September 2022

September 29, 2022 ,

D-Link officially announced VR Air Bridge, a dedicated USB dongle for Quest 2 wireless PC VR.

It leaked back in April when a software engineer found code in the Oculus PC drivers referencing it, then the manual was somehow uploaded to Manuals+.

The existing Air Link is a Quest feature that lets the device act as a wireless PC VR headset via your Wi-Fi network. It was shipped as a software update in early 2021, but third-party alternatives like Virtual Desktop and ALVR have been available since the release of the original Quest headset in mid-2019.

Using your home Wi-Fi network rather than a dedicated dongle presents several issues though. The signal can be degraded by the distance to the router or obstacles like solid walls, and frames can be dropped or delivered late if too many other devices are congesting the network. Before Air Link was even announced, “Consulting CTO” John Carmack floated the idea of a Wi-Fi dongle running custom firmware for wireless VR.

The spec sheet shows VR Air Bridge connects to Quest 2 via Wi-Fi 6, and to the PC via USB 3.2 Gen 1. It creates a “high-throughput and low-latency dedicated point-to-point Wi-Fi link”, avoiding network congestion and signal propagation issues.

D-Link took a direct shot at Virtual Desktop in its marketing materials, with an image captioned ‘Sharing isn’t always caring’ depicting poor signal quality on a congested network. Developer Guy Godin responded on Twitter by pointing out that his app “showed [Meta] wireless PCVR was viable in the first place”.

No price or launch date was announced, but Meta’s annual AR/VR event takes place on October 11th.



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September 29, 2022 ,

Apparent schematics of Meta Quest 3 were leaked to YouTuber SadlyItsBradley (Brad Lynch).

In May apparent schematics of Quest Pro were also leaked to Lynch. The validity of that leak was effectively confirmed earlier this month when a hotel worker found an engineering sample.

The rear angle appears to show pancake lenses that look very similar (if not identical) to Quest Pro‘s lenses. Pancake lenses are already used in the Pico 4 series – they support smaller panels with a shorter gap to the lenses, and thus a slimmer and lighter visor. But whereas Pico also reduces visor weight by housing the battery in the rear of the strap, the Quest 3 model shown has the same kind of soft fabric strap as Quest 2.

The bottom angle appears to show a scroll wheel for stepless lens separation adjustment. Quest 2 only offers three preset lens separation distances, so the image could be slightly blurred for wearers with an IPD (interpupillary distance) in-between the three options.

In an interview last year, Mark Zuckerberg revealed Meta already had teams working on “the next few generations of virtual reality and what Quest 3 and 4 are gonna look like”.

He went on to say “One of the things I’m really excited about for future versions is getting eye tracking and face tracking in” – features confirmed to arrive in Quest Pro. Zuckerberg reiterated this sentiment in his interview with Lex Fridman in February, saying  “when we’re designing the next version of Quest, or the VR headset, a big focus for us is face tracking and eye tracking”.

But the leaked schematics show something surprising: a headset without eye tracking or face tracking. Assuming Zuckerberg didn’t misspeak in those interviews, this suggests a recent strategy shift – and the sensors seen on the front of the headset may be a clue to the reason.

Mixed reality is a major focus of Quest Pro, and is rumored to be the main focus of Apple’s Reality Pro headset. ByteDance’s Pico 4 has color passthrough, but without understanding the geometry of your room it can’t place virtual objects behind furniture that should occlude them, or position them on surfaces and walls. Meta’s crude solution on Quest 2 is to have you manually mark out your walls and furniture, but this is an arduous process with imperfect results.

The inclusion of a depth sensor in Quest Pro may (either at launch or in a future update) allow the headset to scan your room automatically, as is already possible on existing devices with depth sensors like HoloLens 2, iPhone Pro, and iPad Pro. The leaked schematic shows Quest 3 having a depth sensor too. Meta seems to have decided to prioritize making Quest 3 a full-fledged mixed reality headset over including eye tracking and face tracking.

It’s also possible that Meta has multiple prototype candidates for Quest 3, and the headset seen in this leak is just one of them.

