The state of VR
Or, "You can put your hands down now, citizen" []-D
I was recently interviewed by Tomislav Bezmalinovic from German website https://mixed.de/ about my Patreon, VR modding and the state of VR gaming in general.
Tomislav's questions led to a rather interesting discussion, which of course had to be summarized in the published article, so I've decided to put the full transcript to the original interview here. I'm also opening this post up for public discussion, as I believe the points we touched are of relevance to the VR industry as a whole, not just to my Patreon mods.
Hi, I'm Tomislav and I've been covering the VR and AR industry since 2016 for the leading German XR outlet MIXED, which as of recently also has an English version at https://mixed-news.com/en/. The articles are automatically translated with machine learning.
I would like to write a short portrait of you and have a few questions.
I saw that you have almost 2,000 Patreon supporters. That's quite a number and shows how important VR modding has become. So, what's your background?
Hi Tomislav, thanks for reaching out! I'm grateful for your interest, and quite happy to provide answers to all your questions.
Before plunging into this modding adventure I was a freelance developer and software engineer. I've also been a gamer all my life and I always loved new technologies, especially when they allowed the gaming experience to become more immersive, like with 3D glasses. So VR was just a natural fit and I became passionate about it right away. I was one of the original Oculus Kickstarter backers.
How come you started developing VR mods?
It happened almost randomly. One of my favorite games a decade ago was No One Lives Forever 2, a now almost-forgotten gem by master designer Craig Hubbard. The game code was open-sourced at some point in the past, and I had already worked on it when NVIDIA 3D Vision was all the rage, in order to make the game compatible with stereoscopic 3D rendering. Thus, when VR became available, I decided to see if I could mod the game to transform it into a native VR experience. That was back in 2017: my old thread on the Oculus forums is still visible here and the mod can be seen featured in a video by SweViver.
The reaction from VR users was very friendly and encouraging (I even got to chat about the conversion with Craig Hubbard himself!) and that prompted me to later tackle a much bigger and complex game: GTA V. My free GTA V VR conversion has been downloaded by more than 150K users! After that I just decided to take the plunge and see whether I could become a full-time modder.
Is there a team helping you or is it just you?
It's just me for the moment, although things are growing fast! There's recently been talks about creating a Chinese community, and I don't even speak the language, so I will probably need some help pretty soon :-) My mods also attract a lot of attention in Germany, and it would be great if a local community could be started there too.
Why do you think the big companies don't port their big games by themselves?
It's a sad combination of many factors.
VR as a technology has been around forever: most people don't realize it, but the first HMDs came out in the 60's. However, the current wave of interest became popular between 2012 and 2016 when Oculus came out with their first consumer models. In those magic years, everybody started experimenting with VR. Studios were born around ideas, publishers were thinking about investing, there was sort of a gold rush.
But it all happened too suddenly, and soon several blocking factors came out:
a. adoption was slower than expected, so returns on investment was very poor or nonexistent for many studios;
b. hardware and software requirements, as mandated by some "purists" who were too enamored with the tech and not sufficiently concerned with the reality of the market, were way too steep. 90 Hz (in stereo, so actually 180 fps!) at the high resolutions and FOV needed for VR were out of the realm of possibility for most game engines on one side, and for most accessible video cards on the other;
c. the introduction of motion controllers (virtual hands in game) was ill-timed and put the final nail in the coffin. I know that's a wildly unpopular opinion, but that doesn't make it any less true.
Game developers were suddenly expected to create games using a completely different paradigm than they had perfected for many years in the past: everything in their games was now supposed to be interactive and respond to the presence of your virtual hands; shooting and reloading mechanics were expected to be utterly redone for VR; driving cars needed to happen with imaginary hands on an imaginary wheel; even inventory management supposedly had to be redone by making use of invisible pockets and backpacks and holsters.
So, studios and publishers reacted in a very natural way: when pressured to deliver a completely different product, tailor-made for a niche market that was still in its infancy and could guarantee no big returns, they simply clammed up and decided to ignore VR as a passing fad.
With that many Patreon supporters you must have a good income. Are you having another job beside VR modding and if you do, how do you manage that?
