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Mare has launched for PC - a somewhat mediocre game but still a nice and relaxing experience

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Mare first arrived for the Quests, and has just been released for PC - this trailer shows the new PC version:

 

 

The PC version has been greatly enhanced, and although poly levels look similar in screenshots, devs say the PC version has a much higher polygon count too:

 

"The PC version will feature a whole new level of visual fidelity including real-time lightning among other improvements making it an even more engrossing experience to savor in virtual reality"

Source: https://www.visiontrick.com/mare-pc-vr/

 

" [...] graphics were revamped for the PC version, with much higher polycounts, extra details, real-time shadows, and also a much higher eye resolution."

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1875560/discussions/0/3276939184060132903/

 

Seems like the devs and/or Oculus have abandoned new PCVR games, so just like Cosmonious High (the new game from the makers of Job and Vacation Simulator) owners of Oculus hmds can only find the PC version on Steam, and not in the Rift Store - and have to use Steam drivers, because neither Mare nor Cosmonious High support native Oculus drivers, sadly. Find Mare here - on sale for a few more days:

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1875560/Mare/

 

Most Quest ports, where few changes were made for PCVR, I can play using res 400 - 500% with the Index - corresponding to an utterly insane 40 - 45 mill pixels per image, because the RTX 3090 is about as fast as 30 Adreno 650 gpus (Adreno 650 is a gpu made for phones and is part of the XR2 Soc). So I started Mare up using res 500% - but that did not work well, lol. Then tried 400%, still not solid 90 fps - then res 300%, and 250% - but I had to crawl all the way down to res 200% before getting solid 90 fps. So devs did do something to the PC version - and the light does look great:

 

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Realtime lighting in the PCVR version - note how much light the sun provides - and the halo surrounding the other light source

 

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The Quest version has much more limited lighting and no dynamic shadows (can't be see in the image)

 

The dynamic shadows in the PC version can be seen here:

 

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Note the shadows cast by the cables and the trees, the wire shadows can easily be seen in the lower left quadrant - and note the shadow res too, shadows are very detailed

 

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The Quest version has no dynamic shadows cast by cables or trees - and when the Quest version has shadows, these have extremely poor resolution - but the devs still made a great job with the Quest version

 

The Quest version is only 950MB, while the PC version at 4.2GB is nearly 5 times bigger (Steam says the PC version is 5GB, but I think the game was 4.2GB after installing the game).

 

The world is quite dead, but did get to see some horses - no doubt the Quest could not handle more lifeforms or npcs. The gameplay is extremely simple (point and click, find the right path), at least in the start. Not sure this qualifies as a game, feels more like a simple interactive art experience.

My rating 7/10 (for those not caring about graphics, this may be a 3/10 rating for the ultra-simple gameplay).

 

I took a few shots - Index res 200%:

 

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Note the dynamic shadows on the horses and more - and the game shows my Index controller 😉 

 

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Some say the game is much like Ico - but I never owned a console

 

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Hard to catch the nice lighting and fog effects - but I tried 🙂

 

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Some kind of Steampunk dragon arising - see its detailed shadow on the ground

 

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See the light and halo - in the game you point and click to teleport between those - that's more or less the core gameplay - no free locomotion, only teleport

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

6 REPLIES 6

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

I stand somewhat corrected - Mare will arrive in the Rift Store later - and will be cross-buy - the devs just wrote:

 

"If you own the Quest Version you should automatically own the Oculus windows store version which its release is imminent, and its the same game as the SteamVR version."

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1875560/discussions/0/3276939184060132903/

 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Thanks for the cross-buy tip mate.  Since it's going to be on Rift store soon I bought the Quest version on sale today.  Actually the graphics are pretty darn good on the standalone Q2.  I spent a few relaxing hours on this today and only finished 3 chapters so far.  I think there are 7 chapters total.  Certainly not a game for everyone but I kinda like it so far.  I'm sure the PCVR version will look even better.  If it ever goes on sale at the Steam store I may pick up a copy to play with my amoled Vive Pro.  Pretty sure it would look even more amazing with amoled screens, lol!  Thanks again mate and cheers.

 

Edit;  I saw it was still on sale on Steam for a few $'s less than I paid on sale at the Quest store (aud$22 vs $25).  I tried it out with my Vive Pro and like your index, 200% visuals was about the comfortable limit for 90fps.  Actually I was a little disappointed that the amoled screens did not seem to give as good results as I thought they would.  I think that this game may have been optimised for lcd screens.  Don't get me wrong it looked very good but not quite what I'm used to seeing with my Vive Pro.  I also tried the Steam version with my Q2 using Air Link and except for the smaller FOV I actually thought the clarity looked a bit better and I did not notice the fog quite as much.  Oh well, I guess ya can't win them all, lol!  Anyway, I've applied for a Steam refund and I'll just wait for the Rift store version to come out.

i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

The devs also confirmed working on native Oculus drivers for the Steam version, and I've passed the 2 hours mark, so I'll be keeping the Steam version 😉

 

I noticed the game is already set to high eye resolution, so res 200% may be much higher, since high eye res may force res 150 - 200 % in the game. So maybe SteamVR res in that game really is res 300 - 400% (in-game res x SteamVR res), the game does look very sharp.

 

I guess you may be right with the lcd optimization, the game does look great with lcd, even dark places.

 

I think I'm in the last chapter, but there may be different endings depending on how many hidden items you've collected. Not sure I'll try to find them all, lol.

 

Some did not like the teleport, but the game could be great to show guests new to VR, who might be prone to nausea. The controls are also extremely simple, easy to use if you never tried VR before. And I do like how relaxing the game is 🙂

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Just before the game ends, it kinda opens up - I just wish this level of puzzles was introduced earlier. After finishing the game you can go back to find hidden items - and some may require a lot of thinking to collect. So you could say the game really starts after it has ended, lol 😉

 

Took a few more shots - first of all, I do love the light 😍

 

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The fog effects are nice too:

 

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Some steampunk machines are impressive:

 

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I would have loved a more beautiful girl - we got the low-poly Quest girl with no fingers or toes:

 

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Other VR games have shown that it's quite possible to make really nice girls in VR, like: 

 

 

The girl in Last Labyrinth who you're trying to protect (just like the girl in Mare - this shot is taken while playing Last Labyrinth): 

 

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Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Mare has just launched in the Rift Store - might be the only way to get native Oculus driver support:

 

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1269203056439779

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

@RuneSR2  I got this from the Rift store yesterday and it is indeed cross-buy so since I already had the Q2 version I just needed to download it for free. 

 

As you would expect, it's much nicer to play the PCVR version.  The Q2 version is pretty good and takes up about 1Gb of disk space.  The Rift version takes up about 4Gb of disk space and has much more detailed textures and dynamic shadowing.  Looks fantastic with my Q2/rtx3090 wireless with Air Link.  The clarity and lack of SDE with my Q2 is very impressive imho.  Helps that I'm using a 3090.  Hard to compare apples to apples with my Vive Pro but I'd say the resolution with my Q2 seems about the same as my VP1 at 200% visuals in SteamVR and even then, my Q2 has much less SDE.  This game is still a fun little time waster, lol!  Cheers.

 

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1269203056439779

 

i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers