YARG-VR - !Discontinued!

Play YARG (Yet Another Rhythm Game) in VR — with SteamVR (OpenVR) + MelonLoader, by touching nothing but the game's cameras.

YARG-VR is a MelonLoader mod. It does not modify YARG's assets, code, or render pipeline. It takes over the game's venue camera 1:1 with your headset (6-DOF, look around the stage mid-song), turns the gameplay UI (HUD, highways, pause menu) into a world-space stereo screen floating in your play space, and submits per-eye stereo textures to the SteamVR compositor.

Works against YARG v0.15.0 (latest release at build time) — and is built to degrade gracefully on newer versions. See RESEARCH.md for the full behind-the-scenes research on how the game renders everything and why this mod is possible at all.

Requirements

Game	YARG v0.15.0 (Windows x64) — https://github.com/YARC-Official/YARG/releases
Loader	MelonLoader 0.6.x / 0.7.x (x64)
VR runtime	SteamVR installed (headset: Index, Quest/Pico via Link/Virtual Desktop/Steam Link, Vive, WMR, … anything SteamVR supports)
OS	Windows 10/11

Install

1. Install MelonLoader into YARG (one time):

   • Download MelonLoader.x64.zip from https://github.com/LavaGang/MelonLoader/releases/latest
   • Extract it into your YARG install folder (next to YARG.exe) so you get version.dll, MelonLoader/, dobby.dll, etc (Whatever it may be).

2. Install the mod:

   • Copy YARG-VR.dll and openvr_api.dll into Mods/ (NEXT TO THE .EXE).

3. Launch:

   • Start YARG.
   • Connect an instrument to YARG (or steam will mute the controllers inputs and replace it with your VR controllers).
   • Start SteamVR and it should automatically switch over to the game in your headset.
   • Start a song and enjoy!

Hotkeys (defaults)

Key	Action
F8	Toggle VR mode on/off (restores the desktop window instantly)
F9	Recenter — resets the stage view's rotation to your current facing and re-places the screen (position + rotation) in front of you at eye height, level
[	Move the two eye images of the UI toward each other (ScreenStereo −0.1) — stops doubled/ghosted UI text; saved instantly
]	Move the two eye images of the UI apart (ScreenStereo +0.1, max 50 — 1.0 = true depth, above 1.0 = wider-than-eye separation)
Shift+[ / Shift+]	Visualizer ring radius −/+ 0.25 m (1.5–12 m) — pushes the bar ring out/in around you (v1.3.17); saved instantly
Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+]	Visualizer bar max height +/− 0.25 m (0.2–8 m) — taller/shorter bars at full loudness (v1.3.17); saved instantly

Both probe keys are rebindable in the config file (any UnityEngine.InputSystem.Key name, e.g. F10, Home), as are F8/F9 and [/] (KeyScreenCloser / KeyScreenFarther); the Shift/Ctrl visualizer variants use those same two keys.

Settings — YARG/UserData/MelonPreferences.cfg

[YARG-VR]
Enabled = true            # master switch
SubmissionFlip = true     # vertical flip of the submitted image; required on D3D11 (fixes upside-down)
StereoVenue = true        # render the stage twice (once per eye) - turn OFF on weaker PCs
StereoHighways = true     # per-eye note highway reprojection - turn OFF on weaker PCs
KeyToggle = "F8"
KeyRecenter = "F9"
KeyProbe = "F7"           # input device probe (log-only diagnostics, v1.3.4)
KeyReconnect = "F6"       # reconnect instruments (auto-claims on device appearance since v1.3.13; F6 = manual retry)
AutoBindProfileName = "(Your Profile Name)"  # re-bind any unmatched instrument to this profile every boot (v1.3.14; empty = off).
KeyScreenCloser = "LeftBracket"   # [ - move the two UI images toward each other (v1.3.6)
KeyScreenFarther = "RightBracket" # ] - move the two UI images apart (v1.3.6)
HudScale = 1.0            # multiplies the screen size (1.0 ≈ 72% of your eye FOV; 1.4 fills it)
HudDistance = 2.0         # meters from your head (applied when the screen is (re)placed - press F9)
HudFov = 0                # screen FOV; 0 = use your HMD's eye FOV
ScreenStereo = 8.4        # screen stereo depth 0-50 (1.0 = true depth, above 1.0 = wider than your eyes); 8.4 = tuned default, press [ / ] live instead of editing
ScreenFollowsView = false # true = screen yaws to face you; false = locked where placed
ShowWorld = true          # render YARG's 3-D environment (menu bg, stage, highway room) around the screen
DesktopMirror = true      # monitor shows the headset view (letterboxed)
HudPopOut = true          # HUD floats on its own plane closer than the screen
HudPopDistance = 1.8      # HUD plane distance (m); smaller than HudDistance (v1.3.17 default; old 1.2 migrated once)
Visualizer = true         # ring of 48 audio-reactive bars around the play space
VisualizerGain = 1.0      # bar reaction strength (0.1 - 5); raise if bars barely move
VisualizerRadius = 4.5    # ring radius in meters (1.5-12); Shift+[ / Shift+] tunes it live (v1.3.17)
VisualizerMaxHeight = 3.0 # max bar height in meters (0.2-8); Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+] tunes it live (v1.3.17)
Supersample = 1.0         # 0.5 - 2.5 x compositor resolution (per eye)
VenueFovOverride = 0      # wider/narrower stage view in VR; 0 = YARG's own FOV
AutoRecenterOnCut = true  # re-anchor when the song cuts to another stage camera
HeightLock = false        # keep YARG's authored eye height
HeightOffset = 0          # meters of extra height for the stage camera
PoseDebug = false         # logs head/root/screen poses every 5 s (diagnostics only)
MenuEnvSurround = true    # 360° menu background sphere in the menus (v1.3.3)
VisualizerOcclusion = true # song: bars hidden when seen through screens; menu: ring arranged so it cannot block
VisualizerInMenu = true   # menu ring: ON = visible low-profile (short bars, ring pushed out); OFF = hidden entirely (v1.3.6)
OpenVrProjection = true   # eye cameras use OpenVR's per-eye frusta (v1.3.6; fixes UI doubling)