When I started the Patreon, my dream and stated intention was to put my freelancing work on hold and devote all my time to modding. Fortunately, as you said, the community reacted positively enough, and at least for the moment I can afford to do just that. It's not guaranteed to last forever of course, and there are many factors that could still turn this adventure into a commercial success or failure. But as long as people are interested in playing huge open-world games in VR, I will keep doing this!!
Which VR project or achievement are you most proud of?
It's hard to tell. Every project feels a bit like a child to me, and I love them all equally :-) But the VR conversion that enjoyed the most widespread success for now is without doubts Grand Theft Auto V.
Would you like to get hired by a VR studio or company at some point or do you want to continue working on your own projects?
To be honest I'm not looking to get hired. I had a few interesting offers, and I will certainly consider any proposals that should come my way with the attention they deserve, but I feel that I can have a much larger impact (and with greater professional satisfaction) as an independent modder.
After finishing your current projects, what's coming up next?
There are many titles that I'm considering, and my Patrons give me new ideas almost each day!
How do you see the current state of the industry and what are you looking for the most?
As I was saying, the industry has been badly burned by the excessive and pretentious expectations that VR-tech creators put on them. Even Valve, in a sort of schizophrenic way, hurt themselves irreparably in the process. On the one hand, they raised the bar to almost unattainable standards with Half-Life: Alyx and their insistence on "everything must be done in new and awesome ways specifically for VR". On the other hand, that forced them to pour lots of money into developing HL:A, and at some point they did an unbelievable about-face by revealing that they would abandon all VR-related projects to focus on the Steam Deck. What a weird way to set an example for VR adoption.
My (not so hidden) agenda is quite simple: to restore faith in people, both on the consumers' side and the game developers', that VR is possible, right here and now. Without waiting another ten years, and without falling back on ultra-simplified, mobile-like cartoonish games. It just takes a few easy steps:
a. employ alternate eye rendering (a technology I've been using successfully in all my mods) to let up the unbearable pressure on developers to deliver a steady 180 fps at ultra-high resolutions;
b. let go of the unrealistic expectation that every interaction model must be redone for VR, or as some extremists like to say, that it's "not true VR if I can't use my hands". Hundreds of thousands of users of my GTA V mod prove beyond any doubt that a gamepad-based interaction model is perfectly feasible and enjoyable in VR. What defines VR is being "inside" the game, not being forced to flail your arms about every time you need to interact with something. That is especially true of games that last for hundreds of hours, like the huge open-world titles that I focus upon. You want to be seated, with your hands relaxed in your lap, for that kind of prolonged gaming sessions.
If I could achieve those results as a lone developer (and without access to the source code of the games I mod!), game studios can too, with very conservative investments.
When people start seeing this, VR as a meaningful branch of the gaming industry will finally be able to take off. At that point, when the market grows enough, investors will be ready to consider new paradigms of interaction. Trying to do the opposite, i.e., asking for huge investments before the market is ready, is a sure way to kill the golden goose and be left with nothing.
I find your theory why the VR industry failed in the early days very interesting. Never heard that before and I'm sure this will lead to discussions in the comment section.
Do you think the studios or publishers could take your projects down similar to how Nintendo is known to proceed with similar projects? Or is it to their benefit and they're happy to see somebody else working on VR support?
I know, right? It's quite the radical theory :-) I stand behind it though, even if it's an unpopular position. I do hope more people will start to see the powerful socio-economic factors at play, instead of focusing only on the technology and what it could enable in an ideal world of bottomless investments, because I really don't want VR to be killed off like they did with 3D movies.
There's always a chance that somebody could be bothered by my conversions, but I think the situation is very different from what befell some other modders because I only provide an additional way to enjoy the original games, which in the end means more copies sold for the developers and publishers. It's not like I was reusing the assets or the intellectual property to develop competing games or products: people still need to buy the original game to play it in VR.
