Community The MetaVerse VR thread (hardware/software/etc, all platforms)

[Alextended]

HTC had a press conference and accidentally had something along the lines of "We expect big growth in interest in VR with the release of HL: Alyx and Left 4 Dead 3 in VR this year" in a slide.

So throw another bit of evidence on the rumor pile.

Other thread, shot down by Valve already (not that it has to mean anything conclusive either way).

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: GrowRilla :: Update 5.1: A Growing World

New maps, more locations, more enemies, more everything

steamcommunity.com

The freebie Tea for God has been getting plenty updates, the latest changelog is here but there's been many more additions since I first mentioned it.

v 0.4.4 (persistence) - Tea For God by void room

It took over a month, but there were Christmas and a period (well, two) of general sickness at my home. And there was a bug that was leading to crashes, I got dozens of reports and couldn't figure out...

void-room.itch.io

 

[Alextended]

 

[Alextended]

 

[fantomena]

I really hope Saints & Sinners reviews well.

 

[Alextended]

The free Alpha Demo on Oculus QUEST is out ! news - Project Terminus

Terminus is a FPS action / horror / survival with Half-Life vibes. The game will take place in the city of Paris, suddenly submerged in chaos, when an invasion from unknown sources breaks out in the city. Paris will gradually become a large quarantine...

www.indiedb.com

Project TERMINUS is a survival horror VR FPS, taking place in the mighty city of Paris. The project in still in the beginning of its development and we are seeking for support. Download the free gameplay demo of the game:

Oculus QUEST: Terminus Alpha Demo on SideQuest
Oculus RIFT/RIFT S: https://casual-vr.com/installer_terminus_demo_one.exe

Edit: I just tried that Terminus alpha/demo thingie. It's pretty well done all things considered. The fov seems to be a tad off for Rift so there's some distortion, but other than that it looks fairly decent, the interactions with things like doors, drawers and cupboards is actually rather intuitive and natural, but the usable held objects can feel off without the proper animation/hand pose and what not, I guess that stuff is early still, especially the axe. The phone is damn cool though with an AR style interface. I turned the game off after the first enemies I avoided by ducking behind a kiosk thing with a cash register, I didn't want to try and get past them or see if they'd return, lol. Next time. Anyway, this is a project to watch if they get to make it into a full game as their intent is, there's a solid base here already. I didn't even mind there's no artificial turning method included, just your physical movement, though I'd hope they will include stick turning later on too.

 

[Alextended]

By the way, that Doctor Who: The Runaway freebie from the BBC has yet to show released for me on Steam, even though it was supposed to days ago, but it's no longer region-locked to the UK on the Oculus store so I just downloaded it there instead. There's also a VR video version you can watch if you want.

 

[Alextended]

3 days left for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. I wonder if we'll get a new launch trailer soon

 

[Alextended]

Nostos isn't being abandoned, the team vows to improve it in all the right ways and explains some of the things they've already done:

Steam :: Nostos :: Review of our update plan and completion since release

Dear Pioneers, Nostos has been released for more than a month. The Dev team realized that there were many improve points in the game. We will keep solving these problems. Here is the update plan that we released last month and plan completion: Implement VR smooth turning and fix the issue of...

steamcommunity.com

Also, Budget Cuts 2 just got a smooth locomotion (and much more) update:

Steam :: Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency :: MUTATORS UPDATE - with Smooth Locomotion

Update includes Smooth Locomotion, Bullet Time, Guns and much more!

steamcommunity.com

Obviously the game wasn't made with that in mind so you still need teleportation to navigate portions...

It's basically from a cheat menu, enabling various mutators which can disable achievements, though the mutators that make the game harder leave them intact.

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: TERMINAL :: Events

steamcommunity.com

Minecraft fame Notch getting back to gave dev thanks to the wonders of VR?

 

[Alextended]

Half-Life reddit AMA is live. Does any decent & juicy info come out of these generally? Also, dang:


Edit: oh, you can ignore the rabble and just view that account's post history instead that's nice, hehe:

HalfLifeAlyxTeam (u/HalfLifeAlyxTeam) - Reddit

u/HalfLifeAlyxTeam:

www.reddit.com

 

[Durante]

This is neat, there are still very few VR games that implement full 3D occlusion.

 

[C-Dub]

I love that you can just email Gabe about accessibility. I also think it's really cool that they are even considering stuff like that, as a lot of people shit on VR for its inaccessibility.

 

[Alextended]

Aaaand it's done. 4k+ comments. Some nice info. Physics stuff, enemies stuff, weapons stuff, interactions stuff, inventory stuff, sound stuff, SDK stuff, stuff stuff.

I'm now curious about the whole no arms thing. I don't want arms if they're gonna be janky like in Boneworks so I didn't mind the lack of (even though in games like Lone Echo they're smoother and don't feel janky as in Boneworks they also don't have as many interactions). But they said even though they're invisible there's an amount of interactions with them still. I hope that doesn't lead to unintended interactions as in 99% of Boneworks where you can even see your body. I'm sure they're working to have things feel natural and smooth, maybe it's only to a limited degree to avoid situations where objects/stuff are between your hand and your body, right up your wrist, which could look off, but we'll see how they do things when they show more footage and when we get to play too.

