Holodance Gets Brand New Time Dilation Updates Allowing Players To Control Time Itself

We love to dance. Who doesn’t? That’s why we’ve been following Holodance since it’s inception. All the way from initial announcement, to IndieGoGo and beyond, we’ve been dancing away to Holodance’s continued successes and updates. Now, the latest update might be the most exciting one yet as Holodance is adding Time Dilation.

Time Dilation is a new feature, and once this mode is activated players can control passage of time by pacing the movement speed of their hands. It’s not quite a Stand ability, but we’ll take it.

You can activate Time Dilation in the videogame’s settings. If you play with a standard tempo, the music will play out at a standard tempo. Should you speed up or slow down however, the tempo of the videogame will too, adjusting the music and the speed at which orbs will approach the player. Interestingly this can actually increase the difficulty of the game, as forcing yourself to break rhythm and slow down or speed up on purpose can be quite challenging. If players stay entirely still, they can even seem to stop the videogame entirely.

Even more interestingly, if players are able to keep their hands entirely still, they will still be able to move their head or the rest of their body, allowing for some cool dancing improvisation, or the ability to expertly smash through the videogame’s orbs.

Holodance players will know that movement speed and controller rotation matter in Holodance, but Time Dilation is only sensitive to controller movement, and not rotation. This makes the Laserblades mode even more interesting than ever.

You can see a video of Time Dilation in action above, while some intense tunes play out. You can see the player slowing their body and hand movements to adjust the speed of the songs and even freestyle their own tempo and patterns. It’s an interesting dynamic that could be incredibly creative in the right hands.

It’s good to see Holodance continuing to get support years after its initial announcement and IndieGoGo campaign. Since we love to dance so much, we’ll be writing about all of the Holodance content coming out as soon as we hear about it, so for more keep reading VRFocus.

Holodance Fully Integrates HTC’s Vive Trackers, Currently Discounted by 33%

For those that like their virtual reality (VR) rhythm action videogames, Narayana Games’ Holodance has to be near the top of the pile having been available for HTC Vive since launch. Still in Steam Early AccessHolodance has been added to and expanded numerous times, such as the introduction of Osu! Beatmapsimproving the music library or adding HTC Vive Tracker support. Today, the team has revealed the title is now fully integrated with the trackers and there’s also a limited time discount available. 

Using the Vive Trackers players could collect the orbs in Holodance with their feet, adding another level of gameplay and immersion. A basic setup involves two trackers attached to players feet, with the new Holodance Avatar system supporting up to seven Vive Trackers on feet, waist, elbows and knees if desired. The system lets players breathe life into various forms, from Animé characters to sci-fi soldiers, working with just two controllers for hand tracking on all supported platforms: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift with Touch controllers, and Windows VR HMDs with motion tracked controllers.

Holodance can use a single tracker at the waist for improved tracking, but it can also utilise one for reliable mixed reality (MR) camera tracking when recording videos.

As for what’s coming in the future, Narayana Games released this statement:

“Holodance is still in Early Access, and due to its incomplete Story Mode that has dragons take players through a little history of time, reminding them of their duty of care for the planet, will still remain in Early Access for a little while. Early Access or not, narayana games believes in constantly improving their games, listening to player feedback and is fully dedicated to create the best rhythm game experience possible in Virtual Reality.

“With Vive Trackers now soon available to consumers, narayana games are very excited about adding a DDR-style game mode that uses the StepMania beatmap format for pure feet gameplay. The upcoming in-VR beatmap editor is also designed with gameplay for feet in mind, so that players can design choreographies involving just hands, or just feet, or hands and feet.

“Finally, Holodance will get both, multiplayer features, as well as a “Show Mode” that will let spectators watch players beat the rhythm – from directly with VR. The Avatar System is a major milestone toward that goal.”

Holodance is currently discounted by 33 percent, reducing the price from £10.00 GBP down to £7.36 until 28th November as part of the Steam Autumn Sale. As for any other updates, keep reading VRFocus.