We've cleaned up pretty much everything, so now you shouldn't be able to drop frames.
The storm systems and beach ball exit has been reworked. Turns out they're getting smarter faster, but they don't all leave at once.
Of course, we've made a new way to drop frames: Super Sampling! (resolution scaling or screen percentage) It's a very costly way to increase the visual fidelity by rendering more pixels and scaling them down to fit inside your headset.
Numpad 1-4 set to distinct levels, 3 being default.
Numpad +/- add or remove 25 to the screen percentage. (You start at 200)
More details in the manual!
Minigame:
There are now combos. You should be able to score way more points!
Also, it makes sounds. Who cares about points when you can make sounds?
You can still make points in the minigame when the hoops are shrinking!
Teleporting:
Hold down the teleport button (menu button with a blue arrow) and look at the arrow you'd like to follow. Then let go.
Little things:
Keys show arrows that point to the buttons on the controllers, so a demo operator doesn't have to tell everyone what to press.
big thumpad button (launch beach ball)
small menu button (teleport)
trigger (big beach balls)
grip (!?!?!)
big thumpad button (launch beach ball)
small menu button (game / ui)
grip (!?!?!)
big (beach ball)
Tiny arrows point to the active beach ball launcher when you rest your fingers on the touch pads.
Small body collision so you can hold beach balls.
Slot canyon valley sculpted so the beach balls don't get stuck anymore
Big things:
Giant mode is now working very nicely!
Update Butterfly!
Beach Ball Valley Update Butterfly!
Mostly just a bunch of stuff behind the scenes to allow us to rapidly test and implement new ideas, games, locations and Beach Ball Launchers.
We've redone the hand controls so nobody accidentally teleports.
Now you can use your thumbs to launch beach balls.
We've added a few handy things:
Score Boards!
Try to hit 'em with a beach ball
New zones:
BEACH BALL WATERFALL
Beach Ball Canyon
Home of the future Beach Ball radio satellite telescope
Graphics Quality (super sampling)
Numpad 1-4 will give you 100% - 400%. Default is 200%, and higher end cards can run 300%. 400% isn't running on GTX 1080s. Yet, but when SMP for all 10xx card users rolls out, it'll be fantastic.
Cheers!
New Hotkeys for playing with your friends:
Play with your friends:
(Tell your friends to do silly stuff, and hit a key to make 'em think it's in the game)
G – Toggle Giant Mode
Z – Toggle Zero Gravity (only applies to currently active beach balls)
I – Attract Beach Balls (Rapid fire this for best (or worst) results)
A – Attract a single Beach Ball
B – Spawn a huge beach ball (Same as one of the grips, but useful for droppin' on friends)
E – Launch a Beach Ball from where the player is looking
W – Launch a Beach Ball (alternate Launcher point if available)
Break stuff:
D – Debug Pawn (ruins vr, allows you to zip around without vr enabled)
F – Add a Storm System (does not attack until the next time you go over the ball limit)
P – pop all the balls (but why?!)
ESC – Quit Game
Graphics:
Screen percentage:
Numpad 1 = 100%
Numpad 2 = 200% (default)
Numpad 3 = 300%
Numpad 4 = 400% (too much for a gtx 1080 =) )
Meanwhile in the beach ball central...
We're about 100 commits past update Alpaca (which, by the way, didn't include an actual alpaca, that's just the name we picked).
We've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work. We're poking around and scrapping things that didn't work well, and we're updating things to be much more modular and easy to tweak. We've been tweaking them a lot. We've demoed it to over 100 people who have been quite amused. One player claimed that it was more fun than a room full of puppies.
There's a lot of new territory to explore in beach ball valley. You can easily make a less than satisfying beach ball filled fen. The hills and ravines of beach ball legend are very carefully crafted.
In other words, you probably wouldn't have this much fun if you went outside and hit beach balls at a local park. You'd need a Beach Ballin' Certified park constructed by a beach ball architect.
This is also the reason why there is no beach ball beach. (as mentioned in the early access notes) A beach is a pretty bad place for beach balls. However, there's probably a way to do a beach with the appropriate wind conditions palm tree alignment and sand dune & rock formations that would be pleasing. Also, beaches often have lots of prickly pesky crabs who could instantly pinch your toes and ruin your day.
Long story short, the groundwork is in place for rapid expansion and iteration. We're going to be doing that, but we're also not going to release something that's half baked (or inflated).
ps: if you haven't read the manual, you probably should. It's got a bunch of command keys for you to play with your friends.
Update Alpaca!
Alpacas are fuzzy little animals. This is update Alpaca! It's little, but has some nice changes.
Magnus Effect Beach balls now curve in flight based on their rate of spin.
Key Mapping Changes
<*>Triggers = spawn beach balls (based on where you are)
<*>Touch Pads = Teleport
<*>Grips = Don't teleport you anymore by accident.
<*>Giant Mode ( g ) Now works on the first time you hit G.
<*>Attract ( i ) - for impulse. Add attraction forces to the player's head.
When hit repeatedly, can cover them in beach balls.
As always, have the players do something silly to "activate" these debug commands and be sure to watch closely and press 'em every time so they don't realize it's you.
We switched up the secret magical control mode and there's a new secret, accessible in game. Don't tell anybody!
Welcome to Beach Ball Valley!
In just a few hours, Beach Ball Valley is going live.
It's super exciting, because after years of VR and Motion control being super exclusive stuff, it's now available for anyone. That's huge news, and there's no going back. Will we play with beach balls on 2D screens with mice and keyboards? No! At least, probably not. We're going to have them in VR, and we're going to have lots of them!
Keep in mind that the game is in early access, so it's going to be seeing frequent updates as we integrate new ideas. It's a wild ride right now, and it's just going to get better. If there is anything you don't want changed, or anything you do want changed, jump on in and let us know! We want to bring the best ideas to life, so we can all play with them.
Cheers & Congratulations on your new roomscale 360º 1:1 motion tracked VR beach ball filled future!
