Reiza Studios Automobilista VR Statement

[Paul Jeffrey]

With Automobilista now out of Early Access, many fans have been left wondering if the proposed support for Virtual Reality headsets will appear in future AMS builds. Although the studio have been very vocal in their communications on this topic, Reiza Studios own Renato Simioni has now released an official statement on the subject.

Since VR implementation was promised during the initial Crowdfuning campaign, many fans have been questioning whether Reiza still plan to implement support within Automobilista, or if the idea had slowly died out at the studio. Simioni and others connected to the project have stated many times that, although somewhat delayed, VR support will be looked at closely for AMS, and even went as far as to offer a lengthy period of time for backers to leave the programme and receive a refund if the delayed implementation was not to their own liking. In todays statement, Simioni has further explained the reasons for the delayed support of VR headsets, and promised fans that work is already underway to pick back up on this subject and look to develop a solution going forward.

The full Reiza statement can be read below:

"Some may recollect that we did initially propose support for VR towards the end of last year´s crowdfunding campaign for further SCE development, which eventually became AMS - unfortunately a few months after the campaign wrapped, circumstances developed both in the VR front (the evolving nature of this new technology, specifically DX9 no longer being officially supported by OR which effectively moved the goal posts from when we had proposed it) as well as our own (a developer leaving the team), which forced us to put this specific development on hold. When this happened we openly discussed it in Reiza 51 (the forum room specially conceived for communication with campaign backers), and gave an ample window for backers who had entered the campaign with the specific goal of seeing VR supported to get a refund for their investment.

We now are no longer in "wait and see" mode regarding VR, but openly intent on supporting it already with AMS. We are currently looking for developers to join us for this specific task, but until we do and have had the chance to assess it, it´s impossible to make any reliable estimate as to if and when it will actually come in time for AMS.

VR enthusiasts can rest assured that at this point we need no convincing regarding the relevance of VR for sim racing, however we currently have this unfortunate gap between wanting to do something and getting it done. When we have more news on the topic, we´ll make sure to share with you here."
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Keep an eye out on the Automobilista sub forum here at RaceDepartment for more news as it happens, and discuss the game with you fellow sim racing enthusiasts. We host a substantial mods database for you to download additional content for Automobilista, and hold regular, awesome, racing club events using this racing simulator.

Happy to hear AMS will be getting VR in future? Enjoying the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[ears]

Thriker.

 

[ouvert]

fair enough ...

 

[gkz]

Its allways good to make statement to vr because thats what the community is waiting for. There ppl out there like me who don t even play a racing game which does not support vr. But that oculus does not support dx9 was allready clear way before reiza did there kickstarter project. But it was also clear that steamvr supports dx9 and every headset oculus/vive/ozr.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Is there a petition somewhere people can sign who don't want VR?

 

[DaVeX↯]

Why not a pool to see hiw many of us want VR mandatory on AMS?

 

[ouvert]

Is there a petition somewhere people can sign who don't want VR?

can you please give me a very short explanation why would you not wanna have feature you don`t have to use (and that doesn`t affect you if you are not using it) but that could possibly attract more players (from what we all will profit) ?... no intention to buy VR on my side btw ..

 

[Will Mazeo]

Would rather see this effort and money spent on something else.
What is going to happen:
"I don't want to play this game wtihout VR"
*Reiza adds VR*
"OMG this game graphic is so outdated, it looks strange on VR, not going to play it"


*Please this is no graphic debate, just guessing what most of the VR owners will say... and you know it's true... if they complain with a monitor let alone with a VR headset -_-"

 

[Patrick Giranthon]

I know poeple who have given money for this precisely (owning The oculus) . And It was written In the list of things planned. We cant please everybody about cars choice, tracks choice and VR. If it has been mentionned for AMS, it Is normal that reiza think about it.
Strange debate here...

 

[Zboubi]

actually i have spent 75 dollars for nothing , no vr, give me my money , no problem

i sold my tri screen, and i don't want to play only with one screen,

VR > 3 screen predator z35 no back return

 

[Roger Ferrer]

I didn't ask for a refund when VR was delayed because I love Reiza's work but have to admit I was very disappointed.
I am really grateful for the new info and really excited to be able to play again after so many months.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

can you please give me a very short explanation why would you not wanna have feature you don`t have to use (and that doesn`t affect you if you are not using it) but that could possibly attract more players (from what we all will profit) ?... no intention to buy VR on my side btw ..

Well I didn't say that I didn't want a feature but if you sincerely want to understand the spirit behind what I actually said then the spirit is that it is not true that "the community" wants VR. Simple as that. Toll often someone that wants something disingenuously claims that "the community" wants it. And in the case of VR it is simply not true.

And pretty much what Will says below because it is a distraction from real sim racing features for people for whom VR is not going to make happy because only skill development will keep anyone interested and immersed.

And, I'll just go ahead and say it, attracting retards and dumbing down sim racing doesn't help anyone. There I said it.

Would rather see this effort and money spent on something else.
What is going to happen:
"I don't want to play this game wtihout VR"
*Reiza adds VR*
"OMG this game graphic is so outdated, it looks strange on VR, not going to play it"

Yep and even more complaints because retards.

*Please this is no graphic debate, just guessing what most of the VR owners will say... and you know it's true... if they complain with a monitor let alone with a VR headset -_-"

I know poeple who have given money for this precisely (owning The oculus) . And It was written In the list of things planned. We cant please everybody about cars choice, tracks choice and VR. If it has been mentionned for AMS, it Is normal that reiza think about it.
Strange debate here...

