Sunday 30 June 2019
Saturday 29 June 2019
Friday 28 June 2019
Valve ‘Looking Into Several Methods’ For Wireless Index
During the Index VR headset launch party Valve CEO Gabe Newell stated that the company is “looking into several methods” for making the headset untethered:
“As I said, shipping a product is truly the beginning. There are some obvious next steps. It’s simple for us to broaden our distribution from outside the US and EU into other countries. There are obvious ways for us to lower the cost, there are obvious ways to make the product lighter, and to improve the ergonomics. But then we get to more speculative issues. We’re looking into several methods to do untethered Index. We have a lot of ideas for kind of revolutionary things to do with the display and optical technology. There are lots of opportunities to continue to improve the volumes that you’re tracked in and the simplicity with which you’re being tracked in those spaces.”
Valve worked with HTC to ship the first room scale VR system in 2016, the Vive. In 2018, HTC released a $300 wireless adapter for the Vive, but there’s no indication Valve had any involvement in this project, with HTC citing a partnership with Intel in making it possible.
More Difficult Than Expected?
Back in February 2017, Newell called wireless VR a “solved problem”.
“My expectation is that wireless will be an add-on in 2017, and then it will be an integrated feature in 2018”, Newell is quoted as saying during a press conference.
Shipping Index as a wired headset in 2019 could mean the company ran into technical hurdles with wireless, or simply that the cost was deemed too high.
But there is evidence that Valve have been working on wireless VR for at least four years now.
Nitero
Back in early 2016, Valve invested a “significant amount” in wireless VR technology startup Nitero. Nitero designed custom chips to deliver better performance and lower cost than other 60 GHz solutions.
In 2017, AMD acquired Nitero, including all its staff and property. It’s unknown how Valve’s investment in Nitero was handled in this acquisition, but AMD hasn’t said anything specific about wireless VR for the past two years now.
Job Listings & LinkedIn
Back in 2015, Valve added a job listing titled Software Engineer for VR & Hardware. Among the job Qualifications are “Video Compression” and “Wireless Technologies”.
In March of this year, Valve laid off 13 employees, including some working on VR hardware. Among these employees was Rob Rydberg. Rydberg’s LinkedIn profile states that at Valve he “Developed an FPGA-based VR system architecture, allowing for a tethered or untethered VR experience“, as well as “Discussed and refined hardware accelerated video encoding solutions for real-time streaming of high-resolution video”.
The mention of hardware accelerated video encoding could mean that Valve will use custom silicon to enable low latency encoding and decoding of a video stream. This also could reduce the cost of a potential adapter.
We’ll bring you any updates related to wireless and Valve Index.
Tagged with: Valve Corporation, valve index, wireless vr
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Oculus Rift S Patch Dramatically Improves Controller Tracking, Coming To Quest In Future
Oculus PC software Public Test Channel version 1.39 brings important improvements to Touch controller tracking on Oculus Rift S.
We tested the update today, and found that it dramatically improves controller tracking close to the headset, and noticeably reduces cases of controller occlusion breaking tracking.
Since the Oculus Quest uses the same Insight tracking system, it will also receive these improvements in a future firmware update.
Near Headset Controller Tracking
Before this patch, controller tracking would “stick” when a controller came too close to the headset. This was particularly noticeable in first person shooters when using two handed rifles, or when using a bow, or in fighting games like Creed when making a defensive pose.
In the weeks before launch, Oculus CTO John Carmack described this as “one of the hard poses for tracking, where the cameras can’t see a good selection of LEDs on the controller, and the LEDs are so big and glaring that they don’t look like the normal tracking dots”.
He did however state that the problem was being worked on, and that he expected improvements.
This update brings those improvements. Controllers can now be brought close to the headset–even touching the headset at some angles. This makes using rifles in shooters and bows in archery games a much more usable experience.
Controller Occlusion
The other major issue with controller tracking was how easily it would break when one controller occluded the other. Prior to this patch, any instance of one controller being moved in front of the other would break tracking.
With this patch this has now improved. While the change is not as dramatic as the close to headset improvements, it is noticeable and helps in games with two handed interactions such as shooters.
Automatic Floor Height Detection
The update also adds automatic detection of the position of the floor during Guardian setup.
Previously, the floor height was set by touching the floor with a Touch controller during setup. This can still be done if the algorithm gets it wrong, but is no longer necessary otherwise.
The Rift S already had the easiest setup process of any PC VR headset, but this update makes getting into VR even easier.
Inside-Out Vindicated?
Playing games like Onward, Pavlov, and Creed with PTC 1.39 feels like using a different headset than before. Instances of tracking loss while playing normally are almost completely gone from what we’ve tested.
At the release of Rift S, many in the VR community criticized the controller tracking limitations and claimed they proved that inside-out was the wrong decision for the Rift line. Shooters like Onward even added a ‘Virtual Gunstock Mode’ to work around these limitations–a mode that seems less necessary with this patch theoretically.