Quest 3’s biggest apparent improvement isn’t something you’ll see in any schematic though. A source of Lynch told him it will use the yet-to-be-announced Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset. Current standalone headsets – including Quest 2, Pico 4, Vive Focus 3, and Lynx R1 – use the current XR2, which was recently retroactively labeled Gen 1 by Qualcomm.

XR2 Gen 1 is a variant of the Snapdragon 865 smartphone chip first shipped in early 2020. Qualcomm has since followed up the 865 line with two new generations, so an XR2 Gen 2 based on one of these chips could deliver significant performance improvements, enabling games with higher fidelity graphics and grander scale.

Don’t expect a Quest 3 announcement at Meta Connect this year however – The Information viewed an internal Meta roadmap in May showing Quest 3 slated for 2023. Meta is “laser-focused” on Quest Pro this year.



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September 28, 2022 ,

Lenovo ThinkReality VRX is a standalone headset for businesses with color passthrough.

The company didn’t reveal many details or specs, other than to say it features pancake lenses, stereo color cameras for passthrough, and optimized weight balance with the battery in the rear. Pancake lenses support smaller panels with a shorter gap to the lenses, and thus a slimmer and lighter visor. Lenovo says the color passthrough makes ThinkReality VRX suitable for mixed reality applications.

The device apparently will come loaded with “a full suite of end-to-end services — from consulting and content creation through cloud deployment and customer support”, including remote education platform ENGAGE.

Lenovo has a relatively long history in VR. In 2018 it partnered with Google on the $400 Mirage Solo, the first standalone headset with positional tracking launched outside China – though it was overshadowed by Facebook’s $200 rotation-only Oculus Go. In the years since Lenovo has shipped rotation-only standalone headsets of its own for the education market, under the VR Classroom brand.

In the PC VR space, Lenovo was one of Microsoft’s original partners for the 2017 Windows MR headsets, releasing the Lenovo Explorer based on Microsoft’s reference design. In 2019 it partnered with Facebook on Oculus Rift S.

In August this year, Lenovo teased a ‘Legion VR700’ headset in a poster shared on social media in China, but there’s been no indication of that seemingly consumer-focused gaming headset coming to western markets.

Lenovo didn’t reveal a price for ThinkReality VRX but said it will launch in “select markets” later this year, then globally in early 2023. The headset will face steep competition: Pico 4 Enterprise and Meta Quest Pro also feature pancake lenses and color passthrough, as well as other features like face & eye tracking.



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September 26, 2022 ,

Stress Level Zero is amping up the hype for Bonelab’s release later this week with new video of its player abilities captured on Quest 2.

The latest video posted by Stress Level Zero’s Brandon J Laatsch shows fast-paced gameplay captured on Quest 2, which is promised to run at 90Hz on the standalone headset. Abilities shown include dual wielding with a tool to build obstacles in the environment for blocking enemies and a gravity pull to grab far away objects. The video also shows rocketing into the air from jump-pads and mid-air slow-motion.

Check it out in the tweet below:

Last week Stress Level Zero revealed the imminent release on Quest 2 and SteamVR, releasing on September 29th for $39.99. The follow-up to 2019’s PC-only Boneworks is one of VR’s most anticipated titles and the Quest 2 footage provides a sense of how the experimental sandbox sequel holds up in standalone VR. Laastch also tweeted that Quest store buyers will get the PC version of the game from the Oculus store. The release date trailer for the game, embedded below, shows a look at how an arm-based tool allows on-the-fly resizing of body size and shape, affecting the player’s speed and ability to move objects in the game.

Stay tuned for more on Bonelab in the coming days.



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September 25, 2022 ,

Six years on from Affected: The Manor, Fallen Planet Studios has revealed that direct follow up Affected: The Asylum launches in 2023.

Revealed during EGX London’s VR Game Spotlight, Affected: The Asylum promises a story-driven adventure across three acts. Set inside Red Park Asylum, strange occurrences like ghosts have recently been spotted in this abandoned building. With curiosity getting the better of us, we’ll investigate the scene for evidence, and Fallen Planet Studios warns us to watch out for “chilling encounters” with The Nurse.

