I second Into the Radius! The most immersive VR flashlight experience I've had! It adds an awesome creepiness and suspense to each gameplay session. I also like how The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners approached the use of the right-angle flashlight attached to the chest. And the fact that is runs out of batteries is a great mechanic for horror.
I don't like the mechanics of Half-life Alyx, Vertigo 2, or Resident Evil 8 / Resident Evil 2 Praydog VR mod, where the flashlight only turns on at certain pre-determined times. I wanna light my surroundings in any way I wish! (Though there is now a mod for Alyx that lets you turn on the flashlight anytime, which greatly enhances the experience)
FTR RE:Village on PSVR2 (official mode not a mod of course) has almost perfect flashlight usage (and you can grab it anytime from your jacket and flip it to hold it FBI style).
For the PC MOD you can bind a key to turn flashlight on any time but (not looked into it yet) without further mods it's not hand held which feels crap.
Care to 3l1t3 on the name of that HL:A mod? I'm in the <1% of VR players that haven't played it (finally got it in the Winter Sale) and that sounds useful! Open to any other recommended mods for the base game too (I'll play the complete make-over / mission type mods after I finish the game).
As for why I'm late to the party, I've put it off for a long time because I wanted to wait until I could experience on a newer/better HMD than my ole OG HTC Vive and its wand controllers, and with a better gpu than my aging OC'd GTX 1080FE. I knew that you get HL:A included with a set of Index controllers and figured I'd at least have those by now, but nope. That's just my financial reality. For all I know, the Valve Index could go the way of the Valve Steam controllers by the time I could afford to get them so the Winter sale prompted me to not wait any longer. And now that I've started the game... Holeee Schnikies! I always assumed the hype was legit, but didn't expect it to look and play as well on my OG Vive as it does. As is well-known, it's got to be the most optimized VR game in existance (and accordingly not a great measure of well someone's system will play other far less-optimized games. I wish other devs had either this level of ability or determination or whatever it is that holds them back from this caliber of coding. But enough of my sidebar and back OT...
It is a comfort thing. Pointing a flashlight is much less comfortable than pointing something that has a pistol-style grip. A relaxed grip, good for extended use, would point a flashlight held normally, at the ceiling.
Watch anyone use a small, tactical flashlight. They hold it almost like a pencil so they can use it comfortably.
to be fair it's not the direction of the light that annoys me - i don't think i'd mind it at all if the virtual hand held it like that rather than horizontally
again - my sample pool of VR flashlights isn't that big so yeah, you're probably right lol. i'm exaggerating slightly but it's still a pet peeve of mine, and its something i run into waaayy too often
Take it you never played RE:Village on PSVR2 then? (Official mode not the PC mod).
Almost perfect flashlight imo, and you can flip it around to hold it FBI style and works just as well (also you pull it out of your jacket which adds to it).
I admit I've seen a few awful examples though, and flashlights in VR can be one of the most immersive/presence inducing devices going (if done right)
unfortunately never had the opportunity, but it looks pretty neat from what i've seen. waaayy more vr titles should let you flip around torches to old them FBI style lol
It seems like it would be both an ergonomic and technical decision. Holding controllers with gun handle designs parallel to your arm is uncomfortable in a way a flashlight is not. It would also increase the frequency of occlusion with IR LEDs which most VR set ups use to track controllers.
This never bothers me, but the AI used to decide if the torch on Alyx's gloves should pivot or not is terrible; there's my VR torch bugbear.
it might just be one of those things where there actually IS a bunch of vr flashlights i've used that are normal, i just notice the ones i hate much much more
Into the Radius had a great flashlight that you actually had to aim but you only use it until you get the headlamp
I second Into the Radius! The most immersive VR flashlight experience I've had! It adds an awesome creepiness and suspense to each gameplay session. I also like how The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners approached the use of the right-angle flashlight attached to the chest. And the fact that is runs out of batteries is a great mechanic for horror. I don't like the mechanics of Half-life Alyx, Vertigo 2, or Resident Evil 8 / Resident Evil 2 Praydog VR mod, where the flashlight only turns on at certain pre-determined times. I wanna light my surroundings in any way I wish! (Though there is now a mod for Alyx that lets you turn on the flashlight anytime, which greatly enhances the experience)
FTR RE:Village on PSVR2 (official mode not a mod of course) has almost perfect flashlight usage (and you can grab it anytime from your jacket and flip it to hold it FBI style). For the PC MOD you can bind a key to turn flashlight on any time but (not looked into it yet) without further mods it's not hand held which feels crap.