Thanks everyone! The team is heading back to our desks to work towards shipping the game but we've really enjoyed this and hope you did as well.

There was a process of upresing some familiar assets from HL2. During this process, we were always looking for opportunities to add more detail and leverage VR interactions, and pack as much world building into those new detail as possible. The health charger you see in the trailer is a good example of this, we tried to do this wherever possible, whilst honoring the original designs.

Yep, one of the various internal prototypes that led to HL:A was a slice of HL-style gunplay in The Lab. Geoff has told us he wants to cover some of those prototypes more in his Final Hours of HL:A.

Physical merch is something we want to do more of. We plan to have some of it available before release.

Working on HL:A before we announced it was pretty worrisome. I have a teenage son, and for 4 years I've refused to tell him what game I was working on, because I knew he wouldn't be able to keep it to himself. On the team we joked that releasing the game was much less scary than announcing it. But in the end, we are very happy with how it's been received, and we're really excited to get it finished and into your hands.

Playtesters have taken a similar amount of time to complete Half-Life: Alyx as they did to complete Half-Life 2. The games are comparable in terms of total amount of content.

Jamaal here… It’s been great to work on these classic characters and seeing them in VR has really excited everyone on the team. The HL:A trailer gave you a taste of what is coming, but we are avoiding spoiling too much at this point.

When it comes to the work the community does around the HL Series, we are humbled by the affinity and creativity that people have for the story and characters. We hope everyone will be as excited with Alyx’s journey in HL:A. Returning to HL has been extremely motivating. We have a lot of affection for the universe and characters, and personally I am proud to be helping build on something so iconic. The team has many of the original HL developers and a lot of new creative people who have made some integral additions to HL:A and the overall HALF LIFE storyline.

I don’t know what we will do next with HL, but I’m looking forward to what you all think of HL:A.

For the Citadel, The fiction we went with involved the citadel's full height core being teleported in place, like a giant spear in the ground. The combine then build around this core fleshing it out from gathered resources, which is how you see it in the trailer. An under construction citadel was useful visual cliche that helped establish an earlier timeline than HL2.

We don't render arms due to our experiences with playtesting - briefly, we found that players themselves don't notice them missing (spectators do, obviously), and they don't like them obscuring their view.

We actually simulate invisible arms though, which connect from your hands back up to your HMD, and we use those to detect impossible things, like completely closing a drawer over your wrist.

We're planning on releasing a video going into the tech behind our VR hands / interactions / etc, so there'll be more on this soon.

Index controller finger-tracking allows for greater player expression and more opportunities for fine-grained engagement with the world. But the game was tested with all major VR solutions throughout development to ensure full compatibility for all required interactions.

Most of the gore is based on meat and vegetable recordings, with some condiment recordings as well.

We've also killed a lot of Zombies.

You can put a bucket on a headcrab, and it'll move the bucket as it crawls around. Playtesters all keep reporting it as a bug.

Dave here (Sound Designer) - A short and incomplete list of audio features we've added or improved for HL:A -

*Soundscape system improved to be more fully integrated with the audio system as a whole.
*Our music system is new.
*Numerous Steam Audio improvements.
*Huge amount of work on the lower level audio systems.
*New tools for mixing and implementing sounds.

From a Sound Design perspective we've had to change how we think about the sounds we make and implement. A lot of things are the same as making a traditional game, good art/sound is good in VR as well, but there are new factors as well. A main one for me was figuring out ways of making environments sonically interesting for players who want to take their time and explore, which happens much more frequently in VR.

Our weapons all require only one hand, but they can be optionally grabbed and steadied by your offhand. We really wanted to focus on simultaneous two handed play throughout the game, so we needed the player to always be able to easily have a free hand. We keep that hand pretty busy with gravity gloves, movement, world interactions, flashlight, and so on.

We have a few systems for inventory and weapon selection, all designed with the goal of keeping the players eyes on the environment as much as possible. We have an 'over the shoulder' contextual inventory system for ammo on your off hand, Your weapon hand has a quick weapon select feature, and we have a couple of wrist bags for some of the other items.

What is the ending?

We can't tell you, even though we definitely have one, because it would be a huge spoiler. But if you do have an idea for an ending, feel free to forward it. Today if possible.

This is Corey, a level designer here. Hammer in Source 2 has been overhauled from the ground up. Everything from how geometry is built and textured to how asset creation is done has been improved to increase the speed and ease at which we can build and iterate on levels.

One big feature for us on HL:A was the addition of a system similar to layers, where individual map files from multiple level designers, environment artists, and sound designers are combined into a single map. This had a huge impact on how many disciplines could get their hands into each map, which resulted in a much denser level of content throughout the game.

Hi MontyAtWork! Half-Life isn't like Fight Club- there was never a first rule of "we must never speak of it!" over the last decade or so. The real answer is super simple: We didn't talk about Half-Life for a long time because we weren't actively working on a Half-Life game. Once Half-Life: Alyx became a reality internally, it was already clear to us that this was something we wanted to involve the community in. We're going to be doing more of this in the next few weeks as we prepare to launch it! (Oh, and the actual first rule of Half-Life? There must be a train in the game, or we legally cannot ship it- at least according to Wolpaw in a previously answered question here.)

