VR support 'not at launch' for Odyssey

Joss C. K.

Joss C. K.
VR made the difference from playing a game on a computer to owning a spacecraft waiting for me.
After years of free updates i was willing to pay any price for the new era.
Without VR i'm out too.
 

[VR] DDM_Reaper20

[VR] DDM_Reaper20
Kellan Fell said:
Check out their announcement thread on this forum. They confirm that Odessey will not support VR at launch. They may bolt it on later I suppose, but unless some of the enhanced visuals make it down into Horizons then I think they will have lost most VR players by then.
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I'll stick to Horizon, simply. I still haven't done everything I want to do in that game, despite logging several thousand hours.

Plus, it's just an incredible experience, seeing that you are in a spaceship.

I can wait. If they enable VR afterwards, good. If they don't, then I hope that pancake-users at least get what they want. Fair's fair, guv, and all that.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
DDM_Reaper20 said:
I'll stick to Horizon, simply. I still haven't done everything I want to do in that game, despite logging several thousand hours.

Plus, it's just an incredible experience, seeing that you are in a spaceship.

I can wait. If they enable VR afterwards, good. If they don't, then I hope that pancake-users at least get what they want. Fair's fair, guv, and all that.
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Depends on how much of the game is locked behind the launcher options.
If most of it is, and you face a similar disadvantage as with horizons/vanilla. No thanks.
If most of the legs gameplay will be for legs updates, for example upgrading suit and guns, then I can propably live with it.
 
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[VR] DDM_Reaper20

[VR] DDM_Reaper20
Bigmaec said:
Depends on how much of the game is locked behind the launcher options.
If most of it is, and you face a similar disadvantage as with horizons/vanilla. No thanks.
If most of the legs gameplay will be for legs updates, for example upgrading suit and guns, then I can propably live with it.
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Good point.

Worst case, I'll switch to Solo again. However, I do not believe FDev hasn't learned anything from Vanilla/Horizons. I don't think they are going to muck up engineering even further. Who knows? They might actually do some balancing. (Being an optimist almost never hurts (unless you are too optimistic when choosing a dentist, I suppose.))
 

CMDR kraedin

C
I think there would have been a much better reception if they had made two new expansions: one that added atmospheric flight and landing with VR support, and one that added FPS gameplay that did not include VR support.

Crossplay between VR and non-VR users in FPS PvP is, as far as I know, something that has never been done. I don't think there's a reasonable way to deliver it. That doesn't mean that flight and vehicle mechanics need to be limited, though!
 

Joss C. K.

Joss C. K.
CMDR kraedin said:
I think there would have been a much better reception if they had made two new expansions: one that added atmospheric flight and landing with VR support, and one that added FPS gameplay that did not include VR support.

Crossplay between VR and non-VR users in FPS PvP is, as far as I know, something that has never been done. I don't think there's a reasonable way to deliver it. That doesn't mean that flight and vehicle mechanics need to be limited, though!
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"RecRoom" has FPS PvP with Paintball + Lasertag crossplay for VR and non-VR users
 

rhiz

rhiz
CMDR kraedin said:
Crossplay between VR and non-VR users in FPS PvP is, as far as I know, something that has never been done. I don't think there's a reasonable way to deliver it. That doesn't mean that flight and vehicle mechanics need to be limited, though!
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If that is indeed the reason, Frontier have still deliberately chosen that development path and thrown VR users under the bus in the process (a decision made a long time ago in all likelihood). My question would be: how many of us actually wanted a competitive FPS annexed to the game as part of our hopes for space-legs (genuine question)? The FPS is the least imaginative and most hackneyed form in game development.

In response to Zorvan above - it's true that VR users are a minority, but anyone with sufficient experience of VR would probably agree that it represent a profoundly exciting creative medium, despite the shortcomings of present tech. Calling it a fad points to either a lack of experience or a lack of imagination. It may well be true that economic factors ultimately dictated their decision and direction, but creatively and conceptually it feels like a short-sighted and retrograde step from Frontier to me.
 

VR Murgle

VR Murgle
rhiz said:
If that is indeed the reason, Frontier have still deliberately chosen that development path and thrown VR users under the bus in the process (a decision made a long time ago in all likelihood). My question would be: how many of us actually wanted a competitive FPS annexed to the game as part of our hopes for space-legs (genuine question)? The FPS is the least imaginative and most hackneyed form in game development.

In response to Zorvan above - it's true that VR users are a minority, but anyone with sufficient experience of VR would probably agree that it represent a profoundly exciting creative medium, despite the shortcomings of present tech. Calling it a fad points to either a lack of experience or a lack of imagination. It may well be true that economic factors ultimately dictated their decision and direction, but creatively and conceptually it feels like a short-sighted and retrograde step from Frontier to me.
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If the asymmetry of FPS combat was the reason for not including VR then how did engineering ever make it into the game? It's not as if there isn't a massive imbalance in ship to ship combat and lets not even get into ship vs SRV...
 

