After its showing at Gamescom 2016, in which a new trailer and new screenshots were revealed, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is looking even darker and scarier than its first playable prologue. However, there were concerns all the way back in E3 of this year when players who experienced the game with PlayStation VR reported significant motion sickness.
In the wake of that reaction, UploadVR reports a new interview with the game’s producer, Masachika Kawata, has gone online at Metro which specifically addresses some of these simulation sickness concerns.
Speaking about the changes made to the Gamescom build, Kawata said:
“We’ve learnt a lot from our E3 showing, of that content in VR. And actually the Gamescom version that we’re showing here on Sony’s booth is an improved version. It’s not the same one as E3. We’ve learned through that kind of experience what kind of adjustments and optimisations we need to make in order to make it as comfortable as possible for as many people as possible.”
When asked whether Kawata would consider implementing a teleportation-style movement system, such as that featured in games like Budget Cuts, or the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider VR mode, he said such a system wouldn’t make much sense for a Resident Evil game, as he wants players to explore the environment. Instead, Kawata detailed exactly what kind of other changes have been made:
“...But we’ve made optimisations such as characters’ walking speed; restricting the camera turning to set angles you switch between, rather than totally smooth movement; and separating the horizontal axis movement, on the stick, to the vertical axis movement. All these little adjustments we’ve made since E3 have, I think, really added up to a lot more comfortable experience.”
Resident Evil 7 was revealed at E3 2016 to be fully playable with the PlayStation VR headset. If you do want to actually get through the entire thing in VR, such optimisations come as welcome news. The game launches in Q1 of next year.
