Category: Epic Games

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Epic Games Add Localisation Options to Robo Recall

If you own Oculus Touch then one title that should definitely be in your library is Epic Games’ Robo Recall – its free and VRFocus gave it 5-stars – but it didn’t meet the needs of every gamer worldwide due to language restrictions. So the studio is rectifying that today by releasing an update to support four more languages.

The new localization update for Robo Recall adds custom voice over in German, Spanish, French and Korean alongside translated UI, menu and other graphic elements, such as the in-game Holo table and scoring events.

RoboRecallLocalization_Pic2

“Players have been blowing up the Robo Recall leaderboards since launch and we are now excited to see a localized version released for even more players in European and Asian markets,” said Epic Games producer Tommy Jacob in a statement.

Since Robo Recall launched on Oculus Rift back in March the title has seen several updates, with the largest being at the end of that month with 360-degree tracking added alongside other tweaks and improvements. Epic Games also ensured the videogame was open to community modding, so that fans or other developers could added their own flair to the experience – naturally a Star Wars mod has already appeared.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Epic Games and Robo Recall, reporting back with any further updates.

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Steam Audio Adds Unreal Engine Support

In February Valve rolled out the Steam Audio software development kit (SDK) as a free beta to all developers. Featuring a range of audio options, the SDK came with Unity support straight away with Unreal Engine due to be included in a future update. That support has now gone live.

In a posting on Steam, Valve states: “We are excited to announce the first beta release of Steam Audio for Unreal Engine 4. Our plugin now ships with UE4 by default, so you can get started by upgrading to 4.16 Preview 2. This release brings our physically-based sound propagation and HRTF rendering to the UE4 engine, enabling developers to immediately begin creating immersive audio experiences for games and VR. The plugin is free of charge and is not locked to a particular platform or VR device.”

Unreal engine 4 Steam Audio

As per the initial release of Steam Audio, the Unreal Engine 4 version provides three major pieces of functionality: HRTF filtering with per-source settings, direct-sound occlusion, and physically-based sound propagation.

Valve expects the latter function to be one of the most popular: “This portion of Steam Audio is what many users are going to be most excited about,” notes the blog. “We’ve introduced a variety of new actors and components that handle tagging acoustically meaningful geometry, specifying acoustic materials, and creating acoustic probes for baking sound propagation data.”

As with any beta release this first launch is experimental and shouldn’t be used for existing projects. To explore existing issues and report new ones head over the GitHub issues page for Steam Audio to find out more.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Steam Audio SDK, reporting back with the latest changes and improvements to the software.

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The Future Group Utilises Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to Create Mixed Reality TV and Gaming

Norwegian company, The Future Group, a developer of interactive mixed reality (IMR), has announced a licensing agreement with Epic Games to use its Unreal Engine 4 middleware for film-quality 3D rendered scenes on TV broadcasts.

The Future Group has built unique enhancements specific to broadcast TV on top of Unreal Engine, providing the ability to merge people and objects in real-time into virtual worlds.

The Future Group - Interactive Mixed Reality

Having recently emerged for stealth, The Future Group’s new product is Frontier, a 3D visual effects platform being used by FremantleMedia in their upcoming IMR game show for worldwide primetime TV, Lost in Time. Using Frontier powered by Unreal Engine, TV production companies can create live photorealistic effects and virtual sets that are integrated with anything or anyone from the real world to create IMR-enhanced shows, mobile games and more.

“The Future Group is delivering one of the most advanced uses of Unreal Engine in broadcast to date with Lost in Time,” said Kim Libreri, CTO, Epic Games in a statement. “The visual quality is absolutely stunning and we look forward to seeing the Frontier platform open new doors in interactive episodic entertainment.”

“Working with Unreal Engine allows us to use the performance standard-bearer in game engines as the foundation of Frontier,” said Jens Petter Høili, co-founder and Chairman of The Future Group. “Epic has been nothing but supportive of The Future Group in our efforts, and we are very excited to have found that Unreal is capable of amazing real-time Hollywood effects, even in an HD broadcast environment and workflow. We are using Unreal to create blockbuster IMR effects, and enabling it through our broadcast platform Frontier.”

