How To Add Oculus Rift Support Back To Alien: Isolation

Remember back at E3 in June when attendees were spooked by the Oculus-supported Alien: Isolation demo, and couldn't stop talking about how great it was? And then SEGA went on to say to Eurogamer that "At present, it's just a prototype and does not represent a game currently in development at this point in time. It's a truly amazing experience though and brings the game to life in ways we could not have imagined when we started the project. It's one of the most terrifying demos you'll ever play."?

Well, modders have found a simple way to put Oculus Rift support back in Alien: Isolation, and you can do it to.

Thanks to users on the Oculus Rift subreddit, enabling what is to be a solid and working Oculus Rift mode is as easy as modifying a few files. The step-by-step instructions are posted here with thanks to /u/hagg87, /u/popcorncrackle, and /u/Wookiee81 for their discovery.

1. Go from your Program Files to Steam, or wherever you install games. If you use Steam, and haven't changed any defaults, then look here.
2. In the Steam folder, go to the folder "steamapps"
3. Now go to the folder "common"
4. From here, enter the Alien: Isolation folder and find the DATA folder.
5.  In ENGINE_SETTINGS.XML change the stereo options to:

That's the hard part. Now to change a few settings with your Oculus:

1. Set the Oculus to extended mode.
2. In the oculus configuration utility pause the service.
3. Start the game.
4. To play the game normally, reactivate the service by opening the display mode and set it to "direct to rift" and viola.

According to those who have done this mod, everything works flawlessly, including the positional head-tracking features found on the latest Oculus kits. The only issues seem to be menus being "a little uncomfortable," head-tracking being disabled during cut scenes, pop ups aren't aligned properly at times, and the chromatic aberration needs tweaking. I'll admit, I'm not really sure what that means. I guess it's something that is slightly off, but not enough to ruin the experience. For those using an Xbox 360 controller when playing on their PC, you can recalibrate your orientation by pressing the LB and RB buttons at the same time. 

So there you go, Oculus users. You can now play through Alien: Isolation in one of the most fear-inducing ways possible. Now here's to hoping this mod doesn't get patched out with updates.