Hello, operators.
This update, as with every update, will probably have some big bugs that I've missed. If you're lucky enough to be the first to spot it, please let me know (using the new ingame bug reporter!) so I can race to push the inevitable hotfix before anyone else notices. This is kind of a tradition now. Thank you.
It's been a while! The Graphics Update came out back in March, and the response was really encouraging. Feedback suggests that people liked the new visuals and they understood what I'm going for with the new megamap, Zaliznyy.
The update, however, as is tradition with OVRLRD, was not very polished. I've been developing this game for nearly four years now, and some things have begun to creak under the strain of things on top of them. I figured a good thing to do would be to straighten those things out, to make it easier and faster to add more content immediately afterwards.
"How long could this take?" I asked myself. "Two weeks? Three?" Anyway, several months later, here's an update.
This patch covers a lot of stuff - I've broken down the important bits into a few main points, with a full changelog at the bottom.
SWITCHES ARE FINALLY FIXED
Switches have always been a problem in OVRLRD. They're one of the earliest features I made, and I could never get the rotation behaviour to behave quite right. They would rotate in strange ways, respond to the wrong axis of rotation, and it was frustrating to try toggling them in the middle of combat.
I got mad, deleted the code and rewrote it. Switches are now snappy, responsive and much less frustrating. No more awkward wrist rotation or inconsistent, unexpected hand movement! They just work, exactly as you'd expect. Grab and flick. If someone told you they found OVRLRD too janky and gave up on it, message them and tell them the worst bit has been fixed.
I also added some nicer haptics to the motion-based switch option, where you just hit it with your finger without gripping anything. This feels better now.
OVERHAULED MECH PHYSICS
The procedural animation system driving OVRLRD's walkers has been deleted and rewritten from scratch. Gone are the days of flailing limbs, levitating feet and criss-crossed knees. Every mech now walks and runs in a weightier, more realistic way, and feet are placed intelligently while turning on the spot.
It's not just legs though: cockpit and hip motion are now properly accounted for and tuned for each platform, meaning that as the mech's hip bobs from side to side, your cockpit will tilt and sway realistically. This feels good, but strangely testers have reported that it also gives you a clearer spatial sense of how your platform is moving, which can help with your situational awareness.
Motion sickness warning: you can disable the cockpit sway system in the options menu.
WELCOME TO HQ
All the non-gameplay scenes have been merged into the new 'HQ'. This will be your home from now on in campaign and career modes.
Briefings, debriefings and career mode will all take place here, and you'll find an elevator leading to the hangar for mission deployments. This means you can now easily back out of the hangar to select a different operation if you want, or just admire your OVRLRD platforms without having to go on a mission.
This new area includes some experimental player locomotion, with smooth and teleport options available in the settings. This is currently only accessible in the HQ scene - it's nothing special, just basic locomotion you'd expect from a VR game. In non-VR mode, it's a standard WASD setup.
Here you will also find a top-of-the-line desktop PC provided by Maulkin Superheavy Industries. You can use this to import custom images to serve as decorative posters in the HQ, or custom models (in .fbx format) to serve as bobbleheads in your cockpit.
Your models must be in FBX format. Low polycount is recommended but not enforced.
To import textures and normal maps, create a folder with your model and textures inside, named appropriately. Follow this convention:
-myBobbleHead.fbx [your custom model]
-myBobbleHead_diffuse.png [base texture]
-myBobbleHead_normal.png [optional normal map texture]
The HQ is part of my drive to make OVRLRD a more customisable, personal experience. Once the campaign is out, I want people to have a persistent home that follows them into career mode and makes the world feel less abstract.
Bobbleheads. They don't actually bobble. Yet.
COMBAT CHANGES
Tanks have been buffed. They are more accurate and will generally aim for center-mass.
Engagement ranges have also been increased, meaning that enemies (particularly OVRLRD platforms) will attempt to hold you at a greater distance when firing, and will sometimes attempt to deliberately flank you. Ballistic properties of most weapons have been adjusted to compensate, with far higher muzzle velocities and more realistic bullet drop (that is to say, greatly reduced bullet drop).
