ANNOUNCEMENT Odyssey: Update on VR and Ship Interiors

[John Stoutbeard]

@Arthur Tolmie Thanks for a very precise announcement, this was the question we had in the first Dev Blog stream.
You give us VR projection with the new version of the client, Odyssey. We won't need to rely on the old client to run VR. Great news, thank you!

Q: I am curious though, if we switch to foot - with VR the projection on screen (monitor as opposed to VR) is a 'fisheye' representation of one of the eyes.
Will the new client be able to switch from 'VR' projection over to '2D' projection for the monitor without restarting the game-client?

In Horizon we will have to restart the game to get pancake mode. Or have you solved this so the client will understand and switch mode dynamically for the Monitor?
Or do we need to restart the game itself (as opposed to putting the VR down on the desk).

Again, thank you for offering such an detailed answer on the previous questions so early in the process.

EDIT: Clarification of the post

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

What you see as a delay, as see it as a gameplay element and another step towards more immersion in the game. I want to feel I am a human being traveling the star in his spaceship/SRV/on foot, and seamlessly transitioning from the cockpit to the external door by traversing the ship is one part of it.

I mean, following your reasoning, you could say that every time you land and want to swap components, the landing/opening hangar is a tedious loss of time and you could just summon the component menu from your pad and not waste 5 seconds...

I know everyone is different, and for me, playing Elite: Dangerous is not about minimaxing your time to credit ratio by making the most in the shortest time I can. It's about sightseeing, pretending I live in a distant (or not) world and taking passengers wherever they want, all while discovering awe inspiring locations and wondering how it would be to live on this distant ocean planet.
Being able to walk inside my passenger liners not only would give a better sense of voyage by looking out the windows, but also be a great opportunity for Frontier to sell us internal ship decorations. I would totally buy internal layouts and paints to make my ships (somewhat) unique, like the different ship pieces and paints they already give us.

While I agree with you, I completely understand why they have concentrated on where most of the gameplay is going to be.

Sure there are gameplay elements that can come with ship interiors, but they are limited. Let then get the basics right, then they can concentrate on Zero G EVA and all the other elements that can come with ship interiors.

I want ship interiors, but I am happy to wait as long as what we are getting instead is good. From what little we have heard and seen, I like.

 

[Andro]

Personally, I'm seriously considering restarting my commander so I can start on foot instead of automatically in my ship. Really looking forward to it.

Yeah I remember seeing that there will be a new Odyssey on-foot start, similar to how Horizons gave you a SRV. On foot start sounds amazing if it's like the current new player tutorial.

 

[fennster]

@Arthur Tolmie Thanks for a very precise announcement, this was the question we had in the first Dev Blog stream.
You give us VR projection with the new version of the client, Odyssey. We won't need to rely on the old client to run VR. Great news, thank you!

Q: I am curious though, if we switch to foot - with VR the projection on screen (monitor as opposed to VR) is a 'fisheye' representation of one of the eyes.
Will the new client be able to switch from 'VR' projection over to '2D' projection without restarting the game-client?
In Horizon we will have to restart the game to get pancake mode. Or have you solved this so the client will understand and switch mode dynamically for the Monitor?
Or do we need to restart the game itself (as opposed to putting the VR down on the desk).

Again, thank you for offering such an detailed answer on the previous questions so early in the process.

This sounds like a pretty dynamic transition to me. That is you won't need to restart the client to get a 2D projection.

"When disembarking your ship or SRV, players will be presented with a projected flat game screen in their VR headset in order to continue on foot "

 

[Dooguk]

in a ship or SRV you are sitting in a cockpit and the galaxy moves around you.
on foot you are moving within that galaxy, no doubt you've played other VR titles where you walk and the implementation on most is laclustre at best and nauseating at worst.

do FDEV go for the teleport mechanic as used in the steam VR launch environment? (not in the least bit immersive which defeats the purpose of using VR in the 1st place) or do they go for controlling it with an Xbox controller or keyboard? (nauseating because your eyes are telling you one thing and your inner ear is telling you that you are sitting stationary. I use a hotas with elite..(as do may others). how's that gonna work for controlling an on foot character (not very well I would say)

(in a cockpit this is not an issue because in a cockpit you are sitting stationary, you are connected to the environment through the seat you are sitting in not floating around it like some ghost.

VR is much easier to do in a cockpit situation (thats why all the best and most realistic experiences in VR are cockpit based) flightsims, driving sims, space sims etc.
IMO nobody has done walking in VR right so far (not even HL :Alyx) the only way it's gonna feel natural is if you have one of those treadmill things that cost 10s of thousands of pounds

I don't suffer from motion sickness in VR games. The main reason is that my PC can run the games at an acceptable framerate. Teleport mechanic won't work because it has to be the same for all players, non-VR included. Also I have no problem using a HOTAS to move my character in games because I have it setup to suit me. ED supports many input controllers, so if you want to use more than one you can.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

This sounds like a pretty dynamic transition to me. That is you won't need to restart the client to get a 2D projection.

"When disembarking your ship or SRV, players will be presented with a projected flat game screen in their VR headset in order to continue on foot "

That's inside the headset, it may 'appear as a movie / flatscreen' projection. Aka 'now we're going to show you this 'movie' and it will cover most of your view-port'.
On the monitor keep in mind that 99% of the games I've seen have been rendering the full 'fisheye' projection. And for that to change (dynamically) it may take quite a bit of work.
I suspect the monitor projection will still be a 'traditional VR' output and we have to restart the game to get 'windowed mode / fullscreen mode' as we're used to for 'true pancake mode'.

