Bringing A Myth To Life In VR, Forge Reply Talk Theseus

You may well have seen the 360 degree trailer of Theseus on your Facebook timeline, Twitter, YouTube – or even on VRFocus. Following the videogame’s release on the PlayStation VR back in July, those on PC can look forward to play the it this Autumn on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Theseus screenshotBased around the popular Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, Forge Reply have decided to bring elements not only from the myth but have added horror elements into the equation. This is evident in the design of both the Minotaur and the of Ariadne who acts as a spirit guide for the players, telling them what to do. Theseus can played in third-person and Samuele Perseo, Producer at Forge Reply explains in the interview below that the camera follows you during dramatic moments and is fixed at other times. Although in general the player has control of the camera.

With two to three hours of gameplay, Theseus is heavily reliant on generating atmosphere which it achieves through 3D audio, allowing you to perceive things around you. Perseo wants the player to feel immersed in the atmosphere and world they’ve created. With the combination of third-person and 3D sound, Perseo hopes that users are willing to try a different kind of immersion and narrative that wouldn’t feel the same without the headset. Theseus comes to a natural end, as per the mythbut Forge Reply noted they are looking forward to develop and evolve more stories and videogames with what they’ve learned from Theseus and the use of Unreal Engine.

Check out the video below for Nina’s full interview and be sure to follow us on YouTube for more coming very soon.

 

 

Vertigo Games On How Skyworld Is A New Type Of VR Strategy Game

In 2015 Vertigo Games announced that they’d be working on a Steam VR title Skyworld. VRFocus managed to get hands on with Skyworld and speak to VR videogame designer Paul van der Meer of Vertigo Games.

Designed for virtual reality (VR), Skyworld is a turn-based strategy videogame revolving around a circular table where you take command of your general and troops to take over regions in order to ultimately defeat your opponent. With a dragon on top of a castle at the centre, the table flips over to reveal different locations when it is your turn. This was done to help separate large pieces of information into manageable chunks. Rather than seeing a continuous volume of statistics for your units whilst playing, the player can see this information on their units in different locations when the table flips. These areas consist of a laboratory, where the player can research new units in the form of a deck of cards; another where you can upgrade your units and finally a location where you can check up on your finances – after all, waging war is never cheap.

Vertigo Games found it important to make the videogame accessible for players who had never tried VR before. According to Van der Meer, so far players who have tried Skyworld got the hang of things very quickly and he believes that the genre of strategy games available for VR is sparse, and as this is turn-based you can take your time playing it however you are most comfortable.

Skyworld will be released in autumn this year for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets. You can play against A.I., and against a friend if they own any of the previous mentioned headsets. The match will be a little over an hour and Van der Meer believes it’s videogame one would prefer to play with a friend rather than a stranger. You can see and hear your opponent when playing and this can make for a great social experience. Vertigo Games might be working on making more units available, but for now they’re focused on the release.

VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest with Skyworld, to find out more watch the interview below.

 

Can you Survive in Escape Room Horror Steel Alive?

Escape room style experiences have been growing in popularity as virtual reality (VR) continues to reach new audiences. Combining it with horror seems extremely popular as well, such as The InPatientSylphe Labs aims to take escape rooms to the next level of extreme with Steel Alive, an obvious pun on the words ‘still alive’. Steel Alive molds escape room gameplay with the horror and adventure genres to create a videogame that aims to be truly terrifying. 

Filippo M. Vela, Co-Founder of Sylphe Labs told VRFocus  at Gamescom that the player is put into a steel structure covered in rust. Every room except the first is constructed with the soul purpose of bringing death to the player unless they manage to solve the puzzle and escape the room first. The objective of the game is not only to escape each room but also find out why you’ve been brought here and by who. You have to do this quietly as well, otherwise you’ll set off traps and monsters.

Currently unfinished, Sylphe Labs is looking for a publisher or investor to fully complete the title. Steel Alive will support the Samsung Gear VR, requiring a Samsung Gear VR controller or standard gamepad in order to play properly – this is to both move and have access to the inventory. Checkout the studio’s first published trailer online to get a better idea.