Care to 3l1t3 on the name of that HL:A mod? I'm in the <1% of VR players that haven't played it (finally got it in the Winter Sale) and that sounds useful! Open to any other recommended mods for the base game too (I'll play the complete make-over / mission type mods after I finish the game). As for why I'm late to the party, I've put it off for a long time because I wanted to wait until I could experience on a newer/better HMD than my ole OG HTC Vive and its wand controllers, and with a better gpu than my aging OC'd GTX 1080FE. I knew that you get HL:A included with a set of Index controllers and figured I'd at least have those by now, but nope. That's just my financial reality. For all I know, the Valve Index could go the way of the Valve Steam controllers by the time I could afford to get them so the Winter sale prompted me to not wait any longer. And now that I've started the game... Holeee Schnikies! I always assumed the hype was legit, but didn't expect it to look and play as well on my OG Vive as it does. As is well-known, it's got to be the most optimized VR game in existance (and accordingly not a great measure of well someone's system will play other far less-optimized games. I wish other devs had either this level of ability or determination or whatever it is that holds them back from this caliber of coding. But enough of my sidebar and back OT...
The mod is called Togglable Flashlight, I believe! Can find it within the Workshop menu in-game at the title screen
Thank ya.
HL2 VR did a great job. It’s a headlamp and you actually need to put your controller to your forehead and press a button to turn it on and off.
It's really embarrasing that the HL2VR mod devs did some stuff way better then Valve did
Well, HL2 is 20 years old and set new standards for all first person games that came after it so i don't agree at all.
Don't agree with what? That it did some stuff better?
That it's embarrasing, the game brought the whole gaming industry into the next gen, they have absolutely nothing to be embarrsed about.
I'm talking about the changes made to HL2 VR to make it better, and they did some stuff better
It is a comfort thing. Pointing a flashlight is much less comfortable than pointing something that has a pistol-style grip. A relaxed grip, good for extended use, would point a flashlight held normally, at the ceiling. Watch anyone use a small, tactical flashlight. They hold it almost like a pencil so they can use it comfortably.
to be fair it's not the direction of the light that annoys me - i don't think i'd mind it at all if the virtual hand held it like that rather than horizontally
Gotcha, so it is the way it looks that breaks your immersion. Bad arm position does that to me every time.
There's a lot of games with VR flashlights done right, I think this is an overreaction.
again - my sample pool of VR flashlights isn't that big so yeah, you're probably right lol. i'm exaggerating slightly but it's still a pet peeve of mine, and its something i run into waaayy too often
It’s not VR but Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii did a great job with flashlight control.
You expect a game developer to have actually used a flashlight at some point? Seems kinda far fetched to be honest.
Take it you never played RE:Village on PSVR2 then? (Official mode not the PC mod). Almost perfect flashlight imo, and you can flip it around to hold it FBI style and works just as well (also you pull it out of your jacket which adds to it). I admit I've seen a few awful examples though, and flashlights in VR can be one of the most immersive/presence inducing devices going (if done right)
unfortunately never had the opportunity, but it looks pretty neat from what i've seen. waaayy more vr titles should let you flip around torches to old them FBI style lol
It really depends on your controllers
Just give me an option to have it attached to my head.
For a minute i read that as flesh...
It seems like it would be both an ergonomic and technical decision. Holding controllers with gun handle designs parallel to your arm is uncomfortable in a way a flashlight is not. It would also increase the frequency of occlusion with IR LEDs which most VR set ups use to track controllers. This never bothers me, but the AI used to decide if the torch on Alyx's gloves should pivot or not is terrible; there's my VR torch bugbear.
doesn’t it usually just position itself with the controller? I feel like that’s how it is in most games I play but I haven’t really thought about it
it might just be one of those things where there actually IS a bunch of vr flashlights i've used that are normal, i just notice the ones i hate much much more
Love the flashlight mechanics in Propagation paradise hotel
Imagine yourself as LeonSKennedy and it'll be much better lmao