6 ms·

Eve: Valkyrie Alpha – Hands-On with an Oculus Rift app

49 points by evo_9 11y ago

noobie 11y ago
I can't wait for the day I try that!
marricks 11y ago
As their first game Eve:Online is a very complicated game it is encouraging to know they are thinking about casuals from the beginning, > "We don't yet know who our audience is. It would be crazy to assume everyone who buys an Oculus is a hardcore gamer; I don't think that's the truth," Willans said. "We're going to have a really diverse cross section of people who are buying the technology." I am most excited about this game so far and have tried another space sim in the DK2 and it was COMPLEX (elite dangerous). Not just because of the game but because moving in 3D space first person is not first nature to many... Even flying around though, not knowing what I was doing, was one of the most immersive fun experiences I had. As long as they have a way to get casuals to know the basics and have fun play they should be a great start to VR.
- gh02t 11y ago
  > Not just because of the game but because moving in 3D space first person is not first nature to many On a mostly unrelated note, this is one good marker of good space opera/sci-fi - how well it gives you a sense of where space ships are positioned and moving relative to each other at vast distances. Being able to communicate how people move through space in writing is extremely difficult. It'll be interesting to see how this translates into VR games... if you ever play EVE you'll notice that basically all movement is performed relative to other objects and not in terms of absolute directions. I imagine communicating a sense of spatial position is going to be an very challenging part of games like Valkyrie.
  - ibelimb 11y ago
    The enemy's gate is down!
- Zikes 11y ago
  Is it really possible to have a casual Oculus Rift gamer, though? The Rift itself is $600 (which I think is entirely reasonable, by the way) but in order to drive the Rift properly you also need a computer capable of producing TWO simultaneous (minimum) 1080p+ 90fps outputs, and even a lot of off-the-shelf gaming PCs can't really do that without sacrificing a great deal of graphical quality. That might be what "casual" means for VR for a while, graphics that hearken back to the early ages of 3D on consoles.
  - VikingCoder 11y ago
    Some people can spend lots of money, but not lots of time. Which makes them a "casual" player, rather than a "dedicated" player. I'm in that boat. I can spend $1500 on a Rift... but I might only get to play with it 7 hours a week, or less.
  - mdorazio 11y ago
    On the hardware side, no, a person dropping $600 for a Rift + $900+ on a desktop to run it is unlikely to be a casual gamer. I think the parent comment is referring to "casual" in the context of game style, though. EVE Online has a very steep learning curve and can sometimes devolve into life-sucking "spreadsheets in space" gameplay, which does not appeal to people who just want to jump in a game and have fun shooting stuff. E:V seems more casual friendly in the sense that you can learn to play it quickly and have fun in matches without needing to invest dozens of hours in mastering the metagame.
  - ekianjo 11y ago
    Its for the 1% casual gamer. Indeed not sure if that market exists, the richer folks tend to buy Macs instead. In a sense PSVR will probably be most people s first VR experience.
  - metafunctor 11y ago
    I think there are quite a lot of people out there who are maybe a bit older (30s or 40s), can easily drop a couple of thousand on new toys every now and then, but have very limited time to play with said toys.
  - 11y ago
- sleepybrett 11y ago
  The game they are bundling is NOT EVE:Online, it's EVE:Valkyrie. It's a dogfighting game, think wing commander, not 'The Universe as a Spreadsheet'.
  - david-given 11y ago
    Is Valkyrie tied into the EVE MMORPG the way that Dust 514 was going to be, or is it a strictly standalone game? I see no mention either way.
    - marricks 11y ago
      It seems like it, which I think will be super fun! They mentioned there will be microtransactions in game for cosmetic things and xp boosters. Ain't no need for xp w/o rpg skills!
    - rhokstar 11y ago
      It would be awesome to have all EVE (Dust, Online, Valkyrie) games in a simultaneous environment. I think there have been no other games like this before?
  - marricks 11y ago
    I know, made it more clear in the post.
nilkn 11y ago
Just to add some context (the article was a little misleading about this): E:V is not strictly speaking a Rift exclusive. It's also coming to PlayStation VR. Presumably though the Rift together with a qualifying PC will offer an E:V experience with higher fidelity and detail than PSVR. It's also highly likely that the Rift will launch before PSVR. It's also only packaged with Rift pre-orders, not all Rift purchases. Lucky's Tale is the game which is uniquely packaged with all Rift purchases, including but not limited to pre-orders. Lucky's Tale is also (to my knowledge) a true Rift exclusive.