Vela explained to VRFocus that the end goal is to have 27 escape rooms which are interconnected with one another. This means that when a player believes they’ve solved a puzzle and move to another room, then turn to go back, they’ll have found a completely new room in its place. The studio would like Steel Alive to have an arcade mode, so players can purchase different rooms and the whole structure becomes randomly generated in order to extend the experience. If the right publisher and investor help finish the videogame Vela hopes to bring Steel Alive to PlayStation VR and PC next year.

Check out the video below to find more.

As further details on Steel Alive are announced, follow VRFocus to keep updated on the latest updates.

Don’t Think VR Has A Future? Wait Until You Try Wargaming.net’s Free Roaming VR

Wargaming.net is renown around the world for its online tank-based multiplayer World of Tanks (WoT). The company also dabbles in plenty of future tech like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to ensure it stays up with current trends, such as its VR spectating experiment during the WoT 2016 Grand Finals or the Tank 100 app. Then earlier this month the company announced a partnership with Russian VR specialist VRTech, to bring its location-based entertainment to Europe. The first unveiling of which took place at Gamescom 2017 and VRFocus was there to try it out.

If you’ve read VRFocus previous coverage you’ll know that VRTech’s system comes in two flavours, Cinema VR and Polygon VR. The former is the simpler of the two which VRTech franchises out. This involves a setup rig that’s 5 metres by 5 metres, consisting of four HTC Vive’s suspended from the top of the metal framework. This allows all cabling to be off the floor giving players a reasonable movement range much like you’d have in a home setup. The system also allows up to four players in one session.

Wargaming-VRTech

For the Cinema VR demonstration one videogame was playable, a first-person shooter (FPS) called RevolVR. This was essentially a wild west shootout scenario, very similar in fact to Dead and Buried. After activating the character select wheel  – which chooses automatically – each player finds themselves dotted around a small level, with a limited amount of cover to hide behind. It’s then a case of killing your opponents as quickly as possible, either with body shots or a few well placed headshots with the pistols provided – no other guns were available.

This sort of title is ideal for a setup like this, limiting movement to ducking behind cover and popping up to take a shot. While it won’t amaze gamers who are well attuned to VR, it will certainly impress those who’ve never even tried VR – and that’s the point – as the locations will be in shopping centres or amusement arcades for example. And for this purpose Cinema VR does an admiral job.

Switching to Polygon VR however is another ball game entirely. This is wireless, complete free roaming gameplay, much like The VOID or Zero Latency. This has an area of 10 metres by 10 metres, using an MSI backpack, StrikerVR gun, and a customised Oculus Rift headset. Again, this is designed for four players but now there’s plenty of kit to wear as the system tracks your entire body. So attached to your feet, legs, waist, elbows, hands and head are markers – similar to mo-cap setups – enabling operators to track every movement of your body for full immersion.

This is definitely not the sort of attraction you’ll find in a shopping mall, it’s way to big, complicated and time consuming to setup, this is one for theme parks. Just getting everything hooked up and ready took at least 20 minutes, with the videogame taking about 15-20 minutes to complete. Here’s the thing, put four friends into Polygon VR and they’re going to have a brilliant time, or they should do. When VRFocus tried the experience it was with two strangers who only spoke pigeon English which made it hard to build up a team dynamic with a solid plan on achieving success, but it was easy to tell how that would work with some buddies.

The actual videogame on demonstration was called Paragon, a military shooter where you had to ascend a tower, taking out machine gunners and snipers, punching in codes to activate sections to eventually free a UFO before getting picked up in  a helicopter.

VRTech - CinemaVR

In parts it was amazing, just like VR in general has to be seen to be understood, this type of VR takes the technology to a whole different level and you’d want every immersive experience to be like this. However it wasn’t all plain sailing, at times things glitched out and became almost unplayable.

When things ran smoothly the ability to just wander around a platform, picking off enemies, then moving to another position, seeing a team mate and having to remember to physically walk around them was as equally weird as it was brilliant. Home consumer VR is immersive that’s for sure but this dials that up to eleven – laser quest just won’t cut it anymore.

Now this may have been due to Gamescom and the fact that any sort of wireless communication is horribly unstable, there were times when things just didn’t work. Trying to punch a four digit code in became a test of perseverance and luck, hit the wrong number and trying to delete it would erase the previous numbers, building that feeling of wanting to hit the keypad before realising it wasn’t physically there.