Hopefully improvements continue to come since this is already a big step just one month after launch. Rushed software seems to have potentially been the cause of these issues, rather than a fundamental limitation of inside-out tracking.
Tagged with: inside-out tracking, oculus, Oculus Quest, oculus rift s, tracking
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Facebook’s Prototype VR Face Tracking Got Even Better
Earlier this year, Facebook showed off its research towards photorealistic avatars and high quality VR face tracking to drive them.
This week, Facebook showed off improved facial tracking for these avatars, more accurately capturing the user’s facial expression.
The researchers use two headsets to achieve this tracking quality. The regular headset features three cameras facing the user. The training headset has these three cameras and six extra cameras which gives a better view of the user’s facial expressions.
The Facebook researchers train a neural network withh the training headset such that the model can be used to attain high quality results with the regular headset. The extra cameras on the training headset provide ground truth. Facebook claims that with a trained model there is “almost no obvious quality drop” from 9 to 3 cameras.
Facebook isn’t the only VR company working on face tracking of course. At GDC in March, HTC announced a lip tracking addon for the Vive Pro Eye. However, HTC stated that it currently has no plans for a consumer version.
Still Years Away
When Facebook showed off codec avatars in March, the company was clear to control expectations, stating that the technology was still “years away” from reaching consumer headsets. There is no indication that this advancement will speed up this timeline. Last month, the company’s Oculus division launched two new VR headsets (Oculus Quest and Rift S) but neither headset has cameras pointing towards the user’s face.
One of Facebook’s primary reasons for acquiring Oculus in 2014 was a belief in the power of social VR. It seems likely that the company’s next generation of headsets will include the hardware for face tracking- even if the shippable software isn’t at this quality at launch.
Tagged with: face tracking, Facebook Reality Labs, oculus
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Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Update Adds Original Guns From Valve’s Team Fortress 2
A major new addition is live now in popular single-player PC VR simulation game Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is inspired by Team Fortress 2 and officially sanctioned by Valve Corporation.
H3VR’s developers at RUST LTD. are adapting the classic weapons from Valve’s 2007 shooter Team Fortress 2. The guns come with a new sandbox map and several game modes “styled as an homage to TF2,” according to developer Anton Hand.
The “Meat Fortress” H3VR update is now live on Steam. That is the same date set by Valve for full reviews of its Index VR headset and controllers.
Meat Fortress
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades sells for $19.99 on Steam and remains in early access after more than three years of development. Developers updated H3VR dozens of times with new objects, interactions and modes and update 72 recently added formal support for the new Valve Index wearable controllers.
H3VR offers a collection of realistically simulated gun ranges and firearms. There are game modes too, like take and hold, offering players an array of sausage-like agents to fight. There’s no multiplayer in H3VR and the hot dog agents you shoot are a long way from resembling humans.
“H3VR is what happens when four best friends who went to art school make a game about guns,” Hand wrote in a message. “There’s a new Sandbox environment with Sentient Sausages cosplaying as TF2 characters, where the Red Hots do battle with the Blue Franks.”
Original article published June 10, 2019. Updated June 28.
Tagged with: H3VR, RUST LTD., Team Fortress 2, Valve Corporation
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The Museum Of Other Realities Curates VR Art With Early Access Release
The Museum of Other Realities is available now in early access for $20.
The curated art museum offers visitors access to a “cross section of the free-ranging experimentation present in the relatively new medium of virtual reality art.” The initial launch includes the work of 12 different artists with numerous updates planned in the coming months.
“Artists with featured work in the Museum are paid and promoted,” the MOR’s description on Steam reads. “Hang out with friends and enjoy a collective experience with new people. We hold regular events, celebrating and fostering a community around this new medium.”
VR artists and creators have been gathering in the museum regularly for many months in what are essentially simulated art gallery openings. If its early access release builds on this community, the MOR can become a new kind of gathering place and community center that promotes a wide range of artists spread across the globe and brought together in VR. You can, of course, check out the art alone as well but there’s a lot of potential in the social experience of sharing the “impossible, interactive, mind-blowing art is a lot more fun with a couple friends,” MOR developer Colin Northway, best known for his work on Fantastic Contraption, wrote in an email to us about the software.
I’ve visited the museum in Valve Index, as well as in other VR headsets, and I’d highly recommend checking it out. If you are interested at all in VR art and the artists making it, buying the MOR and supporting them in early access seems to be one of the best options right now for seeing some fantastic and surprising VR art and supporting the further development of such creations.
Tagged with: Colin Northway, MOR, Museum of Other Realities, Robin Stethem
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DisplayPort 2.0 Could Enable 4K Per Eye HDR 120Hz VR Headsets
The Video Electronics Standards Association this week released the spec for DisplayPort 2.0, the next generation royalty-free video cable standard.
DisplayPort 2.0 provides a 3x increase in total bandwidth compared to the previous DisplayPort 1.4a. This means the max payload bandwidth increased from 25.92 Gbps to 77.37 Gbps.
