Today we bring a small update fixing some issues that have plagued the game for a while.
We have fixed the Default bindings for Gun Shooting missing the keys for the Valve Index controller and the Mixed Reality controllers.
Due to the urgency to push the fix for Valve Index controllers, we are forced to push some changes that we were going to include until the next big patch. Some of the more notable changes are the following.
We also updated the expert charts for the following songs as well as crowd and Auto Tones charts.
She's On Fire by Brandon from the Anara Pack
The Future Is Now by DORRR from the Anara Pack
Easy Said by The Bots from the Big Indie Pack
Visual representation for Note Punches updated. As well as many internals on how the game works, which leads to better gameplay smoothness.
We are working on a new gameplay feature which we are ready to share soon with you. If you are not on the Discord, be sure to join. We post about upcoming updates, news, as well as info on how to get your hands on closed beta versions of the game.
Update 1.8.0 LIVE Beta
Hi Rockstars!
Our original plan was to push the beta 1.8.0 to ensure the build is stable, while we updated the tracks for the songs to bring them up to parity with the new features added. However, we have started work on a new key feature, which while not ready yet to showcase, means we have to wait until we start updating all song tracks for the game, so we can cover the upcoming feature.
While we don't have a true new version to what the Open Beta was, we still greatly prefer for the 1.8.0 beta build to be the version players play than version 1.7.0, as we feel its a richer and fuller experience, even if not all the song tracks aren't making use of the crowd, sound tones, and note type features currently available.
We hope you enjoy playing this new version, and we are very excited to be able to show more news soon!
Key Features
Re-enabled Electric Lava and Arcade Wave stages.
Updated Crowd system.
Many gameplay tweaks and improvements to how the game handles various logic, resulting in a smoother experience.
Refreshed the tutorial, including new voice for Ottava.
MUSICAL RANGE - UPDATE 1.8.0 - CHANGELOG
SONGS
Updated tracks for Nothing Disturbs Me by The Bullseyes
Updated tracks for She's On Fire by Brandon FT SJBRAVO.
CROWDS
Added Crowd Sounds while song Playing
Added Crowd Emojis. Crowd throws emojis in certain parts of the song or everytime the player reaches a new combo
Added Song Sections. Crowd Reacts based on the player Accuracy in a section with Emojis and Movement.
Added Crowd Volume settings for Audio
Added New Crowd movements for song
Added Headbang movements
Added Fast versions of Jump and Headbang movements for crowd
Adjusted Crowd Lights during movements.
STAGES
Re enabled Electric Lava and Arcade Wave stages.
Added crowds to Electric Lava Stage, Arcade Wave Stage.
GAMEPLAY
Changed the way Player Combo decreases are handled
If you miss a note, the game checks if you have any Combo Buildup Energy. If so, it deletes your combo build up
If you don't have any combo buildup, your Combo socore decreases by 1.
So for eample, if you have a Combo of 8 with 70% buildup, and miss two notes, Then first Combo 8, with 0% build up, and then Combo 7, with 0% build up
Previously, the game would decrease combo by one, and remove your build up at the same time.
Punch decision logic by the game is now handedness independent.
This means overall more punches than before, for example, harmonies can now trigger punch notes.
Made exeptions to not break punch notes if the Bends that end in the root note
Spawning a Any Handedness Note will break the Punch Notes for Left and Right hands.
Vibratos and Bend notes are now detected and handled as separate type of notes.
This has repercutions in the, snapping assist and pitch assist during gameplay.
The game considers a note of type Bend if the the player must bend the note further than half a semi tone from the root note.
The game considers a note of type Vibrato if the it has at least 3 pitch events are zig-zag no more than half a semitone of a root note.
Increased Pitch sensitivity for Vibrato notes.
Doesnt Apply if note is of Bend type at the same time.
Added a time gap limit to transform a note into a Reshoot Type
TUTORIAL
Added new voice for Ottava
Added new dialog for Ottava
Joined both of the 'make some noise' phases of the tutorial into one.