The only scenario in which it would make sense for an IP owner to come after me is if they were developing their own in-house VR conversion and they felt that mine was in direct competition. Not much chance of that happening! But if it did, I would be quite ready to take down that specific mod and/or to negotiate with the original owners a solution that makes everybody happy. I like win-win scenarios, and in the end I believe that what I'm doing is good publicity for the games I mod.
Many thanks for the effort you put into this. The article will come out at the end of the next week [it's out now].
Thank you for having me!
Comments (48)
I always wondered if you really pull all of this off alone - but just in case you did, I refrained from spamming you with unnecessary questions thereof. Now, after reading the article (in DE), I am glad I was bold enough to "click yet another a*s of the internet" (expand + look at comments). Now I feel I have a reason to spam you: 1: Mad respect for actually indeed pulling this off on your own. I can't even play through the games at the rate you port them to VR, lol. 2: As mentioned in .DE interview, confirmed: I bought RDR2 because of your VR mod (simultaneously with signing up as your Patreon, when I had ample time to play, finally). And I originally found you because I just noticed, for the first time in my life, that NOT ever learning how to drive a car had suddenly turned into a dire limitation of my freedom ("lockdown"). I then learned to drive a car just to be cynical about it (City Car Driving, lol) but the best part was to run people over and shoot them dead. Thank you for a suitable way to vent, in retrospect (screw mindfulness, I'm all for mindlessness -> driveby road rage carnage, lift your head up high - I'll blow your brains out!). ;-)) 3. Now while the a*s of the internet didn't fail to disappoint in the anticipated manner (Re: Comment section on mixed.de in general, but also German Angst mentioned explicitly, lol, true story - I call myself "in part-time (selective, but abundant) inner emigration" because of exactly this. It's true; I, too, am from a sh*thole country. 4. That being said, due to [3.], I also happen to be DE/EN bilingual, and as mentioned above, I am German, born in Germany, and still living in Germany [fml, but could be worse]. However, I am familiar with quite a few cultures, including US-style supermarkets "Hi, how are you today?" - [customer, half a roadkill, in a bloody pulp] "Oh I am fine, thank YOU, how are you?". And like, even valley speak? When I talk like? you know, as if I am asking questions like - *ALL*! the time?. 5. I am aware that assuming with an 80% probability that you might be from the USA merely by your name and that fact that you appear to be monolingual EN so far is to be condemned as the worst racism ever, and I am facing Ostracism from the society I am in inner Emigration from, anyway. The valleyspeak reference would further justify simultaneous combobreaker burning/beheading at the stake. 6. Alas, [5] should serve as solid proof that I am, indeed, German (via paranoidish theory-of-mind angst); and thus, I'd humbly offer my help for any similar situations [Re: The interview with mixed.de] that may arise in the future. I have an implicit understanding of all the three "minds" involved (Or more like, the subtle differences in language that can easily offend. Being aware and able to produce it blatantly -as above- means I can also do the exact opposite (avoid these offenses). In fact, I have resorted to hiding behind my Italian-sounding last name (it's not) and writing to fellow GERMAN academics in ENGLISH (yay another adaption of the "new normal = digital comms"), because I do not want to "guess the formal/informal approach" and "guess the gender" whilst I am addressing 1. a human being and 2. a scientist about a scientific paper. Knowing that the fear of being perceived as racist by the other party *WILL* assure that they will never dare to ask whether or not I am from Germany / speak German (that'd be SO DAMN RACIST if I was a guest researcher from abroad!!!), so I can just hide behind my gender-neutral sciencespeak, haha. 7. I believe this is sufficient proof to communicate my sophisticated level of prompt engineering as with regard to humans; but the same goes for AI (i.e. the "third mind" mentioned above): I implicitly "speak" NLP tokenizer. I crack up for [clinical research portal] being auto-translated as: From German "streben": (to) strive for, to pursue [a (scientific) goal] as if it said "sterben": (to) die. What? Context-based re-interpretation of "non-typo" wrongfully perceived as typo, this is ridiculous! XD How does that even happen with modern NLP? LMAO, it really shouldn't, that's awful! 