Diagram from VESA
Among the potential use cases of the new standard, VESA lists:
Two 4Kx4K (4096×4096) displays (for AR/VR headsets) @120Hz and 30 bpp 4:4:4 HDR (with DSC)
VESA claims the first products with DisplayPort 2.0 will ship by late 2020.
DisplayPort Today
On the market today, the Oculus Rift S and Valve Index use DisplayPort 1.2 to drive total resolutions of 2560×1440 and 2800×1600 respectively. DisplayPort 1.2 was introduced all the way back in 2010, but is still used today because it provides higher bandwidth than standard HDMI at a reasonable cost.
The HP Reverb and Acer ConceptD OJO use DisplayPort 1.3 to drive their total resolutions of 4320×4320, since 1.2 doesn’t provide sufficient bandwidth.
Due to the decision to use DisplayPort, these recent headsets won’t work on laptops with only HDMI.
Foveated Rendering?
Of course, a 4K per eye headset might not require a 4K per eye display stream. Instead, if such a headset used foveated rendering (and it would need to given the huge number of pixels) it could send the high resolution foveal area separately to the low resolution background. In this way, a less expensive version of DisplayPort with a wider install base of supporting graphics cards could be used.
However, at Oculus Connect 5 Facebook showed off research on a foveated rendering system which uses a deep neural network to reconstruct the pixel detail. The company’s Michael Abrash claimed this could lead to a 20x reduction in rendered pixels. However, the reconstructed pixels may need to be sent at full resolution in order to not be noticeable.
But even if DisplayPort 2.0 isn’t used for the next generation of VR headsets, it may lay a foundation for VR headsets further in the future to drive foveal resolutions we can only dream of today.
Tagged with: 4K VR headset, DisplayPort
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Gabe Newell: Index VR Headset Is A ‘Critical Milestone’ For Valve
“Throughout the history of Valve we’ve had a lot of significant milestones,” Gabe Newell, President and Co-Founder of Valve Corporation, said at the Valve Index launch party on June 27, 2019. “We had Half-Life, which was our first single player game, we had Source, which was our first engine, we had Counter-Strike, which was our first multiplayer game, then we had Steam and the Workshop…and Index is another one of those critical milestones for our company.”
The launch party was a very small-scale event in which Valve employees, including Gabe Newell himself, gathered to showcase the Valve Index headset and its controllers to a small group of randomly selected Index buyers. Those that attended received their headsets on the spot and got a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Valve’s innovative lighthouse tracking technology.
You can watch the entire speech right here:
During the event Newell reflected on the history of the company and what the future looks like with Index releasing publicly.
“It represents a tremendous amount hard work and creativity on your parts,” Newell said, addressing Valve employees. “As you know Index represents a significant breakthrough in the field, the visual fidelity that implies in terms of optical design, panel design, industrial design, all that’s a real breakthrough. Knuckles is hugely important not only for how it’s going to help ourselves and our game partners make their games better, but in how it enables entirely new kinds of games.”
Notably, Newell then took the opportunity to twist the dagger in the heart of millions by making a Half-Life 3 (or Portal 3, to be honest) joke almost too casually.
“But milestones aren’t really the end of anything, they’re really the beginning,” Newell said. “Half-Life led to Half-Life 2, Source led to Source 2, the experiments we did with Team Fortress 2 are what enabled us to build DOTA, Artifact is the reason that we’re able to do Underlords, and so maybe someday the number 2 will lead us to that shiny integer glowing on a mountain someplace. We’ll just have to see.”
The Valve Index headset is starting to arrive on door steps now and you can read our full review on the site. We’ve also got about four hours of streamed content from this week including an Aperture Hand Lab playthrough, footage of Index updates in games like Vacation Simulator, Blade & Sorcery, Onward, and many others. It really does feel like a milestone moment for the whole VR industry.
Source: Reddit User Zee2
Newell then alluded to future improvements such as the potential of lower cost, broadened distribution, better ergonomics, and even untethered, wireless support. You can read more about those plans here.
“What [improving on Index] is gonna enable is the best part of this: when you start seeing new VR games from Valve and from our other partners,” Newell said. “And that’s really where you guys come in. You see it’s very hard for us to develop a product, to work at Valve, without customers. We have to guess. What’s important? What are the tradeoffs we should make? Will this be valuable to you? And we can sort of run a simulation in our head, but it’s so much better when we actually have real customers we can engage with.
“We’re really entering the best time as creators. We’re reaching a time when you guys are involved, you’re not only telling us how we did with Index, you’re teaching us how to make Index better–and that’s awesome. It’s such an exciting time for all of us.”
Tagged with: Gabe Newell, valve, valve index
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Valve Index review – When only the best will do
Every Game That Supports Valve Index Controllers (So Far)
Over the next few days the Valve Index will finally start arriving on people’s doorsteps. The headset brings improved comfort, resolution, audio, field of view and more to VR. We’re pretty darn excited about it.
