ANNOUNCEMENT Odyssey: Update on VR and Ship Interiors

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Yes, obviously David doesn’t like VR. It’s almost like he want to keep the experience as close as possible to the 80s game by forcing 2D on everyone.

He should retire and hand over to someone with flair and imagination. 8bit dinosaurs don’t like VR full stop.

I actually think that a lot of the rot crept in while DB was hands off, particularly the hyperinflation of mission rewards, and the grindy nature. However, as an advocate for VR, I do find the video interview he did a couple of years ago, in which he slated VR as being an incredibly divisive technology, misinformed and somewhat disturbing, and wonder did the opinions expressed in that video influence the decision to cut VR from EDO?

Gone are the days of families sitting down and playing board games on the kitchen tables, or taking turns or playing side by side on the single shared family computer/console. Modern gaming is in general one person on one device, in their own personal space, such as a kid on their console in their bedroom, focussed on the screen and the people talking to them through their (audio) headsets. VR doesn't change that paradigm, it just changes the screen that is being used from one on a stand or a wall, to one worn on the players face.

 

[Baron von Schnellenstein]

8bit dinosaurs don’t like VR full stop.

Not true, lol!!

When I was a little kid in the 80's and I saw the first (soon to be) commercial VR setup on TV show Beyond 2000 - I wanted one.
I'm currently on my 3rd VR headset. (OSVR -> Vive -> Vive Cosmos Pro)
Since a little before E : D Horizons and up to Odyssey, I played E : D almost exclusively in VR

and I am an "8bit dinosaur" who cut their teeth on the Tandy TRS80 Colo(u)r Computer and the C64.

 

[BigDuke6ixx]

Not true, lol!!

When I was a little kid in the 80's and I saw the first (soon to be) commercial VR setup on TV show Beyond 2000 - I wanted one.
I'm currently on my 3rd VR headset. (OSVR -> Vive -> Vive Cosmos Pro)
Since a little before E : D Horizons and up to Odyssey, I played E : D almost exclusively in VR

and I am an "8bit dinosaur" who cut their teeth on the Tandy TRS80 Colo(u)r Computer and the C64.

I was already a grown up when the original came out. 8bit was cutting edge back then. I've moved on, you've moved on but many, probably including David Braben given what he's said about VR, have not.

 

[IAM GROOT]

Well.
I've heard much about Star Citizen, but this thread made me actually watch some videos showing the interiors of some of the ships.

Wow. Just, WOW. The Star Citizen ships look FANTASTIC inside and out, and have all got distinct control setups. You can walk around the entire interiors and even walk directly from the ship to the surface.

Night and day. Wow. For the first time, I find myself wondering why I chose Elite, back in the day.


Of course, I understand Star Citizen is a buggy mess... but then... so is Elite, now.

Just kind of floored now.

Yeah Star Citizen blows away EDO,
IMO Elite has better
Flight model
Ship dismiss/recall feature
SC has better
Planetary tech
FPS
Ship Interiors
Being able to stow away and steal ships, actual gameplay that David Braben said we’d get back in KS but not even close to happening

 

[IAM GROOT]

I think the main difference in SC and EDO is that SC (CIG) actually care about the product they put out and dont try to mislead and give an actual roadmap.
EDO (FDEV) has finally shown what many of us have believed for a while that they don’t care about their community, or shall we say a certain part of it. I challenge anyone to go back and watch DBs KS videos on his vision and what he wanted the game to be and now look at what it is.
There was a photo book we were all given showing actually repairing zero damage on and in our ships, now we get a lazy teleport pad.

 

[CapuchinSeven]

The benefit would surely be the ability to fix stuff even if no AFMU is fitted. Similarly for EVA the ability to repair the hull (or a broken canopy maybe).

Also the PSU can't be repaired with an AFM if I remember correctly and as you say the hull could be repaired somewhat. Very useful for explorers.

As well as this, when a unit is at 100% short term/one time bonuses could be applied. With a little messing around with systems a FSD range would be worth it for an explorer, useful for a big use but enough of a pain that you wouldn't do it over and over, miners could extend limpet up time is another idea (and so on)

 

[Mohenjo]

Well.
Updated my drivers, changed my settings to High instead of Ultra.

Took on a mission to get something from a settlement, took a shuttle there. Approaching the settlement, the fps dropped to 4. That's right, single digits FOUR fps.
Once I disembarked, it dropped to 1fps. ONE FPS.

The game can't be played like this.

Granted, my system isn't high end or anything, and I'm not all that computer savvy, but I would think I should be getting more than ONE frame per second...

 

[Reddragon 87]

They say you’ll get tired of walking the ship here and there? Can I ask you developers, do you think the players are not tired of doing monotonous missions? or your favorite grind? in this game all that remains is to enjoy the immersion in the game, which will be added by the interiors of the ships!

 

[ebbrell]

i would be happy to walk up stairs or use a lift on a ship.
then enter door and appear in the cockpit... walk around and get into pilot site.

 

[IAM GROOT]

They say you’ll get tired of walking the ship here and there? Can I ask you developers, do you think the players are not tired of doing monotonous missions? or your favorite grind? in this game all that remains is to enjoy the immersion in the game, which will be added by the interiors of the ships!

Yeah that was purely a lazy feature FDEV added, we all predicted it would literally be a “deploy space legs button” another loading screen based on past and they didn’t disappoint! The fact it happens in the SRV is a joke, what walking through corridors in a single seat srv are people getting tired off make it an option if you want for people to select the shortcut

 

[-Mashiro-]

The benefit would surely be the ability to fix stuff even if no AFMU is fitted. Similarly for EVA the ability to repair the hull (or a broken canopy maybe).

