FUS - Fundamentals, Updates, and Stuff

FUS is a fundamental and modular modlist for Skyrim VR made by Kvitekvist and Cangar. It offers 5 profiles:

FUS (Basic): Including the barebones for a good VR experience.
FUS RO (Basic + Visuals): Also includes some visual improvements.
FUS DAH (Basic + Gameplay): Includes basics and gameplay changes, but no visual changes.
FUS RO DAH (Basic + Visuals + Gameplay): Also includes several mods that alter gameplay, both VR-specific and general ones. User are expected to deselect mods from all optional categories, as we ship it with most optional mods enabled. This does not mean that we recommened using all overhauls.
CANGAR: Basically FUS RO DAH with my personal choice of optional mods.

Here is a video guide on how to install the list.

NOTE: We only provide support on unmodified versions of FUS.

Join the discord for support, chat, and sharing experiences and screenshots!

Unlike most wabbajack modlist, FUS is very modular. It is meant to be used by people who either want to get Skyrim VR running with a generally vanilla-lore-friendly overhaul and never come back, or by people who want to start their own totally personal modlist but don't want to bother with the basic stuff (in that case use the FUS - green basics, the actual essentials for Skyrim VR).

So in this list, only the FUS profile is meant to be absolutely essential. The rest is what we personally find to be a nice vanilla-friendly setup that users can either just use or butcher at their taste and level of competence ;)

The list is made to be extremely performant while retaining a good level of visual quality, and we provide different setups of quality vs performance within the list. Cangar can play it on a laptop with a mobile 1070 with a Valve Index, but you can also make full use of a desktop RTX 4090, depending on your setup and VR headset.

The entire modlist can be found at the bottom of this page. Mod authors appreciate an endorsement! :)

You need about 45gb download volume and 115gb free disk space.

FUS does not support pirated versions of the game. Do not attempt to install it if you did not buy the game legally, it will not work. Do not come asking for help.

FUS
Installation
How to start up FUS
- First Boot
- First steps in the game
What's in the box?! The modlist
- Noteworthy gameplay mods
Performance adjustment
FAQ
Troubleshooting
Updating FUS
- Removing FUS
Changelog

Join the discord for support, chat, and sharing experiences and screenshots!

Installation

FUS requires a completely clean Skyrim VR folder!

The installation may look like a good amount of work but the process is fast and you just need to follow the steps :) Do not despair! Don't run away! If you feel like anything is unclear please join the discord and let us know! We will do our best to clear things up and add the clarification for the next user.

First time installation, PC preparation

These steps are only needed if you install FUS for the first time. If you update the modlist, jump straight to Updating!

Follow all steps on this page to prepare your PC to install FUS. This includes requirements, cleaning Skyrim, and installing Wabbajack.

Download and installation of the FUS modlist

The installation process of the FUS list is straightforward and described here.

If you run into any issues see the wabbajack troubleshooting page. If the installation is successful, proceed to Post-Installation.

Post-installation

You need to open MO2 ModOrganizer.exe from within the FUS folder. If you had a different MO2 installed previously, do not use that one.

DO NOT RUN LOOT! Every time you run LOOT a kitten dies and we cry in the corner. The load order is exactly as it should be, do not change it. In case you changed it you can recover it with the Restore button. Such a button exists for the mod order as well as the plugins order.

Select the profile of your choice

FUS is a fundamental modlist for Skyrim VR that offers 4 profiles.

FUS (Basic): Including the barebones for a good VR experience.
FUS RO (Basic + Visuals): Also includes some appearance improvements.
FUS DAH (Basic + Gameplay): Includes basics and gameplay changes, but no visual changes.
FUS RO DAH (Basic + Visuals + Gameplay): Also includes several mods that alter gameplay, both VR-specific and general ones.
CANGAR: FUS RO DAH with my choice of optionals (almost all). Choose this if you want to follow and replay my Youtube series.

Of course you can also select your own choices from the profiles. If you want to use optional mods, it is better to use the FUS RO DAH or Cangar profiles and deselect mods than to use the lower profiles and selecting optional mods. This is to preserve the correct load order. If you add optional mods you should make sure that the load order to the right in MO2 has DynDOLOD and Synthesis as the last plugins.