But that’s only one part of Index’s offerings. Also arriving this week are the Index Controllers (previously known as the Knuckles controllers). These long-in-development devices add improved VR finger tracking among other features like analog sticks. Again, we really like them and can’t wait for people to get their hands on them. But what games will you actually be able to play with the controllers?
While almost every SteamVR game should support them in an unofficial capacity, developers are updating their games to officially implement finger tracking support and other features. Below, we’ve rounded up every game that either already has or will soon be getting official Index Controller support. Also note that, if you want to save a little money, you can buy the Index controllers separately and then use them with your HTC Vive.
Games Out Now
- Superhot VR
- Aperture Hand Lab
- cyubeVR
- Echo Grotto
- Onward
- Arizona Sunshine
- Tilt Brush
- Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
- Garden of the Sea
- Apex Construct
- Vacation Simulator
- Pierhead Arcade 2
- #SkiJump
- Museum of Other Realities
- Trover Saves The Universe
- Shadow Legend
- VRChat
- Pavlov VR
- Space Pirate Trainer
- Fruit Ninja VR
- PokerStars VR
- Vanishing Realms
- Cosmic Trip
- Neos VR
- Accounting +
- Job Simulator
- Duck Season
- Windlands 2
- Moss
- Blade & Sorcery
- BigScreen Beta
- Climbey
- Beat Saber
- Compound
Upcoming Games
Tagged with: Index Controllers, valve index
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Valve Index review: Next level VR
Where does virtual reality go next? Right now, there seem to be two paths: Portable and self-contained headsets like the Oculus Quest, or those connected to computers and consoles, like the Rift and PlayStation VR. Valve is clearly betting on the...from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2YhpDPX
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Valve Index Review: Aiming For PC VR’s Sweet Spot And Pulling The Trigger
Valve Index is in a class by itself.
This is true in at least three respects:
1.) Fine adjustments to the HMD’s optics and field of view take clarity and visual comfort to levels never seen before.
2.) Basic hand signals as well as grasping and release sensations enabled by wearable hand controllers are unique to Index right now.
3.) SteamVR Tracking is now the only significant consumer-focused movement tracking system working from the outside-in on PCs.
Let’s go through those one at a time.
Fine Optical Adjustments
Oculus Quest cut the cord to enable more movement freedom in VR. Index keeps the cord while refining everything that makes high-end VR so compelling. In particular, Valve’s biggest revelation with Index is its clarity and visual comfort that is unmatched by other consumer VR headsets.
In an original Rift or Vive, for example, you learn to point your head directly at people, objects or text. The edges of those earlier lenses catch so much light and have so many fresnel rings that if you point your eyes at something near the lens’ edge you notice the rings and light rather than the scene beyond. Index changes things. Combined with powerful, startlingly loud, off-ear speakers, I’ll call the Valve Index HMD a no-brainer upgrade from the original Vive in every respect for $500. The screen door effect — the sense that the grid pattern of the pixels is so visible that you are seeing the simulated world through a screen door — is no longer a term that makes sense.
I’ll note the LCD display’s black levels appear as shades of gray in darkened caves or tunnels. That might be a deal-breaker for some but I still prefer the Index visuals overall to those provided by any other headset I’ve tried. The lenses still catch god rays, too, but they seem reduced compared to 2016 headsets and generally disappear in bright scenes.
New PC VR buyers
For new buyers trying PC VR the $1,000 full Index VR Kit (controllers, tracking base stations and HMD) sits at the top of the field versus Rift S at $400.
After living with both Rift S and Index at my fingertips for the last month — as well as HP Reverb — I can say I’ve enjoyed my time with Index more than the others. Of course, I said as much weeks ago. What you’ve probably come here for then is an answer to the question of whether Index is $600 better than Rift S (and Oculus Quest)?
Most people will be satisfied with a Rift S that has easy setup and a nice fit. Still, the extra $600 is going to be worth it for a segment of buyers. The value of the new Index controllers and the interactions it enables remains an unknown at launch, which further complicates my answer.
New Controllers Mean More Verbs
The Index controllers do for 2019 what SteamVR Tracking did on for the Vive in 2016 — they offer a fledgling new market for developers to explore and experiment in partnership with early adopting buyers. In April 2016 it was room-scale freedom of movement and hand controllers with rudimentary grip buttons. In 2019, Valve is unleashing a new wave of PC-based experimentation centered around the Index controllers.
Grasping, releasing, throwing, shaking hands, throwing a peace sign or flipping a bird — these verbs take on new, more natural and intuitive meanings with the Index controllers. The hand controllers exist in a space between the open air interfaces of Leap Motion and HoloLens and the haptically-enhanced approach of hand controllers and gloves. It is interesting, new and developers are still figuring out how best to implement these new verbs.