 

[LsX]

On attendra encore pour l'intérieur des vaisseaux. Tant mieux pour les utilisateurs VR. Une très bonne chose de pouvoir balader à l'intérieur des stations, j'espère pouvoir me promener sur le pad d'attérissage.

 

[fennster]

That's inside the headset, it may 'appear as a movie / flatscreen' projection.
On the monitor keep in mind that 99% of the games I've seen have been rendering the full 'fisheye' projection. And for that to change (dynamically) it may take quite a bit of work.
I suspect the monitor projection will still be a 'traditional VR' output and we have to restart the game to get 'windowed mode / fullscreen mode' as we're used to.

Right I get you now.

Yeah, I was wondering similar so the client can switch resolutions, GFX settings, etc automatically.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

Right I get you now.

Yeah, I was wondering similar so the client can switch resolutions, GFX settings, etc automatically.

I doubt they have invested the time & effort to detect that the headset is 'put down' and then do all the hard work of rearranging all the viewports and devices. I suspect there's quite an overhead designing and implementing it.

But that was the question really, if they have made a decision on it or solved it (yet again surpassing my expectations for VR support)

 

[FuZion]

Good stuff

 

[Kyokushin]

You’re joking about this flat game in VR right?

it sounds like horrible and lazy workaround

 

[fennster]

I doubt they have invested the time & effort to detect that the headset is 'put down' and then do all the hard work of rearranging all the viewports and devices. I suspect there's quite an overhead designing and implementing it.

But that was the question really, if they have made a decision on it or solved it (yet again surpassing my expectations for VR support)

This thread claims that it relatively easy to switch HMD to monitor without restarting, don't see why it would be trouble to make it a hotkey in game..

Tip: Switch from VR to Monitor without restarting or exiting Elite

I've been surprised how many VR pilots I've mentioned this to didn't know you could do this. You can switch between VR and playing on your monitor(s). No tricks needed, just go into the graphics options and set 3D to "Off" instead of "HMD" (speakers or headphones) and set the proper...

forums.frontier.co.uk

.

 

[SH4DOWM4K3R]

I'm not buying a DLC that is just empty promises.
Waiting for years, constant patching of the patch with a pinch of nerve.
The game is empty as space.

 

[John Stoutbeard]

This thread claims that it relatively easy to switch HMD to monitor without restarting, don't see why it would be trouble to make it a hotkey in game..

Tip: Switch from VR to Monitor without restarting or exiting Elite

I've been surprised how many VR pilots I've mentioned this to didn't know you could do this. You can switch between VR and playing on your monitor(s). No tricks needed, just go into the graphics options and set 3D to "Off" instead of "HMD" (speakers or headphones) and set the proper...

forums.frontier.co.uk

.

I like that idea, nice tip thank you. I wasn't sure whether this was possible to switch mode as of such. I have changed resolution and display are on my own monitors while playing (because of recording with Nvidia, and it works fine).
As someone mentioned there in that thread there was some issues with crashes etc. There's some love & care that needs to go into switching mode I guess.

 

[Darkfyre99]

How many repetitions of the docking bay/landing pad opening and closing before it becomes tediously repetitive?

I’ll let you know when that happens.

 

[EvilDog77]

When disembarking your ship or SRV, players will be presented with a projected flat game screen in their VR headset in order to continue on foot. Players will of course be able to remove headsets if they so choose, but this will not be a requirement to continue your adventure.

Genuine question: Would it not be possible to employ SBS 3D capabilities similar to VorpX for VR users during the on-foot sections?

 

[DeeFeeBro]

Genuine question: Would it not be possible to employ SBS 3D capabilities similar to VorpX for VR users during the on-foot sections?

You wouldn't need side by side as you have a different image in each eye with your HMD.

But I don't see why they couldn't implement a 3D viewport. Whether they do or not remains to be announced

 

[Darkfyre99]

I find it hard to believe that most players would prefer OTHER interiors over ship interiors, are they really that out of touch with the playerbase?
Who here would accept a 6 month delay to the expansion if they added ship interiors? I would.

I can't imagine preferring ship interiors over other interiors. You don't represent the "playerbase". sorry.

Personally, either, both, or none are all good to me. My primary concern will always be being able to fly my spaceship in VR under alien skies. Anything beyond that is gravy.

 

[Andro]

Here are all three with the interiors showing:

Spoiler: Interior 1

Spoiler: Interior 2

Spoiler: Interior 3

I think you are mistaken my friend, those are greebles.

 

[Darkfyre99]

"Best not to expect" indicates a possibility as small as it may be (otherwise I suspect it would have been expressed as something along the lines of "do not expect at all"). So not a change in policy, just one of the possibilities being considered materializing.

Either way I think we are close to saying the same thing, except maybe I would correct a bit your simplification:

Before: Best not to expect to fly under blue skies in VR. We are looking at it. There may be a split but we do not know yet where that may be.
Now: Now we can confirm where the split is.

IIRC, it was actually:

At First: No, you’re absolutely not not going to fly under blue skies in VR at launch. For VR, you will still have the base game and horizons. We’re not taking that away.
Later: No, you won’t be able to fly under blue skies in VR at launch. But don’t worry, we’re investigating how to do this, and if anything changes we’ll let you know.
Today. You will be able to fly under blue skies in VR at launch. We’ve also decided on a virtual theater for the FPS part of the game. No need to turn off VR if you don’t want to.