7. So, as NLP is quite effective and >90% accurate (or "nails it", even, I should say), it should always be consulted first ("three-minds-approach" [YOU] <> NLP <> [other party]), but I could totally see myself as a HIM [human-in-the-middle attack] comparing e.g. your [EN] original text vs. [AI-DE] and then correcting that with regard to delicate cultural / "between the lines" etc. slipups that just happen to state-of-the-art AI, still [and also vice versa, but I'd humbly ask for the third party to be informed about the fact]. If you're interested at any point, PM me here - happy to leave you a better way to contact me in a timely manner, but that still means replies will be in the range from hours to days, entirely unpredictable. 8. That being said, here's my best "confusion induction of state-of-the-art text-to-image AI" prompt: "Unicorn Centaur". Makes sense at first, but then it doesn't. A human would probably stick the horn onto the forehead in frustration upon realizing the "prompt" making no sense; or something inappropriate yet crude sketch with the 'corn between the horses' front legs; or a very sophisticated (and NSFW) drawing of a stallion centaur. If you you fancy an AI generation thereof, with its "unfiltered" neuron reactor, feel free to attach a picture of your dog [e.g.] as init_img when and if you send an email. ^_^ (Tho maybe you also run AI locally as a sideshow to your coding which I'd imagine as a 60-80 hours/week job, I wouldn't even be surprised...!) 9. And now, sorry for all the spam unleashed at you at once now; but I believe it gives you the slightest bit of an idea about the kind of person I am, so you can decide if you'd want to contact me with regard to translation-verificiation in the future. Can't really be worse than some weird creep in the corner (which I was thus far) going just like "hey send me all your email I wanna stalk you!" in an uncanny way (which would also be a biased - and not very accurate - view). 10. Whatever you do / decide, I am indifferent, but happy to help, IF the opportunity arises. Meanwhile: WEEEEEEEEEEE, https://media.giphy.com/media/kBKYtYuxVqrsesxXoC/giphy.gif - thanks for this! I am mentally / virtually putting a BIG RED "F*CK YEAH for being part of this dude's $$$ so he doesn't leave for some sh*tjob but continues to make awesome!" on your Patreon, strongly reinforced after reading the interview. So, thanks for being awesome. =) EOF
My, zer0int, you totally win the prize for most rambling, insane and totally awesome comment ever []-D Thanks for the offer, I'll keep that in mind! Also I would love to learn German, but it looks like it's not going to happen in this life...
A very blunt article that reflects a reasonable understanding of why VR never turned into a Pokemon Craze. I myself would prefer to see a focus on older games (if possible) to show how VR can support 'the classics' in an immersive enjoyable way, that allows older PCs to perhaps have a chance of running such VR adaptations (e.g., A Dead Space adaptation adjustable to a first person perspective).
I think dead space would be a blast in VR.
2# Death stranding
1# Metal gear v
Sitting down with a keyboard and mouse + VR headset has completely changed my perspective on how good VR gaming can be. I buy all these AAA games, play in flat mode for two hours and never play them again. Playing those same games in VR is so much more exciting. Putting a suggestion in for a new VR mod, something by Hideo Kojima would be great to experience in VR.
I think it hits the nail, but I do admit that having the index controllers is great, love having to really aim and throw stuff, or hit switches in Cockpits. But I guess for the financial driven companies that was to much adoption at once. It's great we have the Chance to go VR into these games, I just can't enjoy Flat as much anymore if you have experienced VR. And getting in game with VR and gamepad or mouse is still unbelievably better then Flat. Now I hope for VR DLSS, which already shows it can do a great job!
When you open a new poll for projects, Elden ring should be on the list. This would look great in vr
Are you playing it ? Did they improve performance on PC with patches ?
LOL, "driving cars needed imaginary hands on imaginary wheels"? wtf are you smoking..rofl. No racing game ever needed that. I had a rift from day 1 ( before touch) and Project Cars was the first game I tried that actually impressed me. I immediately blew the cobwebs off of my G27 wheel and had the best experience ever.
He's not speaking about sims, but sandbox games like LA Noire VR, that you can leave the car and walk. Of course sims don't have that, they don't even support motion controllers, they are like Luke's Mods XD Games that can be played just with Wheel or HOTAS don't have that problem. Look at Elite Dangerous, it had VR, now with the expansion that lets you play on foot, no more VR ...
