copy and pasting the VR Q&A from a few months ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/comments/i9mfxz/ama_we_are_io_interactive_developers_of_hitman_vr/
The big question of the day: PCVR?
Hey! We’ve obviously been reading ALL the comments that we’ve received about VR in the last week. It’s been great to see the enthusiasm and interest from pretty much everyone with a VR headset. We hear you.
Now that you mention it, Hitman’s legacy on PC is at the front of our mind this year because we’re fast-approaching the 20th anniversary of Codename 47, which has only ever been released on PC. 20 years of a franchise is pretty special, but that’s for another day.
For VR, what I can tell you today is that HITMAN 3 will include PS VR support at launch.
Can you swing lethal melees to kill people? How will bladed weapons work (slashing or stabbing)? How is melee in general? Haptic feedback when meleeing?
It’s more about the slashing - and man, it feels good to slash with that katana
Does it sound wrong to say that it feels like a lifelong dream come true to me?!
/Sidsel
You can indeed knock NPCs out with your fist or slap them with an open hand. The crowbar has better reach though and can be thrown as an attack or used as a distraction
Freeform, motion based melee and barehanded close combat was one of the first things we knew that we REALLY wanted to do for Hitman VR - and we are still getting a lot of enjoyment every day when we play from actually being able to punch with a fist, slap and melee with crowbars in each our own style!
Subduing has been tweaked for VR. It’s not a canned animation, player has control
Haptics are in the game yes, and some very satisfying impact sounds
Can you put your gun behind your back?
The outside in tracking makes this tricky unfortunately. It is a very cool mechanic though and we have discussed this.
Cheat codes?
Get good is my advice. I can say that you might have a better chance in VR as the gunplay and melee is a very different experience than the regular version
Multiplayer? VR mechanics? First person mode??
Here’s what I can tell you We are putting all our resources into the singleplayer at the moment Yes there’s quite a bit of mechanics that differ from the regular game. Motion tracked controls when aiming and wielding melee items. Opening doors by touch etc. Getting this to work in first person in VR has been an effort
and for now VR is where you will experience it
Suit of Agent 47 with a VR headset?
hehe That’s not a bad idea
I’ll talk to the character artists - but no promises!
Dual wielding in VR?
Alright might as well bite the bullet Currently 47 wields one gun at a time like the regular game
How will movement work?
We are working on different comfort options. It will be smooth movement as the regular game. We will have various settings that players can toggle to their choosing. Click turn, vignetee etc. Dragging bodies work great. You do tether to the feet or hands as in the regular game but your arms are free to move so you can now fling them around into bushes etc
How are the controls?
The current version of the game is not using move controllers it’s using the dual-shock. We are however utilizing the motion controlled tracking and gyro in the ds4 to the max. There are many reasons for us ending on this decision but to be honest we think that we have found a perfect fit for the game through this hybrid control scheme.
1.Yes you can climb pipes and scale ledges in VR, and yes Dubai particularly has some intense moments there
Which is another one of those HEY this actually works totally fine moments!
Still working on final decisions. We know you will have smooth controls with various comfort options. Yeah buttons are there but it’s a simplified control scheme as the motion tracked controls made it possible. No major changes in the maps besides tweaking d some of the agility routes to make them work better in VR
Changing disguises work similar to the regular version. Currently through a button prompt. We are working on ways to better communicate what disguise you are currently in. You can of course always take a glance down on yourself and look at your arms but that’s not always enough. You do know when you’re the flamingo though
How are the directional arrows gonna work in VR? Crowd density?
We are still working on finalizing the UI. It works fine, what helps a lot is the directional audio though - you can hear what direction a threat is coming from. The same goes for hearing guards chasing you. You can hear their footsteps running down a hall for instance which helps quite a lot and adds a ton to the immersion
How long has VR been in development?
We started looking into this a bit over a year ago. Actually, in some ways the sense that Hitman would be the perfect match with VR has been lurking in the backs of our minds for way longer than that. The pace of the game, the sense of place, the attention to detail in our locations, the emergent nature of our gameplay systems and especially AI just lends itself so naturally and beautifully to VR. That’s also why actually going in and making it has been so amazing for us - our gut feeling was not wrong
When we first tried VR a few years back for the first time; Batman, Superhot, FirewallZerohour, beatsaber, Rush of Blood etc. It was one of those: “You know what would be insane in VR?!” We were a small team testing the waters to get a sense if this was even doable. I remember Paris was the first level we tried out and immediately the potential was just so obvious and we’ve been working non stop on it since
Can we headpat guards? Can you tap someone on their right shoulder then sneak around to their left?
Yes you can definitely headpat - we do it all the time, but be careful as there will be consequences
/Sidsel
How will this work with the transition of generations? Will this work on PS5? Will it have upgraded visuals on PS5? Any differences between PS4 / PS5?
We covered this as best as we can right now in the blog post we put up on PlayStation.
Basically, we’re still working on the specifics for how that’s going to work, together with Sony. Once it’s finalised, we’ll be talking about it.
Will you be able to use VR in HITMAN 1 and/or 2?
You can only play VR with HITMAN 3. There’s no VR update coming for HITMAN 1 or 2 and there’s no standalone VR separate from HITMAN 3.
If you already own HITMAN 1 or HITMAN 2, you can import those locations into HITMAN 3 and play them in VR there.
How will the release model work? Will there be a bundled version of HITMAN 1, 2, and 3 all together, or…?
Exactly how that’s going to work in HITMAN 3 isn’t concretely in place yet, but we’re likely to have a solution similar to what we have now.
In HITMAN 2, you can go into the in-game store and buy HITMAN 1, or upgrade to the Gold Edition etc.
Seeing as you need HITMAN 3 to access VR, this is a very elegant solution for us to use. Again, it could change.
I’m not sure about plans for a massive compilation - but we have had an in-game store in HITMAN 2 where you can buy HITMAN 1 and play the H1 Levels within H2.
Basically, we’ve been building out this World of Assassination (as we call it) where everything is as seemless to access as possible, so we’ll have an elegant solution
:gasp: had me excited.