The Target Analysis screen previously only worked on enemy OVRLRDs, and all OVRLRDs would be rendered as a flat generic diagram which wouldn't list attached modules. It is now fully dynamic, providing a 3D representation of any currently-targeted unit, with details of its loadout and damage status. This feed will require more tweaking as time goes on, but it's already useful for getting a sense of what you're up against.
Recoil has also been completely overhauled. Previously it would instantly snap your targeting camera upwards and sideways by a random amount. Recoil is now applied directly to the cockpit as a physical shunt, providing weighty feedback but leaving your reticule on-target. The aiming challenge should come from managing weapon spread and tracking moving targets, not from sudden unpleasant view shifts.
I've also split the missile pod into two weapons: the Swarm Pod, which fires a cluster of lockon homing missiles, and the Rocket Pod, which fires a series of unguided rockets which require no lock. Additionally, there is now a .50 cal light machine gun available for use.
The TGP has a new 'track' function accessible through an MFD button. If you press this button, the TGP will lock onto its currently-targeted position and attempt to track it as you move. The feed will also display a 'GIMBAL LIMIT' warning if your weapon gimbal cannot reach the target.
Oh, and there's a new utility module called the Dazzler. Equipping this will take up a slot, but will also inhibit the guidance systems of incoming missiles. NPCs can also use the dazzler, and your target analysis screen will warn you if it detects an active countermeasure.
I have rebalanced and redesigned some aspects of overheat damage. Weapon overheating has a more consistent effect on your platform, and firing an overheated weapon will damage and possibly destroy the module.
There's also a new convoy ambush mission type available in career mode.
OPTIMISATION
Zaliznyy (the Career Mode map) was loading far too slowly and causing Steam Link to drop out on slower machines. I've batched some initialisation logic and added monitors to unload non-simulation-critical details (like grass and bushes) when the player is far away. Zaliznyy now loads 70% faster.
I've also improved the performance of tree physics, but this may need some more tweaking in case of strange behaviour.
There's a lot of other small optimisations in this patch as well, improving the performance of UI and cockpit rendering.
NICE LITTLE THINGS
Tanks, trucks and similar units will now blow apart spectacularly on death, instead of just swapping out for a 'corpse' mesh. Watch out for tank turrets flying into the sky.
Weapons now have individual targeting reticules as an additional visual cue to let you know what weapon you have selected.
Loads of thunky new sound effects have been put in for the OVRLRD's internal workings, most noticeable when your weapon autoloaders are running, and when your legs are moving.
I've added an experimental 'cinematic camera' mode. Press F7 ingame to trigger it.
You can also now access some debug functions - give yourself modules using the F1 menu, and toggle slow-motion using F2. Other functions are currently undocumented so don't muck around too much with the F keys.
And finally, there's now a nifty little HUD indicator showing the vector you need to turn the torso to match your leg orientation. This should help you stay aligned when moving.
What the hell
Yeah when I type it all out like that it does seem like a lot. I'm very tired.
To celebrate the fact that I finally fixed switches OVRLRD is 20% off for the next 14 days.
I hope you enjoy the update, and I hope you're as excited as I am for the next one! (It will be faster this time, I promise.)
Want to help development?
Here's how!
Leave a review! For a solo developer, positive reviews have an immediate and significant impact on sales of the game, meaning more stability for the developer and faster, better development!
If you know a community that would really love OVRLRD, post a link there and tell them it's under active development by a deranged programmer who will never stop.
Tell your favourite streamer that you'd like to see them give OVRLRD a try! A single stream is sometimes all it takes for a project to break out and find its audience.
Join our discord and invite your friends! If they're nice:
As a bonus for reading all this, here's a sneak peek at a bad idea I had that failed horribly:
Oh, and I really liked this thoughtful, considered review of OVRLRD from youtuber Buried Under Bytes - check them out!
CHANGELOG 07 June 2025
ADDITIONS
-Merged the briefing room, debriefing room, strategy room and hangar into one scene: The HQ.
