It seems like every time Oculus releases a major Studios project support for 360 degree setups is something of an afterthought. That was the case with Epic Games’ Robo Recall, and last month’s excellent psychological thriller, Wilson’s Heart, lacked 360 support too. But that’s changing soon.
Developer Twisted Pixel recently took to Reddit to explain that, while the game had been built with front-facing setups in mind, the team would soon release an update that would allow players to fully look around their surrounding environment uninterrupted. The developer specifically noted, however, that this does not mean Wilson’s Heart is getting room scale support; you’ll still need to be rooted to the spot to actually play the game, otherwise the camera blurs.
360 degree setups on Rift ideally use three sensors. Rift and the Touch controllers come with one each, so people have to buy a third if they’re looking to access this option. Since Touch’s launch in December 360 setups have been labelled as ‘experimental’ by Oculus, though last week the company launched the public test for its latest software update, 1.15, which removes that branding, and the full release is expected to do the same.
“We went about designing the game the way we did with the intention that everyone could play it (and for most of development, the 360/3 sensors were not an option that was available) and not get lost, frustrated, or have motion sickness,” the developer noted. “Just that they could focus on being in a cool environment and feel like they were in the shoes of another person. Unfortunately, just disabling the blur/out of body effect is not a great option, as we would need to redesign several areas of the game that would not work the same anymore (interacting with other characters in particular.)”
We loved Wilson’s Heart, awarding it 9/10 upon release. 360 support hasn’t been dated just yet but you should definitely be on the lookout for it.
