Vanishing Realms News

This update adds Valve Index Controller support to the base game. If you are an Index Controller owner, when playing Vanishing Realms please be sure to use the "Indimo Labs: Official Index Controller Binding". (Update from Valve: this is now the default binding for the game, so you should be good to go.)

Climbing, Throwing, Teleporting, Glide Movement, Snap Turns, Dropping now use hardware features of the Index Controllers. For instance for most configurations of climbable ropes and chains, you can 'grab' the rope or chain by closing your hand around it. Open your hand to drop items or the rope you're climbing. To Glide (if you've enabled the feature), you may push forward on the left joystick rather than swiping on the Track Pad. Glide movement speed is proportional to how far you push the joystick. To Teleport, you can push forward on the right joystick, and to Snap Turn in place, you can push left or right. Picking up world items, and sweeping through items such as floating treasure, continues to use a trigger click with the offset blue orb as a hotspot.

The game should now behave a little more sensibly if you happen to activate one or both controllers after you launch the game. You can also mix Vive and Index controllers while playing, and the game will refrain from second guessing your motivations.

When launched, the game should now also load extremely quickly to the main menu room. The game will only load content once a player selects the target area.

NOTE: You can select movement options from the first startup menu room in the game, however the options are not selectable from the later "pause" room. This is a regression, will be fixed in next update.

That's it for now - more news later!

Hey all, here's a little update to celebrate the start of the new year!

• Steam Achievements are now supported. Notes: Since Vanishing Realms supports multiple player profiles on a single Steam account, achievement progress is uploaded to Steam based on the LAST player to play on an account, as well as on the last checkpoint that player passed in-game. Overall, these are the same achievements you could previously earn in-game, but now the entire world can witness your VR awesomeness!
  
  
• Faster Glide speed. Top speed while sprinting is now a little faster.
  
  
• No joystick click required for Oculus Touch. Some players felt that holding down the trackpad/joystick while sprinting was difficult for longer durations. Now if you select the faster movement option from the pause menu, increased glide top speed remains in effect full time. You can still control overall glide speed by the position of the trackpad/joystick.
  
  
• Smarter Oculus Touch sensing. Some Oculus Touch players also felt that clicking the joystick to teleport or clicking to 'snap turn' was overly difficult. Oculus players no longer need to click - just push the right joystick forward to bring up teleport, or push leftward/rightward to snap turn. As before, you must first enable turning in place in the pause menu to try out the snap turn feature.
  
  
• New Language Support. Vanishing Realms now supports Simplified Chinese language in-game and on the Steam store page. The language may be selected either through the overall Steam settings, or via the Language tab found in the Properties settings by right clicking the game in your library. Not a big deal for English language speakers, but the game does look pretty cool with all those neat looking Chinese 'runes' :)
  

Hey all, here's a little update to celebrate the start of the new year!

• Steam Achievements are now supported. Notes: Since Vanishing Realms supports multiple player profiles on a single Steam account, achievement progress is uploaded to Steam based on the LAST player to play on an account, as well as on the last checkpoint that player passed in-game. Overall, these are the same achievements you could previously earn in-game, but now the entire world can witness your VR awesomeness!
  
  
• Faster Glide speed. Top speed while sprinting is now a little faster.
  
  
• No joystick click required for Oculus Touch. Some players felt that holding down the trackpad/joystick while sprinting was difficult for longer durations. Now if you select the faster movement option from the pause menu, increased glide top speed remains in effect full time. You can still control overall glide speed by the position of the trackpad/joystick.
  
  
• Smarter Oculus Touch sensing. Some Oculus Touch players also felt that clicking the joystick to teleport or clicking to 'snap turn' was overly difficult. Oculus players no longer need to click - just push the right joystick forward to bring up teleport, or push leftward/rightward to snap turn. As before, you must first enable turning in place in the pause menu to try out the snap turn feature.
  
  
• New Language Support. Vanishing Realms now supports Simplified Chinese language in-game and on the Steam store page. The language may be selected either through the overall Steam settings, or via the Language tab found in the Properties settings by right clicking the game in your library. Not a big deal for English language speakers, but the game does look pretty cool with all those neat looking Chinese 'runes' :)
  

SUMMARY: This update expands the core game by adding new Locomotion options, Climbing support, Oculus support, Inventory system fixes and Gameplay fixes. In addition to updating the existing chapters to support the new locomotion modes, a significant internal upgrade was made to the game engine. This tech work, although largely transparent to players, will allow the world of Vanishing Realms to expand in the future, enabling the possibility of a more open-world game design. I hope there’s some fun stuff in this update for all players, however it’s worth noting this is not a release of new chapters. That work is ongoing, but not yet complete - and as mentioned in the last update, new chapters will be part of separate DLC.


NEW GAME FEATURES:

Vanishing Realms now supports additional Locomotion options, available from the Pause Menu.

GLIDE: By popular demand, this option allows players to use the left trackpad to move continuously through the world without teleporting. As far as trackpad locomotion goes, Vanishing Realms implements a relatively comfortable form of movement: no view rotation is experienced. Minimal Teleporting is still required to ‘jump’ over water or dismount from ladders.

