Bethesda Game Studios made the surprise announcement at E3 last year that the company would be porting the entirety of Fallout 4 to virtual reality, and confirmed it would be released for both the HTC Vive and in VR on the forthcoming Xbox ‘Project Scorpio’ console. Since then, the company has been relatively silent on the status of the project, but has recently affirmed ongoing progress.

Speaking recently with IGN, Todd Howard, Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, said that Fallout 4 VR was among seven major projects the company is currently working on. Progress on the VR port sounds to be going well, with Howard once again stating that the game would be playable “start to finish in VR.”

“There’s no content that we removed or changed [for VR],” Howard told IGN. “It’s interface work, it’s other things,” he said.

Around the time of Fallout 4 VR’s reveal, Howard said of the game, “The interface is already on your wrist [with the Pip-Boy], you can pull it up and switch around, playing with the weapons. It’s exciting for us where even though we’ve lived in the game, to step it into VR it becomes real on another level.”

Road to VR went hands-on with Fallout 4 VR back at E3 2016, and while the experience gave us a glimpse of a AAA VR production, if it was launched in that initial state many may have been left unsatisfied. As Road to VR’s Scott Hayden opined:

Bethesda’s VR version of Fallout 4 is far from ready for the eyeballs of the paying public, as there still no way to interact with world objects (outside of shooting them), no adaptation of the inventory system, and teleporting across the Wasteland still feels a bit like cheating.

Fortunately, the VR-version of the game will have seen a lot more development attention by the time it launches sometime in 2017. Howard told IGN that locomotion specifically is something the studio is continuing to work on.

“There are issues with locomotion, how you traverse that much space, and we’re hoping to support as many modes as possible… It’s not done yet, there’s work to do, but the parts that are there, I’m biased but it’s pretty incredible.”

SEE ALSO
'Fallout 4' and 'Doom' Are "just the beginning of Bethesda’s future in virtual reality"

Back at E3 2016, Bethesda said that a VR version of Doom was also in the works (though Howard didn’t give an update on that project), and teased a ‘Bethesda VR’ initiative, writing that Fallout 4 VR and Doom VR are “…just the beginning of Bethesda’s future in virtual reality.”

Bethesda parent company ZeniMax recently won a major lawsuit brought against Oculus; thus far it’s unclear how the results of the case will impact the likelihood that any Bethesda VR games will end up on the Oculus Rift.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • EvilScrooge

    So what? No proper locomotion, just stupid teleporting and dumb stick waving around the room? Just do some decent VR game already. Have you not learned anything from Resident Evil 7?
    I guess VorpX really needs to step in and implement aim decoupling in all first person games. Apparently legit developers can’t be trusted with VR at all.

    • Cl

      Does it say somewhere that aim isn’t decoupled? I was looking forward to this and it would be upsetting if it wasn’t. If youre referring to the article from 8 months ago, im sure alot has changed since then.

      As for locomotion, i hope they put some of these in or something similar http://www.roadtovr.com/freedom-locomotion-system-comprehensive-package-vr-movement/

      • iUserProfile

        “There are issues with locomotion, how you traverse that much space, and we’re hoping to support as many modes as possible… It’s not done yet, there’s work to do, but the parts that are there, I’m biased but it’s pretty incredible.”

      • EvilScrooge

        Sadly they don’t say much about possibility of playing with standard controls, but mentioned looking at the PipBoy by lifting your hand, moving by teleporting and developing it with HTC in mind makes me think the worst.
        Shouldn’t they aim for more options? To draw a bigger player base?

        • Cl

          Developing it with htc in mind makes me think the best… oculus is the one that comes with a gamepad, htc comes with motion controls.

          Wait are you saying you want to play with standard controls and not motion?

    • Dan

      *sigh*… I’m so glad the VR community seems to have already chosen their big elitist hill to die on. It’s so quickly turned from a discussion about what works and what doesn’t into this inane proclaimation that “proper locomotion” is the only true purist way, and everything else is stupid and dumb.

      You realise why most devs are still avoiding full locomotion? Because they’re clued up enough to know it’s fundamentally incompatible with VR, and will *always* make for a disorientiing, nausiating experience… and it doesn’t matter that a few self-proclaimed purists have decided it’s only about being committed enough to get over it. It’s bad design, and it will stay bad design.

      Sure, teleporting doesn’t seem like the ideal solution, but at least it’s a reasonable attempt to come up with a solution, rather than just bull-headedly insist everyone stick to the wrong solution.

      • EvilScrooge

        I don’t think you should just jump in and shout Purist everywhere. Full locomotion is the only way I can truly enjoy games in VR. There is nothing bad about it. It doesn’t make me wrong or right. And it definietly doesn’t give me any nausea. Like whatsoever. Shouldn’t we just be able to play games the way we like it instead of being told that we won’t like something? As I said, it worked perfectly for Resident Evil 7, you can’t ignore that!
        I just hate jumping around my room waving plastic sticks around like a crazed drug addict.
        I don’t want Fallout 4 to become another turret section game. That just pulls me entirely out of any potential sense of immersion. Such thing feels like I’m sitting on a porch shooting intruders, in every game the same. You can’t blame me for wanting to sit down, relax and enjoy my video game and it’s environment fully, without any dancing around or being brutally glitched from place to place. Is it really so hard to believe that people don’t want their gaming experience to be a chore? I still treat VR games like video games instead of form of physical exorcise and treat Headset like a better form of displaying it. All we want is to be able to explore the world. some people are sick and tired of the slideshow games since the First Person point and click games died out.

