Unity Technologies, Epic Games and Crytek all revealed their plans for in-engine virtual reality (VR) development tools last year, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Now, it appears that one development studio has decided not to wait for the engine developers to catch-up with their demand, building their own VR development suite for the design of the forthcoming BMX: The Game.
Barspin Studios are currently hard at work bringing BMX: The Game to life on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, as well as iOS and Android platforms. It’s an ‘extreme bike’ videogame which aims to recreate Barcelona as a freeform cycling environment, offering the city’s streets and iconic tourist attractions as challenging BMX arenas. To do this, Barspin Studios has developed a VR application called the ‘Prop Placer Tool’.
Designed to allow the development team to quickly place and manoeuvre objects within the videogame world, the Prop Placer Tool is a VR application which allows the user to build and decorate the city, placing objects and props like cars, street lamps, trees, benches in an intuitive way: using direct hand-interface placement. It’s designed to build fast while offering a realistic sense of presence and scale. This app is used daily at Barspin Studios to enrich the city with content in an easy, intuitive and entertaining way without specific programming knowledge.
Beyond the development phase of BMX: The Game, Barspin Studios plan on making the Prop Placer Tool available to consumers with access to VR hardware also. While the application has been designed as an internal city builder tool, the VR capabilities will be also incorporated into editing suite offered in the release version of BMX: The Game, such as park editor and terrain editors.
Players will be able to create their own bike parks on a delimited terrain, with a very extensive library of objects, including ramps, boxes, railings and many other objects. The user can go anywhere – using a typical teleporting system – in the city and place props just by pointing with their hands. Once a prop is placed it’s possible to manipulate it, including moving, rotation and scale just using the direct hands input. The user has a comfortable UI which allows to browse the props library at any time.
BMX: The Game is currently expected to launch later this year, with a beta version coming soon. Gamers interested in the core experience or the VR Prop Placer Tool can pre-order now via Barspin Studios’ official website, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest on in-VR development for the videogame industry.