Short answer: No

Long answer: Probably not, but not for the reasons most people will usually state.

Ultimately everyone should make their own decisions but if you chose to purchase vorpX – Just know you were warned about the risks here. If you’re the kind of person that is happy to to take the risk and you like what you see then go for it. If you want clearly defined software with contractually guaranteed updates then walk away. Set your expectations accordingly.

The usual arguments against vorpX are technical ones. People say that UEVR – A free and open source way to add 6 DOF VR to any Unreal engine 4 or 5 game – Is a better solution and has no cost. For non unreal engine games Depth3D is often quoted as a less robust but FoSS alternative to vorpX. Others put their hopes in the upcoming open source Wiz3D project which attempts to revive AMD HD3D/NVIDIA 3D vision in order to add stereoscopic 3d support for a host of games (not necessarily just for VR).

The reality is that vorpX as a technical solution has a lot to offer. A range of games and VR headsets are supported out of the box, the developers continue to release new versions and bug fixes. It’s been around long enough to become well known in the PC VR space. So why don’t I recommend it?

Why don’t I recommend vorpX in 2026?

In a word: Licensing.

The vorpX license and software release structure is just abysmal. It’s not so much poorly designed as it is non-existent. There is no business strategy to the product release; No upgrade paths, no clear support durations and no guarantees for future support. The entire licensing support process lacks professionalism and structure. This makes the entire process feel opaque and dishonest. It does not feel like a professional software offering.

Software distribution: Unlike most software, there is no online portal for vorpX. Everything is done the forums and support email. It has a distinct one-man-band feel to the entire process and every time you want access to the software you have to manually email the vorpX team to get a time-limited link to the software. If you need to reinstall and don’t have your original installer – You send an email or complete a web form and wait for the email response.

Software upgrades: When you make the above requests you’re at the mercy of vorpX as to whether or not you’ll be granted the next release. You might be sent the software or if vorpX feel like you got your moneys worth they might refuse and tell you to ‘upgrade’.

License upgrades: So as an existing customer, you wish to ‘upgrade’ your license to entitle you to the newest versions. How do you do that? Buy the product again at the original purchase price. There is no upgrade path or separation of product license and product support as has been common with paid software solutions for decades.

Product life cycle: The product structure is bad. There is a single vorpX product which you purchase a license with no guarantees of updates. You may have an expectation of updates for an undefined period of time – At the sole discretion of vorpX with no commitments made to this effect. This means you can continue to use the software but have no guarantees for how long and if future changes in VR will be supported.

There is no transparent distinction between when one persons purchase ultimately expires versus another or if there is the decision making process is not public and entirely opaque to the end user.

How did I get to this conclusion?

I originally purchased vorpX in 2017. With the Steam Frame around the corner I decided to request a copy of the software to I could see what the state was. When I requested this I received the following email:

The email opens quite unprofessionally and defensively telling me that they don’t owe me updates and if I want to keep using the software I need to give them more money.

I thought I was purchasing a perpetual license for a piece of software. So I went to check, What did I actually buy?

What are you actually buying? 2017 Edition

So what did I see when I purchased vorpX in 2017?

So the web page mentions I am ordering the vorpX software and makes no mention that this purchase is for a specific version or that it’s only for a limited time. This for all intents and purposes looks like I’m purchasing a perpetual license for a piece of software. In retrospect however there are some clear and transparent terms attached. So what are they?

So the terms clarify that I am purchasing a license for all 0.x versions (Beta), The 1.0 release and all subsequent 1.x updates. So this means I am entitled to at least the latest 1.x release.

Despite it’s unprofessional nature – What the email is saying now makes a little sense and is perfectly valid – The 1.x software has been deprecated and my license is no longer valid. This would be fair because no-one expects to get software updates indefinitely. I would however expect to be notified of changes that would affect my ability to use my purchase. That said – I’m out of the loop. I haven’t used the software for a long time so lets see if I was notified.