Cyclinguy

Cyclinguy
If a game development design decision means removing VR from an existing title, you'd need a very good reason for making that decision.

Personally, I don't think adding FPS to a space ship flight simulation game is a good enough reason, but that might just be me.

So saying, how certain are Frontier that there is sufficient demand for FPS gameplay within the existing Elite playerbase? I am beginning to suspect the real reason for adding legs+FPS is to attract new players for whom the emphasis would be on the FPS with the space flight an attractive add on. Expect dumbed down flight mechanics to follow...
 

rhiz

rhiz
Murgle said:
If the asymmetry of FPS combat was the reason for not including VR then how did engineering ever make it into the game? It's not as if there isn't a massive imbalance in ship to ship combat and lets not even get into ship vs SRV...
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There are probably a multitude of reasons - it is a tricky thing to pull off, but I just think that their design decisions should have been directed by what was already great and unique about the game and developing that, rather than sacrificing these foundations for something seemingly so generic.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
CMDR kraedin said:
I think there would have been a much better reception if they had made two new expansions: one that added atmospheric flight and landing with VR support, and one that added FPS gameplay that did not include VR support.

Crossplay between VR and non-VR users in FPS PvP is, as far as I know, something that has never been done. I don't think there's a reasonable way to deliver it. That doesn't mean that flight and vehicle mechanics need to be limited, though!
Click to expand...

In No Man´s Sky you can indeed have VR and non VR players playing together and even fighting each other.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Cyclinguy said:
So saying, how certain are Frontier that there is sufficient demand for FPS gameplay within the existing Elite playerbase? I am beginning to suspect the real reason for adding legs+FPS is to attract new players for whom the emphasis would be on the FPS with the space flight an attractive add on. Expect dumbed down flight mechanics to follow...
Click to expand...
People have been demanding spegs for years, which might have made them think there was a demand. And they were promised at the start. fdev delivering atmos planets or spegs is the least unexpected thing ever.
 

itarrow

I
What if they keep VR for vehicles and implement 2D only for when we are walking ?

I would find it perfectly acceptable, and the only hard thing to implement would be the transition, which anyway Frontier has lot of experience about (ED has loooooot of transitions managed through nice loading screens....).
 

21 Tauri

21 Tauri
OMG Elite Dangerous without VR in 2021! What are you doing Frontier 🤔 Really bad news for me. VR is the future! It's a shame but it's the choice of Frontier and I can only write my deep disappointment on the forums. I am really sad to leave "my" Elite. But what can I do other ? RSI said it will be done in the final version. Frontier said there was no VR at launch, so we'll see who does it first. But I wouldn't buy Odyssey for sure and I don't see any point in continuing with Horizon (Just for info I'm triple 140, 15 billion credits, Corvette, Cutter, etc ... all almost fully equipped guardians and engineers. Not much else to do)
All my hopes are for the VR version planned for Star Citizen after the final version, even if I don't know when it will be ... Sad days 🌧
 

AstroCreep

AstroCreep
I once was a diehard Elite Dangerous player, from back in the Beta days right through release and thereafter. Once I got a VR headset (which in itself was a game changer) I soon discovered I could never go back top Flatscreen Cockpit gaming be that Racing Sims, Flight Sims, Elite etc. It opened up a whole new world of immersion, one that I had been dreaming about since Elite first came out back in the 1980s!

Fast forward to this week, I see the trailer and "FINALLY....SPACE LEGS!", now i had not played Elite for a couple of years and always needed something to drag me back in and I was hoping this would be it - but alas it appears not.

MS Flight Sim 2020, they announced no VR and look at the backlash and then subsequent "oh...we have now decided to bolt it on afterwards" rubbish, it was a huge error on MS part to completely ignore the popularity of VR in Cockpit based simulations, hence they backtracked to save themselves some face.

FDEV need to do the same, quite why they're not (apparently) considering coding VR game play into Odyssey from the start is extremely baffling and worrying to me. Are they so out of touch these days that huge aspects of advanced technology are simply forgotten? Are they too focused on their other games that Elite has only got bare bones staff to bring it forward? Did they not sit down and think up design choices to include VR with this expansion? I simply don't get it.

I am but just one person, this is my one voice, if it helps FDEV realise the mistake they've made in this design decision then that's great, but I already fear it's too late and any "bolt on VR support" thereafter will be weak and poorly adapted.

It's quite simple for me - go back to the drawing board - include VR the best you can from first release of Odyssey - if not then it's quite simple for me: No VR = No Buy
 
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