• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter - EA tomorrow (VR version of entire game!)

I think asking for a VR FPS where you turn by doing anything other than turning is like asking for an on-screen FPS where you use the keyboard to aim, but that's just me.

Personally I'm less interested in a VR FPS for the physical VR aspect of it and more interested in the motion controls.

I guess it's similar to the issue I had with The Climb and Touch - it seems to make sense to have motion controls for a game all about moving your hands around, but then it made it totally immersion breaking for me because there's a sort of uncanny valley effect between what you're seeing and what you're doing. Having tried SS it seems I have similar feeling with FPS where you're always going to have some form of artificial locomotion, whether it's teleportation or standard analogue movement, but you need to move around the world constantly so there's a break between the realistic mapping of your hands aiming and your body turning and how you're controlling movement through the world.

Games built on rich environmental interaction rather than shooting, I'd definitely rather stand and move around with whichever form of locomotion they have because moving around the small space I have adds a lot. But when it's just shooting, I'd rather just sit down, aim with the controllers and benefit from the added immersion from the headset.

I got a refund for Serious Sam. I might come back to it later after a price drop or they've added some more options for how it can be played, but I just wasn't feeling it.
 

fwpx

Member
I wonder if sitting down and using normal locomotion would be less weird with strafing. I felt myself leaning and nearly falling down.

Touch controllers seem superior because they have sticks vs pads. Overall it's very cool.
 
I wonder if sitting down and using normal locomotion would be less weird with strafing. I felt myself leaning and nearly falling down.

Touch controllers seem superior because they have sticks vs pads. Overall it's very cool.

It definitely is less weird, it can still feel a bit nauseating if not implemented well, but at least at least you don't have the feeling of being off balance. Generally I'm fine with seated stick turning as long as it's locked to rotation - the Vanishing of Ethan Carter allowed free look in all directions with a stick and it was horrible.
A bit of vignetting can also help I think.
 

Durante

Member
I wonder if sitting down and using normal locomotion would be less weird with strafing. I felt myself leaning and nearly falling down.
Did you use blink teleportation or artificial locomotion?
I "tele-strafed" around large rooms at ludicrous speed with absolutely no balance issues.

Of course, I totally love teleportation. I also find it more immersive than gliding over the floor.
It's so immersive in fact that after long sessions of e.g. Raw Data I sometimes try to teleport in real life and wonder for a split second why I'm still standing in the same spot.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Did you use blink teleportation or artificial locomotion?
I "tele-strafed" around large rooms at ludicrous speed with absolutely no balance issues.

Of course, I totally love teleportation. I also find it more immersive than gliding over the floor.
It's so immersive in fact that after long sessions of e.g. Raw Data I sometimes try to teleport in real life and wonder for a split second why I'm still standing in the same spot.

Circle tele-strafing seems to be rather OP in my brief experience with the game.

As for movement, I'm honestly not sure what I like more in a game like this. I find the concept of teleporting plenty fine from an immersion standpoint. Being able to blink to where I want to go in one fell swoop is great; it feels like a physical manifestation of your mental desires without the laws of physics holding you back. However, when the distance of the teleport is arbitrarily restricted, it's kind of meh for covering large amounts of ground. Having to blink 10 times in smaller chunks to get to a location that you could see from the get go ends up feeling choppy. Sliding movement doesn't fare much better though; something about it just feels off in the same situation - particularly while standing.
 

Durante

Member
Circle tele-strafing seems to be rather OP in my brief experience with the game.
Absolutely, it has that kind of "balance" issue ;)

I actually already mentioned that in my first post about the locomotion. The completely unlimited blink teleportation gives you a level of mobility that may be over the top even by Serious Sam standards.
 
Sliding movement doesn't fare much better though; something about it just feels off in the same situation - particularly while standing.

Yeah, this is the motion uncanny valley feeling I was trying to describe. Standing makes you feel like everything should use natural movement, then artificial locomotion kind of ruins it.
Long distance teleportation works when you're not having to constantly teleport because you don't see that motion, but is a terrible fit for a game like this. Blinking just feels stupid to me and doesn't really solve any of the weird feelings I get from analogue movement while standing, so might as well just use that since it feels more normal.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Absolutely, it has that kind of "balance" issue ;)

I actually already mentioned that in my first post about the locomotion. The completely unlimited blink teleportation gives you a level of mobility that may be over the top even by Serious Sam standards.
I'm not sure how to balance that though. I don't think timers would help much as they'd just strip the sense of having agency.