While Vive-compatible apps generally work on Index fine, and there are community-generated bindings available, this is no match for developer support of the controllers. There is a range of implementations and developers continue to update compatibility. Gripping the edges of a ledge with your fingertips in Blade & Sorcery is something incredible the developer rolled out just this week, for instance, while the impressive tech demo Aperture Hand Lab is forced into a backward compatibility mode for Oculus Touch controllers because its incredible handshake scene would essentially be broken without it. H3VR doesn’t represent hands at all, for example, while Vacation Simulator gives you nice fluffy fingers with which to throw around virtual objects.
With the Index controllers the journey in VR begins with your hands resting at your sides — fingers open and not gripping anything. There’s the constant reminder of the strap tightly looping on either side of your knuckles, but once you’re wearing the controllers it flips the current interaction paradigm of VR on its head. Your interaction with a virtual world doesn’t have to begin by actively gripping a controller.
This is a new path for VR input available to developers meant to build on the best of the controllers that came before it. We have yet to see broad support for these Index controllers, though, or a must-have application at launch that defines its new interaction paradigm. Is it worth $279? That’s a value proposition that’s changing with each new developer supporting the controllers.
Is SteamVR Tracking A Tax Or Freedom?
The short history of PC VR since 2016 is that, in April 2016, Valve’s ”lighthouse” tracking technology shipped with the HTC Vive headset and its controllers. This elegant and innovative system depends on non-visible lasers spinning like lighthouses from opposing corners of the room to pinpoint the position of a headset and its controllers. Facebook shipped Oculus Rift at practically the same time in 2016 with a non-tracked gamepad and mostly seated gameplay while supplying some developers with early tracked Touch controllers. Only in December of that year did Facebook finally ship those controllers and it took until April of 2017 for the company to fully support 3-sensor 360-degree setups — essentially matching the feature set Vive supported out of the box a year earlier.
These systems had one big difference though — each additional Oculus sensor required an extra USB port on the PC. The original SteamVR Tracking used one or two stations which only needed to be plugged into power to track objects. Valve Index 2.0 base stations sell for $150 each and it is essential you have at least two. This system, though, is expandable by up to four base stations “creating a larger play area while reducing occlusion.” We have yet to test this expanded scenario, but I set up the 2.0 base stations quickly and at a further distance from one another than the first generation and then mostly forgot about them.
Conclusion: Steam Libraries Have A New Pro Setup
Oculus Rift S essentially erases the cost and setup of external tracking hardware by mounting five cameras on the latest PC-powered headset made by Lenovo. We’ve had several requests to try Echo Arena in Revive, for instance, and we haven’t had a chance to try it yet. As I drafted this review Rift S received a tracking update in its public test channel too. This means that comparing the quality — and value of these tracking systems — is going to be an ongoing task for us.
The difference in price between Rift S and Index is vast, but so is the experience. I’ll have to end this, then, by turning the $600 question around on you — how much time are you going to spend in VR and how important is it to you that time be spent in a headset offering the most comfort and highest fidelity available in 2019?
Tagged with: valve index, valve index controllers
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Vertigo 2 Looks Like A Big, Bold, And Adventurous VR FPS
You don’t see a lot of sequels in the VR space yet. Not only is it rare to have a game successful enough to fund and/or warrant a follow-up, but consumer VR headsets just haven’t been around very long yet so developers haven’t had the time. Well, Vertigo 2 from Zulubo Productions is bucking those trends.
The original Vertigo came out in late 2016 and we called it “a decent stab at an indie Half-Life” in VR. Notably, it lacked the polish to be as transcendent as it could have been. If this trailer is any indication, the sequel could be righting most of the wrongs we had with its predecessor:
Not only does Vertigo 2 look like a wild ride, it sounds like one too. This is what the Steam page says:
Deep underground in the reaches of Quantum Reactor VII, you awake to finish your journey home. No closer to your goal than when you first arrived, you must count on the help of the mysteriously familiar stranger who saved your life. On your way towards the center of the reactor, you will have to face bizarre alien flora and fauna leaking from other universes – and deadly android security forces whose job is to purge the Reactor of all life. As you try to determine who to trust, sinister forces lurk just out of sight.
With a branching story hinging on key decisions, there’s no telling what you’ll encounter in this absurd world. The only certainty is that there’s danger around every corner.
We’ll be eagerly awaiting more details on this one. The Steam page says it’s coming in 2020 and it has support for Vive, Windows VR, and Index listed (notably no Rift) but we don’t know more beyond that. Let us know what you think of it down in the comments below!
Tagged with: FPS, vertigo, Vertigo 2, VR FPS, Zulubo Productions
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How These VR Developers Keep Fans Happy With Free Iterative Updates
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades – often referred to colloquially as H3VR – stands out in the saturated sea of VR shooters for a few reasons. For one, it features anthropomorphized sausages as its enemies, making this a relatively child-friendly shooter. Rather than be about respawn rates and fragging enemies, it’s billed more as a gun shooting simulator with hyper-realistic and intricate interactions. It’s also never on sale, owing to RUST LTD’s faith in their product and it’s value – for good reason, too. H3VR has over 70 updates, notably including this week’s Meat Fortress event, all of which have been released free of charge since the game entered Early Access in 2016. It’s this that really makes H3VR stand out from the pack, the exhaustive dedication to iterative improvement.
