Hey guys! Today we'll talk about PCVR!
What can we achieve by focusing mainly on the PCVR version of the game?
In the previous post about Into The Darkness VR, we presented the plans for the development of the game. You already know that Cosmos Games/Gameboom VR production will be a full-fledged PCVR title. But what are the specific advantages of this? Today we will delve into this topic!
The power of PCVR
Of course, the graphics. This is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about PCVR. The graphics of games that run on PCs are definitely better than what we can see in other solutions. So Into The Darkness VR is better in this regard as well.
But in the case of graphics, it is not only about how textures can be in high resolution. Developing the game on PCVR allows us to prepare much better geometry of objects and more advanced particle effects. Falling snow, fog, or sheets of paper blown by the wind - such effects will appear in Into The Darkness VR, while on other platforms we would have to give up on them. Some of the scenes we are planning assume a strong use of these effects, so without their existence, we would also not be able to tell the story we are going to.
Tessellation-based snow
Another thing that becomes possible thanks to PCVR is the level design, which is not hampered by the limited size of the location. Sure, large locations can be prepared on the other devices. But it always takes a few tricks for this. For example - developers are forced to add a large "fog" that will limit the view. You can also prevent the player from moving around or even load a large area only for a moment to remove it and load the next level.
The level design of Into The Darkness VR does not care so much about the size of the location. When we create a large area, it should be breathtaking. For this, we want to let you move around larger areas!
But in our game, we add something extra to it. Cosmos Games has managed to create a great snow system based on tessellation technology. One of the first locations is a large, mountainous area covered in snow. We didn't want a small layer of snow in a place like this, so we created interactive snow that reacts to our movement through it.
The fantastic-looking solution was achieved thanks to the mentioned tessellation. This solution would not be possible in a non-PCVR game! Moreover, it seems that this will be the first application of this technology in a VR game.
That's not all! Into The Darkness VR is a title that relies on advanced physics. Although our solution, in this case, has already worked well in previous versions of the game, we are still working on it, polishing what we can. You should feel the differences in physics in the new demo version. Be aware, however, that although this aspect is very important, we also do not want to develop a game that will ruthlessly punish the player for not mastering physics. We do not want to overdo it, because in this case, the gameplay becomes too tiring for the player.
Level design
Below we present screenshots that you could see in the previous devlog as a gif. Now you can take a closer look at the changes we're making to the game.
As you can see, a glass roof has appeared. This solution allowed us to make the place more colorful. The addition of this glazed roof, however, could have been fatal to the performance if we had not opted for PCVR. Now we don't have to worry about it.
Into The Darkness VR playtests
We know well that a lot of people are excited to test the changes we make to the game. We promised you the opportunity to test the game again before its release, and our plans have not changed in this regard.
Into The Darkness VR will be available again before the game's launch. At the moment, playtests are planned for Q2 2022.
If you want to be even closer to the development process - join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/dERxD78