Yeah, this is the motion uncanny valley feeling I was trying to describe. Standing makes you feel like everything should use natural movement, then artificial locomotion kind of ruins it.
Long distance teleportation works when you're not having to constantly teleport because you don't see that motion, but is a terrible fit for a game like this. Blinking just feels stupid to me and doesn't really solve any of the weird feelings I get from analogue movement while standing, so might as well just use that since it feels more normal.
I don't think long distance works because you don't see the movement. "Dash" type teleporting gives the illusion of covering the ground rapidly and works fine. I think the acceptance is firmly rooted in that you want to be somewhere specific and then you are. Incremental teleportation feels artificial - like you're hitting a rev limiter of sorts. Jerk forward a short distance, and then jerk forward again almost immediately after. It's also less than ideal for collecting things like powerups on the ground in this game. You have to teleport yourself to each item individually and can't blink in a line through them all and collect them.

I think they need to pull a card from H3VR and have two methods of movement available at the same time instead of being a hard toggle. Slide movement by one means and teleport by another. Then increase the teleport distance, and throw a cooldown on it.

I'll buy it if it comes to PSVR.
I don't see it happening. It requires 360 tracking even with teleportation, and a spin 180 button would be less than ideal to say the least. You might see the other Serious Sam VR game on PSVR, but not this one.
 

Tagyhag

Member
Awesoooome, when I heard about Serious Sam VR, this is what I wanted. (And they chose the right Serious Sam too)

More full games please!

Edit: Oh man, Ugh-Zan III is going to look insane.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Let the port begging commence!

I don't think it's wrong to desire a given VR game on a specific platform. The market is small enough and the content thin enough that multiplatform releases are beneficial to the VR market as a whole. Obviously there's limitations, and an ideal world where everybody gets everything isn't going to happen. Still, the more the VR community actually acts as one instead of trying to gate themselves the better.

I know this game is goofy or whatever, but man the aesthetic doesn't do it for me at all. Does it look good in VR?
Technically, it looks good. Clean IQ and all that. Artistically it's somewhat lacking, but that's what you get when taking an old game never designed for VR and making it into a VR game. Serious Sam TLH looks better than this.

I can see a DS4 controlled port making it over actually
I can't. The weapons are tracked. Using a DS4 would basically kill half the point of the game.
 
Going back between controller oriented and head oriented strafing, I think I've found that my main gripe with this style of movement is that we need chest tracking so you can move your actual body to turn. I think that would solve most of my issues. I guess this sort of leads down the road to where I eventually have to suit up to use VR.
 

Lister

Banned
I don't think it's wrong to desire a given VR game on a specific platform. The market is small enough and the content thin enough that multiplatform releases are beneficial to the VR market as a whole. Obviously there's limitations, and an ideal world where everybody gets everything isn't going to happen. Still, the more the VR community actually acts as one instead of trying to gate themselves the better.

Don't disagree, but in the context of his post and his post history...
 

Durante

Member
I know this game is goofy or whatever, but man the aesthetic doesn't do it for me at all. Does it look good in VR?
I think it looks good considering its heritage. And it's nice to play a game with absolutely impeccable IQ and performance, especially since the gameplay in this one really requires that (IQ for distant aiming and performance due to the sheer speed of the gameplay).

Blinking just feels stupid to me and doesn't really solve any of the weird feelings I get from analogue movement while standing
For me, it completely fixes all balance issues and all simulator sickness issues compared to smooth artificial locomotion.

I'm not sure how to balance that though. I don't think timers would help much as they'd just strip the sense of having agency.
I also don't have any immediate suggestions.

I do hope they don't worry too much about "balance" in single-player and coop at least, because I absolutely love zipping through those levels.
 
Played about half an hour last night - yup, that's Serious Sam!

The scale of the weapons bugs me more in this than in The Last Hope, and I'd forgotten how many monster closets and traps there are in the game (been years since I've played it.)

Controls are a bit fiddly on default settings - will probably lower movement speed a bit next session.