We're using Steam Audio HRTF, DSP, and occlusion in HL:A. Having the SA development team in the same building has been really beneficial to the audio team since we've been able quickly iterate with them on feature requests and performance issues.

This is Wolpaw: I personally prefer writing games where the viewpoint character speaks. We made the silence of the protagonist into a joke in the Portals, but you only get to pull that gag once. I had a lot fun writing for the left 4 deads where the characters were all little chatterboxes, so if I had my way we wouldn't do any more silent protagonists. That said, the I don't get my way as often as I deserve so who knows what's going to happen.

Hey Boldhams… We did include many of our favorite creatures from the previous games with some interesting twists, but we don’t want to spoil too much of what you will be experiencing in HL:A.

We've never been able to figure out where the rumors of us falling out with Marc came from, because there's no truth to it. He's been super generous with his time throughout the development of HL:A, answering many questions from Erik, Jay, and Sean as they hammered away on the story. As is always the case with Marc, we send him an email, and he sends us a response, and then roughly 40 more replies to his own email.

Several of the HL:A team members worked on HL1. There are some things we think we did better in HL1 than HL2, so we did go back to look at it again. As an example of that, the soldier AI in HL1 was something we looked at carefully during the development of the Combine Soldiers in HL:A.

Hey SmanDaMan Jamaal here.. we always enjoy speaking with the community. Our games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike have a long history of ongoing communication with their players. For HL:A, our first single-player campaign in several years, we wanted to be able to speak to the community in a different way than we do with our service games. That prompted much of the recent work we’ve done on social media and other venues like the new HL:A site. It was a great opportunity to widen our outreach as Valve more broadly.

The team is working diligently and we are on track to deliver HL:A on our announced released date. It’s an exciting time.

We don't want to spoil too much of the game, but my personal favorite mechanic is being able to grab and manipulate so many different things with my hands

Dave here (Sound Designer) -

Music on HL:A is being done by Mike Morasky (Portal 2, TF2, more!), and I know he's talked with Kelly quite a bit about his approach to the music of Half-Life. So you'll probably hear some of that come through but in Mike's unique style.

Right now it's around 80 people, which puts it as the largest single team we've ever had at Valve.

This is Wolpaw: I don't think it's changed dramatically. Honestly, though, I think the half life games are closer in tone to the portal games than they are to, say, The Last of Us. I spent a part of every day for 13 years talking to Laidlaw about writing. And the authors that inspired him like Frederic Brown and Robert Sheckley and crime writer Charles Willeford are all known for darkly comedic takes on genre fiction. Hell, he even named a character in ep2 after Sheckley.

Having the viewpoint character speak is mostly liberating. It certainly makes writing scenes easier when you don't have to write around the fact that the main character is mute. It's also easier to have the player feel they're actually an active participant in the scene. In portal we got around it a little by actually acknowledging the main character is mute. I think it's a lot more tricky when you have to maintain a fragile fiction that the player character can talk but simply isn't for some reason. Anyway, I was and still am happy that the main character speaks.

Tristan here, I admit I cannot deal with headcrabs in general, and definitely not in VR. If I'm testing the game, and I'm in an area where I know one of those things is around, I'll remove the head set and hold it off my face as I attempt navigate on the 2d monitor screen, to lessen the impact of headcrab discovery. Disappointingly for me, it seems that I'm the only one on the team who can't deal, we handle the scarier parts pretty well in terms of making the game accessible.

Horror is part of the franchise, and through playtesting, we feel like we've gained some confidence about where to draw this line. Some of our gorier visuals tend to evoke a grim fascination rather than revulsion or panic, and apart from myself, we've hardly ever seen anyone nope out of a playtest, even during the creepier sections. So among testers I still seem to be the outlier on horror tolerance.

Yes, Barnacles are a threat in VR. They don’t kill you instantly. You'll deal with them in familiar ways, but the opportunities afforded by VR also give you new methods to use against them. We experimented with moving the player, but moving the player without their input in VR didn't work very well. As with many aspects of working on this game, we’ve had to find new ways to take well-worn mechanics and other Half-Life staples into the specific framework of VR.

Similarly, Combine soldiers definitely return, both in the form you’ve previously seen them as well as with new variations to keep players busy and take advantage of VR.

Some creatures respond to audio more than others. We don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s an example of this we’re particularly excited about.

As with audio, limb dismemberment is not a factor in most combat encounters—but there is a very notable exception.

Because the game includes the ability to mantle in continuous motion, you don’t need often need to jump. For instance, if you need to get past an obstacle like a crate, you mantle up rather than jump up. The only time you need to jump is to traverse a short gap, which happens very rarely. We tried a few iterations of jumping, but ultimately found that even in continuous motion, players preferred dealing with those jumps with a teleport-style movement.

With the exception of some tweaks to the absolute final scene, the game is done. Lots of us at Valve, as well as playtesters, have played through the entire game multiple times.


Right now we're primarily polishing and fixing bugs, which is where we'd hope to be at this point in the development cycle. We're confident we'll hit our intended release. (We let the Valve Time happen before we announced the game.)

We worked with Merle at the beginning of HL:A development, but in the end, felt we wanted to go in a different direction. We love Merle, her work in Half-Life 2 was instrumental in bringing Alyx to life, and we hope to work with her again in the future.

