VR support 'not at launch' for Odyssey

Franc Kaos

Franc Kaos
Ascendingbike42 said:
I'm fine with no vr at launch for oddessy, but it would be nice to get some clarification on what that actually means.
Are they working on vr support but don't think it will be at a high enough standard at launch?
Or does it mean that they will think about adding it later if enough people complain about it?
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Well, when ED came out on the PS4 Frontier said (Sept 2018)...
Will Elite Dangerous support PlayStation®VR?
Elite Dangerous is a flagship VR game on PC so of course, VR is important to us. It’s definitely something we’re looking into, but we have nothing to announce for launch.
support.frontier.co.uk

Elite Dangerous on PlayStation®4 FAQ :: Frontier Customer Support

Answers for some of the most common questions about Elite Dangerous on PS4™.
support.frontier.co.uk
So I wouldn't hold my breath.
 

ZeeWolf

ZeeWolf
Dissaopinting however I don't think this is like Fleet carriers where if we complain enough they will try to turn on a dime.

They've been developing odyssey for years using an upgraded engine that probably would have to be downgraded to get VR performance. FPS mechanics aren't something you want to slap on a last minute VR implementation on too.

It's interesting that you will still be able to load up Base game + Horizons in VR though. Can we still see Odyssey NPCs and Players walking around outside the ship in VR?
 

B1rdy

B1rdy
Phoenix_Dfire said:
The problem with VR at launch is the amount of work that is involved to do a truly great experience.

Look at how many developers worked on Half life Alex. It was a huge team for at least a couple of years and people will be demanding that level of immersion. I know people are going to complain that 'NMS can do it, why not E:D' but, to be honest, just getting space legs (with some atmospherics) is still a huge undertaking and NMS already had that in.

I hope they will continue to work on VR but it's not a priority for the moment.
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Valves team had supposedly up to 80 people, creating a linear singleplayer game. FDev never went for a comparable level of detail and refinement in level design (for obvious reasons) for the base game or any addition. Both games are hard to compare. But if you want to take HLA as a reference, you can already see why it works well in VR and why it would not really work on a screen most of the time. And that is a problem FDev faces, to design a common ground, that makes both VR and screen players viable and relevant. It is probably the same reason CIG dropped VR support for SC.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
ObiW said:
For me it's almost the other way around... No need to buy a VR set for quite a while:) not that my current hardware could handle one anyways.
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My VR is in a box in the closet right now. I have no regrets buying it (I got my Rift S for $350 USD) as it has given me some amazing experience, and I'm sure I'll break it out again if a fleet carrier ever visits my region of the galaxy (dumb DSSA). Until then, I'm happily playing Space Engineers on a laptop screen and Overwatch on a PS4. VR is great, but I never understood the "I just can't go back to a flat screen after VR" crowd. On the other hand, VR is one of the few things that keeps me interested in ED these days, so the removal of VR support in favor of turning ED into an FPS seems a bit short-sighted IMO.

As I said elsewhere, I'd be more interested in Odyssey even without VR if space legs weren't half-baked. Let me explore, customize, and repair my ship (inside and out), explore the interiors of generation ships and INRA bases and Anaconda wrecks, explore caves and asteroid surfaces, scavenge materials by hand, etc. When I want to play a space-based FPS, I just fire up Star Wars Battlefront. And thankfully Space Engineers and Subnautica give me the legs I want.
 
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Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
ZeeWolf said:
No, but I can land on a planet with Horizons that presumably an Odyssey player can get out and walk around on
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But, if you read "Not at Launch" for Odyssey VR support, it makes it reasonably clear that Odyssey (and its enhancements) cannot be launched in VR (as Horizons content cannot be launched in Base game) so a VR user would be unable to interact with Odyssey content (although it could interesting if they intermixed - I can almost hear the salty "My CMDR was headshot by a ganker in Odyssey" cries were that possible 🤣) as they cannot launch Odyssey in VR... Sorry, it is circular, but has been made pretty obvious by the "No VR" announcement.

As I read it, just as Horizons is a seperate item in the launcher, so will Odyssey be, and ne'er will the twain meet ;)
 
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Factabulous

Factabulous
Wayland Pentonville said:
As I read it, just as Horizons is a seperate item in the launcher, so will Odyssey be, and ne'er will the twain meet ;)
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yeah, but that's a worry for non-VR players too - if the EDO gate is 'you can now land on atmos planets and get out on your spegs' then it's possible that you have no spegs on an airless world (or off planet).

Maybe you do have spegs on airless worlds (after all, this was a teaser for new content, so they could have just mashed together spegs & atmos), but they've given no indication, much as they gave no indication of VR support ... and we know how that turned out.

(Also kinda ironic if we asked for spegs but they only work on (some) planets ...)
 

