Some minor performance updates to scene loads. Chinese and Japanese language users should be able to play the Slingshot scene again.
Some minor performance updates to scene loads.
Chinese and Japanese language users should be able to play the Slingshot scene again.
Fixed bug in longbow causing the bow to be dropped unintentionally.
The Lab was released in 2016. It had been created for roomscale VR in a world with no roomscale VR games, and took on the difficult task of building its conventions from the ground up. Now, three years later, conventions have evolved, the state of the art has progressed, and it s
The Lab was released in 2016. It had been created for roomscale VR in a world with no roomscale VR games, and took on the difficult task of building its conventions from the ground up. Now, three years later, conventions have evolved, the state of the art has progressed, and it seems fitting for The Lab to progress as well.
In the Hands-On update, we have brought the latest innovations in VR tech to the various pocket universes of The Lab.
Step aside, incorporeal controllers and abstracted input. Thanks to tight integration with SteamVR's new skeletal input system, future-proof hand presence is available for all. Whether you're playing on controllers with full per-finger tracking, controllers with binary grips, or anything in between, you will see your hands in-game represented to the highest fidelity possible.
All inputs, previously locked to particular controller buttons, are now Actions - available to be rebound at will and supporting any input configuration, forever.
The interaction system originally created for The Lab has been completely overhauled. Nearly all interactable objects can be freely poked, thrown, bashed against each other, stacked, toppled, and smashed. You are no longer a ghostly visitor to VR, your hands are physical like everything else, grounding you in the universe and raising your immersion to new heights. The Lab is a playground, and one that you can now enjoy like never before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WKf7mDfeY8&feature=youtu.be
Audio is a huge component of immersing a player in any experience, and Steam Audio brings you the cutting edge of spatialization tech. Perfect directional audio for every sound pulls you even further into the game.
Thanks to extensive user testing and three years worth of feedback, we've smoothed over the few bumps in the experience to make the game even more welcoming to new users.
We've made innumerable changes to improve gameplay and performance, including upgrading to a modern engine version. Expect better performance across the board, and enjoy The Lab at higher resolutions and refresh rates. Speaking of...
The Lab was designed to run at 90 Hz, and has up to this point had some hiccups at higher or lower frame rates. Now, all game and physics code is frame rate independent, enabling seamless play on all of the diverse headsets available today.
We're so excited to share this update with the world, and we hope it will inspire you to hop back in to The Lab once again.
Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/450390/The_Lab/
The Lab was one of the first big showcases of modern virtual reality, and one of the first experiences many had after picking up a first-generation Oculus or HTC headset. Today, Valve are keeping up with the times and updating their free VR playground to better reflect modern tec
The Lab was one of the first big showcases of modern virtual reality, and one of the first experiences many had after picking up a first-generation Oculus or HTC headset. Today, Valve are keeping up with the times and updating their free VR playground to better reflect modern technology, such as their own Index VR hardware.
In what they're calling the Hands-On update, every part of The Lab now gives you properly physics-driven virtual hands, whether you have a finger-tracking controller like the Index or not. They reckon that your skeletal three-dimensional meathooks should be future-proofed and ready to map to controllers that don't exist yet, but also will work with older setups with binary grips or just simple buttons.
And what's the point having hands if you can't poke things and laugh when they fall over? The other major change to The Lab is a physics overhaul. Almost every interactive object is now a solid physics-driven entity that you can pick up, throw, smash or otherwise make a big mess with. Suddenly I understand why cats push everything they can off tables; it's shockingly cathartic.
Under the hood, Valve are making some nice technical improvements that shouldn't be too obvious unless you're looking for them. The Lab should now support all possible refresh rates (such as the Index's 144hz mode) without the physics getting squirrely. They've also made some changes to the audio engine, so that you should have properly spatialized 3D sound no matter your headphones.
You can see the full patch notes here, and grab The Lab free on Steam here. You will, of course, need a fancy pair of space-goggles.
