One of the most promising titles due to arrive in 2021 is Iris VR’s Low-Fi, a cyberpunk adventure for PC VR headsets. Today, the team released a new update for the early access videogame which adds various performance improvements as well as a casino, traffic system and other content.
The 27th update for Low-Fi and just over 2 months since the last one, dubbed ‘Big City Lights’ it includes an updated casino environment which now features working slot machines so you can gamble when your not policing the streets of city-block 303. Boxing and claw/crane games are also available plus there are arcade prizes for when you cash in tickets.
An ‘overworld traffic system’ has been introduced, with no further details. As a futuristic videogame with flying cars, you’ll need something to manage all of them, although how this will affect your own vehicle isn’t clear.
You’ll be able to customise your cruiser, pistol and utility glove with new skins, all off which are purchasable items. Then there’s a new evidence lockup system and the upgrade system has been improved. All essential stuff as the videogame readies for launch amid the furore over another cyberpunk (non-VR) title that shall remain nameless.
Full Low-Fi v0.027 Changelog:
– Performance enhancements – Initial overworld traffic system – Improved Upgrade system – Evidence lockup system – 6 new Cruiser Skins (purchasable) – 4 Pistol skins (purchasable) – 4 Utility glove skins (purchasable) – Improved Cruiser lights – Working Slot machines in Casino – Updated Casino environment – Boxing Arcade game – Claw/ crane arcade game. – Arcade Prizes (for cashing in tickets) – In game Photomode viewer + Access to files in documents/My Games/LOW-FI – New Deluxe Apartment (purchasable later) – Apartment upgrade system (capsule apartment)
Brought to life thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019, Low-Fi is the spiritual successor to Iris VR’s Technolust. You play a cop patrolling crime-ridden streets and skies, able to choose between solving mysteries and fighting crime or exploiting it for your own desires.
Currently expected to officially launch late Q1 2021, Low-Fi will initially support Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The studio also plans to support PlayStation VR, PlayStation 5 and non-VR platforms in the future. The early access version of Low-Fi is available on itch.io. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.
It’s been over a year since IRIS VR Inc. first introduced us to LOW-FI via Kickstarter and we’ve been excited ever since. Having previously released a separate cyberpunk project for VR, Technolust, IRIS now aims to bring us an open-world sandbox game to VR, giving players full creative freedom.
Playing a police officer assigned to city-block 303, this new cyberpunk game promises open-ended choices, allowing you to “Patrol the streets and the skies, solving mysteries, fighting crime, or giving in to corruption and your own desires”. Promising a non-linear structure, this world is free to explore as you wish, choosing which crimes you wish to investigate and multiple ways to resolve them.
LOW-FI Cyberpunk VR Adventure
It smashed that initial Kickstarter target to reach over $81k in funding and hit several stretch goals, such as an additional “wastelands” area with a larger action focus and your own cyber-wolf companion. These goals also included the promise of a “Next-Gen PSVR” port, notably becoming the PlayStation 5’s first confirmed VR Game.
With Jim Ryan ruling out new VR announcements in the near term, we reached out to Blair Renaud at IRIS to discuss the implications this has on LOW-FI’s announced PS5 edition, also taking the opportunity to discuss just what we can expect from its gameplay.
Henry Stockdale, UploadVR: Firstly, thank you for joining me here Blair. For any readers unfamiliar with LOW-FI and it’s development, could you please introduce yourselves?
Blair Renaud: Hey, I’m Blair Renaud. CEO and director of IRIS VR INC. Grumpy old game dev. Probably best known for LOW-Fi and Technolust (Oculus Rift Launch title). I’ve been in the game industry for about 25 years now.
UploadVR: You’ve described LOW-FI as a huge open-world game, bringing us a sandbox style adventure with action elements. What inspired yourselves to create such an ambitious project?
Renaud: VR is one of the greatest artistic tools humanity has devised. We have the ability to transport the user into a new world of our creation. I’m a huge fan of 1980’s cinematic classics like Blade Runner, Robocop and Total Recall. So it’s natural for me to want to build similar worlds. If I had a holodeck, this is the type of program I would want to enjoy.
UploadVR: Considering the setting, LOW-FI has often compared to a VR version of Cyberpunk 2077, something you’ve also done via Twitter. In terms of gameplay though, would you say there’s much common ground between the two?