Simplified and reordered the tutorial note meteors
Made Ottava Text bubble bigger
SONG MIDI TRACKING
Note Meteor will not use 'PitchEvents' from midi if it is in the same tick as a 'NoteOff' event.
This allows you to to leave notes touching in the Midi, which makes the tracking process easier.
BUG FIXES
Fixed a rare case of Punches not working at all when launching the game.*
Because of the rare nature of the bug we are very certain it's fixed but cant be certain.
Please let us know if you encounter this issue on any build greater than 1.8.0.143
Fixed Any Hand Whiplashes being detected as incorrect hand.
Gun Punch projectile now visualy shoots towards the TargetNote mesh location
Note Meteor Punch mesh stops moving downards once it reaches it's the TargetNote.
Improved note hit effects spawn position
Split Ends stop moving down when reaching it's TargetNote
Fixed Arena Rock stage not being saved as prefered world.
Update 1.8.0 Open Beta
An open Beta for the work in porogress 1.8.0 is now available.
Right click the game in your library, go to properties, Betas, then select Open Beta. If the branch is not available, simply restart your Steam client.
Key Features
Re-enabled Electric Lava and Arcade Wave stages.
Updated Crowd system.
Many gameplay tweaks and improvements to how the game handles various logic, resulting in a smoother experience.
Refreshed the tutorial, including new voice for Ottava.
In order to push this to the live branch, we still have to do some work, mostly updated at least the Anara songs to meet the standards of Today. As well as some visual bugs that have managed to creep in while working on this update. The greatest way you can help, is by playing the game, making a video and share your thoughts on how enjoyable and smooth of an experience the game is, so we can iterate and make sure the user experience is as smooth as possible for every user.
MUSICAL RANGE - UPDATE 1.8.0 - CHANGELOG
SONGS
Updated tracks for Nothing Disturbs Me by The Bullseyes
Updated tracks for She's On Fire by Brandon FT SJBRAVO.
CROWDS
Added Crowd Sounds while song Playing
Added Crowd Emojis. Crowd throws emojis in certain parts of the song or everytime the player reaches a new combo
Added Song Sections. Crowd Reacts based on the player Accuracy in a section with Emojis and Movement.
Added Crowd Volume settings for Audio
Added New Crowd movements for song
Added Headbang movements
Added Fast versions of Jump and Headbang movements for crowd
Adjusted Crowd Lights during movements.
STAGES
Re enabled Electric Lava and Arcade Wave stages.
Added crowds to Electric Lava Stage, Arcade Wave Stage.
GAMEPLAY
Changed the way Player Combo decreases are handled
If you miss a note, the game checks if you have any Combo Buildup Energy. If so, it deletes your combo build up
If you don't have any combo buildup, your Combo socore decreases by 1.
So for eample, if you have a Combo of 8 with 70% buildup, and miss two notes, Then first Combo 8, with 0% build up, and then Combo 7, with 0% build up
Previously, the game would decrease combo by one, and remove your build up at the same time.
Punch decision logic by the game is now handedness independent.
This means overall more punches than before, for example, harmonies can now trigger punch notes.
Made exeptions to not break punch notes if the Bends that end in the root note
Spawning a Any Handedness Note will break the Punch Notes for Left and Right hands.
Vibratos and Bend notes are now detected and handled as separate type of notes.
This has repercutions in the, snapping assist and pitch assist during gameplay.
The game considers a note of type Bend if the the player must bend the note further than half a semi tone from the root note.
The game considers a note of type Vibrato if the it has at least 3 pitch events are zig-zag no more than half a semitone of a root note.
Increased Pitch sensitivity for Vibrato notes.
Doesnt Apply if note is of Bend type at the same time.
Added a time gap limit to transform a note into a Reshoot Type
TUTORIAL
Added new voice for Ottava
Added new dialog for Ottava
Joined both of the 'make some noise' phases of the tutorial into one.
