Category: Alpine Ski VR

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‘Alpine Ski VR’ Brings An Entire Mountain Range To Rift And Vive

‘Alpine Ski VR’ Brings An Entire Mountain Range To Rift And Vive

Suchworks Ltd, a UK-based VR and AR studio, just released skiing VR games Alpine Ski VR for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The controls themselves are easy enough to pick up, as you can see in the first couple minutes of this gameplay video put together by Steve Such, the lead developer at Suchworks Ltd. Players are to tilt their heads deliberately to start themselves off on the slope, using their head movements gently to control their descent down the hill.

The Xbox controller is used on the Rift, and there are additional ski pole controls for the HTC Vive controllers. As the developers themselves said, “we wanted to create a game that would be fun to play but also allow you to take a step back and just enjoy your environment once in a while”.

There are four different modes to try out, including a self-explanatory Ski School where you can learn how to play the game and try out tricks that will help you out later on in the game. There’s also Slalom which is a racing mode with six different levels to set records for, as well as Freestyle where you’ll perform tricks to try and get a high score.

The last mode is the one that perhaps stands out the most, as there are no competitions or scores to be made. This is the Heliski mode, where you fly around a mountain range in your own helicopter and choose to be dropped off in whichever ski slope you wish. This isn’t as vomit-inducing as it sounds, as the helicopter gently settles you down onto the ground rather than you jumping out and hoping for the best.

“We’ve carefully designed all movement to be as comfortable as possible,” Such said. “The biggest technical challenges we’ve faced were around creating a believable yet fun skiing model in VR that doesn’t leave the user with motion sickness.”

Alpine Ski VR is now available for $4.99 on Steam.

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Head Out onto the Slopes as Alpine Ski VR Lands on Rift and Vive

If you fancy yourself as a skier, hurtling down mountainsides with only a few inches of snow between you and solid ground, but haven’t yet given it a go, then Alpine Ski VR might be worth a look.

Developed by Suchworks Ltd, Alpine Ski VR puts players at the top of a mountain with the only way forward begin down. There are 3 game modes for players to test their skills at: Slalom, Freestyle and Heliski. Slalom is a race to the bottom with gates to ski though, timing and accuracy are essential to secure the best line and the best time. Freestyle is all about big air and even bigger points. There’s a mixture of mountain courses and professional ramp areas for players to try and accomplish tricks such as 360’s, 540’s and more. The more tricks that are linked together the higher the multiplyer will go, land a trick badly and watch it reset. Both Freestyle and Slalom feature six individual levels to complete, with local leaderboards available for friends to compete against each other.

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The last mode available is Heliski. This gives players a masive 100km2 of offpiste snow to carve up, however and wherever they like. They can pilot the helicopter themselves to find that ideal location on the mountain to ski down.

Suchworks Ltd has implemented an intuitive control scheme for Alpine Ski VR which doesn’t require a controller. Harking back to systems used for mobile VR titles, the videogame simply requires the user to tilt their head in the appropriate direction, with small movements being key. Checkout the two videos below to see what Alpine Ski VR is about prior to its launch tomorrow on Steam for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and OSVR. For further VR announcements from Suchworks Ltd, keep reading VRFocus.