Anton Hand, CTO of RUST LTD, was kind enough to lend me his time to help explain this phenomenon. H3VR’s Early Access state came about essentially due to Hand’s virality and the HTC Vive’s initial launch. Upon uploading some test footage in early 2016 of him goofing around with gun models in VR, viewers started asking for him to release something to coincide with the Vive’s launch that they, too, could play with. His plan was initially to rush out the “beginning structure of an early access game,” Hand explained, adding that they’d be incredibly open about their intention to update it frequently.
“Something that’s very philosophically ‘us’ is the opposite of the ‘hard sell'”, Hand added, alluding to the fact that they never wanted to pressure people into buying their game only to end up feeling disappointed. They’d much rather their community adopts the approach of “Follow along, we’re doing weekly videos and putting out weekly updates, buy in when/if it looks interesting enough for you to pay for.”
Though they initially planned to leave Early Access some time in 2018, H3VR still hasn’t seen a 1.0 release, because, “The experiments are ongoing and this is a project that [is] reactive to its community, ” as Hand put it. A key example of this is the Take and Hold mode, which “stemmed from [me] wanting to do a lighting test with a modular hallway kit”, and after fans flocked to the mode and expressed their approval, ended up getting “several iterations of improvement,” from the team.
Update #52 was so large that it took them around 3 months to complete and “was the most extensive refactor of the game’s systems that it ever got… especially given the complexity of it, [it was a] more extensive rebuild than a game tends to get,” Hand remarked, adding that “I think a lot of people probably would have just released a brand new game at that point,” but they were determined to see out their vision of H3VR.
I commented that some of these updates were easily expansive enough to qualify as DLC, but questioned why they’d kept everything free. His response was cheerful but he clearly has a strict code of conduct: “I’ve joked for a while that we’re a live service game that you only pay for once… I’m very much not [a fan of the] monetization strategies of our industry, I find them sort of predatory.”
“There are two reasons why these various updates aren’t structured like DLCs that you pay for,” Hand said. The first of which is technical, mentioning that they were strictly aiming for regular updates, so anything that would slow that infrastructure down is an immediate red flag. “The second one is just a general, philosophical/emotional [reason, that] there are people who’ve been following this game for several years who save up their pennies and buy into VR – especially young kids,” and the last thing Hand wants is “little Timmy to buy the game because he got a VR system for Christmas as his one gift,” only to discover that “he doesn’t have 80% of the guns because he doesn’t have the money to buy them for $2.99 each.”
“If you’re a creator and you’re trying to make something that’s a positive part of someone’s day and existence, that just isn’t something you do to other people who you care about,” Hand explained. “If I had to do that to survive making media products, I wouldn’t make media products, I would go be a carpenter or something – I just don’t believe in doing that to people.”
He embellished this with the story of a holiday event that he ran over one December. “I got through my head to do [this] advent calendar where I did an update a day from December 1st to December 25th.” These updates included a hidden advent box that would unlock new guns, grenades, and more for players to enjoy, and despite describing it as a gruelling experience that he’d grossly underestimated the workload for, the response was overwhelming. “I was originally like ‘no, there’s no way I’m ever going to do that [again]’,” but he received some heartwarming messages from the community: “[They told me] how important it was to them, one guy [wrote] ‘you’re the only one that got me anything for Christmas this year.'”
Another recently separated fan felt that the event gave him a reason to keep living “and so I always try to do something special [for] the holidays, and I think even after we hit [version 1.0] for H3VR… I will absolutely keep doing the holiday stuff… because that kind of stuff is so special to some people,” Hand remarked.
If Hand’s passion for his craft was ever in question, you’d need look no further than his YouTube channel. He uploads fairly regular devlog videos and his most recent upload is an excellent example. While discussing the Team Fortress 2 weapons that they’ve implemented into H3VR for the Meat Fortress update, we get a good insight into his perspective. Not only is he incredibly respectful of the source material he’s working with, going to great lengths to maintain as much authenticity as he can while also adapting the guns to realistic physics, but you can hear genuine glee in his voice when he’s testing out the weapons.
He left me with an eye-opening take on the current state of the gaming industry and why live service models are effective: “You’re not actually fighting for anyone’s money, anymore. Actually, you’re fighting for minutes of their time; that’s the commodity now. You are trying to deliver something that’s worth their time, not trying to pick money out of their wallet, because we’ve reached saturation in this industry.”
