Here is the list of major changes and current status:
- Upgrade Unreal Engine from 4.11 to 4.17.
- Player capsule properly follows player/HMD instead of staying in center of play space. This means for instance walking in room scale up a slope will move character upward as is expected. A whole lot of gameplay is improved because of this.
- Holster and eat-drink is now activated by physical interaction rather than button presses. Long term we want to move more interactions to this type.
- Teleportation is now an arc instead of a trace line and is also more stable and has more checks (it works with stairs and you can't teleport through walls). The player move with teleportation defaults to a very quick dash instead of an instant blink. Feels more immersive.
- Right controller are replaced by The Hand in game. The Hand is missing a new texture.
- VR Tutorial at start is replaced by non interrupting in-game tutorial system. This is not finished but works ok already. Non VR game will also get something similar.
- Controller haptics added to most gameplay actions where one would want this. Still a few cases missing here and there.
- Translocator/teleporter disc now travels based on how long button is pressed.
- Peeking through intersecting geometry by moving head/camera now activates a black and blue overlay. This is almost done but has some missing checks.
- Inventory wheel with motion controller is now attached and toggled to the PDA so it follows the players left hand. We also made a new sexy backback model which is shown when inventory is active. Drop items can be done directly from inventory. Drop items from inventory is complete for motion controllers and planned to be implemented also for Non VR and other controllers.
- Read mode added: When PDA is displaying a story text, it will continue to do so until you take the PDA away from your face.
- A few controller rebinds for motion controllers: Drop item is now at right grip button. Jump is top trackpad button for Vive and right stick on Oculus Touch. The control layout images are not updated but in-game tutorial should show the correct buttons.
The new patch is available in beta branch named experimentalvr. Password is experimentalvr. We think the VR experience (especially with motion controllers) is improved a lot and recommend to run the game with this already now even though there are a few rough edges.