We found that sitting in a cockpit gives the brain a static frame of reference and the familiar sensation of sitting in a car.Īnother factor which we found could often induce simulator sickness is acceleration. Based on our early tests and demos, people tended to get sick more easily playing games in which you stand and walk around. Simulator sickness was a concern from the start. In order to lock on an enemy ship, you simply rotate your head to look at the target… then press the trigger and unleash hell! The missile locking system was our answer to that. Most gamers are accustomed to a fixed view, and we needed some way to “deprogram” that behavior and get them looking around the virtual world. Likewise, having static UI elements on the camera view won’t work, so almost all of the in-game UI is done with elements placed in the actual game world.Īdditionally, the use of VR influenced design decisions such as weapon systems. These elements are traditionally placed at the edge of the screen, but this does not work when you are constantly moving your head around and have a large field of view. One of the early challenges was implementing UI in virtual reality. Game designĭesigning a game for virtual reality posed a lot of interesting challenges, and in many cases there weren't any known "best practices." We did a lot of trial-and-error to see what worked and what didn't. Every day we tested different ideas that were quickly prototyped and then working later the same day, which allowed us to quickly focus on a few core features. Getting the kits really kicked EVE-VR development into high gear, and the game took shape at a very rapid pace. But we were blown away! Sure, the resolution was low, as expected, but we had prepared for more distortion, and the Rift was definitely delivering on the immersion factor. Initially things progressed slowly as ideas bounced around, but when we received our first two Rift developer kits at the end of February, we were as excited as kids opening Christmas presents! Back then, the only Rift experience was supplied by Oculus, who gave us an early version of the now-famous Tuscany demo. That idea just checked all the boxes, and who hasn´t wanted to experience first-person space flight in EVE? We brought up many genres and styles, but in the end decided to make a game in the EVE universe where players could fly fighter spaceships. We started meeting over beers and discussing what sorts of game ideas would be fun to make in VR, and what would work well. Team EVE-VR from left to right: CCP Nimbus, CCP Lúxus Lúlli, CCP Lion, CCP TerrorShark, CCP Phor, CCP Masheen, CCP Thoughtscape, CCP BunnyVirus, CCP Karuck, CCP FoxFour, CCP WhiteNoiseTrash, CCP Konflikt. From there, a group within CCP started forming as we were joined by people who had previous experience with Unity, and even a colleague who used to work for one of the VR giants back in "the (g)olden days." A lot of people helped us along the way, and for that we are very grateful. I discovered that CCP Thoughtscape had also backed Palmer’s Kickstarter, and we began discussing what we could do with this new tech. I work for a great company full of geeks, so inevitably my coworkers were interested in this technology as well, and I later learned that CCP actually backed the Kickstarter in a big way. Soon after, I wanted to pull together a team to start experimenting with game design for VR, since the developer kits were supposed to ship by the end of the year. When Palmer launched his company, Oculus VR, I immediately backed its Kickstarter campaign, and continued dreaming. Keeping up with what Carmack was doing, I became aware of a tinkerer by the name of Palmer Luckey. Could this be it? Could we finally be seeing the dawn of the virtual reality we had been waiting for these last two decades? I certainly hoped so, and I was excited. But after reading everything he had to say and watching multiple interviews, I could tell by his enthusiasm that something was going on. It all started in June 2012, with John Carmack showing off a crazy VR prototype at E3, and saying that virtual reality was coming back. We had something a little different to show off at this year's Fanfest: a fully functional virtual reality game prototype called EVE-VR! The game placed you in the cockpit of a fighter, engaging enemies in intense dogfights across the EVE Online® universe.ĮVE-VR sparked a lot of interest from both players and the press, so we decided to write a devblog explaining how this idea came about, and what it was like developing a game for virtual reality.
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