Since its Steam Early Access release back in February virtual reality (VR) compatible title The Solus Project has steadily expanded with episodic releases. The fourth and last has now become available adding a further hour of gameplay, as well as new VR updates with a big portion aimed at the HTC Vive head-mounted display (HMD).

The final expansion included not only more gameplay but also several VR specific updates, for a feature that is still experimental.

In the 0.6 version update for VR developers Hourences, Grip Games posted on the Steam page:
Newest Oculus (1.3) and Vive SDKs

– Crash solved on load. If you still experience crashes ensure that DefaultGame.ini has loading screens UseLoadingScreens=False
– First version of Vive motion controllers. Not perfect yet, but it kind of works. We will improve upon this in the coming weeks. If you wish to play without the motion controllers you must set HMDUseViveControllers=True to False in DefaultGame.ini in the SolusConfig folder. It will fall back on keyboard/Xbox360 gamepad.
– Remember F12 is resetting your view while in VR. Oculus users should do this first before playing as we do not yet distinguish between Vive/Oculus!!
– DefaultGame.ini has a property added to set the camera height + if the game detects it is a Vive running the game, it will force camera height 0. This is a first step to resolve the Vive forcing the wrong height on the game but likely won’t fix all problems.
– Chaperone area added for Vive.
– The non VR game is now locked to non-VR only and cannot be toggled while playing anymore. Further VR/Non VR toggling will be removed in the future to make it easier for us behind the scenes.

For just being an experimental side addition for The Solus Project the developers are still putting a lot of work into the VR support for customers that want the title to work on their headsets. So over the weekend a further raft of VR improvements were launched as version 0.61, solely aimed at the HTC Vive.

These latest additions are:

– Vive motion controller aiming improved
– More visuals, smoother crosshair movement, and it now detects the craft points correctly.
– Pick up/drop switched from Left trigger to Right trigger and vice versa.
– Items you pick up are now attached to your hand, so you can move around the flashlight and torch freely.
– Forward/backward no longer inverted on left controller.
– Must now press Left or Right on the trackpad of the left controller in order to turn 45 degrees, leading to a smoother experience.
– Right shoulder button now resets orientation. Can use this easily frequently to improve the experience.
– Possibly fixed starting with the wrong camera height though it is not yet perfect.
– PDA backside filled up so you can no longer see missing backfaces in VR.
– Jump bit higher.
– Teleport device scaled down some + fixed shooting orientation when in VR.

Vive Controls overview

Left controller:
Back trigger = Drop items or teleport to
Trackpad = Walk forward backward
Push trackpad left/right = Turn 45 degrees. Can be changed in options.
Side buttons = Jump
Shoulder button = Crouch

Right controller:
Back trigger = Pick up items or shoot teleporting disc
Push trackpad up = Teleporter shortcut
Push trackpad down/left/right = Change PDA mode to different views
Side buttons = Next inventory item
Shoulder button = Reset tracking and rotation

VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Solus Project, reporting back on any further updates.

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