Codemasters deserves a pat on the back for its VR support. The studio’s work on DiRT Rally for the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR (PSVR) was stellar, resulting in one of the best games for both headsets. But don’t expect VR support to start popping up in all of the developer’s games.
F1 2017 launches on PC, PS4 and Xbox One this month, for example, and doesn’t feature any kind of headset support. It’s another driving game in which you can get a realistic cockpit experience so you might think a VR port would be easy post-DiRT, but you’d be wrong.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Creative Director Lee Mather said that the team had given VR support a lot of consideration for its latest game, but decided to hold off for the moment.
“It’s a little trickier for us because we’re pushing the boundaries when it comes to our physics,” Mather explained. “We have a lot of elements on screen with the OSD, so that’s a lot of information the player would have to process in VR. The changes to move the game onto VR would be fairly significant, and we wouldn’t want to do it if it meant compromising any area of the game. That’s why we’re holding back on that at the moment, but it’s something we’re considering.”
Following Rally’s launch, DiRT 4 also came and went without any VR support. Truth be told there’s little financial incentive for the team to integrate VR while install bases for Rift, Vive and PSVR are still relatively low, but still doesn’t stop us wanting it.
It is still possible, of course, but it will likely be some time before we get confirmation one way or the other. In the meantime Project Cars 2 is shaping up very nicely for your VR driving fix.