It doesn’t stop with story mode, either. Affected: The Asylum also includes “The Assessment,” a four-player competitive multiplayer mode said to test “both physical and mental challenges.” Finally, there’s also “The Escape”, a free DLC that invites us to “delve deeper into Red Park Asylum’s history.” Working together with other players, this involves solving “fiendish puzzles” and pursuing a strange figure.

We had positive impressions in our Affected: The Manor review for Samsung Gear VR. We believed that “if you want to be terrified or, better yet, you want to terrify a friend while you watch safely from the couch, Affected: The Manor is an excellent choice.” Though we criticized it for “short playtime and lack of replayability,” we had high praise for “its use of sound and clever scripting.”

There’s no pricing details yet but Fallen Planet Studios confirms Affected: The Asylum launches for “all major VR platforms” in 2023. As for The Escape, there’s no release window but that arrives as free post-launch DLC.

Will you be picking up Affected: The Asylum? Are you a fan of Affected: The Manor? Let us know in the comments below.



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September 25, 2022 ,

People ask VR sculptor Simon Clark why he’s building a full-size Tyrannosaurus Rex and 3D printing it one piece at a time.

“Why not?” Clark replies. “If people can’t have, or don’t have VR, what better way to put it out in the real world so people can actually see it?”

At 75 kilograms (165 pounds) of 3D printing filament so far, the New Zealander estimates he’s nearing the mid-point of his full-scale model of a complete T-Rex skeleton. He already sold the smaller one he made in 2020 and his ongoing learning process in VR modelling has brought him to new tools with bigger aspirations. He used SculptrVR for his initial work, but he’s got his hands in Shapelab now and is moving the work into tools like Blender, animating them in Masterpiece Motion, and even publishing them for visitors in VRChat.

Clark’s T-Rex is available in one VRChat world while another is home to a collection of large-size animated insects he’s designed.

“We are still only early days of this whole VR development creativity side of things,” Clark told UploadVR during a recent tour of his work. “It’s just getting better and better every year.”

Here’s some images of Clark, known as Topgunsi online, alongside the gigantic 3D-printed dinosaur as it is coming together:

Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur T-Rex Skull Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur T-Rex 3D Printing Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur T-Rex 3D Print Foot Tyrannosaurus Dinosaur T-Rex 3D Print Foot t-rex scale big dino 3d printed made in vr t-rex scale big dino 3d printed made in vr

Check out the tour and extended look at his process in the video interview below:

 

 



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September 24, 2022 ,

Bafta-nominated puzzle adventure Call of the Sea is getting a surprise VR adaptation, releasing next year on Meta Quest 2.

Initially launched for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, Call of the Sea first arrived in 2020 and was later nominated for BAFTA’s Best Immersive Game. Set in the 1930s, this tells the story of Norah Everhart. We find her investigating her husband Harry’s disappearance, who vanished while searching for a cure to Norah’s mysterious family illness.

 

With only his photo and island coordinates to work from, Norah sets off on an “an otherworldly tale of mystery and love,” taking her to a South Pacific island near Otaheite (Tahiti). This story-driven adventure doesn’t feature combat. Instead, story progression relies on puzzle solving.

Developer Out of the Blue and publisher Raw Fury hasn’t confirmed much else about Call of the Sea’s VR adaptation. However, they’ve announced that more details will be revealed at Raindance Festival 2022, which takes place from October 26 until November 26, For anyone attending, you can try out a “Raindance exclusive” closed alpha demo.

Call of the Sea VR launches in 2023 on Meta Quest 2, though pricing details remain unconfirmed.

Will you be picking up Call of the Sea VR? Did you play the flatscreen release? Let us know in the comments below.



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September 23, 2022 ,

Highly anticipated physics playground Bonelab releases Thursday.

“Yes, this Thursday,” developer Stress Level Zero clarifies in its release date trailer.

So September 29 — just six days from this writing — Quest 2 and SteamVR players can explore the follow-up to 2019’s immensely popular PC VR title Boneworks. Developer Stress Level Zero published the 4-minute Bonelab release date trailer today offering some of our best-ever views of the game.

