The developers of the critically acclaimed rhythm-violence game Thumper have today shed more light on the title’s upcoming PS4 Pro support, while acknowledging that ‘image drifting’ is a problem for the game’s PSVR version – and the headset in general.
During a question-and-answer session on Reddit’s IamA, two-man studio Drool were asked about the advantages the PS4 Pro would bring to the recently released title, particularly with regards to its PSVR version. In response, co-founder Marc Flury said: “It was fun adding Pro support to our game. It has enough oomph for us to do native 4K in ‘traditional’ mode. One of the challenges of high quality VR rendering is compensating for the image distortion (it leads to pixelation and aliasing issues). On Pro, our VR mode renders at a higher resolution (increased supersampling) and we bumped up the MSAA quality. It’s still the same game, just an upgraded presentation.”
Later, the developer was questioned on the ‘image drifting’ issues some users have reported with their PSVR headsets after the unit went on sale last week, which has led to some finding themselves moving 45 to 90 degrees throughout the duration of a single level. Flury admitted that while the issue did not arise in any of Thumper’s play tests, it definitely existed now, and that the studio had contacted Sony to report the problem. He told users that one way to mitigate the issue is to play closer to the PS camera, adding: “There is one thing we want to add to the game via an update to help. Right now, when you hold the Options button in our game, only the tracking position is reset. We plan on making it so your tracking orientation is reset as well. That should at least make it easier to compensate for the issue.”
Other highlights of the Q&A session included the developer stating that it has “no plans for a sequel at this time”, and that it will “seriously consider” including a track editor to support user-generated content if there is enough demand for it. Drool also confirmed that Thumper will receive additional content “via a free update soon”, while future – and possibly paid – DLC is still being discussed.
Thumper is currently available for PC via Steam and PS4 (with PSVR support). PC virtual reality support is promised “by the end of the year”.