VR?

[Venatos]

now with the borons getting added i thought i might dust off X4, but its not VR, how do i make it VR? is VR coming?
fells like a waste to play a game with such great scale in flat.

[lnomsim]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957030766

As for an official version, I'm pretty sure the official answer is no. and it has been like that for quite some years now.

Too expensive to develop for not enough customers.

[Venatos]

thank you for the response! im not sure the workaround with its limitations is realy worth it.
i think ill wait for the official VR version.
there have been 25 million headsets shipped in the last few years and 2023 is expected to add another 15-20 million. that should be enough potential customers to get them moving.

im currently busy with HalfLife2 VR anyways, with episode 1 and 2 waiting. how cool is it that we get free VR mods that are just 1-click steam downloads! totally amazeballs! ;)

[Valhalla Awaits]

It's not practical for this sort of game I'm afraid. The game is already ultra resource intensive, and will be EVEN MORE resource intensive after the expansion added hundreds of extra npcs and numerous systems and stations. VR multiplies the resources needed by any game by a massive amount, so without shrinking the hell out of the game, making the graphics worse, it's not practical to do.

VR is amazing, but a game has to be designed from scratch to use it for it to really work well without needing a $3,000 pc.

[uni790]

Sadly it's probably just not going to happen, there's too small of a % of people using VR to justify putting work into it, on the other hand there aren't enough games that are exclusively VR to justify the vast majority of people getting a set for the current price tags involved.

VR in the end is killing itself with it's insane price tag, I could get a VR set, or I could buy a brand new PC, put a down payment on a car, or apartment, they seriously need to cut their price tags before it's even worth looking into much, at least down to $100-$200... CDN$ 1,319.00 is much too much for 2 tiny gameboy sized screens and a couple repackaged wiimotes.. lol (steam's VR set price tag)

Even more so when the Switch and most phones are VR capable as is(do need extra hardware to make them a headset though, a bit of cardboard and some straps/string works), at less then half the price.

But yea, as far as any company is going to see it, VR support would be a total waste of money to develop for, as there's just no return on the investment until a lot more people are using VR as their primary source of entertainment.

[MarStrMind]

Originally posted by lnomsim:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957030766

As for an official version, I'm pretty sure the official answer is no. and it has been like that for quite some years now.

Too expensive to develop for not enough customers.

It should be important to note that, while my guide will give you a 3D view of the entire game, it is by no means a complete conversion, and no native VR experience. It is more like duct taping a few components together, which do work - as long as you don't remove the duct tape.

The guide is also not entirely complete... I am still working on some way for walking in stations / on foot - but other than using a controller I cannot think of anything else. If you increased the FOV to 0.5 in ReShade, the map is unusable on foot. So you see, there are still some puzzles to solve.

It is sad that X4 has no native VR support, Egosoft knows how to this - see X Rebirth VR Edition.

Also, in the X4 settings there are some remnants of either X Rebirth or some planned VR port, as you can keybind to things like "Reset VR View".

But hey, thanks for posting my guide! :)

[mystery]

Originally posted by Venatos:

thank you for the response! im not sure the workaround with its limitations is realy worth it.
i think ill wait for the official VR version.
there have been 25 million headsets shipped in the last few years and 2023 is expected to add another 15-20 million. that should be enough potential customers to get them moving.

Issue is that they did make a VR version of Rebirth & it didn't sell enough to recoup the investment. So depsite the number of VR devices in circulation (and coming in circulation), most don't seem to be interested enough in the X-franchise. (which is still a niche game) Hence their reluctance to make another VR title. Altering X4 & all DLC for VR is likely too expensive.

However, with Egosoft, never say never, they have done some surprising things in the past. Especially when dedicated modders found a way to do things. Not a guarantee, but it helps.

[zpc]

Egosoft did X:Rebirth VR because they wanted to try out the tech. (they are one of the few pioneers making always 3D games). They learned a lot about it and enjoyed the process / result. But - as some VR gamers also complained - a X VR game has to be dumped down to adress the various needs a VR game has (UI / performance).