Renaud: No not really. I mean, I havent played CP2077, so I can’t really say how similar it is. Did I compare it? Maybe just to say I have flying cars and they don’t? haha. I really don’t think it will be very similar at all outside of the general genre of cyberpunk. LOW-FI will have optional gunplay, whereas it seems to be the focus of CP2077. We have no fail states. What I’m trying to create is more of an open world for a player to do whatever they feel like doing, whereas CP2077 seems to be a bit more scripted and (dare I say) linear. Though we will have multiple story-lines for the player to follow, I like to think that we’re doing something a bit different with LOW-FI.
UploadVR: Within the game, we’re playing a police officer that’s been assigned to a crime-ridden section of city-block 303. What sort of characters can we expect to meet along this journey?
Renaud: Most of the human inhabitants of the world are permanently jacked into The Platform, a sort of Facebook metaverse. The only people left are the other “low-fi”, who for one reason or another can’t or won’t subject themselves to it. Some have medical reasons, others ideological. We’ve got all types though. Corporate execs, Ugly Bob the pawnshop owner and his robot companion Penny, a mechanic who deals in illicit firmware, a cybernetics dealer named Juan who’s trying to steal advanced tech from the AI who reached an intelligence singularity and many more. On top of that there are a ton of robots of various types left behind by the singularity.
UploadVR: You’ve described it as a non-linear experience with a branching narrative, so I’d like to ask about story progression. Is that dependent on what crimes you investigate, or is there set criteria to meet before players can advance?
Renaud: That’s something I want to leave completely up to the player. For example; right off the bat, you’re told about the officer you’re replacing, who is dead in the morgue. If you want to investigate that, you’re free to do so. Clues and twists await. Or, if you want to just go to the casino and pay the slots in hopes of buying a cool arcade machine for your apartment with your winnings, you can do that too. I really want to leave it all open ended. As I said. No “save the world” stuff.
UploadVR: A morality system is also featured, giving players creative freedom in how they solve crimes, from simple arrests to accepting bribes. Does that factor into the branching paths, or are there other consequences to your actions?
Renaud: There isn’t really a morality system per se. There are however a lot of morally grey options for the player to explore. They have consequences in the same way they would in the real world. If for example, you accept a bribe, that’s on you. You’re really the only law in town, so you’ll probably get away with it. What consequence letting someone get away with a crime might have really depends on the crime though. I want those feelings to be on the player. I’m not here to tell you what I think you should do in any given situation. There’s no score system, outside of maybe money. A lot like life.
UploadVR: Does gunplay factor into that too? It’s been mentioned as an optional feature previously, so it sounds like you can solve crimes without resorting to weapons.
Renaud: Gunplay is completely optional and will be limited to use against AI. I feel like if someone want’s to play shooty-man VR, they have plenty of outlets for that. That’s said, there will be full quest-lines involving hunting down rogue androids if they player chooses to pursue them. They pay well, but I can’t guarantee some of the androids wont try to tug at your heart strings.
UploadVR: LOW-FI garnered attention as PS5’s first VR game but right now, a new PSVR headset is unconfirmed and existing headsets can only be used via backwards compatibility, Hitman 3 and No Man’s Sky being prominent examples. Jim Ryan seems to have ruled out a successor being released before 2022, so where does that leave LOW-FI’s PS5 edition?
Renaud: I can’t speak to anything about a possible PSVR 2 outside of saying that if/when it becomes available, we fully intend to port LOW-FI to it. In the meantime, we are a registered Sony developer, and are also working on a non-VR version of the game.
UploadVR: You’ve ruled out a PS4 version previously, but previous comments suggest that was more about the PS Move controllers than the console itself. Was this truly an insurmountable hurdle?
Renaud: Though the PS Move controllers are a terrible fit for the game, that’s not the only reason. PS4 is very last-gen at this point. LOW-FI is a next-gen VR title.
UploadVR: During the Kickstarter campaign, “Next-Gen PSVR” was mentioned and PS5 support was a Kickstarter stretch goal. Has Sony given you any indication to their future plans?
Renaud: Yes, but I can’t speak to them. Nor am I sure that they haven’t changed. Recent announcements indicate that they may have.
UploadVR: Your last Kickstarter campaign update confirmed a pitch had been sent to Oculus, regarding a LOW-FI spin-off called Agency for Quest. Has there been any further developments on this?
Renaud: Yes! It’s been approved! It still needs funding to justify taking people away from LOW-FI though. Fingers crossed for us!
UploadVR:Lastly, is there anything you’d like to share with LOW-FI’s fans?
Renaud: I want to thank all the current backers for their support of course! They have made my dreams come true! I’m a holodeck programmer! And if anyone want’s to help support next-gen VR and get in on the action they can purchase LOW-FI at https://anticleric.itch.io/low-fi and get immediate access to the development build which we update all the time. Then, when the game is released, they’ll be able to choose what platform they get a key for (Steam, Oculus, ect.).