Developing games is hard. When you add in the unique challenges brought on by an entirely new medium, it is arguably even more so. Last October, several members of the team behind The Lab gathered at Steam Dev Days to talk about the experiments, difficulties, failures and success
Developing games is hard. When you add in the unique challenges brought on by an entirely new medium, it is arguably even more so. Last October, several members of the team behind The Lab gathered at Steam Dev Days to talk about the experiments, difficulties, failures and successes that ultimately led to The Lab's creation. We thought some of you might enjoy this peek into the process:
If you’d like to see more talks from Steam Dev Days, you can find them all here.
Developing games is hard. When you add in the unique challenges brought on by an entirely new medium, it is arguably even more so. Last October, several members of the team behind The Lab gathered at Steam Dev Days to talk about the experiments, difficulties, failures and success
Developing games is hard. When you add in the unique challenges brought on by an entirely new medium, it is arguably even more so. Last October, several members of the team behind The Lab gathered at Steam Dev Days to talk about the experiments, difficulties, failures and successes that ultimately led to The Lab's creation. We thought some of you might enjoy this peek into the process:
If you’d like to see more talks from Steam Dev Days, you can find them all here.
Oculus Touch users can press the X and A to rotate in place, 90 degrees left or right. Requires the latest SteamVR Beta Fixed issue with Korean subtitles displaying the wrong language in Slingshot Localization update
Oculus Touch users can press the X and A to rotate in place, 90 degrees left or right. Requires the latest SteamVR Beta Fixed issue with Korean subtitles displaying the wrong language in Slingshot Localization update
Longbow: Barrels and Oil now respawn when Wave 1 begins Longbow: Fixed a rare bug where The Lab would hang if exiting to the miniature view with only one controller turned on Xortex: During the title screen, the drone now instructs players to "Defend your ship" Engine updates to
Longbow: Barrels and Oil now respawn when Wave 1 begins Longbow: Fixed a rare bug where The Lab would hang if exiting to the miniature view with only one controller turned on Xortex: During the title screen, the drone now instructs players to "Defend your ship" Engine updates to
Fixed a lighting bug in the hub Updated localization
Fixed a lighting bug in the hub Updated localization
Update 1 Engine updates to improve stability and performance Fixed a bug which could prevent Slingshot from loading when playing in certain languages Updated localizations Update 2 Fixed a lighting bug in the hub Update 3 Rolled back the lighting bug fix in Update 2 as it was cau
Update 1 Engine updates to improve stability and performance Fixed a bug which could prevent Slingshot from loading when playing in certain languages Updated localizations Update 2 Fixed a lighting bug in the hub Update 3 Rolled back the lighting bug fix in Update 2 as it was cau
Fixed an issue in Xortex Infinite which caused certain enemy types not to properly self-destruct after a time out. Unfortunately, as this bug could impact scoring, we have reset the global leaderboard for Xortex Infinite. Fixed the ‘-longbow’ launch command not properly starting
Fixed an issue in Xortex Infinite which caused certain enemy types not to properly self-destruct after a time out. Unfortunately, as this bug could impact scoring, we have reset the global leaderboard for Xortex Infinite. Fixed the ‘-longbow’ launch command not properly starting
It upsets me that I associate the phrase “Appliance of Science” with Zanussi because it means that at least one of my chances to create a treasured childhood memory was co-opted by a white goods manufacturer’s advertising campaign. ANYWAY. Appliance Of Science is also the name of
It upsets me that I associate the phrase “Appliance of Science” with Zanussi because it means that at least one of my chances to create a treasured childhood memory was co-opted by a white goods manufacturer’s advertising campaign. ANYWAY. Appliance Of Science is also the name of Valve’s new update to The Lab [Steam link] – its VR experiment anthology.
The big thing? It’s adding competitive global leaderboards for Longbow (the archery one), Xortex (the space shootery one), and Slingshot (the box explodey one).
There are also a number of changes to the modes. I’ll list them out at the end but here are the basic points to note:
Update News What's science without a little competition? Why, it's barely science at all! That's why we applied some science to The Lab and created the Appliance of Science Update, introducing a spirit of bloodthirsty competition to the world of ethically questionable research. N
What's science without a little competition? Why, it's barely science at all! That's why we applied some science to The Lab and created the Appliance of Science Update, introducing a spirit of bloodthirsty competition to the world of ethically questionable research.
