First person camera for Hogwarts Legacy! (Patreon)

Update: I apologize for the issue with NPCs disappearing when using the first person camera, which was due to a mismatch between the released version and my internal development build. Please update to release 9.6.2 where the error has been corrected (always remember to run RealConfig.bat after extracting the new archive).

Dear Wizards and Witches (and Muggles too), I know you've been waiting for this!!

Release 9.6.1, attached at the bottom of the post, fixes a problem that has been annoying some of you (the "lockfree_table capacity exceeded" error that was popping up in Hogwarts Legacy), and most importantly adds a quick menu to the game from which you can now select my usual choice of cameras:

• "Game default": as the name says, this is the standard camera offered by the game, which works best during cutscenes—and perhaps also when combat gets very intense and you need to see your character and all that surrounds him/her at a glance. The game default camera can still be customized in VR using the offset controls available in the quick menu;
• "Closer": this bring the camera much closer to your character. The gameplay still feels distinctly third-person, but you're no longer floating away from the action like a drone or a kite :-) You can use the offset controls to customize precisely how near you want to be;
• "R.E.A.L. close": this gives you an over-the-shoulder perspective of the world, with your character pushed a bit more to the side to avoid blocking your view. The action feels way more immersive, as you're in the thick of battle and much closer to objects that you want to examine, but the position still allows for third-person gameplay;
• "First person": last but not least, this camera puts you in the shoes of your wizard/witch of choice, which makes the game completely immersive... although combat might be too hard in this mode. As usual the first person camera is my implementation (fancy word for hack), so expect all kinds of glitches and problems of various nature when using it.

I managed to hide the character while in first person mode, so you won't get the clipping you were used to from my Horizon: Zero Dawn, Elden Ring, and Dark Souls: Remastered mods for example. But unfortunately I haven't found a way yet to tell apart the portions that should really be hidden (like the models for the head, eyes, glasses, hair and hat) from those which should be left intact to get even better immersion and feeling of presence (the rest of the body, and most notably the broom when flying). So when in first person you'll feel like you were hiding under Harry Potter's invisibility cloak ;-)

The added cameras are still experimental and won't always work as intended. To switch quickly among them, I recommend using the preset system available in the quick menu. The 4 presets are already configured by default to each use one of the 4 different available cameras, so all you need to do is push both thumbsticks on your gamepad to enter the quick menu and then one of the 4 D-Pad buttons to select the appropriate preset. After your muscle memory has settled in and you no longer have to think about which button selects which camera, you'll see that switching for instance from first person (for exploration and the coolest flying) to game default (for things like cutscenes, the lockpick minigames, or intense combat) only takes a fraction of a second.

The game looks grandiose, and exploring the myriad of little details that make it feel really alive, and such a faithful depiction of the Harry Potter universe, in first person VR will give you an even stronger feeling of being transported to another reality. So I feel like recommending this game even to those of you who haven't tried it yet, perhaps because you're still pouring hundreds of hours into Cyberpunk 2077! Not naming any names, you know who you are []-D

Happy wizarding!!!