I'm using Windows 11 with HP reverb G2 V2, V1 and a quest 2 with no problems I did a fresh install of Windows 11 not a update
Windows 11 is trash for VR, apparently. Darn, looks like I have to roll back on my desktop. I’m building a workstation w DDR5 and wanted to get used to it (coming from mac for productivity). Not even working for me. Time to back up the rig. Ugh. Anyone using 11? I really do dislike windows. Shoot. I also dislike MAC for upgrade ability, right to repair, anti consumer practices. Sometimes one just can’t win. Ha! Anyone use Windows 11 on HP reverb G2 V2. I think I’m just gonna buy one. Still rollin back to 10 though.
I've used Win 11 since it was in beta. There shouldn't be any difference at the API level, the changes are mostly all cosmetic. Having said that, I tried VD for the first time last week and it stuttered to the point of being broken in RDR2, maybe that was win 11 related...
I can only agree with pretty much everything you guys discusses in the interview. Sadly, VR didn't take off as much as I hoped. Most people have only played Skyrim VR... - Don't know about the Germans love VR, but well... I'm German and I love the experience and gladly back your projects. You are doing an awesome job and you're making a whole lot of people happy with your work. :-) And if you ever got time and are looking for a new project (after Cyberpunk), well... Kingdom Come Deliverance would be awesome. It's first person, you can play it pretty easily with a controller and VR would certainly increase the immersion! :-)
KCD works very well with VorpX, I played it that way. Closed helmets are "bugged", and menus need edgepeak, but the core gameplay doesn't need adaptation, works like a charm in VR. If a VR mod would arise, I think I would play it again, with better 3D must be even better
Lovely read, thanks for sharing
You know how you shared the probs with Pimax and their steamVR. Was it something that only affects AER or is there a deeper flaw in their implementation....have they talked to you anymore about fixing it?
I believe the issues are mostly with my mods. I didn't do any generalized testing though, so I can't say for sure one way or the other
Can't say I really disagree with anything said in the article. I enjoy motion controls but am fine with controller since I'm getting old and sitting with controller allows me more time in the game which is nice when you are playing larger open world games like Luke is modding. I think there is room for both VR controller methods. I have played more Luke's modded cp2077 than any other VR enabled game. MSFS is a close second ;-)
> I'm getting old and sitting with controller allows me more time in the game You must be still young and not worried about sitting too much time giving you hemorrhoids It's not a joke, I have played some of luke's mods standing with the gamepad because of it.
Luke, since this is kind of an open thread, I wanted to ask a question if I may. Do you have stats on the hardware us Patrons use? I'm really curious. I have a quest 2 and an rtx 3080, which I think is pretty typical. If you don't track that, maybe we could do a poll here and find out?
I don't have precise stats, but from the support requests I can say that the hardware is all over the place. Many people are still on a GTX 1080! There are a lot of laptop users with RTX 2060 cards, and about 10% with AMD GPUs. I did have a poll, although not exactly the one you suggest: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54389427
I have to say using a Xbox controller isn't bad at all most games that support VR controllers are just a remap of the Xbox controller very few games utilize VR controllers (Half Life Alyx, Song of Smoke and Boneworks) are examples of good use of motion controllers. I play mostly sims anyway which require a game controller.
Have to agree with Luke about using a gamepad and also that being inside the game is the most important thing. I play nearly all my games seated, even HLA. In games such as HZD and CP2077 just being seated with my hands relaxed holding the Gamepad is a great way to play and I am totally immersed.
Gamepad. HOTAS, Wheel ... so many ways of enjoying VR, put some purist only want touchs ...
