TrackMania Turbo mit PSVR (Review)

TrackMania Turbo erschien im März 2016 für den PC, die PlayStation 4 und die Xbox One und sollte an die alten Erfolge der Reihe anknüpfen. Bei der TrackMania-Reihe geht es um Geschwindigkeit, Loopings, Überkopf-Fahrten und ein gutes Gedächtnis. Besonders der Multiplayer-Modus in den TrackMania-Spielen bietet immer einen gewissen Suchtfaktor. Denn was ist spannender, als die Jagd nach der besten Zeit auf extrem kurzen und wahnsinnigen Strecken? Aber passt dieses Konzept auch in die virtuelle Realität?

TrackMania Turbo mit PSVR

In TrackMania Turbo erhaltet ihr keinen VR-Modus der das komplette Spiel in ein Virtual-Reality-Abenteuer verwandelt, sondern ihr könnt nur einen ausgewählten Bereich nutzen. Dieser Bereich umfasst 40 Strecken, wobei die meisten Strecken zwischen 20 Sekunden – 40 Sekunden Rennspaß versprechen. Theoretisch ist dies nicht wenig Content, doch Ubisoft beschränkt diesen Modus auf eine „Karriere“ und einen Arcade-Modus. Hierbei tretet ihr aber nur gegen euren oder den Geist eines KI-Spielers an oder ihr füllt die lokale Highscore-Liste.

Wenn man die Fehlversuche mit einberechnet, kann man mit TrackMania Turbo in VR gut ein bis drei Stunden füllen. Der Schwierigkeitsgrad ist relativ niedrig und somit sollten auch unerfahrene Fahrer schnell die Goldmedaillen für die einzelnen Strecken erfahren. Diese Medaillen werden im VR-Modus benötigt, um wiederum neue Strecken freizuschalten. Doch wenn ihr alle Strecken freigeschaltet habt, dann gibt es nichts mehr zu entdecken und einen wirklichen Grund zum erneuten Spielen gibt es auch nicht. Zwar wird nach dem Rennen angezeigt, wie gut andere Fahrer in der eigenen Stadt waren, doch der Funke will nicht so recht überspringen. Wir wollen die anderen Fahrer direkt sehen und uns live mit diesen messen! Ohne VR Brille geht es doch auch!

Falls ihr dachtet, dass Ubisoft die Maps so auswählt, dass ihr entspannt ein paar Runden drehen könnt, dann habt ihr euch leider getäuscht. Zwar gibt es einige Maps die relativ unspektakulär sind, doch dafür haben es andere Strecken faustdick hinter den Ohren und geizen nicht mit Loopings und Beschleunigungsstreifen.

Optik, kleine Fehler, keine Optionen

TrackMania Turbo mit PSVR

Grafisch ist TrackMania Turbo sicherlich kein Überflieger, aber die Gestaltung wirkt auch in VR gut und fast alle Strecken machen eine absolut passable Figur. Gleichzeitig ist der VR-Modus aber nicht immer wirklich sauber integriert. So kann man hin und wieder durch die Straßendecke blicken, wenn man sich überschlagen hat oder das Bild wird erst ausgeblendet, wenn die schlimmsten Szenen des Unfalls uns schon durchgewirbelt haben. Auch die Steuerung kam uns in VR wesentlich schwammiger vor als auf dem Fernseher, aber der Eindruck kann auch durch die unterschiedliche Perspektive täuschen.

Bei den Optionen lässt uns Ubisoft auch keine großen Freiheiten. Besser gesagt: Es gibt keine Optionen. Ihr müsst das Spiel so spielen, wie Ubisoft es will. Die Kamera wird dynamisch geändert (Third-Person und Cockpit) und es gibt auch keine Verengung des Sichtbereiches bei scharfen Kurven oder waghalsigen Manövern.

Fazit

TrackMania Turbo ist ein gelungenes Vergnügen, auch wenn es ein paar Schwachstellen hat. Aktuell ist das Spiel im Angebot und bei einem Preis 19,99 Euro kann man über den VR-Modus nicht meckern. Bei einem regulären Preis von 39,99 Euro sollte man aber nur zuschlagen, wenn man auch Interesse an dem Spiel auf dem Fernseher hat.

