flicker by view angle. The flat game does the same.
• Performance dips in a few busy scenes, for example animal attacks. The perf: lines in the log help pin these down.

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Uninstalling

Clear the Steam launch option, then delete from the game folder:

d3d9.dll   d3d9_dxvk.dll   openxr_loader.dll   openvr_api.dll   trlvr_launcher.exe
trlvr_actions.json   bindings_*.json
trlvr.ini   trlvr.log*   trlvr_crash.dmp*   trl_vr.exe
trlvr_launcher.log   trl_vr_d3d9.log

On GOG, rename D3D9.dll.gog-dxwrapper back to D3D9.dll. The game's own files were never changed. The game saves its settings when it quits, so Depth of Field, Fullscreen Effects and anti-aliasing may show the mod's choice in the Setup dialog afterwards; set them back there if you want.

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Troubleshooting

The game runs on the monitor but nothing appears in the headset. Check trlvr.log beside the game. It records the headset, every hook and the controllers, and says plainly when something fails. Make sure the game was started through trlvr_launcher.exe and that your VR runtime was running. If OpenXR is the problem, try OpenVR: vr_runtime = openvr in trlvr.ini.

The view is offset or facing the wrong way. Double-click the left stick (or press F1) to recentre.

Controller buttons do nothing, or the wrong thing. Under OpenVR, SteamVR may have kept an older or custom binding. Open SteamVR → Settings → Controllers → Manage Controller Bindings and select the supplied Tomb Raider: Legend VR binding. Under OpenXR the bindings are built into the mod.

Performance is poor. See Performance. The perf: lines in trlvr.log show whether it is the GPU or the CPU and which objects cost the most.

The game crashes. Send the files beside the game: trlvr.log and trlvr_crash.dmp, plus trl_vr_d3d9.log. If you have started the game again since, the previous run is kept as trlvr.log.prev and trlvr_crash.dmp.prev. The crash report names the module and the VR runtime or DXVK call in progress, and the dump holds the rest.

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Licence

This project's own code (src/, input/, the scripts and the documentation) is released under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.

Not covered by it, see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md:

• DXVK (zlib/libpng). The release's d3d9_dxvk.dll is a modified build.
• OpenVR SDK (BSD 3-Clause, © Valve). openvr_api.dll is redistributed unmodified.
• OpenXR SDK (Apache 2.0, © The Khronos Group). openxr_loader.dll is built from the unmodified source.
• Dear ImGui (MIT, © Omar Cornut), for the settings panel.
• TRAWindowed (MIT, © chreden), which the D3D9 proxy started from.

Tomb Raider: Legend is © its owners. This mod is unofficial, not affiliated with or endorsed by Crystal Dynamics, Eidos or their successors, contains no game data, and needs a legitimate copy of the game.

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Important

Thanks

This mod exists because other people solved harder problems first and published their work.

• Philip Rebohle and the DXVK contributors. DXVK's Direct3D 9 to Vulkan translation is what makes a 2006 D3D9 game reachable by a modern VR compositor at all.
• chreden, for TRAWindowed, the D3D9 wrapper this mod's proxy grew from.
• Valve, for OpenVR and SteamVR.
• The Khronos Group, for OpenXR.
• Omar Cornut, for Dear ImGui.
• Crystal Dynamics, for making Tomb Raider: Legend.

Any mistakes in this mod are my own, not theirs.

In Loving Memory

Sophie 2010-2026