Then at times the tracking went so suddenly one of the other team members would have their feet above their heads, arms contorted into some unfathomable position like a freaky Picasso painting. The most annoying however was when the gun lost tracking, it was visually there but not in the same place as the actual gun, or it would glitch about so trying to shoot a sniper nestled into a tower became almost an impossibility.

So there were some issues granted. After finishing the demo though all that fell away to leave a feeling of excitement. Like any new tech finding its feet there are going to be hurdles to cross, and VR has overcome many with plenty more still to go. One thing’s for sure, location-based, free-roaming needs to be a part of VR’s future and Wargaming.net and VRTech are on the right path, now where are the tanks!

Hands-on: ‘Marble Land’ Promises Hours of Complex Physics-based Puzzles, Launching on All Major Platforms

Marble Land is a physics-based puzzle game from Devious Technologies, a Bucharest, Romania based studio. We got a chance at this year’s Gamescom to pop into the unique little puzzler, which is slated to launch in the next few months on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream.

I remember playing a prototype version of Marble Land when it was first released in mid-2016 on wearvrthe repository for all things virtual. Standing out among the cadre of low-effort wave shooters and overblown school projects was a gem of a demo that incorporated complex, physics-based puzzles.

Strapping into an Oculus Rift with Touch controllers, the busy show floor faded to the back of my mind as I was transported to an antique, but plainly alien-look environment. With the puzzle at the center of the strange building placed around me, I began to focus at the task at hand. The objective: guide an the ethereal blue marble into the green target area by using the world’s Rube Goldberg-inspired devices. With no time limit or point structure, your only goal is to complete the level and move on to the next.

I guided the ball through everything from simple pathways to weird transport gates, some of which could only be activated by changing the direction of barriers scattered throughout the level that would allow the marble to go one way or another. I went through 5 newly-created levels (the prototype levels have been scrapped entirely), each more complex than the last. None of them were particularly tough to figure out, but I definitely perceived the gradual ramping up in difficulty level with each marble I successfully got in the goal. According to Devious Technologies, 45 levels will be available at launch, but more will come in subsequent updates.

When seated, virtual locomotion was my least favorite part of Marble Land. It’s basically a very slow first-person smooth-turning mechanic using the joy sticks for forward-back and up-down motion. While it was slow enough not to cause any nausea, I would have appreciated a quicker way to reposition myself. The game also offers room-scale support, which makes it a little easier to naturally walk around the little puzzle to get a better view.

Visually, Marble Land looks super interesting, combing a weird melange of futuristic and ancient in both puzzle and surrounding environment.

Inquiring about the possibility of a level editor, studio founder George Cristian Tudor told me that Oculus (for example) is very stringent on games maintaining a minimum of 90 fps, and that the addition of a level editor, which allows you carte blanche to rig up complex physics-based interactions, would only really be possible as a mod released after the initial launch.

Marble Land will be available sometime in the second half of 2017 on VR headsets and traditional monitors.

The post Hands-on: ‘Marble Land’ Promises Hours of Complex Physics-based Puzzles, Launching on All Major Platforms appeared first on Road to VR.

Bravo Team für PSVR ausprobiert

Mit Bravo Team wird in diesem Jahr ein Shooter für die PlayStation-VR-Brille erscheinen, der auf eine möglichst realistische Grafik und ein kooperatives Gameplay setzt. Wir konnten uns das Spiel auf der Gamescom 2017 anschauen und sagen euch, was ihr von dem Spiel erwarten könnt.

Bravo Team: Gemeinsam zum Erfolg

Während der Gamescom 2017 hatten wir einen Termin bei Sony und das Unternehmen präsentierte voller Stolz einen brandheißen Titel für den Aim Controller. Anstatt auf eine futuristische oder stark reduzierte Optik zu setzen, möchte Bravo Team die PlayStation 4 an ihre technischen Grenzen treiben.