No problem at all with Reiza following through with a commitment. Not sure why people have to introduce so much noise into what is cut and dry.

 

[Paul Blythe]

Still gets me that people think Oculus Rift [or quote their name] when talking VR... iirc, Steam VR still supports DX9, plus there's OSVR, but not sure on their support for Direct3D. Why are most software dev's talking Oculus first & foremost?

I'm still on the fence about VR. I really like the idea of the presence it brings, but still think the perceived resolution is to low for now.

 

[gkz]

i think ppl must stop thinking and testing. If there is anybody who say i played 1 week with cv1 on iracing or ac and it is **** than it is a statment which i can accept but anything else nonesense

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

I'm sorry that, apparently, me wanting VR support in simracing titles excludes me from being part of simracing community. I however don't believe that, because I'm not retarded. I made it clear that I don't expect Reiza to move bloody mountains to add VR support if they can't do it, but I would love to see them try and not write off the whole thing so easily.Given the severity of the problems they face, I expect clear communication first and everything else second (in the VR area that is). And with this statement they give me exactly what I expect.

I don't want to play this game wtihout VR"
*Reiza adds VR*
"OMG this game graphic is so outdated, it looks strange on VR, not going to play it"

I don't know what you are basing it on. People who only jumped on the VR bandwagopn earlier this year are not interested in AMS. AMS is a very niche product and mainstream hasn't (and probably will never) heard about it. The request for VR in AMS come from people who have been simracing for years and want to make sure that their favourite title supports the innovation which revolutionised simracing and immersion for many of us. We fully understand that the graphics in AMS are not up to pCARS standards so we, obviously, aren't going to complain about that when Reiza follows through with their promises.

Also how exactly did people make the stupid connection with wanting VR and just wanting pretty shiny graphics? Graphics in VR are objectively worse than on triple screen. It just seems like a standard tactic often used by some of more ignorant members of the community to dismiss any and all ciriticism/drawbacks of their favourite pet sims. At this point the cry 'you only care about graphics' is a meaningless meme. But hey, considering that VR has worse graphics than triple screen... That means the tables have turned and people, who want triple screen instead of VR, must be console plebs who only care about graphics and not true immersion.

 

[P*Funk]

I'm sorry that, apparently, me wanting VR support in simracing titles excludes me from being part of simracing community.

I don't quite think that's whats been said by anyone or many people, its more that people who are enthusiasts take their personal conviction that its amazing and turn it into a statement that its somehow the ultimate absolute must have thing that if you don't support it then the community is going to be upset. Really its still an absurd minority of people in the gaming world and since simming is already an absurd minority niche crowd its really a case of it being pricey development time and labour for something that might only please a fraction of the player base.

Maybe its the puritanical nearly condescending tone of the VR folk who swear "I don't even play anything that doesn't support it anymore" like some Sonoma valley person going on about wine. To a guy like me I don't even have triple screens or anything better than a Logitech DFGT. The idea that you can't be bothered to play anything without this tricky and still immature device is erm... silly yet they're vocal and demanding. I can see why its obnoxious to some people.

 

[Colin Knowles]

I'm more shocked it took just one employee to leave and the whole vr project is shut down until a replacement is found

Must of been one smart dude

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

"I don't even play anything that doesn't support it anymore"

You can look at it as a condescending statement or criticism of any given sim or a statement of a fact. For someone who invested in VR and then loved it, coming back to single/triple screen setup can be a shitty experience. Look, I don't deny that there are extremely stupid people on VR side, I even saw someone claiming that any sim must have VR to be a sim in 2016, but if this thread is anything to go by (and many more here on racedepartment), for some reason we have a group of people who are actively hostile to very notion of VR. Look at the posts in this thread. We have people advocating for less features in a sim. I don't even think it's jealousy, it seems to be an extreme case of intelectual impairment.

I don't quite think that's whats been said by anyone or many people, its more that people who are enthusiasts take their personal conviction that its amazing and turn it into a statement that its somehow the ultimate absolute must have thing that if you don't support it then the community is going to be upset.

I believe the same faulty logic applies to one of the statements above implying that if the 'community' hasn't unanimously decided it wants VR, then this is not what the community wants. In that case if the community hasn't unanimously decided it doesn't want VR, then it wants VR. I'm sick of people disregarding any kind of reason to argue that they have the only true and clear way for what the sim should be and everyone else can go to hell, because hurr durr 'they don't understand simracing the way I do'. Just look at this gem:

And, I'll just go ahead and say it, attracting retards and dumbing down sim racing doesn't help anyone. There I said it.

To describe it as a strawman would be too generous. With the implication being that somehow adding VR dumbs sims down (especially given the context, reiza wants to employ additional staff for VR, so physics aren't affected), one can only conclude it's not even a vailed attempt at trolling or bizzare paranoia.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Sorry I should have clarified the more direct conclusion. By definition, retards ==> dumbing down. No paranoia involved, just logic.

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

Logic would imply there is a reason why Reiza will dumb down the sim to accomodate VR. It not only isn't a requirement, from their own statement you can see they want to hire someone with the know-how so there's nothing to suggest it would affect their planned future workload with regards to future update to the sim.

Unless you suggest that people using VR are retards and need some kind of speciall disability option within the sim. In that case yes, it would be logical for Reiza to dumb down the sim to accomodate.