I couldn't find any multiplayer servers and Join Game didn't work. Has anyone successfully played MP with randos? I figured people would be on last night, given launch day and all. Really want to play this co-op!

TLDR: If you want your jumpscares and traps in a bright, sunny environment, play Serious Sam! If you want darkness, play Doom 3 BFG :D
 

kinggroin

Banned
I can't. The weapons are tracked. Using a DS4 would basically kill half the point of the game.


So it was in Until Dawn for PSVR. Each gun is independently controlled with move controllers. You have the option of DS4 to somewhat clumsily control both.


Different game, different dev...But there is precedence
 

Zalusithix

Member
So it was in Until Dawn for PSVR. Each gun is independently controlled with move controllers. You have the option of DS4 to somewhat clumsily control both.


Different game, different dev...But there is precedence

That sounds... horrible. They could do it, but that doesn't mean they should.
 

Isomac

Member
This is cool. Now I actually love to shoot those small frog enemies. So satisfying with revolvers in both hands.
 
TLDR: If you want your jumpscares and traps in a bright, sunny environment, play Serious Sam! If you want darkness, play Doom 3 BFG :D

Once you get five or so levels into it, they stop being monster closets and start being full on onslaughts though. You haven't got time to be scared when there are ten monsters spawning at a time, you just have to get busy killing.
 

SerratedX

Member
It's available now.

10% launch discount, 10% off if you own the non-VR version, 20% off if you own TLH. All stackable.

This right here was a big seller for me. With all the stacked discounts, it comes out to 23.99 USD. I'm not so sure I would have jumped as quickly at it if I didn't get the discounts, but it's installing now and I have something to look forward to after work tonight!
 

Zalusithix

Member
Not sure what you mean. It's just that I only have 2 sensors, and at just the right angle, my touch controllers can wig out a bit. If I could turn inside the game, I could re-orient myself towards the sensors.

He's referring to the fact that your forum tag directs to Wrestlemania's post. I'm sure it was meant to point somewhere at one point, but right now it just directs to the top of whatever page your post is on.
 
He's referring to the fact that your forum tag directs to Wrestlemania's post. I'm sure it was meant to point somewhere at one point, but right now it just directs to the top of whatever page your post is on.

Oh, I see. Thanks. I wasn't aware of that. It never worked right, but it used to go to main page of the forum, I think.
 
They have added a public beta branch to the game now, and the current version has gradual trackpad movement speed, several different options for controller based turning as well as a fix for the bug that positioned the HUD outside of your fov when super sampling.
- Trackpad locomotion now has analog control - if the thumb is closer to the center, the player moves slower.
- Added support for continuous and discrete rotation in VR.
- Added Trackpad Click To Move to game options menu.
- Besides the Menu, weapon wheel now also features Netricsa, Vote Yes/No, QuickLoad/QuickSave.
- Fixed weapons being unselectable in modes with infinite ammo.
- Implemented system to detect old broken saves and warn users about it. It will prevent crashes later in the play caused by loading broken saved.
- Fixed camera errors in cutscenes causing disorienting views and neverending cutscenes.
- Fixed HUD scaling errorneously outside of screen if supersampling is used (it was near impossible to see health/armor on supersampling>1).
- If you only had the left weapon equipped you had to use the right controller to fire with it, until you equipped the right weapon. Fixed.
- Improved Performance autodetection, for cases where single-pass VR rendering is used.

To install the beta, do this:
- locate the game in the Steam's "Library" panel
- right click and invoke "Properties"
- select the "Betas" tab
- choose "publicbeta"
 
They have added a public beta branch to the game now, and the current version has gradual trackpad movement speed, several different options for controller based turning as well as a fix for the bug that positioned the HUD outside of your fov when super sampling.

Cool. I'm excited to try it with turning enabled. I think the only bug I hit was the wacky camera in level end cutscenes - about half the time, they had weird head tracking that was pretty disturbing.
 
yeah, for gods sake make the next one..this is ridiculous.

By this point soon I might get out my xbox OG and play Serious Sam 2

They are making SS4 though. I think it was even quoted in the OP that they have doubled their studio manpower since releasing the wildly successful Talos Principle, and having as talented devs as these guys working on tons of different stuff is nothing but a positive for me.
 
Top Bottom