Thanks Luke for sharing that. Keep doing what you're doing. The industry will awaken. They just need to see your patreon hit 10000 and realize the money they miss out on. Cyberpunk must be beside themselves. I mean, if I worked on creating night city and found it in VR, I would be mad if it wasn't supported by my producer. I recommend that you find a way to stay autonomous but don't be afraid to get an in to make the coding easier or more direct. Sign an NDA only for the coding access. If they want you bad enough they'll cave or just go away. Let's say a developer says "that's our game", I believe you are protected and can make a mod that does the same thing. Patreon has other examples where the subscription is for access to the discussion. If anything they'd go after vorpx first anyhow and the backlash from this community would be STRONG. If any developer tries to strong-arm you. Let the community know. We got your back. They'll be sorry if the do. Hopefully the passive competition will drive them to just do a damn good job. Obviously it should be easier for a dev than you to make all this happen so thanks for bridging their own omission of all of us VR enthusiasts. Just remember you earned it when you buy that yacht! If you roll up to me in the harbor I'll know its you when I see the name "Braindance" on the side.
I love my quest 2 for more active things like boxing but G2 all the way for things I want to enjoy visually. I have V1 so you should only have a better experience with V2. You could probably get one on sale or used at this point as well. Just looked, $330 for a refurbished one on ebay but its v1
Right on, thanks.
Good article. I canceled my subscription (re-upped) due to my lack of interaction w the tech (I have a quest 2 and do not enjoy it so much, thinking about an HP Reverb as a daily driver). I’m re-upping my sub/pledge because i think this man deserves a ton of support. Whether I use the mods or not. Thanks! I have a 12700k 3080. If anyone has recommendations for a headset to take advantage of these mods, I would appreciate it. I know there are plenty of videos, but this seems like a pretty knowledgeable group. I’m kinda a resolution snob, I’m finding. Thanks Luke/community. I want the AERO but $2k without audio/base stations etc is too much. If it included everything, I would.
Hey, thanks! What is it you don't like about the Quest 2?
Yeah i hope developers see what's happening with VR and although them not being able to implement VR themselves at least add some " tools" I mean, if every game would have an option for a 1st person view and aiming and looking seperate, there's a good base to make a mod and they would be smart to consider that, even though they wouldn't develop it themselves it would still boost sales!
"You want to be seated, with your hands relaxed in your lap, for that kind of prolonged gaming sessions." Not me. I want to stand and physically turn. I sit with your mods specifically because they don't have motion controls. Add motion controls, and I'm standing and spinning and feeling more immersed.
I’ll take sitting down (my preference, I respect yours too) until the tech catches up, I think. Not sure why, but I enjoy that too. And, I’m by no means lazy. I’m training for a marathon. Probably because I’m used to a flat screen. I feel like it makes it far more accessible (as an introduction) for people like me. But, I’m a noob, I understand that as well.
A really great interview and interesting conversation. There's one thing you should never forget about this. Play Luke in VR. The manufacturers who then buy the games in order to be able to play them in VR with the mods also benefit from this. Manufacturers would normally have to pay a premium
what is best way to switch modded and unmodded RDR2 in epic games folders epic folders, when i do simple rename it breaks it. thanks all !
> I know that's a wildly unpopular opinion, but that doesn't make it any less true. Many people think skipping stages is the fastest way to arrive to destination, but no :( Sony knew this, and they launched the "AIM Controller" that is logically identical to a Dualshock 4 except for the touchpad, but AAA developpers didn't make the small effort ... Let's see if their plan for PSVR2 hybrid games work. If it works, maybe you'll change your ocupation from VR Mod dev to Consultant Advisor to AAA VR Devs :P
"What defines VR is being "inside" the game, not being forced to flail your arms about every time you need to interact with something." THIS!!! Since I started playing your mods I haven't picked up my hand controllers for weeks. Now when I have to I groan. I prefer playing sitting, even with HLA. Standing for hours in game is not my idea of relaxing. I recently found Elite Dangerous which is an amazing native VR game first, flat screen second, and not a hand track in sight. I had no idea that existed, and love playing it since you can spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying the sights of space in your own VR space ship. This is a great example of how hand tracking doesn't have to exist to have an amazing/fun experience! In the beginning hand tracking was very novel for me, and seemed like a must have. When I read your mods used head targeting, at first I was skeptical that would be natural or even fun. Now it's entirely second nature and I don't even think about it. It's a non-issue. Keep up the great work Luke, I would love to see your work remain independent and be a plugin standard for studios who don't want to do the work. Now I look at games and see if it has WMR support, in the future I would like to see if it has native R.E.A.L VR support!