Now you can compete with your fellow test subjects on the new global leaderboards for Longbow, Xortex, and Slingshot, and prove to the world that you're the best at science. But hold on to your grant money, because we didn't stop there. We've also made a bunch of gameplay adjustments to all three games.
Longbow now features an unlimited number of enemy waves, along with a new scoring system to reward slaying enemies, nailing headshots, popping balloons, and more. Each successive wave includes more enemies, who will move faster and have an increased chance of wearing armor. Your exploding barrels and oil cauldrons reset every eight waves, so be sure to use them!
Xortex now offers a brand new way to play, Xortex Infinite, with progressively more frantic action as you maneuver your drone to collect powerups, increasing your score multiplier while gunning down enemies. Xortex Infinite also replaces the Laser with a powerful Bomb, which destroys all nearby threats. Use it wisely, however--detonating your Bomb also resets your score multiplier.
Finally, the rebalanced Slingshot will present you with new core calibration career opportunities. Wipe out the Aperture Storage annex with bigger, better barrel explosions, as well as a host of scoring adjustments to help you solidify your place as a world class calibrator.
Speaking of world class, the Appliance of Science Update also adds support for subtitles and text localization, along with a host of other additions and improvements. You can read all about those in the patch notes.
The Appliance of Science Update is now included in The Lab, available for free on Steam. So strap on your headset, grab your Nobel Prize or other favorite blunt object, and populate those leaderboards with your own empirical data, for science!
Update News What's science without a little competition? Why, it's barely science at all! That's why we applied some science to The Lab and created the Appliance of Science Update, introducing a spirit of bloodthirsty competition to the world of ethically questionable research. N
What's science without a little competition? Why, it's barely science at all! That's why we applied some science to The Lab and created the Appliance of Science Update, introducing a spirit of bloodthirsty competition to the world of ethically questionable research.
Now you can compete with your fellow test subjects on the new global leaderboards for Longbow, Xortex, and Slingshot, and prove to the world that you're the best at science. But hold on to your grant money, because we didn't stop there. We've also made a bunch of gameplay adjustments to all three games.
Longbow now features an unlimited number of enemy waves, along with a new scoring system to reward slaying enemies, nailing headshots, popping balloons, and more. Each successive wave includes more enemies, who will move faster and have an increased chance of wearing armor. Your exploding barrels and oil cauldrons reset every eight waves, so be sure to use them!
Xortex now offers a brand new way to play, Xortex Infinite, with progressively more frantic action as you maneuver your drone to collect powerups, increasing your score multiplier while gunning down enemies. Xortex Infinite also replaces the Laser with a powerful Bomb, which destroys all nearby threats. Use it wisely, however--detonating your Bomb also resets your score multiplier.
Finally, the rebalanced Slingshot will present you with new core calibration career opportunities. Wipe out the Aperture Storage annex with bigger, better barrel explosions, as well as a host of scoring adjustments to help you solidify your place as a world class calibrator.
Speaking of world class, the Appliance of Science Update also adds support for subtitles and text localization, along with a host of other additions and improvements. You can read all about those in the patch notes.
The Appliance of Science Update is now included in The Lab, available for free on Steam. So strap on your headset, grab your Nobel Prize or other favorite blunt object, and populate those leaderboards with your own empirical data, for science!
Like most people who can’t resist casually mentioning they have an HTC Vive, I recently acquired a HTC Vive. Finally, I have the ability to personally step into worlds of wonder and creativity more realistic and inspiring than anything mankind has ever created before. Instead, I’
Like most people who can’t resist casually mentioning they have an HTC Vive, I recently acquired a HTC Vive. Finally, I have the ability to personally step into worlds of wonder and creativity more realistic and inspiring than anything mankind has ever created before. Instead, I’ve… uh… been playing mini-golf. Like, a lot of mini-golf. The one VR experience I could literally have better and at higher resolution by getting up going into my own town, only that wouldn’t be cool, because I wouldn’t regularly float over cliffs as I cack-handedly putt-putt away like I’m trying to join a parade.
I have no idea if virtual reality is the next big thing or just a passing fad. Even as potential fads go though, I can’t wait to see what it has in store for RPGs. As long as it’s not giant spiders in my face, obviously, I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time.