Space Bullet Seeks Eager Pilots for Closed Playtests of Vox Machinae

It’s been quite some time since developer Space Bullet released any details regarding its virtual reality (VR) compatible title  Vox Machinae. For those VR players keen to jump into giant mechs to battle one another will be please to hear Space Bullet has broken its silence to announce its seeking players to sign-up for a playtest due to take place next month. 

VoxMachinae_Beta_screen_04

In a blog posting the studio has outlined what its been working on over the last year, listing a bunch of improvements:

  • Improving networking reliability and smoothness.
  • Optimizations to make better use of more CPU cores.
  • More dynamic music and new sound effects from a real deal audio person!
  • Streamlined menus for customizing your ideal loadout.
  • Virtual nose and blinders to assist those more sensitive to movement in VR.
  • Adding more robots and levels!
  • Improved leg motion that doesn’t run wild!
  • Little buildings around the levels so you feel big.
  • Geometry Tessellation for real cool terrain details.
  • More purdy dynamic lighting.

With its last public outing at Oculus Connect 3 in 2016, Vox Machinae is confirmed for Oculus Rift but no other headsets have been mentioned. However on the playtest signup application one of the questions asks whether you own a VR headset before offering a drop down list that mentions HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality devices. Whilst it’s not a confirmation that either of these platforms will see support – either in the playtest or when fully launched – as a multiplayer title the more devices Vox Machinae supports the better.

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As with most closed playtests/betas run by developers seeking players, signing up doesn’t guarantee a slot. If you do get chosen then playtests are due to begin in early February, 2018.

In Vox Machinae players take control of enormous walking robots called GDRs or “Grinders”, bristling with weaponry. There will be five distinct Grinder chassis, each with their own benefits, which can be taken into offline, local network, or online gameplay with up to 16 players.

To mark the occasion Space Bullet has released a new gameplay trailer showcasing what’s in store. For any further updates from the studio, keep reading VRFocus.

Vox Machinae: Mech-Spiel meldet sich mit Beta zurück

Wenn euch der Name Vox Machinae vertraut vorkommt, dann seid ihr schon sehr lange vom VR-Virus befallen. Das Spiel erschien 2014 als kurze und kostenlose Experience auf Oculus Share und war mit den ersten Development Kits der Oculus Rift spielbar. Zu dieser Zeit sorgte das Spiel auch für viel Wirbel und konnte die Download-Charts lange beherrschen. Jetzt kündigen die Entwickler endlich eine Beta an und zudem bestätigen sie die Steuerung mit Motion Controllern.

Mech-Spiel meldet sich mit Beta zurück

Wie die Entwickler berichten, haben sie nun einen Meilenstein in der Entwicklung geschafft und es sei nun an der Zeit, auch externe Tester an das Spiel zu lassen. Wenn ihr dem Team mit Feedback helfen wollt, dann könnt ihr euch hier für die Beta anmelden.

Auch wenn die Idee hinter Vox Machinae nicht unbedingt neu ist, so war schon die Umsetzung vor einigen Jahren sehr mutig und gut. Durch die Trägheit des Cockpits entstand ein ganz besonderes Feeling, welches viele Tester als wesentlich angenehmer empfanden, als eine direkte Bewegungen ohne Trägheit wie bei einem Ego-Shooter.

Vox Machinae_Beta_screen_02

Aber es hat sich erwartungsgemäß in den letzten Jahren noch einiges mehr getan und es bleibt abzuwarten, an was die Entwickler in der Zwischenzeit alles gebastelt haben.

Vox Machinae ist derzeit nur für den PC angekündigt und nicht für die PlayStation 4. Somit planen die Entwickler vermutlich ein Support aller Brillen mit Motion Controller via SteamVR.

(Quelle: Voxmachinae)

Der Beitrag Vox Machinae: Mech-Spiel meldet sich mit Beta zurück zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

VR Mech Combat Game ‘Vox Machinae’ is Back with Motion Input, Closed Beta Coming Soon

With VR’s strengths for cockpit-based games, you’d think that there would be more quality mech titles available to today’s headsets. Alas, a killer VR mech game hasn’t reared its head just yet; Vox Machinae, a promising VR mech combat game that has been running silent on development for a long time, has reappeared, now set for release in 2018.

Vox Machinae first appeared on our radar all the way back in 2014—back in the Rift DK1 and DK2 era, and long before motion input. The game appeared quite promising back then, and while indie studio Space Bullet only rarely surfaces with updates on development of the title, we have been assured that it’s still in development. What’s happened between now and then?

“Well, we’ve been spending all that time polishing the game up, now we’re ready to reveal to you the latest developments,” says Space Bullet’s Jakub Czeszejko-Sochacki. A new video published by the developers shows a more polished version of the game now featuring native motion input support for controlling and piloting your mech.

In addition to the new video, Czeszejko-Sochacki says that the studio is soon to be running a closed beta for Vox Machinae, hopeful test pilots can sign up here. He also says that the studio plans to release the game in “one form or another” this year. The studio says players can expect the following:

  • A unique mix of weighty and tactical simulation with responsive action.
  • Pilot a hulking robot across hostile planets with your computer AI for company.
  • Choose between five distinct Grinder chassis, each with their own benefits.
  • Customize your loadout an array of devastating weaponry.
  • Immersive physics simulation drives movement and combat.
  • Play offline, on a local network, or online with up to 16 players.
  • Optimized for smooth VR performance and visual quality.
  • Full motion controller support for the ultimate immersive experience.

