Student's Choice

No Man's Sky VR

I will be discussing the Virtual reality game No Man's Sky. if you don't know No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by the indie studio Hello Games. in which infinite procedural generated galaxy across all game systems, exploring uncharted solar systems and catalog unique new forms of life. Every planet’s landscape is different from the next and populated by species never before encountered. With its early troubles upon release hindering the process big moves and ambitious goals pulled the game to be one of epic proportions. The reason why i chose this topic for my student choice presentation is to show the fact of virtual reality technology impact on things like gaming makes for a more immersive and entertaining experience like none experienced before it.

Where it all begins

Now on a little more detail about No Man’s Sky, back in 2013 Joe Danger, a developer from Hello Games, announced the new game to come No Man’s Sky at the Spike VGX awards. There he not only shared the company debut trailer in which

“was pitched as an exploration game where "every atom" is procedurally generated, from flora and fauna to the stars in the sky. Every planet and every galaxy is procedural, and filled with unexplored territories. The trailer shows that players will be able to explore underwater environments, the surfaces of planets, the skies and outer space in spaceships.” -Michael McWhertor

but afterwards Sean Murray, from Hello Games, goes on to explain the game like this

"It's a huge game, we wanted to make a game about exploration. And we wanted to make something that was real."

He goes on to explain further,

on planets, if you can see it — whether it be a mountain mile away in the distance — you can walk there. The game's persistent world is being created by the small team at Hello Games and puts players into an ecosystem where they're not at the top of the food chain, Murray said. Space-based combat against other players and capital ships appears to be a major component of No Man's Sky.

The Team behind it Hello Games is a video game development studio and publisher based in Guildford and Cambridge, United Kingdom. That is known video games like No Man’s Sky and the last Campfire. There a Small team of talented developers who have a gift for doing the impossible.

What could go wrong

With a game as epic as this what went wrong? Well a number of things lead No Man’s sky to be attacked. One being the lack of variety where ,Gillian Smith, who works on procedural generation at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, goes on to explain the certain predicaments that lead to the downfall of the game's initial release where she says,

“Everyone’s curious about what it means for a computer to create a universe.” For many people, expectations were simply unrealistically high– infinite entertainment from a one-off purchase.”

She later goes on to say,

“Part of the problem is that procedural generation systems work with the ingredients they are given. Basic forms can be combined in a vast number of ways, but the second or third time you encounter a snake-like rock formation or six-legged animal it undermines any initial feeling of amazement.”

Another major complaint players had with the games release is its Mood being so Lonely. Keza MacDonald wrote,

“Most reviews noted its emptiness, but critics also praised its lonely mood, Asimovian aesthetic, and the astounding technical feat of generating an entire universe of planets and systems complete with procedural flora and fauna. But unwittingly, the press gave the attackers ammunition. After a couple of weeks, disappointed players moved on, and the angry ones were all that were left.”

A Change Is Coming

To combat the repeated criticism the team at Hello Games went hard at work righting the wrongs they needed to make the game better.

The last and most recent update to No man's sky is No Man’s Sky Beyond, where Hello Games completely redefined its game play and immersive virtual reality.

Atlas Rise Update

Starting with the Atlas rise update which brought a complete overhaul of the game adding key features that directly attacked the lack of variety aspect to the game.

New Worlds just waiting to be explored

ANALYSIS VISOR

No Man's Sky NEXT update

Next we have the No Man’s Sky Next update that gave and brought the game to soar higher with a complete graphics overhaul and an integration of a full fledged multiplayer experience.

Graphics overhaul

Multiplayer integrations

The Abyss Update

We then have the Abyss update that gave the users a whole new area of exploration giving these already fully fledged planets more depth.

Creatures of the sea

New areas to explore

No Man's Sky Beyond

The last and most recent update to No man's sky is No Man’s Sky Beyond, where Hello Games completely redefined its gameplay and immersive virtual reality.
1. Seamless virtual reality with simple switching from VR to standard gameplay.
2. Expansion of multiplayer holding 32players on any platform.
3. Revision of mission and tutorial especially for VR capabilities.
4. Social hubs now available
5. Nexus multiplayer missions.

New Way to VR

Critical Analysis

Pros:

The 2D menus and interface on the suit is actually quite intuitive for a port, they made 2D menus feel a part of the world instead of just some random menu
Flying the spaceship is also pretty intuitive with it being controlled naturally by grabbing the throttle and stick
the scale of things can be quite awe inspiring, but it takes awhile to actually find an interesting planet

Cons:

Blur factor still a problem as the player explores planets in different sets in time its very noticeable.
Noticeable Slow performance on Virtual reality headset than on regular game play.
Long control learning needed from regular game play to Virtual reality.