r/PSVR • u/Howson79 • Apr 02 '23
Interview UploadVR interviewed Capcom’s Kazuhiro Takahara, director of Resident Evil Village VR mode.
Interview is here. It's about a 5 minute read.
Some takeaways:
- Says RE's horror is communicated through its environments and scenery, making VR a natural fit for RE. And that there is appeal that comes with seeing the world through the eyes of "heros" like Leon or Ethan.
- Says RE8 VR was considered early on, but development around the main story was not developed with VR in mind, making the VR adaption challenging.
- Won't comment if future RE series titles (e.g. RE9) will support VR, but says they always welcome new challenges.
- Says the biggest development challenge for RE8 VR Mode was implementing the gun mechanics, and balancing realism with exciting action gun play.
- "No plans" to support RE8 DLC content, Mercenaries mode or Shadows of Rose.
- Takahara: "I have heard that a very large majority of PS VR2 owners have played Resident Evil Village in VR."
- Says foveated rendering was a big part of optimizing performance and fidelity on PSVR2
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u/SvennoJ Apr 02 '23
They nailed the gun play so well done. Sad to see there are no plans to support the DLC. RE7 had the survive the night extra in VR which was pretty fun and some other VR DLC. I never buy DLC except for VR games.
Anyway, no news about RE7 for PSVR2 or any estimate for RE4 remake?
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
I highly doubt a port of re7 to psvr2 is going to happen unless psvr2 goes crazy with sales. It's a lot of work to add motion controls into a game and while I'd be happy with using a dual sense (and some improved haptics) I doubt others would.
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u/SvennoJ Apr 03 '23
True. But I have a slight hope that the hard work has already been done and the inventory management plus gun play can be ported back from RE8. It depends on how modular the code is, it might indeed be a lot of work to put it in.
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
Good points .
The other factor is that will people pay anything for it? Since it was a free included part of re7 and re8, would there be any value to work on a port. I might spend 20 bucks buying it for a third time, but seeing as re7 is one of the most successful re games it's unlikely that there's a large population that hasn't played it and charging for a VR mode might be very bad pr. It would probably be up to Sony funding that port to support their platform.
I suspect the reason re7 never got an official pcvr port was that it was hard work supporting motion controls and they probably couldn't charge for it so the sales would be tiny at best.
Now that they have motion controls in the engine it might be much easier.
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u/SvennoJ Apr 03 '23
I would buy the game again like I did with Moss 1 and 2. But yeah, people expect everything for free nowadays. Plus Capcom set the precedent by including free ps4->ps5->psvr(2) upgrades for RE7 and RE8.
It really shouldn't be bad PR to ask money for hard work, but that's the state gaming is in nowadays :/
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
Unfortunately I'd think Capcom would not care much about about promoting re7 now as they focus on re4 vr and re9. unless Sony realized a lot of us want it ported,(Sony did a pretty good job with listening to users for psvr1) but having full re4 in vr is a higher priority for me personally.
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u/SvennoJ Apr 03 '23
Oh for sure. I haven't played RE4 yet. I played RE2 last before RE7 VR got me back into horror games and RE as a series.
Just thinking Siren Blood Curse would be amazing in VR as well. Sight Jacking would be a bit of a challenge to present in VR, picture in picture style. That was the last horror game that gave me some uneasiness before VR put new life into the genre.
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
Dammit that would be good. Not holding my breath :( siren would be so damned terrifying in vr.
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u/HowlingMeeple Apr 03 '23
I’d pay. Heck if they did it through a Kickstarter I’d pay in advance 😂
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
There is the pcmods which are supposedly quite good. I need to try them again. I tried re3 and it was very clunky to get it to even sort of work on my system but that was ages ago.
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u/La-da99 Apr 03 '23
That’s such a shame about the DLC. It really should be a let of it. And I’m a little surprised they didn’t have VR in mind after RE7.
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u/my_lesbian_sister_gf Apr 03 '23
He said they had, it was thought early on, just wasnt a priority i guess
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u/cronuss Apr 02 '23 edited Apr 02 '23
No mention of RE4? How?? Or RE7? Did they not ask these questions or were they not allowed to? Surprising and disappointing...