Bewertung
  • Story/Spielspaß - 80%
    80%
  • Immersion - 70%
    70%
  • Optik - 70%
    70%
  • VR-Komfort / Anpassungsmöglichkeiten - 40%
    40%
  • Wiederspielwert - 65%
    65%
65%

Der Beitrag TrackMania Turbo mit PSVR (Review) zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Lens Is A Slightly Buggy New Video App For PSVR

Lens Is A Slightly Buggy New Video App For PSVR

It doesn’t looks like there’s going to be much in the way of new games for PlayStation VR (PSVR) this week, but there is a new video app debuting today for those interested.

Lens, as the app is called, is a free platform for watch both 2D and 3D 360 degree content, available now from the PlayStation Store in the EU. There’s no word on if it could come to the US just yet. It looks largely similar to other 360 degree apps, offering short experiences that you can immerse yourself in and look around as if you were really there. The app is also available on pretty much every other VR headset out there right now.

Alongside a range of generic 360 videos, Lens is pushing Remember, a Chinese-made series that tells the story of a grieving mother using VR to relive moments of her life. It’s a rare look at story-driven 360 degree content, which is a format that filmmakers still haven’t perfected, but holds a lot of promise for the future. Only the first episode is available right now, but it’s one of the longer VR videos you’ll find at 19 minutes in length.

Overall the app has a few problems; at one point I couldn’t get Remember to play in its entirity, instead only playing the trailer, and every time I tried to back out to the main menu the app crashed.

Now that YouTube is available on PSVR we question how necessary apps like this really are. Some apps like Jaunt and Within has exclusive content that help them stand apart, but you could argue YouTube’s already found its VR and it’s, well, YouTube.

Still, as we said, there isn’t really anything else coming to the headset this week other than some new DLC for Resident Evil 7, so you might want to get it out all the same.

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Quixel Discusses Upcoming Sci-fi Experience Homebound

This week Swedish developer Quixel is set to release its debut virtual reality (VR) experience Homebound for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. A sci-fi adventure where players find themselves in space about to go through an astronauts worst nightmare, crashing into the Earth, they have to deal with a series of catastrophic events to survive. VRFocus sat down with developer Wiktor Öhman to discuss the title and its development.

How did Homebound initially come about?

“Well I was working on the environment’s, the main one of Homebound. I was creating that mainly as a marketing thing for Quixel and our tools, the textures and so on. But midway through creating that we were talking about how cool it would be to actually be able to explore it, its in space floating around just looking at things inspecting the materials and stuff up close.

“I had never developed for VR at all, or any games at all, or any scripting in my life. But shortly after I got started, being able to open doors and basic stuff like that, we realised it would be a really really cool experience, an actual proper experience with a story and so on, so it escalated very quickly from a showcase, fly through environment, to a proper experience and just went from there. And I’ve been developing for 8 months now. I’m the only person working on the game.”

Homebound logo

What was the inspiration behind Homebound? 

“The actual art style was inspired by real life such as NASA and Space X, the first they made was the chair, one of the chairs in one of the pods, that’s heavily inspired by Space X. It started out heavily inspired by Space X and then I just sort of mishmashed Space X with NASA and hard sci-fi stuff, and that laid the foundation for the art style. We’ve kept that throughout, even the later environments in the game.

“The actual gameplay narrative, most people say is heavily inspired by Gravity, but I never intended to do that it sort of just happened because it’s the same concept, I totally see where it comes from.”

What influenced your choice of platform support?

We were granted the Vive by Epic and their development grants, and that’s also the reason we chose to develop on Unreal Engine.

Is Homebound a short VR experience or a fully fledged videogame?

“It’s an experience that’s as long as we could make it for several reasons. It’s not a full game if you’re referring to a six or ten hour game, it’s more of an experience around thirty minutes or so. And the reason we kept it at that length was it just became too intense to keep it longer, there’s a lot of stuff happening all the time it’s going to be quite overwhelming with flashing lights and zero gravity, 360-degree freedom, there’s just so much going on all the time. And I noticed that if I played for longer than that, uninterrupted, I didn’t feel very well and most people have said the same, so I decided to keep it at a short but sweet length at around 30 minutes, which is also a good time for a casual pick up and play, when you just want to play some cool VR or want to show your friends, it’s a perfect length for an experience.”

Is there anything you’ve not included, that originally you wanted to?