The follow-up to Boneworks has been promised for standalone VR since before the original’s release in 2019. Representing years of development, then, Stress Level Zero’s Brandon J Laatsch has been dripping out details on his Twitter account and then teased this week the game “has gone gold.”

“Sentenced to death, you embody an outcast escaping fate. Discovering a pathway to a hidden underground research facility. A series of challenging experiments and discoveries await. A road to the truth calls from the void,” the game’s listing explains. “After discovering an underground lab in MythOS city, you will have access to a variety of game locations including arenas, obstacle courses, tactical trials, sandboxes, experimental modes, and user generated levels. Collecting items, avatars, and clues from these locations enable you to progress through the mysterious story.”

Previously, Stress Level Zero released VR games Hover Junkers in 2016 and then Duck Season in 2017, porting the latter to flat-screen PCs in 2019, before taking its work honing physics and object-handling in VR to its new Boneworks universe. The new title promises the ability to import custom avatars alongside a “layered narrative” with “game locations including arenas, obstacle courses, tactical trials, sandboxes, experimental modes, and user generated levels. Collecting items, avatars, and clues from these locations enable you to progress through the mysterious story.”

We’ll plan to dive deep into the game in the days ahead and see how it stacks up between PC and Quest.



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September 22, 2022 ,

Nearly four years after Mark Zuckerberg personally announced Oculus Quest the standalone VR market for consumers may have real competition.

Backed by Chinese tech giant Bytedance, the Pico 4 standalone VR system is coming to consumers in Europe, Japan & South Korea next month starting at just €429. That’s a startlingly low price for an all-in-one VR package which undercuts Quest 2 with superior specifications while delivering new features like color passthrough, alongside a store stocked with a growing list of some of the best VR games. Pico’s even secured its first major exclusive for the platform, Just Dance VR, coming in 2023.

Earlier this year we reviewed the previous Pico Neo 3 Link and called it “a decent Quest 2 alternative that signals bigger things to come”. More recently, UploadVR reporter Harry Baker briefly tried the new Pico 4 and we’re planning to review the headset properly in the coming weeks. Early indications suggest Pico 4 represents exactly what many developers and enthusiasts wanted — serious standalone competition for Zuckerberg’s Quest 2.

Analysts had suggested Pico 4 would take a play out of Meta’s own playbook and “aggressively subsidize” the system below the cost to make each headset. That appears to be exactly what’s happened. Facebook’s profit-deferring strategy had pushed would-be competitors like Lenovo and HTC to focus on enterprise markets where buyers are less sensitive to price than the value of not using anything connected to Facebook. Pico, too, had trouble here and after some early attempts at differentiating VR products it started selling to businesses-only before selling the whole company to the same giant that owns TikTok.

So did Facebook-turned-Meta drop the ball?

Well, the jury is still out on that one, but at the very least Zuckerberg and his chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth are focusing on a different part of the game right now. Quest Pro, due to be formally announced next month, will not compete directly against Pico 4 as it heads toward the high end of the standalone VR market. Quest Pro has been their focus since the release of Quest 2 in 2020, and with it comes a suite of new sensors that lay the groundwork for Meta’s efforts in AR and what amounts to an attempt to revolutionize what it means to communicate over long distances. Quest Pro might animate Meta’s much-maligned avatars more believably, and deliver leading mixed reality, but it also comes with a price tag “significantly” higher than $800. It’ll still play Quest games, of course, but this new high-end focus will also be a stark departure from almost everything Zuckerberg’s machine has built so far.

As Meta executives have alluded, Quest Pro could pave the way for some of its technologies to make the way downstream into a future mass market device, like a hypothetical Quest 3. Quest Pro may also compete with the forthcoming AR/VR headset in development at Apple. What Quest Pro doesn’t compete with, however, is Pico 4. Instead, Meta is coming into Christmas 2022 with the same device it shipped for Christmas 2021 except it’s now $100 more expensive than it was last year. Meta still has the weight of the game studios it acquired and exclusives like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to anchor its offerings to gamers for the foreseeable future. Pico, though, now has an edge in price paired with some shrewd hardware choices that, if they hold up in extended testing, could make Quest 2 seem downright outdated in comparison.

