Nvidia is launching its own virtual reality (VR) game to the public, VR Funhouse, that features the company's latest innovations in gaming tech.
Players will be transported to a rich and vibrant carnival setting that includes seven individual mini-games such as intro area, Balloon Knight, Fire Archer, Clown Painter, Whack-A-Mole, Mole Boxing, Cannon Skeet.
Once booted into a user's VR-ready PC, the intro area will presumably introduce the game's mechanics to first-time players who utilize HTC Vive controllers.
"Bright, stylized sandwich boards outline the basic features and instructions for playing the game, and the interactive objects presented in front of the player give them the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the controls," writes Nvidia.
First and foremost, Nvidia's reasons for producing a self-titled game, in collaboration with LightSpeed Studios, is not to compete with current companies already publishing in the field but to rather introduce a more extensive and all-encompassing approach to how these companies could incorporate Nvidia's gaming technology into future VR games.
"When we first saw some of the early VR games and experiences, we quickly realized that something was missing: there was little to no physics simulation," explains Nvidia in a blog post, adding that essentially, VR brings users to new game dimension that simulates the physical world and thus requires objects in these games to "behave and react in realistic ways."
Nvidia Gameworks
The company's various available tech that aims to enhance an already immersive experience are all combined in VR Funhouse to accomplish a new feat in virtual reality. To name a few:
• Nvidia FleX adds to the necessary splash effects showcased in the Clown Painter mini-game where players fire green goo at clown heads.
• Nvidia Flow enables fluid reactions in the game, applied to confetti in Balloon Knight and blazing fire arrows in Fire Archer.
• Nvidia HairWorks, as the name implies, mimics real-life hair movements in Funhouse to make the individual strands of hair on different moles react as they should when a player whacks or punches one.
VR FUNHOUSE REQUIREMENTS
The game is now available for download on Steam, and though Nvidia markets it as a free-to-play title, the necessary components to run it as how the company intended to require a hefty amount of investment:
• At minimal setting, players need at least one GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Titan X, GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 as their GPU and an Intel Core i7-4790.
• While at optimal settings, the game requires a GTX 1080 or two-way GTX 1070, Titan X or 980 Ti SLI setup as the standard GPU, a dedicated GPU for only PhysX renders starting from 980 Ti and above and an Intel Core i7-5930.
Note: A two-way setup enables Nvidia's VR SLI tech to allocate one GPU for each lens of a VR headset to further improve performance while keeping framerates at a constant fps.
Another note: At least it's an actual real-life carnival simulation that does not incorporate the usual horror elements, hello Silent Hill. Unless ... the community adds it themselves once Nvidia open sources the game later this summer. (Or did we just give you guys that idea?!)
