Resident Evil 7 is one of our most anticipated VR games, but reports of sickness from those that have played it also make it one of the most concerning. Thankfully, it sounds like Capcom is listening.
Speaking in a recent interview with Metro, producer Masachika Kawata revealed that the developer is looking at the complaints surrounding the VR demo that was on show at E3 2016 back in June, and is acting upon them. People were delighted by the surprise reveal of the game during Sony’s PlayStation press conference at the start of the week, but reports of the dreaded simulation sickness arose just hours after the show ended and people went hands-on with it.
Kawata explained that the team had “learnt a lot” from the E3 demo, which comes as music to our ears. To combat sickness, it looks like Capcom is looking at a few key areas. First up, the developer optimized the walking speed, which is often a large part of why people start to feel sick in VR. Fast movement can cause you to become dizzy, for example, which is why many games like Call of Duty simply aren’t a great fit for the tech.
Next, Capcom has also addressed turning in VR, and implemented set angles which the camera will cut to, instead of moving like we’re used to in normal first-person games. VR fans will recognize this feature; it’s been dubbed ‘Comfort Mode’ in the past. The team also separated the horizon axis movement and vertical axis movement on the right stick, which we guess might mean you can no longer use it to look up and down, but it’s not completely clear what Kawata meant by this.
The changes should add up to, in Kawata’s words, “a lot more comfortable experience”, though we’re hoping that Capcom continues to refine the VR support for the game until it’s just right. Resident Evil 7 launches on January 24th 2017 and is arguably VR’s biggest title yet. Here’s hoping it does the tech proud.