Auch wenn der Stick des Aim Controllers zur Fortbewegung genutzt werden könnte, haben sich die Entwickler für eine andere Methode entschieden. Ihr schaut einen begehbaren Punkt an, drückt einen Button und plötzlich wechselt das Spiel in die Third-Person-Perspektive. Ihr seht dann, wie euer Charakter zum gewählten Punkt läuft. Anschließend wird die Perspektive wieder in die Ego-Ansicht gewechselt und ihr könnt mit eurem Aim Controller weiter auf die feindlichen Soldaten ballern.

Fortbewegung mit taktischem Element

Auch wenn die Idee ganz nett ist, so konnte uns diese Art der Fortbewegung nicht völlig überzeugen. Zwar könnt ihr während eurer Reise zwischen zwei Punkten beschossen werden, was ein taktisches Element ins Spiel bringt, jedoch hatten wir das Gefühl, dass eine freie Bewegung durch die Welt spannender gewesen wäre. Mit der aktuellen Lösung fühlt man sich eingeschränkt.

In der gezeigten Demo macht das kooperative Spielen zwar Spaß, allerdings entstand keine Situation, der man nicht auch ohne Partner gewachsen wäre. Ein taktisches und langsames Vorrücken ist dabei der Schlüssel zum Erfolg, was die Spannung durchgängig hochhält. Ein großer Fauxpas ist jedoch die Pistole und wir hoffen, dass diese bis zum Release aus dem Spiel entfernt wird. Wer hält schon eine Pistole wie einen Aim Controller?

Zusammenfassend hinterlässt das Spiel einen gemischten Eindruck. Die Grafik ist in Ordnung, die realistische Gestaltung wird ihre Fans finden, und kooperativ zockt es sich oft am besten. Die Steuerung holte uns jedoch nicht wirklich ab und könnte für Diskussionen sorgen.

Der Beitrag Bravo Team für PSVR ausprobiert zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

VRFocus Gets Hands on With ARrived at Gamescom 2017

One of the difficulties with virtual reality (VR) is that it’s difficult to relay an experience or videogame to audiences, because it is so fully immersive. Without mixed reality or a green screen, it’s difficult to imagine or picture it. However, when it comes to augmented reality (AR), it becomes a lot easier to visually explain what’s happening. 

VRFocus managed to get hold of Oleg Chumakov, CEO of Luden.io at Gamescom and got a first-hand experience with his AR videogame ARrived, a God simulation game, similar to the videogames Black and White or Populous.

Chumakov showed ARrived in a room lit by daylight where the floor had two different colours. Apparently this made it easier to calibrate the room for tracking. When you start ARrived, four little men appear on the floor of an iPad, and you then get to choose to be either a good or bad boss by clicking on happy or evil emoticons on the left or right of the screen respectively. Chumakov chose good for the purpose of this demo and the four men celebrated this act by dabbing (a dance move). You can create land for them by adding more trees and clouds. You can move these objects around to your liking around your room, and they will stay in the exact same spot no matter where you move in the room.

Small icons appear above the men as you choose various options for them to eat and drink, indicating they should either eat or drink. Icons also appear above the men to indicate how they feel, a snowflake appears above their heads and they start shivering indicating they’re cold. You have to start a fire in order to warm them and happy icons will appear above their heads to show their gratitude. Chumakov used his sleeve to block the camera to show how lighting works in-game, but it also resulted in slight mis-tracking when he removed his sleeve. After the tracking re-adjusted itself, magic clouds (what look like blue portals) appeared dropping items from the sky to the floor.

Chumakov explains that when at home, you have to physically move around the house and room in order to find more magic clouds. The objects are used to create a totem are not random, they’re based on objects around the room you’re located in whilst playing. Chumakov explains that under the totem dinosaurs will start appearing. As the game continues you can find other tribes and another god. There is no real ending to the game, however if you do meet another god whilst playing the little figures can either choose to follow you or not follow you according to how well you played.

ARrived concept 2

For this version of ARrived, the game is five minutes long. The reason for this is the intense processing power AR needs to work. It will suck the battery life and the device will heat up playing it. It also means that you can’t turn off the game and expect to come back to it and continue playing. AR is still in its infancy. Chumakov explains that as new hardware comes out you’ll be able to spawn the objects and humans in various locations. He also mentions that women are included in ARrived, but unfortunately the mechanic broke just before the conference – but they will be in the finished videogame upon release.