• Email from vorpX? No
• News article/Blog post on their website? No
• Pinned forum post? No

Back to the email – Legacy version

The e-mail claims I don’t have a license for the current release and need to purchase one or I can use the legacy release for which I am licensed. As we discovered above I am eligible for the latest 1.x releases. So what did vorpX send me:

The web updater linked in the email is marked version 21.2.0.1. It downloads the installer for the software and installs it:

The installer is for version 8.1.5.0. So how does this relate to the terms and conditions to which I am bound? Installing the software reveals this that it is version 1.8.1.5

In April 2016 (over a year before I purchased vorpX) the version numbering on the website changed to reflect the year instead of the decimal version numbering referred to in the terms and conditions. So it’s not actually clear where the cut off existed – Was there ever a 1.x release? Without access to legacy versions there’s no way for me to know.

So i raised the question to VorpX directly raising my concerns around the lack of transparency regarding the cut-off:

In response I received the following answer:

So they did actually confirm my understanding that I had a license valid for all 1.x releases and confirming that this is a perpetual license. They also confirmed they made significant bug-fixes to the April 2018 release and that this was the version I received. It was still not clear for me what the cut off was with regards to the versioning. As these were breaking issues resolved I can only assume that every version received these upgrades but that they chose to use the April 2018 version as the basis for this ‘legacy’ version meaning that from a feature perspective this is the latest ‘content’ update I would ever receive.

At this point in time I’m committed to purchasing the license again to get a supported release so I start to do a bit of due diligence and check what I am actually going to get for my €40 and if it represents good value for money. After reading a few Reddit comments of similar experiences from vorpX support (https://www.reddit.com/r/vorpx/comments/1d0ydn8/psa_the_dev_ralf_can_and_will_remove_your_vorpx/) and not finding anything official regarding these changes – I decided to document the response here to bring some clarity to the situation.

I asked support to clarify my concern around the license terms versioning and published versioning inconsistency and asked what I could expect if I re-purchased the software. At this point I was not opposed to re-purchasing the software but I wanted my decision to be informed. For transparency I indicated that I would be publishing their response.

In response vorpX ignored my request for clarification on the software versioning and instead further justified their decision to end software support. They also refused to explicitly define what purchasing an additional license would guarantee me as it’s not defined anywhere.

So to summarize – There are no guarantees for software updates when purchasing a new version but you can ‘expect’ some updates. It was at this point I decided not to purchase the license due to the massive uncertainty and the ‘trust-me-bro’ answer regarding what my €40 investment would actually get me.

What are you actually buying? 2026 Edition

So when you go to purchase vorpX today – What are you actually purchasing? The purchase link leads to lemonsqueezy.com and this is the description.

So there’s a price and a description. Like before there’s no indication on the terms of this software license does not guarantee updates in offering but unlike before – There is no link to the terms of the software. Instead we get a standard link to the Lemon Squeezy terms: https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/buyer-terms

These terms simply state that the EULA for vorpX applies. So where is the EULA for vorpX clearly displayed before purchase?

I couldn’t find it.

What I could find was more interesting. Although there are no direct links to it on the website – The updated terms and conditions are still present on the vorpX website (As of May 2026).

Terms and Conditions

And these are largely identical to those I would have committed to upon my purchase but with most of the Beta references removed. The key definition of what software updates I am entitled do remain unchanged.

So assuming these terms still apply – Brand new users don’t actually have any license entitlements compared to someone that purchased a decade ago.

So what did I actually get in 2017?

I paid a sum of £36.99 in 2017 on and for that i got:

• Feature updates for 6 months, 6 days (3rd October 2017 – 9th April 2018)
  • This was from my purchase date to the 18.1.0.5 release)
• Bug-fix updates for 7 years, 8 months, 4 weeks, 1 day (2nd July 2025)
  • This is estimated based on the last modified date on the vorpX executables)

The feature update duration is disappointing but to give vorpX credit – They did release a substantial bug fix for major breaking changes in 2025. The bug fix is beyond my expectations but supplying that to such an old feature release is disapointing.

So what will YOU get if you purchase vorpX in 2026?

To end our email exchange I emailed vorpX for clarification and posed the question:

And their response was:

So there you have it: You can ‘expect‘ free updates for an unspecified amount of time but you actually have zero guarantees.

vorpX are under no obligation to provide anything. You might get updates, you might not. it’s up to the whims of the developer to decide.