Fore more on Low-Fi, be sure to check out our coverage hub and let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Iris VR, the game studio behind cyberpunk titles TECHNOLUST (2016) and the still in-production game LOW-FI, teased some new footage recently of its Oculus Quest game AGENCY.
Iris VR says Agency is a prequel episode of LOW-FI, the non-linear cyberpunk game which first garnered support through a Kickstarter campaign late last year.
Blair Renaud, studio CEO and Creative Director, released a quick sneak peak of Agency, stating that they’ve just pitched the game to Oculus for approval. Renaud says the game’s tech demo is currently running on Quest 2.
Outside of that, Agency itself is still largely a mystery in terms of gameplay. If it’s anything like LOW-FI though, which is slated to put you in the shoes of a retro-futuristic cop for a non-linear jaunt through a cyberpunk slum, we’re sure to see plenty more tech-noir overtures to Blade Runner (1982) and Robocop (1987), and hopefully a bunch of classic gaming arcade cabinets too.
As any VR developer can attest, Oculus has set a fairly high bar for content quality on Quest, something Oculus’ Content Ecosystem Director Chris Pruett says in a developer blogpost is “higher than we’ve ever enforced before.”
With the entry of Oculus Quest 2 arriving on October 13th, the company is no doubt looking to expand its content library to satisfy those upgrading from the original 2019 Quest as well as newcomers looking for games that make good use of Quest 2’s higher resolution displays and faster Snapdragon XR2 chipset.
Iris VR, the game studio behind cyberpunk titles TECHNOLUST (2016) and the still in-production game LOW-FI, teased some new footage recently of its Oculus Quest game AGENCY.
Iris VR says Agency is a prequel episode of LOW-FI, the non-linear cyberpunk game which first garnered support through a Kickstarter campaign late last year.
Blair Renaud, studio CEO and Creative Director, released a quick sneak peak of Agency, stating that they’ve just pitched the game to Oculus for approval. Renaud says the game’s tech demo is currently running on Quest 2.
Outside of that, Agency itself is still largely a mystery in terms of gameplay. If it’s anything like LOW-FI though, which is slated to put you in the shoes of a retro-futuristic cop for a non-linear jaunt through a cyberpunk slum, we’re sure to see plenty more tech-noir overtures to Blade Runner (1982) and Robocop (1987), and hopefully a bunch of classic gaming arcade cabinets too.
As any VR developer can attest, Oculus has set a fairly high bar for content quality on Quest, something Oculus’ Content Ecosystem Director Chris Pruett says in a developer blogpost is “higher than we’ve ever enforced before.”
With the entry of Oculus Quest 2 arriving on October 13th, the company is no doubt looking to expand its content library to satisfy those upgrading from the original 2019 Quest as well as newcomers looking for games that make good use of Quest 2’s higher resolution displays and faster Snapdragon XR2 chipset.
A new update to the developer build of upcoming cyberpunk indie VR game Low-Fi adds a playable SNES arcade cabinet and a handheld Gameboy console.
While the in-game devices won’t ship with emulator cores or ROMs installed, players will be able to supply these themselves in order to get the devices working in-game.
In two tweets from Low-Fi developers Blair Renaud and Noah Rayburn, the Low-Fi team showed off two new easter eggs coming to the developer build of the game, available to Kickstarter backers or those who purchase access online. The videos show a SNES arcade cabinet and a handheld Gameboy console, both running their respective system’s titles via emulation. This fun feature will be available in-game for anyone to try out, after a little bit of set up.
The emulation runs as a LibRetro front end, so the feature won’t be available until players supply their own console cores and game ROMs. Currently, only the TGB Dual core for Gameboy and the snes9x2010 core for SNES are supported.
To get the cores up and running, users will have to download the zip files for their desired core and extract the DLL file inside. Then, they can navigate to their Low-Fi install folder and place the DLL files in /Low-Fi_Data/Libretro/Cores.
Once the cores are in place, uses can place their game ROMs in /Low-Fi_Data/Libretro/Roms/. The Gameboy core supports .gb, .gbc and .sgb files, and the SNES core supports .smc files.
Once everything is in the right place, the SNES arcade and the handheld Gameboy should be fully playable in-game and work just like real devices. Low-Fi developer Blair Renaud says the plan is to support more consoles over time, both handheld and cabinets, but the focus is on the more important work and the game’s core mechanics for now.