“Regarding things that I wanted in but isn’t it, I can’t say what it is but there is something we’ve been wanting to get in since the beginning, that we’re still trying to get in which’ll be awesome, if I say so myself, but unfortunately I can’t mention what it is if we can’t get it in by release.

“We’ve got more in than we anticipated and that we planned for, it hasn’t been a matter of cutting content, it’s been like ‘yeah we should totally add this’, it’s been a very creative and inspiring experience to develop the game.”

How did you handle the control mechanics for Homebound, any issues with simulator sickness?

“We have a couple of different ways to control, you can use game pad or motion controls. You have an assisted turn system – its a seated experience – so if you look far enough to the left or right the camera sort of assists you in looking further to the left or right than you actually do. You use the triggers to go forwards and backwards, strafe left and right, you ascend and descend, both on the gamepad or motion controllers.

“I personally didn’t feel motion sickness nor did the in house testers. Once we started getting testers in, a couple of hundred testers, we started getting a high frequency of reports of motion sickness which was interesting, because its kind of hard to trouble shoot and test it since you don’t feel the symptoms yourself. So we had to make tweaks and we had to make a build and send it and get reports and adjust according to that. But the originally intended navigation control/layout is pretty much the same as before, its just been very very tweaked. We noticed that moving quickly, when your not moving yourself is a pretty big source of motion sickness so we we had to find a sweet spot for the speed.”

Are you planning to develop further VR projects?

“We definitely hope to be creating more, this is sort of testing the waters to see how it works. We’ve all developed games before, but this is the first time we’ve developed an indie game, this is an experiment we’re doing.”

How the Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Theme Song Blends The Series’ Past and Future

How the Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Theme Song Blends The Series’ Past and Future

A theme song, just like a title, is an important introduction to any piece of art. After reading the title of a movie, or game, or album, the theme song is often one of the first things a prospective consumer is introduced to. Theme songs for video games have the monumental task of introducing a player to not just a piece of art work or an idea, but to an immersive and interactive world. That sense of presence is amplified when the game has support for VR headsets.

In the case of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard [Review: 9/10], Capcom broke from tradition in a lot of ways. They brought the franchise into first-person for the very first time and they introduced VR support using Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) device. Furthermore, the theme song actually has lyrics. That’s another series first.

We took the time to speak with the composer of Resident Evil 7’s theme song, Michael A. Levine, about the process, inspiration, and his professional experience.

UploadVR: What brought you to this song as the theme for Resident Evil: 7 Biohazard? It is a bit different than what the franchise has done in the past. Was this intentional?

Michael A. Levine: Capcom was familiar with the Lorde version of Everybody Wants to Rule the World which Lucas Cantor and I produced that was used in the trailer for Assassin’s Creed. They wanted me to take a familiar song and reimagine it, darker and more threatening, the way we had done with the Lorde track, but using a traditional song for legal reasons. By accident of my birth (I was born in Japan) I knew there was a cheerful traditional Japanese children’s song, Musunde, that has the same melody as Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Rhody’s original lyrics end with “the old grey goose is dead”.  I changed it to “everybody’s dead” to make it scarier. I also wrote an original verse that alludes to the story of the game.

Michael A. Levine

UploadVR: Music is such a huge part of the horror genre, did you find that it was difficult to produce a song intended to capture the tone of an entire 10+ hour survival horror adventure?

Michael A. Levine: Ignorance is sometimes bliss. Fortunately I didn’t really appreciate how momentous a task it was or I might have been intimidated. It felt pretty good right away. That didn’t stop us from experimenting with a lot of different ideas. The original version was more of a straightforward song and was sung by Mariana Barreto who has a lighter more “innocent” sounding voice than Jordan Reyne who sings the released version and has an edgier, scarier character. Mariana is still on the track singing all the background vocals. They are both outstanding vocalists. I just produced an EP called Samira & The Wind featuring Mariana, who is also my daughter. Jordan has many albums of her own. I think it’s interesting that two of the vocalists I have had the most success with – Lorde and Jordan Reyne – are both from New Zealand. Something in the kiwis…?

UploadVR: When creating a song like this, what is one of the first things you do?

Michael A. Levine: Take a nap. I always get inspired after naps!

UploadVR: The ending credits were one of my favorite parts of the game and your theme was featured very heavily there. Was it satisfying to see the theme come to life in that way?

Michael A. Levine: I love that Capcom has seen to use the song in so many ways. It shows that they are confident in the song and for that I am grateful.

