Reiza Studios Automobilista VR Statement

[Paul Jeffrey]

With Automobilista now out of Early Access, many fans have been left wondering if the proposed support for Virtual Reality headsets will appear in future AMS builds. Although the studio have been very vocal in their communications on this topic, Reiza Studios own Renato Simioni has now released an official statement on the subject.

Since VR implementation was promised during the initial Crowdfuning campaign, many fans have been questioning whether Reiza still plan to implement support within Automobilista, or if the idea had slowly died out at the studio. Simioni and others connected to the project have stated many times that, although somewhat delayed, VR support will be looked at closely for AMS, and even went as far as to offer a lengthy period of time for backers to leave the programme and receive a refund if the delayed implementation was not to their own liking. In todays statement, Simioni has further explained the reasons for the delayed support of VR headsets, and promised fans that work is already underway to pick back up on this subject and look to develop a solution going forward.

The full Reiza statement can be read below:

"Some may recollect that we did initially propose support for VR towards the end of last year´s crowdfunding campaign for further SCE development, which eventually became AMS - unfortunately a few months after the campaign wrapped, circumstances developed both in the VR front (the evolving nature of this new technology, specifically DX9 no longer being officially supported by OR which effectively moved the goal posts from when we had proposed it) as well as our own (a developer leaving the team), which forced us to put this specific development on hold. When this happened we openly discussed it in Reiza 51 (the forum room specially conceived for communication with campaign backers), and gave an ample window for backers who had entered the campaign with the specific goal of seeing VR supported to get a refund for their investment.

We now are no longer in "wait and see" mode regarding VR, but openly intent on supporting it already with AMS. We are currently looking for developers to join us for this specific task, but until we do and have had the chance to assess it, it´s impossible to make any reliable estimate as to if and when it will actually come in time for AMS.

VR enthusiasts can rest assured that at this point we need no convincing regarding the relevance of VR for sim racing, however we currently have this unfortunate gap between wanting to do something and getting it done. When we have more news on the topic, we´ll make sure to share with you here."
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Keep an eye out on the Automobilista sub forum here at RaceDepartment for more news as it happens, and discuss the game with you fellow sim racing enthusiasts. We host a substantial mods database for you to download additional content for Automobilista, and hold regular, awesome, racing club events using this racing simulator.

Happy to hear AMS will be getting VR in future? Enjoying the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[P*Funk]

Okay, I don't get why some are so set against VR support at all

Probably in part as a knee jerk reaction to the endless hordes of pro VR agitators who insist, almost like a threat, that they won't play anything that isn't VR anymore.

I find the entire thing exhausting as a back and forth but do somewhat wish the VR hordes would chill too, or at least learn to use a search engine so they don't end up asking the same bloody questions every week that have been answered multiple times then ending their post with I won't play anything that isn't VR anymore.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Personally I'm not against VR (I have no interest in using it, some medical concerns from my part, you don't need to be a doctor to imagine something could go wrong with long time use...), I just think there is no need for AMS to have it, would be better to invest on something else that could benefit the user base more and maybe be carried to next title. And then let VR for the next one.
One thing is DX12 that you know people will use, another thing is VR that is a huge ?
Just my 2 cents.

 

[RaceNut]

Personally I'm not against VR (I have no interest in using it, some medical concerns from my part, you don't need to be a doctor to imagine something could go wrong with long time use...), I just think there is no need for AMS to have it, would be better to invest on something else that could benefit the user base more and maybe be carried to next title. And then let VR for the next one.
One thing is DX12 that you know people will use, another thing is VR that is a huge ?
Just my 2 cents.

VR-related illness is certainly a valid concern as is long-term use; some of us make better guinea-pigs than others.

The next one, well - yeah, there's always that but again; making VR work doesn't seem to take very long - that's not to say that it's easy, just that it can be done fairly quickly relative to many new features. In most cases, developers that include VR-support have some personal interest in VR and want to see it evolve and be successful; they also understand the importance of fore-sight and risk required vs. long-term reward.

