Mint Virtual Reality

Having announced ‘Vive Studios’ at the end of 2016, HTC is steadily building up its first-party VR content offering. After a number of relatively well received titles launched under the umbrella of Vive Studios, we take the latest, Front Defense VR, for a test drive.

What is it that makes the HTC Vive special and different from the other VR platforms on the market? It depends who you ask. It used to be the tracked motion controllers, but that is no longer the case. Is it the room-scale? That’s a huge plus for sure, but with a little jiggery-pokery the Rift can get close enough for some people. Is it the tracking? This at least is still best in class, for my money. Content? While you might argue that Rift and PSVR with their exclusives rule the roost here, there’s still much to recommend the Vive ecosystem.

Crawling around on hands and knees behind the virtual sandbags of Front Defense VR, there’s no need to wonder how HTC would answer the question. With its first release from internal developer Fantahorn Studio for the Vive, we find that the answer is resounding: room-scale. Specifically a play area so large that no competing platforms can come close. Hope you’ve got a nice big play space, people, because anything less than three metres square just ain’t gonna cut it with Front Defense VR. Time to build that underground VR bunker in the garden.

Front Defense VR Details:

Publisher: HTC / Vive Studios
Developer: Fantahorn Studio
Available On: HTC Vive (Viveport, Steam)
Reviewed On: HTC Vive (Steam)
Release Date: June 27, 2017 (Viveport), July 7th (Steam)

Gameplay

Front Defense VR is a World War II shooter spread over three (yes, just three) stages, and your position is entirely static so there is no question about methods of locomotion or anything like that—it’s completely ‘real’ locomotion within your room-scale playspace. For the vast majority of the time you’ll be hunkered down within your small sandbagged enclosure to avoid being riddled with bullets. You’ll pop up occasionally to start thinning out the waves of enemy troops that will swarm the area in increasing number as the situation escalates from foot soldiers to motor vehicles, mortars, armoured cars, tanks, and strafing runs from squadrons of enemy planes.

Standing against this tide of enemy combatants are you and a motley crew of anonymous friendly soldiers that appear around you, there to provide the illusion of a cinematic battle just like all the other militaristic shooters of the last two decades. There’s not much going on in their heads though, and the stilted animation fails to convince. Likewise with the enemy soldiers, their behaviours much more in line with arcade classic Operation Wolf (1987) than anything more contemporary. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in an arcade shooter.

There’s nothing to link the three stages, they exist as standalone entities and entertain to varying degrees. There’s no attempt at real depth aside from score attack leaderboards, but it really does scratch that score attack itch—it’s fun to go back into the stages and eke out a little more progress, to see the scenario escalate another notch, to survive against increasingly ridiculous odds.

My favourite is actually the first scenario, a relatively simple setup on some classically European back streets, with enemies appearing on balconies, from side streets, around corners and through distant archways. While the second encounter—defending an HQ inside a church that opens onto a town square—adds in the ability to call in an airstrike, it lacks the focus of the first. The rail yard of the third encounter, with its strafing aircraft, introduces move overt destructible scenery and acts as a challenging climax.

The weapons at your disposal are drawn from predictable stock: a pistol, a rifle, a bazooka, some grenades, and the odd fixed emplacement, like a mounted machinegun. Each is enjoyable enough to fire, with a convenient red dot projected onto enemies for the pistol and rifle making it easier to pick off distant targets. The fact that fixed emplacements are located near to the edges of the play space means that if your physical area is hemmed in by walls or furniture then you won’t be able to fully interact with and aim these elements so easily.

Most weapons are picked up by reaching into them and picking them up with the trigger which then locks the weapon to your hand while the trigger reverts to its traditional firing role. Reloading the rifle is as simple as ripping out the old clip, grabbing a new one from your side, and ramming it home. This is the best of the bunch, and feels as intuitive as some of the best games in the genre. The pistol uses a press of the touchpad to release a clip but you can’t fully slide the new clip in because you’d crash the two controllers together, so you’re left with the unsatisfying act of holding it near the bottom of the gun and releasing it to reload.

Not that loading the rifle is easy all the time; the game does its best to guess where your waistline is based on head and hand positions, but all too often the ammo belt actually appeared ‘inside’ me as I was crouched down, making it impossible to retrieve ammo without committing accidental seppuku with my Vive controller. Even aiming the fixed weapons can be fraught: if you move your hands too far away from the handle you become detached, and it’s often a second or two before you realise what has happened.