Elsewhere this update includes a fresh graphics pass, new storefronts, an example dialogue system and other features. You can see the full changelog right here.
The update is available now to those who have access to the developer build.
If you’ve been following this game since its original reveal and/or Kickstarter success, then there isn’t too much new information in that trailer. We got a few glimpses and clips of areas we haven’t seen before, as well as some nice footage of the cyber doggo walking alongside the main character, but not too much else.
More than anything, this trailer is just good reassurance that development seems to be going well. It’s difficult to overstate just how ambitious of a project Low-Fi looks to be, especially for a team of this size, but after Technolust, which was great, we’re optimistic about its chances.
Low-Fi is being billed as a completely open-ended non-linear VR game with a rich and detailed atmosphere. If it can deliver, there is a lot to be excited for here.
IRIS VR, the studio behind TECHNOLUST (2016), announced that its long-awaited open world cyberpunk adventure LOW-FI is slated to launch sometime this year on PlayStation 5, PSVR 2, and PC VR headsets via Steam and the Meta PC platform.
Update (March 10th, 2023): It’s been nearly two years since IRIS VR announced a PS5 version was coming, which initially was set to arrive sometime in 2021. Now studio head Blair Renaud says in a tweet that LOW-FI is officially coming to PS5 and PSVR 2 this year. You can wishlist it on the PlayStation Store here.
The still in-development game has been available for purchase on PC and PC VR headsets for some time via the game’s itch.io, however Renaud also says we should expect to see it on Steam and the Meta PC platform in 2023 as well. You can wishlist it on Steam here.
If you haven’t followed along with the project, here’s a description courtesy of IRIS VR:
As the player, you are “low-fi”, the street name given to those who cannot merge with the platform, a ubiquitous virtual reality simulation where most of the population now live their lives. You are a police officer and have been transferred to a particularly crime ridden section of city-block 303. The only inhabitants of note in your jurisdiction are other low-fi, and the human intelligence (or lower) artificial life forms who have remained among the citizens after the AI singularity.
The original article announcing LOW-FI’s PS5 availability follows below. We’ve also included the latest trailer below this update:
Original Article (June 12th, 2020): A successful Kickstarter campaign late last year helped get LOW-FI off the ground, having garnered IRIS VR over $80,000 USD. At the time, it was pitched as a VR-native game intentionally built from the ground-up for PC VR headsets and “next-gen PSVR.”
The game’s developer, Blair Renaud, says that anyone can pre-order the PC version now, which gives you early access on SteamVR headsets. At the time of this writing the pre-release PC VR version costs $35 USD.
And it’s certainly an ambitious undertaking, boasting a massive, non-linear open world, “hundreds” of crimes and stories to solve and explore, branching narratives, and dialogue from what the studio says will be “photo-realistic NPCs.”
While the game’s creator seems fairly certain of LOW-FI’s 2021 launch window (see update), Sony hasn’t actually released word on when a next-gen follow-up to the PSVR is set to arrive.
We do however know that the current PSVR will be compatible with PS5 when the console launches holiday 2020, so upcoming VR releases for PS5 don’t necessarily indicate any implied time frame for a prospective PSVR 2.
IRIS VR is in the final couple of days of its Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for ambitious virtual reality (VR) experience Low-Fi. The title easily achieved its funding target after a few days, chasing several stretch goals over the course of September. With a couple of days still to go the team has released a big update for backers, detailing more about development and possible future platform support.
Up until now, Low-Fi has been purely designated a PC VR title with an outside chance of PlayStation VR support via a lofty $256k USD stretch goal. While that target is unlikely to be hit – the campaign currently sits at just under $98k – it seems as though IRIS VR has future plans of VR support, just not for the current generation.
The blog post notes: “Another Stretch goal that we can technically say was hit, is PSVR support. Just not on PS4. We will however support the yet unofficially announced next-generation PlayStation console and VR headset when it arrives. The main limitation for us right now is not as much the power of the PS4 as it is the PSMove Controllers. We will undoubtedly be able to support “PS5” VR as we assume Sony will also be updating their controllers for the next generation.
“So, YES! We will support PSVR.”
The PlayStation VR announcements maybe a little premature at this time, what’s not is the Oculus Quest news. The standalone device was another stretch goal at $600k but thanks to Oculus’ announcement last week this is now a real possibility. That announcement was, of course, Oculus Link, allowing Oculus Rift titles to be played on Quest via a USB-C cable.
