Bannerlord in VR

BannerlordVR puts Bannerlord in a PC VR headset, with tracked hands and physical sword, shield and bow combat. It's an early alpha, so expect rough edges. It does run, though, even with big total conversions loaded.

Links

• BannerlordVR on Nexus Mods
• BannerlordVR on GitHub (source and issues)
• SteamVR
• Steam Link for Meta Quest, or Virtual Desktop
• Needs Harmony. BLSE is optional and helps if the DLL won't unblock.

Game version

The mod page lists Bannerlord 1.4.8 and the 1.5.5 beta as verified. It also works on 1.4.7: the mod's own engine check passed there, and it ran alongside TAOM and Empires of Europe. If you're on another version, check BannerlordVR.Native.log (below) for the engine check result.

Install

1. Unzip BannerlordVR into Modules and unblock the DLLs.
2. Tick it and put it last in the load order.
3. On TAOM: TAOM already includes Harmony, and loading a second copy crashes the game. Open Modules\BannerlordVR\SubModule.xml, remove the Bannerlord.Harmony dependency line, and keep standalone Harmony unticked. Save a copy of the original file, and redo this edit after every BannerlordVR update.

Start it in this order

The mod checks for a headset once, at startup. If the game opens first, you're stuck in flat mode.

1. Put the headset on and connect (Steam Link, Virtual Desktop or a cable).
2. Wait until SteamVR shows the headset and both controllers green.
3. Then start Bannerlord.

Never start or stop the headset connection while the game is running. It crashes the game.

SteamVR must be your OpenXR runtime (SteamVR settings > OpenXR). Meta's own OpenXR runtime isn't supported.

Graphics: start low

VR draws every frame twice. A 6 GB graphics card runs out of memory fast. Symptoms: the headset stays on the SteamVR menu, or you get 1 to 3 frames per second.

A starting point that ran smoothly (around 50 to 80 fps in a small custom battle) on a 6 GB RTX 3060 laptop:

• Every graphics setting at its lowest or off
• Except terrain quality: keep it at 1 or higher. Terrain at 0 crashed the game on load.
• Resolution scale 50%
• render_scale = 0.6 in Documents\Mount and Blade II Bannerlord\Configs\BannerlordVR.cfg
• Frame rate capped at 90 (an uncapped game starves the headset stream)

Then raise one setting per session: render scale first, then textures, shadows, lighting. Watch the memory warnings in the log after each change.

Small battles are the sweet spot. The campaign map is much heavier, so test it last.

Logs

Documents\Mount and Blade II Bannerlord\logs\BannerlordVR.log
Documents\Mount and Blade II Bannerlord\logs\BannerlordVR.Native.log

bvr_init: NoHeadset means the game started before the headset was ready.

Keep flat and VR graphics separate

Your VR settings will look terrible in normal play, and your normal settings will choke the headset. The switcher in Two campaigns, one install keeps two graphics sets and swaps them with a -VR switch.