VR-Weekly-Spezial: Unsere Highlights auf der Gamescom 2017 im Video

Die Gamescom 2017 in Köln hat ihre Tore geschlossen. Chris und Yigal haben sich ihre VR-Nerds-T-Shirts übergestreift und präsentieren euch in unserem VR-Weekly-Spezial die Highlights von der Spielemesse. Die reichen von der taktilen Weste, die einem Schauer über den Rücken schickt, bis hin zum Mückenstich für Anime-Fans. Auch dabei: AAA-Titel für PSVR, Simulatoren, Wildschweine und eine besondere Maus.

Gamescom 2017 im VR-Weekly-Special: Nerds on the Road

Chris und Yigal waren wieder unterwegs und stellen ihre persönlichen VR-Highlights von der diesjährigen Gamescom in Bewegtvideo und Ton vor. Dabei erklärt Yigal zum Beispiel, warum der AAA-Titel Fallout 4 VR zwar seine Erwartungen nicht erfüllen kann, aber trotzdem ein echtes Highlight ist. Chris ist hingegen auf die Maus gekommen und fragt sich, warum zum Geier das Spiel mit Zelda verglichen wird. Bei der Hardware wird es dann nicht mehr niedlich, sondern schaurig: So fühlt es sich an, wenn einen Zombies rücklings überfallen.

Sie nannten ihn Mücke: Vom Fischhäppchen zur Wildschweinjagd

Angetan hat es Chris und Yigal auch der schwedische Stand, der sich allerdings vor der Öffentlichkeit im Business-Bereich abschottete. Dort durfte man bei Fischhäppchen und Wodka mit einer echten Flinte auf virtuelle Wildschweinjagd gehen. Etwas friedlicher geht es im Auto-Simulator zu. Zum halben Preis eines Neuwagens stellen wir euch ein Zubehör vor, das bei Rennspielfanatikern für feuchte Augen sorgen dürfte. In Bewegung wirkt das Ungetüm etwas skurril, aber wenn niemand zuschaut …

Gamescom 2017 Highlights

Das wahrscheinlich schrägste Highlight geht aber auf das Konto asiatischer Entwickler: Als Stechinsekt greift man Anime-Mädchen an ihren empfindlichsten Stellen an und betätigt sich als erotisierter Blutsauger. Bis einen die Hand der Gerechtigkeit abwatscht. Wir freuen uns jedenfalls schon auf de nächste Gamescom. Und brechen schon bald wieder auf, denn nach der Messe ist vor der Messe: Auf der IFA 2017 in Berlin sehen wir uns wieder. Die öffnet am 1. September ihre Tore.

Der Beitrag VR-Weekly-Spezial: Unsere Highlights auf der Gamescom 2017 im Video zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Hands-on: ‘Kat Walk’ Proves That VR Treadmills Are Getting Better, but Still Aren’t Perfect

Despite completing a successful Kickstarter back in August 2015, there still aren’t many Kat Walk VR treadmills outside of Asia, let alone the premium version specially built for out-of-home facilities like theme parks, malls, and cruise ships. The short reason: it’s just too damn heavy, and shipping it from the manufacturing plant in China isn’t easy. Acting as the sole distributor for Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, the Netherland-based reseller Virtuo VR took to this year’s Gamescom to show off their flagship product, the Kat Walk Premium VR Treadmill and Kat PC Control Station combo, a hefty all-in-one commercial unit built with high traffic, as well as a high price (€11,900) in mind. As a note, both the smaller consumer version and the commercial version sans computer retail for significantly less.

I was greeted by Virtuo VR founder and owner Ali Cakan, an ex-military member turned tech distributor looking for the next big thing. Cakan opened two of the heavy-duty treadmills to the Gamescom-going public, along with a few motion platforms playing racing games tossed in for good measure. Clearly, the impressive-looking Kat Walk treadmills were the crowd favorite, as a long line snaked around the booth populated with German teenagers sitting on boxes and fold-out chairs awaiting their turn for what promised to be a unique experience.