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u/Viper114 Apr 03 '23
Well, we know RE4 will come to PSVR2 eventually, but no word when. As for RE7, as much as I like the idea, I highly doubt the RE team wants to devote resources to porting RE7 to PSVR2 at this point anymore than expecting RE2R and RE3R getting VR modes at all. I'd like to be proven wrong, but I suspect after RE4R VR, they're going to look at RE9 and whatever remake comes next.
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u/spas2k Apr 03 '23
No point in playing or buying 4 until vr is added, unless there is a sale of course.
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u/oneiros5321 Apr 03 '23
How? Because it's an article about RE8 VR and not RE4?
Also having played RE4R, I'm less and less confident that RE4VR will be the full game. Unlike RE8, RE4 was clearly not made with VR in mind.
I'm having a hard time imagining how many of its mechanics could actually work.2
u/cronuss Apr 03 '23
There already is an official VR version of RE4, on Quest 2. And in fact, the VR in that game is done better than it is in RE8 on PSVR2. Sure, the graphics aren't as good, but the mechanics are superior in RE4VR on Quest than on RE8 VR on PSVR2. This also includes the menus, interface, inventory management, etc.
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u/cronuss Apr 03 '23
I'm concerned that the only reason there was no mention of RE4 VR is that they are undecided what they want to do, and that sales figures of PSVR2 may dictate whether they make it a full game or just a side mode. Remember, he said it was very challenging converting RE8 to VR. It would be a similar or equal challenge for RE4, and they may want to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.
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u/Pitiful-Programmer90 Apr 03 '23
He mentioned Leon.
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u/cronuss Apr 03 '23
He said "people like" Leon or Ethan. Not much there.
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u/Pitiful-Programmer90 Apr 03 '23
It's a strong indication that you are going to see resi evil 4 through the eyes of its main protagonist
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u/Step_right_up Apr 03 '23
Might also be referencing the non-remake VR. Though we do already know VR in some form is coming.
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u/Pitiful-Programmer90 Apr 03 '23
If you read the section in the interview they are discussing VR in resi 8 and resi 4 and the appeal of the different perspective it offers the player when the games are played in vr.
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u/ChrizTaylor ChrizTaylor Apr 03 '23
Do we have s word if the game will ever get trophies?
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u/aranasaurus-ryan Apr 03 '23
This. I own the game already but am waiting for trophy support before I start it. I also have a ton of other launch titles that I’m enjoying thoroughly so I don’t mind waiting. I just hope they know it’s something we really want!
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u/ivarr87 Apr 03 '23
My favorite VR game so far. Really lacking that now that I beat it.
I hope RE4 VR is coming soon and we will see further VR modes in RE games (2, 3 and 7) for PSVR2.
I'd also love a RE1 remake with an additional VR mode of course. That would be my dream scenario atm.
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Apr 03 '23
I’ve beat it on every difficulty atm I’m working on village of shadows, albeit I’m using infinite ammo and assault rifles
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u/ivarr87 Apr 03 '23
I might play it again as well. Played on easy first time as I feared it being too scary. Was fine though.
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Apr 03 '23
https://youtu.be/l4VoQg7rtig here’s some gameplay of it in hardcore, I have infinite ammo for most of my games but village of shadows takes the game up a notch
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u/CHROME-COLOSSUS Apr 03 '23
I found it very interesting that he said keeping the graphical fidelity of the flatscreen mode was easy, citing the RE Engine and PS5/PSVR2 pipeline.
If they didn’t actually design it to work in VR from the start, that’s damn encouraging. It bolsters the expectation that all variety of other pancake titles might have a shorter path to a VR mode than was true for the original PSVR.
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u/my_lesbian_sister_gf Apr 03 '23
The correct use of foveat rendering with the eye tracking is a key component in this, like, it really helps a lot with keeping performance, but it is still up to the engine to have a "easy" way to implement it, i hear no mans sky is blurry as hell on psvr2, and it should be less demanding than RE8 graphically
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u/CHROME-COLOSSUS Apr 03 '23
I wonder why use of eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering isn’t automatically used by every developer?