Another game that surprised me with the depth of free updates is the chaotic Sairento VR, which received a new Oculus Quest spinoff this week. Despite launching in Early Access in 2016 and later releasing in 2018, they still weren’t done iterating on Sairento VR. I posed my questions to Aldric Chang, CEO of Mixed Realms, about their title. “Sairento VR was born of a desire [to] mesh the iconic ‘bullet-time’ scenes from The Matrix, the slow-motion mayhem of Max Payne… while looking and feeling as badass as the Bride from Kill Bill,” Chang explained. “Our mistake was coming out of EA a tad early, but that [didn’t stop] us from continuing to roll out updates.”
They were striving for perfection with their updates, Chang told me, clarifying that “Of course there is no true perfection as a game can always be improved, but we think that we owe it to our fans to at least bring the game to a state where they can play it the way we intended for them to.” This desire to serve their fans was important to them, stating that, “As a game developer, we are clear that we answer chiefly to our fans. We owe any sales and success to them…they deserve the best that we can give them. And if something can be improved, we want to do it.”
Unlike H3VR, however, this approach was never really part of the plan for SairentoVR. Chang and the team “simply felt that we owed it to our fans to make the game as good as we could make it. It was clear at least to us that Sairento still needed improvement in some areas, so we decided to work on them.” He also elaborated on how the fans can – and often should – be a part of this process: “The ‘jump’ mechanic that defines Sairento now… The player feedback was tremendously in favor of making this the default option.”
As with Hand, I asked why these updates remained free of charge, and Chang reiterated a similar sense of morality. “Of course we could have waited to compile all the updates and sold them as a DLC but that would mean delaying the updates. That wouldn’t be right…we had many bugs in the earlier iterations of our game…we wanted to give away the later updates to reward our fans for being patient with us.”
It was humbling to hear this sentiment of loyalty to the fans echoed throughout our interview. “Players don’t want to be told what they can’t experience – only to be shown what they can,” Chang concluded.
Both H3VR and Sairento VR are notable titles that wouldn’t be what they are today without the tireless work of their developers. These are shining examples of how continual iteration can be the ethical future of gaming, and we can only hope other developers follow suit.
Tagged with: H3VR, Hot Dogs Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Sairento VR
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Play Firewall Zero Hour For Free And Earn Double XP On PSVR This Weekend
Firewall Zero Hour is an excellent game. We awarded it our Game of the Year for 2018 and consider it one of the very best PSVR games to date and easily one of the best VR shooters so far. When played with the PS Aim controller it offers an immense amount of depth and tactics with an active and deeply passionate community. And it looks like Sony is deciding to start promoting it once again now that the Operation Nightfall update is fully functional.
Earlier this week Damoun Shabestari, Game Director at First Contact Entertainment, announced via a PlayStation Blog post that Firewall Zero Hour would be enjoying a free trial weekend starting today (June 28) and lasting until Sunday (June 30) for anyone with a PSVR headset and PS Plus subscription. This weekend will also offer double XP across the board for all players. With this free trial it’s a great opportunity to test the game out if you’ve been wary or to invite friends into the fold that haven’t tried it yet.
In the same blog post, Shabestari also broke down the intricate design principles and ideas that went into the creation of the game’s latest free map addition, Hangar. The map was introduced in the Operation Nightfall update (there’s one more coming too) and it features some of the most complex designs in the whole game to date.
During our E3 VR Showcase, First Contact Entertainment also announced their next game dubbed Solaris: Offworld Combat, which is coming to both Oculus Quest and Rift later this year.
If you’re new to Firewall Zero Hour, don’t forget to read our review, check out our full guide to all weapons and equipment, and scan the new player intel we’ve published previously to get up to speed. And let us know what you think of the game down in the comments below!
Tagged with: Firewall: Zero Hour, First Contact Entertainment, Operation Nightfall
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Accounting + Is Coming To Oculus Quest Next Week
Yet another VR essential is making its way over to Oculus Quest next week. Crows, Crows, Crows and Squanch Games’ entirely bizarre VR mind-messer, Accounting +, touches down on July 4th.
Yes that’s right, the most American of all games arrives on the most American of all days. Accounting + is a surreal descent into madness from the mind of Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland. It sees you putting on VR headsets to travel deeper and deeper into strange and twisted realities where you’ll meet uncomfortably aggressive characters and, uh, play the xylophone with some bones.
Check out the trailer for the Quest port below. It also confirms the game’s getting support for Valve’s shiny new Index headset and controllers.
VR veterans will remember Accounting first released for free on PC VR headsets in 2016. It then came to PSVR as the expanded Accounting +, which also arrived on PC late last year. We’ve long been fans of the app’s distinct tone. Accounting + excels at making you feel awkward and uncomfortable in fascinating and funny ways. Plus it’s littered with easter eggs and secrets to uncover, encouraging you to explore every inch of every scene. Trust us when we say there’s nothing quite like it out there right now.
Meanwhile, outside of Quest town, Limited Run games is also launching a special edition of Accounting + on PSVR. It’s got a special coin, soundtrack and a Talking Tree Guy plush that we really, really want. Squanch also recently launched another VR game, Trover Saves The Universe.
