Q1 22: The long wait for VR – And what about PlayStation VR2?

One of the biggest additions to F1 22 this year is VR mode. At least PC players can look forward to this long-awaited new feature, there is no support for PlayStation VR. So you can experience F1 22 again from a more realistic perspective.

But why did it actually take so long to implement a VR mode? And what are the challenges? And will you also play with Playstation VR2 in the future? I recently asked Codemasters’ Senior Creative Director Lee Mather these and other questions.

Fans have long wished for a VR mode. Why did this take so long?

Lee Mather: To put it simply: we didn’t have the capacity for it, but there’s always a compromise. When we do VR, we don’t do anything else. It’s always like this: if we do this, we don’t do something else. We’ve always wanted VR, but we had to get to a point where we were comfortable with the rest of the game. At this point, VR would be the icing on the cake. And we were fortunate to be able to work with the team at Behavior Interactive.

They were responsible for the VR work on the Dirt series, so they already had a good understanding of the base technology. Although the two engines have changed a bit over the years, they are still based on Ego’s original rendering technique. So they pretty much knew where to start. You’ve done it so many times before. They know how to deal with it, if people get sick, if there are problems with crashes.

So yes, it really was that now we had reached a point where we could finally say we’re going to do it. And that wasn’t just because we had the dirt team’s feedback, but also because we had behavior and the experience from previous games. There was also a lot of input from the Evolution Studios team when we started talking about it. That wasn’t long after we acquired Evolution Studios. They had developed Driveclub VR, so we were able to sit down with the team behind it and talk about how they incorporated it into the racing game so effectively. So it was really just a concatenation of many things that finally gave us the opportunity to do it.

What do F1 22 and the series gain by implementing VR?

Lee Mather: VR obviously enhances the experience on the track massively and it is one of our main pillars for this year. Also, I’ve always said that VR is the perfect experience for that. I sit here and don’t move. Sitting in a car would also be like sitting in a chair. So it’s the perfect experience for a racing game.

And also for flight simulations. It’s perfect for anything where the players are in a static position. I’ve also seen movement platforms that take it one step further. In recent years we have seen more and more gamers buying steering wheels and pedals. I think VR is the next natural step for them. Then it goes towards full-motion platforms. It goes well with what is happening at the moment.

What were the challenges in implementing VR mode?

Lee Mather: The most important thing for the team is of course the performance. Performance is key for VR to keep people comfortable and not nauseous. We have to make sure it’s a fun and exciting experience. But we also do so much for our experience on the race track. Firstly, when you consider the number of cars, the level of detail in the environment, and the framerate that we need for the game, then it becomes clear that you want the input lag to be absolutely minimal, because that’s hugely important.

Sitting in a Formula 1 car feels elegant and spirited. But if you drive in wet conditions, for example, it’s very tiring, especially for the engine. If you’re going to do that and translate it to two outputs and two eyes and then you’ve got the spray and the other cars around you… Those are things where performance and the right balance of performance is key to that it works really well. One of the reasons we put it off for so long was we needed to be able to do it at the right level with the performance we wanted.

I think it’s really crazy considering we’ve been modeling the cars and all the tracks to such a level of detail for so long. And now you can literally sit in there and look around and discover all the insane details that we even have inside the cars. That’s one of the really cool things about VR.

What do you have to pay particular attention to in VR? Is it also things that affect the game mechanics, or is it more about performance?

Lee Mather: It’s mostly the performance. And then there are cases where, for example, you have to treat an accident differently in VR because it’s too extreme for the player and they generally don’t feel comfortable with it. These are special cases that you have to consider with VR. It affects the character camera and some of the effects related to it. Ultimately though, it’s the same experience, only in VR and with all the extra detail to immerse yourself in.

Now that we have VR on PC, what’s the future of PlayStation VR2? Can you give PlayStation fans hope?

Lee Mather: This year, of course, we have it exclusively on PC. But it is something we will continue to invest in in the future.