Notably, Pico isn’t entering the U.S. market with Pico 4 — at least not yet — and that means the nation that birthed Zuckerberg and Facebook will still be buying a lot of Quests this Christmas. But with Pico launching two low cost standalone headsets in one year, anything Meta has planned for 2023 and beyond will likely be met by renewed competition on multiple fronts.

And as to that question of whether Meta has dropped the ball? Below is a comment from Meta’s technical advisor John Carmack from early last year when he was talking with Bosworth about next-generation VR.

“I think that if we took the specifications of what Quest 2 does today and we made clearer optics, better ergonomics, longer battery life, and cheaper – does the same things, just does them better — that would be the killer product. But we have alternate points of view saying ‘no, we need depth cameras, we need mixed reality sensors, we need eye tracking, we need face tracking…we don’t know until we’ve exploited those and really tried hard maybe even for years to see what we can get out of those features. But I think that we’ve got enough signal that you can do so many amazing things with the current setup that continuing to focus on just making what we’ve got better….I think that’s the path to as mainstream as we need to get.”

Is Quest Pro just the tock phase of a tick-tock model developing at Meta? Or did Meta get lost in the noise just when Pico found the signal?

Stay tuned, because the VR market just got way more interesting.



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September 22, 2022 ,

Strategic VR shooter Guardians Frontline is coming to Quest 2 and PC VR in 2023, developed by VirtualAge Games and published by Fast Travel Games.

The title was originally released as Guardians VR on App Lab (and before that, SideQuest) for Quest and in Early Access on Steam for PC VR. Picked up by Fast Travel Games under the company’s new publishing wing, the game will release officially for Quest 2 and PC VR in 2023 with the new title of Guardians Frontline.

We wrote about the original Guardians release early last year, saying it had appeal and promise as a hybrid VR game with RTS and shooter mechanics. Fast Travel describes the upcoming Frontline release as a “strategic VR shooter” in a sci-fi setting:

In Guardians Frontline, players must defend the federation from an enemy onslaught as they attempt to extract a mysterious energy source. Battlefields can be strategically secured with a blend of brain and brawn, including tactfully spawned buildings, mechs, spaceships, heavy weapons, and more.

Frontline will include a single-player mode, four player co-op and support for up to eight players in PvP mode. The game will launch with an array of maps, but will also include an in-game level editor. Players will be able to create their own maps to play on, which they can then share with the community to be downloaded and played by others.

In a prepared statement, Carles Ballabriga from VirtualAge Games said the team drew influence from games like Halo and Starcraft when developing Frontline. Fast Travel Games’ Head of Publishing Patrick Liu called the game a “fresh take on the action/shooter VR genre” which features “a rare blend of shooter and tactics that works very well.”

Guardians Frontline will be available for Quest 2 and PC VR via Steam in early 2023.



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September 22, 2022 ,

Pico will have its first major exclusive game in 2023 with Just Dance VR from Ubisoft.

The immensely popular music game franchise is coming “exclusively” to Pico next year. Though details are extremely light at the moment, the addition to Pico’s lineup promises a major rhythm game for players using Pico’s latest standalone consumer headset.

Pico teased the following:

“Just Dance is the most popular game music franchise of all time. The game aims to connect everyone through the feel-good power of dance. For the very first time, PICO gives the VR form of Just Dance a go, thanks to our partnership with Ubisoft. It’s your turn – just jump into the virtual world, and just dance! People will really be impressed by the realistic and immersive experience of trying out VR gaming for the first time.”

We’ve tried out Pico 4 briefly and plan to review the device in the coming weeks, but barring a major hitch in its hardware or software it appears Quest 2 faces some stiff competition for the first time in standalone VR. Whereas Meta acquired VR’s most popular game Beat Saber back in 2019 and partnered with developers on titles such as Dance Central VR, Pico is catching up as it secures some of the most popular VR games for its platform on a per-title basis. Just Dance VR, however, marks the beginning of a new era as it will give fans of the series as well as rhythm games in general a major reason to consider Pico over a Quest 2. Many of the titles on Quest have been ported to Pico already, and today the company announced more including The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2: Retribution, Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, Ruins Magus, Green Hell, and Ultimechs. While Pico 4 has built-in PC VR streaming from a local PC, the creator of Virtual Desktop Guy Godin also confirmed on Twitter his streaming app will be on Pico 4 as well, writing that “you’ll be able to stream all your favorite SteamVR and Oculus games wirelessly.”