Tagged with: accounting, Oculus Quest
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Report: ‘Borderlands 2 VR’ Gets ESRB Rating for PC, Suggesting Nearby Launch
Borderlands 2 VR (2018) landed on PSVR late last year, although Gearbox Software made it clear at launch that it was going to be a timed exclusive, with a minimum of five months given to PlayStation. Now, it appears a Windows PC version of the game has just gotten its ESRB rating, putting it one step closer to PC VR headset users.
As first reported by UploadVR, Twitter user ‘Wario64’ broke the news during E3 2019 that Borderlands 2 VR for Windows PC had garnered an ‘M’ rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Borderlands 2 VR (PC) rated by ESRB pic.twitter.com/WBvzqdVG8r
— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 14, 2019
The ESRB website doesn’t show this rating specifically at the time of this writing; it only lists the rating for the previous PlayStation 4 version. Twitter user Wario64 has generally been a reliable source for leaks however, and considering the game’s release on PC VR was all but confirmed by the studio itself even before launch on PSVR, the supposed rating is decidedly credible, if not a complete banality to anyone not following the space.
Admittedly, we weren’t too impressed with Borderlands 2 VR on PSVR, giving it a tepid [5.9/10] on our linear grading scale. Road to VR’s Ben Lang reviewed the game on PSVR when it launched in December 2018, saying that while it technically works in VR, it still hasn’t managed to escape the feeling of being an outright port. On top of that, there’s no co-op mode, no DLC, no VR-specific interactions, middling graphics, and a gamepad-first design.
Although it’s since gotten a few quality of life updates, bringing with it support for PS Aim and improved shooting for all controller types, it’ll be interesting to see if Gearbox takes the opportunity to iron out more of the other gripe-worthy issues we saw on PSVR for the PC VR release.
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‘Space Junkies’ Update Brings New Map, Modes, Training Bots & More
Space Junkies (2019), the zero-G VR shooter from Ubisoft, just got its ‘Episode 3’ update, which adds a host of fresh content to the game on all supported platforms, including PC VR headsets and PSVR.
Announced on the Oculus blog, Ubisoft’s Montpellier studio has added a new map to the game called ‘The Jail’, an abandoned alien prison facility. The Jail is now the game’s largest interior map, including multiple levels and cover options.
As for new modes, Space Junkies now has a new 3v3 mode as well as something called ‘Chivalry mode’, which focuses on a new mid/long-range precision bow and arrow weapon.
Ubisoft says you can choose to let off three arrows from your quiver or pull back on the bow longer to merge your shots into a single laser arrow for a more powerful punch. Chivalry mode also limits your equipment to ratchet up the challenge.
“Chivalry was inspired by one of our Gameplay Programmers who likes to Cosplay and play with medieval swords,” explains Ubisoft producer Adrian Lacey. “Players enjoyed close quarter combat in our spherical battlespaces, so we decided to take it a step further by adding the ‘Bowminator’ to increase skill level, encourage precision shooting, and add a tactical layer.”
A new character called the Mental Mollusk is also now available, a member of the Quantic Calamari family.
Space Junkies, once a multiplayer-only game, now has training bots, which finally lets you hone your skills on your lonesome. Ubisoft has added three difficulty modes. You’ll also be able to fight bots while you wait for multiplayer matches to queue up.
Space Junkies is currently 62% off through Steam (Index, Rift, Vive, Windows VR) and the Oculus Store (Rift). The discount lasts until July 9th. The game is also priced at $20 through the PS Store for PSVR.
If you’re looking for an closer look at Space Junkies, check out our in-depth review to find out why we gave it a solid [7.7/10].
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Watch Weeping Angels And Daleks Come To Life In New Doctor Who VR Videos
Hopefully you enjoyed the first look at Doctor Who: The Edge of Time at our E3 VR Showcase this month. Today, though, developer Maze Theory is taking you a little deeper behind the scenes of the VR game.
The developer’s just unleashed a range of new making of videos. There’s a main one in which members of the studio are on-hand to talk about working on the game and then some brief looks at bringing some of the series’ iconic villains to virtual life.
In The Edge of Time, you play as a new companion to the Doctor that must track down the Tardis and set off to rescue her. A new villain has trapped the Doctor at the (you guessed it) edge of time. To save her, you’ll travel across different times and come into contact with some of the best-known baddies from the TV series.
That includes the Weeping Angels, a terrifying brand of beast made famous in a more recent series. They’re stone statues that only move when you can’t see them. That creates a frightful mechanic where you’ll want to be looking at them at all times. And yes, you’ll meet a Dalek or two too. Current Jodie Whittaker also lends her voice talents to the game throughout.
Maze Theory also got to design a new villain named the Hydrorks for the game. They’re sludgy-looking monsters that you can see in the first video below.
Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time is due for launch in September on PSVR, Rift, Vive and Quest. We’ll have more on the game when it hits.
Tagged with: Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time, Maze Theory
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