Being that VR is so well suited for Sim-Racing in general, it should be no surprise that those who use it or have tried it display passion for having it in a great title like AMS; IMO, it is the ideal title for VR right now - at least if you play more offline. Either way, I'll play AMS but, it'd be awesome in VR for sure.

Sim-racing, perhaps more than any other genre, is ideally suited for VR; we have access to the titles, the controllers and feedback devices to make it more immersive and the current resolution limitations are not as much a factor as in Flight-Sim's.

AC is great in VR but, it still lacks some of the deeper "Sim" features that add immersion and iRacing doesn't always work for those with limited time; AMS fills that gap of a more "hardcore" offline Sim very nicely and it has interesting content to boot.

 

[bluey]

VR-related illness is certainly a valid concern as is long-term use; some of us make better guinea-pigs than others.

The next one, well - yeah, there's always that but again; making VR work doesn't seem to take very long - that's not to say that it's easy, just that it can be done fairly quickly relative to many new features. In most cases, developers that include VR-support have some personal interest in VR and want to see it evolve and be successful; they also understand the importance of fore-sight and risk required vs. long-term reward.

Being that VR is so well suited for Sim-Racing in general, it should be no surprise that those who use it or have tried it display passion for having it in a great title like AMS; IMO, it is the ideal title for VR right now - at least if you play more offline. Either way, I'll play AMS but, it'd be awesome in VR for sure.

Sim-racing, perhaps more than any other genre, is ideally suited for VR; we have access to the titles, the controllers and feedback devices to make it more immersive and the current resolution limitations are not as much a factor as in Flight-Sim's.

AC is great in VR but, it still lacks some of the deeper "Sim" features that add immersion and iRacing doesn't always work for those with limited time; AMS fills that gap of a more "hardcore" offline Sim very nicely and it has interesting content to boot.

RE vr related illness and your eyes some people on the iracing forum are saying they are having LESS presbyoptic after 6 weeks use of driving in vr ..ie they have gone from using glasses to no glasses at all and from using 2.5 reading glasses to no glasses at all ...as vr retrains your eyes ...so maybe vr is GOOD for your eyes

 

[Will Mazeo]

There are plenty of exercises you can do to improve your vision, you don't need VR for that.
The brain is the worrying point about VR.

 

[bluey]

There are plenty of exercises you can do to improve your vision, you don't need VR for that.
The brain is the worrying point about VR.

true you do not need vr to improve your vision but it is good that it may help some people....Will do you use a mobile phone as that may be bad for your brain also...hmmmmm and also i was only talking about the eyes..... have a nice day

 

[Will Mazeo]

Ok ok... you didn't get it yet. Good luck.

 

[roby13]

i doubt that vr can eliminate presbyopia. who knows, maybe it gives the lens a bit more flexibility but completely eliminate the need of glasses? thats a medical breakthrough!! as for seizures, flashing or rapid changing lights and/or colours can provoke a seizure but never induce an epilepsy. its either a symptomatic (provoked) isolated seizure(-s) or a structural or kryptogenic idiopathic epilepsy that will unmask itself under the vr provokation

 

[jimortality]

i doubt that vr can eliminate presbyopia. who knows, maybe it gives the lens a bit more flexibility but completely eliminate the need of glasses? thats a medical breakthrough!! as for seizures, flashing or rapid changing lights and/or colours can provoke a seizure but never induce an epilepsy. its either a symptomatic (provoked) isolated seizure(-s) or a structural or kryptogenic idiopathic epilepsy that will unmask itself under the vr provokation

Ey?

 

[Pär Öqvist]

I hope the rFactor 2 announcement will trickle down to Automobilista as well and make the transition easier http://www.bsimracing.com/rfactor-2-moves-to-a-new-company-welcome-studio397/

I am certainly focusing on titles with VR support as it make such a huge difference it requires a lot from a sim without VR support to compete.