We’re curious to find details of whether the exclusivity agreement between Ubisoft and Pico is for a certain period or locked to the platform. Check back with UploadVR in the coming months as we chart out the next steps in VR.



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September 22, 2022 ,

Today Pico announced Pico 4, its next generation VR headset. Last month at Gamescom, we went hands-on for around 10 minutes – here are our impressions.

A New Form Factor

Taking in the headset from all angles, the new form factor is the most obvious and immediate change compared to the Pico Neo 3 Link . The front of Pico 4 is much slimmer than its predecessor – largely due to the switch to flat pancake lenses – and overall Pico say it sports a reduction in weight, down to 586g (with headstrap included) from 620g on the Neo Link 3.

Just going by the numbers, this seems like a fairly minor reduction but in practice the headset feels quite light and well-balanced. Much like the Neo 3 Link, the Pico 4 houses its battery in the back of the headstrap, which helps with even weight distribution and balance. Even though the Quest 2 is technically lighter at 503g, its weight distribution is front-loaded – all the components, including the battery, are located in the headset shell.

The reduction in weight and carrying over the back-loaded battery design will likely provide a more comfortable headset experience for most users. Personally, I found the headset to be highly comfortable on my head and easy to adjust using the top strap and tightness dial on the back. Everyone’s head is different though and your experience might vary.

pico 4

More comfort improvements are found in the interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment options. Headsets like Quest 2 and Neo 3 Link offer limited IPD adjustment with three lens positions/distances that the user can manually set before putting the headset on. However, Pico 4 offers more options with its “stepless” adjustment, allowing the user to set an exact IPD range (between 62 ~ 72mm) from within VR. This then automatically adjusts the lenses’ physical distance without requiring headset removal or manual adjustment. It’s a nifty feature that worked seamlessly in my demo and the specificity will no doubt improve comfort in VR for many users.

Field of View & Passthrough Improvements

After getting the headset on, another big upgrade immediately stuck out – the field of view. The Pico 4 sports a noticeably larger field of view than its predecessor and it’s one of the most prominent improvements. The increase in field of view is huge for immersion and improves the in-VR experience right from the get-go. The LCD display is clear and features a slightly improved resolution, but that minor display upgrade felt negligible compared to the impact of the field of view increase.

The Pico 4 also features upgraded passthrough capabilities, including a higher resolution image that’s now in full color instead of grayscale, thanks to a 16 megapixel RGB camera on the front. The upgrade is much appreciated compared to grayscale passthrough in earlier headsets like Quest 2, and it looks fantastic with the larger field of view.

pico 4

The color passthrough on Pico 4 doesn’t feel like a transparent AR display or even close to one, but it’s a lot better than the grainy passthrough on Quest 2 and allowed me to make out many more details in the physical room. It’s more comfortable to use overall and will likely be more viable in situations other than just boundary setup. There could be potential for some solid mixed reality experiences using the upgraded passthrough as well – time will tell.

From my limited testing, there was some occasional perspective distortion – mainly when objects, such as my hands, were close to the camera – but given limited time with the device it’s hard to say whether that was more or less than what you’d experience on existing headsets.

Upgraded Controllers

The headset itself isn’t the only piece of refreshed piece of hardware – the Pico 4’s bundled controllers also feature a sleek new look and were an unexpected highlight. The updated design is a huge upgrade over the bulky Pico 3 controllers, now featuring tracking rings that curve above your hands and down the controllers from top to bottom.

Visually, they look somewhat similar to the upcoming PSVR 2 controllers, but with a slightly sleeker form factor. However, this isn’t just a visual upgrade – the controllers felt great to use as well. They’re well balanced and incredibly nice to hold in the hand, featuring a pleasant weight that’s both hefty and yet equally distributed.

