Hi friends, this is a major one - and we are proud of it! Two months ago we announced that we wouldn’t be able to release a major update for about two months. As promised, here we are now. For those who don’t know what we’ve been working on, here’s a quick recap: we are developing VR HOT in a game engine called Unity. Unity used to offer two systems (“rendering pipelines”) that can be used to create graphics and visual effects. The first one is called HDRP. It was created to enable high-end graphics for high-end PC games. This is what VR HOT for PCVR on Steam has been using so far. However, HDRP is only available for PC gaming, and Unity has announced that development for HDRP will be discontinued. Modern Unity VR development has completely moved toward URP, which is one of the reasons why we decided to rebuild VR HOT using URP.
But there are many more reasons for us to do this.
It’s faster.
VR HOT is very demanding. On High-End PCs, path tracing will become usable for a lot more users. On lower-end PCs, it has always been difficult to achieve satisfying playability. Users participating in the Alpha and Beta phases were able to confirm our observations of 20–40% better performance. In most cases, weaker PCs are seeing the biggest improvements. Many PCs that previously couldn’t even start VR HOT should now be able to run it. VR HOT also requires less VRAM now - in some cases 6 GB may be enough.
It looks better.
Graphic fidelity is now on par with or better than any earlier version of VR HOT for all users.
In addition to DLSS 3, we have implemented DLSS 4 and 4.5. Please note that these modes are more demanding on your PC than DLSS 3, so make sure to adjust the setting according to your GPU’s performance.
It will speed up updates.
So far, we alternated between updating the PCVR version and the Quest version. After transferring the Quest version into our now unified development workflow over the next few weeks, we will be able to deliver updates for both versions more easily and faster than before.
It will make VR HOT available on more platforms.
With exciting new headsets on the horizon, we want to be ready for AndroidXR, Steam Frame, Pico, and more. Using URP makes this possible.
Thanks again for your help during the Alpha and Beta phases — this big step would not have been possible without you!
Take care,
VR HOT
For those interested in exploring the world of VR HOT beyond Steam (General News, our Patreon page with the Quest version and AI features, etc.), make sure to join our Discord server [HERE] or check out our Patreon [HERE]!
🖥️ Discord for PC (HottieCards, Support, etc.)
ℹ️ Website (incl. FAQs)
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New “Very Low” hair quality mode (much faster, but noticeably lower visual quality than higher modes)
New DLSS modes (4 and 4.5)
FSR upgraded to FSR 3
New slider for general skin detail
Improved screenshot and HottieCard image quality