Hi friends,
we have bad news and good news. Let’s start with the bad news - and at least it’s short: we won’t be releasing an update in the next couple of weeks.
Now for the good news: VR HOT will come back faster, better, stronger, and better looking.
Let us explain.
VR HOT is developed using the Unity game engine. Unity offers two different systems for graphics and visual effects, known as rendering pipelines.
The first one is HDRP. It was designed for high-end visuals in high-end PC games. This is what the current PCVR version of VR HOT on Steam is using. However, HDRP is limited to PC platforms.
The second one is URP. This is what the Quest version of VR HOT (available on our Patreon page) already uses. URP is more flexible, more adaptive, and leaner. Out of the box, it didn’t offer the same high-end visual possibilities as HDRP - but we were able to implement these capabilities ourselves.
Modern Unity VR development has now shifted almost entirely toward URP. This is one of the reasons why we are rebuilding VR HOT using URP - but there are many more.
It will be faster.
VR HOT is a demanding application, and especially on lower-end PCs it has always been challenging to achieve smooth and satisfying performance. URP gives us much better tools to optimize performance and improve playability.
It will look better.
We’ve already created internal test setups comparing both pipelines, and our customized URP version is now producing better visual results overall than HDRP.
It will speed up updates.
So far, we’ve had to update the PCVR and Quest versions separately. After switching the PC version to URP and reconstructing the Quest version, we’ll have a more unified development workflow, allowing us to deliver updates more easily and much faster.
It will enable more platforms.
With exciting new headsets on the horizon, we want to be ready for platforms like AndroidXR, Steam Machine and Steam Frame, but also Pico (and more). URP makes this possible.
Last but not least, these changes will make all HottieCards fully compatible across all versions of VR HOT!
As mentioned at the beginning, this means we likely won’t be able to release a major update within the next two months - but we’re confident the wait will be worth it.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Take care
VR HOT
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