UploadVR: How has working on this game been different than other games you have worked on in the past?

Michael A. Levine: I’ve worked on the scores of games, but never wrote and produced the theme song before. This is more fun!

UploadVR: This question likely includes some minor spoilers for the game itself, but are the lyrics a reference to Evie in the game?

Michael A. Levine: It would be unfair to those who haven’t played it yet to give away the song’s secrets, but there are many of them, most of which will ultimately be revealed as you play.

UploadVR: Finally, who is Aunt Rhody?

Michael A. Levine: Darned if I know. Hope she’s not angry. Or homicidal.

Have you played Resident Evil 7? What do you think of the theme song, Go Tell Aunt Rhody? Let us know in the comments below!

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Apple CEO Tim Cook Thinks AR Could Have As Big An Audience As iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook Thinks AR Could Have As Big An Audience As iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s interest in augmented reality is well documented, and his confidence in it seems to have only grown over the past few months.

On a recent trip to the UK, Cook was quizzed about his thoughts on the technology by The Independent. He again noted that he was more excited about AR than he was VR because the latter “closes the world out” while the former “allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on what’s happening presently.”

He explained that AR content can be “a part of your world” rather than closing you off from it. “That has resonance,” he said.

How much resonance? Cook thinks AR could appeal to as many people as Apple’s iPhone does. “The smartphone is for everyone,” he explained, “we don’t have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market: it’s for everyone. I think AR is that big, it’s huge.”

He said that AR was a “core technology” and not its own product, but there was still use for it before the tech is “good enough” for the mainstream. “I do think there can be a lot of things that really help people out in daily life, real-life things, that’s why I get so excited about it,” he said.

We obviously don’t need to tell you just how successful the iPhone has been, and Cook’s vision for the tech is likely looking years ahead. We use our smartphones for a huge number of aspects of our daily lives now, but AR could bring the information and entertainment stored on our phones out of the screen and into the real world.

Comments like these only serve to bolster the speculation that Apple is working on its own AR device, and could skip VR headsets entirely. The real question right now is what form that device takes; could expanded AR capabilities be integrated into the next iPhone? Or does the tech giant have plans for a HoloLens or Magic Leap-like competitor?

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PlayStation VR: Lens für PSVR veröffentlicht

Im PlayStation Store steht eine neue und kostenlose Anwendung für die PlayStation VR Brille bereit. Lens für PSVR ist ein neuer Video-Player, der auf eine Online-Bibliothek mit 360-Grad-Videos zugreift. Der Player ist zwar recht übersichtlich gestaltet, aber Content ist aktuell noch Mangelware.

Lens für PSVR

Im Moment findet ihr nur eine Handvoll Videos auf der Lens Plattform. Das Aufrufen der Videos geht schnell, doch die Beschreibung der Videos hätte man optisch sicherlich schöner einbinden können. Wenn die Videos richtig geladen sind, dann können diese auch teilweise von der Qualität überzeugen, doch leider ist bereits nach wenigen Minuten der Spaß vorbei, denn dann hat man alle Videos im Player gesehen.

Da der Player kostenlos ist, kann man sich die Videos gerne anschauen. Eine echte Alternative zu anderen Portalen und Youtube VR ist dieser Player aber aktuell noch nicht. Mittlerweile arbeitet Youtube auch auf der PlayStation VR im Virtual-Reality-Modus und bietet somit reichlich Content für VR Nutzer. Dennoch ist bei Youtube natürlich nicht alles Gold was glänzt und besonders bei 360-Grad-Aufnahmen kann eine schlechte Aufnahme auch zur einem schlechten Erlebnis führen.

Die Lens Anwendung steht auch bereits für die HTC Vive, die Oculus Rift und die Samsung Gear VR bereit. Weitere Information bekommt ihr auf der Webseite der Entwickler.

Der Beitrag PlayStation VR: Lens für PSVR veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Tethered Is Coming To Vive, Rift and PS4 Pro With Motion Controller Support

Tethered Is Coming To Vive, Rift and PS4 Pro With Motion Controller Support

Still one of the better games for Sony’s PlayStation VR headset, Secret Sorcery’s Tethered [Review: 7/10] will soon be landing on other platforms.