-The HQ will be your persistent home in both campaign and career modes.
-Mission briefings, debriefings, after-action reports and the strategy map all live here now.
-After selecting a mission, you can take the elevator to the hangar to outfit your mechs and deploy.
-In the campaign, you have a set inventory for each mission. A recommended mech and loadout will be selected by default, but you can adjust if you wish.
-Your HQ is also equipped with a top-of-the-line PC for checking emails and importing posters and bobbleheads.
-Imported posters (JPG or PNG, transparency supported) will appear in your HQ.
-Imported bobbleheads will appear on your bobblehead shelf and a random one will appear in your cockpit each mission.
-To work properly, import your bobblehead from a folder containing the following files:
-myBobbleHead.fbx [custom mesh - try to keep it low poly to avoid errors]
-myBobbleHead_diffuse.png [base texture]
-myBobbleHead_normal.png [optional normal map texture]
-Your bobblehead can be anything and doesn't have to be named myBobbleHead, but it must be an FBX.
-Split rocket pod into two weapons: SWARM POD for a cluster of homing missiles and ROCKET POD for a spread of unguided rockets.
-Added experimental 'cinematic camera' mode. Press F7 to toggle. Hold onto your lunch if you're playing in VR.
-Added player locomotion for the HQ scene. You can move with WASD in non-VR mode (right-mouse to freelook), and using teleport or smooth locomotion in VR.
-Enemies equipped with I.R. countermeasures (e.g. the missile dazzler) will be flagged with a warning on the target analysis screen.
-Added a helicopter-style velocity vector indicator to the HUD. The line shows where you need to rotate the torso to be in line with the legs.
-Added 'Ambush' mission type for career mode. Destroy the convoy before they reach their destination.
-Added 'TRACK' button to the TGP display. This will lock targeting to the current point on the ground, and track it. Move the gimbal or press again to disable.
-Added gimbal-limit warning to TGP display.
-Added 50-cal heavy machine gun weapon module. Cheap, light and puts out a lot of rounds.
-Added new experimental live-rendering target analysis camera, allowing you to analyse any target, not just enemy mechs.
-Added secret message for people who like jumping around.
CHANGES
-Rewrote procedural mech animation from scratch. Mechs now move much more naturally and feel weightier.
-Mechs now tilt, bob and sway at the hip as they move. The 'movement sway' toggle in settings will disable this to mitigate motion sickness.
-Your cockpit will also shake and judder when taking damage, colliding, or just stomping around. This is also disabled by the 'movement sway' toggle.
-Improved audio for mech leg motion.
-Redesigned recoil system. Weapons no longer instantly jolt the torso. They inflict a smooth kick on the cockpit while the TGP stays on-target.
-This will make it easier to track targets and maintain fire on them. Combat may need to be rebalanced following feedback.
-Rebalanced many weapons, changing muzzle velocity and spread to improve realism. Bullets should no longer drop like thrown rocks.
-This has noticeably increased NPC lethality at medium and long range. Approach with caution.
-Rebalanced and redesigned some aspects of overheat damage. Weapon overheating has a more consistent effect on your platform, and firing an overheated weapon will damage it.
-If your turbocannon explodes and flies away it's probably because you overheated it. I'm planning to add more HUD signalling to help with awareness here.
-Rewrote switch-flipping code from scratch. This should be significantly nicer and easier to use.
-Tweaked NPC mech combat behaviour. They should now try to engage you at greater distances, with sniping and strafing tactics.
-Reduced frequency of snow and night missions in career mode.
-Adjusted night-vision effect to improve visibility. This may need more tweaking so please let me know your thoughts.
-Optimised megamap initialization and grass rendering to reduce load times and stuttering.
-Expanded localization framework to better prepare for future translations.
-Tanks, artillery units and trucks can now be blown apart, sending debris flying everywhere instead of just swapping to a 'dead' mesh.
-Tanks are now more accurate and will try to aim for center-mass. Watch out.
-Tree physics are now disabled on 'Basic' quality setting.
