It was looking good for a while, after several delays MADiSON VR was due to launch tomorrow. But such is life that wasn’t meant to be, as Perp Games has announced that the atmospheric horror for PSVR 2 and Steam is delayed once more. This time, however, a new date has yet to be confirmed.
Issuing a statement today, Perp Games explained that it’s the PSVR 2 edition causing the problem. It comes down to a new Unity SDK allowing developer Bloodious Games to hit a 90hz refresh rate. Rather than using the planned 60/120 (interpolation) mode that a lot of PSVR 2 games use. As owners can attest, interpolation can cause issues such as blurry visuals, severely impeding a game like MADiSON VR.
Achieving the desired 90hz should make for a far smoother, higher-quality experience for PSVR 2 owners. This does not affect the Steam edition, but it seems Perp Games wants to launch both simultaneously.
MADiSON VR Launch Delays
Going into further detail the teams state:
“Our ambition is to create a realistic and daunting atmosphere with MADiSON VR. And we achieved this through realistic real-time lighting and shadows. These elements heavily utilise the CPU on all platforms.
“To make this possible in VR, we use a technique called “Single-Pass Rendering” so that resource-heavy operations are only done once per frame. Unfortunately, our use of this previously precluded us from also using the eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering (DFR) feature on PSVR 2, as the Unity PSVR 2 implementation had a known issue with this combination. Without DFR, it would have only been possible to release using the 60/120 (interpolation) mode, which worked adequately, however we always felt fell a little short of the quality we were striving for. As of 22nd March Unity’s new SDK, now opens up DFR and by extension the possibility to hit the 90hz mode. A last minute improvement we simply can’t ignore.”
While it is certainly disappointing for horror fans – especially considering how often MADiSON VR has been pushed back – getting the launch right from day one is most important.
This isn’t the only VR horror game Perp is launching this year. In September Slender: The Arrival VR will be gracing PSVR 2 and PCVR headsets.
What do you think about the MADiSON VR launch delays? Let us know in the comments below.