Playing Rec Room with a controller or a touchscreen should be just as fun, creative, and social as playing in VR. We want players to have the same capabilities regardless of which platform they play on...and right now they don’t.
There are things you can do in VR that are hard or downright impossible to do with a controller. On the dev team we often talk about a gap that exists between the capabilities of players in VR and the capabilities of players on screens. With this update we’re taking a big step towards closing that gap, we’re introducing Ambidextrous Screens Controls.
Previously, on screens you could only use your right hand to interact with the world. Now, with these new controls you can use either hand (or both simultaneously!) with as few restrictions as possible, just like VR players. This means dual-wielding works in Paintball, and you can finally eat some pizza and drink some bubbly at the same time.
We didn't just iterate on controls, we also took the opportunity to apply a fresh coat of paint to the screens and touch HUDs, we even added the option to hide the HUD entirely when playing with a gamepad or keyboard/mouse!
https://imgur.com/gD1M68j
## New HUD!
We also redesigned the way that players access their Equip Slots on Screens. It’s now possible to store and retrieve objects from any available slot using either hand - just like in VR.
https://imgur.com/a/VeFy0Vq
## New Holsters Menu!
To fully support these new controls we had to shuffle around some button mapping, you can check out the updated mapping below. You can find these diagrams in your Watch Menu under Settings -> Help.
https://imgur.com/a/vtFRmhW
https://imgur.com/a/of2xDgz
https://imgur.com/a/qY07WiU
You can now form parties through the watch menu!
- When viewing a player's profile, select the "Party Up" button to send a new request or accept an existing one
- If you're already in a party with that player, the button will give you the option to leave that party instead
- Other players' party requests will appear in the Messages screen in your watch
- Like game invites, party request messages are temporary and appear for that game session only
- As a shortcut, you can also party up with nearby friends or players through the People screen
## General improvements
- Fixed a bug where extra text would appear when displaying bonuses at the end of a Rec Royale game
- You can now look at all the clothing other people are wearing via the new Outfit tab on their profile page, and you can buy any items you like from right there
As always, thanks for playing Rec Room!
Please see here for convenient links to controls, tutorials, comfort options, etc.: https://recroom.com/community
We love to hear your feedback, so please don't hesitate to let us know what you think...