        • Brandon Smith

          ” Full locomotion is the only way I can truly enjoy games in VR. There is nothing bad about it.”

          I guess that’s your opinion and you are welcome to it… but that sounds like kind of a dumb opinion to have.

          It’s like saying I can only enjoy Street Fighter II if I’m playing it at a 7-Eleven. It’s kind of arbitrary.

          There were tons of games that existed before “full locomotion” was a thing. Many of them are the greatest games of all time. Heck, I would love a VR version of Shadowgate, and that game was built on “teleporting”.

          I have to agree that it seems silly to say that the only acceptable form of VR is VR that features one specific type of gameplay.

          That being said, there is absolutely no reason why VR HAS to take modern games and make them VR. I’m playing through Crystal Rift, which is a VR version of something like Eye OF The Beholder, and it works perfectly with no nausea by having “semi-full locomotion”. There are thousands of amazing derivative games they could make using a AAA buildout of that system.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Surely the question is how much effort is it to include old school movement. If it’s a lot of effort then it’s probably not worth it if not many users like it, but one surely has to assume it’s bugger all work, given it’s the default mode for most other games.

          • Brandon Smith

            The problem is the audience. 25 years ago it would be no sweat for a publisher to include options into a game that may break the game or make the experience sub-satisfactory. But now we live in an era with an incalculable amount of uneducated, impatient, pseudo intellectual, often litigious “fans” who demand that if something is included, it work 100% properly. If they include a full locomotive mode and it makes even 40% of people sick, they will hear an unending stream of criticism about how Fallout sucks, Bethesda sucks and VR sucks.

            Personally, while I don’t get sick in VR often, the times I DO get sick are when I’m moving in one direction and looking around the environment at the same time. I do this ALL THE TIME in regular Fallout. It’s how you pass the time as you walk from place to place. It’s also how you decide where to go next.

            So there are definitely some hurdles that I could understand them having to work through before Fallout VR is ready for prime time.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Pretty easy solution though – make it an option you have to tick, and when you do pop up a warning. With a picture of a Vault Boy throwing up.

          • Brandon Smith

            I mean, I’m right there with you. But the question is, if people say they bought the game for VR and then the play it in vomit mode and, true to form, vomit, are they going to blame themselves or Bethesda? Or VR?

            I feel like people will blame anyone but themselves.

            (I spent 15$ for this VR mode and I threw up! This game sucks! I want my money back! Bethesda sucks! I’ll never buy another Bethesda game again! Etc.)

          • Real VR games offers many locomotion methods

            End discussion :

          • RFC_VR

            Yes I also don’t suffer from SIM sickness much, it’s only when experiencing badly made /designed software it rears its head. I’ve spent a lot of time wearing scuba gear, Motocross helmets, flying, driving off road so used to disorientation and have things strapped to my head feels natural! (Vive HMD is lighter than my Moto full face helmet)

            I can think of one specific example when I first got my Vive, “old blu” (puzzle game with AI) a section where you step diagonally upwards across floating blocks. I almost barfed, and had unpleasant sensations from vestibular system for 3-4 hours afterwards.

            I’ve used full locomotion in other games without issue, rotation angle when facing forward is critical to avoid that ‘ smearing’ slide that can trigger SIM sickness. I’ve also found rocking my head from side to side when locomoting forward really tricks the vestibular system into having something to key into.

            All options are worth pursuing if practically possible

          • Raphael

            You have things ass over tit. The game is already built for “old school movement”. From a developer point of view it’s teleport that causes ALL of the problems. Fallout 4 wasn’t built for Myst-like adventure movement. It was built for FULL Locomotion using keys and mouse. It’s a very easy step in terms of coding to translate that full motion to the VR trackpad. The real headache is fecking teleport. That requires some big changes to the game.

          • Brandon Smith

            I think you’re being obtuse. It’s not as though it simply never occurred to them to put the standard game into vr mode, with the same controls, and give it a whirl. I think you are ignoring the fact that they are saying that, for whatever reason, that doesn’t work as they would want it to. I can’t way why. Maybe it makes people sick? Maybe people just don’t like the experience. I don’t know. But I think it’s a massive stretch to assume it simply never occurred to them.

          • Raphael

            have they said they aren’t including full locomotion? It read like teleport and other options were being looked at. “Maybe it makes people sick?” << A percentage are always gone be sick with VR for a number of hardware revisions but there is no real reason to exclude full locomotion. It's all very well making a random statement about perhaps there's some reason… In terms of game engine and coding there is no reason. Of course a percentage are gonna spew. Do u know that one person has spewed with Serious Sam first encounter using teleport?

            Multiple choices… that's what VR games need where possible.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Yes, I said it would presumably be bugger all effort. And I was speaking in general about VR games, most of which aren’t currently ports of normal games; in this case it must be even easier.

          • Raphael

            Basically you will never persuade people who want full locomotion that teleport is a good option because it existed in “some of the best games of all time”. I didn’t enjoy Island 359 last year… the teleport was ugly and it made the game feel like I was playing Myst… yes… Myst is one of the greatest adventures of all time… I just don’t want that teleport.

            Island 359 with full locomotion is astonishingly good. Where before it felt like a slow-paced adventure book; now I am there and there is no immersion destroying teleport. Sure it’s an option for those who hate full locomotion… but I ain’t gonna use it.

            Teleport is actually a real problem for developers… so long as a percentage (depend on it) then it means we won’t be seeing Battlefield VR (unless it’s a seriously crippled version).