The company was co-founded by Bård Anders Kasin, a Technical Director at Warner Brothers, who was on the team responsible for the visual effects in the The Matrix Trilogy and acclaimed Nordic entrepreneur Jens Petter Høili. With Future Group-developed enhancements, Frontier provides highly-realistic scenery through state-of-the-art features such as particle systems, dynamic textures, live reflections, shadows and collision detection, all at a quality level for broadcast HD resolutions and beyond.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Future Group and Epic Games, reporting back with further updates.

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Epic Games Roll Out the First Preview for Unreal Engine 4.16

You don’t have to be a developer to have heard of Epic Games and Unreal Engine. The studio is well known for titles such as Paragon or its recently released virtual reality (VR) project Robo Recall. Both of which have been created using Unreal Engine as well numerous other videogames by developers around the world. This week the company released a preview of the engine’s next update, 4.16, so that studio’s can start experimenting with the new features and report any issues.

Epic Games continue to advance the VR side of the engine, adding several new tool updates like the VR Mode’s UI and interaction, access to the Sequencer Editor, Smart Snapping and physics simulation.

UnrealEngine-4-14-preview-1

The studio hasn’t stopped there either. ‘Unified Console Commands across VR platforms,’ means that there is now a shared layer for common interfaces that developers can work from, rather than separate ones for each platform, and the mobile multiview path now supports Gear VR.

Back in February Valve launched the Steam Audio SDK as a free beta for developers. The SDK included a range of features such as HRTF-based binaural rendering, occlusion, physics-based reverb, real-time sound propagation and baked reverb and propagation to enhance VR applications. With Unreal Engine 4.16 Preview 1, Epic Games has fully-integrated the Steam Audio SDK whilst utilising the capabilities of the new Unreal Audio Engine.

As with any preview this is just for developers to test and experiment with. Epic Games always states: “Please be aware that the preview releases are not fully quality tested, that they are still under heavy active development, and that they should be considered as unstable until the final release. Developers should not convert their projects for active development on preview releases.”

For the full summary of updates head to the Unreal Engine forums. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Epic Games and Unreal Engine, reporting back with the latest updates.

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Epic Games To Bring Robo Recall to ECGC

This year with be the ninth year of the East Coast Game Conference, also known as ECGC. In 2016 the conference introduced a new programme track for virtual reality (VR), along with a specific ‘VR Villiage’ area for VR technology on the Expo floor. The VR village is returning in 2017, and Epic Games will be there.

Epic Games will be hosting no less than three stations where attendees will be able to try robot-smashing shooter Robo Recall, which came out for the Oculus Touch earlier this year.

The studio will also be bringing two Unreal Engine 4 demo stations along with members of the support and development team who will be available to answer questions.

Robo_Recall_OC3_A4_screenshot_05

The developers at Epic Games will also be leading several talks as part of the ‘Unreal Theatre’ sessions. Talks will be scheduled as follows:

Wednesday, April 19th

  • Stylized Character Creation in UE4 Mobile Games

    Led by Jeremy Ernst, Lead Technical Animator

  • Finding Your First Gig: Students, Recent Grads, & Getting into the Games Industry

    Led by Emily Gabrian, Sr. Recruiter

  • Building Better Pipelines for Unreal Engine 4

    Led by Sam Deiter, Sr. Technical Writer

  • Building Robo Recall Mods with Blueprints

    Led by Zak Parrish, Sr. Dev Rel Technical Artist

Thursday, April 20th

  • Getting Started with VR in UE4

    Led by Andrew Hurley, Support Technician

  • Animation Blending Concepts

    Led by Wes Bunn, Sr. Technical Writer

  • Finding Your Dream Job: Pro Tips for Applying at Epic at any Level

    Led by Emily Gabrian, Sr. Recruiter

  • Making Physics-Based Mayhem

    Led by Alan Noon, Sr. Dev Rel Technical Artist

The East Coast Games Conference will run from 18th – 20th April 2017 at the Raleigh Convention Centre. Further information is available at the ECGC website.