We're not currently planning on shipping a full SDK. We'd really like to release one at some point, but it's a ton of work because Source 2 is a new toolset, much of which hasn't been previously released. Any time we spend on it now is also time we could be spending on polishing the game itself, which we think is more important. As a result, we thought it wasn't appropriate to promise anything before release.


Generally, this is how we've done SDKs in our previous Source 1 titles as well - making the game takes precedence, and after that's done, we start looking at what's next.

We will be doing subtitles at launch for ten total languages: English, French, German, Spanish-Spain, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish-Latin America, and Traditional Chinese. VO in other languages is something we're still considering.

Yes, it's our plan to release gameplay videos in the leadup to launch. Our intention is to use these to showcase not just gameplay elements, but also VR-specific elements like different movement options.

Our locomotion and comfort features are all done, including things like Seated, Left-Handed mode, etc. We have almost all our accessibility work done as well, but there's a little bit more we'd like to do there (support for one armed play, for instance).

We'll be talking about and showing more of our various locomotion options in some upcoming videos.

If you have questions about specific accessibility features you need, then feel free to reply here or send Gabe an email.

It's actually illegal to ship a Half-Life game if you don't spend at least a little time riding in a train.

Does Half-Life: Alyx use a dynamic soundtrack? Dave here (Sound Designer) - I'm unsure what you mean by 'dynamic soundtrack'. If you mean "Do the music and sound effects react or change in some way in regards to what's going on in-game?" then the answer is absolutely yes.

Thanks Super_Smol. We did answer the SDK question above.

We are huge fans of commentary and definitely plan on producing it for HL:A, but it’s unlikely that will have it in for launch day.

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: Zooma :: Patch - v0.1.1

Patch - v0.1.1 Improved UI, changed levels balance, fixed some bugs

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Space Block Buster :: The First Update (New Chapter, Items, Boss, Mode)

Happy New Year everyone! We bring you the extremely welcome news of Space Block Buster's first update. A new stage and mode, as well as many new items, have been added!!

steamcommunity.com

 

[warp_]

Walking Dead day! I'm pretty excited for this one, makes me wish I had a better sized play area in the office where my PC is...really gotta figure out something by the time HLA comes out.

 

[Alextended]

Aaand it's here. Please be good.

The Walking Dead – Saints & Sinners

vrwalkingdead.com

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners on Oculus Rift | Rift VR Games

September 23rd 2021: The Aftershocks Update is here! In this free update, supply caches once thought destroyed are washing up across the city. If you wish to get your hands on them you must return to old stomping grounds with greater dangers, activity, and walkers! Travel through the...

www.oculus.com

Old gameplay vids for those who missed what it's like:

 

[Alextended]

 

[Ibuki]

Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is super cool so far, it definitely feels like a full-fledged game. The atmosphere is very dark and moody, and the acting seems good. I only did the tutorial, so I have no idea how it works/performs in the bigger areas. Having arms in VR is still weird (I didn't try Boneworks yet) so I'm not sure if I like that. Being able to choose dialogue options and your character having a voice is gonna go a long way I think, and actually having him/her talking to other survivors instead of just being a silent protag. The stabbing feels kind of strange at first, again I think I would be a little more used to this type of gameplay if I played Boneworks already, but it's super satisfying being able to grab a zombies head and jam a screwdriver into it. My one complaint so far is that you don't actually physically crouch, it's mapped to a button that brings you down to the crouch position, like any traditional game's stealth system. Definitely a minor gripe though, I think I can get used to it.

 

[lashman]

Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is super cool so far, it definitely feels like a full-fledged game. The atmosphere is very dark and moody, and the acting seems good. I only did the tutorial, so I have no idea how it works/performs in the bigger areas. Having arms in VR is still weird (I didn't try Boneworks yet) so I'm not sure if I like that. Being able to choose dialogue options and your character having a voice is gonna go a long way I think, and actually having him/her talking to other survivors instead of just being a silent protag. The stabbing feels kind of strange at first, again I think I would be a little more used to this type of gameplay if I played Boneworks already, but it's super satisfying being able to grab a zombies head and jam a screwdriver into it. My one complaint so far is that you don't actually physically crouch, it's mapped to a button that brings you down to the crouch position, like any traditional game's stealth system. Definitely a minor gripe though, I think I can get used to it.

damn, that sounds great ... thanks for the writeup!

 

[Alextended]

Don't worry too much about the total score, this aggregator includes some pretty dubious sources.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Reviews & Overview

Saints & Sinners is a game unlike any other in The Walking Dead universe. Every challenge you face and decision you make is driven by you. Fight the undead, scavenge through the flooded ruins of New Orleans, and face gut-w...

vrgamecritic.com

I played a little bit of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners too. It seems pretty polished so far, almost everything just works generally. Opening doors, grabbing items to store or use, using melee and ranged weapons (though I think the gun holding angles need a little adjusting, they don't feel too far off the mark but they also don't really feel like you can instinctively pop them up and shoot as in games that get this aspect spot-on). There are not too many interactions beyond doors, usable items and enemies but it doesn't seem like anything is missing either, it just feels normal so far. I guess the closest non-VR game I can compare it to is Zombi but obviously it's far different, weapon durability and crafting seems much more critical, at least at this early point as you're using junk.