- drewrv 11y ago
  Will E:V come to the HTC Vive?
  - dogma1138 11y ago
    Most likely they will be compatible, oculus powers GearVR so that compatibility is pretty much guaranteed but considering that in all cases the GPU is still doing most of the work I don't see a reason why there should be an issue. Controller specific things might be "exclusive" but those should a) be easily ported over with user config and b) wouldn't matter much for EVE:V since you'll be using a HOTAS setup any how the only thing that really needs to work is the head tracking.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
meeper16 11y ago
Investing in VR- https://gfycat.com/SafeWatchfulAmbushbug https://gfycat.com/SafeWatchfulAmbushbug
mdorazio 11y ago
I wonder why the dev team opted not to put more information in the HUD and instead forces players to look at in-cockpit controls. Seems a bit odd since HUD info has been a part of modern fighter aircraft helmets for years, and it's even cropping up in cars now.
- metafunctor 11y ago
  The articles explains that you don't, in fact, need to look at the controls all the time. You can fly by feel.
- dshankar 11y ago
  HUDs (i.e. face-locked user interface elements, as opposed to world-space UI like on the cockpit surfaces) can cause discomfort in VR. One reason is the vergence accommodation conflict. Focusing on objects inches away from your face is also difficult and painful with the current generation of VR headsets due to the fixed focal plane (1.5m in DK2, infinity in others). I've played EVE:Valkyrie for a few hours in the Rift, and the cockpit-based UI is extremely comfortable.
techdmn 11y ago
I found the bit about looking down at the console in the ship to be interesting. I had a bit of a similar experience after playing racing games for years, then finally getting on the track in real life on a motorcycle. In a racing game you can pretty easily keep an eye on the speedometer to set corner entry speeds, etc. In real life you simply do not have time to take your eyes off the track and look down at the speedometer. You have to do it by feel. It's a very important skill for real life racers, and something you could never develop to any accuracy from a tv screen - a sense of your actual speed.
- santaclaus 11y ago
  Presumably these space pilots would have helmets, and if we have spaceships we would probably have reasonable in-helmet AR technology, thus obviating the need for a speedometer built into the cockpit...
  - dogma1138 11y ago
    Well presumably VR is a better solution for space navigation than having a windowed cockpit if we're on that subject already :)
jbob2000 11y ago
That was a pretty thin article, I gather there's not too much to say at this point. I used to play Eve heavily, but I no longer play because it is too time consuming alongside a full time job. I'm hoping that Valkyrie will allow me to get back into that universe without the "wait and grind" that is present in Eve Online. The problem that Valkyrie is going to face is that dogfighting in space gets boring fast. There's a great free-to-play game called Star Conflict that is pretty much Valkyrie, minus the VR stuff, and I had a great time with it for a few weeks. But after the initial "lasers and explosions" excitement wore off and once I got comfortable moving around in 3-space, it became very repetitive. I really hope Valkyrie has something more than just VR dogfighting because flying in circles, playing the "who-can-get-behind-who-first" game gets old fast.
- ansible 11y ago
  I really hope Valkyrie has something more than just VR dogfighting because flying in circles, playing the "who-can-get-behind-who-first" game gets old fast. What made the Descent series so much fun was that it took place in an enclosed environment, with obstacles and other environmental effects to consider. My ultimate "space sim" would take place in Karl Schroeder's Virga environment, which is a giant air-filled bubble in zero-g. Speed and sight-distance can be realistic, air resistance makes maneuvering fun, and you can have lots of obstacles if desired. Though I'm hoping that there will be some decent plain old flight simulators coming out with Rift support. That would be a good reason to upgrade my gaming system.
  - Fuzzwah 11y ago
    Hardwar was kind of like your "ultimate space sim": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwar_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwar_(video_game) War Thunder has good support for the rift: https://share.oculus.com/app/war-thunder https://share.oculus.com/app/war-thunder
  - jensnockert 11y ago
    Considering the physics of EVE: Online, I would be surprised if what you're asking for isn't roughly what EVE: Valkyrie will be. Due to space-magic in the engines every ship pretty much acts like there is some sort of fluid filling all of space, and EVE is surprisingly non-empty when it comes to obstacles.

