QuestCraft makes Minecraft: Java Edition playable on Quest 2

(Image credit: QuestCraft)

Minecraft VR has been available on Oculus headsets since 2016, but Microsoft's official app is based upon the Bedrock edition of Minecraft. The PC-exclusive Java edition of Minecraft, which still has a heavy user-base, has yet to receive any official VR treatment.

Step forward QuestCraft, a newly released mod that enables VR compatibility for Minecraft Java. Announced earlier this week, QuestCraft's reveal was accompanied by a trailer showing the mod in action. You can view the video below, but it enables full head-tracking in Minecraft, and adjusts UI features like menus to be functional in VR, ie, letting you move items around in a pop-up inventory window. It also enables touch controls to a limited degree. You can move your arms around, but it appears that interactions are primarily button-based.

QuestCraft requires an existing version of Minecraft Java to use, acting as a 'wrapper' that launches Minecraft on your quest. It's currently in Beta, with performance reported as being not great by VR specialist site UploadVR. On the mod's github page, the developers of the mod claim this is "because Minecraft is a very badly optimized game".

You can download QuestCraft via the Github page, which also supplies instructions for installation. Fair word of warning, the installation process is quite complicated, and requires a third-party mod-installation service like SideQuest or QuestToolBox. The Github page also recommends a list of mods to help improve performance, such as Cull Leaves and Lithium among others.

As for why you'd want a slightly janky VR mod for Minecraft Java, rather than playing the official Minecraft VR app, the short answer is that Minecraft Java supports a wide range of mods that either aren't catered for at all by the Bedrock edition, or have to be purchased separately. If you just want to play vanilla Minecraft in VR, then the official app is the one to go for. But if you've got your own Java-based Minecraft server customised with a bunch of mods, or simply don't want to buy Minecraft again, then QuestCraft allows you to step into that world and gawp at it in stereoscopic 3D.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.