Still, I'll have to wait for the first feedback based patch to drop because apparently they didn't give enough thought in how they implemented the ability to play seated and standing alike. Rather than have it as an option it behaves as if seated play is enabled at all times and roughly forces the same player height regardless of your physical movement which means it's impossible to crouch physically to get under stuff (or behind cover potentially when that's called for), or whatever else you might instinctively try as you play only to have the whole game world warp further down to maintain the same height distance from your viewpoint. The only way to crouch is with the crouch toggle button (which then similarly maintains that height level, a level which might also be too low to feel natural itself as it stands) for now. I could understand if the stealth mode didn't kick in without the button but I don't even remember the last time I played a game that forced this behavior physically, if ever. Even games with seated play don't tend to force that, they just give a higher-than-your-seat height but still follow your movement if you slide down your chair or whatever rather than enforce this behavior on you, it's just a weird implementation all around.

Other than that they could probably do a few other adjustments like your head angle affecting your leaning a little bit, to make it so your flashlight when left turned on but put on your chest pocket follows your gaze a little bit, it's kinda useless to have it on but not hold it in your hand atm. They'll probably have to adjust the inventory slot positioning when they allow more physical movements but they're already super reliable compared to certain other games. Grabbing weapons from your side slots or shoulder or storing stuff without first getting the inventory backpack out just works most of the time even without practice.

If the campaign is decently well done it will probably be considered one of the best VR games yet and deserves to do well, the jury's still out but it's promising. They already got a small patch out too, to resolve issues with certain VR kits/combinations and stuff, nothing substantial for people who could play before yet.

Incoming Patch :: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners General Discussions

The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners Hotfix CL 157305 Release Notes Controller/Headset Compatibility Improvements: Knuckles Controllers now supported on multiple headsets Vive Wands now supported on multiple headset We do not have access to the whole headset/controller ecosystem so if your...

steamcommunity.com

 

[Alextended]

Yay, another small Saints & Sinners patch with an alpha version of the physical crouching which was surprisingly not possible to do before as I mention above!

Release notes for Hotfix #2 - The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners, CL 157393 :: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Info & Updates

For everyone: Handgun/Pistol angle adjustments, two-handed grips on one-handed firearms now stay level ...and for those who have demanded it: An Alpha version of Physical Crouching! This an early Work-in-Progress and there are definitely some flaws, but the early results are so promising we...

steamcommunity.com

Unrelated stuff:

Steam Search

store.steampowered.com

SUPERSANE | スーパきはたしかだ

Bakemono - Anime Mech Space Shooter Game in VR by Supersane Inc.

supersane.com

Steam :: Espire 1: VR Operative :: Espire Joins the Steam And Oculus Lunar Sales - 15% Off!

And did we mention we have the WIP changelog for Update 1.5 ready to share?

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Failspace :: Failspace leaves Early Access and enters 1.0!

The new overhaul of the main game mechanics brings the game to a state where we can be proud to call it version 1.0!

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: PULSAR: Lost Colony :: Beta 27 Release Notes - The Academy

Beta 27 adds an in-game tutorial, additional crew purchasing options and the possibility of moons around planets

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Under a Desert Sun :: Under a Desert Sun - Work in progress update

New maps, new mechanics..just lots of new stuff coming!

steamcommunity.com

 

[Alextended]

I tried Saints & Sinners again with that physical crouching deal you can enable with the latest patch (really the problem wasn't so much the crouching itself but that the warping occurred even if you just leaned a little further down the normal height to look at something closely and stuff) and damn, it feels really good.

I obviously can't know if the game and campaign structure is any good just yet, I've not even completed an area past the tutorial, but the atmosphere is great and the graphics clean even on the original Rift's low resolution, it shows the potential of a Resident Evil style slower paced zombie game in VR more than any other so hopefully the rest of it delivers. I also don't have any performance issues yet (unless I crank the supersampling). I just opened a door to find 3 zombies behind it, my first shot didn't kill the first, something went funky with my revolver or I just suck at shooting, so I noped out of the game, lol.

Contrary to Boneworks it's not trying to be a physics sandbox or whatever, it's a fairly traditionally designed and scripted game. The environments are mostly static and just there for the mood and to railroad you down whatever encounters but it doesn't feel wrong or anything, the atmosphere is spot on and there are random objects that do respond with physics, you can interact with or take most of it as loot turned into crafting materials at your home base thing but other than that they don't have any effect. There are also objects you can use as weapons like screwdrivers and knives as well as food or healing items.

The VR mechanics aren't fully physics driven either but most appear to work intuitively, I've not had problems yet. You can grab the zombies, they can grab you and you can shake them off, you can shove things in their brains as you hold them or just as they approach or if you manage to get behind them without being seen and so on (by the way, they've made it so you don't need to get super violent and fast or anything, mostly you just have to do a relatively wide arc and your strikes will have their full effect and easily pierce zombie skulls). The shooting seemed solid as in my last post even if I failed this session. The doors function easily too and you can vault onto things like cars or whatever and also climb designed for it objects like a drainage pipe I used to get in the house I noped out of earlier. Bandaging yourself is also neat and intuitive, it's easy to perform even around the original Touch controllers' ring.