The team has confirmed that Low-Fi will include finger tracking support on Oculus Touch and Valve Index controllers, and shown another important factor to players, the size of the world. From the start, IRIS VR has been promising a big open-world which players have the freedom to explore as a police officer. In the video below IRIS VR founder Blair Renaud flies through the city, all the way from street level.
Low-Fi already looks very impressive, as further details are released VRFocus will keep you updated.
Upcoming open-world cyberpunk VR action adventure game, LOW-FI, just surpassed another Kickstarter (campaign page here) stretch goal milestone to include a brand new Wastelands zone.
After just a few days over 700 people pledged over $45,000 to help LOW-FI reach its initial goal. In the two weeks since then it has gone on to raise an additional $20,000 to surpass its second $64,000 stretch goal: The Wastelands area.
According to a recent update on the Kickstarter campaign, the new area will be much more action-oriented than the rest of the game, which takes place inside the city itself in a perpetually overcast nighttime atmosphere.
“Far outside the city walls, a desolate land exists. A land where your badge means nothing. A land filled with the wreckage of the old world, where scavengers and protein farmers make their own rules. Only the bravest souls will want to venture out into the wastes. Are you one of those brave souls?
The plan for the wastelands is to allow for more action oriented gameplay. With your weapon at the ready, you’ll be able to barter with locals and plunder alongside the lawless scavengers. It’s a true wild-west out here where anything can happen. A place where our next stretch goal may come in really handy.”
We went hands-on with an extremely early Alpha build of LOW-FI just before the Kickstarter launched and it honestly has a lot of promise. Visually it’s looking excellent already and the atmosphere is palpable. Piloting the flying patrol car felt great and the city feels alive and teeming with seedy bad actors waiting to be exposed. The pitch is for an ambitious cyberpunk simulation with emergent gameplay around every corner as a true sandbox, so time will tell if that comes to fruition. I really enjoyed Technolust, so I’m confident this developer can deliver.
The next stretch goal tier is a Cyberwolf Companion with ominous glowing blue eyes that will take commands and become a powerful force by your side.
Fans of British synthwave band GUNSHIP rejoice: LOW-FI, the upcoming cyberpunk VR game and spiritual successor to TECHNOLUST (2016), is getting an exclusive Gunship EP.
IRIS VR released word in a Kickstarter update this week, revealing that not only will the game feature a number of cool ’80s inspired tracks, but that the campaign now has a number of rewards that fans of the band should appreciate.
Backers of the ‘CYBERPUNK’ tier or above, which starts at $60 CAD (~$45 USD), will receive a digital download of the exclusive GUNSHIP/LOW-FI EP.
Many tiers now feature the ability to enter into a lottery to hang out with Gunship in the social VR platform VRChat too.There’s also a Gunship themed in-game credit, and high resolution GUNSHIP/LOW-FI artwork.
Gunship made this statement in support of the game:
“We ( GUNSHIP ) are big fans of VR. Like you guys, we grew up reading about cyberspace, the metaverse, the matrix, and more recently the Oasis… . It feels like a cool thing to do, to help bring this project to your attention – like adding a small brick to the big wall of VR gaming progress over history. LOW-FI is being built by Blair Renaud and his band of VR renegades – these guys were responsible for ‘Technolust’, a game which we all felt was as close to getting inside Blade Runner as currently possible. We spent a lot of time wandering around in ‘Technolust’ channeling inspiration for tracks like ‘Cyber City’ and ‘Woken Furies’. LOW-FI is being built with the indie spirit, and we feel that its team are precisely the type of people who will usher in the VR experience which fans of our collective nature & tastes have all been long waiting for. These guys are pioneers, let’s help them push VR forward! We are hugely excited to channel our years of obsession surrounding dystopian sci-fi narratives and cyberpunk lore into some original music for LOW-FI. It’s going to be FUN, come get involved, maybe we’ll see you in ‘the platform’…”
The stretch goal was initially unlocked when the campaign passed the $52,000 mark (~$70,000 CAD). Soon after, the campaign also unlocked a stretch goal at $64,000 (~$84,000 CAD) which is slated to bring a new Wastelands area to the game.
At the time of this writing, the project’s campaign is sitting at a little over $64,000 (~$58,000 CAD). Two major stretch goals are still on the horizon, namely a version for the next-gen PSVR at $256,000 (~$380,000 CAD) and an Oculus Quest version at $600,000 (~$780,000 CAD).
There’s still a few more unrevealed stretch goals on the horizon though, so there’s no telling what cybernetic implant madness IRIS VR has up its duster coat’s sleeves.
(@Anticleric) January 5, 2021
(@Anticleric) 