What you'll see

• In the headset, everywhere: VR is no longer gameplay-only — menus, song select and the game screen are all shown on the floating stereo screen at all times. The screen is locked in the room at eye height, level, HudDistance meters in front of where you last recentered (F9); leaning and walking produce real parallax. YARG's 3-D environment (menu background hues, stage environment) fills the space around the screen, and the visualizer ring bounces to the music. With HudPopOut on, the HUD floats on a second plane closer to you.
• During a song: the stage is true stereo (two renders, real IPD — look around it freely) and the note highways re-project per-eye. HUD, rock meter, score, lyrics and the pause menu float on their own plane closer to you (parallax pop-out). Chart video backgrounds (video.webm) play behind the highways on the screen. The view re-anchors whenever the song's camera direction cuts.
• On the monitor: with DesktopMirror = true (default) the monitor shows exactly the headset view (letterboxed) — perfect for spectators. With it off, YARG's normal 2-D view keeps working (the floating screen may appear mirrored/at an angle in it, since the game camera now looks at a real object in the room). SteamVR's Display Mirror shows the stereo HMD image either way.
• Performance: the stage is rendered twice (once per eye) at your desktop resolution and the game screen once per eye at compositor resolution. If it's heavy, set StereoVenue = false, lower YARG's Venue Render Scale, or lower Supersample to 0.9–1.0.

Building from source

# 1. fetch reference DLLs (MelonLoader + YARG Managed + openvr_api.dll)
./setup-libs.sh            # optional arg: YARG version, default 0.15.0

# 2. build (needs .NET SDK 8; works on Linux/Windows — no Windows targeting pack needed)
./build.sh
# -> bin/Release/YARG-VR.dll

CI (.github/workflows/build.yml) runs the same pipeline on every push and attaches a ready-to-install zip to GitHub Releases on tags.

Repository layout

YARG-VR-Mod/
├── YARG.VR.csproj                  # net472 class library → YARG-VR.dll
├── src/
│   ├── AssemblyInfo.cs             # MelonInfo / MelonGame("YARC","YARG")
│   ├── VrMod.cs                    # MelonMod entry: prefs, hotkeys, scene lifecycle
│   ├── VrSceneRig.cs               # stereo eye cameras, world-space screen, venue/highway stereo
│   ├── OpenVrRuntime.cs            # openvr_api preload/init/poses/per-eye submit
│   └── YargBridge.cs               # reflection bridge to YARG's CameraManager.CurrentCamera
├── vendor/OpenVR/openvr_api.cs     # Valve's official C# binding (BSD-3-Clause)
├── .github/workflows/build.yml     # CI: download real refs → build → artifact/release
├── setup-libs.sh / build.sh        # local build helpers
├── LICENSE (MIT) · NOTICE · .gitignore · README.md

License & credits

• Mod code: MIT — see LICENSE.
• vendor/OpenVR/openvr_api.cs + openvr_api.dll: Valve Corporation, BSD-3-Clause — see NOTICE.
• YARG is LGPL-3.0 © YARC; this mod is an external MelonLoader plugin and ships no game content.
• MelonLoader by LavaGang (Apache-2.0).

Researched & built against YARG v0.15.0 / Unity 6000.3.5f2 / MelonLoader 0.7.3 / OpenVR (IVRSystem_026, IVRCompositor_029). See RESEARCH.md for every file path and finding.