This November 25, our liminal-spaces fever dream sport Pools is coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2. To say we’re excited is an understatement of the yr; we’re really buzzing concerning the prospect of seeing our sport popping out in just a few days of this submit being printed. Aside from seeing our sport seem on a console that quite a lot of us have grown up with, what actually excites us is seeing how folks will react to the PlayStation 5 and PS VR2 particular options that we applied. That’s one thing we’re actually excited for, and I believed that it will be a reasonably cool factor to let you know extra about on this very submit. So, what makes the PS5 and PS VR2 variations of Pools particular? Include me and I’ll present you.
Immersive DualSense controller options
We needed to make the expertise in Pools as actual and immersive as it may possibly probably be (in need of by some means making a chlorine scent come from the DualSense controller). To provide you a sense of immersion, we made the a lot of the DualSense controller haptic suggestions. First, we needed to give every floor that you just stroll on its personal “feeling”. You may really feel delicate vibrations on every footstep you’ll take, and each floor has its personal haptic really feel and depth. In some locations, your footsteps will really feel mild and regular, whereas in some you’ll really feel resistance. Strolling in water additionally creates various kinds of suggestions relying on your depth and motion velocity. It’d sound like a small factor, but it surely actually helps you to be “there”, virtually smelling that chlorine within the swimming pools.
Controller haptics are additionally used to intensify distinctive places and occasions within the sport. For instance, at one level you could come throughout a seemingly bottomless pit from which you’ll hear a distant snarl-like sound emanating. You’ll really feel the echoing sound by your controller speaker, whereas the haptic impact depth scales naturally based mostly on distance to that pit. Whereas creating most of these haptic moments, we had been conscious that a few of you might have considered trying to alter them to fit your tastes. So haptic depth will be adjusted or toggled on/off within the settings menu in accordance to your private style.
Taking advantage of the PS VR2
Once we began our plans on bringing Pools to PS5, we determined early on that the PS VR2 mode had to take advantage of the options. As soon as once more, we’ve got this cool {hardware} that may suck you into the world of our sport simply that little bit extra – let’s make full use of it! The PS VR2 model is a brand new customized model of the sport, tailor-made immediately for the {hardware}. It takes full benefit of eye-tracked foveated rendering, in order that we can provide you most visible high quality and efficiency. This can be a actually nice characteristic because it permits us to make Pools look as actual as it may be, whereas protecting an excellent efficiency on the identical time – a minimum of 90 FPS with out reprojection. It’s all about making the sport look good and play good.
Now, though it may appear a bit banal to say this, we’re extraordinarily happy with the PS VR2 model. Between you and me, we had to rebuild a lot of the visible features of the sport from the bottom up so as to obtain our goal efficiency. Just about, we needed the foveated rendering to work as greatest because it might, and so as to do this, we wanted to create a customized resolution for our water visuals. So we locked ourselves in, bought deep into the code, and we’ve discovered a ton on shader programming. It was quite a lot of exhausting work, however we’re actually happy with what we achieved. The entire studio hopes that whenever you submerge, stroll in, or simply gaze on the water results, you’ll suppose “hey, that appears good”. When you do, it’s all been price it to us.
Thanks a lot for spending a little bit of time with us and seeing our thought course of on how we are able to make the Pools expertise as immersive as it may be on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2. Additionally, it’s price mentioning that you just’ll solely want to purchase the sport as soon as, and you’ll get entry to each modes.
Pools is popping out in just some days, on November 25, and you’ll be able to play the demo proper now on PlayStation Retailer. We hope to see you there.
