Evolution Studios’ next-gen racer DriveClub is all about its cockpit viewpoint, leading many to believe that it had been delayed in order to incorporate support for Sony’s just-announced Project Morpheus peripheral. However, an ever affable Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed that that’s not the case – because a prototype of the PlayStation 4 exclusive working with the headset made him feel sick.
"There's a rumour about the reason of the pushback of DriveClub was to make it [Project] Morpheus compatible, [but] that's totally untrue," he told GameSpot. The likeable executive explained that the Runcorn-based developer did create a virtual reality demo with the game, which worked well at low speeds – but fell apart once you put your foot on the gas. "It's kind of difficult and sickening," he continued, no doubt with a pale face.
As a result, the MotorStorm creator is not working on the platform holder’s new innovation at all, and is instead putting all of its “effort” into making the racing game great. It’s been a while since we last heard a peep out of the title, with the first-party outfit keeping quiet following the slew of share clips that it released earlier in the year. SCEA suit Scott Rohde recently pointed out that the title had gone “back to the drawing board”, but the wording of that statement has been disputed.
Are you disappointed that the racer won’t support Project Morpheus? Are you starting to worry about the next-gen game? Lap us in the comments section below.
[source gamespot.com]
Comments 19
Shame, just because one old man feels nauseous doesn't mean an idea should be scrapped. Perhaps we should cancel the space programme.
@SimonAdebisi Bit harsh - perhaps it genuinely doesn't work very well!
@SimonAdebisi If you just imagine using the headset while playing Drive Club, it's very easy to see what he means. Sitting in the driver's seat and turning your head to look out the windows to your side is literally all the headset could offer this game.
Not only would you not be able to see anything when doing this at high speed, but you would pretty much crash instantly if you tried doing it anywhere but on a long straight.
Most racing games these days let you look to the side or behind with a flick of the right stick, this is quicker, more intuitive, and you can flip straight back to looking forwards by letting go of the stick.
I think Project Morpheus should only be used with games it can improve, or games that can only be made with the technology. IT wouldn't add anything to Drive Club and so I think this is a good decision.
@PorllM @get2sammyb if they managed to cook up a demo that seemed to work then why not just make it compatible, people still have to option don't they. Some people are always going to feel nauseous using the Morpheus regardless of the game. I understand it not being overly useful for driving games because you shouldn't really need to turn your head 90 degrees anyway but it would still be good to use the Morpheus for any game you want, I'm not sure how difficult it is to make any old game compatible but I don't see why not.
WRC would be good as you could have one person playing navigator having to look down at notes while a second player drives...
I will be surprised if we can play Driveclub before august. Not surprised if it will be a Q3 game. It seems they started all over again with the game.
@PorllM The VR headset is not just to replace the right stick, it's for people to feel complete immersion, like you are actually there sitting in the car. It makes the most sense using it in a game where the character you control doesn't move. If they put mirrors in the car then people would be able to see behind them by merely glancing up and left a bit( or right depending on what country you from). Just because you don't move your head much, doesn't mean its a bad use of the hardware.
@MoleZandor I wasn't suggesting at all that it was just to replace the right stick or that it was a bad use of the hardware. I just think that with Project Morpheus just in prototype stages and Drive Club being in development for a long time already, I don't see it being worth delaying further to add this functionality, especially when Project Morpheus isn't going to be out for a long time, and when it does it will have plenty of normal racing games that work with it, and plenty of racing games built specially for it.
Those games will be developed with that in mind, whereas Drive Club was probably in development before they knew they were going ahead with Project Morpheus. This is probably what led to the sickness feeling described in that article, being in a VR headset in an environment that wasn't built for VR is likely to have some problems like that.
I do agree moving your head to check the mirrors would feel great but it's something that will happen anyway and I just don't think it would be worth further delaying Drive Club for.
Think GT7
@SimonAdebisi It may well be down to the limitations of the VR headset itself. People talk about pixel blur when they move their head too fast in VR due to the latency in refresh rate (or something like that). Perhaps in Driveclub when moving fast the environment becomes a big blur. That's my guess and its also why im glad its still in development.
@eLarkos I think drive club is supposed to looked blurred in the periphery.
@SimonAdebisi Yes that blur is to simulate real life blur but its actually just a pretty effect that looks nice on a TV. In VR ideally you want your own eyes to create real blur just like real life. What would happen im assuming is that Sonys VR would create pixel blur (like it currently does in all games to some extent) due to the intensity of not only your head movements but also the speed at which the environments are changing. It would need some incredible refresh rates to look as clear as real life. Its this that would make you sick. Of course this is just my thinking.
@eLarkos I still think it depends entirely on the person using the VR, some people are going to feel sick after 5 minutes of Rayman and some people won't have trouble with ten hours of Strike Suit Zero.
@SimonAdebisi True, but do you really think this VR Driveclub experiment was canned because of one mans experience? Im sure it was a mutual feeling among many people, all who have vast VR experience. I do get what you are saying though.
@eLarkos. I doubt that they were massively interested in making it VR compatible anyway, if it does actually release sometime this summer it will be at least a year and most likely a lot longer before Morpheus is commercialized. Big boss's opinion matters plenty but we don't know anyone else's opinion of VR driveclub. Instead of telling us it made him feel wobbly and the idea was axed he maybe should have been a little more tactful and told us that diveclub VR compatible version will be packaged with free PS4 and DC sick bags. Still, its not all that a big of a deal, I just think if they release the Morpheus it makes sense to make all games compatible at least on a basic output basis. Games specifically designed to be fully integrated and compatible with the device can be advertised as such.
@SimonAdebisi Should an ice cream shop make every flavour of ice cream available just because they can? What happens if someones first flavour is "baby poo"? I dont think they will go back to try a second flavour. Which is a shame because if they only sold chocolate and banana then the person would probably come back for seconds.
Shame was looking forward to this game. NFS Rivals was nowhere near as good as Most wanted, And the PS4 needs a good racer, The only thing i've enjoyed driving on PS4 so far have been ships in ACIV, Maybe there will be racing missions in WatchDogs:)
I'm officially done with Drive Club. By the time it decides to come out Gran Turismo 7 will be out.
So just make a new Motor storm or curl up and die Evolution Studios.
@SimonAdebisi if its clearly labeled as baby poo then I don't see why you wouldn't go back to try apple
I wouldn't be surprised if Drive Club supported VR in the end... I smell a bluff here for some reason.
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