Repairing the Canopy in middle of combat runs makes it more than an Armstrong moment. it would be Apollo 13 moment.

 

[Ursus Void]

I'm pretty sure that all ships are designed considering their interiors already and I always believed that ship interior will be realized eventually.
Otherwise I cannot explain the limited internals of Beluga, which is much bigger than Anaconda. Unlike other big ships like Conda, as Beluga is a luxury liner, I expect that it will have some leisure decks like a luxurious observatory.
Now we can walk, so a very basis of ship interior implementation is ready!

 

[jojon]

I do wonder why they bothered with redesigning the SRV bay.

I mean, the old one clipped through everything it could find, but I don't really see how anything we've seen in Odyssey would make that more visible than before - one might think they could just have taken the beard trimmer to what they had (...which I rather liked how it looked :7)... Maybe it was a style unification effort, or maybe somebody had just been pottering on the new one between shifts, and asked: "So I've got this... You want it somewhere?".

 

[Drelthar]

I do wonder why they bothered with redesigning the SRV bay.

I mean, the old one clipped through everything it could find, but I don't really see how anything we've seen in Odyssey would make that more visible than before - one might think they could just have taken the beard trimmer to what they had (...which I rather liked how it looked :7)... Maybe it was a style unification effort, or maybe somebody had just been pottering on the new one between shifts, and asked: "So I've got this... You want it somewhere?".

They redesigned the SRV bay?

Didn't notice, what's different?

 

[klusik]

Well.
Updated my drivers, changed my settings to High instead of Ultra.

Took on a mission to get something from a settlement, took a shuttle there. Approaching the settlement, the fps dropped to 4. That's right, single digits FOUR fps.
Once I disembarked, it dropped to 1fps. ONE FPS.

The game can't be played like this.

Granted, my system isn't high end or anything, and I'm not all that computer savvy, but I would think I should be getting more than ONE frame per second...

Same for me, but with 5 FPS. But I found a way to go around that, now I am having like 100 FPS in some settlements, 50 in "bad ones" Somewhere here's a thread about that, try to find it, it is done by a mod disabling the reflections and glares and some stuff. Not optimal, but the game is then playable.

 

[jojon]

They redesigned the SRV bay?

Didn't notice, what's different?

Used to be this sharp.cornered box of brushed-metal- and black plating, with some holed punched in them, and thin rails in the ceiling. Now it is built from more chunky and rounded elements, which have received a coat of paint - some of them are bracings in the flaring corners.

Don't know whether the new one is a smaller volume than the old one.

Haven't checked whether it uses the same elements as the troop drop-bay either -- I'm not big into shooting. :7

 

[netshaman [VR]]

I was already a grown up when the original came out. 8bit was cutting edge back then. I've moved on, you've moved on but many, probably including David Braben given what he's said about VR, have not.

I'm too a 8 bit dinosaur that begun on Amstrad CPC 464, and dreamed of "being into the game" instead of seeing it on a screen !

 

[netshaman [VR]]

Same for me, but with 5 FPS. But I found a way to go around that, now I am having like 100 FPS in some settlements, 50 in "bad ones" Somewhere here's a thread about that, try to find it, it is done by a mod disabling the reflections and glares and some stuff. Not optimal, but the game is then playable.

I went yesterday to a friend that showed me EDO on his old rig ( R9 390 ), and there was no stuttering or such ( he showed me the tutorial and i didn't seen any pb ) ; i' m currently downloading the EDO part and i will see after installation what is going on ( i want to test the free cam trick for VR ).

 

[Craith]

I went yesterday to a friend that showed me EDO on his old rig ( R9 390 ), and there was no stuttering or such ( he showed me the tutorial and i didn't seen any pb ) ; i' m currently downloading the EDO part and i will see after installation what is going on ( i want to test the free cam trick for VR ).

It is awesome, unfortunately the last patch made it slightly worse, camera is atop the head instead of inside the head, but it still beats pancake mode by a lot. I still cling to the hope that FDev sees the error in its current approach and doesn't deprecate VR.

IMO it is shortsighted to ignore the VR market, especially when they have already a great foothold. Elite: Dangerous Horizons is still one of the most complete VR experiences, one of the few allowing to play VR games together with non-VR friends. A pity Odyssey does away with that for now, but it is missing only a little bit, so as I said - I still hope.
Adding general VR support to the Cobra Engine would open many possibilities also for other franchises, just Planet Coaster alone .... people buy rollercoaster experiences in VR for similar money as PC costs ... without the option to build your own coasters or use other attractions.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

It is awesome, unfortunately the last patch made it slightly worse, camera is atop the head instead of inside the head, but it still beats pancake mode by a lot. I still cling to the hope that FDev sees the error in its current approach and doesn't deprecate VR.

IMO it is shortsighted to ignore the VR market, especially when they have already a great foothold. Elite: Dangerous Horizons is still one of the most complete VR experiences, one of the few allowing to play VR games together with non-VR friends. A pity Odyssey does away with that for now, but it is missing only a little bit, so as I said - I still hope.
Adding general VR support to the Cobra Engine would open many possibilities also for other franchises, just Planet Coaster alone .... people buy rollercoaster experiences in VR for similar money as PC costs ... without the option to build your own coasters or use other attractions.

The part about all this that kills me is, if the free cam works in VR, to me at least (in my limited compression of coding) it should be pretty easy to implement and fdev is being unreasonable stubborn about it