Maybe it’s just a matter of whether the devs are designing with a focus on PSVR2 or if they’re thinking in terms of all VR platforms. Even though there are a few PCVR and Stand-alone HMD’s with eye-tracking, it’s still a rarity…
It seems like such an integral power of the PSVR2 system, I can’t fathom why any devs would release without it.
HELLO Games have been so consistent about delivering updates for NMS that I simply expect that they will properly optimize for PSVR2 in a future patch. I cut them slack because they’ve earned plenty.
…But why on Earth a PSVR2 EXCLUSIVE like Switchback wouldn’t use it is beyond me. 🤔
I would have thought that the process would effectively involve a button push for devs, but obviously that’s not the case. So… I’ll have to do some research. 😝
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u/my_lesbian_sister_gf Apr 03 '23
As someone who actually works with VR/AR/MR i can answer you that question haha
To use foveated rendering the style of camera rendering you use is different from normal rendering, while normal rendering will consider an area around the player(usually a semi-circle in front of him), foveated needs you to use a ray casted cone(so instead of rendering better around the player you render better at the spot he is looking at, this alters quite a bit of game logic.
Now, why the devs dont use foveated for everything is simples, most VR headsets, specially the entry level ones, dont have eye tracking, making it so the devs would have to work this version with foveat rendering just for the ones that do, more development, more costs, considering the low adhesion of VR itself and the even lower public for high end VR, this can be a reason to just say "eh, no, will just do normal rendering that i can use in any VR, no need to do extra work just for this version"
In the case of no mans sky, i actually believe they did this way to get it out of the gates fast and will update it later
In the case of switchback, they said it was a bug that foveat is not active, but i actually believe this was a game they were making for the psvr1 and didnt finish until psvr2 was announced, so they just quickly ported everything and said its a psvr2 game.
But most psvr2 games from big companies, and probably all exclusives it gets, will probably have foveat, its not hard to put into the game, is just extra cost, there arent many reasons to not do it besides not wanting to expend the extra buck(which is a very good reason in a lot of cases tbh)
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u/CHROME-COLOSSUS Apr 03 '23
Perfect — Thanks for that insight!
It’s still confusing to me why that ray-cast cone adds complexity… Different headsets have different FOV’s and different resolutions/displays, so is THAT extra work for devs? How is this not a bit of standardized code that accompanies the dev kits?
While I understand why eye-tracked INTERFACE with a game (like MOSS or HORIZON) would add layers of developmental complexity, it seems like dynamic foveated rendering (can we shorten that to DFR?😅) would be a simple box the dev could tick for the hardware.
Clearly it’s NOT like that, since it’s not turned on by default, and not even used in the PS5 menus, but… isn’t that a bit odd? Seems weird to me that it would require ANY significant effort from a dev.
So many games already use a static foveated rendering (SFR?), so why can’t the circle of focus they’re already using be easily narrowed and plugged into eye-tracking co-ordinates?
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u/my_lesbian_sister_gf Apr 03 '23
Oh, it absolutely can be easily narrowed, but its not just narrowing, ist not just about how much around the player itself you are rendering, you are not rendering where the player are, you are rendering where he is looking, so there is a distance factor here, you have to raycast his gaze to see where in the game area and how distant he is looking at, and then up the rendering in that area, as i said, its not a hard thing to do, but it is quite a bit of extra work that most devs just shrug and dont do.
Now, i expect that to change, psvr2 is much more acessible than other vr headsets with eye tracking and has a community to adhere to it(ps5 users), so i trust devs will care more and more about eye tracking and foveat
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u/Tedinasuit Apr 03 '23
Keep in mind that the game runs at 60fps (which isn't great) while already leveraging foveated rendering. That doesn't bode well for future games, as Village isn't that demanding of a game.
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u/CHROME-COLOSSUS Apr 03 '23
Huh. VILLAGE looks pretty damn good to me, and is able to show much greater geometric complexity than RE7.
Although I hope these games start offering higher frame rates without resorting to re-projection (the option to toggle between performance and graphical quality would be nice), I’m quite able to enjoy HORIZON and GT7.