Closing thoughts

No-one expects a product (even software) to last forever – but the product needs to be managed. When Meta unveil a new VR headset they offer continuing support. They do not offer support indefinitely. They set a clear expectation of when the product will no longer be supported and provide advance notice of the fact and the implications of that fact.

All of these issues could have been resolved with better communication and product management.

• Have a proper and transparent life cycle for the product with a defined guaranteed support period which is pubically displayed at the point of purchase so there can be no confusion around what the license entitles the purchaser to and for how long.
  • The license can be tied to a fixed duration, a product (e.g. a headset or windows version) or number of versions – there are plenty of ways other companies structure their product to forecast effort and ensure income exceeds the effort.
    • A subscription is possible also but indicated as not a desirable path for the developer. That said many Reddit comments support this as an option.
  • If support/upgrades is not guaranteed – The purchase page must explicitly state that the purchase is for the current version and that any future upgrades are not guaranteed and delivered on a best effort basis.
  • Have formal announcements of version deprecation – Make it clear when a version becomes unsupportable. If vorpX want’s to release patches after this date – Just like all of the major software vendors have done in past – They can. Doing this however leaves vorpX with all of the risk and leads to a situation where the income from sales and the effort to maintain the product do not match. This is not a sustainable way to build commercial software.
• Have clear and fair communication. If the initial communication I received was clear that I purchased a license with terms that guaranteed me updates for all 1.x releases and now we are on version that exceeds this – Fine. That’s clear, logical and straight forward. When the communication begins by patronizingly trying to jump three steps ahead of me in an argument that we aren’t having – It leaves a sour taste.
  • Every single email I received from vorpX was emotionally charged. Every single email felt like I was dealing with a hot-headed developer who assumed I was calling their baby ugly. This clearly isn’t the first time someone has voiced similar opinions or posed similar questions and it felt like I was being dragged into an existing argument that I didn’t start.
  • None of what I have discussed has ever been pubically addressed. Despite having the means via the website, blog posts and email to users – The topic has been largely kept quiet. There are multiple Reddit users complaining but also disagreeing on how it’s handled.
  • The application of the license ‘expiration’ is applied inconsistently – Rightly or wrongly leading to a feeling of inequality and injustice. If you have the installer already – In most cases you can continue to use a newer version until it’s possibly arbitrarily forcefully removed but again it’s not transparent.
• Develop a better method of software distribution.
  • vorpX has been going for over a decade and yet they still use the same mix of WordPress and email and it’s just clunky and outdated

Over the course of four emails I went from trying to understand what I had originally purchased. Then to actively ready to re-purchase vorpX and trying to understand what it was I was potentially purchasing and finally to completely losing faith in the company and product. I don’t think it’s unreasonable in 2026 to expect that software you purchase a license for has a guaranteed lifespan defined in some way or another.

I will not be re-purchasing vorpX for use in 2026 and this interaction was so negative that I be asking for vorpX to delete my existing granted license as I have no intention of ever using it again.

Update: SAR and erasure request

As indicated above I reached out to vorpX via a separate email to their data protection contact to make a Subject access request prior to making my erasure request. They replied back from the support email and the exchange speaks for itself:

This response concerned me as it implied that they wouldn’t action my request believing they knew better somehow. Once deleted the license is gone so this implied that the license would remain in some way. A vendor can refuse an erasure request under the GDPR but obviously only in specific circumstances – None of which applied here. I asked for clarification my erasure request:

And the response was in-line with all earlier responses so far – still trying to justify rather than address the direct concerns raised. At no point were my support request and SAR/Erasure request linked leading me to conclude it just so happened to be the same person behind the exchange – Who this is I can only speculate as it’s not transparent coming from the “vorpX team”.

So exchange just further reinforced my opinion that vorpX were not a company I wanted to deal with in the future.

Following this exchange I financially donated in excess of what vorpX costs to the following projects as being projects that further the stereoscopic gaming space in a free and open source way:

• https://github.com/effcol/wiz3D
• https://github.com/BlueSkyDefender/Depth3D
• https://github.com/crosire/reshade
  

All of these projects are ones to keep an eye on in the future.