How Front Defense VR handles grenades must have sounded awesome in the planning meeting… “Guys, I’ve had a great idea! Let’s get the player to pull the pin out with their teeth before throwing the grenade!” Sadly the reality—after a few aborted attempts at punching oneself in the face—is that you sort of hover the hand grenade in front of your nose for a second until you hear the pin eject. It gets the job done, but it’s a far cry from the marketing vision. The bazooka suffers a similar fate, with the loading of a rocket into the rear of the weapon reduced to simply holding it in the rough vicinity and letting go, whereupon it instantly disappears into the tube. It’s pragmatic, but not exactly immersive.

Actually, the whole experience falls well underneath the expected bar for quality in mid-2017. It’s a small scale, uninspiring setup in a fairly crowded genre, riddled with some of the hoariest clichés of VR interaction and a strangely ugly 2D menu system with incongruous blue floating buttons. The visuals can’t be configured in any way, so supersampling isn’t an option for people on more capable machines. As a result, prepare to squint at distant, muddy pixels as you try to figure out which burnt out window frame the enemy soldier is occupying, or which piece of cover they are hunkered down behind.

Note: we’ve asked the developers to confirm that the lack of any graphical settings isn’t just a limitation of our review copy, and will update when we hear back. It’s possible some auto-setting of detail is in play, but if so my 980Ti was still sadly underutilised.

Mostly it’s just more of the same that we’ve seen before. There are occasional moments where the game’s own blend of enemy waves and the excitement of being hunkered down in such a large play space combine to truly immerse you in the moment, but it doesn’t last long. There’s never a sense of danger. Death often comes as something of a surprise, usually via an enemy soldier with a bayonet that manages to evade attention and puncture your spleen.

The biggest missed opportunity of all is that the developers have doubled-down on the large play area, but then only really used half of it. Only the area in front of the player is meaningfully utilised, with no threats ever coming from behind. It suits the nature of the game—defending fixed entrenchments, which logically would be set up to defend against one direction—but does seem at odds with a clear mission to promote the awesomeness of the Vive’s room-scale tracking capabilities.

There’s potential here, but it needs more iteration and polish. It needs more unique content, or even clever reuse of what’s there. Mostly it needs a package that ties it all together in a more interesting fashion than these three isolated stages. There’s fun here for sure, but I’m not really certain what Front Defense VR brings to the party beyond its commitment to a large play area. It’s as fun to shoot things in VR as it ever was, but as the market has matured a little over the last year, so too have our expectations, and Front Defense VR sadly fails to meet them.

Immersion

When it all comes together, Front Defense VR does decent job of convincing you that you’re in a war zone, battling against the odds. As much as I’m not a believer that the majority of Vive owners have the sort of space this game demands, I have to admit that if you do, it’s on another level compared to other experiences. Being set within a large fixed space really aids the immersion—if you happen to have a few dozen sandbags to hand you could probably concoct the ultimate version of this experience.

It’s not all roses though. Accidentally squeezing the hand grip in the heat of battle and unintentionally dropping the weapon while under heavy assault? Immersion killer. Clanging controllers together when reloading the pistol? Immersion killer. Smashing a controller into the headset when trying to prime a grenade? Immersion killer. The same two or three sounds/barks issuing in quick succession? Immersion killer. Trying to aim a fixed machine gun mounted in a corner of the play area and smacking into a wall? Immersion killer. Stilted people animations? Immersion killer.

Many of these issues have been solved by other developers, and clear solutions exist. Quite why the developers in this case have persisted with such obviously bad design decisions remains a mystery.

To end on a high note, though, the necessity to get down low and crawl around on the floor a little really helps to set the experience apart from others that are primarily standing. In this regard at least, the game is in rare company.

Comfort

As there is zero artificial locomotion, comfort is perfectly fine throughout. The only caveat is that—if you intend to survive for more than ten seconds in the game—you will need to get down low either by crouching or crawling around on the floor. Depending on your fitness (my aging bones were protesting at the end of a protracted session with the game!) this may or may not be an issue. Knee pads optional.

We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar 2 Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar 2 is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.

Tower defence title Ancient Amuletor from TiGames is launching for PlayStation VR tomorrow sporting multiplayer co-op and an adorable art style. Here’s a look at the launch trailer.

If you’ve been yearning for a dose of tower defence with friends in virtual reality, Ancient Amuletor is a neat looking new release for PSVR out tomorrow that might suit you down to the ground.

The title pits you as one of four playable characters with unique skillsets – archer, mage, puppeteer and gunner – as you defend your stronghold against waves of delightfully rendered enemies. The gameplay looks a little slight, but I confess to liking the look of the archer’s Panzer Dragoon / Rez style lock-on special attack. The game allows three human player to join each other online

Rendered in Unreal Engine 4, the production design looks great even if the gameplay demonstrated in trailer seems somewhat simplistic. The game goes on sale via the PlayStation store tomorrow (27th June) for an as yet undisclosed price. I suspect that last detail may be the crucial one as the chance of such a title finding a large enough player base to provide ample online comrades will hinge on an enticing, accessible price.

