Following our interview with Media Molecule yesterday, the developer clarified to UploadVR that Dreams creations published before July 22nd’s free PSVR update will automatically disable VR support, but authors can change that.
Yesterday we posted an article based on a discussion with Dreams Creative Director, Mark Healey. During our talk, Healey stated that all of Dreams’ existing VR content could be played with the PSVR headset, and that the game had comfort options in-place to optimize the experience, while creators could also choose to make their content unavailable in VR, VR exclusive, or support both play styles.
However, Media Molecule today clarified to us that, while any content in Dreams can be played in PSVR, content published before this week’s patch will have VR switched off by default. This label is known as ‘Non-VR’. To enable VR, authors have two choices.
The first is to go back into their creations and switch from ‘Non-VR’ to another label, ‘Not Sure’. This label does not require authors to test their content inside PSVR before letting others play it. However, VR players must first head into their own filter options to opt into seeing ‘Not Sure’ content. On top of that, Dreams itself will issue a warning upon entry that the content may not be properly optimized for PSVR.
There are two other labels, ‘VR Compatible’, which means content can officially be played both on a TV and inside PSVR, and ‘VR Only’, which means it’s only viewable the headset. To be able to select these two options, the author must have first accessed their creation inside PSVR themselves. Only then will they have access to these tags and be able to publish VR content that won’t carry any optimization warnings, nor will it need users to tinker with their filters.
Any content published after tomorrow’s update will automatically be published under ‘Not Sure’ unless the author selects ‘Non-VR’ or can test it for official VR release.
Much of what Healey told us still stands, then, it’s just that authors will have to jump through some extra hoops to enable PSVR support, should they so desire. And it makes sense; letting any player dive into untested VR content without awareness could trigger a lot of nausea and headaches, both for players and for Media Molecule.
Don’t expect Dreams to have an explosion of VR compatible content as soon as the update hits tomorrow, then, but hopefully authors will start enabling support soon after, either via the ‘Not Sure’ label or by testing PSVR support for themselves. We’ll have more Dreams PSVR content as the update starts rolling out tomorrow.
