PCPP Interview: Deulyst
One of the best ways to get virtual reality to the masses will be to remove the platform-based silos
As we’ve mentioned in past columns, virtual reality is going to live and die on the strength of its audience penetration. This is true of any new technology, but the cost of entry for VR is high enough that if you can’t find anyone else to enjoy multiplayer VR titles with, the platform will be in trouble.
There’s already a lot of single-player content on VR platforms, but it’s multiplayer that provides a really sticky experience, and it’s what keeps players coming back to games over and over. It’s the communities that make and sustain games like Battlefield or World of Warcraft.
But how do you build that on a platform which is so harshly divided?
As you make have seen in our news pages this month, the answer is simple – you design games from the ground up to work across multiple platforms. Ubisoft’s just made that very announcement right as we’re going to print, and we cannot applaud it loudly enough. It starts with Eagle Flight, the neck-straining game we reviewed last month; as of the end of November, players on PSVR, Oculus, and HTC Vive can now all play with or against each other. What this means is an effective tripling of the player base overnight. It’s a good move for Ubisoft, of course, making its games more populous, but it’s a real win for adopters of VR hardware – especially those groups of friends containing console and PC fans, Oculus and Valve fans.
Thankfully, the decision doesn’t end with Eagle Flight. Ubi’s announced that both Werewolves Within (which will be out by the time you read this) and Star Trek: Bridge Crew (coming March 14 next year) will get the same treatment. Given that a large enough player-base was exactly my fear for the popularity of a game like Bridge Crew, I could not be happier with Ubisoft for moving in this direction.
Here’s what David Votypka, senior creative director at Ubi developer Red Storm, had to say:
“Making our VR titles cross-platform has been a goal of ours from the start and we’re happy to announce that Eagle Flight, Werewolves Within, and Star Trek: Bridge Crew will be playable cross-platform on PSVR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive. Our games feature a strong multiplayer experiences, so letting friends play together regardless of which headset they own will enhance the social nature of our games and let them be played the way we envisioned.”
LET’S GET IN TOUCH
The missing pieces for this kind of cross-platform ecosystem are the Touch controllers for Oculus Rift. In our excitement, we actually missed this last month, but from early December – which, for anyone reading, is now, but is a couple of weeks away for me, writing – the Rift headset will finally have a feature-set comparable to the HTC Vive. As we speak, even the PSVR is more versatile in terms of motion and tracking and control, though it is a lot fiddlier, and has lesser virtual screen real estate.
The Touch controllers bring a lot more functionality to the Rift. Each features a trigger, a thumb-stick, and two buttons, and of course they also track the movements of your hands. Neat – and welcome – as they are, however, they’re also relatively expensive, costing $200 USD for the pair. And with the Touch controllers comes the ability for the Rift to finally offer room-scale VR, alongside the HTC Vive. And thankfully the Touch comes with an extra Sensor, so you’re set up right out of the box.
The Touch controllers even come with a “Connector for guitar controllers compatible with Rock Band VR”, so you can also rock out with your virtual… sock… out. Yeah.
PAINT ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR MELTING CLOCKS
One of the interesting things about the development of VR hardware is that despite having great gaming minds and companies involved, the killer content has yet to appear. Doom, for instance, changed PC gaming overnight, practically, but we’re a long way from seeing the equivalent for virtual reality.
But what if the killer apps for VR aren’t games at all, and aren’t going to come from a VR company?
That’s why I’m kind of excited by – of all things – Adobe’s announcement that it’s getting into the space. Its first VR app is called Project Dali, and it’s another drawing application to join Tilt Brush and Easel, among others. While it may not be first to market, though, it cannot be denied that Adobe knows a thing or two about creating compelling design platforms.
Letting friends play together regardless of which headset they own will enhance the social nature of our games
Project Dali lets users paint in a virtual space, using one hand to control your canvas, and the other to control your brush. Using motion tracking, you can move around your creations, and work on them from any angle. It’s not a new idea, but Adobe’s expertise in creating platforms for professional artists is the real game-changer.
“My vision for Project Dali, and the new frontier of VR as a creative canvas, is to keep moving toward technology that understands what we, as artists, want, and then gets gracefully out of our way,” said Eric Natzke, Principal Artist-In-Residence at Adobe Research. “One of the things I love most so far is seeing artists become completely lost in the process. There are no mediating metaphors like files or layers. It’s just flow, with no boundaries.”
At the moment, however, Project Dali – cool name, by the way – is only available at a single San Francisco art museum. As a proof of concept, though, it’s pretty strong, and Adobe’s likely using this first outing to finetune towards a full release.
Finding those other killer apps is the next piece of the VR puzzle. Like our PCs, and even consoles, VR needs to be about more than just gaming. Being able to create content is going to be just as important as consuming it.