Star Citizen VR Setup & Settings Guide (Alpha 4.5 PTU, Sep 2025)

Chris Roberts and other devs have always maintained that they want VR to be a thing. Luckily for us, some devs are really passionate about VR as well and they added official support in Sep 2025 with the Alpha 4.5 PTU release. Before that, we had unofficial. workarounds using wonky third party software.

But now, I have been using it inside the game with official support and the experience is so much better. 

Space sims have always been AMAZING in VR. Elite looks absolutely stunning. In terms of ambience, atmosphere and the wow-factor, no terrestrial game can come close to the awesomeness of space. And now, finally, we have that in Star Citizen.

Best VR Headsets for Star Citizen 

To be honest, its a bit early to think about the best VR headsets for Star Citizen. We would probably have a few more generations of VR tech before SC officially supports VR. But its still an awesome experience and my top recommendation for all sims are pretty much the same. 

Best Premium VR Headset:

Pimax Crystal Super

• Resolution of 3840x3840 per eye 
• Dynamic Foveated Rendering allows for better performance
• Highest FoV

Activate Discount*

*Using the above link will automatically apply our special discount code (GBN) on the Pimax store!

The Pimax Crystal Super offers unmatched resolution but you will need a pretty powerful PC to run it. Its my go-to for all space and flight sims. The best part is that you can get it with the OLED module which makes blacks more awesome and there is definitely a lot of black in space sims. 

Best Mid-Range VR Headset:

Pimax Crystal Light

• 2880x2880 resolution per eye 
• High FoV, Best Comfort, Premium feel
• Eye tracking, Foveated Rendering

Activate Discount*

*Using the above link will automatically apply our special discount code (GBN) on the Pimax store!

The Pimax Crystal Light is amazing value. I am still shocked by how just how much they managed to pack into such a reasonably priced package.

How to run Star Citizen in VR?

Step 1: Make sure your in-game render is set to Vulkan. This is the default now so unless you changed it, you don’t need to bother.

Step 2: Make sure runtime is set to OpenXR is running. If you have a Pimax headset, make sure the software is running. Start the game. 

Step 3: You can toggle VR on and off using the “Numpad /” key once in the game. Recenter View is bound to “Numpad 5”.

Step 4: Tweaking FoV. At this point, VR should be running and looking ok except for the Field of View (FoV) which affects the world scaling. If things are looking too big or too small to you, change the FoV slider in the game. 

And that’s it! 

Further Tweaking

• VR – Enabled: Enables and disables the headset (also available via keybind)
• VR – Theater Mode: Enables and disables Theater mode (also available via keybind)
• VR – Theater Mode Scale and Distance: Allows you to adjust Theater mode to your liking.
• VR – Automatic Switching: Automatically enables / disables VR based on headset detection if your headset supports it via a sensor (verified on Quest 3 – compatibility varies by headset)
• VR – Interpupillary Distance (IPD) Scale: This allows you to further scale the IPD distance that the VR headset is reporting. Effectively it means you can expand and contract the distance between your eyes.
• VR – Show Console: self explanatory
• VR – Monitor Mirror Mode: Allows you to set what your normal screen will show while you play. Useful specifically for streamers.
• VR – Actor Control Mode: Allows you to define how you want to play the game in VR during the FPS / on-foot sections using the default mouse and keyboard controls. Since we do not support normal VR locomotion yet there are two ways from you can pick:

1. Pitch-locked (default): The mouse yaw allows you to turn but aiming up and down will not move your head but just your gun pitch angle. You have to manually adjust your head to look along the aim line of your gun. This gives you a stable view (which causes less motion sickness) but a somewhat suboptimal aim experience.
2. Direct offset mode: The VR camera is directly offset from your normal game camera. Very easy to use but the camera will tilt while leaning or high pitch angles. It is faster to use in terms of normal SC gameplay but less stable and therefore more prone for motion sickness.

• VR – Vehicle HUD Projection Distance: Allows you to define at what distance infinity projected vehicle HUD elements are shown (e.g. gunnery PIPs, the Advanced HUD or the aiming crosshair). By default, it is set at 100m at which parallax effects should not be visible anymore.
• VR – Visor and Lens Aspect Ratio/Distance/Height/Scale: Allows you to tweak placement of the visor and lens elements.