VIGNETTE: This option may be enabled to automatically mask peripheral vision while Gliding. Motion-sensitive players may find the vignette significantly increases comfort while gliding with the trackpad. The theory is that motion discomfort originates when inner ear sensations fail to match visual cues. Peripheral vision appears to contribute more to this perceptual mismatch than forward vision, so masking peripheral vision helps dampen discomfort. Seems to work for me!

SPRINT: This option increases Glide speed when the left trackpad is clicked and held. Sprinting may be uncomfortable for motion-sensitive players, so it was included as an option rather than default behavior while gliding.

ROTATE: This option allows players to instantly rotate in place. The sensation is similar to teleporting, but without forward movement. To rotate, players click the leftmost or rightmost portion of the Teleport trackpad. This feature helps prevent HMD cord tangling, and aids those players who have a smaller playable area.

CLIMBING: Ropes, chains and ladders my now be climbed ‘by hand’ using tracked controllers. ch1 & ch2 have been retrofitted to include some fun climbing surfaces. [NOTE: patch released 9/22. Fast climbing now supported.]

OCULUS: Oculus hardware now has better integrated support. The correct Oculus Tracked Controller models show up during initial training, and the dreaded teleport ‘flash’ bug is fixed.

INVENTORY BELT: The inventory belt now automatically recognizes the height of the wearer, allowing shorter players to more easily reach the belt. The belt no longer disappears when the player is crouching. Inventory items stored in the left or right backpacks are now restored to their original backpack when resuming a saved game. [NOTE: patch released 9/22. Fixed bug when holstering 2-handed weapon]

GAME FIXES: Some players were accidentally bypassing a large outdoor section of the game by saving up enough gold to purchase a certain magic item early. This is no longer possible. The 2-handed axe now has a double-blade, which some players may find easier to wield. Some poems were rewritten to provide better clues in the outdoor areas.

TECH: This update includes a major new game engine version and an upgrade to OpenVR support. The game now supports loading very large outdoor areas, allowing for a more open-world design in the future, as well as DLC expansions. The entire game was re-lit to support the new game engine upgrade, and every room was re-worked to support the new Glide movement mode. If all went well, these tech changes should be invisible to players.

SUMMARY: This update expands the core game by adding new Locomotion options, Climbing support, Oculus support, Inventory system fixes and Gameplay fixes. In addition to updating the existing chapters to support the new locomotion modes, a significant internal upgrade was made to the game engine. This tech work, although largely transparent to players, will allow the world of Vanishing Realms to expand in the future, enabling the possibility of a more open-world game design. I hope there’s some fun stuff in this update for all players, however it’s worth noting this is not a release of new chapters. That work is ongoing, but not yet complete - and as mentioned in the last update, new chapters will be part of separate DLC.


NEW GAME FEATURES:

Vanishing Realms now supports additional Locomotion options, available from the Pause Menu.

GLIDE: By popular demand, this option allows players to use the left trackpad to move continuously through the world without teleporting. As far as trackpad locomotion goes, Vanishing Realms implements a relatively comfortable form of movement: no view rotation is experienced. Minimal Teleporting is still required to ‘jump’ over water or dismount from ladders.

VIGNETTE: This option may be enabled to automatically mask peripheral vision while Gliding. Motion-sensitive players may find the vignette significantly increases comfort while gliding with the trackpad. The theory is that motion discomfort originates when inner ear sensations fail to match visual cues. Peripheral vision appears to contribute more to this perceptual mismatch than forward vision, so masking peripheral vision helps dampen discomfort. Seems to work for me!

SPRINT: This option increases Glide speed when the left trackpad is clicked and held. Sprinting may be uncomfortable for motion-sensitive players, so it was included as an option rather than default behavior while gliding.

ROTATE: This option allows players to instantly rotate in place. The sensation is similar to teleporting, but without forward movement. To rotate, players click the leftmost or rightmost portion of the Teleport trackpad. This feature helps prevent HMD cord tangling, and aids those players who have a smaller playable area.

CLIMBING: Ropes, chains and ladders my now be climbed ‘by hand’ using tracked controllers. ch1 & ch2 have been retrofitted to include some fun climbing surfaces. [NOTE: patch released 9/22. Fast climbing now supported.]

OCULUS: Oculus hardware now has better integrated support. The correct Oculus Tracked Controller models show up during initial training, and the dreaded teleport ‘flash’ bug is fixed.

INVENTORY BELT: The inventory belt now automatically recognizes the height of the wearer, allowing shorter players to more easily reach the belt. The belt no longer disappears when the player is crouching. Inventory items stored in the left or right backpacks are now restored to their original backpack when resuming a saved game. [NOTE: patch released 9/22. Fixed bug when holstering 2-handed weapon]

GAME FIXES: Some players were accidentally bypassing a large outdoor section of the game by saving up enough gold to purchase a certain magic item early. This is no longer possible. The 2-handed axe now has a double-blade, which some players may find easier to wield. Some poems were rewritten to provide better clues in the outdoor areas.

TECH: This update includes a major new game engine version and an upgrade to OpenVR support. The game now supports loading very large outdoor areas, allowing for a more open-world design in the future, as well as DLC expansions. The entire game was re-lit to support the new game engine upgrade, and every room was re-worked to support the new Glide movement mode. If all went well, these tech changes should be invisible to players.