Simplified and reordered the tutorial note meteors
Made Ottava Text bubble bigger
SONG MIDI TRACKING
Note Meteor will not use 'PitchEvents' from midi if it is in the same tick as a 'NoteOff' event.
This allows you to to leave notes touching in the Midi, which makes the tracking process easier.
BUG FIXES
Fixed a rare case of Punches not working at all when launching the game.*
Because of the rare nature of the bug we are very certain it's fixed but cant be certain.
Please let us know if you encounter this issue on any build greater than 1.8.0.143
Fixed Any Hand Whiplashes being detected as incorrect hand.
Gun Punch projectile now visualy shoots towards the TargetNote mesh location
Note Meteor Punch mesh stops moving downards once it reaches it's the TargetNote.
Improved note hit effects spawn position
Split Ends stop moving down when reaching it's TargetNote
Fixed Arena Rock stage not being saved as prefered world.
Update 1.7.0
Hello VR Musicians!
Update 1.7.0 is now available for all to play and we are super excited to finally bring forth this change to you. We tweaked a bunch of the internal system of how the game works, enhancing and ensuring that playing music in VR is easier than ever, while at the same time adding a new mechanic, to make VR performing music more dynamic and expressive.
We don't have a chance to get into detail with every change that was made, as many of these were made in order to bring new functionality, as well, as to adjust various elements that in the end affect how you sound in the game. To get started, everyone playing the new update for the first time will have to go through the tutorial to ensure proper understanding of the new mechanics. The tutorial is a first iteration, so please let us know your feedback so we can further adjust the new player experience.
New Gameplay Mechanics
We introduced the Punch mechanic into the game. Your musical guns have one pair of shields, one in front and behind. When you move your hand fast enough to hit these shields, you trigger a Punch Shot. If you do this without your gun being 'linked' to a note, you will play a 'Dead Note'. You can add this whenever you want to add flavor to your performance. We also reworked the Dead Note, to be a horizontal line, no longer associated with a specific note, to better reflect the intention of this mechanic.
If your gun is 'linked' to a note. Meaning, you are sustaining a note, then when you punch your shield it will trigger a re-shoot of your gun into the same note. This allows you to play the same note repeatedly very quickly without having to lift your fingers from the trigger. Notes that should be punched, have a horizontal line across them. Punching these notes, rather than shooting them normally yields double the points.
There is a final gameplay element, not implemented, but that we have planed, that will bring the Punch mechanic to it's final evolution. Join our Discord server to be up to date on our plans and revelations about upcoming changes, as well as access to Beta branches to try upcoming changes.
New Instrument Tone System
We've reworked the Electric Guitar sound. It is much more enveloping and more powerful than before. Experiment with this new sound during your play to find how you can transform songs into a unique performance.
We also added an Automatic tone change system. Certain songs (Anara Pack currently) are programmed with 'ideal' tones for certain parts of the song, So, as you play from voice lead to guitar parts, now your sound will change accordingly. You can override this Automatic Tone System by simply choosing one of the 4 tones currently available using the Thumbstick of your controller on any hand. If you want to go back to Automatic, simply select 'Auto' in the tone wheel using your thumbstick, and your sound will return to the suggested tone for the part you are playing.
Whenever you start to play a new song, the game will forcibly change your Instrument Tone to the Automatic tone.
New Crowd System
Finally, how can you feel like a rockstar if there isn't anyone out there to cheer you on? We've added a new crowd system. 5 cute little aliens, which will jump to the music as you play.
This system is still early in development, as such the response, and movement of the crowd is very limited in range and only available in the Anara pack songs. We are looking to add more variability in the way the crowd can move, cheer, jeer, and love you. Join our Discord to get updated on how we are progressing, as well as access to beta branches to try upcoming changes.
Other Changes
Some other changes are the adjustment and enhancements to the Note Bend system, so overall it should feel much easier to follow a bend and require less energy from the player to perform. We adjusted the default volume mixing levels, to give preference to the song, while still being able to hear yourself. And many fixes and bug squashing that we have lost track of many of these.