Slipping a pair of webbed rubber booties over my shoes, the bottoms studded with a hard, but very slick plastic, I was instructed to lift myself up using a safety bar positioned overhead. Cakan instantly read my hesitation, and did a one-handed pull up on the bar. “It’s totally safe. See?” He then slipped on a Bluetooth-connected inertial measurement unit (IMU) to each rubber bootie that would register a step forward whenever I swung my leg. Getting into the dish-shaped walking area, I could feel the low friction surface as I wiggled my feet around as I waited to start.

Strapping in with a WWE championship-sized safety belt and two thick leg straps, I donned the Vive headset and was given my two motion controllers. An attendant dialed up a shooting game using the unit’s built-in computer with a touch screen monitor. Taking me through the menu, which was entirely in Chinese, I was plopped in a low rent version of CS:GO—a bit like the game below.

Moving wasn’t easy, certainly not as easy as walking normally. Because the footprint of the parabolic walking surface isn’t that large, you have to do a sort of baby half-step to get anywhere. Overshoot your mark, and you’ll slip out of the smooth surface of the parabola and hit the edge, something that left me feeling a bit wary after the first time I did it. The vertical stabilization bar and strap system kept me from going anywhere though, and thankfully caught me from falling flat on my ass. The bar, which stays behind you the entire time, doesn’t get in the way of natural hand movements either, so you can swing the gun around without worrying about knocking into support beams or containment rings like on Virtuix Omni or Cyberith Virtualizer.

Predictably, the stability of the unit is rock solid. After having both seen Cakan yank down on the horizontal beam and having nearly fallen on my ass were it not for the support bar, there’s no doubt in mind as to the safety of the device.

Walking away from the 10-minute experience, I felt like I just didn’t do it right, and that I would need more practice to nail down the strange half-step gait. It was also much more laborious than I though it would be, which I suppose you can chalk up somewhat to the rubber booties. The treadmill ships with dedicated shoes as well that have a small roller in the heels that are supposed to reduce friction and make walking easier—maybe not more natural, but easier. For the sake of keeping the line moving though, the small pile of different-sized shoes was left untouched as Gamescom-goers slipped in an out of the booties for the sake of brevity. I can see the addition of the shoes making it a less tiring experience.

Walking accuracy was also an issue. In real life, we don’t always line up our legs and body exactly to face the direction we want to go, and unfortunately this is all Kat Walk understands, i.e. no strafing or any other movement that isn’t directly forward or backwards. So if you want to walk around an object, you have to sort of box your way around it in a way that doesn’t really feel natural, leaving you with the clear suspicion that you’re trying your darndest to control a device to get where you want to go, and not really going there with your own two feet.

In the end, the learning curve may scare away a lot of first-timers from returning, leaving them with the impression that VR treadmills just aren’t for them, which is a shame, because Kat VR’s build quality is excellent, and I think a few more sessions would prove that all you need is a little perseverance to nail down what essentially is an entirely different type of controller.

The post Hands-on: ‘Kat Walk’ Proves That VR Treadmills Are Getting Better, but Still Aren’t Perfect appeared first on Road to VR.

Polyarc’s Moss for PlayStation VR is Getting Cuter, if That’s Possible

VRFocus discussed how incredibly beautiful Moss is at The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017 . This puzzle, adventure game for the PlayStation VR allows the player to interact both with the environment as well as one of the cutest virtual reality (VR) heroes: Quill.

Chris Alderson, the Art Director at Polyarc explains that during the early development stages of Moss their team started prototyping with physical interaction. They realised that they enjoyed moving around, picking up things in the environment and VR was a perfect sandbox for interactivity. Polyarc is composed of character developers and have put in a lot of effort into Quill as a character. He believes that VR really needs a few mascots and Quill can be one of them.

Polyarc is currently fully developing the story and are trying to find a way to make the pages on the book at the beginning of the game more interactive, similar to the Harry Potter posters where moments come to life. Alderson explains that a page would come to life, pause and then you can start playing. Polyarc are also toying with the idea of a narrator, in order to fully flesh out the world and give more insight into Quill’s story.

Alderson reveals that new environments are being added, such as Quill’s home town. This will give the player insight into Quill’s village, her mates and you’ll be able to peek into the windows and see them. Alderson believes that curiosity is encourage and really shines through in Moss.

The game will be released this winter. Polyarc consist of 15 people and do plan to bring it to more platforms that include full head and hand tracking.