Is there a particular reason for the blocky cartoony type of visuals? I have played a lot of VR games and there is some beautiful VR artwork out there.
Why are Orbis’s visuals so basic?
Dont get me wrong I’m not nocking it I just find it hard to play when other games are so much better looking.
Part of it is to ensure performance as you can have a larger number of players congregating in any area at any given time, and you want to make sure framerate doesn’t take a hit.
I had a similar reaction when I saw videos before trying the game and I can tell you that it becomes a non-issue instantly for most players once in game as the sense of presence takes over.
Gameplay > graphics
Pong is still fun in 2017. =)
“Find it hard to play”
Have you played?
I was sceptical as well - as I am a graphics guy… however the last beta was one of the best experiences I have had in VR - so glad I decided to take a chance. Half the time I didn’t know what the heck I was doing however I loved every minute of it… can’t wait for the next beta to start as we are all counting down the days! Great community as well - so it is a no brainer!
Yeah, this game is awesome, best vr game by far, you’d be a fool by not trying it out.
Howdy Mark! So you raise a point that a lot of people I have showed the game to IRL asked too. @Draven is very much correct! Its greatly about support and server loads. So think about like Onward, Raw Data, VR Dungeon Knight, etc. They all look very good in VR and have a online function. So why can’t Orbus right?
The Amount of Players
As Riley stated here:
Our ideal goal is to have a server structure that can handle 200 players on the same ‘shard’ so that this really isn’t an issue. (We’re planning to support around 1,000 concurrent players per server so the chances of 200 out of 1,000 people being in the same zone is probably pretty small). Right now we can handle about half that, or 100 players per shard.
So with that in mind, supporting that many players in an environment that looked as good as some of the other VR games on the market would eventually take quite a hefty server especially with community growth after Early Access and full launch. Most of the games mentioned above (Onward, Raw Data, VR Dungeon Knight) cap out at 10 players.
Map Size
ORBUS IS FREAKING HUGE! Well, its going to be. Even now it is large enough to get lost in and some locations can take about 30+mins to get to. Right now there is only one “section” of orbus playable. There are four more coming, of equal size (that I know of). 80-90% of it is completely explorable, AND WITH NO LOAD SCREENS!
(Unless you enter an instance IE: your house or a dungeon)
And I think it’s going to be even bigger, so they may have to have load screens later. I was shocked with it’s current size and lack of loading. Most games do not have this scale of a map, and especially not the playable space that this one does.
Accessibility
As stated here by Riley:
My development rig is a beast, but I have a Vive testing rig set up that is lower-end, it only has a Radeon 290 which is the minimum recommended card for Vive usage in general, and it can run the game so far no problem. One of the nice things about the art style we are using is that it isn’t very demanding.
They are aiming the specifications and testing the game on a low-end rig so that they can have anyone “VR ready” play. Which I have to say I really love. Sure they could ramp up the graphics, charge more for the game, maybe even add a subscription and make it match the “high-end” of VR right now. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want have to upgrade my rig to some bleeding edge graphics card and processor to play it and catch fire mid raid. If you ask me, this part alone is enough to buy the game.
The People
The community is great, the devs are down to earth and very helpful and people genuinely love this game. It’s a breath taking experiences the first time you login, rag-tag a party and make friends or go fight a world boss. That my friend, can’t be generated even by the most powerful graphics card.
Please check out some of the awesome fun people had here in the Orbus Beta Safari.
I hope that helps answer some of your questions man. I really hope you decide to join the fun. Because trust me, it’s a lot of fun.
About the map size
There are currently 5 zones (you called it “section” right?) where you can walk around and do stuff. Each zone is 1 square kilometer.
Also Outlander/Robert said on discord that there are going to be 3 new zones next beta (hype 
)
theres 3 zones with structures/ towns no ones seen yet
I am hoping for the 16-20 zone and two end game zones 
Also more zones will come, but the exact amount keeps changing in their planning. Will be around 10 zones I think. Lastly, don’t forget the pvp arena and all those dungeons that will make a lot of area too.
Yes I got an invite to one of the betas (or alpha?), I played very briefly but I only got my rift a few days before so I got tangled up in all the other games I had to play. By the time I had finished with those games the Orbus test had closed.
I am still not convinced though. I think VR will advance quickly for the first few years, just like PCs did in the early days. I just think visually the graphics bar should be set a little higher to account for this.
I love the sound of every other aspect of the game but it just feels like Rec Room morphed into an MMO.
I hope you find the game you’re looking for!
Like I stated above, these games cap out on player limits in environments or the playable area is really small and with load screens. Orbus has none of that.
Well I am going to give it another try when I get the chance.
Thing is I love my MMORPGs but I need to feel they are gonna be around for a long time with continued development if I am going to invest a lot of time, effort and cash on my end.
I hope their is scope for visual improvement somewhere down the line as PCs become more powerful and VR becomes more optimised.
Wow level of visuals would be awesome at this point.
you got a invite? as in from a friend to use their stuff? and yeah the graphics dont really make a difference if u are actually playing, because it just seems like a living breathing world, which you just get ingolfed in
I think we have had a similar conversation previously in a different post. Since the alphas the game has added graphic settings toggles, like low medium and high. Anyone who finds they are able to run the game at the highest settings and find they have system resources to spare can start to use the super sampling slider under the developer tab in their steamvr settings. With this next patch we are getting a 64bit client so it will be interesting to see what level of SS we will be able to use.
Have you considered running a survey and asking people what sort of set up they have for graphics? I think a lot of people will be upgrading their computers/graphics cards to buy a VR headset anyway, so they are more likely to have the newer equipment to handle better graphics.
I’m playing on probably the worst set up possible (my Oculus yells at me every time I boot it up) as I haven’t upgraded my pc for VR. But I’d rather have better graphics on an MMORPG and deal with glitches than play a whole game that I can’t ever immerse myself in, even if I upgraded my computer. I had to upgrade everything when WoW came out back in the early 00s. I remember logging in the first time and only being able to stand still as my older computer couldn’t handle it. But it was the graphics themselves that got me hooked (it was miles ahead of most other games out at the time) and it was worth the money and hours spent working an extra job just to upgrade so I could explore that gorgeous world. The load screens weren’t an issue either, as the designers put in the effort to make those look really cool too. The whole game design was absolutely stunning!
A LOT of people I know are waiting for the ‘VR WoW’ to come out before upgrading their computer and buying into VR. Even if you stick with low end graphics at this stage, if you aim for better graphics later on (and loudly advertise the fact) then I’m fairly certain a lot more people would jump on board. I would really advise against aiming at the lowest common denominator at this point! People will pay out for better equipment (that they will likely need for VR anyway) if you make a stunning game. Build it and they will come!
Yea I too love eye candy in games, I find it hard to get involved with low graphics quality. I understand why they chose it but yea not for me I’m afraid.
Well I think after seeing the upgrade to the visuals I will be giving this a try, looking much better.
Awesome job and really glad you decided to do this.
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