The game does have a degree of arm presence and they do feel a bit off as they kind of slowly react to the positioning of the 1:1 hands but there has not been any instance of them actually getting in the way of gameplay or having unintended interactions, getting stuck in geometry or objects or anything.

It's really promising stuff. The very first zombie startled me as I was unsure of how easy they are to take down, I took care of it easily enough, then I was moving very carefully and taking them out quietly one by one as I reached them and just as I got confident that deal with the 3 zombies occurred, lol. I'm sure you get used to dealing with much more, especially after you get your hands on some decent weapons that won't break after a few kills, but yeah.

The one thing that miffed me so far is that there's a degree of respawning, I never like that. I could understand repopulating the area after you leave and come back another day for another mission or just to loot it but clearing an alley then finding it unsafe again when you go back doesn't feel right to me. Perhaps it works overall to make you feel under constant threat or whatever even after you get used to the zombies so they don't appear so scary any more but it also goes a bit against the weapon durability systems as they don't appear to drop items or anything (yet?) to make up for the resources lost to take them down. But again maybe it works out with the overall economy of the game and for the mood it wants to create, not just with you but also with the NPC factions and interactions they may have later in the game for you to observe or participate in. So, again, the core systems are great, the rest of the game, we'll see.

 

[fantomena]

Decided to finish up the DLCs for Arizona Sunshine before gettings Saints & Sinners as it seems like a much better zombie game.

 

[low-G]

Picked up Saints & Sinners, it's real good & real solid so far. Melee feels great, although I miss being able to reposition my hands on an axe handle like I could in Boneworks. The core mechanics feel really great though. Easy to run out of backpack space for more items. Some real juggling if you are in a dark room and only have a shiv or another 'forced entry' melee? I dunno what to call it.

Feels super polished (at least for VR). But it is a standing or sitting scale only title. I don't mind that, but I'd prefer the choice if possible, especially when just trying to look into a lower desk compartment for scrap.

I've been skipping some high profile titles like Asgard's Wrath and Stormland because the concepts and worlds of those games super did not appeal to me, but if they're as polished as this I'd probably get some enjoyment from them.

 

[Alextended]

Feels super polished (at least for VR). But it is a standing or sitting scale only title. I don't mind that, but I'd prefer the choice if possible, especially when just trying to look into a lower desk compartment for scrap.

They're fixing that and the last patch lets you enable an alpha fix in the ini as I mentioned/linked before.

Release notes for Hotfix #2 - The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners, CL 157393 :: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Info & Updates

For everyone: Handgun/Pistol angle adjustments, two-handed grips on one-handed firearms now stay level ...and for those who have demanded it: An Alpha version of Physical Crouching! This an early Work-in-Progress and there are definitely some flaws, but the early results are so promising we...

steamcommunity.com

Here's how:

• Open your GameUserSettings.ini file which in typical Windows 10 installs will be here:
  C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\TWD\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\GameUserSettings.ini
  • Note: The AppData folder may be hidden, but you can reveal it via Folder Options from your Start Menu
• FInd the line that reads:
  /Script/TWD.TWDGameUserSettings
• Right below that, insert the following: bPhysicalCrouchEnabled=True
• Run the game, give it a whirl.

It already works great most of the time, it's wonky in areas you're actually required to crawl to go through, it borks when you exit and goes up even if you don't.

Samsung patent reveals design upgrades in next-gen Odyssey mixed-reality headset | 91mobiles.com

The patent of the next-gen Samsung mixed-reality headset shows some of the design upgrades we can look forward to.

www.91mobiles.com

Introducing ‘Rebuilding Notre Dame,’ an Intimate Look at the Cathedral Before and After the Fire

Dating back to the 12th century, Notre Dame is a cultural landmark steeped in historic as well as religious significance. The cathedral caught fire on April 15, 2019, resulting in the destruction of its trademark spire. Since then, this popular tourist attraction has been closed to the public...

www.oculus.com

Unity XR platform updates | Unity Blog

Amidst a period of innovation for XR, we want to ensure Unity remains the best development platform for creators and our ecosystem partners. We’re excited to announce our new XR plugin framework designed to empower the ecosystem and provide guidance on how this impacts development in 2019.3 and...

blogs.unity3d.com

Steam :: Budget Cuts :: Budget Cuts 2 updates coming to Budget Cuts!

After a long development, Budget Cuts 2 is finally released and "finished"! (yay!) Now we are working on porting the updates and optimizations from BC2 into BC1!

steamcommunity.com

 

[Arulan]

My Valve Index arrived a week ago. I'm coming from a HTC Vive + Deluxe Audio Strap. The improvements to the HMD are incremental (Comfort, Refresh Rate, Field of View, Clarity, and Audio), but all together they make for a very nice step-up. The single cable, as opposed to the three-cables-together-ribbon of the launch HTC Vive is a welcomed change. It doesn't tangle as easily for one. The Index controllers feel really great. Even something as simple as now being able to naturally pick up and drop objects by simply gripping and releasing is a substantial improvement. Finger manipulation is effortless and I can't wait to see games utilize it fully.

Is anyone doing anything with their frunk?

