FAQ: CHECK HERE FIRST

[Germanban]

-CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE OFFICIAL DISCORD-[discord.gg]

LOCAL ONLY? WILL THERE BE NO ONLINE?

From the beginning I developed this game to be a local-only title. I loved the concept of local asymmetric VR vs PC games after playing Panoptic, Space Security Guard Simulator and Mass Exodus. It's my first game, so I want (and need) to simplify the scope.

Adding online would basically mean to re-write the game almost from scratch, would bring a whole new batch of issues to keep track of, and it's way out of my skillset.

However, Steam's Remote Play Together and Parsec allow the game to be enjoyed with online friends (with some drawbacks)

With the existence of those methods, trying to add online to the game would be even more of a waste of time. As a single, inexperienced dev even in the best case scenario I'd end up with a p2p system that would not make things any better for people who struggle with remote play. There's also the fact that I've seen already too many small indie local games (including 2 asymmetric PCvsVR ones) attempt to "go online" with catastrophic results. So I'm staying on my lane and focusing on making a local-only experience.

WHAT IS STEAM REMOTE PLAY TOGETHER? WHAT IS PARSEC?

Methods to play local-only games with friends online. The way they work is by streaming the host's screen (in this case, the VR player) to the guests' computers, and then sending their inputs to the host.

Steam's Remote Play Together is integrated with Steam, making it really easy to use: just click on your Steam friend after starting the game, and select "Remote Play Together". You can even invite anybody by generating an invite link.

NOTE: Since October 2022, Remote Play together is integrated in-game! You can invite your friends from a touchscreen in the main menu, right next to the START button.

Parsec is a standalone program you can use with any game on your computer. It's also supposed to work even faster than Remote Play Together, and allows you to make public rooms for random people to join.

Main advantages:
-The host side (in this case the VR player) gets literally 0 lag
-The PC players do not need to buy the game to play (just like if they went to your house to play)
-The PC players can play on worse computers, only thing they need is a good internet connection

Main disadvantages:
-The guest side can get noticeable input lag and compression artifacts if they have bad internet or have improper settings
-Encoding/Decoding has a bit of GPU overhead (I still tried to optimize the game as much as possible to offset this). This can compound with other encoding efforts like doing a stream or Quest link/air link/VD

If you wish to find someone to play the game with, you can always go to the official Discord's match-making channel[discord.gg] and ping the Cruisin for a Bruisin role. It's also a good way to test the PC side of the game before buying it!

IS THERE ANY WAY TO PLAY IT WITHOUT FRIENDS?

There are pretty advanced Mandrillian Bots you can go against -in fact they're the main feature of the Solo Challenges (play those to unlock cosmetics!). As everything else, you can add them to custom matches (up to 3), either solo, combined with human-controlled Mandrillians, or in coop mode (where humans control friendly combat drones)

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH SPLIT AUDIO?

The game uses a hybrid split audio system, as there is a limitation with Steam's Remote Play together that makes it impossible to have full split audio (the client will get a mix of every sound coming from the streamed app). While the VR side has its own audio, the PC side gets both the Mandrillian and the Robot audio. I've tried my best to mask this limitation as much as I could (hiding the VR audio beneath the PC sounds).

When playing over Remote Play Together, you just have to make sure the selected in-game PC targeted audio device is not the same as your headset. When playing with people at your computer, you must also ensure SteamVR "Audio Mirroring" is enabled, and that the mirrored audio device is the same as the one you set in-game.

WILL THERE BE A QUEST PORT?

I am not interested at all in standalone VR. Even if I was, porting the game to Quest would mean making it an online game, which brings us back to point 1.