• g_headtracking_hmd_actorIK_offsetPosition_applyInSeat (1 by default): This will adjust the actor rig based on the VR position offset while being seated (similar to what normal headtracking does).
• g_headtracking_hmd_actorIK_offsetRotation_applyInSeat (0 by default): This will adjust the actor rig based on rotational VR offsets while being seated. Enabling this will adjust the unified actor rig based on where you look with the headset, but it will also induce more motion sickness as the actor posture changes with it.
• g_headtracking_hmd_actorIK_offsetRotation_applyDefault (0 by default): This will adjust the actor rig based on rotational VR offsets while not being seated. Enabling this will adjust the unified actor rig based on where you look with the headset, but it will also induce more motion sickness as actor posture changes with this.
• g_headtracking_hmd_vehicleAds_allowPositionOffset (1 by default): If enabled, allows the VR offsets to be applied to the the precision targeting camera.
• g_headtracking_hmd_actor_shake_applyRotationOffset (0 by default): If enabled allows shake to happen to the VR camera. Until further testing we turned this off, but you’re free to try it out.
• r_StereoDepthComposition (0 by default): If enabled, provides OpenXR with the scene’s depth buffer. This may improve any kind of reprojection behavior. Please let me know if you see any improvements from this!

Performance Considerations

• Enable upscaling (TSR, FSR, or DLSS) for substantial performance improvements
• Ensure your system meets or exceeds recommended VR specifications
• Monitor VRAM usage and adjust settings accordingly

Meta Quest Link Users

Current Limitations

• Holographic displays like ship radars
• Visor effects (frost/rain)
• Water interaction effects

Known Issues

• Actor look offsets via VR are not visible to other players yet.
• Precision Targeting doesn’t zoom in VR yet
• In vehicle seats unlocked gimbals may not work when they are slaved to the view direction. We recommend you do not slave the gimbals to your view direction.
• UI elements (personal inventory, world markers, weapon customization & more) need optimization for VR
• Gravlev vehicles have an incorrect head position

Is VR worth it for Star Citizen?

While its still possible to play Star Citizen in VR using some third-party tools, there are performance issues even on high end systems. I tried VR for Star Citizen and here are my thoughts:

1. The game has tremendous potential in VR. I believe space sims are inherently awesome in VR and what I have tried so far, does look gorgeous. My favorite thing to do right now is flying between hills and mountains and driving around in a Cyclone. The caves look good too, but I don’t like the locomotion (more on this later).
2. Star Citizen has iffy performance even in 2D right now., but a lot of those problems are server side issue instead of graphical engine issues. What that mean sis upping the resolution for VR will have some impacts, but the main bottleneck is still on the server side.  Of course, your PC specs matter here a lot so check out my hardware guide for SC.
3. Its hard to use the keyboard with VR so HOTAS, or better yet, HOSAS becomes essential. 
4. Each major SC patch causes some issues and often times improves things as well. So you may need to keep tweaking things. I will attempt to keep this guide updated.
5. The environment looks pretty cool but there are some issues with FoV and graphical glitches. But if you really an SC + VR enthusiast, go for it! The scale of the ships is pretty amazing.
6. Locomotion is my biggest use. Games like Elite or DCS or Dirt Rally don’t have to bother with locomotion since you are seated. But it can really be quite an annoyance in first person games because it feels quite unnatural and can even induce nausea. Some people have better experience using rudder pedals to simulate walking so if you have a set, map them to walking and see if it feels better. 
7. If you have bad performance, try loading into Arena Commander instead of the PU. That’s an old trick of mine and I do it whenever each of my new ships is released to try it out at a glorious 120 FPS! Luckily, the same performance benefits apply to VR as well.
8. SC VR is far from perfect. But I have spent dozens of hours in other VR games like Elite, DCS and MS Flight Sim to get VR to run properly as well. It’s a new tech and it reminds me of PC gaming in the 1990s. It was the wild west and you had to scour the internet for the right tools and tinker with settings. That is where we are with VR right now, and I frigging love it. 

Related Articles

• Star Citizen Review (Current State)
• Star Citizen Beginner’s Guide
• Star Citizen Best Joystick/ HOTAS/ Controller
• Star Citizen Frequently Asked Questions
• Star Citizen Best Starter Ships & Packs
• Star Citizen Referral Code

About the Author

Gary (Flanker)

Twitter

Gary has been "hard landing" into runways and driving his Mitsubishi Evo off of cliffs since the early 2000s. These days, he spends most of his precious hobby time with his favorite flight, racing and space simulations in VR.He also has an Engineering Degree in Computer Science which helps a lot with his obsession with optimizing PC hardware like CPUs, Graphics Cards, VR Headsets, HOTAS, Racing Wheels etc. for high end sims.