The actual article is here https://mixed-news.com/en/this-vr-modder-makes-10000-a-month/#VR_controllers_a_curse_instead_of_a_blessing for some reason it wasn't linked
also not only motion controls but about AER i see alot of people on reddit mostly be acting like its the end of the world and they instantly die if they play your mods,had a post with 1000 likes about cyberpunk or red dead 2 cant remember and it was war in the comments,but for me i dont see much difference from normal 2 camera geo 3d apart from very fast moving objects looking weirder but thats insignificant,i was looking today in rdr2 at 60fps and it was impecable,oh and lack of motion controls bitching was crazy like these people really expect red dead 2 entire gameplay mechanics reworked for 10$ by a single moder or else it "sucks" or "ITS NOT VR"
Can't say I agree with everything you said and I don't believe Valve abandoned VR. They are reportedly working on a new VR game and using their Steam Deck technology towards a new standalone headset. But great article regardless
> But as long as people are interested in playing huge open-world games in VR, I will keep doing this!! That's the most important thing :)
Interesting read! Thanks for sharing!
Very much agree with the whole motion controls issue as well as reworking things specifically for VR. I think by providing simple VR support for AAA games as is with a gamepad would go a long way in growing VR and be relatively easy as you said. I do think it is also important to progress VR as its own thing though as well, but I see no reason to try and push that so quickly when it could be used now to enjoy your favorite games already. I actually played through most of skyrimVR with a game pad :) was much less awkward. Of course the included physical interactions with vrik and plank are now pretty awesome. Taking skyrim as an example, it could go a long way if Devs also made it easier for people to mod their games. Would probably get them more sales in the long run.
"the introduction of motion controllers (virtual hands in game) was ill-timed and put the final nail in the coffin. " -I read this article the other day and thought, this is exactly right. VR didn't need to revolutionise gameplay. It simply needed to let us experience gaming worlds in a totally new and incredibly immersive way. Your mods have shown this to be absolutely true -Los Santos, night city, HZD gameworlds all light up in VR in a way that you just can't get on a flatscreen. That's all VR needed to be. It could have sat nicely as a graphics option in any AAA title. Once the tech was mature...then bring on the other gamplay altering stuff. Such a pity things went this way.
What a great article. When Hitman VR was released I freaking loved it. It wasn't roomscale, it was gamepad only, but being able to play those levels in VR was just fantastic. Then to my surprise I saw the backlash from many players because they expected an Alyx experience, which was simply unrealstic to expect. The same goes for your mods - sometimes I see negative reactions because your mods don't have motion controller support or they complain that Cyberpunk runs blurry on their I5 + GTX1060. FS2020 is simply one of the most stunning things you can experience in VR. Yesterday I did a flight above Nepal and it was just jawdropping. On the FS2020 forum: almost nothing but complaints. I think many people just have unrealistic expectations of VR in general and what you can expect from mods. Alyx showed how awesome a VR game can be if you put a lot of money in developing a game like that, but it's currently just not worth it for devs to take such a huge risk. The last 2 years hardly any serious VR game have been released, it's mostly small indie games, both on Quest and PCVR. After some great PSVR years where tons of great games were released, it's painfull to see which new VR games are being released on Quest and PCVR. Mods like yours keeps VR alive for me, besides my race and flightsims.
Regarding Hitman: I think they ”hit” a sweetspot that repelled both camps. A half-baked middleground between gamepad and motion controllers just made no sense from a consumers point of view. If you’re going to implement motions controllers then go all in, our brains can adapt to both gamepad or motion controllers but put them together and it just feels wrong. I enjoy motion controller games a lot, committed to VR when Half Life Alyx was announced and was not disapointed. Valve nailed it in almost every regard. What Luke is doing so well is demonstrating that VR is possible without motion controllers which, as the interview suggests, in time _should_ soften or loosen up the fearful AAA executives to take a chance on VR if the requirements are at a tolerable level.