The green parts are really the mods that we think no Skyrim VR mod list should be without. The blue parts contain a selection of audio/visual/architecture/armory/NPC overhauls that we think is fine to work as standalone. This is personal preference and just a selection we made and like. The yellow parts are our choice of gameplay improvements/changes. These deviate from vanilla and mostly make the game more interesting and challenging, or just overall improve the feeling. Obviously, these are personal preference, too. You are expected to go over all the optional mods and deslect all the mods that dont fit your style. ALL MODS IN YELLOW CATEGORY ARE OPTIONAL. For instance, if the game is too hard, then this is because you opted to use the enemy overhaul mods in category 3.2. The optional LOD files contain DynDoLOD generated files that enhance the visuals in the distance. These cost performance but make a big difference!

Mod authors appreciate an endorsement! :)

Surprise: DO NOT TOUCH the files that are marked as such.

Choose your setup

Since FUS is modular by nature, we do NOT expect you to activate all mods. After choosing the profile you like, it is time to start choosing mods.

Boot files

Near the top of MO2 in FUS, you activate opencomposite, Upscaler, ReShade and maybe other mods if you want.

Choose controller bindings

In the green MO2 in category Controller Bindings we provide several bindings options. The default vanilla options are not recommended, but there are different options to select which is very much personal preference.

Please have a look at our detailed controller binding guide where you can find info about the different options and what exactly the bindings do in the game. Really, read that guide for sure, it will help you understand what's going on when you are in the game.

No matter the controller binding you use inside Skyrim, if you use the Valve Index controllers you need to enable the VRIK SteamVR bindings in addition: Navigate to your SteamVR Settings -> Devices -> Controller Settings. Click on Manage Controller Bindings. Select The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimVR from the drop down list. Click "Edit this Binding" (you may need to click the "Custom" button to make it appear). A new window will pop up. You may need to click Back in the top-left. Make sure it shows your Index Controllers as the Current Controller - Change it if necessary. A list of Community bindings should become visible. Find and select the "VRIK Index Controller Bindings V2.1.0" in the list. Be careful not to select the older V1.0.0 or V2.0.0 bindings by mistake, as this will not work. Selecting the VRIK Index Controller Bindings V2.1.0 here will complete the process. This can also be done when the game was already started from inside the SteamVR settings menu in VR.

Note: Always remember to turn on your controllers before starting SkyrimVR, or you will encounter game-breaking bugs! This is important no matter which VR headset you use.

VR FPS Stabilizer

AutoConfig feature is NOT compatible with OpenComposite, so FUS has disabled this part of the mod to have a version that works for all users with or without opencomposite.

This mod has a separate category. It smooths your framerate by automatically lowering some LOD distance settings when your GPU can't keep the framerate. It doesn't perform miracles but it's pretty handy when you're sometimes fine, and sometimes fall into reprojection.

Insects Begone

We want to make this list as inclusive as we can so we ship an option to remove insects (spiders and chaurus). You can find three optional mods at the end of the blue section. Only choose one of them! FYI: We decided not to remove the webs because this breaks some NPCs.

NOTE: If you want to use these you absolutely have to rerun Synthesis and make sure the Synthesis.esp is at the bottom of the plugins section at the right hand side of MO2! Otherwise the water will be broken, or you don't fully remove all insects and their stuff. Check this guide at the bottom for more info.

Other

One additional thing you might want to change is Auto Sneak and Jump, this mod will make it so your sneaking is automatically determined by your head height. If this mod is enabled, playing seated will mean you sneak all the time, so disable this mod if you want to play seated. Additionally you might want to adjust the sneak height in the ini of the mod (right click > show files in explorer) if you feel like sneak doesn't work how you want it. We disabled the auto jump because we don't like it too much but you can of course also enable it again.

Another mod you might or might not like is Mute the Music which, surprise, makes the game not play most music. Some tavern songs are still played but in general most music is gone. This is enabled only in the Cangar profile for immersion reasons. Safe to enable/disable anytime.

Lastly, Magic Improvements for Skyrim VR has an option to change the magic cast angle. We have set it to show magic out of the palm, not like the default pistol shooting style, but if you prefer the latter, you can use the other version below it.

We also have plently of additional optional gameplay mods that we discuss in the noteworthy mods section.

If you want to use optional mods, it is better to use the FUS RO DAH or Cangar profiles and deselect mods than to use the lower profiles and selecting optional mods. This is to preserve the correct load order. If you add optional mods you should make sure that the load order to the right in MO2 has DynDOLOD and Synthesis as the last plugins.

