Robo Recall is extremely fun in its own right with some of the best visuals we’ve seen on any headset and super-tight robot shooting gameplay. You’ll unload countless bullets into the chests of thousands of evil metallic husks in your quests to rack up the most points in your rampage. But one of the best features the game has, without a doubt, isn’t even really a feature — it’s the massive modding community.
By releasing the tools to tweak and change whatever you want, Epic has empowered VR content creators like few VR games before have. Since VR is basically sci-fi magic and Star Wars is about the space wizards known as Jedi, then it only makes sense to add in some of the iconic items from that universe.
On the Oculus Forums user tonsta31 of MGS Studios posted the first iteration of the mod almost a month ago and has been consistently updating it ever since. You can even watch a gameplay video of lightsabers and recreated laser blasts right here to see it all in action:
Now go forth, download this mod, and fight back against the Empire. Hopefully droids or Stormtooper skins can be added soon. May the force be with you. And grab a few other mods as well just to be safe.
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.
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.
We all saw this one coming, and yet it still looks like a blast. Robo Recall now has an unofficial Star Wars mod that dresses up the game with a fresh coat of paint and new weapons.
The video heading this article shows the mod in action, which gives players access to dual lightsabers for chopping and deflecting, as well as a blaster. A number of sound effects have been replaced to give it that Star Wars feel. While the mechanics are much the same as the default Robo Recall, it’s amazing what this coat of recognizable paint adds.
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.
VRLO, the UK’s leading meetup for virtual reality practitioners and enthusiasts, had its seventh edition on March 20th. Hosted by Rewind, in association with Advertising Week Europe, VRLO 7 attracted 350 attendees who glimpsed the present and future of VR and AR from Epic Games, HTC, BBC Studios, and more. Road to VR’s Jon Tustain brings us interviews and coverage from the event.
Amid varied content at the event, Epic Games presented the recently released and highly acclaimed Robo Recall. The title, which is free for Oculus Touch users, sees you take on the role of an agent tasked with blasting rogue robots.
A built-in slot for the Vive link box makes for a clean look.
High end PC specialists Armari used the event to showcase their compact V25 Slim Micro-tower, a workstation designed specifically for designers of professional VR content. The hardware features dedicated VR front buttons for quick access and a built-in box cage to integrate HTC VIVE components for a ‘cleaner look’.
To showcase the computer’s integrated Radeon Pro WX 7100 (which AMD claims is the world’s most powerful single-slot workstation GPU, capable of 5.73 TFLOPS of compute performance) Armari used the system to power BBC Learning’s Home: VR Spacewalk. As part of the BBC’s mission to inspire the next generation of scientists and explorers, the experience allows users to get to feel of what it’s like to be an astronaut floating 250 miles above earth. Oculus owners can download the experience here.
360 degree content catalogue company Blend Media were on hand to present some of their clips on a VR Sphere. In the context of Advertising Week Europe, they claim 43% of media buyers say 360 degree video will be the largest area for video growth in 2017, with a 28% higher view rate and 4.5% click through rate vs 0.5% of fixed video.
Rewind announced its acceptance into the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program, which was recently expanded to six European companies who each benefit from extensive hands on training and a view inside the Microsoft curtain.
The company’s proof-of-concept Flight Deck mixed reality HoloLens experience, based on the Red Bull Air Race, proposed what the future of live sports could look like. Produced within 12 weeks, the user can look down at a 3D visualisation of the Abu Dhabi Red Bull Air race, seeing an overhead view of the planes fly through the course positioned by real time telemetry data. Synced to a regular TV, the user can use air gesture to select a competitor from the holographic space, to switch to their POV on the television.
Co-founder of Rewind, Solomon Rogers, described how he sees this as a way to offer the drama of replays and analysis to people who attend sports games. For example, in the context of an NFL game, spectators could view player profiles, overhead views of GPS tracked players movement trails, possession averages or augmented First Down and Line of Scrimmage lines, all from their seats in the auditorium.
HTC showed off some of the accessories they announced at CES at make use of the new Vive Tracker. As we reported from CES, the arcade VR-15 gun by VRsenal is weighted like a real gun and adds haptics to add further realism to games. The VR-15 was fitted with a Tracker, the lighthouse compatible puck which is now available for $99.