49 points by evo_9 11y ago

I can't wait for the day I try that!

As their first game Eve:Online is a very complicated game it is encouraging to know they are thinking about casuals from the beginning, > "We don't yet know who our audience is. It would be crazy to assume everyone who buys an Oculus is a hardcore gamer; I don't think that's the truth," Willans said. "We're going to have a really diverse cross section of people who are buying the technology." I am most excited about this game so far and have tried another space sim in the DK2 and it was COMPLEX (elite dangerous). Not just because of the game but because moving in 3D space first person is not first nature to many... Even flying around though, not knowing what I was doing, was one of the most immersive fun experiences I had. As long as they have a way to get casuals to know the basics and have fun play they should be a great start to VR.

gh02t 11y ago
> Not just because of the game but because moving in 3D space first person is not first nature to many On a mostly unrelated note, this is one good marker of good space opera/sci-fi - how well it gives you a sense of where space ships are positioned and moving relative to each other at vast distances. Being able to communicate how people move through space in writing is extremely difficult. It'll be interesting to see how this translates into VR games... if you ever play EVE you'll notice that basically all movement is performed relative to other objects and not in terms of absolute directions. I imagine communicating a sense of spatial position is going to be an very challenging part of games like Valkyrie.
- ibelimb 11y ago
  The enemy's gate is down!
Zikes 11y ago
Is it really possible to have a casual Oculus Rift gamer, though? The Rift itself is $600 (which I think is entirely reasonable, by the way) but in order to drive the Rift properly you also need a computer capable of producing TWO simultaneous (minimum) 1080p+ 90fps outputs, and even a lot of off-the-shelf gaming PCs can't really do that without sacrificing a great deal of graphical quality. That might be what "casual" means for VR for a while, graphics that hearken back to the early ages of 3D on consoles.
- VikingCoder 11y ago
  Some people can spend lots of money, but not lots of time. Which makes them a "casual" player, rather than a "dedicated" player. I'm in that boat. I can spend $1500 on a Rift... but I might only get to play with it 7 hours a week, or less.
- mdorazio 11y ago
  On the hardware side, no, a person dropping $600 for a Rift + $900+ on a desktop to run it is unlikely to be a casual gamer. I think the parent comment is referring to "casual" in the context of game style, though. EVE Online has a very steep learning curve and can sometimes devolve into life-sucking "spreadsheets in space" gameplay, which does not appeal to people who just want to jump in a game and have fun shooting stuff. E:V seems more casual friendly in the sense that you can learn to play it quickly and have fun in matches without needing to invest dozens of hours in mastering the metagame.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  Its for the 1% casual gamer. Indeed not sure if that market exists, the richer folks tend to buy Macs instead. In a sense PSVR will probably be most people s first VR experience.
- metafunctor 11y ago
  I think there are quite a lot of people out there who are maybe a bit older (30s or 40s), can easily drop a couple of thousand on new toys every now and then, but have very limited time to play with said toys.
- 11y ago
sleepybrett 11y ago
The game they are bundling is NOT EVE:Online, it's EVE:Valkyrie. It's a dogfighting game, think wing commander, not 'The Universe as a Spreadsheet'.
- david-given 11y ago
  Is Valkyrie tied into the EVE MMORPG the way that Dust 514 was going to be, or is it a strictly standalone game? I see no mention either way.
  - marricks 11y ago
    It seems like it, which I think will be super fun! They mentioned there will be microtransactions in game for cosmetic things and xp boosters. Ain't no need for xp w/o rpg skills!
  - rhokstar 11y ago
    It would be awesome to have all EVE (Dust, Online, Valkyrie) games in a simultaneous environment. I think there have been no other games like this before?
- marricks 11y ago
  I know, made it more clear in the post.

nilkn 11y ago

Just to add some context (the article was a little misleading about this): E:V is not strictly speaking a Rift exclusive. It's also coming to PlayStation VR. Presumably though the Rift together with a qualifying PC will offer an E:V experience with higher fidelity and detail than PSVR. It's also highly likely that the Rift will launch before PSVR. It's also only packaged with Rift pre-orders, not all Rift purchases. Lucky's Tale is the game which is uniquely packaged with all Rift purchases, including but not limited to pre-orders. Lucky's Tale is also (to my knowledge) a true Rift exclusive.