How to start up FUS

Note: Always remember to turn on your controllers before starting SkyrimVR, or you will encounter game-breaking bugs! This is important no matter which VR headset you use.

Head over to the installation folder and locate the executable named ModOrganizer.exe and launch it. If you already had MO2 installed, you cannot use your own MO2 version, you have to use the one provided by FUS. Once its launched there will be a dropdown box on the top right and a big Run button next to it. Ensure it is set to Play FUS by selecting it in the dropdown box and then hitting the Run button.

This has to be done each time you want to play Skyrim VR!

You cannot start Skyrim VR from Steam, always use MO2. Best make a shortcut and put it on the desktop. There's a button for this right next to the Run button :)

IMPORTANT: Skyrim VR is very particular about controllers. Make absolutely sure Steam VR (if you use it) and your controllers are switched on before starting the game!

First Boot

On your first boot, dont change any mods. Do NOT enable any additional Community Shaders, ReShade or upscaler mod. Do not enable opencomposite. These are optional, but make sure the game boots without them first. Community Shaders will compile, which takes a while. If you change Community Shader features later, it will recompile. Best in that case is to clear overwrite, by going to the bottom of MO2 and right clicking on Overwrite and selecting Clear Overwrite.

Notes: DLAA and DLSS requires an RTX graphics cards. FSR works with any graphics card, but can cause a black box in the screen. You can try enabling and disabling TAA in the periphery by toggling the option in within the upscaler menu by pressing the END key on your keyboard. You will see this menu on the PC monitor.

First steps in the game

You can skip the intro by using the mods Ralof or Hadvar or Realm of Lorkhan (both in the green section). When starting the game with Realm of Lorkhan you will find yourself in the Realm of Lorkhan, not in the standard intro of Skyrim. Realm of Lorkhan replaces the intro and adds some variety to starting a character (see the RoL mod page for details). You teleport into the world using the crystals. The main quest is started by either running through the Bleak Falls Barrow dungeon, or by talking to Jarl Balgruuf in Whiterun.

When you created your character and are in the game you should first make a save - load cycle to make sure all mods are properly initialized. You can calibrate VRIK by using the VRIK Calibration Power while standing on a flat surface ingame (it will also auto-trigger the first time). Then be sure to check the Mod Configuration settings in the game and set stuff up how you want it. We have a collection of MCM recordings that will automatically run and set your game up. You can still check these mods for individual preferences (see their mod pages for more info):

VRIK: Here you can fine-tune the calibration (i.e. longer arms/smaller hands, etc, I strongly recommend testing the hand sizes of 0.5 or 2 at least once for shits and giggles. Trust me, just do it.)
Weapon Throw VR: This mod comes with many presets and is very strong by default. If you want to use it take your time to adjust everything to your liking. There is a preset made by me, this makes weapon throw impactful but costly, so they kind of replace power attacks for me.
Spell Wheel VR: Here you can adjust what you see in the spell selection wheel, and you can also change which button summons the wheel.
Simply Balanced: Very detailed options to adjust balance and difficulty of the game.

What's in the box?! The modlist

We ship all the little bits and pieces that fix things, improve the basic quality of life, and naturally we include all the cool VR specific mods that bring the game to the level of a modern VR game. Most notably that is VRIK giving you a body, HIGGS VR giving you gravity gloves and weapon physics collisions (not with enemy weapons unfortunately), Spell Wheel VR giving you a spell and other stuff selection wheel like Blade and Sorcery, Weapon Throw VR to - well - throw your weapons, and many more! But also other necessities like USSEP, SkyUI VR, True 3D sound, Engine Fixes VR, SkyVRaan (enabling fake water reflections). Of course, we also have a basic selection for overhauls of trees, architecture, weather, lighting, characters, objects, weapons, armors. And lastly, we offer a small selection of gameplay mods that increase the difficulty a bit, make the game more interesting, improve some stuff here and there.

We do not feature quest additions, nor added regions or dungeons. However, the list is extremely lightweight and compatibility should not be much of a problem, so you can add them yourself if you like.

Here you can check out our complete mod list.

Noteworthy gameplay mods

All VR Gameplay Mods are important, and you should also check out the Optional VR Gameplay Mods and the Gameplay Overhauls in addition and select your choices. Definitely check out the mod pages for details about the mods! In this section we don't discuss visual mods (blue section) since these do not alter gameplay, but you can check them out in our complete mod list.