The UK-based developer this month confirmed that Tethered is on its way to both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on PC. A full release date hasn’t been confirmed, but the new versions of the game will support the Oculus Touch and Vive wand controllers respectively. New features are being piled into the strategy game, such as allowing players to scale the camera from the standard god mode view either down to the size of one of the tiny ‘Peeps’ that they command, or bigger than the entire islands featured in each level.

PSVR owners won’t miss out on the updates, either, as the original version of the game is getting upgraded to support Sony’s enhanced PlayStation 4 Pro console and Move motion controllers. Graphical enhancements include new islands surrounding each level, additional cloud layers and more details, while with motion controls players will be able to interrupt running water in waterfalls and more.

Tethered is one of VR’s first god games, getting players to carefully balance resource management during the day as you collect a certain amount of Spirit Energy to progress to the next level. By night, creatures roam the land and you’ll have to prepare your Peeps for battle. It can be a tough game if you’re not paying attention; Peeps need constant care if they’re to make it through a level alive, and neglecting one for even a few minutes can send them tumbling off a cliff.

We were quite fond of the game when it released last October, calling it a “demanding” experience that a “lot of hardcore gamers will be pining for” though we took issue with the camera and head-tracked controls. It sounds like the adjustments made here could improve upon the original experience, though.

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Build Your Model Cars with Monzo VR for Oculus Rift & Gear VR

If you like designing and building stuff virtual reality (VR) developers have got you covered. There are a range artistic and creativity focused applications out there across most of the head-mounted displays (HMDs), stuff like Tilt Brush, Modbox, SculptrVR, Medium, Quill and more. While these apps offer unlimited design options, MADFINGER Games has recently launched Monzo VR, catering to a different set of creators, the model makers.

Featuring over 30 model making kits Monzo VR covers a wealth of designs, from dinosaurs and ships to cars, helicopters and more. Just like normal model making kits users are given instructions on how to build each one, after which they can then add their own artistic flair with a range of colour options and decals to choose from.

Monzo VR - Build Anything

“Our friends at Oculus and Gear VR have given us an amazing environment to play in. People will be amazed at the ease and comfort created by the virtual environment. Combined with the power and flexibility of the Unity Engine we have a fantastic canvas to display our player’s dreams,” said Vojtech Jatel, MAD Lead Programmer.

Supporting both Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift – with additional Oculus Touch support – the mobile version retails for £4.99 GBP while the Rift version is £10.99. For any further updates from MADFINGER Games, keep reading VRFocus.

Titmouse Premiering VR Music Video Show It 2 Me at SXSW Film Festival

Towards the end of last year animation studio Titmouse in collaboration with Viacom NEXT released virtual reality (VR) title Smash Party for free on HTC Vive. Titmouse has continued its VR development, this time creating an immersive music video, Show It 2 Me, which will be premiered at SXSW Film Festival next month.

Part of the film festival’s new SXSW Virtual Reality Program in the Virtual Cinema, Show It 2 Me is an interactive music video created using Tilt Brush’s audio reactive brushes featuring Night Club’s single, Show It 2 Me. Featuring art by Titmouse founder Chris Prynoski and Antonio Canobbio (Titmouse creative director) the retro-futuristic music experience takes the viewer on a trippy visual ride featuring demonic cars, pulsating brains, and disembodied tongue-mouths.

show-it-2-me-F72005

“These brushes are bananas! They animate to music!” commented Prynoski in a statement. “They animate to ANY audio playing on your computer. You want to see what fart sounds look like with the disco brush? Fire it up and you can finally know this joy that I have beheld with my very eyes.” Antonio Canobbio added, “I immediately saw the potential for using these brushes to produce a music video. Previously we’ve had to create VR assets in non-VR authoring environments, OR create assets in VR, but use other software to animate these elements. All the assets for our first VR experience, Smash Party were created with traditional tools. Luckily we have a great line of communication with our friends at Google, and they made it even easier for us to produce this video by developing a custom Tilt Brush Toolkit!”

Tilt Brush creative director, Drew Skillman said, “We are thrilled to help Titmouse’s vision for a Tilt Brush VR music video come to life. We open sourced the entire Tilt Brush Toolkit in hopes that other artists can follow in Titmouse’s footsteps and create their own VR music videos along with any other narrative, interactive, and immersive content they can dream up.”

Show It 2 Me will be available for the HTC Vive for free in the coming months. For any further SXSW VR announcements keep reading VRFocus.