ANNOUNCEMENT Community Update July 2020

Well that's literally what they did last time. There were two code bases and two clients.
No, there weren't. There's exactly one client in the Steam package. The Horizons DLC doesn't install anything, it's just a DRM license token to unlock Horizons features in the client.

If you think there's a reason they can't do the same thing again, I'd like to hear it.
 
There is nothing in FD's announcement to suggest that Odyssey won't be bolted on the way Horizons was. There is nothing to suggest that VR support has been downgraded in the upcoming client. This is nothing but conjecture with the intent to raise the drama level up to eleven.

Given Horizons as a proof of concept, here's what is most likely to happen: If you don't have the Odyssey DLC, nothing will change. You'll have VR while sitting in the ship or in the SRV, but you won't be able to get up and walk around. If you do have the Odyssey DLC, you will have access to planets with tenuous atmospheres, but when you get up from your seat, the view will switch to 2D. It doesn't even mean you'll have to take off your headset, as they could simply project the 2D scenery onto a virtual cinema screen in VR.

The least likely thing to happen is FD maintaining two code bases and shipping two clients.

I think you're reading the statement by FDEV with a more than a little dose of wishful thinking. They were very clear: No VR support in ODYSSEY at launch. To me, that says VR will continue to be in HORIZONS and the base game but not in ODYSSEY, and I don't see it being brought back once it's gone. I'd love to see a hybrid approach, but I think, once VR is gone from the game, that it will simply not be back, and that means moving on to a new game and playing a little HORIZONS every now and then to fly a virtual spacecraft. Completely losing VR support is pretty much the end for many of us who have experienced this game in VR - the flat-screen experience is dull and uninteresting by contrast.
 
No, there weren't. There's exactly one client in the Steam package. The Horizons DLC doesn't install anything, it's just a DRM license token to unlock Horizons features in the client.

If you think there's a reason they can't do the same thing again, I'd like to hear it.
Wrong. This may be the case NOW, but for much of Horizons' lifespan, and certainly at launch, there were two completely different packages, a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version. Horizons was the 64 bit version, vanilla Elite, which was built on the 32 bit client, was its own client. It wasn't just a couple of DRM flags. One of the reasons I remember this is because for a while, the 32 bit version had shorter hyperspace jump times and I would often switch over to the 32 bit client when doing long distance multi-jump travel.


So here's what actually, really happened with Horizons: Frontier released a NEW, more advanced 64-bit client for Horizons, and continued to support the old existing client (which incidentally also ran on Mac) for a while. Then they dropped support for all 32-bit versions of the game completely.

Here's what could happen with Odyssey: Frontier releases a NEW, more advanced client for Odyssey, and continues to support the old existing client (which incidentally also supports VR) for a while. Then they drop support for all older (VR) versions of the game completely.

So to quote a wise, wise, very insightful person:

If you think there's a reason they can't do the same thing again, I'd like to hear it.
 
I think we should open two bets in a betting portal.

1. Will it be possible to use VR in ships and nonVR content simultaneously without restarting the game?
Yes or no

2.Will be support for VR is discontinued
Yes or no

Is there a English fellow around to organize that and give us the link for it ?
 
Wrong. This may be the case NOW, but for much of Horizons' lifespan, and certainly at launch, there were two completely different packages, a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version. Horizons was the 64 bit version, vanilla Elite, which was built on the 32 bit client, was its own client. It wasn't just a couple of DRM flags. One of the reasons I remember this is because for a while, the 32 bit version had shorter hyperspace jump times and I would often switch over to the 32 bit client when doing long distance multi-jump travel.


So here's what actually, really happened with Horizons: Frontier released a NEW, more advanced 64-bit client for Horizons, and continued to support the old existing client (which incidentally also ran on Mac) for a while. Then they dropped support for all 32-bit versions of the game completely.

Here's what could happen with Odyssey: Frontier releases a NEW, more advanced client for Odyssey, and continues to support the old existing client (which incidentally also supports VR) for a while. Then they drop support for all older (VR) versions of the game completely.

So to quote a wise, wise, very insightful person:
You are confusing codebases with target platforms. All platform builds of ED (for Windows 32/64, Xbox, PS4...) have been and continue to be generated from the same unified codebase. There has never been a separate Horizons client for any of those platforms. The fact that they stopped shipping updates to the 32bit Windows client at some point doesn't make it a separate client, just an older one. That's why builds have version numbers: so you can tell what version of the codebase they were compiled from.

Mark my words: There will be no separate codebase made from scratch for the Odyssey client. How do I know? Because I've worked in software development, and I'm pretty sure the people at FD are not insane. ;)
 
If you don't have the Odyssey DLC, nothing will change.

except for the big electric mauve flashing "GET ODDYSSEY" button.

we don't really know, they might even come up with a new launch system. this is all 100% speculative and isn't even a relevant factor for the availability/lack of vr support and hypotetical switching, there are lots of ways to do this in as many different scenarios. the point is that they won't be doing that in any scenario for a good while, possibly never.

their goal is launching odyssey in 2d in the optimal time window and maximize the profits of that launch, that's a big portion of their revenue and only happens so often. this has some obvious risks that they will want to minimize. everything else will have to be considered after that.
 
