The Index thread (please keep to subject)

Whoaa. I asked the question awhile back when I saw that it was listed as Index supported game if it was still alive... Guess I got my answer. It's still one of my favorite VR games. 

pyroth309 said:

Whoaa. I asked the question awhile back when I saw that it was listed as Index supported game if it was still alive... Guess I got my answer. It's still one of my favorite VR games. 

Yes, seems like reviews are amazing on Steam - but it looks like a Quest game  :#   :D Sorry, I mean it looks like a 144 Hz game!  o:) B)

"Seriously one of the best VR experiences I have had to date. Combat and collision mechanics are fantastic. Love the variation of weapons and feel of the environment. Can't recommend this game enough."

"One of the best hack and slash games available for VR (or really, one of the best VR experiences available, probably). The combat is responsive and intuitive, as is the item pickup and inventory system (unlike many VR games that hide that stuff behind a bunch of clunky menus displayed in world space)."

"One of the original VR greats. If you're a big fan of fantasy adventure games: You will want this game if you have a VR headset, I guarantee."

Then again, a 144 Hz game can't be bad... Hmmmm.... ;) Note that the 3 reviews from Steam were the 3 latest reviews, one from a few days ago, I wasn't cherry-picking great reviews.

Have they sorted out smooth turning and free locomotion with that game? I bought it years ago but hated teleporting everywhere.

snowdog said:

Have they sorted out smooth turning and free locomotion with that game? I bought it years ago but hated teleporting everywhere.

Just bought it, it's a 582MB download, I'll let you know soon  o:) I was thinking better buy it now, because in 2 weeks it may no longer be $20  B)
Also bought Assetto Corsa, but's that kinda boring - I love good RPGs much more than racing sims. 

snowdog said:

Have they sorted out smooth turning and free locomotion with that game? I bought it years ago but hated teleporting everywhere.

There's full locomotion, but no smooth turning, teleport is still there and needed in some locations. Controls are ok, but could be much improved. It does feel like a Quest game, very low polys and low-res textures, and I got solid 90 fps using ss 2.0 (SteamVR = 200% res). The game design isn't bad though - also knowing that only one person made this game. Mage's Tale did impress me much more though, and Karnage Chronicles also feels way ahead of this game. That said the sword fighting mechanics did impress me - felt much better than Shadow Legend, maybe Vanishing Realms has some of the best VR sword fighting mechanics - the bow did feel mediocre compared to In Death and Sacralith. 
Unless the game is massively updated I doubt this game will be any kind of launch title for the Index. I've only played the game for like 30 minutes and just got the first bow - need to play it some more to get a solid impression. I think I understand why Pyroth309 likes the game, it does feel like a game made with true love and deep passion - despite the developer's limited resources. 

RuneSR2 said:

snowdog said:

Have they sorted out smooth turning and free locomotion with that game? I bought it years ago but hated teleporting everywhere.

There's full locomotion, but no smooth turning, teleport is still there and needed in some locations. Controls are ok, but could be much improved. It does feel like a Quest game, very low polys and low-res textures, and I got solid 90 fps using ss 2.0 (SteamVR = 200% res). The game design isn't bad though - also knowing that only one person made this game. Mage's Tale did impress me much more though, and Karnage Chronicles also feels way ahead of this game. That said the sword fighting mechanics did impress me - felt much better than Shadow Legend, maybe Vanishing Realms has some of the best VR sword fighting mechanics - the bow did feel mediocre compared to In Death and Sacralith. 
Unless the game is massively updated I doubt this game will be any kind of launch title for the Index. I've only played the game for like 30 minutes and just got the first bow - need to play it some more to get a solid impression. I think I understand why Pyroth309 likes the game, it does feel like a game made with true love and deep passion - despite the developer's limited resources. 

You're also comparing a 3 year old game to games that were inspired by it. :smile: Quest was still a pipe dream when Vanishing Realms came out. I love Zelda and it is in that vein. 

I'm glad to see it getting some updates as when I first played it, it left quite a mark on me and it has been neglected for too long. This update should have happened 2 years ago but better late than never. It was the first VR RPG around that wasn't junk. Karnage Chronicles and such came later. 

Yup, I really enjoyed what little of it I played but the teleportation ruined it for me. I'll give it another go now there's free locomotion.

vanishing Realms was good at the time as no other RPG was out. Skyrim VR launching killed it dead though.

Not sure if just me but this one made me feel a bit pukey after playing for a while?

pyroth309 said:

You're also comparing a 3 year old game to games that were inspired by it. :smile: Quest was still a pipe dream when Vanishing Realms came out. I love Zelda and it is in that vein. 

Fully agree - it's like going back in time to see some of the earliest VR games. Still - today - the game is getting a lot of great reviews - that's why I made a quick comparison with other similar games. 
Actually I was enjoying Skyrim a lot the other day - I don't have much time to invest in the game - so it's more a walking simulator to me, lol. But even unmodded Skyrim isn't that bad - with everything maxed out, the view distance is quite awesome and it really feels like a living a breathing world. 
I'm thinking that Skyrim - and maybe an updated version of Vanishing Realms in 144 Hz (especially if the game opens up later, which screenshots indicate, current locations are quite small and restricted) - could be something to look forward to on the Index.
Also Vanishing Realms may be fun for kids - at least the first battles aren't hard - and you don't get lost like in Skyrim. I'm planning to let my 7-year-old try Vanishing Realms later - he does like Karnage Chronicles, but it may be too scary and too hard for young kids.

Something big also just happened for The Talos Principle - a massive 6GB patch. And no one knows why - the devs say nothing - but many speculate it has something to do with the Index:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/552440/discussions/0/1637536330462252657/

But 6GB for Index hand tracking makes no sense in my mind. I did try the patched game yesterday. After the patch the SteamVR version no longer could be started from Oculus Home, but when first starting SteamVR and then launching the game everything worked fine. I did notice that the game ran worse than usually, and checking OTT ss was 2.24, while it normally was 2.0 for my setup. So check that res hasn't suddenly increased if you notice any slowdown after the patch. Reducing the res in-game slightly I was back to ss 2.0, so no problem. I didn't notice anything new after patching the game - but I haven't played it in months. 

But it did result in a small discovery - that you can see difference between ss 2.0 and 2.5, lol. I found a gate like this:



Then I moved back until the grid was very hard/impossible to see - and then I tried to increase ss. Going from ss 2.0 to 2.25 or even 2.5 the grid/gate suddenly reappeared or you could see it more clearly (make out individual bars again). The performance impact made it not worthwhile, but I think the visual impact was way greater than increasing anisotrophic texture filtering from 8 to 16  B) Also it easily demonstrates the greatly increased 3D depth (how far you can see clearly) when increasing ss.  
In this game ss 2.0 works great on my rig, but I have to get down to ss 1.4 to get constant 90 fps (running everything on Ultra :blush: ). The SteamVR version gives you the ability to use Oculus specific rendering for optimal performance (thus buying the game in the Oculus Store may provide limited performance benefits in this game). Textures and graphics are truly awesome in this game - but I also just played some Vanishing Realms, so the contrast was truly immense, lol. 
Talos still is hard on the eyes, seems to lack some antialiasing even when using ss 2.0 - or higher. This is one game I'm really looking forward to try on the Index - more res and subpixels may be god-sent in this game.