 

[Alextended]

Blizzard prototyped a VR version of Hearthstone - PowerUp!

If there was ever a game I'd love to see given the VR treatment, it's Hearthstone. Being able to explore The Tavern and play a game, all in the virtual world of Azeroth would be incredible. Unfortunately, right now, you're only able to play Hearthstone on PC and smartphones. You are able to play in

powerup-gaming.com

 

[Alextended]

Maybe by the time this launches on Steam we'll have a nice VR mod to play it with

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: AUDICA: Rhythm Shooter :: New AUDICA Content Update and DLC Now Available!

We are excited to say that AUDICA is now officially available on the Oculus Quest! Alongside today’s Oculus Quest launch, we’ve also released a new content update and DLC across all platforms. Keep reading for more information on what you can expect to see next time you fire up AUDICA! AUDICA...

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Microsoft Maquette :: Microsoft Maquette 2020.1.0.0.906 Released

Bounding Box manipulation, new brushes, 3D environments, AR simulation improvements, accurate selection.

steamcommunity.com

 

[lashman]

 

[Alextended]

Huh, looks kinda fun. Weird it's a whole new game and not a VR version of their realistic looking House Flipper (and Garden Flipper), Developed in house? Oh, it says the footage on that page is for "mobile platforms" and the Steam release will have improvements or something though I doubt it will resemble those.

Corrected December Steam Hardware Survey Shows Large Oculus Rift S Growth

At the start of this month, we reported that the December Steam Hardware Survey seemed to be anomalous. Four weeks later, Valve has now corrected the data. In the previous version of the data, the usage of most VR headsets had significantly decreased, which we recognized as a probable anomaly.

uploadvr.com

 

[lashman]

Huh, looks kinda fun. Weird it's a whole new game and not a VR version of their realistic looking House Flipper (and Garden Flipper), Developed in house? Oh, it says the footage on that page is for "mobile platforms" and the Steam release will have improvements or something though I doubt it will resemble those.

yeah ... still weird they used the mobile screenshots and gifs

 

[Alextended]

 

[Alextended]

This one's not a great video, they are being too silly rather than playing. D is playing through the game properly in his channel if you want to check/spoil that.

Steam :: Into the Radius VR :: Milestone 4 Update

Milestone 4 Update, releasing on January 30th brings new gameplay features, performance improvement, and a rebalanced economy to one of VR’s premier experiences.

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Apex Construct :: PATCH 1.07 LIVE: Localized subtitles, support for SteamVR input 2.0 & more

5 additional languages added, proper Knuckles support + additional fixes

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Free Company VR :: Combat Redesign Progress Update #2

Combat Redesign Progress Update #2

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Borderlands 2 VR :: Borderlands 2 VR Quality of Life Patch: January 29, 2020

Today, we will release a patch for Borderlands 2 VR that adds support for the Index headset as well as some community-requested quality of life improvements!

steamcommunity.com

And another pair of Boneworks adverticles (from the same damn site), shit's getting annoying:

Blood, Sweat, And Physics: How Boneworks Turns Your Body Into Its Key VR Game Mechanic

When Boneworks (read our full review) released late last year from Stress Level Zero it led the charge in redefining how we interact with virtual objects in digital space. We took some time to speak with Brandon Laatsch from Stress Level Zero about the game’s innovations and successes. By

uploadvr.com

Getting To Grips: Boneworks & The Walking Dead Prove The Future Of VR Gaming Is In Physics And Interaction

Never in a million years would I have wagered The Walking Dead would make for a great VR game. This is a brand, nay, an entire genre, that’s steadily slowed to a creative crawl, with seemingly every possible tie-in and conceptual angle hacked away at, sparing neither life nor

uploadvr.com

I replied there, you can see it if they don't delete it (it's just honest, if annoyed, not excessively offensive).

 

[fantomena]

Finally Blands 2 VR getting some support, took a while.

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: OrbusVR :: Q1-Q2 2020 Content Roadmap

While we’re only a few weeks into the new year, the team has been hard at work on some new projects, and we are excited to share a sneak peek of the things we have planned for 2020. February: Explorer's League Outposts, Phase II (MSQ) As the new leader of the Explorer’s League, it’s time to...

steamcommunity.com

Patch notes for the next Saints & Sinners patch (not yet out).

Pre-release notes for Hotfix #3 :: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Info & Updates

Attention Tourists, we’ve got some news from the Bayou. Though not ready just yet, Hotfix #3 is soon upon us. A preview of what will be included is below. Stay tuned here! You’ll be the FIRST to know when it’s ready to go live. We value your feedback and want to say thank you to the community...

steamcommunity.com

Attention Tourists, we’ve got some news from the Bayou. Though not ready just yet, Hotfix #3 is soon upon us. A preview of what will be included is below. Stay tuned here! You’ll be the FIRST to know when it’s ready to go live.

We value your feedback and want to say thank you to the community members that are helping us to improve the game experience for all players.