We also had are temporarily remove 2 worlds Electric Lava and Arcade wave, as we need time to add the crowd system to those worlds properly, so they can match the vision of what Musical Range is. We still have much work to do, we have to go through and update the song catalog to use the new features, but we think it is important to not disable songs, so players can have more content to play, so we just ask for some patience while we bring the old songs up to par.
We hope you enjoy the update and let us know your thoughts. Motanum
Update 1.6.0 - Anara Publishing Music
Hello Music Shooters!
Our latest major update is now available to download on Steam! Become a Rockstar and Popstar with 6 new incredible songs from Anara Publishing, included with the base game! From Grunge-Rock to 80's pop music, these new songs by Brandon ft. SJBRAVO, DORRR, The Bullseyes offer new challenges and movements to dominate.
We updated the base world to have some personality. We found that having a full black world was problematic for some users, so we created updated this world and the tutorial world, to have a basic environment, so players can have a horizon line of reference, while still being light to support users with low PC specs.
This update also includes changes and tweaks to the internals of the game, to ensure a better flow of the music and player inputs. And the Bend Miss system was adjusted to be clearer when a bend is not correctly bent enough. We still have plans to improve on Bending functionality, to make it physically easier to perform bends, while offering control over your sound, while reducing the changes of being out of tune.
The tutorial suffered an overhaul. It is now an automatic tutorial, sending notes as soon as you finished the previous instruction, with place holder voice dialog, ensuring the initial player experience is smooth and enjoyable. Our future objectives for the tutorial is to do an overhaul of the voice, with a professional voice actor, as well, as to integrate a step to measure the player's arm spam, to adjust the bend sensitivity for players automatically. We are also going to be taking a close look at new players, and me changes based on their feedback to adjust clarity and interactivity.
The recommended songs after finishing the tutorial have been replaced with 3 songs from the newest music pack from Anara Publishing.
Full Changelog
New Anara Music Pack
--- She's On Fire by Brandon ft. SJBRAVO
--- So Alive - Brandon ft. SJBRAVO
--- Human Love - DORRR
--- The Future Is Now - DORRR
--- World Doesn't Care - The Bullseyes
--- Nothing Disturbs Me - The Bullseyes
Updated Empty world to have a basic environment
Updated tutorial to be more automatic
Fixed Regular Notes not adding Points to your Final Score tally. (This meant you'd see negative sustain points in the previous version)
Added voicelines to Tutorial
Added Speaking animations to Ottava
Added Positive Feedback voice lines to the tutorial
DeadNotes no longer trigger a TargetNote sound if the gun was aimed at it
Fixed Whiplashes not pausing when player paused a song
Fixed whiplashes not being removed if player stopped a song
Updated Free Play button in the Main Menu
Updated Empty button in World Select
Updated Musical Range Logo 3D model
Updated Credits Menu
Other Minor Fixes
We have some exciting changes in line for the next update! We are working on updating the Instrument Sound and expanding the Tone system. While we also have plans to expand on the base gameplay. So, if you haven't please join us on Discord to be able to chat and have a voice on the direction of the game as we head for a full release.
Update 1.5.1 Available
Hello VR Music Shooters!
This new update brings an extensive change to the sound system. We've added new sounds and changed the sound mix of the gun shots, the music, and your sound to provide a better sound experience to experienced and new players. A big change you'll notice, is that when you miss a shot, your sound and the Music sound will be muffled until you go back to playing correctly again. This should offer a more arcade experience to the game, while ensuring that if you are playing the game correctly, your sound will sound incredible.
We still have work to do with bends, as those can be problematic, so we are planning out some internal changes to the bend system, to help out those in need to sound good in pitch, while offering total freedom to experienced players to create the sound they want to make.
We've improved the gun shot sounds, so your shots will be much more powerful, but they will mix much better into the music and your sound. We are working on improving the sounds and sound system of the game play elements, to offer better auditory feedback, that mixes and is in tune properly with the music.
