How to move in a natural way continues to be a hot topic within virtual reality (VR) mainly because moving about at speed is a big factor in many cases of sim sickness. There are a number of different movement methods that are being used in the current crop of VR videogame titles, including various forms of teleportation. I.e. moving via clicking from place to place either freely or via hotspots.
Critics say of these methods that they are an immediate barrier to the immersion of a title, one company that is such a critic is VR controller firm 3dRudder who have announced a new mod today called the Locomotion3dRudder Mod tailored specifically for use with Epic Games latest game, VR FPS Robo Recall that aims to bring intuitive motion control and banish what it calls the “immersion killer” of teleportation.
The 3dRudder itself is a controller platform with which you use your feet, that aims to bring 360 degree movement to VR environments with an eye not only on games but on use as a tool for designers and similar professionals; with recent developments including a wireless version of the controller which was revealed at CES earlier this year. Players tackle games in a seated position using their feet to push and shift their weight across the raised platform to move forward, backwards, sideways or even turn around. The idea being that your feat, naturally will know where you want to go, thus freeing up hand movements for more important things – like shooting enemies and grabbing loot. The team have released a video (shown below) which demonstrates the 3dRudder and mod in action with Robo Recall.
Robo Recall, of course, is the Unreal Engine powered action-packed shooter for Oculus Rift and Touch, developed as a follow-up/spiritual sequel to Epic Games earlier VR shooter Bullet Train. In a recent review in which VRFocus awarded a rare five star rating, it was stated that: “Robo Recall elicits such a high standard that future FPS titles will be measured by it, and should be considered a killer app for Oculus Touch.”
The mod, which was developed by the 3dRudder team itself can be found here, along with instructions for installation. Whilst the 3dRudder controller can be purchased online for $179 (USD) or 179€ (EUR) at 3drudder.com.
Robo Recall itself was released with its full source code available to mod, Epic Games allowing us to share an in-depth ‘how to’ guide with you on Robo Recall and the development team earlier this month revealed three official mod packs for the videogame.
VRFocus will bring you more information about the developments with both Robo Recall and 3dRudder as we are able. Be sure to follow us on social media for more news.