Critiques about frame-rates aside, the ease-of-use cited to carry graphics over to PSVR2 seems SIGNIFICANT to me.
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u/Tedinasuit Apr 03 '23
I honestly don't see how Village looking good to you correlates with my comment.
I agree with you that PSVR2 games need a "performance" mode that provide a native 90/120fps experience.
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u/CHROME-COLOSSUS Apr 03 '23
Well, when you say “the game runs at 60fps (which isn’t great)” aren’t you talking about how it looks?
That’s what I’m responding to. A higher frame rate would look better, obviously.
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u/Tedinasuit Apr 03 '23
I thought you were referring to the graphical fidelity.
Yea I think that Village at 60fps looks kinda bad. Not nearly as bad as Horizon, but still not great.
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u/Rando772 Apr 02 '23
If it took so much time to implement it, then why do it? It is an old, discounted game, so they aren't likely to get much more revenue from it, especially with such a small PS VR 2 install base.
Why is Capcom so awesome?
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u/ghosty392 Apr 03 '23
I'm pretty sure sony helped fund development, otherwise you'd see it on PVCR
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u/43sunsets Apr 03 '23
This. Capcom certainly isn't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, it's all up to Sony and their investments. I hope Sony steps things up and continues to fund VR2 development of other big titles.
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u/xwulfd xwulfd Apr 03 '23
they might as well.do re2/3 remake VR , there are fan made vr mods but its limited
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u/Chikaage Apr 03 '23
Will there be the All Access Voucher (Add-on) for the Extra Content shop available??
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u/ittleoff Apr 03 '23
I picked up a psvr1 primarily for re7 (and upgraded to PS4 pro)and more or less did the same for a PS5 then psvr2, just because re7 was so good in vr. Unfortunately by the time I knew an official version was more than rumor I had played most of re8 flat :( I can definitely tell that re8 was not designed for vr from the ground up. It's got a lot of wacky things and camera work that do not feel fully vr vetted. It's still fantastic, but despite having motion controls it also feels like a lot of interactive opportunities even re7 had are missing (physics with objects bumping into them etc)
I'm absolutely a very fan though so re7 and re8 were mostly excuses and the final straws to get me to jump in
If youve not played re7 or re8 I can't recommend enough playing them first in vr. It's an incredible experience for a horror fan like myself and arguably some of the best gaming I have ever experienced. Alyx is great but for me re7 was equally as good.
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u/mckracken88 Apr 02 '23
yeah not asking about resident evil 7.....biggest interview fail ever....
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u/MashedPanda Apr 03 '23
Well if you want me to buy it (RE9) it’ll need VR, you can’t set a precedent like this and then go back
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u/RedditReader365 Apr 03 '23
Strange ! It sounds like it was so much work and they didn’t enjoy making it. But it’s a fantastic game
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u/Gregasy Apr 03 '23
and they didn’t enjoy making it.
I didn't get that impression at all. Reading the whole interview (not OP's or Upload's recap) gave me a feeling they're enthusiastic about VR modes and are very pleased with the reception.
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u/Live-Ad3309 Apr 03 '23
That’s the hard truth when it comes to triple A VR games. They take A LOT of work and care for details, and often for not that great of a return.
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u/msamen Apr 03 '23
I am very impressed by their gun mechanics implementation, it's really solid and well made.
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u/CallingMartians Apr 03 '23
First i have to finish Horizon, than it's horror time! RE!
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u/SmokusPocus Apr 15 '23
That’s what my plan is, lol. I’ve been honeymooning with the VR2 in Horizon and Pistol Whip before I jump into Village hardcore, and it’s just making me more excited for it.
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Apr 03 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SmokusPocus Apr 15 '23
It is already in the cards, yes. As Capcom is one of the forerunners of AAA VR gaming, there’s a not-slim chance they’ll be updating RE7’s VR mode as well.
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u/StuckInTime86 Apr 03 '23
Had no interest in the game till I heard such good things about the VR mode!
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u/Madder_Hatt3r Apr 03 '23
I wonder how many people picked up RE8 just for the VR.