HORRIBLE HTC Vive Motion Support

[eXntrc]

This, above all titles, is the one I've been waiting on for years. I backed the kickstarter and played early access tonight. Part of me, the visual and detail orientated part, feels like this is what I've been waiting for. The other part, the VR enthusiast, wonders how this even got out the door.

I do realize this was originally intended for the Oculus with Hydra, and I know it's a PSVR Launch title, but how can the Vive motion controller implementation be so BAD? This was obviously not designed for room scale, and I'm OK with that. I'm even OK with the limitations of not being able to physically turn around and having to rotate my character. But my god, the mechanics for rotation and walking are horrible. Just horrible. I've been playing for 45 minutes and I still can't get the protagonist to move in a reliable way.

If you let your hands rest down to your side, the character will crouch the next time you walk. You have to keep your hands raised and pointed forward at all times. This is simply not comfortable. And why couldn't you at least implement snap turns using the touch pad as a D-PAD. Why do I have to phsyically POINT my hand in the direction I want to go and click. This goes against every other motion mechanic that has come before it.

I can forgive the fact there's no teleportation. I can forgive the fact I have to rotate the character and not my body. I can NOT forgive the movement implementation.

Please, I beg of you, fix this. I've waited for this for so long. I want to enjoy this. I'm willing to wait a little while. Just, please. Please fix it.

[modeless]

Yeah, the stuff you complained about is bad. But I can't forgive all the stuff you forgave either. This game should not be released for Vive in its current state. It needs at least a year's worth of work to completely redo the movement and interaction system for room scale. It also needs a lot of polish unrelated to roomscale. Like, fix the bathroom mirror to work like an actual mirror. Make an explicit "explain this object" button instead of a 3-second stare. Make the transition between scenes like 10x faster. Make the main voice actor not sound bored out of his gourd.

There are some cool ideas in there, but I won't be going any farther until, at minimum, there's a locomotion system that doesn't involve sliding across the ground.

[ipaulo®]

Yikes, looks like I will be skipping this one for now. Thanks for the honest feedback.

[Syndroid]

Smooth turning and artificial locomotion you say?
Sounds great! Can't wait to play this with O.Touch. I guess the thumbsticks work better for artificial locomotion mechanics.
That crouching mechanic sounds not so great though.

edit: how and why is the game hindering you to physicly turn around ?

[eXntrc]

@syndrolid: No, there isn't smooth turning. It's snap turning but the way you trigger it is by pointing either controller in the physical direction you want to turn and tapping the touch pad. The problem is that ALL locomotion is done using this tapping gesture (or tap and hold). If the controller is slightly pointed downward when you tap, there's a chance your character will crouch instead of turn or walk. The controller must be pointed forward for you to walk, but if the controller is pointed somewhat toward either side when you tap (which you must do in order to begin to walk) your character will turn instead of walk forward. The whole mechanic is very touchy and many times doesn't do what you expect. It's also not comfortable having to always hold your hand out in front of you or to either side to navigate.

To make matters worse, in order to walk and turn at the same time you must point one controller forward and tap-and-hold (to begin walking forward) then point the other controller outward to your side or across your body and then tap to turn left or right. You can imagine how complex this becomes when also holding the trigger to carry an object. Now, on top of all this, imagine how much fun it is when trying to carry a flashlight.

The game does not account for room-scale tracking. The game only accounts for standing tracking. When you look at yourself in a mirror and try to walk around you'll see your character enter all sorts of non-human contortions trying to account for your head getting too far away from your torso (which is stuck like a stone and doesn't move unless you use the tapping gestures I mentioned above). Whenever your head gets too far out of sync from your torso (because you stepped too far away from your frozen body) the camera becomes blurred and fades out. You have to navigate back to your "body" for the camera to become clear again. The same happens when you physically turn around. The game will let you turn your head or your upper body about 90 degrees to either side, but if you try to turn beyond that the camera will blur and fade. Meaning, you can't actually PHYSICALLY turn around in this game using your body. You must point the controller in the direction you want to turn and tap. It's extremely limiting and very frustrating.

And none of this makes any sense until you get far enough along to see your virtual body in the mirror and understand why these limitations were put there. This game wasn't designed for room scale and this fade-and-blur technique was their way of forcing you to stay within a known body boundary.

It's very disconcerting and very frustrating. I'm dying for a teleport mechanic here or at least the ability to turn freely. If they're not willing to code that in, at least let me use the touch pads as D-PADs instead to do snap turns and navigate. That way I always know what it's going to do and I don't always have to have my hands up in the air.

[Syndroid]

Thanks for the explanation.
I didn't expected this kind of limitations tbh.
Looks like it's really meant to be a seated experience then.

Are there cutscenes/narration parts where you have to stay in one spot!? that kind of stuff doesn't work well with roomscale I think.
Another reason I can think of is that they didn't managed to create functional inverse kinematics for the player model, which is hard to get right without full body tracking.

[ManOrAstroman?]

Ohhh my god...with this locomotion system the game is unplayable for me. Loading Human looks so great but the movement solution is a absolutley fun killer.This is so far the worst locomotion system i have ever tried in VR (since 2013). I hope they give us another locomotion option fast... otherwise another "kickstarter backer fail" for myself (and i backed all three seasons...). Please Untold Games devs give us other movement options (smooth 360 turning for example)...and why the game fades always out if i turn my body? Horrible?...YES...horrible!

[bigtroy1114]

I'll be skipping this one too.

[Frigjord]

♥♥♥♥, i just had a feeling they would completely screw this up for Vive.

I was even ready to skip work to play this... Now that won't be happening.

[Diraan]

This is really tough to hear. I was planning on picking it up when it goes live later today. Looks like it will stay on my wishlist until they fix these problems.

[Honelith]

This game looks great, hope they fix the controls. :(

[SIX]

The game is listed as seated. Unless it's a car game or flight/cockpit simulator, when a VR game is listed as seated it's not worthy as VR in my view. Maybe they're reading these comments and doing something about it.

About time Valve pulled their finger out and bring an action game to the table. Looking at an English Church and throwing sticks for a Robotic Dog gets tiresome quick.

[Thor Ragnarson]

If the controls are that bad is there an option to play it on the Vive with the Gamepad? So it can at least be played the same as Rift or PSVR version?

[Knyght]

Първоначално публикувано от Thor Ragnarson:

If the controls are that bad is there an option to play it on the Vive with the Gamepad? So it can at least be played the same as Rift or PSVR version?

I don't see why not. On the game page it list gamepad as one of it's input.

[Kris.vdv]

Първоначално публикувано от Thor Ragnarson:

If the controls are that bad is there an option to play it on the Vive with the Gamepad? So it can at least be played the same as Rift or PSVR version?

Thor, can you let us know how it plays with a gamepad? Thanks!

[Thor Ragnarson]

Im waiting for it to be released, thats why i was asking if maybe someone who had early access had tried it? Wanting to know like you are :-)