Odyssey Alpha - let us try VR 3D stereoscopic headlook on foot and alpha test its nausea trigger / gameplay

If for example it's true that Frontier's decision not to include VR support at launch was due to their own testing, it would mean that they've at least got barebones support for it already, if not something a little bit more fleshed out for testing purposes.

If that's not the case, then the fact that the game already has VR support is a factor that realistically reduces the relative difficulty of extending the feature to on-foot play, at least in a very barebones sort of way.
I think they explained it quite well:

However, we do strongly believe that VR should only be enabled for on foot gameplay when we have an experience that truly matches the same quality bar that we set for cockpits.
 
I think they explained it quite well:



With regards to whether or not they've tested some form of on-foot VR themselves, that particular statement is fairly vague. It could mean that they've determined the experience is not up to scratch based on actual testing of VR on-foot, and they don't have the time to make the required changes, or it could mean that they've not implemented VR on-foot, but they foresee challenges that they don't have the time to address if they're going to meet their (delayed) launch dates.
 
I think they explained it quite well:

However, we do strongly believe that VR should only be enabled for on foot gameplay when we have an experience that truly matches the same quality bar that we set for cockpits.
And that is.... Drum roll please.... NOT virtual flatscreen, NOT Elite:Alyx, but 3D stereoscopic VR hea-look, thank you, thank you very much for taking my side on this one.

yes I'm slightly taking the mick, but they are only a stones throw from giving us that sale experience in VR on foot, and shutting me up on the topic of Vr
 
I think they explained it quite well:



That makes perfect sense for an official launch.

What’s being badgered for here is more like some low/no budget fan service, due to the unusual scenario. (Partial cessation of a prized aspect of the game). Which is essentially what they did when initially badgered. So, like, there is form ;)

It seems likely that allowing the 2D panel view to be replaced by the native VR view would be relatively trivial. Everything needed already exists. The main issue is that the result wouldn’t be an industry standard product. It’d be shonky.

But hell, the 2D panel hybrid solution isn’t industry standard either. It’s a shonky solution ;)

Allow for it to be toggled in a nested menu option, or via one of the existing entries on the accessible files for the same (as done with HUD colour changes etc), and it would be in line with their current philosophy. IE not an official VR launch, no/low dev budget, but happier EDVR heads in the meantime :)

On those grounds, I suspect the canvassing for such a bridging option will continue ;)
 
With regards to whether or not they've tested some form of on-foot VR themselves, that particular statement is fairly vague. It could mean that they've determined the experience is not up to scratch based on actual testing of VR on-foot, and they don't have the time to make the required changes, or it could mean that they've not implemented VR on-foot, but they foresee challenges that they don't have the time to address if they're going to meet their (delayed) launch dates.
No, they've explained it wouldn't be up to scratch. It doesn't matter if they ever tried to implement it, I've no idea.

I imagine they didn't. Unlike some * ahem * competitors, I expect fdev plan & spec their proposed content, and as we know VR wasn't to be included at all at launch originally.

The change in response to the community no doubt came as a direct result of the actual simplicity of keeping VR mode in the areas where it already exists. Adding it to on foot would have meant adding it, something they hadn't planned for. Hence we're not getting it. At launch.

And this is far too late for us to even be griping about it. It amuses me no end that Jay is asking/demanding vr on foot only a few weeks from the alpha (maybe less?) and has a line in his sig thanking fdev for the last change they made 6 months ago to accommodate VR demands.

It's nonsense. to be honest.
 
And that is.... Drum roll please.... NOT virtual flatscreen, NOT Elite:Alyx, but 3D stereoscopic VR hea-look, thank you, thank you very much for taking my side on this one.

yes I'm slightly taking the mick, but they are only a stones throw from giving us that sale experience in VR on foot, and shutting me up on the topic of Vr
A stones throw, and a chunk of actual design/spec/code/testing they aren't going to do, and at this stage absolutely 100% shouldn't in response to us.
 
A stones throw, and a chunk of actual design/spec/code/testing they aren't going to do, and at this stage absolutely 100% shouldn't in response to us.
Are you always so glass half empty? As golgot said, most of what is needed for this already exists in the game, it might need a little massaging to fit into this context, but it would be a no / low budget project.
 
No, they've explained it wouldn't be up to scratch. It doesn't matter if they ever tried to implement it, I've no idea.

I imagine they didn't. Unlike some * ahem * competitors, I expect fdev plan & spec their proposed content, and as we know VR wasn't to be included at all at launch originally.

The change in response to the community no doubt came as a direct result of the actual simplicity of keeping VR mode in the areas where it already exists. Adding it to on foot would have meant adding it, something they hadn't planned for. Hence we're not getting it. At launch.

And this is far too late for us to even be griping about it. It amuses me no end that Jay is asking/demanding vr on foot only a few weeks from the alpha (maybe less?) and has a line in his sig thanking fdev for the last change they made 6 months ago to accommodate VR demands.

It's nonsense. to be honest.

It matters when assessing the level of effort and time required to include it in a release, whether at alpha, launch, or sometime post-launch.

What you're saying about having to add it sounds plausible, but I'm not a game developer so can't confirm it.