Motion Input

Image courtesy Space Bullet

Space Bullet has clearly spent a lot of their recent development time revamping the game for native motion input. The studio gives a taste of the way you can interact with your mech through the cockpit, including an awesome looking eject handle:

Steer

Rearrange System Displays

Eject Like a Badass

– – — – –

We’ll be looking forward to our first taste of the game now that it’s been reworked for motion input, and hoping for a substantial release this year.

The post VR Mech Combat Game ‘Vox Machinae’ is Back with Motion Input, Closed Beta Coming Soon appeared first on Road to VR.

Watch the Latest Vox Machinae Teaser Trailer ahead of Oculus Connect 3

Today sees the start of Oculus’ third annual conference, Oculus Connect 3. In the run up to the event developers have been releasing new teasing content and info for Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch. There’s been Q-Games’ Dead Hungry, Grav|Lab by Mark Schramm and Force Field VR’s Landfall. Another title that’s made an appearance is Vox Machinae from developer Space Bullet.

VRFocus first reported on Vox Machinae earlier this year, and since then the studio has released further teasing snippets of this mech shooter for the Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD). This new video showcases more mechs and the firefights that take place.

Vox Machinae is all about giant robots battling each other in a multiplayer firefight. The slow paced machines have an assortment of weaponry to destroy opposing enemies, with machine guns, rocket launches, laser and more. If players manage to get close enough they can engage in melee combat, and should the worst happen and the mech is close to destruction then players can eject themselves into the sky. Whether they get another mech is a question that is yet to be answered.

Expect to hear further details from Oculus Connect 3 as the event gets underway, and keep reading VRFocus for all the latest updates for Q-Games’ Vox Machinae.

Oculus Rift And Touch Get Flood Of New Game Trailers Ahead Of OC3

Oculus Rift And Touch Get Flood Of New Game Trailers Ahead Of OC3

It’s the first day of Oculus Connect 3! Or it will be in a few hours from now. To help you get excited, we’ve got a swarm of trailers for new games on the way to Rift and Touch.

In truth, we’re not expecting much news out of OC3 day one; all the big announcements are likely being kept for tomorrow’s keynote speech. To tide you over until then, take a look at the trailers for four games currently on their way to the Rift, some of which will be using its new position tracked controllers while others will be dependent on the gamepad.

We’ll start with a brand new title first. Below is the trailer for Landfall, an Oculus Studios title developed by Force Field. It appears to be the “big budget, AAA” Oculus exclusive that was teased a few months back and looks like a multiplayer RTS. The world has fallen victim to a biblical flood, and those that remain form armies to fight for what’s left. It’s not the most optimistic view of humanity’s future, but we’re hoping it’ll make for some great gameplay.

Next up we have a look at Vox Machinae, the long-anticipated mech shooter from Space Bullet. We feel like we’ve been seeing this game for a while (it was shown at last year’s OC too) but we’re no less excited for its moody, atmospheric sci-fi battles. Laser beams and rockets fly as you stomp over desert-like planet surfaces. It’s just a short teaser, but we’re hoping that we’ll finally be able to get our hands on this one soon.

Okay, onto some Touch games. You may have seen us talk about Dead Hungry before. It’s a new title from PixelJunk and The Tomorrow Children developer, Q-Games. It seems pretty simple in concept, mixing the manic cooking genre in which you race against time to make the correct meals with the demand and hunger of a crowd of zombies. You use the Touch controllers to stack and serve burgers.

Finally, we have a pretty ambitious co-op game. Enigma Sphere, developed by yomune_co, takes the spirit of Portal 2‘s co-op campaign, getting you to work together to solve various challenges in a series of rooms. Rather than simply completing experiments, though, you’re actually trying to save the world. No pressure, then.

So that’s four new Oculus games we have to look forward to in the near future. Hopefully after the next few days we’ll have even more.

See Mechs Tear Each Apart in the Latest Vox Machinae Gameplay Footage

When we said that Vox Machinae has been flying flying lowest under the radar, we weren’t joking, but now after six months there have been a few more bits to be seen from this title.

Space Bullet Corp, developers of Vox Machinae, has been posting a series of gameplay moments from spectator mode. This includes mostly massive robots getting shot at and obliterated – and the art is still as impressive as it was at the beginning of the year.

vox machinae screen

The first video shows the absolute carnage that each of the mech can sustain during gameplay from the use of weapons, whereas another shows explosions and defeat as a result of physical impact and collision. It also seems that players will be able to eject from the robots when they are about to die. The latest video shows a robot being taken down by an army of varied enemies.

Vox Machinae is described as a “modern take on mech combat simulators of olden days”, where the player is one of the few certified pilots left after the Earth’s resources had been depleted you fight to survive in one of the few jobs that are left. Players can pilot robots, navigate hostile planets, customise armour, punch with giant robot fists, and experience immersive physics.

This is just something new to be added to the previously officially released gameplay trailer, but there still hasn’t been a date set for the release of Vox Machinae. There is, however, a small hint in the description of the gameplay trailer from earlier this year where they claimed they are committing to a 2016 release, and there are still plenty more months to hear more about the title. Either way, the gameplay and design looks pretty great.

The title will be available on the Oculus Rift when released as it has been previewed on the head-mounted display (HMD), but it is officially classified as a PC platform, so it could perhaps open up for HTC Vive compatibility, but this has not been confirmed.

Until then, VRFocus will continue to keep up with the developments of Vox Machinae, as well as all the latest news, updates, and features in the world of VR.