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 publish being printed. Aside from seeing our sport seem on a console that lots 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 might be a reasonably cool factor to let you know extra about on this very publish. 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 needed to make the expertise in Swimming pools as actual and immersive as it may well probably be (in need of one way or the other making a chlorine odor come from the DualSense controller). To offer you a sense of immersion, we made the many of the DualSense controller haptic suggestions. First, we needed to offer every floor that you just stroll by itself “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 gentle 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 pace. It’d sound like a small factor, however it actually lets you 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 be able to hear a distant snarl-like sound emanating. You’ll really feel the echoing sound via your controller speaker, whereas the haptic impact depth scales naturally based mostly on distance to that pit. Whereas creating all these haptic moments, we had been conscious that a few of you could wish to alter them to fit your tastes. So haptic depth could be adjusted or toggled on/off within the settings menu in keeping 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 benefit from 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 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. This can be a actually nice function because it permits us to make Swimming pools look as actual as it may be, whereas holding a terrific efficiency on the similar time – at the least 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 facets of the sport from the bottom up in an effort to obtain our goal efficiency. Just about, we needed the foveated rendering to work as greatest because it may, and in an effort to try this, we wanted to create a customized resolution 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 lots of onerous work, however we’re actually happy with what we achieved. The entire studio hopes that once 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 value 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 value mentioning that you just’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 may play the demo proper now on PlayStation Retailer. We hope to see you there.