VRFocus will continue to keep you informed on VR events and conferences.

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The VR Job Hub: Coatsink, Epic Games, YouVisit and More

The virtual reality (VR) industry is growing all the time, reaching areas such as construction, healthcare, advertising, engineering and lots more. Roles are available for community managers, programmers, designers and lots more.

See the listings below for further information:

Location Company Role Link
Sunderland, UK Coatsink Senior Animator Click here to apply
Sunderland, UK Coatsink Programmer Click here to apply
New York City, US YouVisit Senior Sales Consultant Click here to apply
Waltham, US Dassault Systèmes VR/AR Developer Internship Click here to apply
Austin, TX, US CyberCoders CTO – Mobile Applications, Unity, VR Click here to apply
Bellevue, WA, US Epic Games VR Programmer – Unreal Engine Click here to apply
Mountain View, CA, US The Mullings Group VR/Simulation & Robotics Click here to apply

 

As usual, you can check last week’s edition for further job listings. If you are an employer looking for someone to fill a role in a VR or AR related area and want that position to be featured on next week’s VR Job Hub, please send details to either pgraham@vrfocus.com or keva@vrfocus.com.

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at 3PM BST every Sunday for the latest roles in the VR industry.

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Robo Recall: Mod bringt Star Wars Universum ins Spiel

Der Virtual Reality First-Person-Shooter Robo Recall ist schon dank seiner großartigen Grafik und dem gelungenen Gameplay spielenswert. Zusätzlich steht hinter dem Spiel eine aktive Community, die ständig neue Mods kreiert. Einer dieser Mods ist wirklich einzigartig, denn er bringt die Lichtschwerter aus Star Wars direkt ins Spiel. Und wer wollte sich nicht immer schon wie ein Jedi beim Kampf gegen Droiden fühlen?

Fühlt euch wie ein Jedi durch die aktive Modder-Community

Die Entwickler Epic Games geben den Spielern die freie Möglichkeit Mods zu erstellen. Dafür stellen sie das notwendige Mod-Kit frei zur Verfügung. Der Modder tonsta31 von MGS Studios lies sich diese Gelegenheit nicht entgehen und veröffentlichte seinen Star-Wars-Mod im Oculus Forum bereits vor einem Monat. Seit dem wurde dieser regelmäßig verbessert und erhielt Updates. Durch den Mod kann man die Lichtschwerter als normale Waffen nutzen und damit zusätzlich Blasterschüsse, wie in den Filmen zurückstoßen. Zukünftig wird man auch in der Lage seine Machtfähigkeiten einzusetzen. Diese sind bereits implementiert, können jedoch noch nicht genutzt werden. Das sorgt für ein authentisches Jedi-Gefühl. Wie das Ganze aussieht, wird in folgendem Video gezeigt:

Eigentlich entstand der Mod aus Spaß durch die Herausforderung eines Freundes. Jedoch arbeitete der Modder nach eigener Aussage über 20 Stunden daran. Dabei verbesserte er die Visualisierung und die authentische Nutzung der Lichtschwerter, die Soundeffekte, sowie die künstliche Intelligenz der Gegner. Weitere Bots wie Darth Vader sind zudem bereits in Arbeit.

Dieser und weitere Mods stehen kostenlos im Oculus Forum zum Download zur Verfügung. Jeder Star-Wars-Fan sollte diese Gelegenheit nutzen und den Mod ausprobieren. Es wird nicht lange dauern, bis weitere Modder Skins für Droiden oder Sturmtruppen basteln, um das Star-Wars-Gefühl noch lebendiger zu machen. Darauf dürfen wir uns freuen. Möge die Macht mit euch sein.

(Quellen: uploadvr, Oculus Forum)

Der Beitrag Robo Recall: Mod bringt Star Wars Universum ins Spiel zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Star Wars Comes to Robo Recall with a Fan made Mod

If you own Oculus Touch then your library should include Epic Games’ first-person shooter (FPS) Robo Recall. The well received title allows you to shoot and rip apart hordes of robots, it also supports community modsto alter the gameplay experience. Indie team MGS Studios has created several already, one of them being a Star Wars mod.

