What Is Vivecraft and What Does It Do?

Vivecraft is a mod that turns the original PC Java edition of Minecraft into a VR experience, and it works in both room-scale and seated play. You need to already own the PC Java edition of Minecraft to use it — Vivecraft is not a standalone game and does not replace your Minecraft purchase. It supports Minecraft versions 1.7.10 and 1.10 through 1.20.1, with individual download links listed on the site's Downloads page.

What Vivecraft actually changes

Vivecraft is not a separate VR game built from scratch. It modifies Minecraft so that your headset and motion controllers drive the same world, blocks, and survival mechanics you already know. Because Minecraft blocks are 1 meter in size, room-scale play makes them feel genuinely large — the site notes you'll be surprised how big they really are.

The mod also adds a world-scaling option, so you can shrink or grow your own size in the world and play as an ant or a giant.

Core VR features

The feature list is built around doing Minecraft actions with your body rather than a keyboard:

• Full roomscale support — walk around your physical room to move through the world as you mine and build.
• Motion-based actions — break blocks and fight by swinging your hands, and shoot a bow by drawing and aiming two-handed.
• Physical movement — climb, swim, run, jump, sneak, eat, crawl, and row by actually performing the motion.
• Context-sensitive interactions — doors, pistons, levers, animals, buckets, and more respond to natural interactions.
• Multiple locomotion options — arc teleportation (with optional limitations for a balanced survival experience), free movement in the direction you point your controller or head, a walkabout-style rotation for 100% room-scale movement, seated WASD play in your look direction, and Climbey-inspired wall-scaling and leaping.

Hardware and play styles

Vivecraft works best in roomscale with SteamVR-compatible hardware such as the HTC Vive or Cosmos, Valve Index, Oculus Rift S, and WMR headsets. It also supports seated play with a mouse and keyboard, and is optimized for standing play with motion controllers.

Mobile VR devices — Oculus Quest, GearVR, PSVR, Daydream, Cardboard, and Vive Focus — can run it through SteamVR emulators. If you have a Quest or Quest 2, the site points to separate setup instructions.

Multiplayer and modding support

Vivecraft works in single player, LAN multiplayer, and server multiplayer. Server plugins are available for Spigot and Forge to enhance the VR multiplayer experience.

For modding, all standalone versions include Optifine for performance and shader support, and the Forge modding platform is supported on most standalone versions. Starting with Minecraft 1.18, Vivecraft is available as a Fabric and Forge compatible mixin mod.

Two extras are worth knowing if you play with others or stream:

• The Vivecraft NonVR Companion mod lets non-VR friends see your head and hand movements in multiplayer, so 2D players can see each other's VR movements too.
• For streamers, Vivecraft supports mixed reality and undistorted desktop mirroring.

A quick history

Vivecraft began in 2013 as Minecrift, created by mabrowning and StellaArtois as a seated-VR mod for Oculus Rift development kits, before developing into the room-scale-capable mod it is today.

Who it's for

Vivecraft is a good fit if you already own PC Java edition Minecraft, have a SteamVR-compatible headset, and want to play the same game in VR rather than a VR-specific Minecraft clone. If you only own Bedrock edition, or you're looking for a standalone VR title that doesn't require a Minecraft purchase, Vivecraft is not the right tool — it depends on the Java edition as its base.