VR Gameplay Mods

Green section

HIGGS - Hand collision, object grabbing, and gravity gloves-style mechanics for Skyrim VR, all-around must-have mod! I show some of its features in this video. Now also includes two-handing weapons, physical weapon collisions, and an automatic fix for the physics engine.
VRIK Player Avatar - Gives you a body, weapon holsters, gestures for magic and shouts, and finger animations for oculus and index users. Watch this setup guide video to get the most out of it. Run the "VRIK Calibration" power to calibrate the body height and VR scale (in that order).
Spell Wheel VR - Selection wheel mod for Skyrim VR. It allows you to select spells, weapons, shields, arrows, potions, poisons, food, torch and more without going into a menu very quickly by the press of a button or button combinations to spawn the wheel and hold your hand over the item and letting go of the button. It's equipped automatically. Also shows health, stamina, magicka, enchantment, and needs bars on your wrist (configurable).
Swap Drop and Hold - Add some extra VR interactivity by adding spells for equipping weapons you're holding using HIGGs, dropping weapons you have equipped, or swapping weapons between your left and right hands. Assign the spells to VRIK gestures to have it work immersively.
Weapon Throw VR - You can throw weapons now and they return like Thor's Hammer! I also made a video about it and an update video about returning weapons. It is very strong by default so a setup using the Mod Configuration is recommended.
Pseudo Physical Weapon Collision and Parry - Adds weapon blocking with slow-motion and stamina cost. The intensity, cost, and chip damage depends on your controller velocity on impact.
Magic Improvements for Skyrim VR - Vastly improved dual casting, spell effect size scales based on magicka percentage, and additional options for aiming spells in VR. By default the spells are cast from your palms now, if you want to shoot them like a pistol, set the angles in the MIS VR ini file to 0.
No Stagger Mod - Stagger is shite in VR so this mod disables it.
Simple Realistic Archery - Changes archery so you have to get an arrow from your quiver at the back, can easily use different arrows.
Locational Damage VR - Headshots do extra damage! Tune up the difficulty and git gud scrub.

Optional VR Gameplay Mods

Green section

Navigate VR - This mod brings immersive navigation to VR with a functional compass, and equipable maps that may be holstered. In this video I show the functions.
Physical Dodge VR - This mod allows you to initiate a slow time effect with visual feedback (white haze) with a few invincibility-frames by physically moving your body in VR! Three methods to trigger dodging are included to accommodate any size playspace.
Be Seated - Do you want to drink a virtual mug of ale or eat a home cooked meal in one of Skyrims taverns? Have the ability to sit anywhere you choose while trekking through the wilderness? Perhapes you dream of a more immsersive sleep system which allows you to actually use beds? Be Seated can now provide these functions and more!

Optional Gameplay Mods

Yellow section

Adamant - Adamant is a lightweight "vanilla-plus" perk overhaul that improves build diversity, but respects the vanilla vision and balance. It is lightweight and uses clean scripting. We recommend and use the whole "Simonrim" suite (named after the author).
Blade and Blunt - Combat overhaul to make the game more interesting, yellow gameplay section.
Skyrim Revamped - Complete Enemy Overhaul - Enemy Overhaul focusing on enemy variation and hard boss battles. No shame in lowering the game difficulty settings with this enabled, it makes the combats harder and more interesting.
Strike Obstruction Systems - Combat Blocking Overhaul - Blocking can now mitigate damage from blocked Spells, Shouts, Enchants, and Poisons. Timed Blocks slow time and provide greater mitigation, redirect parried arrows & spells, and inflict various debuffs. All features configurable via MCM. If you use it check the mod page of Pseudo Physical Weapon Collision and Parry for compatibility notes.
MArc - Muken's Arcane Archery - An arcane archer is a hybrid archer/caster class, who combines their archery skills with conjuration and destruction spells. They can shoot arcane and elemental arrows of five different types that they summon with their own magicka, modify them with 16 different "sigil" effect spells, and engrave them with spells they know.
Spellsiphon - Optional magic gameplay mod (yellow section), very intuitive and cool once you get the hang of it, can also be used in conjunction with archery and melee playstyles. You can watch this little introduction and tutorial video to see what it does in general. It also has an ingame tutorial that explains every step.
Mysticism - Balances and adds new spells to the game.
Spellforge - Tired of crowded spell vendors? Want to filter your spell selection by level, school and sub-type (e.g. Fire)? Want to feel like a powerful mage making their own spells in a torrent of arcane flames and unleashed power? Stop eating tomes and instead try out a more immersive, configurable and fun way to expand your spell book.
Conduit - When holding a weapon in one hand and a spell in the other, you are able to temporarily "conduct" the spell through that weapon. Different categories of spells make the weapon do different things. Activate the mod in the MCM or by reading the book.
Realistic AI Detection - This is a recalibration of Skyrim's detection formula, which improves the balanced and realism of sneaking. Enemies will have enhanced sight and hearing abilities, and will search longer when alerted. We provide our own adjusted version.
Swearing Mudcrabs - You didn't know you needed this, but you do.

