Lei Fengnet (search "Lei Feng Net" public concern) by: Author Pan Xiang, Harvard Technology co-founder and producer, has many years of game production experience, since 2015, has developed 3 different types of VR games , has won many important awards in the industry. The products have been registered in Daping, Gear VR, Viveport and other platforms, and the major hardware manufacturers, offline experience stores have established a deep relationship. Currently developing games for PS VR.
VR games are basically the same as traditional 3D games in the development process. Current mainstream 3D engines all support VR. As long as the traditional 3D games are slightly adjusted, it is easy to modify a VR game.
However, this modification is not simply a matter of splitting the 3D traditional game screens. Even if the core gameplay is completely suitable for VR games, it needs to be redesigned. The main differences are in the following areas:
The first is the observation method: traditional games are screen games. The content of the game is presented on a fixed-size screen. The player observes the world through the camera. The camera determines what the player can see. In the VR environment there is no concept of a screen. Players observe the world directly with their own eyes. Although the concept of the camera still exists, the functions that can be used have been weakened.
The second is the mode of operation: Friends who have had experience in game development certainly know that the effect of changes in the way of operation on the game is global. Compared to the changes from PC games to mobile games, VR games have become more thorough. The fundamental difference is that in the VR game environment, the player cannot see the input device.
The third is the hardware bottleneck: VR games must reach 90 frames per second to meet the needs of the human eye. There is also the need for higher rendering, screen resolution, and anti-aliasing effects with dual screen output. Taking Oculus Rift as an example, the screen resolution is 2160x1200, the rendering resolution needs to be increased to 140% in length and width, that is, 3024x1680, plus the frame rate requirement of 90FPS, and the number of pixels to be rendered per second has reached 450 million. Xbox One, PS4 game is 7 times as much as the hardware required for a 4k resolution game.
It can be said that in the VR environment, the game's core gameplay has not changed. But the foundation of the entire game needs to be rebuilt.
Observation methodThe most influential one is the observation part, that is, camera control. There are mainly two types of camera control in traditional games.
1. The camera moves along with the character and is commonly used in first-person and third-person games, like Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed, and various FPS games are all representative of this type.
2, fixed camera position. The character moves freely. It is also the God's point of view. Commonly used in RTS games and MOBA games. For example, if you are familiar with League of Legends, its default perspective is at a fixed position. Of course, in order to meet multiple levels of demand, he also allows players to manually use the table.
In VR games, players and games are integrated because of the immersive experience. The game's perspective is the player's eyes. Moving the camera is equivalent to moving the player's position in the game. Even if you are doing a game of God's perspective, when the player needs to look in a different position, he needs to consider how to move the camera over. Simply copying the traditional game solution will only bring about a bad experience. The most direct consequence is a serious sense of vertigo, which prevents the player from playing the game properly.
We have summarized some common VR game perspective control solutions. It can also be understood as a solution to the way of moving in a VR game.
Fixed: The player is always in a fixed position and does not move. Suitable for VR entry level mini-games.
Constant Speed: Similar to traditional games, it only controls the player's movement speed within a range to avoid serious vertigo.
Cockpit: Use a vehicle as a fixed reference to reduce player vertigo. Common in driving simulation
Orbital: The player moves along a fixed path. Common in various parkour and shooting games.
Conveyance: Players send to a location to move within the game world
Switching: Players can switch between different characters or viewing positions.
Operation methodThe second is the mode of operation. As mentioned before, because the player cannot see the input device, the operation mode of the mouse and keyboard and the touch screen can basically be abandoned. At present, the mainstream operation mode is the fixation operation and the handle. HTC vive also brings with it the input device. In the future, no matter the PC, host or mobile platform, the somatosensory controller will become the standard for VR input.
Regardless of the platform's VR games or applications, due to the objective obstacle of not being able to see the input device, the operation mode of the VR game must be consistent with human intuition behavior and should not be too complicated. For VR, the best solution is to make the player's movements part of the input method.
Changes in the way of operation will inevitably bring about changes in UI design. Compared to traditional games, there is no concept of screen space in VR games. Traditional game button UI design no longer applies.
At present, many VR games often use a HUD design similar to the Iron Man's mask. The information that players need to know is displayed in the player's visual field in the form of a package. It looks very convenient, but the drawbacks are obvious. First of all, the effective scope of human eyes is limited. Although it may seem convenient when placed in front, it will seriously affect the player's observation of the environment. The situation of unclear observation will appear on the surrounding locations such as up, down, left and right. And too close and too far will also affect the UI display effect, and it will also cause the problem of model interpenetration in the scene. So this scheme can only be described as flashy. There are still gaps between concepts and reality.
According to our experience, it is more appropriate to integrate the UI into the scene.
Again borrowing the concepts from the Iron Man movie, putting information on the corresponding props and becoming part of the scene elements can increase the immersion of the game.
Here are some of the practices of our game "Lop Nur Zombie" ( already available for download on viveport):
We have summarized some common UI representations in some VR games. There are usually the following.
Embedded: As the name implies, it embeds the information that needs to be displayed into the scene.
Props: Put the UI into a real model, such as a leaderboard.
Converted to a mode of operation: a lot of UI related to operations, such as picking, opening a backpack, and so on. Can be designed directly to the player's own actions.
Hardware bottleneckFinally talk about the impact of hardware bottlenecks. Since VR provides an unprecedented immersive experience, it requires high image accuracy and smooth running of the game. These two points are in fact contradictory, because the more refined your picture is, the greater your rendering pressure will be. It is very difficult to achieve the simultaneous rendering of 90 eyes.
Therefore, if you are doing a mobile VR, a PC, or a host VR, you must make a picture that rivals traditional games. At present, the mainstream hardware performance is far from enough.
There are usually three ways to solve a problem:
Improve Hardware Specifications: This is nothing to say, is to encourage users to save money.
Reduce picture quality: Not blindly reduce the picture. Be targeted. Find the optimal solution for cost effectiveness.
Epic's showdown VR demo provides a good example. In areas that consume performance such as light and shadow, particle effects, and late stages, they are handled in a comparatively controlled manner. All dynamic lighting and real-time shadows are cut off and the particle effect is replaced with a model. The highlighted parts such as characters and scenes still use relatively high production specifications. It finally showed great results.
Stylized: The monument valley production team developed a puzzle game called “land's end†for Samsung Gear VR. It abandoned the need for a lot of detail in the realism and adopted a fresh and bright low-poly style. It did not pursue truth but instead focused on expression. Make people shine. From the art design to avoid the lack of mobile platform hardware performance issues.
To sum up, the precondition for the development of VR games is to develop a 3D game, and then to improve VR on the basis of 3D games. VR games focus on experience. Perspectives, operations, optimizations for hardware, etc. are the three core elements that affect the basic experience of VR. Because of the market environment, domestic development teams are often good at numerical and system design, lacking sufficient attention to the part of creating basic experience, and are accustomed to copying a ready-made solution, which is not feasible in VR games. If you do not solve the basic experience of the game and enter the game design, it will have a catastrophic impact on the subsequent development of the game, so it must be repeated.