I have a question though for any game developer who might be reading this. Given that Elite has VR support already, including on planet surfaces, would it be a matter of having to add it in for on-foot gameplay, or more a matter of specifically having to switch it off on planet surfaces when going on-foot?
 
Are you always so glass half empty?
Realistic.

As golgot said, most of what is needed for this already exists in the game, it might need a little massaging to fit into this context, but it would be a no / low budget project.
You say massaging, I would say investigation analysis design spec coding testing etc. Which wasn't planned for.

More importantly, at this stage it isn't going to be, before release.
 
Given that Elite has VR support already, including on planet surfaces, would it be a matter of having to add it in for on-foot gameplay, or more a matter of specifically having to switch it off on planet surfaces when going on-foot?

I’m just going to stick my absolutely-not-a-dev oar in and say:

If we’re in stereoscopic render mode already in the ship etc, I’d imagine that that is the game’s default render mode at that point. I suspect that any dev messing with EDO in VR recently would see the legs portions rendered the same way. (The legs disembarking area is presumably done in the same Cobra engine, using the same location, and possibly even in the same instance that the ship is in).

The 2D screen is something they’ll have to rig up to intercede in that process, I suspect. (Hence giving that process a happen/don’t happen toggle state might be feasible etc?)

But I’m totally guessing ;)
 
It matters when assessing the level of effort and time required to include it in a release, whether at alpha, launch, or sometime post-launch.

What you're saying about having to add it sounds plausible, but I'm not a game developer so can't confirm it.
Yeah only fdev will really know what's involved. I've never worked as a game developer, but in corporate IT development nothing ever was as simple as just switching it on even when a user/manager thought it would be :D hell even when I thought something I had written could be changed quickly it turned out to be a nightmare
I have a question though for any game developer who might be reading this. Given that Elite has VR support already, including on planet surfaces, would it be a matter of having to add it in for on-foot gameplay, or more a matter of specifically having to switch it off on planet surfaces when going on-foot?
Don't know, good question though.
 
Are you always so glass half empty? As golgot said, most of what is needed for this already exists in the game, it might need a little massaging to fit into this context, but it would be a no / low budget project.
Will you just stop making these huge uninformed assumptions about things you don't understand!!
 
would it be a matter of having to add it in for on-foot gameplay, or more a matter of specifically having to switch it off on planet surfaces when going on-foot?

who knows. maybe also both? the former would mean that the odyssey client started as a separate project, not as a continuation or fork of the current client. would make sense since vr apparently wasn't even a consideration when designing for odyssey. maybe they wanted a new slate, maybe even with a new iteration of their homebrew engine. but they also stated they are unsure about content in odyssey being compatible with vr, so it would need to be "switched off", and would also suggest that said content is a completely different and separate development, again without vr in mind.

dunno if that's really relevant though. adding basic vr support should be trivial, compared to the problem of the content and world interaction to actually work and (hopefully) make sense in vr.
 
And what you want is VR on foot.



Right.
No. What I said if you just carried on quoting rather than being clever.

I don't want some mish mash mess of 2d and vr, or having to swap controllers and remove a headset. I would prefer they added more space flight parts to a space flight game, rather than add in call of duty to a space flight game. Has any other dev tried to pull anything like this before? No, they know it's just stupid.

Odyssey is nearly released now and I've pre paid for it, my game will be the mess I described. Horizons was released in 2015. In the last 6 years while other companies have released 2-3 full games we get some half arsed update which nobody really asked for.
 
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You profess to have a good understanding of processes which scream "don't oversimplify and don't make assumptions about other peoples projects" (and I`m sure you do) and then you go ahead and just do it anyway.
Personally I don't profess to be a coder and I don't claim it to be easy.... But FD hugely marketed ED.as a VR title and even went so far to sell it on a VR only store (users of the Oculus store version are still up in the air about what happens to them when ED:O drops....). No one is asking FD to create features not already done by other similar titles so it is clearly doable (NMS has full VR support , in ship and on foot, in a game with other players in the same instance on a monitor with optional PvP..... Even bedroom dev hobbyist programmers have added the support to some games such as NOLF, Alien Isolation, Doom and quake.... (Tho not MP)

I am not talking about legal stuff here btw but just common decency. Would Oculus users have bought into ED if they had known in advance they would be getting a dead end version of the game which would cease to get support halfway into its cycle.

As I have said I am relieved FD relented a little and are.offering some support but it is poor form that FD didn't consider their VR support for their"Built from the ground up to support VR" title. (Their words not mine) . It is generally accepted even by developers and not just customers who you feel should not be allowed a valid opinion that it easier to implement VR early doors in a project.

I am not a 5* chef either but if I pay £150 for a.meal I expect main course and desert to be a certain standard and not just the starter.... And I would absolutely feel entitled to complain if I didn't feel I got what I ordered even if I am not a chef.
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
If I were a vr player I'd be more concerned with having parity of movement, in and out of combat, with pancake players.
Just as I expect those who don't use VR would be disadvantaged compared to VR players if teleportation was implemented for the latter in the event that FPS VR locomotion required it.
 
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