Here you can check out our complete mod list.

Performance adjustment

In general, FUS default performance should be good. Depending on your system, you might need to adjust it to improve it, or you might have enough headroom to crank up some settings.

We wrote a detailed guide on how to understand and adjust your ingame performance.

FAQ

The game is really blurry

Should not be blurry if you enabled a sharpener (Reshade). Make sure dynamic resolution is off! Blur can also be caused by wireless connection compression. Make sure your router setup is up to the best possible speed. For more detailed support, you can join our discord.

Why is my performance so bad?

See above.

I have a root builder error!

In MO2, Press the Jiggsaw icon, then choose Root builder >> Clear
Scroll to the bottom of the modlist, find the mod named "overwrite", right click on it and choose "Clear Overwrite".
Done. You can now play the game.

Continue reading to learn why this happens.

You pressed unlock when MO2 was running. Don't press unlock. This prevents files from being placed into and removed from the skyimvr folder, causing boot issues.
The game crashed. If the game crashes then the cleanup step is skipped, and files that should be cleaned up are not. This can cause issues if you then disable mods that placed files in the skyrimvr.
There are conflicting files in the Overwrite folder If you enabled a mod like upscaler (DLAA, DLSS, FSR), Reshade, opencomposite, ENB (not supported by FUS), and maybe others, then these mods could place files in the overwrite folder. Meaning that if you for example disable opencomposite, then opencomposite files could remain in the overwrite folder which is allways active. When you boot, these files will be loaded and it could cause a crash \ boot fail.

I want to manually change the ini files and its tedious!

If you have access to an in-VR desktop environment, like Oculus Dash, you can change the ini file & update it in-game on the fly using the 'refini' console command. This lets you test out ini setting changes really quickly without having to restart the game. You can still use refini without such an in-VR desktop environment, just slide your headset up on your head to change the values on your PC & input the refini command. For more detailed support, you can join our discord and ask in the support channel.

I see you are using USSEP from the Nexus, but I do not see the Skyrim VR - USSEP Compatibility Patch

USSEP thing is baked into cleaned master mod.

The LOOT tool missing

LOOT is removed because running it will break the modlist.

I added / changed some mods. What are your settings for rerunning DynDoLOD and Synthesis?

You can find them in the wiki.

Troubleshooting

The Discord bot has a list of handy commands with instructions on how to overcome common problems. If none of these resolve your issue, the Discord has a support channel for questions about unmodified FUS modlists of the most current version.

Updating FUS

If this Modlist receives an update please check the changelog before doing anything. Always backup your saves or start a new game after updating. Some updates are savefile-friendly, some are not, this is usually stated in the update. As a general rule, updates with the third number changing (e.g. from 4.1.18 to 4.1.19) are savefile-friendly, any other updates are not.

Wabbajack will reset your VRIK settings when updating! You can save them by backing up the three ini files in the VRIK/SKSE/Plugins folder and putting them back in after you updated.

Wabbajack will delete all files that are not part of the Modlist when updating!

This means that any additional mods you have installed on top of the Modlist will be deleted. Your downloads folder will not be touched!

You can prevent this deletion by manually renaming the mod to include the "[NoDelete] " flag (inlcuding the space!), e.g. if you installed "OBIS", it then needs to be renamed to "[NoDelete] OBIS" and it will not be removed during updating. You will still have to adjust the load order again after updating!

Other than this, updating is like installing. You only have to make sure that you select the same path and tick the overwrite button.

Again, do check the description/changelog of the update to get the necessary info.

Removing FUS

You can just remove the MO2 folder and be done with it. If you want to be absolutely sure, just do a clean install of Skyrim VR again (see clean Skyrim).

Changelog

You can find all changes of each version on the release page!

Kvitekvist / FUS

readme