            Let’s put it this way… If no one suffered from nausea and we had VR trackpad (vive) full locomotion then a game like Star Citizen in VR is more likely. SC has fast paced-FPS combat. That does not mix with shitty teleport. It would be ok with trackpad full locomotion.

            While I understand that not everyone can handle full locomotion at this stage due to hardware limitations… Teleport does cause more problems than it solves. Sure you would like to see a whole new generation of VR games where you can just have room-scale and teleport… those games will not allow fast paced games like Battlefield.

            Oh and by the way… I see no issue using teleport in adventure games and RPG like Eye of the beholder.

            I do however see that teleport isn’t viable on the battlefield.

          • Andrew Mcevoy

            Ah Island 359 has full locomotion now? Awesome! Ive not tried it yet but now Im interested. Whats your impressions of the game? 7/10-er?

          • Raphael

            I posted a review…. It has really brought the game to life. They released the full locomotion option in December. I re-purchased the game yesterday. It still has teleport for those who want it and you can even use teleport along with the full locomotion.

            I’m one of the ones who finds teleport disorienting. I had no issue with that in Portal with full locomotion but jumping from one spot to another is far more disorienting that smooth full motion.

            Island 359 feels incredible with the new motion. Now you really feel you’re there and fully immersed. Previously it felt like a f*cking story-book.

            http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197968559405/recommended/476700

          • Brandon Smith

            I think you’re missing the point, though. YOu’re basically saying that them not embracing full locomotion is a problem because it hinders the industry from normalizing full locomotion. But normalizing full locomotion is putting the car WAYYYY before the horse. I think they are soberly admitting that people don’t LIKE Fallout with full locomotion. IDEALLY it would exist. You and I WANT it to exist. But I think they are saying that outside of the our un-restricted imaginations, it just doesn’t work that well.

          • Raphael

            Doesn’t work that well? So how is it that Arizona and Serious Sam First Encounter offer Full locomotion and so many happy feedback comments from users?

            If Bethesda don’t want full locomotion it doesn’t mean they’re right… Croteam manage it rather well.

            I think what we see typically from nausea gamers is that they want to convince us that teleport is the only option.

          • Brandon Smith

            I would say that perhaps those games are built from the ground up to be games that are controlled with full locomotion?

            I mean, crap, one of my favorite PSVR games is RIGS. But I have it set to head tracking for head movement. The second I set it up like a dual joystick shooter… the way fallout is set up… oh lordy. It’s vomit city.

            I’m not saying full locomotion doesn’t work AT ALL. I’m saying that Fallout 4 already exits and they are trying to put VR into that game and that engine. Fallout is a very different game than Serious Sam.

          • Raphael

            What are you on about? Serious Sam First Generation is a vintage game brought into VR.

            Absolute myth that games need to be built for VR from the “ground-up”.

            Any game can be modified for VR, it simply depends on how well it’s done.

          • Andrew Mcevoy

            Onward is leading the charge for full locomotion only games and their viability. Such a great game! To think its still in Alpha and its already stepping up to the mark as the counter strike of its generation.

          • Andrew McEvoy
          • Mane Vr

            so agree

        • CURTROCK

          It’s great that full locomotion works for you. However, for me and almost everyone I know who has experienced VR, it results in instant nausea. Like, rip off the HMD, and lay down for an hour & never want to try it again, nausea. Teleportation may not be the final solution, but for what seems to be the majority of people, it’s the difference between useable & not useable. Same goes for vection (turning & rotation). Snap-turns solves this.

          • Andrew Mcevoy

            I dont have any issues with full locomotion at all, nor do my friends who also luckily own a VR headset. Ive also seen a few polls which asks the same question and the results were all around 50% no issues, 30% some issues but ok, 20% cant do it at all as you describe. However lets be fair and say its 50 -50 . Why not just have it as an option for both when viable? Arizona Sunshine is a good example of how a game can work perfectly well with both inputs.

          • EvilScrooge

            Yes, making it an option will definitely help many. Especially in games like Fallout 4 where traversing miles is the most important feature. But as I said before, they prefer to alienate people – potential customers, by settling for one solution only.

        • Dan

          My point is just that you and a great many people seem to be out to decry anything that *isn’t* full-locomotion VR as a lost cause, because it’s been decided that full-locomotion is the true believers’ VR, and anything else is pandering to casual users who aren’t hardened to VR sickness.

          From my point of view, it strikes me as somewhat pointless wanting VR to be just like the relaxing, low-effort experience you already have on your monitor… why not just play the games on your monitor?
          VR places you inside interactive worlds, but you would still rather sit down and telegraph all your interactions with those worlds through a gamepad, rather than stand up and interact directly? What’s the point? You already have a medium that does exactly that, without wishing that this new one would conform to the same old conventions. The real advantages of VR only present themselves when you stand up and interact with it… sure, there’s room for more conventional experiences, but it’s in no way less “video-gamey” to define VR as something more active and directly interactive… unless your definition of video games is “things that I’m already used to”.

          I think it’s a bad idea to regard teleportation and other experimental modes of interaction as somehow just facilitating people who can’t stomach “proper” locomotion… those experimental approaches are intrinsic to discovering what really works in VR, whereas full locomotion is basically a holdover from a form of video games that it suits much better.

          Fine to have it as an option, no problem at all. I just take issue with people holding it up as this elitist “proper” approach to VR, and ranting about how stupid the other approaches are. It seems a completely backwards attitude to me, and one that if it gains too much of a following, could seriously hamper innovation in VR as developers become afraid to step away from old conventions for fear of backlash.