The first iteration arrived last month with MGS updating players via the Oculus Forums. There’s plenty for Star Wars fans to enjoy with the first build featuring:

– LightSabers in the new version dismember and deflect better and do not act like they are lead pipes
– Laser projectiles are just there for test purposes and will be replaced.
– AI have been slightly reworked to come more towards you and now multiple can attack at once (In stock for some reason most wait until you are nearer them or you kill one)
– There are force powers but not to use as yet.
– Started rigging Darth and some bots
– Will be story driven across multiple levels
– only made by ME and about 20 hrs worth including making the level lol so do not expect much.
– Regular updates will be for the donators but this thread will be updated too after.

robo-recall-star-wars mod

A further update then added:

– Menu System for changing colour of lightsaber.
– Some voice changes for the robots to some star wars ones
– Force Powers (BETA)
– Blaster improvements
– Lightsaber improvements
– No longer pushes the bots half way across the map when hit by saber and more realistic to the films
– Darth Makes an appearance with his saber although currently he does not fight but could be implemented but just not in the time i have,
– Tested out changing some bots for SW bots which needs a lot more work so again may consider doing after my challenge
– A few character phrases added from star wars
– Better projectiles but still in need of improvement
– More added to the main map and added a few extra sequences outside
– A few more bits

The team isn’t stopping there. Plans are under way to add Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, a new map and further tweaks to the lightsabers and more.

Checkout the video below to see the mod in action then head over to the forum to download it. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Robo Recall, reporting back with further updates.

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New ‘Robo Recall’ Update Brings 360 Oculus Touch Tracking

One of the slickest titles on the Rift right now, Epic Games’ arcade shooter Robo Recall has received an update which addresses one of the bigger criticisms the title received at launch, 360 degree tracking for the Oculus Touch.

Robo Recall is a rare example in VR, a title that represents what can be achieved with the right funding, technology and developers behind it – one of the few titles on VR which comes close to the polish and production values expected of Triple-A titles in the traditional gaming world. It’s also bloody good fun too!

However, one sore point which was highlighted in our review of the game and vocally by the VR community at large, was the emphasis the game put on a front-facing experience – one that’s seen as optimal for those with a standard ‘out of the box’ Oculus Touch tracking set up (i.e. two Oculus Sensors). Thanks to the game’s built-in mod support, the community tackled that issue in no time at all, along with a full-locomotion version of the title to boot. However, Epic acknowledged that there was an issue to address and promised to tackle it in a future update.

SEE ALSO
'Robo Recall' Review

That update is now here and the new version of Robo Recall now offers a new 360 tracking mode, which is selectable within the game’s settings menu. We’ve not yet had a chance to give this a try, but the hope if that those with a more robust Oculus Sensor (i.e. 3 or more) can now benefit from their investment.

The update also includes a raft of bug fixes and improvements, all of which are listed below, with one curious item a new music track which accompanies the end credits. The poignant sounding “Shooty Shooty Gun Hands” didn’t quite make it into the initial release of Robo Recall, and if you’re curious what this musical masterpiece sounds like, you can check it out below.

Robo Recall Update Release Notes:

  • Added support for 360 tracking mode. Available in Settings->Tracking Options.
  • Replaced ending credits music with “Shooty Shooty Gun Hands”, the masterpiece that came in too hot for launch.
  • Improved and stabilized teleporting up onto ledges.
  • Fixed a bug that caused crawlers to be wiggidy-wack when you grabbed them during one part of their “get up” sequence.
  • Added more unique colors for high multiplier numbers. People are tearing it up on Youtube!
  • Fixed a bug that caused flickering between LODs in a very narrow window.
  • Some improvements for spectator leaderboard functionality.
  • Fixed a small bug on the Holo-table that caused weapon dangly bits to misbehave when weapon was dropped.
  • Fixed “Whip Slam” damage scoring events and made damage scale with impact velocity.
  • Some audio performance improvements.
  • Fixes for font caching that wasn’t working properly. Players should now experience fewer small hitches the first time unique text is rendered.
  • Fix bug where Boss VO wasn’t being affected by VO volume settings.
  • Misc audio bug fixes.
  • Spectator leaderboard now correctly states when player is in “All Star Mode”.

