Oculus Rift - Option to swim / move in the direction the player is looking.
Shnagenburg
Join Date: 2005-07-04 Member: 55235Members
Join Date: 2005-07-04 Member: 55235Members
Hey guys, I'm really enjoying the Subnautica beta. I've got about 17 hours logged at this point. I own an Oculus Rift DK2 and was pretty excited to see that Subnautica supported it. However, I find that the player movement is not intuitive. The issue being that currently (Early Development Build 21956 Aug-2015) there is no option to swim / move in the direction that the player is facing.
To describe the scenario, imagine you start the game in VR and are facing North. Holding the forward movement key, i.e. "W", will move the player North. Now, using the VR headset, the person player looks to the right. In game, your character is now looking East. Pressing the forward movement key, however, will still move you North. In order to move East, the player must move the traditional "look" controls, i.e. the mouse, and move the character's body to the right.
I would love to have an option to have the character's head and body both be locked to the gaze of the VR headset. This way, I could simply look in the direction that I want to swim, then hold the forward movement key. I am not trying to presume that one movement method is better over the other. I think some players might find the separated head / body more intuitive. In game, there is a rendering of the character's body, and it feels immersive to look to the left and see your character's shoulder. The rendering also helps remind you which way your body is facing.
The other value of the "move in the look direction" option is that with such a movement mode, it frees the player from the need to use a mouse. I could stand up / swivel around in my chair with a wireless controller of choice and really get an immersive 360 degree underwater experience.
I understand that Subnautica is a small dev team, and features have to be carefully weighed over the cavalcade of other things players want in the game. I'm also aware that the percentage of players who have ever booted up the Oculus Rift mode is likely very small. Honestly I'm really satisfied that the team found the dev cycles to get the Rift working at all (in direct mode too!). I'd love to see this game succeed in VR and with the Oculus Consumer Version coming around Q1 2016, I think Subnautica stands to be a very compelling VR experience.
To describe the scenario, imagine you start the game in VR and are facing North. Holding the forward movement key, i.e. "W", will move the player North. Now, using the VR headset, the person player looks to the right. In game, your character is now looking East. Pressing the forward movement key, however, will still move you North. In order to move East, the player must move the traditional "look" controls, i.e. the mouse, and move the character's body to the right.
I would love to have an option to have the character's head and body both be locked to the gaze of the VR headset. This way, I could simply look in the direction that I want to swim, then hold the forward movement key. I am not trying to presume that one movement method is better over the other. I think some players might find the separated head / body more intuitive. In game, there is a rendering of the character's body, and it feels immersive to look to the left and see your character's shoulder. The rendering also helps remind you which way your body is facing.
The other value of the "move in the look direction" option is that with such a movement mode, it frees the player from the need to use a mouse. I could stand up / swivel around in my chair with a wireless controller of choice and really get an immersive 360 degree underwater experience.
I understand that Subnautica is a small dev team, and features have to be carefully weighed over the cavalcade of other things players want in the game. I'm also aware that the percentage of players who have ever booted up the Oculus Rift mode is likely very small. Honestly I'm really satisfied that the team found the dev cycles to get the Rift working at all (in direct mode too!). I'd love to see this game succeed in VR and with the Oculus Consumer Version coming around Q1 2016, I think Subnautica stands to be a very compelling VR experience.