          • VR Cat

            “You realise why most devs are still avoiding full locomotion? Because they’re clued up enough to know it’s fundamentally incompatible with VR, and will *always* make for a disorientiing, nausiating experience.”

            This isn’t true. Full locomotion is not fundamentally incompatible with VR. It may be fundamentally incompatible with VR setups that only feature a headset, but that is a deficiency of the setup – not the game. VR headsets are not VR, just as my computer mouse is not PC gaming – it’s a peripheral that is part of a medium. If you have a VR treadmill you can enjoy full locomotion just fine. The reason not many devs have implemented such support so far, is that not many devs have them yet, but I expect that to change.

            First-person games commonly feature full locomotion through environments because it’s fun and enriches the game. You don’t take out a huge feature like that due to a lack of appropriate hardware – you get the appropriate hardware to restore that feature! To do otherwise is defeatist, and not in keeping with human nature.

          • Raphael

            We had to suffer endless fecking teleport games last year because of the nausea hysteria. Now developers are realising that actually nausea is no longer a majority problem.

            “but you would still rather sit down and telegraph all your interactions with those worlds through a gamepad, rather than stand up and interact directly? ” << What the hell are you crapping on about? I use Vive trackpad for a game like Island 359. It has full VR controls and allows me to move around in full locomotion while standing and walking around.

            You not seeing the point of something doesn't mean there isn't one… just that you're too small-minded to see it.

          • Get Schwifty!

            It may not be a majority problem (not convinced that is true) but it is certainly a significant minority, and they matter as potential customers.

          • Raphael

            Well let’s say it’s a very noisy minority who for a year had everything their way and didn’t give a shit about the rest of us.

          • Get Schwifty!

            About 50%…. and do you care about them and their plight? Just saying….

          • Mane Vr

            when a game adds full locomotion with turning it can be played seated as well as roomscale. the only thing that mess up seated play is movepoint but Corteam added forward lock to play space which make it play as if it with a gamepad but still free aiming with you touch or vive controllers it feels amazing if u like playing seated and I think devs could learn a lot from Corteam they did a great job with the options they great their players they cover everything from teleport and blink to seated full locomotion with a gamepad

          • EvilScrooge

            I’m not saying that teleportation is dumb and should disapear. But that’s something that pracitically changes the genre. Every genre has its place but this is Fallout we are talking about. The game known for traversing the miles! This is just not the proper place to focus on such methods.
            Yes, I can just look at the monitor, but VR makes the view surround me and puts everything in depth letting me describe the distances and scales of things. So this tech will always look more impressive and playing this way will be more interesting than normally. Your argument is somewhat like claiming that someone shouldn’t use a cellphone because he doesn’t want to send text messages, only calling like in old stationary phones. We don’t have to stuck to some old traditional tech because we don’t want to go all the way in. Going all the way in is what’s hurting the VR scene. People practically sell it like a soon-to-be holodeck. Maybe some people just want a new gadget to play?

        • Ellie 187

          why do you look like a drug addict when using the vive controllers?? I’ve watched plenty of people, such as my military friends play Arizona Sunshine, they didn’t look like drug addicts waving plastic sticks in their arms… they held the vive controller just as if they were holding a pistol, while supporting their aim with the other stick as if they were clearing a room in urban style warfare during their tours in Iraq…. and they preferred teleporting for the record.. I use full locomotion with Arizona Sunshine, myself.

          I don’t see why having multiple options is such a bad thing for these ‘full locomotion or I take my ball and go home” types…. should be an option for everything, and the default that’s selected for the first time boot up should be a control scheme that works with most people, and so the rest of us can open a simple menu and go to settings to select the form of locomotion we want to experience.

          As someone who prefers full locomotion at the moment, I agree with this poster, using this as the hill to die on when it comes to ‘protesting’ developers who are not getting on their knees to make sure their needs are met are misplaced… I mean seriously, organizing boycotts and strong arming people in bigscreen beta to join their forces of ‘full locomotion or die” banner isn’t the way to go about this.

          • Real VR games offers many locomotion methods

            End discussion :)

          • EvilScrooge

            Looks during play session don’t matter for me, but hurting my controllers smashing them on the walls and breaking glass do. It’s just some bad gimmick people like to convince themselves they will keep enjoying. If we were really so fascinated by the motion controllers we wouldn’t prefer to sit our asses and play with body completely relaxed. Otherwise we would have joined wiimote stroking nintendo wankers years ago. This is just a normal thing, people are lazy. Nothing that makes them jump around the room will catch on, so I’m just not jumping on that trainwreck.
            I don’t want to sound rude or anything. I’m simply not interested in the game style that tried in years to catch on and nobody ever cared about. Remember various ridiculous 90’s console peripherals?
            All we want is to be considered. We want something to play with our VR headsets. Sadly all the devs are catering for the one type only.
            I wouldn’t mind to pay additional money to play the games using VR as just the modern way to display them, but sadly VorpX still has the long way to go (if they even can).

      • NooYawker

        I don’t think full locomotion is fundamentally incompatible with VR, I think most peoples brain is incompatible with full locomotion. I have found that since I have been able to push SuperSampling I am able to handle it much better. It’s possible in the future when they can increase frame rates and resolution more people will be able to deal with it. I usually use teleportation but if I could, I would much prefer to move freely.

        • Raphael

          I think also a significant percentage of nausea gamers stop with a game as soon as they feel “uncomfortable”. I read so many statements over the past year that this or that person has managed to reduce their sensitivity significantly or in some cases completely.