Every VR enthusiast should get X:Rebirth VR and enjoy it. The company is too small to make yet another VR game for a niche audience. If we reach the time when every game company has VR as an option in their games there might be another X VR game - but not sooner. Egosoft did their part, now those with more money have to pave the way for the mass market. (e.g. all those games making millions due to ingame stores)

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by Venatos:

now with the borons getting added i thought i might dust off X4, but its not VR, how do i make it VR? is VR coming?
fells like a waste to play a game with such great scale in flat.

From the responses on their actual forum it seems like the Devs are determined not to bother with VR. But keep asking, they have been known to change their minds...

The mistake they made with Rebirth is they gutted the game from the 2D version making it hugely un-entertaining. Most places you had no access and the girl you start with- vanished. She wasn't graphically that impressive, but I liked her in the 2D game cos at least she gave a bit of interactive life, especially in ya ship.

Everything was 'blanded'. They seem to blame the player, but it was how they treated the VR version of the game.

Don't GUT X4 if you ever make it VR even if it might make the game a bit choppy (make it OPTIONAL what the Player chooses in performance).

[zpc]

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

Originally posted by Venatos:

now with the borons getting added i thought i might dust off X4, but its not VR, how do i make it VR? is VR coming?
fells like a waste to play a game with such great scale in flat.

From the responses on their actual forum it seems like the Devs are determined not to bother with VR. But keep asking, they have been known to change their minds...

It's not about changing a mood or something - they don't have the money for it.

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

Don't GUT X4 if you ever make it VR even if it might make the game a bit choppy (make it OPTIONAL what the Player chooses in performance).

You misunderstood that - they "gutted" the game in order to make it work with VR. Not out of pleasure. And the whole "make it optional" approach doesn't work well with Egosoft (it's kind of a running gag - as the game covers a lot of different genres people are pestering Egosoft with making all things optional. Which they repeatedly stated they won't)

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by zpc:

You misunderstood that - they "gutted" the game in order to make it work with VR. Not out of pleasure. And the whole "make it optional" approach doesn't work well with Egosoft (it's kind of a running gag - as the game covers a lot of different genres people are pestering Egosoft with making all things optional. Which they repeatedly stated they won't)

Pleasure? Where did I say they did it for pleasure?

They make many things optional in X4, so they can make stuff optional in X4 VR too.

[Knottypine]

Have you played X Rebirth VR? It doesn't look like you have it.

[Vitchilo]

All we're asking is for a VR mod... dont change the games or the graphics or much. Just allow VR headsets to run in the game in first person... if youre motivated, even add controller support. If the game runs at 10 fps, so be it, we'll wait for the next gen GPU to run it at decent framerate.

Thats what VR mods are... they dont change the game, they just adapt it for VR... and usually one or two or three people are able to do it, so dont tell me it costs a lot of money to put 1-2-3 people on that project for a few months.

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by Vitchilo:

All we're asking is for a VR mod... dont change the games or the graphics or much. Just allow VR headsets to run in the game in first person... if youre motivated, even add controller support. If the game runs at 10 fps, so be it, we'll wait for the next gen GPU to run it at decent framerate.

Thats what VR mods are... they dont change the game, they just adapt it for VR... and usually one or two or three people are able to do it, so dont tell me it costs a lot of money to put 1-2-3 people on that project for a few months.

This 100%

[MarStrMind]

Originally posted by Vitchilo:

All we're asking is for a VR mod... dont change the games or the graphics or much. Just allow VR headsets to run in the game in first person... if youre motivated, even add controller support. If the game runs at 10 fps, so be it, we'll wait for the next gen GPU to run it at decent framerate.

Thats what VR mods are... they dont change the game, they just adapt it for VR... and usually one or two or three people are able to do it, so dont tell me it costs a lot of money to put 1-2-3 people on that project for a few months.

My guide for VR posted above does achieve said goal to, let's say, 90%. Controller support is already built-in to the game - just map your controller to the desired actions.

[💢𝓐ℓ ¢нємιѕт💢]

If you want to try space exploration in VR try No Man's Sky.