Just dig the Elite puddle a few inches deeper. That's all I want. Just to be able to sit back and do something while my ship takes me somewhere an..."beep beep alarm!" OH , what's this? I'm picking something up on the sensors, better snap back to flying and... oh my god it's a wreck of something mahoosive. Let's see if there's any salvage... Survivors too, better check that one first actually. Let me remote control a surveyor limpet to see if this wrecks got anything good then I can bust out the mining tools and start breaking her apart for her goodies.
That, I want that. Not go to X. Scan Y. Relog and repeat Z times.
On a more serious note. If you allow us to land on all the planets, or just atmospheric moons or whatever and allow us to walk around. The next logical step for anyone and especially this community is to demand base building. We got legs now let's shout until they let us play building blocks. They'll demand it get's turned into something like No Mans Sky, but Elite mans sky. Which wouldn't all be bad thinking about it.
 
I think more like 15%, even 10%

I can hardly imagine that out of 3 million copies sold (approximately), there are 300,000 people who have invested in VR.

🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 😷
As of 2019, total sales of PC-based VR is around 5 million (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/671403/global-virtual-reality-device-shipments-by-vendor/). I would be surprised if sales are 300k as that is quite low (given that you can pick up ED on sale so cheaply (granted they may not be actually playing).
 
How about before you release a new expansion or game, Fix the problems with your current game!!!

I will not take part in Odyssey or support Frontier if they do not fix and balance the current payout rewards system for Elite Dangerous in general.

Make Elite Dangerous great again by balancing the payouts to what you currently NEED and ramp up your bug fixes like your suppose to!

There is no point in getting Elite Dangerous Odyssey unless your intent is to include all fixes and game balancing on your rewards system as well.

If Frontier intents on doing so however, then THAT would be an announcement worth reading and I would gladly shelf Elite Dangerous until you release Odyssey. The current state of Elite Dangerous (Horizons included) is nothing short of Horrendous....
 
I tell you what would be helpful, when there is an announcement, of any description, we need 2 threads. One simply contains the announcements by Frontier staff. It is locked and only opened to and added to, by Frontier staff.

They can also start a thread (with the same post) like this one, where we can all leap in and discuss, amongst ourselves or with the Frontier staff member, the contents of the post.

The issue I have is, this thread rises to the top of the forum occasionally and I have to back-trawl through pages to find what the last thing it was Frontier said. Most often, I trawl through it to discover I have already read it.
 
I tell you what would be helpful, when there is an announcement, of any description, we need 2 threads. One simply contains the announcements by Frontier staff. It is locked and only opened to and added to, by Frontier staff.

They can also start a thread (with the same post) like this one, where we can all leap in and discuss, amongst ourselves or with the Frontier staff member, the contents of the post.

The issue I have is, this thread rises to the top of the forum occasionally and I have to back-trawl through pages to find what the last thing it was Frontier said. Most often, I trawl through it to discover I have already read it.
If you click on the orange box top right that says DEV POST, you can very quickly get to the most recent Dev contribution without having to trawl ... each time you click DEV POST it takes you to the next and the next until it tells you that you've reached the most recent post.
 
As of 2019, total sales of PC-based VR is around 5 million (source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/671403/global-virtual-reality-device-shipments-by-vendor/). I would be surprised if sales are 300k as that is quite low (given that you can pick up ED on sale so cheaply (granted they may not be actually playing).
5 million ? That's very few compared to the tens of millions of PCs sold each year.

Regarding ED, I think 50K in VR would be a very good performance.

🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 🦠 😷
 
There is nothing in FD's announcement to suggest that Odyssey won't be bolted on the way Horizons was. There is nothing to suggest that VR support has been downgraded in the upcoming client. This is nothing but conjecture with the intent to raise the drama level up to eleven.

Given Horizons as a proof of concept, here's what is most likely to happen: If you don't have the Odyssey DLC, nothing will change. You'll have VR while sitting in the ship or in the SRV, but you won't be able to get up and walk around. If you do have the Odyssey DLC, you will have access to planets with tenuous atmospheres, but when you get up from your seat, the view will switch to 2D. It doesn't even mean you'll have to take off your headset, as they could simply project the 2D scenery onto a virtual cinema screen in VR.

The least likely thing to happen is FD maintaining two code bases and shipping two clients.
No, the most likely - and almost certainly what "Odyssey will not be compatible with VR at launch" actually means - is when you launch Odyssey, VR will not work. That's the clean way to do it.

This may change, it may have already as people have repeatedly suggested to fdev they would be happy with VR in Flight only, but that is what the original announcement meant. IMO, obviously. But it was.
 
You are confusing codebases with target platforms. All platform builds of ED (for Windows 32/64, Xbox, PS4...) have been and continue to be generated from the same unified codebase. There has never been a separate Horizons client for any of those platforms. The fact that they stopped shipping updates to the 32bit Windows client at some point doesn't make it a separate client, just an older one. That's why builds have version numbers: so you can tell what version of the codebase they were compiled from.

Mark my words: There will be no separate codebase made from scratch for the Odyssey client. How do I know? Because I've worked in software development, and I'm pretty sure the people at FD are not insane. ;)
I'm not sure what difference you think this makes. Are you suggesting because base and horizons have VR, calling odyssey from the same client would mean VR must work as well? But we can load base and horizons without VR. I can have my VR headset connected and load the client and not load VR (depending on parameters, afaik, eg as drkai's edlauncher uses).

I'm confused why you think a single client with all 3 would necessitate VR in Odyssey.

Assuming then that fdev can prevent Odyssey loading VR from the single client while allowing VR for the base and horizons, why would they do this? Because they don't want VR in Odyssey at launch. For the reasons they originally gave, in order to make the game as good as possible they decided not to go with VR at launch.
 
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