          It’s hilarious that nausea gamers here see “full locomotion” as a problem for developers to incorporate… When you have a game like Fallout 4 built for FULL LOCOMOTION then teleport becomes the major coding problem.

          Now I’m not saying nausea clan gamers should be ignored… I’m saying give us the option for full locomotion.

          And you will notice that pro-teleport gamers here tend to want to persuade us that teleport is right for us?

      • Peter Wójcik
      • Raphael

        You’re part of the reason VR games were so shit last year. Whining about nausea and ranting at developers who dared to offer anything but shit teleport. Yesterday I re-purchased Island 359. A game I got a refund on last year… at that time it only had immersion-destroying and disorienting teleport. Now it has the option for full-locomotion and it has completely transformed the game.

        Selfish muppets who typically believe everyone suffers nausea – severely crippled VR game development throughout last year. Now you come here and lecture people who want to enjoy full locomotion… something they were deprived of throughout 2016.

        Nausea isn’t the problem it was prior to consumer VR and that’s a good thing (one of the design goals of CV1 and Vive).

        Those who do suffer are more likely to be able to reduce or overcome it in some cases. Yet you still arrogantly believe you’re the majority.

        No one is suggesting taking away your immersion-destroying teleport… we just want the OPTION of Full Locomotion. Sorry if that seems outrageously selfish but you are the minority and you should not get to dictate to everyone.

        The reason I sound harsh and unsympathetic is because in general nausea gamers don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves. Throughout last year and even before that I had to read how “everyone suffers from nausea” and how “it’s not possible to play an FPS like Half Life 2 in VR”.

        I’ve noticed that since a few full locomotion games started to appear those who enjoy them tend to be much less selfish; I don’t see non-nausea gamers asking developers only to cater to them… They just want to see the option.

        “You realise why most devs are still avoiding full locomotion? Because they’re clued up enough to know it’s fundamentally incompatible with VR, ” << Actually what's happening is that big name developers like croteam are realising that nausea is less of an issue now and are offering full locomotion. We're starting to see full locomotion options in quite a few games which is a good sign. The nausea hysteria is finally dying down which is after all what you would expect from the improved performance of CV1 and Vive coupled with better frame-rates, async frame etc.

        • PleaseSeeTherapist

          Raphael, you are so delusional it’s sad to read your comments. I’m so bewildered how someone could be so siloed that he starts to reject rational thinking. You only see the problems from your own lens. You idolize those that agree with you and scorn those that doesn’t, labeling them with disdains.

          Your arguments aren’t made on facts but rather on your own bias. For example, you claim that the majority does not get motion sickness. Do you have a statistic to back that up? Or are you just basing it on a few observations and cherry picking them since they fit your rhetoric?

          You have made a lot of assumptions, but I think these two will really open your minds:

          1) You assume that everyone who uses VR is a gamer.
          2) You assume that everyone who doesn’t get motion sick prefer non-teleporting artificial locomotion.

          The implications of these two assumptions are obvious, so I’ll leave it to you to reflect on them. Instead I would like to offer my hypothesis on why there are a number of people who feels teleportation is disorienting and/or not immersive.

          1) These people have a limited space and cannot, or do not move, in conjunction with teleport.
          2) These people play in VR seated.

          I don’t know if you or people who share your rhetoric fit under these two points. This is just a hypothesis that hasn’t been proven. However, you do then we are one step closer to understanding the discrepancy between the two camps.

          • Raphael

            “You have made a lot of assumptions, but I think these two will really open your minds:

            1) You assume that everyone who uses VR is a gamer.
            2) You assume that everyone who doesn’t get motion sick prefer non-teleporting artificial locomotion.” << Wow… mind open.

            " Instead I would like to offer my hypothesis on why there are a number of people who feels teleportation is disorienting and/or not immersive.

            1) These people have a limited space and cannot, or do not move, in conjunction with teleport.
            2) These people play in VR seated." << So let's get this straight…so "a number of people" who don't like teleport have limited space or don't move right? or they sit down? Wow! I never knew that was the reason a number of people hate teleport…. Have you actually asked anyone why they hate teleport? I mean instead of coming up with a retarded nonsensical hypothesis… actually go to steam discussions and seek out full locomotion gamers and ask them why…

            I hate teleport because it looks f*cking ugly outside of any game that isn't a myst-like adventure. Well… blink teleport is the worst… the teleport where u actually move to the target at speed is not so bad.

            Good luck with future hypothesis. Maybe consider a "Hypothesizing for dummies" book.

            "you claim that the majority does not get motion sickness. Do you have a statistic to back that up? " << I get my stats from the same source you get your "most people vomit in VR" stats.

            "Raphael, you are so delusional it's sad to read your comments. " << Your hypothesis about why people shouldn't enjoy your favorite teleport move mechanic is so delusional it's sad to read.

          • Bryan Ischo

            These long and drawn out arguments about locomotion get very tiring and repetitive. Obviously we are waaaaay too early in the process to be declaring which versions of locomotion are better or worse, which ones work for which people, etc. So obviously game designers should just include as many as they can make work, and leave the choice of locomotion as a user option. Gamepad style movement? Include it, it’s already built into the game! Add in the ability to point the direction you want to “walk” with the motion controls and hold a button to walk that way, can’t be that hard to add. Once you have that, add the option to press a button to initiate an unassisted “walk” in that direction. Maybe walk “further” the longer the button that initiates the walk is held down. Maybe walk “faster” if the button is double-tapped or something. Add in teleporting with a couple of parameterizations. The only even remotely tricky part is dealing with collisions …

            At this early stage of the game, developers should be adding everything they can think of and letting the user choose which forms of locomotion works best for them.

