This November 25, our liminal-spaces fever dream sport Swimming pools is coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2. To say we’re excited is an understatement of the 12 months; we’re really buzzing in regards to the prospect of seeing our sport popping out in a number of days of this put up being printed. Aside from seeing our sport seem on a console that a variety of us have grown up with, what actually excites us is seeing how individuals 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 assumed that it might be a fairly cool factor to inform you extra about on this very put up. So, what makes the PS5 and PS VR2 variations of Swimming pools particular? Include me and I’ll present you.
Immersive DualSense controller options
We wished to make the expertise in Swimming pools as actual and immersive as it will possibly probably be (wanting by some means making a chlorine scent come from the DualSense controller). To present you a sense of immersion, we made the many of the DualSense controller haptic suggestions. First, we wished to offer every floor that you simply stroll by itself “feeling”. You may really feel refined 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 in your depth and motion velocity. It’d sound like a small factor, however it actually lets you be “there”, nearly 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 chances are you’ll come throughout a seemingly bottomless pit from which you’ll be able to hear a distant snarl-like sound emanating. You’ll really feel the echoing sound by means of your controller speaker, whereas the haptic impact depth scales naturally based mostly on distance to that pit. Whereas creating a lot of these haptic moments, we had been conscious that a few of chances are you’ll wish to modify them to fit your tastes. So haptic depth will be adjusted or toggled on/off within the settings menu in accordance with your private style.
Profiting from the PS VR2
After we began our plans on bringing Swimming pools to PS5, we determined early on that the PS VR2 mode needed to profit from the options. As soon as once more, we’ve 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 instantly 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. It is a actually nice function because it permits us to make Swimming pools look as actual as it may be, whereas protecting a terrific efficiency on the identical time – no less than 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 needed to rebuild many of the visible points of the sport from the bottom up to be able to obtain our goal efficiency. Just about, we wished the foveated rendering to work as greatest because it may, and to be able to do this, we would have liked to create a customized answer for our water visuals. So we locked ourselves in, obtained deep into the code, and we’ve realized a ton on shader programming. It was a variety of laborious work, however we’re actually happy with what we achieved. The entire studio hopes that while you submerge, stroll in, or simply gaze on the water results, you’ll suppose “hey, that appears good”. For those who 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 will make the Swimming pools expertise as immersive as it may be on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2. Additionally, it’s price mentioning that you simply’ll solely want to purchase the sport as soon as, and also you’ll get entry to each modes.
Swimming pools is popping out in only a few days, on November 25, and you’ll play the demo proper now on PlayStation Retailer. We hope to see you there.