The tutorial went through some changes. We've added holograms to better indicate the bend position your hand should be as well as to indicate the movements you should be making with your gun. This should clear up some people getting stuck not knowing what a 'whiplash' is or how far they need to move their hand during a bend.
We are working on remaking the 'vibrato' note. This new indication comes as a zigzag line, and this will indicate the pitch you should have for a note, while allowing you to do a vibrato as you want to make it without having to follow a specific hand movement. We added this new note type to the tutorial. We have currently updated only some songs, please be patient as we update the rest of the tracks.
We are simplifying the bends in Easy and Normal difficulty to be 'squared'. These squared type bends, should make it clearer to see when and how far you should move the note during a bend. Rather than the smoothed out ramp curve from Hard and Expert, which if done correctly sound better, but can look more intimidating if you are not used to them.
We updated the song tracks for Floating, All These Walls, Runaway Rockaway, and Out Of Time. This have the new vibrato note and the simplified 'Squared' bend notes in the appropriate difficulties.
We've improved the note Meteor logic internally, so note meteors are better handled by the game when there are many of these in quick successions, as well as removing the need to keep a gap between notes when working the midi, although this still is good practice.
No change log this time, as many many changes were compounded through the past month.
If you haven't please join us on Discord to be able to chat and have a voice on the direction of the game as we head for a full release.
Update 1.4.0 Beta - Part 2
Hello Musicians!
We are back with a small update in preparation for the full release of 1.4.0 on Steam and Quest 2!
In this weekly update we are adding back in the Volume 2 music after redesigning the tracks to handle handedness.
We also took the time to redesign the User Interface of the Gameplay and Song Finish. These should be much clearer, cleaner.
We also did some internal changes to how the game expect bends and scores you based on pitch. Overall, bending notes should feel better, with an indicator to tell you if you need to bend a bit more, and the scoring reflecting your current pitch.
We hope you enjoy the patch and the updated music!
Don't forget to stay in touch in our Discord to find out new music, tips, tricks, and discuss on our future features to implement in the game!
Update 1.4.0 BETA now Available!
Hello Musicians!
We are very excited to finally removed from the closed beta the version 1.4.0 of the game. This is a huge update we have been working for the past few months now and it's only the beginning of the latest vision for Musical Range.
In Musical Range we don't want you to feel like a musician. We want you to BECOME one for real! We believe that playing music in VR can transform the way you express yourself, and our main challenge is to create and design a musical instrument for virtual reality that takes full advantage of an immersive experience. While being easy to understand, but with massive depth to explore and to find your sound.
With this objective in mind. We made a huge change to the game mechanics of the game. Your hands are now Color Coded, and the game will tell you to play certain notes with a specific hand. This will make the game flow better, as we can guide you in the optimal movements to play the song, but this change brought with it huge rework on how the game was programmed.
One of these reworks were the songs. We have to re do the tracking of the songs, to include handedness in the tracks. We took this opportunity to update the difficulty tracks to make the easier difficulties easier to follow and to enjoy, which was a common feedback from players. This change however, means that many custom songs made for the old version will no longer be compatible and will require that their authors edit the tracks with the updated midi rules.
The new player experience was an after thought previously. We knew we wanted to re work the tutorial in the future, so the first iteration of the tutorial was very basic, and had a fatal flaw, you could continue the tutorial even if you failed at what you were supposed to do.
Well, the future is now, and we are ready to make public the new player experience. This tutorial is much more interactive. It will guide you through how to play the game in a more intuitive and interactive manner. But more importantly, it will not let you continue to the next step if you do not successfully do the previous step. It will also tell you what you are doing wrong, so the player can fully learn and understand what the objective of the game is and how the game tells you which notes to play.
This post is now way too long. So I'll jump into the change log of the notable changes.
Added Handedness Your guns are now colored, and target notes require you to hit it with the correct hand to play the note.
Added New Tutorial Experience Added a new tutorial experience. Players are required to finish this tutorial before they play their first song.