            If teleporting is too cheaty, oh well. Include it anyway. If the user doesn’t like being able to cheat through the game by teleporting around, then they can choose a different locomotion strategy, or can self-limit however they want. Add in a user-configurable teleport cooldown so that users can choose how much they want to be restricted.

        • Mane Vr

          Amen u said just how I feel… to me 2016 sucked for vr all because of teleporting and u right us full locomotion gamers never ask to cut out teleporting we only every ask for full locomotion to be added as an option we can choose Corteam is my new benchmark when it comes to options the other game feels limiting. like Arizona sunshine’s walking speed to me it feels WAY too slow but I know that is cause I don’t walk that slow in real life i’m a 6’3″ personal trainer who is use to sprint walking at rush hour in the gym but that feels comfortable for me won’t fit most. but Corteam gave us options with walking speed while Vertigo games doesn’t. My point is OPTIONS are good so those who can’t handle full locomotion should be supportive of those of us want the option cause if we stop buying games and stop supporting vr, how long before vr for gaming dies? and Raphael 50% numbers are correct a study was done by the devs of the assembly showed them that 50% of gamers didn’t get sick while the other 50% felt discomfort which didn’t mean Nausea.. but what they found was 87% of gamers preferred full locomotion over teleporting even if it made then sick.. https://youtu.be/Zsg8L43k7QY?t=22m58s yes it was a small sample but it was before the consumer hmd was out and there been no other numbers out since

          • Raphael

            Interesting… I hadn’t seen that video before! Arizona Sunshine… I noticed some people have complained about the slow walking speed. I haven’t purchased that game for a number of reasons… that certainly won’t help. The slow walking was an issue for Island 359 last year but they have massively improved it now. Pretty amazing experience I recommend.

            Yes indeed, the nausea thing has been hyped massively. I’m not saying it’s not an issue and I look forward to the day when no one experiences it in VR.

            But I see that nausea for some is almost like a badge they wear and brag about vast membership numbers to the nausea clan. That doesn’t fit with the improvements made to this gen consumer hardware + drivers.

          • Andrew Mcevoy

            What bugs me is how nausea is always mentioned as matter of fact on the news or media. Its tagged on during the introduction of whatever vr headset they are showing and gives the impression that you-will-get sick using VR.

            Big problem..

        • David

          “You’re part of the reason VR games were so shit last year. Whining about nausea and ranting at developers who dared to offer anything but shit teleport”
          Actually you sound like the whiner and always have. If people spend $800+ on something and happen to be one of those that can’t handle touchpad locomotion they still are part of the VR community and they can’t really help having issues with nausea can they? But somehow you feel the need to sit here and bitch at every person that isn’t like you and somehow you think that VR devs should cater to your needs specifically? That’s BS. Devs should cater to whoever is buying their freakin games, period. And if that means having locomotion options for both types of gamers then so be it.
          And for the record I can handle touchpad locomotion just fine and prefer it over teleporting but I just don’t feel that need to be a Nazi about it like you.

          • Raphael

            Yawn.. blah blah blah.

            I bitch about the percentage who don’t give a shit about anyone else and believe everyone has VR nausea. The ones who are balanced enough to recognise that it’s a good idea for devs to incorporate multiple options I don’t have an issue with.

            Oh and I also have issue with those whining nausea twats who buy a game on steam with violent motion even though the developer states: “not for motion sensitive players” and then post a negative because the game made them spew.

            And right here in this thread I bitch about those who lecture people who happen to prefer full locomotion.

            So I don’t give a rat’s arse what you like or dislike.

            Not important.

      • Timotheus

        How can anbody say, that full locomotion “always” makes for nauseating experiences?
        1. That’s already wrong, as a lot of people seem to have no problem with it at all.
        2. For all those other people it’s only right, because everbody automatically connects that full locomotion with traditional input devices, like keyboard or gamepad.

        There are things like Virtualizer and other platforms, which allow to translate real motion into virtual full locomotion.

        There is galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS), which allows you to feel virtual motion in reality, which eleminates nausea.

        There are experiments with arm swinging/holding ninja like and others, which trick your inner ear so full locomotion isn’t nausea inducing.

        In general I can say, that teleporting just feels like cheating in those games, where it doesn’t fit. And most times it doesn’t fit but is used, because the developers didn’t want to loose those players who use keyboards or gamepads and become sick, when playing with full locomotion.

        • RFC_VR

          Here’s a simple but effective trick when locomoting:- as you move forward rock your head very slightly from side to side. This actually tricks the vestibular system into thinking you are walking. slightly out of sync but can really help get your “VR legs”. I have found snap rotation more unpleasant than forward locomotion, because Humans have great sense of facing forward that does not like being rotated on the spot (like stationary rotation in a tracked vehicle)

      • Get Schwifty!

        They just need the option for either, and let the person decided. Why they seem to feel they have to navel gaze on this question is beyond me.

      • Multiplataformgamerz

        RE7 proves you wrong

    • Damien Wilson

      Based on the article, it sounds like they’re working on other locomotion options besides teleportation, but it fails to specify those options. Anyhow, I really hope there’s full locomotion.

    • NooYawker

      I’ve read several articles about Fallout VR and it looks like it will have full locomotion but they also want alternative options. Another article mentioned they said teleporting across the terrain felt like cheating. So I think they’re working on teleportation option. While many people like you don’t get motion sickness, it seems most people do, so combating it is a big part of the future of VR.