The post New ‘Robo Recall’ Update Brings 360 Oculus Touch Tracking appeared first on Road to VR.

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‘Robo Recall’ Update Brings Additional Improvements to 360 Degree Tracking

One of the slickest titles on the Rift right now, Epic Games’ arcade shooter Robo Recall has received an update which addresses one of the bigger criticisms the title received at launch, 360 degree tracking for the Oculus Touch.

Update (4/6/17, 10:33PM PT): Today Epic released a new update to Robo Recall which brings additional improvements to 360 degree tracking. With the 180 degree tracking, players could use the thumbstick to decide which direction they wanted to be facing after the teleport, however this option wasn’t available to players using the newly added 360 degree tracking feature. Thanks to feedback from the community, Epic has updated the game to add this option to 360 degree tracking, along with a few other improvements, as noted by their patch notes:

  • Based on feedback, we’ve added support for directional teleporting with 360 tracking.
  • Added a “tracking settings” prompt that should show up one time, on the main menu, for people who have 3 trackers, or have 2 trackers pointing towards each other.
  • Re-enabled some optimizations in the physical animation code that had been disabled during development.
  • Removed half-finished text localization from the build, as it was accidentally being activated for some users.
  • Improved the feedback for players who’ve stepped away from their “center” position.

Original Article (4/1/2017): Robo Recall is a rare example in VR, a title that represents what can be achieved with the right funding, technology and developers behind it – one of the few titles on VR which comes close to the polish and production values expected of Triple-A titles in the traditional gaming world. It’s also bloody good fun too!

However, one sore point which was highlighted in our review of the game and vocally by the VR community at large, was the emphasis the game put on a front-facing experience – one that’s seen as optimal for those with a standard ‘out of the box’ Oculus Touch tracking set up (i.e. two Oculus Sensors). Thanks to the game’s built-in mod support, the community tackled that issue in no time at all, along with a full-locomotion version of the title to boot. However, Epic acknowledged that there was an issue to address and promised to tackle it in a future update.

SEE ALSO
'Robo Recall' Review

That update is now here and the new version of Robo Recall now offers a new 360 tracking mode, which is selectable within the game’s settings menu. We’ve not yet had a chance to give this a try, but the hope if that those with a more robust Oculus Sensor (i.e. 3 or more) can now benefit from their investment.

The update also includes a raft of bug fixes and improvements, all of which are listed below, with one curious item a new music track which accompanies the end credits. The poignant sounding “Shooty Shooty Gun Hands” didn’t quite make it into the initial release of Robo Recall, and if you’re curious what this musical masterpiece sounds like, you can check it out below.

Robo Recall Update Release Notes:

  • Added support for 360 tracking mode. Available in Settings->Tracking Options.
  • Replaced ending credits music with “Shooty Shooty Gun Hands”, the masterpiece that came in too hot for launch.
  • Improved and stabilized teleporting up onto ledges.
  • Fixed a bug that caused crawlers to be wiggidy-wack when you grabbed them during one part of their “get up” sequence.
  • Added more unique colors for high multiplier numbers. People are tearing it up on Youtube!
  • Fixed a bug that caused flickering between LODs in a very narrow window.
  • Some improvements for spectator leaderboard functionality.
  • Fixed a small bug on the Holo-table that caused weapon dangly bits to misbehave when weapon was dropped.
  • Fixed “Whip Slam” damage scoring events and made damage scale with impact velocity.
  • Some audio performance improvements.
  • Fixes for font caching that wasn’t working properly. Players should now experience fewer small hitches the first time unique text is rendered.
  • Fix bug where Boss VO wasn’t being affected by VO volume settings.
  • Misc audio bug fixes.
  • Spectator leaderboard now correctly states when player is in “All Star Mode”.

The post ‘Robo Recall’ Update Brings Additional Improvements to 360 Degree Tracking appeared first on Road to VR.