Upcoming VR Competition Shooting Sim!

[Jablanski]

Range is HOT! is a VR Competition Shooting Sim coming soon to Steam Early Access. Check out the trailer!

We are aiming to become the most realistic VR shooting sim available, and hopefully bring a new generation of shooters to the sport. We're a small team out of Denver, CO., and this is our first Steam VR release.

We've received lots of positive feedback from our beta testers, mostly coming from /r/CompetitiveShooting and /r/3Gun on Reddit. We have more room for beta testers in this week leading up to launch, so if you'd like to join, hop on over to our Discord server and join the (surprisingly constructive) discussion! Once you join, we can get you a free beta access key. (beta testers need a VR setup capable of playing Steam VR games.)

We started with 3gun, as that gives us a good base to develop multiple guns and courses, but we intend to add as many disciplines as possible, so IDPA, USPSA, Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays, maybe even F-Class are all in discussion.

I'd love to hear your feedback, as this community is truly our target audience. Our team of developers was bioengineered in a secret lab deep underground to not have feelings, so pull no punches!

[ghbucky]

well, I don't have a VR setup, as there hasn't been anything I've seen that would convince me to spend $$ on one.

If ammo/components keeps being impossible to get, I might have to reconsider that position.

I have to wonder though if you could develop some bad habits in a vr game.

[Jablanski]

We've definitely had discussions around bad habits. While we can't fullyreplicate the experience of real world shooting, we're doing our best to enforce good safety practices, the rifle and shotgun for instance have working safeties in-game, and you do get penalized for improper/unsafe grounding while running the courses.

One (contentious) debate we're having right now internally is if/how to add the 180° rule. It's definitely a safety concern, and we can see players forming bad habits without it in-game, however, we think it could be a big barrier to everyday gamers enjoyment of the game. One possible solution we've discussed is implementing a "pro mode" for a more restrictive/realistic ruleset.

Another thing we can't exactly replicate are the real-world implications of poor technique. For instance, you're not going to exactly fix problems with trigger slap or pulling your shots, but we do feel as the technology improves, we may be able to address some of these issues in the future.

I'm interested, what other safety concerns or bad habits do you think we should watch out for?

[ghbucky]

I'm thinking of all the gun handling techniques. Loading, racking, handling...everything is going to be done using a controller, not MY comp gun, so there is no way to exactly replicate it.

[cslinger]

I have done several VR shooting ranges and while they are a heck of a lot of fun and do indeed trick your brain, at least with Handguns, at some level to think you have a firearm they simply cannot be used as a training aid IMO unless some type of controller, controller add on to a firearm or hand tracking using a real / sim firearms can be implemented.

Now certain things can be shown a new shooter. This is how the slide will recoil, here is a mag release, slide lock etc. etc. but beyond fun not much actual training.

All that said that is not me POO POO ING this. As I said WICKED FUN especially for us gun guys.

Fun story is was playing, I think VR shooting gallery on Quest. I had a Beretta 92 and I did an overhand slingshot of the slide and click..........I HAD SWEPT THE SAFETY DOWN!!! I thought that was pretty cool.

[Jablanski]

One thing we're doing to differentiate ourselves from the pile of other VR shooting ranges is that we're not just a range and targets, we're trying our best to simulate the actual competition. So, timers, penalties, an RO calling "hit" on the long range steel, etc... As we make improvements, we're hoping players/newcomers can at least use it to learn the rules of the competition. We're even considering hosting in-game events, so like, "log in this Saturday to post a score for X Event", and then awarding virtual trophies/badges or something.

[cslinger]

I don’t know if this is possible on your end nor do I know if it would be helpful to the end user but......

Will it be possible for the end user to design their own stages? If so I could see some benefit to pregaming real upcoming stages much the same way virtual racing can teach you a track layout. It might not teach you to drive but can burn into memory the various corners etc much how I could see pregaming a stage could burn your movements into memory. (I will engage here then here then......etc.

Just a thought.

[ghbucky]

I spent some time thinking about this, and here are my thoughts (probably worth what you are paying for it )

As for the safety aspects, make it real. Any infraction is a DQ. Then possibly an arcade mode where that turns all that off and you can do whatever you want.

When I first started shooting I unknowingly developed a bad habit of reaching in front and over the gun to reach the slide, thereby sweeping myself. It wasn't until an RO called me on it that I knew about it and corrected it.

If this game DQ'd me for doing it, that might have save a bit of embarassment (or worse). As a nice to have would be the ability to go back and do a slow mo to show the player exactly what they did to earn a DQ.

Watching the vids, it looks like a hoot. But the perspective seems off a bit, like the shooter isn't really using the sights?

[Jablanski]

Good info, ghbucky. I agree this would would be the best way to prevent bad habits forming.

And good eye on the perspective. Here's why: Shots in the trailer are captured from the left eye of the Oculus Quest 2, and the player being captured was a right handed shooter. It's a thorn in our side, and we've made due with what we have for now. We'll be capturing more footage in the future and hopefully fix this issue (and give the option to the player). So many bugs, suggestions, feedback to address, but we'll get to it eventually!

Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback.

[Jablanski]

Originally Posted by cslinger

I don’t know if this is possible on your end nor do I know if it would be helpful to the end user but......

Will it be possible for the end user to design their own stages? If so I could see some benefit to pregaming real upcoming stages much the same way virtual racing can teach you a track layout. It might not teach you to drive but can burn into memory the various corners etc much how I could see pregaming a stage could burn your movements into memory. (I will engage here then here then......etc.

Just a thought.

A course editor is HIGH on this of requested features. It won't be there for launch, but we're working on it. I'm also hoping some VR savvy folks will use it to design and test courses that they then bring to the real world!

[ghbucky]

I gave you a follow on Steam. Not sure if that helps but maybe. I checked out the discussions there and I love what you guys are doing. It looks like you may be drawing in non-shooters to check out our sport!

I also gave a heads up to a friend of mine who has a VR rig.

Congratulations on a fine looking product and an obviously serious team. I hope you all make buckets of money from this.

[Jablanski]

Thanks for following us! Yes, adding our game to your Steam Wishlist helps with visibility on the storefront, so, sincerely, thanks for that. Our little niche game needs all the visibility it can get.

I don't think we're going to make buckets of money, maybe a bucket of CCI Mini Mags, lol. Through this experience, we sure are learning a lot, and really getting our firearms as dialed in as possible.

It's not in-game yet, but one of our programmers just added mic detection to the prototyped trap range, so now you can call "pull" and it'll throw a clay!

[cslinger]

How to scare the bejezzus out of cslinger’s wife in one easy step.

STEP 1- Have Cslinger yell “PULL!” from the basement.

[Jablanski]

Ah ha ha ha!