Nevertheless, if you’re curious you can go online and try the demo which is available on the PlayStation Store right now. Let us know what you think and if you’re considering a purchase.

ViveNchill is a new bolt-on cooling system comprising two angled fans that the creators claim will banish foggy, sweaty headset issues for good.

Unsavoury headline aside, the folks at RedRotor (a company previously specialising in drone components and accessories) have turned their hand to a problem which in truth still doesn’t have a universal solution – sweaty VR face syndrome.

Their prototype product, which the company plans to bring to Kickstarter soon, is calls ViveNchill and is a neat, if surprising solution which the company claim is born from extensive testing and the need to meet a strict set of criteria. The brief was to come up with a cheap, quiet and lightweight headset mounted system which was easy to operate and yet delivered effective cooling, dealing with heat buildup inside the HTC Vive while under heavy use or just a quick bout of summer VR.

The surprise? ViveNchill doesn’t opt for the most obvious approach of piping (or extracting) air from the headset itself, it instead uses dual tilting fans mounted atop the face interface, angling down towards the user’s forehead. The fans are powered from the Vive’s top-mounted USB port (which sits in the recessed area underneath the breakaway top section, near the other ports). It also includes a neat, accessible on/off switch mounted over the top head strap.

“We experimented with countless fan types and build iteration after iteration of prototypes that focus on piping air into the headset,” says Tony Tran, co-designer of ViveNchill, “It didn’t take long to realise that most user experience problems with dry eyes, high noise levels and low air flow. In the end, we discovered that dissipating the heat generated across the forehead provided a much more substantial benefit than forcing air into the headset itself.”

An interesting solution indeed and one, if I’m honest, I’m a tad sceptical of without having the benefit of trying it out. Cooling is only delivered to the top of the head, which sounds ineffective on the face of it (sorry). That said, assisting with heat dissipation across areas of blood flow around the area does make some sense to me, and if it does work, this could be a real game changer for those living in warmer climates or those VR user who like to exert themselves while immersed. We’ve been offered a review unit, so will try to see for ourselves if this is effective and let you know.

RedRotor are aiming for a low retail price of $25-32 for ViveNchill, with the fans specced to run at less than 23db, a level you won’t ever notice once immersed. At that price point, it may be worth a punt regardless. To that end, we’ll let you know when the Kickstarter goes live.

Knuckles, Valve’s unique VR motion controller, is already in the hands of select developers who are no doubt designing ways to use the controller’s 5-finger tracking. In the video published by Zulubo Productions, we get a better look at just what Knuckles can do.

The demo, first seen in a Knuckles developer guide, is designed to let devs understand the controllers’ tracking capabilities, and what sorts of fine manipulation Knuckles provides users in a virtual setting.

With plenty of objects to suspend in mid-air with an anti-gravity machine, the demo lets you get used to picking up and manipulating physics objects with each finger, and use your individual fingers to poke at flat, screen-based UI.

To grab something, pinch your index finger and thumb together. You don’t have to click the trigger or touchpad, or even touch the controller. When both fingers contact the object you’re trying to pick up, you’ll grab it. You can also grab things using your other fingers against your palm, but this is difficult unless the object is cylindrical.

Using a single finger to reliably pick something up may not sound like a technical revelation, but it isn’t so much about what a few extra fingers can do physically, but rather about creating greater ‘hand presence’, or when your subconscious accepts the digital representations as ‘real enough’. Check out more about how Knuckles does it here.

At E3 this month we learned that the intriguing multiplayer mode of Lone Echo will be spun out into its own game called Echo Arena. While both Lone Echo and Echo Arena launch on July 20th, the latter is in open beta for this weekend only, available now.

The Echo Arena open beta runs until June 25th at 8:00PM PT and is available to download now on the Oculus store, Touch controllers are required. The game is a five vs. five match where players floating around in zero-G attempt to score a disc in the opponent’s goal.

Over at the Oculus blog, the company explores the game’s controls and offers a few gameplay tips for Echo Arena:

Practice, practice, practice. Rather than flying head-on into a match, take a second to gather your bearings and practice some moves in the lobby. Rehearse the basics, hang out with other players, and try some more challenging moves like tracking the disc, throwing while moving, and quickly changing directions.

Your best defense is full-contact offense. There’s nothing like a swift punch to temporarily take an opponent out of commission. Hold down both triggers and protect your facemask to block an incoming punch and stun your attacker!

Catapult yourself to victory! Sometimes the fastest way around the arena is to hitch a ride on another player—you can even launch yourself off of an opponent you just stunned with a punch to the face.