Among other Tracker peripherals at VRLO was the Hi5 VR Gloves by Noitom. We were impressed with the glove’s combination of finger tracking and motion input when we first tried them at CES. Pricing has now been revealed at $300 for the pair, with a development kit due out in June (complete with C++, UE4 and Unity SDK) and a commercial product expected in September. A developer sign-up sheet is expected to be posted on the Hi5 VR Glove website soon.
For a roundup of interviews from VRLO 7, see the video heading this article.
Robo Recall [Review: 7.5/10] is one of the biggest VR games the young VR market has seen thus far. It’s developed by game industry veterans at Epic Games, creators of Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, and many others, and is funded by Oculus as a free title exclusive for the Rift and Touch platform. In the game, you’re tasked with cleaning up the city that’s overrun with rogue robots that have to be mowed down with tons of guns, bullets, and bullet-dodging maneuvers. It’s fast and fun and really shows the visual potential that already exists with the current generation of VR hardware.
When the game launched one of the biggest points of contention was the lack of true 360-degree tracking support. By default, when you spun around too far the game would try to funnel you back towards a front-facing setup since that was the default arrangement for most Oculus units. However, you can achieve 360 support with an extra center and an experimental configuration. Shortly after release a mod came out that enabled 360 tracking, but Epic has now officially released an update with support.
According to the release from an Epic representative, the update goes live today with the following notes, most importantly with the new tracking mode at the very top of the list:
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 Epic Games, robo recall
At the beginning of March Epic Games released its first fully fledged virtual reality (VR) experience in the form of Robo Recall. Today the studio has now unveiled a major update, adding support for 360-degree tracking as well as other improvements.
Most of the inclusions are fixes to smooth out the videogame, but the major feature is that tracking so that more sensors are support if users have them.
As an added bonus Epic has released music track, “Shooty Shooty Gun Hands.” As the studio states on its blog: “We had hopes to finish the track in time for the game’s release and couldn’t quite get there, so as they say, better late than never!”
Checkout the full changelog below, and for further Epic Games announcements, keep reading VRFocus.
Here’s our list of improvements and fixes shipping with today’s Robo Recall update:
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.
Made a few improvements for spectator leaderboard functionality.
Fixed a small bug on the Holo-table that caused weapon dangly bits to misbehave upon dropping said weapon.
Fixed “Whip Slam” damage scoring events and made damage scale with impact velocity.
Made several audio performance improvements.
Added fixes for font caching that wasn’t working properly to eliminate hitches the first time unique text is rendered.
Fixed bug where Boss VO wasn’t being affected by VO volume settings.
Fixed additional audio bugs.
Spectator leaderboard now correctly states when player is in All Star Mode.
Creator of popular virtual reality (VR) FPS title Robo Recall, Epic Games, has announced that it will be attending the 2017 VRLA Conference and Expo in April.
The minds behind Robo Recall will be speaking on a panel dedicated to the development of Robo Recall for the Oculus Rift and Touch, covering its evolution from the Bullet Train demo into the complete videogame powered by Unreal Engine 4. Speaking on the panel will be:
Evan Champlin, Senior VR Designer
Jeff Farris, Technical Lead
Pete Hayes, Senior Artist
Chance Ivey, Senior Community Manager and Robo Recall Modding Lead
Tommy Jacob, VR Producer
Seth Weedin, Audio and Gameplay Programmer
Epic will also be offering attendees the opportunity to experience the latest build of Robo Recall, complete with mod options and leaderboard. The team in the booth will also have Unreal Engine tools available for demonstrations of technical details.
On the Saturday of the show, Epic will be running a workshop titled ‘Making High-Quality Interactive VR with Unreal Engine’. Luis Cataldi, Director of Education and Learning Resources, will help visitors understand locomotion building and interaction mechanics using Blueprints.
VRLA Expo will take place on 14th-15th April 2017, at the Los Angeles Convention centre. Registrations are still open for the VRLA, with the business-focused 2-Day Pro Pass at $299 USD and a 1-Day Pass for Saturday priced at $40.
Epic Games will be joining other big VR industry names at the event, with Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello delivering the Friday keynote address, and Rick & Morty Creator Justin Roiland addressing the crowd on Saturday.
VRFocus will bring you further updates on the VRLA Expo as they come in.
How to move in a natural way continues to be a hot topic within virtual reality (VR) mainly because moving about at speed is a big factor in many cases of sim sickness. There are a number of different movement methods that are being used in the current crop of VR videogame titles, including various forms of teleportation. I.e. moving via clicking from place to place either freely or via hotspots.