That being said, I didn’t have enough time to properly test or assess their tracking quality and performance. Likewise, I spent most of my time with Pico 4 in the Pico OS home environment and only had very brief time with some games, including hitting a few holes in Walkabout Mini Golf. However, I didn’t play enough of any games to make substantial remarks on performance, visuals and more – you’ll have to wait for our full review for that.

Pico 4 Hands-On – Final Thoughts

pico 4

When we reviewed Pico Neo 3 Link earlier this year we called it “a decent Quest 2 alternative that signals bigger things to come.” That moment may be here, as Pico 4 carries substantial improvements to field of view, alongside a slimmer front design, color passthrough and new controllers.

We’ll assess Pico 4 for a full review in the weeks ahead to see how it truly compares across far more extensive testing, but it looks well positioned to move standalone VR forward and may mark the first true competition since the debut of the original Quest in 2019.



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September 21, 2022 ,

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate – Episode 1 is a promising start to this episodic adventure, building upon its predecessors where it counts with immersive gameplay and an intriguing plot. Read on for our full review.

I’ve enjoyed watching the Chronos Universe’s gradual evolution. From visual novel beginnings with Tokyo Chronos to increased VR interactivity in Altdeus: Beyond Chronos, now comes Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate as a three-part episodic release. More of an anime adventure than visual novel, this latest offering from MyDearest looked promising during the demo, teasing an exciting new mystery. After finishing Episode 1, Dyschronia certainly looks good.

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate – Episode 1 Review – The Facts

Platforms: Quest 2 (alongside flatscreen release on Nintendo Switch)
Release Date: September 22
Developer: MyDearest
Price: TBC

Set within an artificial marine city called Astrum Close, Dyschronia takes a similar approach to Altdeus, sheltering its residents from the wider world. Uniting them is Augmented Dreaming (AD), which shares each citizen’s feelings across a dream state that supervisors can explore, making crime practically non-existent. It’s understandably shocking, then, when residents collectively see the murder of Professor Rumford, the city’s founder. 

With the city thrown into lockdown, you play as Special Supervisor Hal Scion, an amnesiac who lost his memories in an experiment three years prio. Hal is tasked with leading the murder investigation and building a case, assisted by navigator robot Lily. 

Unlike past Chronos games, routes aren’t determined by multiple choice questions. Hal has full freedom of movement plus direct object handling via motion controls, so you no longer feel like a spectator during gameplay. While several sequences require selecting conversation topics with NPCs, you’re not selecting routes through set dialogue options anymore. Whether you’re travelling across the city or picking up a chess piece, everything feels natural.

dyschronia  Uniquely, Hal can scan items to witness past events, which places you directly into the shoes of whoever’s memories he’s witnessing. This provides insights into life before Hal’s experiment and clues that assist in puzzle solving, such assafe codes or  keycard combinations. On select occasions, Hal can directly alter past events and influence smaller decisions, such as granting himself access to Rumford’s PC system by briefly controlling him. It’s never anything terribly drastic, but it can open new investigative avenues. 

While I won’t spoil specifics, the episode also contains one stealth sequence that particularly stood out. In this section, the enemy will shoot him on sight – you can withstand a few hits, but it won’t take long for them to kill you if you’re out in the open. Crouching across an enclosed space, you can distract enemies and create an escape path by throwing items in certain directions. As someone who rarely plays stealth games, this sequence was especially nerve racking. It’s another example of how Dyschronia feels much more involved than its predecessors. 

After you’ve finished your search for evidence, you’re off to the courtroom – though you won’t be presenting evidence like in Ace Attorney. Instead, Hal must state his case through a virtual recreation of the crime scene, selecting the right evidence for each moment. Don’t worry too much about getting this wrong though – Dyschronia doesn’t penalise you for errors and the segment does an excellent job capping off the investigation. 

dyschronia

Despite these new changes, Dyschronia doesn’t discard its predecessor’s ideas. Time travel plays a key role once again, both in mandatory story sequences and through a pocket watch that Hal can activate at any time. Similar to Ariadne from Altdeus, specific routes require completing before additional branching paths appear using your newfound knowledge. Information from those paths automatically downloads into Lily’s digital memory bank.  This means you won’t have to  continuously repeat yourself and therefore also saves a lot of exposition. Once the day’s over and you’ve achieved the desired outcome, you can’t return to yesterday’s events.