The Echo Arena open beta also offers a key opportunity for aspiring VR E-sports players to practice ahead of the upcoming ESL ‘VR Challenger League’ in which the game will one of two VR titles where players will compete for a $200,000 prize pool.

Following the beta, Echo Arena will launch on July 20th and be free for a limited time.

As part of the Steam Summer Sale, HTC is offering a rare $50 discount on the Vive headset, along with a $50 Steam gift card to capitalize on VR deals during the sale. The bundle also includes the recently released Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and two older VR games.

If you’re looking to buy a Vive, this is likely the best official deal you’re going to find before the holiday season. HTC has been rather protective of the $800 price of the Vive, telling us recently that they believe the headset justifies the cost by offering the leading room-scale experience.

The Steam Sale Vive discount, which is valid through July 7th, drops the cost of the headset by $50 and nets you a $50 Steam gift card to buy content. The package also includes a one month free trial of Viveport Subscription, and a bundle of VR games: Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017), Richie’s Plank Experience (2016), and Everest VR (2016).

HTC says it’s a $928 value for $750. This particular sale is only available directly from HTC, and the company says the specifics of the deal may vary by region.

As part of the Steam Summer Sale, HTC is offering sales on a number of Vive Studios titles, and is also reflecting those deals on their own Viveport platform:

• Virtual Sports – 75% off ($19.99 -> $4.99)
  • Steam
  • Viveport
• Arcade Saga – 75% off ($19.99 -> $4.99)
  • Steam
  • Viveport
• Remembering Pearl Harbor – 75% off ($9.99 ->$2.49)
  • Steam
  • Viveport
• Knockout League – 40% off ($19.99 -> $11.99)
  • Steam
  • Viveport
• MakeVR – 75% off ($19.99 -> $4.99)
  • Viveport

In February, ZeniMax filed an injunction to request the worldwide blocking of sales of products that use Oculus software, which includes both Rift and Gear VR hardware, following a recent high-profile court case against Facebook/Oculus. According to a Bloomberg report, the hearing was held on Tuesday, where Oculus’ lawyers fought the ban, which has so far not seen a ruling.

Oculus’ lawyers argued that the injunction “would serve no one but ZeniMax, who would use it only as leverage to try to extract money from Oculus” and that it “would create a windfall for ZeniMax while detracting from the public’s enjoyment of Oculus’s groundbreaking products”.

They noted that ZeniMax’s requested re-write of the Oculus code base would be “lengthy, burdensome, and costly”, requiring the hiring of “clean-room engineers to make myriad changes not just to the code fragments ZeniMax presented at trial, but to numerous other segments of interrelated and interdependent code.”

ZeniMax, on the other hand, pushed the damage demand from $500 million to $1 billion. A summary of the hearings following the initial jury verdict is available (via subscription) at Law360.

According to Bloomberg, US District Judge Ed Kinkeade encouraged lawyers representing both sides to reach a settlement, and the hearing ended without a ruling. Our detailed breakdown on the ZeniMax vs Oculus lawsuit explains why the complexities of technology copyright infringement cases can drag on indefinitely.

Spherical YouTube videos with over 1,000 views now include ‘360° Heatmaps’ within the Analytics section of the Creator Studio. The new feature provides a visual representation of low to high attention areas of the video, helping to inform content creators of what aspects of a 360-degree scene are engaging viewers the most.

YouTube has supported the viewing of spherical videos in VR since 2015, adding features such as stereoscopic 3D, live streaming, and spatial audio along the way. Google’s Daydream VR platform sparked a further push for 360-degree video, encouraging YouTubers to create content with their Jump program, and they’ve also attempted to help creators acclimatise to the unique challenges of recording in this format, offering some tips and best practices.

Further assistance is found in the Creator Studio, with 360° Heatmaps adding to the wide range of existing analytics tools available to all YouTube content creators. According to YouTube’s Creator Blog, “you’ll be able to see exactly what parts of your video are catching a viewer’s attention and how long they’re looking at a specific part of the video”.

As the feature applies to any 360-degree video, heatmap data is generated from all views, regardless of what device is being used. This means that some data will come from the orientation tracking in VR headsets, but a significant percentage will represent users without headsets, viewing a 360-degree video on their mobile device, either physically turning around or swiping the screen, or even using a regular browser, panning the view around with a pointer. As people are likely to engage with content in a slightly different way with their head compared to flicking around a screen, the heatmaps can be sorted by device.

The YouTube team has presented some early findings from using this tool, namely that people spend 75% of their time looking forwards, within the front 90 degrees, but many of most popular videos prompted the viewer to look around more, with almost 20% of views being behind them. They also suggest giving viewers “a few seconds before jumping into the action”, probably due to the randomly scattered data over the start of videos as people fumble to get their VR headset on and comfortable, and to familiarize themselves with their new virtual surroundings.