Critics say of these methods that they are an immediate barrier to the immersion of a title, one company that is such a critic is VR controller firm 3dRudder who have announced a new mod today called the Locomotion3dRudder Mod tailored specifically for use with Epic Games latest game, VR FPS Robo Recall that aims to bring intuitive motion control and banish what it calls the “immersion killer” of teleportation.
The 3dRudder itself is a controller platform with which you use your feet, that aims to bring 360 degree movement to VR environments with an eye not only on games but on use as a tool for designers and similar professionals; with recent developments including a wireless version of the controller which was revealed at CES earlier this year. Players tackle games in a seated position using their feet to push and shift their weight across the raised platform to move forward, backwards, sideways or even turn around. The idea being that your feat, naturally will know where you want to go, thus freeing up hand movements for more important things – like shooting enemies and grabbing loot. The team have released a video (shown below) which demonstrates the 3dRudder and mod in action with Robo Recall.
Robo Recall, of course, is the Unreal Engine powered action-packed shooter for Oculus Rift and Touch, developed as a follow-up/spiritual sequel to Epic Games earlier VR shooter Bullet Train. In a recent review in which VRFocus awarded a rare five star rating, it was stated that: “Robo Recall elicits such a high standard that future FPS titles will be measured by it, and should be considered a killer app for Oculus Touch.”
The mod, which was developed by the 3dRudder team itself can be found here, along with instructions for installation. Whilst the 3dRudder controller can be purchased online for $179 (USD) or 179€ (EUR) at 3drudder.com.
VRFocus will bring you more information about the developments with both Robo Recall and 3dRudder as we are able. Be sure to follow us on social media for more news.
Epic Games have released a video revealing the secrets of the Sequencer Editor that is built into Unreal Engine 4 and how it was used to create the cinematics for Robo Recall.
The video is presented by Wes Bunn, Technical Writer at Epic Games and shows how one of the cinematics for Robo Recall was created, then goes on to create a new sequence from scratch, while discussing what the best practices and helpful tricks are for using the software.
The video covered how the completed sequences are rendered, and how to work with the Media Framework and Blueprint Media Scripting. Sequencer is a non-linear track-based editor that works for editing in much the same way as film editing software such as Adobe Première does. It works together with the Media Framework and Blueprint Media Scripting, a tool which allows complex actions and models to be created and moved without touching a single line of code.
Robo Recall is a virtual reality (VR) videogame where the player takes on a host of robots that have gone rogue and mangles them in various creative ways, gaining points for the more outlandish the destruction is.
The initial sequence shows a short cinematic with the robots interacting casually while watching a television broadcast. A new sequence is then prepared that goes into the television that was on the original sequence, so it becomes what the robots were watching.
You can watch the full video of the demonstration below.
Robo Recall is available for Oculus Rift with Touch for free from the Oculus Store.
VRFocus will bring you further updates from Robo Recall and Unreal Engine as they come in.
Oculus is assembling a big portfolio of VR games for 2017, with a new Studios title every month from now until December. But why pace these releases so aggressively? Because it wants to put one of VR’s major complaints to rest.
That’s what Executive Producer David Yee told me when we sat down to talk earlier this month. I asked Yee what Oculus was hoping to see when they looked back on this year by December or early next January.
“We want to hear from people that they’re not waiting for real games anymore,” he said. “We feel like we’ve developed some real games here from real developers that are hours of experiences and not minute demos or little tech demos.”
Yee believes one of this month’s Studios exclusives, Epic Games’ Robo Recall [Review: 7.5/10], was the start of beginning to prove that, also adding that giving it away for free was a way of rewarding early adopters. A lack of full, high-quality games is one of the biggest complaints people leverage against VR in this state; even industry evangelists like Cliff Bleszinski have been saying as much in recent weeks.
Yee also hopes that developers will continue to learn lessons for this year’s Studios slate. He looked back to year one, explaining that many developers had spent the year learning about the benefits of the company’s new Touch controllers.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that Wilson’s Heart and Lone Echo also started as gamepad games,” he revealed. “Our developers were figuring out how do we make this work with the two buttons and basically trying to pull the trigger. Are they going to have arms on the thumbsticks? So as soon as the developers got Touch earlier in the last year they’re like, “We’re all in.”
Oculus hopes similar lessons are taken from the next year so that we might see another big jump in Studios titles for 2018, too.
