Hello all FLASHOUT fans!
Long time no see, but we were really busy during recent weeks. So it's time for a small update on the progress we have made with the development of the game. As you already know, we decided to add VR support and this required us to work on a few very important things. First of all we wanted to make sure that FLASHOUT 3 works on all popular VR headsets - so not only Oculus or HTC Vive, but also on such devices as headsets made by Pimax. This was quite important, because these devices give you a much better FOV and that's something really important in racers - especially in anti-gravity racers where the circuits can have pretty crazy layouts :).
Another important thing was to optimize the game. You need to render everything twice, thus the processing power required to achieve constant and acceptable framerates is quite higher, obviously. We managed to achieve really good results in this respect and the good news is that optimizations will also have a positive impact on the standard version of the game. So it's a win-win situation.
Last but not least we knew VR needs to be really immersive. So adding a cockpit view was a must. But it was a bigger challenge than some of you might expect, because once again - anti-gravity racers are quite different than ordinary racing games. Nevertheless here's what we came up with finally:
There are two important things to mention here:
1. As you can see, in VR mode the GUI is working a bit like a HUD in a modern car. So we have moved all the information that was displayed on the screen to the cockpit. This way it's much easier to read all the info and it's, well... more cool :).
2. Because it's an anti-gravity racer, there are not only crazy loops and bends on the circuits, but also jumps and special actions that the player can perform - such as barrel rolls. And why this is a problem? The answer is quite simple - not only you need to have the possibility to look what is above you, but also what is laying below - because when you jump you want to know where to land. This is why in FLASHOUT 3 the cockpit is semi-opened. It means that you can see the main frame that holds the ship together, as well as your character (full body or hands and legs - depending on your choice), but you don't see the body of the ship. And it still makes sense, because in FLASHOUT 3 racers are using AR headsets during races, just like one of the main characters:
It is also important to note that the VR version of FLASHOUT 3 will support keyboard and standard game controllers (gamepads, wheels, hotas). Since it's a racing game we have no plans to support dedicated VR controllers (they just don't offer you enough control in racing games).
Obviously since we brought the cockpit view to VR mode, it's also present in the standard version. We are still perfecting it, but we already have the possibility to change the camera view to cockpit view also in the standard (no-VR) version of the game:
In the upcoming weeks we will show you a few new circuits and we also have some good news if you're more of a multiplayer kind of soul - we are currently working on split-screen multiplayer, a feature that is in our opinion missing in most racing games. The split-screen multiplayer will support two modes - vertical and horizontal split-screen. Pretty handy if you're a lucky owner of a widescreen monitor :).
And what about online multiplayer? Will see ;).
Meanwhile you can still check out the demo version. We are planning to add VR mode to it on Monday, so stay tuned!
DEMO LINK:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985280
WISHLIST FLASHOUT 3 NOW:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1761870