-Grass and bushes will not be removed by vehicles on 'Basic' quality.
-Mech weapons now have sound effects for reloading.
-In career mode, the strategy map now properly samples the Zaliznyy map, and operations are placed where they actually take place ingame.
-Selecting an operation will display a zoomed-in aerial photo of the relevant area.
-Continued iteration on Zaliznyy.
-Weapons now have individually-specified targeting reticules (some of these are placeholder).
-Batched tree collision checking and spread it over multiple frames, reducing unit CPU load by 75%.
-Change GPU instance variation code to only update when changes are detected, reducing CPU impact of sprites, trees and VR controls.
-Tweaked non-VR controls to be a bit more usable.
-Hold right-click to freelook.
-CTRL + Scrollwheel now adjusts zoom, ctrl-clicking mousewheel resets it to default.
-Quitting a mission now automatically ejects you so you can't bail out for free. No desertion tolerated.
FIXES
-Fixed a bug where enemy squads would spawn right next to you in freelance and skirmish.
-Fixed a severe performance issue caused by VR and non-VR camera rigs being active simultaneously.
-Fixed a number of leg motion problems with the Starling.
-Fixed ejection FX not playing.
-Fixed an issue where the missile dazzler was largely ineffective. It now aggressively and automatically disorients incoming missiles, with a cooldown.
-Enemy dazzlers will affect your missiles so... be advised.
-Fixed an issue where NPC mechs would fire multiple flares at enemies in quick succession, blinding players. Whoops.
-Fixed several bugs in UI rendering, making certain HUD and MFD elements render without borders or correct colouring.
-Fixed some issues with tracked units displaying the same ID string twice (OVRLRD OVRLRD).
-Fixed an issue where destroyed units would disappear instantly from the weapon camera.
-Fixed an issue where NPC mechs would overwrite some of their own pathfinding data, resulting in strange spinning behaviour when trying to retreat.
-Fixed an issue where dead infantry units would continue to fire.
-Fixed an issue where career mode would fail to generate new missions on new days. I guess you guys were running out of missions eventually? Sorry about that.
-A great reminder though, if you don't report a bug, I may not find it for a while! Please continue reporting stuff so I can fix it.
-Fixed an issue where after-action reports would forget that you ejected and fail to charge you for the rescue costs.
-Fixed an issue where unarmed enemies would remain in 'fight' mode, instead of correctly retreating.
-Fixed a number of issues and inconsistencies to do with capturing enemy mechs in career mode and general inventory problems.
-Fixed some issues to do with enemy drones not properly registering as destroyed or recalled.
KNOWN ISSUES (Working on it!)
- Sometimes the cockpit calibrator doesn't save joystick positions. I'm investigating this as a priority.
- The 'project weapon cam' overlay disappears in some circumstances. Still investigating the cause.
- Rarely, you may get very bad performance on the skirmish/career map. If this happens, reducing draw distance and increasing it again may fix it.
- Sometimes loading skirmish or career missions will take a while and display no loading screen. This can cause Steam Link to stall or disconnect on slower machines.
- Sometimes trees will flicker due to an occlusion culling issue. This should resolve itself if you quit the mission and restart it.
- Some UI elements that appear on MFDs may become 'pinked out', replaced with solid blocks of pink. Please let me know if you see this.
- The 'Basic' graphics option may cause secondary cameras (such as the TGP weapon camera) to stop rendering.
- Explosions and footprints may, on some maps, create snow or grass.
- Some explosion, smoke and dust effects may flicker when overlapping each other.
- Some controllers may not track. If your controllers are not supported, notify me and send an error log and I will add them!
- Having a gamepad plugged in may suppress VR controller input. Unplug your gamepad if you get stuck in the menus!
- If you die, the post-death spectator mode places your hands slightly too far away from your IRL wrists.
- Sometimes, very rarely, the shaders will be completely broken on startup, with invisible terrain.
-Restarting the game fixes this.
Don't forget to join the discord! OVRLRD OFFICIAL DISCORD!