Virtual Novel is getting an HTC Vive Pre! (Patreon)

Last week in our Patrons-only post, we mentioned we might have some good news to share. That news was that we have become eligible for an HTC Vive Pre.

We applied through Epic Games, who run a grant program for indie developers like us, and Epic reviewed our pitch which contained a description and screenshots of Virtual Novel. We were recently contacted by Valve with the news that our application was successful!

Being given a Vive is incredible news, as the funds we've been saving for a consumer headset can now be used elsewhere towards Virtual Novel's development. We can now also begin developing with motion controllers, experimenting with a hybrid roomscale / seated experience, and performance bench-marking with the higher resolution screen and increased FPS.

In terms of hardware, the HTC Vive is also closer to the Oculus Rift CV1 than Oculus' own developer kit, which means we can get a better idea of how Virtual Novel will play in the consumer Rift than we could with our old DK2. We'll be developing with gamepad input in parallel with the Vive's motion controls, as well as tuning the experience to scale nicely from seated to room-scale, so Virtual Novel will be HMD agnostic.

In contrast to this happy news, here's a few moody screenshots of Takayama Highschool's courtyard in the rain - which we're going to elaborate on in April's newsletter (spoiler: rain in VR is incredible). And as always, thanks to everyone for your support!! We're real excited to be on the VR train, both as devs and as consumers, this is going to be an amazing year.