drewrv 11y ago
Will E:V come to the HTC Vive?
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Most likely they will be compatible, oculus powers GearVR so that compatibility is pretty much guaranteed but considering that in all cases the GPU is still doing most of the work I don't see a reason why there should be an issue. Controller specific things might be "exclusive" but those should a) be easily ported over with user config and b) wouldn't matter much for EVE:V since you'll be using a HOTAS setup any how the only thing that really needs to work is the head tracking.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

meeper16 11y ago

Investing in VR- https://gfycat.com/SafeWatchfulAmbushbug https://gfycat.com/SafeWatchfulAmbushbug

mdorazio 11y ago

I wonder why the dev team opted not to put more information in the HUD and instead forces players to look at in-cockpit controls. Seems a bit odd since HUD info has been a part of modern fighter aircraft helmets for years, and it's even cropping up in cars now.

metafunctor 11y ago
The articles explains that you don't, in fact, need to look at the controls all the time. You can fly by feel.
dshankar 11y ago
HUDs (i.e. face-locked user interface elements, as opposed to world-space UI like on the cockpit surfaces) can cause discomfort in VR. One reason is the vergence accommodation conflict. Focusing on objects inches away from your face is also difficult and painful with the current generation of VR headsets due to the fixed focal plane (1.5m in DK2, infinity in others). I've played EVE:Valkyrie for a few hours in the Rift, and the cockpit-based UI is extremely comfortable.

techdmn 11y ago

I found the bit about looking down at the console in the ship to be interesting. I had a bit of a similar experience after playing racing games for years, then finally getting on the track in real life on a motorcycle. In a racing game you can pretty easily keep an eye on the speedometer to set corner entry speeds, etc. In real life you simply do not have time to take your eyes off the track and look down at the speedometer. You have to do it by feel. It's a very important skill for real life racers, and something you could never develop to any accuracy from a tv screen - a sense of your actual speed.

santaclaus 11y ago
Presumably these space pilots would have helmets, and if we have spaceships we would probably have reasonable in-helmet AR technology, thus obviating the need for a speedometer built into the cockpit...
- dogma1138 11y ago
  Well presumably VR is a better solution for space navigation than having a windowed cockpit if we're on that subject already :)

jbob2000 11y ago

That was a pretty thin article, I gather there's not too much to say at this point. I used to play Eve heavily, but I no longer play because it is too time consuming alongside a full time job. I'm hoping that Valkyrie will allow me to get back into that universe without the "wait and grind" that is present in Eve Online. The problem that Valkyrie is going to face is that dogfighting in space gets boring fast. There's a great free-to-play game called Star Conflict that is pretty much Valkyrie, minus the VR stuff, and I had a great time with it for a few weeks. But after the initial "lasers and explosions" excitement wore off and once I got comfortable moving around in 3-space, it became very repetitive. I really hope Valkyrie has something more than just VR dogfighting because flying in circles, playing the "who-can-get-behind-who-first" game gets old fast.

ansible 11y ago
I really hope Valkyrie has something more than just VR dogfighting because flying in circles, playing the "who-can-get-behind-who-first" game gets old fast. What made the Descent series so much fun was that it took place in an enclosed environment, with obstacles and other environmental effects to consider. My ultimate "space sim" would take place in Karl Schroeder's Virga environment, which is a giant air-filled bubble in zero-g. Speed and sight-distance can be realistic, air resistance makes maneuvering fun, and you can have lots of obstacles if desired. Though I'm hoping that there will be some decent plain old flight simulators coming out with Rift support. That would be a good reason to upgrade my gaming system.
- Fuzzwah 11y ago
  Hardwar was kind of like your "ultimate space sim": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwar_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwar_(video_game) War Thunder has good support for the rift: https://share.oculus.com/app/war-thunder https://share.oculus.com/app/war-thunder
- jensnockert 11y ago
  Considering the physics of EVE: Online, I would be surprised if what you're asking for isn't roughly what EVE: Valkyrie will be. Due to space-magic in the engines every ship pretty much acts like there is some sort of fluid filling all of space, and EVE is surprisingly non-empty when it comes to obstacles.