ZeeWolf

ZeeWolf
Wayland Pentonville said:
But, if you read "Not at Launch" for Odyssey VR support, it makes it reasonably clear that Odyssey (and its enhancements) cannot be launched in VR (as Horizons content cannot be launched in Base game) so a VR user would be unable to interact with Odyssey content (although it could interesting if they intermixed - I can almost hear the salty "My CMDR was headshot by a ganker in Odyssey" cries were that possible 🤣) as they cannot launch Odyssey in VR... Sotrr, it is circular, but has been made pretty obvious by the "No VR" announcement.

As I read it, just as Horizons is a seperate item in the launcher, so will Odyssey be, and ne'er will the twain meet ;)
Click to expand...

This would not suprise me in the least.

The fact that Horizons will still be supported in a galaxy that is going to be interwined with Odyssey gameplay makes me wonder if a hybrid solution would be possible. I'd quite like to pop the VR helment back on once I get back into ship based stuff without having to go back to the launcher however I can imagine it would be a nightmare from a support perspective, my Oculus Rift CV1 has to load the Oculus software then the Steam VR software then when I go back into ED without my rift plugged in (for a bit of less immersive but high definition space trading with a cup of tea in front of the monitor) the game loads into a window and I have to go back to the graphics settings and mess around.
 

Frank

Frank
Phoenix_Dfire said:
The problem with VR at launch is the amount of work that is involved to do a truly great experience.

Look at how many developers worked on Half life Alex. It was a huge team for at least a couple of years and people will be demanding that level of immersion. I know people are going to complain that 'NMS can do it, why not E:D' but, to be honest, just getting space legs (with some atmospherics) is still a huge undertaking and NMS already had that in.

I hope they will continue to work on VR but it's not a priority for the moment.
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I agree with what Franc Kaos said. If there were any PSVR players out there holding their breath they'd all look pretty blue by now

Us VR users are very much a minority, and those of us with strong enough stomachs to enjoy hooning about in SRVs are even more rare. I can understand they've got to go with the lowest common denominator. But the thing is, there are a lot of clever folks who play Elite. I'm sure some of them will be able to bodge something together to allow us VR enthusiasts to experience the expansion in a little more immersive an environment. I hope FDev are going to be lenient towards such a patch if they've already stated it's not something they're prioritising themselves
 

sgurr

S
Phoenix_Dfire said:
The problem with VR at launch is the amount of work that is involved to do a truly great experience.

Look at how many developers worked on Half life Alex. It was a huge team for at least a couple of years and people will be demanding that level of immersion. I know people are going to complain that 'NMS can do it, why not E:D' but, to be honest, just getting space legs (with some atmospherics) is still a huge undertaking and NMS already had that in.

I hope they will continue to work on VR but it's not a priority for the moment.
Click to expand...
I think there's a huge difference in the development effort between VR in first person for Odyssey (lots to do it right), and cockpit VR which they already have working in the game.

The implication from the announcement is that cockpit VR will not be able to fly on atmospheric worlds. If so that makes no sense to me as surely the development cost would be minimal because they already have it working?
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
babelfisch said:
Just curious, where did they say that VR gets removed?

PS
Found it, it says the opposite though.
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Problem is the current situation with base/horizons.
Sure you can play the base game without horizons.
Do you get the same out of it?

If the situation will be the same with horizons/odyssey, then
sure I can continue playing in horizons, I just won't get all game loops and
all ships and propably none of the totally overpowered new gadgets odyssey will bring.

To early to say? Yes.

Precedent shows the older game version is crapped on by the new one, while pretending both are equally viable?
Seems so.
 

Crank Larson

Crank Larson
Factabulous said:
yeah, but that's a worry for non-VR players too - if the EDO gate is 'you can now land on atmos planets and get out on your spegs' then it's possible that you have no spegs on an airless world (or off planet).

Maybe you do have spegs on airless worlds (after all, this was a teaser for new content, so they could have just mashed together spegs & atmos), but they've given no indication, much as they gave no indication of VR support ... and we know how that turned out.

(Also kinda ironic if we asked for spegs but they only work on (some) planets ...)
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that we're getting atmospheric planets - that trailer could just be showing off the new engine on an airless world, or one with very minimal atmosphere (which we already have). But time will tell on that one. :)
 

Murphy1135

M
It is still early days though. Will wait and see what FDev produces.
Will probably not care to pre-order so won't be going for the Cobra mark 6
 

Dietger

Dietger
Bigmaec said:
Problem is the current situation with base/horizons.
Sure you can play the base game without horizons.
Do you get the same out of it?

If the situation will be the same with horizons/odyssey, then
sure I can continue playing in horizons, I just won't get all game loops and
all ships and propably none of the totally overpowered new gadgets odyssey will bring.

To early to say? Yes.

Precedent shows the older game version is crapped on by the new one, while pretending both are equally viable?
Seems so.
Click to expand...
Lets hope we are still not there yet - and VR comes to Odyssey eventually.

If not, they'll brake up their own creation into parts, each one succumbing to the last. Not a smart move, since the game will loose its coherence consequently there after. Elite is a reverence for VR gaming. Which will be lost.
 
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