CQB Arena
We are pleased to announce the launch of our CQB Arena. Developed with Unreal Engine 4, it replicates a CQB arena within a VR experience, allowing the player to engage in a close-quarters battle training simulation from home with a virtual reality headset. It contains a system of targets, a score counter, and weapons with various modules.
This project was developed with the goal of producing something tangible for our community while allowing our team to experiment with various game mechanics. After these initial observations, we are now able to fine-tune these systems so that we can implement them in our Victoria VR World.
Working with new technologies and mechanics presents a set of challenges, however, we were able to find solutions to each problem we encountered. One of which was the AR-15 asset. Purchased from the Epic Games Store, it is a package consisting of a Skeletal Mesh and multiple animations. The difficulty was that the asset and animations were designed for a First Person Shooter, not for a VR game, where the interaction with it is completely different. Our solution was to recreate all the animations and the Skeletal Mesh to execute VR reloading, module attachment, shooting, and interactive engagement with the rifle.
Additionally, our team utilized Voiceover for the first time, which is present in the tutorial and throughout the game. The process of recording and integrating it into the game was incredibly smooth, however, during testing, we realized that some adjustments needed to be made. Once the game was run natively on the VR glasses, the strict voice of the military instructor turned into a mix of Terminator and Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars. It took several days to figure out that the problem was with the automatic resampling of sounds on Unreal Engine’s target platforms. It was working incorrectly and was ruining the soundtrack when playing on the glasses. Therefore, we reconfigured the resampling to make the voiceover work properly.
Designing functional game components required a process of Internet-based research. We spent a couple of days acquiring a rough understanding of how different rifles work, i.e. bolt mechanisms, trigger mechanisms, receivers, reloading, and so on. This investigative approach was necessary so that the rifles would be as realistic as possible. It was a similar situation with the AR-15 scope. Our team studied how holographic and collimator sights function. Then, there was a brainstorming session with five programmers and a designer to create a suitable scope shader.
One of the things that we learned was how to troubleshoot obstacles that arose with the application of the destructibility of objects. Initially, we thought of using the built-in Apex Destruction solution in Unreal, but we realized it did not work natively on Oculus Quest 2 glasses. So, we wrote our own system to bypass this issue. It was less optimized but fully met the project’s needs. Additionally, we found solutions to eliminate delayed asset loading. Laser effects, flashlight, and gunshot sounds were loading too slowly on the glasses, leading to frame drops. We attempted to solve this through the classic “room with all assets” approach to force the engine to load assets and retain them in memory. Although we only figured out how to do it correctly after the project was completed, this knowledge will be valuable in future projects.
Overall, the implementation of mechanics for the game progressed steadily and productively. Despite the tight deadlines and various challenges, the team delivered a version that ran natively on Oculus Quest 2 glasses with acceptable performance and all the declared necessary mechanics. The CQB Arena functioned as a perfect playground for our team to try out these new mechanics, and through this process, we have sharpened our skills to a point where they can be easily applied in the development of our Victoria VR World.
About Victoria VR — www.victoriavr.com
Victoria VR is a revolutionary Blockchain-based Virtual Reality Metaverse. Powered by Unreal Engine and featuring realistic, highly detailed graphics, it combines a massively-multiplayer-online role-playing game (MMORPG) with a unique Social Experience Playground.
Like never before, players will be immersed in a virtual reality world where they get to live their digital life. Whether you want to Play games, Develop your digital real estate (VR Land), Own a business, Work up or Get some entertainment, your imagination is the only limitation.
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