Episode 1 does a fine job setting the scene and it wasn’t long before I found myself drawn into the world. There’s a prevailing sense of mystery that got me curious and I wanted to discover just what makes Astrum Close tick. Because of Dyschronia’s episodic structure, I feared this episode might end abruptly  or feel too short. Thankfully, neither concern was realized and I reached the ending in about six hours. There’s a few story elements that left me scratching my head (and would be spoilery to discuss here), but it otherwise maintained my interest throughout. 

For those after additional lore, Hal can jump into AD in any public space and initiate a counselling session with troubled residences, unlocking new memory archives once completed. This optional and fairly simple memory-based minigame sees you touching panels in a set order. Annoyingly, while you’re at a suitable distance when talking to other characters, the counselling mini-game UI always felt too close to my face. I had to move forward slightly, recenter my Quest 2 and then move back to feel comfortable.

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate – Episode 1 Review – Comfort

Dyschronia contains the usual range of comfort options. Hal has full freedom of movement across these environments, either through artificial locomotion or teleportation, and it also contains a hybrid option that combines them. When selected, this maps artificial locomotion to the left thumbstick and teleportation to the right. Unfortunately, there’s no setting to switch this round for left-handed players, which is disappointing.

Otherwise, Dyschronia lets you swap between smooth or snap camera turning. If you choose snap, a camera fade can be used to reduce potential motion sickness. An optional comfort vignette is also available when rotating the camera, with three different strength settings. You can also adjust the rotation angle for snap settings on each use and adjust the rotation speed on smooth settings.

Anime fans will likely be pleased that Dyschronia includes both English and Japanese language options. For the sake of immersion, I played this using the English dub and most characters fit their roles well. I did find Lily’s voice occasionally grating, but I can’t say it didn’t suit the character. Nonetheless,  these language options are a welcome inclusion. Subtitles are also supported and can be fixed in one place or set to move with your head.

dyschronia

Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate Episode 1 – Final Verdict

Episode 1 is a promising start to Dyschronia and you can tell that MyDearest has taken onboard feedback from its previous games. Despite minor issues with the counselling mini-game and voice acting, it’s considerably more immersive overall and features an engaging story that left me wanting more. By moving the premise away from a visual novel into a full adventure, this could be the VR anime experience we’v been waiting for. I’ve got high hopes for episodes two and three.

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September 20, 2022 ,

Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite & Lumen now work with virtual reality.

UE5 shipped in April after launching in Early Access last year. In April Epic confirmed there are PlayStation VR2 titles in development using the new engine.

On modern PCs and next-gen consoles UE5’s Nanite geometry system brings a radical new way to how games are made & rendered. In previous engines, artists import reduced detail versions of the original assets they create. When the player moves far enough away from an asset, an even lower detail version (generated in advance) is displayed instead. This is called LOD, Level of Detail. Nanite upends this approach. Instead, artists import the full quality assets and the geometric detail is scaled automatically in real time based on your distance from the asset. Virtual objects look incredibly detailed up close, and don’t “pop in” or “pop out” as you move away from them. Nanite works with Lumen, UE5’s dynamic global illumination and reflections system. Epic describes the result as a “generational leap” for graphics.

Nanite and Lumen initially didn’t work in VR. Developers of VR apps had to use the legacy geometry and lighting systems, negating many of the advantages of the new engine. But with Unreal Engine 5.1 Nanite & Lumen now work with VR, as confirmed by Heavenue CEO Alex Coulombe. Coulombe told us his test build maintained 90 frames per second on laptop with a mobile RTX 3080, streaming to a Quest headset using Air Link. He posted a public download link of the build for anyone interest in testing Nanite & Lumen in VR.

The public Unreal Engine 5 GitHub build works for PC VR, but Meta has its own UE5 branch it recommends for native Quest 2 development. Nanite & Lumen don’t work on Android though, and aren’t designed to work with mobile chips in general.



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