      • EvilScrooge

        I won’t say “Most” as I would say “Half”. Weirdly enough many people I know who got really sick in DK times stopped complaining when CV1 hit the market. Whatever has changed or if they just got used to it, industry needs to treat both sides with equal gravity. Problem still looks serious, but various options should be considered.

        • Raphael

          So pretty much what I have been saying for many months. CV1 and Vive are designed to reduce nausea… Nausea clan is shrinking and this is after all… the point of improving VR hardware.

    • Bryan Ischo

      I guess you didn’t read the part where he said “we’re hoping to support as many modes as possible.”

  • Damien Wilson

    It would’ve been nice to know the expected window for release.

  • Me

    Please people, just read this: http://www.glixel.com/news/todd-howard-talks-fallout-4-vr-vats-in-vr-is-awesome-w467763

    There will be all sorts of locomotion, so stop complaining.

    • J.C.

      I think at this point, AAA game studios are well aware that there needs to be teleportation AND hoverboard locomotion. I’d prefer something in between, similar to Raw Data, where you “dash” a small distance, BUT THAT’S JUST *MY* PREFERENCE. This entire article’s comments is people complaining and acting like there’s only ONE way to move around in VR.
      I think teleportation needs to exist in every game, as one mention of “I tried VR and it made me throw up” on Facebook can make an entire crowd of people decide that they aren’t interested in VR. Even worse if it comes from a celebrity. You don’t know who will be made sick from it until they try it.

      If you honestly want VR to succeed, you want teleportation to always be available. I think hoverboarding should exist in any game it makes sense in; adding it to Budget Cuts would heavily neuter its clever (and so far, not copied) spycam/teleport. A huge open world game? Hoverboarding seems like it’d be silly to ignore, while dash/teleport should remain in place so people who DO get sick from hoverboarding can still play.

      • Xron

        I do not care if it exists in single player games as am option. (teleportation), but if they make a decent VRMMORPG with it, it will be just like fullscale cheating allowed.

        • Me

          That’s why it takes so long to adapt the game: they need to toy with all the possible mechanics, and tune the game accodingly to avoid messing up the balance. The good news is that while this approach is time consuming, the need for multiple locomotion schemes has been heard loud and clear.

        • J.C.

          Mm, possibly. A full scale VRMMO would have to be accessible to as many people as possible, so teleporting/dashing would HAVE to be allowed. The game would need to be built around that, which could include that your previous location is still able to be hit for a moment. Or, like older style MMOs, your damage is based on stats, not aim. Like in WoW, where mage spells will “chase” their target. Not ideal, no, but we aren’t at a point where ANY of VR is truly “ideal”.

          • Cl

            Ive seen teleport to where you can select an area and you can see an outline of your person moving to the spot and when you hit teleport you will only go to your outline which moves at a real pace…. idk if that makes sense, but i think this would be ok for vr mmo.

      • Me

        You can think of whatever locomotion model you want, until the ultimate set of controls and ergonomics has been found, like the current consoles controllers layout, any locomotion method will have its flaws and detractors.

        To get an idea the Vivecraft mod offers many modes, but for me none are perfect.

        That’s perhaps why Valve says you need to develop hardware and software alongside in VR, because there are stil some tough problems like locomotion that will only be cracked with a new input method.

  • Mermado 1936

    ONLY ON HTC VIVE… Oculus users got their own medicine.

    • ShiftyInc

      And PSVR, seeing they showed it off first on that system. The rest will get hacked in later for all other devices.

    • Get Schwifty!

      Hypocrisy anyone?… “Oculus users got their own medicine”…. do you think they bought Oculus because they preferred exclusives or had a single thing to do with the legal questions between Facebook/Oculus and Zenimax? Talk about ignorant petty tribal fanboy-ism at it’s greatest…. so exclusives are bad until you feel you can have one? Nice…

      • Jukka Muhonen

        No, he just said that Oculus got their own medicine, he didnt say that its good or bad thing. Butthurt.

    • Roger Anthony Essig

      don’t be so sure..
      “offering our games on the very best platforms you choose”..
      https://youtu.be/lK4zLfNxJ6M?t=2m37s

  • Sam Illingworth

    So excited about this, but two important questions:

    1) Will my existing save work?
    2) Will they fix the clipping in the base building? Seeing grass waving through the concrete floor will look even worse in VR.

    • Brandon Smith

      It’s incredibly interesting how the details matter WAYYY more in VR than they do in flat panel games.

      • Sam Illingworth

        Yeah, pros and cons init. The negative details stand out more, which is a shame, but you appreciate the positive ones more too. I remember when I first entered the tunnel in Call of the Starseed I was blown away just standing around looking at the walls. That games graphics aren’t nearly as detailed as some of the top AAA games on my telly, but when you’re seeing it in VR, it just takes everything up a level!

  • Sam Illingworth

    I wonder how they would approach Elder Scrolls in VR. The idea of swinging your sword/shield/spells/bow around with your actual hands sounds great, but how will that work with the RPG element (cue cries of “Bethedsa don’t make RPGs anymore”!) – ie if my sword follows my real hand movements what will my in-game sword skill value affect? It would also massively restrict what you could do.

    Interesting question anyway, hope they try it! In fact, I wonder how they’ll approach melee weapons in Fallout.

    • Brandon Smith

      Such a fascinating question.

      It’s very much my problem with VR as a whole. The very idea of it.