Pre-release notes for Hotfix #3

• Physical Crouch improvements
• Fixed an issue with non-ANSI Window usernames that prevented bindings and other files to not be read correctly
• Chaperone should now appear correctly
• Gun angle adjustment option
• “Disable All Vignettes” option
• Controller deadzone defaults
• Progression break fixes for quests
• Nausea vignette goes to zero!
• All achievements should now unlock properly
• In some instances, NPCs didn’t fire when they should have. Now they should -- so be careful!
• Vive: fixed Crouch hint to say “Up” instead of “Down”
• Various crash fixes
• Art and animation polish
• Various performance optimizations
• Plus a little something extra...

Thank you for playing our game!

And just to pad this post here's part 3 of D's playthrough I mentioned in the last post. This game is fucking fantastic and this video does a decent job showing it.


Skip around when there are story bits to avoid spoilers.

 

[fantomena]

This is nice.

Analysis: Monthly-connected VR Headsets on Steam Reach Record High of 1.3 Million

Valve’s monthly Steam Survey has long offered useful insight into the share of VR headsets in use on Steam. But the figures provided are relative to the non-static Steam population, which obfuscates the actual adoption trend of VR headsets on the platform. To demystify the data, Road to VR has...

www.roadtovr.com

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: Vengeful Rites :: Small quality of life patch and improved water visuals.

While we work on chapter 3 we've made some adjustments throughout the game and improvements everywhere that we thought we'd patch into the current game.

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Neos VR :: Prop Hunt, D&D Roleplay System, Airship Builder, Simple 3D Modeling Tool & More!

Prop Hunt, a game beloved by GMod players, has been recreated by fans within Neos! DelVR, a D&D VR RPG system allows users to get fully immersed in their characters and worlds!

steamcommunity.com

 

[lashman]

---

 

[fantomena]

 

[Flips]

Moss on Oculus Rift | Rift VR Games

Moss™ is a single-player action-adventure puzzle game and new IP from Polyarc tailor-made for the VR platform. It takes classic components of a great game—such as compelling characters, gripping combat, and captivating world exploration—and combines them with the exciting opportunities of...

www.oculus.com

Currently free on the Oculus Store. I guess it's free to keep since it's now showing up as 'Purchased' for me.

 

[Alextended]

Doesn't show free in the store page but does in the actual app mind you. Weird. No announcement or anything on the dev/oculus twitter/blog. Cool anyway.

Edit: so, it was a store error or something, it was meant to be on discount as the web page of the store showed, I hope Oculus pays them for the downloads...

VR On Steam Surges To All Time High Of 1.3%, Driven By Oculus Rift S

In January the percentage of Steam users using a VR headset jumped from 1.09% to an all time high of 1.31%, according to the Steam Hardware Survey. Steam is the most popular digital store for PC games. Unlike Facebook’s Oculus Rift store, Valve allows developers to sell

uploadvr.com

 

[d00d3n]

I just ordered prescription lenses for my Index from vroptician.com. Has anyone else tested prescription lenses for their headset? How notable is the loss of fov?

 

[Alextended]

Yay, Saints & Sinners patch, it should be pretty smooth sailing for more people (it already was for me).

Steam :: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners :: Release notes for Hotfix #3 - The Walking Dead Saints & Sinners, CL 158143

Physical crouch improvements, New menu Options, progression blocking bug fixes, Achievement fixes,

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: CDF Starfighter VR :: CDF Starfighter VR Remastered Released!

After 2 years of hard work and a few months testing, the remastered version is here and free for current game owners! Now supports WMR VR headsets and motion controllers!

steamcommunity.com

Steam :: Jam Studio VR - Education & Health Care Edition :: BEAMZ INTERACTIVE ANNOUNCES NEW JAM STUDIO VR GOLDEN OLDIES DLC SONG BUNDLE

February 5, 2020, Beamz Interactive Inc. today launched the Golden Oldies Song bundle for Jam Studio VR and Jam Studio VR Education & Health Care Edition

steamcommunity.com

 

[Alextended]

This looks a lot like holoception minus the third person camera. But I don't care if they're creative, as long as it plays great and is fun (I still need to go and retry holoception to see if they've made the full body physics stuff to my liking or still weird to me like Boneworks). Weapon crafting looks fun/ny and cool though.

Steam :: DUSTNET :: The Archive Update

The Archive Update now packages DUSTNET onto a single dedicated server box that will preserve de_dust2 forever. With only 16-slots, every change players make to the DUSTNET server will be saved for future visitors. Pruning of the server will be important as the user generated structures grow...

steamcommunity.com

New SteamVR beta looks nice.

 

[Alextended]

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: Blind Spot VR / 盲点 VR :: Blind Spot: Now Available on Steam!

Hello dear players: We are very excited to announce that our puzzle adventure title Blind Spot is now available on Steam! ABOUT THE GAME Blind Spot is a story-driven VR adventure game. You wake up alone in the mansion where you have been living with your father and younger sister, but something...

steamcommunity.com

 

[fantomena]

I wonder when Phantom Ops (Oculus) is out. Was suppose to release late 2019.

 

[Alextended]

Steam :: Crisis VRigade :: Version 1.12 released. Coop multiplayer ready!

It is dangerous to go alone... Take this!!! Crisis VRigade coop online multiplayer is available now!

steamcommunity.com

Step Inside the Game as Scraper: Gauntlet Mixed Reality Trailer Released - GMW3

Labrodex Studios has also tested it with Oculus Link to ensure compatibility.

www.vrfocus.com