System Shock 2 VR

[6741d7c5888fdJosiahJack]

As an Americam, I love your thick accent.  You sound way better than I would.  Excellent presentation overall.

Looks like the player is a little too tall at the moment.

[6741d7c588a95voodoo47]

yep, definitely too tall (but I would keep the player slightly taller, just not that much). also, I would much recommend switching to the SCP levels when importing the geometry/textures at some point, a lot of work has been done there, and they look much more polished than vanilla.

[6741d7c588c45Hardkern]

I adjusted the players height at 180cm to be slightly taller then the other Human-NPCs. Maybe I over did it. But the sense of scale in the game is off either way. Maintenance robots look tiny no matter what.

[6741d7c588d58voodoo47]

a bit shorter than the npcs would probably work best here - I agree the player is a bit too short in the original game (courtesy of the camera being placed at the player's neck for some reason), so tweaking it a bit is perfectly fine, as long as it's not overdone.

[6741d7c588e9bicemann]

That is some super impressive work so far. Good editing and showcasing of stuff in the videos. The second video in particular was great. Keep it in that style.

[6741d7c588feaStarspawn]

VR has a lot of novel problems to solve, especially in regards to collision. And I've wondered how to handle things like melee and weapon accuracy/recoil. Those are pretty minor challenges though compared to the bulk of the work: getting the base game up and functioning in a fairly authentic way. Keep up the good work.

[6741d7c5892edZylonBane]

New Video up.

Minor point: Links carry "messages" not "events". Events can trigger the sending of a message, but the message is not the event.

It's like when your alarm clock goes off-- the time is the event, and the alarm is the message.

[6741d7c5893efHardkern]

New Video up.
https://youtu.be/5UCHOTHfE4c

[6741d7c5894d8voodoo47]

as mentioned, I would much recommend grabbing the SCP level geometry and objects once beta5 is out, the fixed resources really do make a difference.

[6741d7c5895eaHardkern]

Yeah will probably do that, when it comes out. I'm not married to the base game looks.
But for now the visuals don't matter too much. It's all about getting the mechanics down.
Also the reason, why the inventory looks so bad and why I'm still using the default VR hand models. (For the hand models I can only hope someone will model a good pair for me at some point.)

[6741d7c58971eZylonBane]

Being forced to project your inventory display onto an actual world surface has got to win some sort of award for bad game ideas.

[6741d7c58980aHardkern]

I take any awards I can get, for the exposure.

But for real, could you elaborated a bit more?

[6741d7c589935icemann]

A tip - random crashes means either:

A) - Something is conflicting
B) - You have a logic error in your code. Trace the logic, use breakpoints (in Visual Studio), check values. Rinse, repeat.

So work from the point where the crashes started. Check what you added or go back to an earlier build where no crashes occurred then add stuff back in 1 by 1 to find the culprit.

[6741d7c589a4cHardkern]

If I remember correctly, the crashes where since the beginning. I will try out a new empty project for confirmation.
C# is a managed language and shouldn't cause the host application to crash. The most I have seen scripts do is freeze Unity with endless loops.
If the log is to be believed, crashing happens on assembly reload. Maybe there is some sort of conflict between the multiple assemblies in the project?

[6741d7c589b5bicemann]

Completely possible. That's where break points can be handy. Though it depends on how often it happens. If it's very often, then it's more easier to track down. If it's every now and then, then far harder.

[6741d7c589c6aJosiahJack]

Maybe try setting script reload to "Recompile After Finished Playing" in the Editor General settings.  But I think that's the default setting so hard to say

[6741d7c589d6cHardkern]

I have that setting already on.
For what its worth, if I disable "Initialize VR on startup" it doesnt crash, but it also doesn't launch in VR.

[6741d7c589fcaStarspawn]

It's great seeing all those SS2 goodies being handled in VR like that, there's a certain tactile joy to messing around with random junk in VR.
https://streamable.com/wbnof6
VR inventories are still something of an open problem and the (mostly indie) industry is still heavily experimenting with what works. Something like Into the Radius' physical backpack is wonderful for realism but certainly unwieldy in a pinch. You also have TWD: Sinners and Saint's more conventional and streamlined tile-based backpack. While having a snap-to-wall inventory is novel, I think a "palette" inventory drawn from behind and locked to the hand would be the most usable/intuitive, analogous to SS2's inventory. You could also allow the player to simply drop the inventory to anchor in midair wherever they'd like.  Also I like the "drop over your shoulder" method of item storage that Half-Life:Alyx and S&S use.
Meanwhile it's commonly believed by most including myself that SkyrimVR did everything wrong and should not be emulated.
Regarding any needed art assets, if your project gets far enough to need them I have high confidence someone will supply them.

[6741d7c58a1f9Hardkern]

Yeah VR inventories are still an unsolved problem, like movement.

The controls I have in mind for SS2VR allow weapon switching, ammo switching and health/psi stim pack use without opening the inventory. There will be a quick select for these things. Thus inventory interaction will only be required occasionally and never in combat.
Making the inventory attached to walls should provide with some more immersion and a sense of grounding, at least in theory.
I do forsee some problems in the "many" level, as that is sometimes pretty open in space.
I have played some Walking Dead VR with its backpack. It was servicable, but kinda small. A wall mounted panel could be much bigger and could be the place for a flavor text box for item descriptions.

Can't really test what feels best to play with yet. The game isn't far enough to make a good assesment. But I will revisited that topic later.

https://streamable.com/wbnof6
I remember watching a 2klicksphilip video all about looking at the water in bottles, when that shader came out. Pretty cool.

[6741d7c58a302JosiahJack]

Oh. come. ON.  Stop it Valve!  You know I can't afford that crap!!  Why you gotta do this to me??

[6741d7c58a825ZylonBane]

Making the inventory attached to walls should provide with some more immersion and a sense of grounding, at least in theory.

No, it wont't, because a) It's inherently ridiculous. Having to slap your inventory onto a wall to manipulate it doesn't imitate any sort of real-world action, and b) It'll be a pain in the ass to have to search around for an appropriate surface every. single. time. you want to open your inventory, and c) The constantly varying sizes and angles will kill the ability to develop any sort of muscle memory for manipulating the inventory, and d) This interaction model will make a bizarre contrast to the eventual HUD interface for everything else-- emails, logs, stats, etc. Unless you're planning on shining those on walls too, in which case god help us.

This solution is literally the worst of all possible worlds. All negatives, no positives. If there was any good to this approach, non-VR games would use it too.

So stop trying to be a UX innovator and just copy what SS2 already does: Fixed-position, fixed-size HUD overlay. Grid. Drag-and-drop.

[6741d7c58a9fdKolya]

Did you watch the video? Because that is what Hardkern eventually decided anyway.

[6741d7c58ab1bValet2]

Just came here to let you know there's someone out there really wishing for this project to stay alive. I hope the community could start helping with implementing stuff at some point.

[6741d7c58ac45voodoo47]

we definitely can playtest and b!tch provide constructive criticism until kingdom come.