Developers at Camouflaj are spending a “decent amount of CPU and GPU” on Quest 3 to render “pure-level” real-time shadows for Batman: Arkham Shadow.
Camouflaj founder Ryan Payton told UploadVR that he asked someone to bring an Xbox 360 into the office with a copy of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and “I said, how do they do that? It’s Xbox 360. Obviously, Quest 3 is many times more powerful than that.”
“Given the themes of the game, the noir aspect of Batman, the dark mood, and how cool it looks to have real-time shadows in VR, it was one of the few times in this project that I actually stood up to the team and I said here there is no room for failure, and we have to get the job done,” Payton said. “And they did the job.”
Quest 3 Batman: Arkham Shadow Story Exclusive Trailer Reveals Gotham Threat
Batman: Arkham Shadow has released a new cinematic trailer for the action-adventure Quest 3 VR, detailing Gotham’s newest threat.
A new story trailer has just debuted, showing the overall narrative background for Batman: Arkham Shadow. The launch is planned for later this year, meeting the high expectations not only from current Quest 3 buyers, but also from future Quest 2 to Quest 3S upgrades.
A Meta-acquired studio focused on delivering real-time shadows via the XR2 Gen 2 chipset to make you feel more like Batman in an Arkham game is ultimately proving to be a high-profile test of Meta’s long-term strategy in VR. especially unlike PSVR 2 adds PC support and Apple Vision Pro all-in on hand tracking.
Peyton said that while Camouflaj worked on the project for four years, the game didn’t have real-time shadows until 2022. Now there are shadows from Batman, enemies and the environment. What exactly did it feel like to see in headphones for the first time?
“Magic,” Peyton said. “When we turned on the shadows and the team warned me that the frame rate would drop at that time, they had this corridor in one of the earlier environments of the game and they put a light behind me and pretty early in the game, there’s an enemy…that’s one of the cultist rat enemy types at the end of this corridor. And it’s me, me, Ryan, as Batman, I’m casting a shadow over this long hallway, over this enemy screaming, ‘Oh no, it’s Batman!’ It’s amazing.”
Peyton adds:
“Batman: Arkham Shadow’s wish fulfillment is very much about feeling like you’re Batman in costume. That’s why… seeing Batman cast a shadow over the environment is an important aspect, but also looking down and seeing that it’s not just floating hands, it’s the whole suit. This is the glove. You look down and you can see the batarang slot on your chest, your legs. The team did a great job of reminding the player that when they look down, they look like Batman, they feel like Batman.
Camouflaj’s previous title, Iron Man VR, earns a spot on our list of the best Quest headset games.
“Whether it was with our previous title or now with Arkham Shadow, a meaningful, deep story that takes these characters that you embody and goes to some pretty dark places, the more I can relate to the player and make them believe that they are Batman, the more impact some of these pretty heavy story moments will have on them.”
What does Camouflage have to say about Batman: Arkham Shadow’s gameplay?
“We don’t know the final runtime, but I can say that the game is bigger, longer and more feature-packed than our previous title, Iron Man VR,” Peyton said. “We’ll end up having about four years on this project, we’re really aiming for the game, in terms of content and length, to be as close to Arkham Asylum as possible.” I don’t know if we’ll get there, but the game structure is also very inspired by Arkham Asylum. What I can say with confidence is that we will land somewhere between Iron Man VR and Arkham Asylum in terms of length.”
Peyton says they also drew inspiration from the Beat Saber and Superhot, so we’re extremely curious to see how the combination of precision-tracking controllers and haptic feedback feels when we get to work. Arkham Shadow is due out later this year with more details at Gamescom in August.
“I think with Batman: Arkham Shadow we have an incredible opportunity to introduce a lot more people to the world of VR,” Peyton said. “Although sometimes it can feel hard trying to chain combos and counter and jump into a special combo and take down, you know, 12 enemies in one big chain and you just can’t believe you just- what did you get this thing out of? players.”