      Everyone says they want a Star Wars game where they are a Jedi and wield a lightsaber. But what that looks like in practicality is a huge question mark. Because, essentially, you’re asking people to be expert sword fighters. And since The Force doesn’t really exist, in some ways you’re asking them to be supernaturally good sword fighters.

      I’m ALL FOR THAT. In my ideal Star Wars game, by the time you complete the game, you would be a decent sword fighter in real life. The game would effectively teach you to be a good fighter with a sword. If you suck? Well then you die a lot. Get better.

      The problem with that is what about disabled people? Clumsy people? fat people? Lazy people? They are all paying their 60 dollars and they all want to feel like powerful Jedi as well. They don’t want to work at it. They just want to turn the power on and have the game tell them that they are amazing.

      So what is the answer? I would think that you could simply turn down the skill level of the AI and have the opposition behave like dunces. They could, essentially, make it “bumper bowling”. But that doesn’t give them the set piece experience that they want, and that modern flat panel games give them.

      IF they make a VR RPG that actually has you fight in a 1:1 fashion, that’s the MOST RPG they could ever make a game. I don’t think you’d hear anyone who was a real RPG fan complaining…

      • Sam Illingworth

        I agree and disagree. I agree that would be awesome, but I don’t agree about it being the ideal RPG. What about the supernatural elements you mention? However good I get, I’m never going to be able to move as fast as a Jedi. It would be an RPG limited to what a real human is capable of. Fine so long as it’s New Hope level lightsaber fighting!

        Also, can a game where there’s no resistance when you push your virtual sword against theirs really train you for real sword fighting?

        • Brandon Smith

          Well, I would say, as someone who is an open hand martial artist, we do a lot of training for fights that involves swinging around at the air. Ideally you do actual contact fighting as well, but most kata are just thrusting around at invisible people.

          If I was the designer, I would have the supernatural aspects be the things that don’t require actual skill. Like, for example, you could still throw your lightsaber or force push a group of enemies. And maybe increased speed could be shown by slowing everyone else down like they do in films.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Ooh yeah, that’d be ace! Slowdown would allow both moving from place to place really fast, and also blaster bolt deflection! The higher your skill points, the more it could be slowed down.

      • Cl

        I think a VR star wars game should be like KOTOR +… superhot?

    • JustNiz

      > what will my in-game sword skill value affect?

      I’m guessing damage per hit and possibly % chance of crits, (assuming they don’t model the anatomy of the enemy accurately then use exactly where/how hard you hit to calculate crits).

    • Henry Yopp

      Check out OrbusVR which is the first VRMMORPG. I have been testing the pre-aplha with others and it has solved most of these issues. There are still issues with balance due to different movement options, particularly in PVP, but it is still a work in progress.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7z-LF3Uoh4

      https://orbusvr.com/ – Read the Dev Blog for details.

  • Mane Vr

    they just need to copy Corteam’s vr locomotion options which I feel should be a standard for ALL vr fp games they got it right it fits just about all play style and vr sickness level.

  • Roskilde Experience

    Hope you can still play it with mouse / keyboard. and just use the vr headset as a monitor that controls the head.

    • JustNiz

      Like all roomscale games,you would get seated for free (i.e. just sit and don’t physically walk anywhere), but it seems like you’d be massively missing out by not playing this in roomscale.

  • mareknr

    That’s great. On top of that, I would appreciate if the games could be played with mouse and keyboard and with headset on. Classic seated experience like we had with Oculus development kits.

  • Da Mo (JFlash)

    “HTC Vive and in VR on the forthcoming Xbox ‘Project Scorpio’ console.” HTC Vive connected to XBox?

  • JustNiz

    I can’t wait for this. Please can you get a better date-guess than just “sometime in 2017”?

  • Kyle Biggs

    I think one of the things we are starting to learn is that there may not be one ultimate locomotion solution. Just like people still chose between ‘normal’ and inverted controls, it may just come down to polishing a few leading systems and including them all as options. I personally hate the teleport method. It takes all of the fun out of a game. But I understand not everyone is as comfortable with full motion.

  • Simonsteamyhead

    I want space-hopper locomotion.To sit on my 1970’s space-hopper and bounce around the fallout world has been a dream of mine since childhood …

  • James Friedman

    PipBoy in VR is going to be way better than the PipBoy phone app. I can’t wait!

    • Get Schwifty!

      Yeah this is going to be very cool….!

  • Nairobi

    Everyone whining about others hoping there will be full locomotion are total morons. This is VR. RE7 wants to slap you in the face for being a Debbie Downer.

    Also I think there are bigger problems at stake. Like how the fuck are they going to get their terribly optimized engine that already does poorly WITHOUT the recent full res pack to work with VR requirements? They want to push for 90fps at an even higher resolution? I laugh Bethesda. But that’s Todd Howard for you. Sweet sweet little lies.

    • JustNiz

      I can’t imagine how Bethesda’s own engine would ever be upto doing VR effectively. It was already really struggling with non-VR Fallout4 at modern resolutions. I’m wondering (and hoping) that they finally bit the bullet and switched everything over to using Unity or Unreal.

  • Aaron

    No Oculus Support?

    • Justos

      unless theres code to actively block Rift owners, it will work in SteamVR. (And if they do block us, someone will crack it within a day, guaranteed)

  • JMM21

    If they are smart and like to make lots of money they will let Oculus users play it too.

  • Jason Mercieca

    Motion like onward plz

  • Joe

    If we own the original Fallout 4, can we just purchase an upgrade then ?
    I would not want to purchase the exact same game again. thank you.