New Environment Added Arcade Wave environment.
Reworked 16 Songs. The Video Game pak, Big Indie pak, and Artist Collab pak have been reworked to use the new Handedness system.
Temporarily removed 'Core Lab' environment while fixing an unexpected crash issue.
Temporarily removed OST Vol 2 pak while we finish reworking the songs for the new system.
Please let us know your experience with the game. How the added Handedness feel. How good of a job does the tutorial do in teaching you how to play, and the difficulty of the songs.
If you haven't please join us on Discord to be able to chat and have a voice on the direction of the game as we head for a full release.
1.4.0 Beta Coming Soon
Hello musicians!
We've been working this past few months on core redesigns of the game. We are implementing handedness to the guns, as well as making preparations for future features we have in mind. We also have been working on a tutorial redesign, to be more intuitive, and effective in teaching players how to play the game and what each element of a note meteor means.
This has been a long challenge as we had to rework some elements of the game to work with the new system. We are very proud of the changes and very excited to share with you. We truly think it will make the experience of playing the game more fun and easier to engage with.
We've been pushing updates to a Beta branch every Monday for the past month. You had to opt in to the beta, but we are now at a point where we are confident on the new build, and playing the new build is much better than the previous, and the content is now equal in the beta as the live version. So, the Live branch of the game will become the Beta on Next Monday.
This means that on Monday 14 of November the current version of the game will be replaced with the latest Beta of update 1.4.0. Your custom songs will probably be broken, so you might want to start updating them to fit the new system. We'll update the custom song guide in this coming days.
While we expect to have all current available songs ready for the game, some unexpected behavior can happen, which is why we are denominating the build a Beta rather than a full release.
We don't have a full change log yet, but you can check out the latest beta in the meantime by going to properties -> Betas -> public Beta.
Thank you for your patience. And we can't wait to hear you play music in VR!
Update 1.3.0! Sound Tones and Worlds!
Hello VR Musicians!
In this new update we are finally releasing a new world to play music. Electric Lava is our first step in exploring multiple worlds! We have more worlds in the work at the moment and we can't wait to share them with you over time.
With this change, the default world is an Empty map. This will help new players get started as there is less visual clutter and doesn't require too much from your PC.
To travel to the new world, simply select World Change option in the main menu, and select one of the 3 options. Once you select one, please wait a few seconds for the world to fully load. At the moment, the game doesn't remember which world you had selected, so every time you launch the game, you need to chose a world.
Alternatively, you can change the world any time by turning backwards from the notes, and selecting the World Change from there.
We also are releasing our first iteration of the Tone Menu!
You can now change between different tones any time by flicking the thumbstick of any controller. The current menu is divided in 6 slots. 4 contain 4 different sound presets. 'Elegance' is the default preset you've been playing with so far.
We have many plans and ideas on where to take this system in the future, but please let us know your thoughts and feedback on what you'd like to see (or rather, hear!). The 4 preset sounds, are work in progress and we are working on designing more sounds.
Full Change Log
Added World Change Menu
Added Empty world. Default
Added Electric Lava world.
Added Sound Tone Change Menu
Added Elegance Tone. Default tone and original tone since launch.
Added Distortion Tone.
Added Rockey Tone.
Added Nova Choir Tone.
Two additional unused slots for the future. Auto and Custom.
Added Reset To Default option for Settings Menu.
Shuffle songs now have a 5 slot duration cooldown before they can be randomly selected again.
Moved project to a new Unreal Engine Version. Please let us know if you experience anything unexpected.
Optimized Textures memory usage.
Optimized Memory usage from various assets.
We are currently beta testing the Quest 2 version, if you'd like to help out head over to the Discord server to request an invite. But this also means some bugs might have crawled over to the Steam version. Please let us know if you run into any issues. Thank you for your patience while we work out a pipeline to server multiple platforms at the same time.
Please join us on Discord if you haven't already, and have fun! www.discord.gg/NvS2NBqVXw
