Difference between revisions of "How To Play"

Revision as of 05:59, 10 January 2023

All right, so now you've Installed EmuVR, added your games, and maybe even Customized your bedroom and labels. Well, let's play!

We may have a raw Controls page, but that doesn't actually teach you how to play and interact with things.

How to choose a game? How do you start a game? How do you control a game? What else can you do?

This page will teach you the ropes.

You'll learn the quick steps about everything you can do in The Basics section, and the rest will teach you how to do it.

The Basics

You can play with VR hand controllers, Xbox controllers, and keyboard + mouse.

You're free to move around, grab and throw objects, and interact with them using your fingers or the Pointer.

In EmuVR you'll be switching between two control modes:

• Avatar Focus: you'll control yourself in the room, your avatar.
• Game Focus: you'll control your games playing on the TVs.

To play a game, you will:

1. Grab the cartridge / CD
2. Insert it into the respective system
3. Attach the cable to a TV
4. Press the power button to switch it on
5. Switch input to the game and play to your heart's content!

The first time you play EmuVR, your room will already have a few TVs with consoles and games, so you'll actually start from step 4.

You can have multiple systems running at the same time.

When playing your games, you can use your Xbox controller, keyboard, or even your hand controllers buttons to control them. You can switch between these control methods seamlessly at will.

Don't forget you can also play videos and music.

If your game cartridge, CD, console or TV of choice isn't already in the room, you can bring up the Inventory Menu to spawn them, or any other available object you want.

You can always change the time of day and switch the light. Try playing at night, in the dark, when the only lighting comes from your TVs!

There are also lots of Settings to change how your controls work.

How to Run EmuVR

You'll see there are a few executables besides EmuVR.exe to choose from.

Check the table below to know which one you need to use.

Even if the wrong file still works, make sure you're actually using the correct executable for best performance.

The Pointer

To interact with some objects from far away, hold the Pointer Button, and a laser pointer will beam out of your hand.

You can point it to interactable objects to highlight them, and then press other contextual buttons in combination, to perform specific actions that will be explained in the sections below.

If you're not using hand controllers (or are in Desktop mode), the crosshair in the center of your vision will act as the pointer for most of those actions.

Moving Yourself

Besides walking in real life if you have the space, you can walk like in an FPS game or teleport. You can choose your preferred method in the Settings Menu. If you're using a keyboard, you'll always be able to use both Teleport and Smooth Locomotion, no need to change it in settings.

If you accidentally pressed the teleport button in VR, don't worry, you can easily take a Step Back.

In VR mode, you can disable walk acceleration according to your comfort preferences.

Move the camera with your mouse or right analog stick in desktop mode. In VR, you can use Snap Turn or Smooth Rotation if you're sitting on a chair or just don't want to rotate your real body too much. Choose your preferred Rotation Mode in Settings.

You can adjust your height at will, good for aligning yourself to a TV more comfortably if you're sitting on a chair. Reset your height whenever you need.

In VR mode, in addition to your height, there's also a setting to change your own scale. Make yourself a bit smaller for the full nostalgia effect and feel like you're a kid in that huge bedroom again! Just like you remember it.

Grabbing Objects

Using your Hands

If you're using your hands in VR, you just need to reach for an object until it gets highlighted, which means you can then grab it with your hand controller's Grab Button. You can now release or throw it like in real life. (Don't punch your walls IRL friends!)

If you hold the Grab Button without grabbing an object, you'll close your hand. Doing this will enable physics on your hand, allowing you to push and punch objects.

Distance Grab

If you're feeling lazy tired and don't want to crouch to grab an object on the floor, or you need something right now that's too far away, you can point to it and press the Distance Grab button. It will fly right into your hand. Use the Force.

Using your Gamepad / Keyboard

If you're using a gamepad or keyboard (in VR or not), you simply point to an object to highlight it, then press the Grab Button/Key, and now it will be floating in front of your face, facing you. If you want to grab it without pulling or rotating it to yourself, keeping it where it was, you can hold that same button for 1 second to Grab in Place. If an object is already being held, holding that same button for 1 second again will reset the object rotation.

You can release grabbed objects by pressing the same grab button.

When grabbing an object, you'll move it around with yourself. You can rotate it, rotate it sideways, bring it closer or farther, and even throw it.

Interacting with Objects

Some objects can be switched on and off, like Flashlights and Candles.

To do that, you can point to it and press the object action button.

You can also press that same button while holding an object instead of pointing to it. This even works with TVs and consoles too.

When using VR controllers, you can use your virtual index finger to actually press the little buttons and knobs ingame just like in real life. Just like TV and console buttons can be pressed with your finger, you can turn on the flashlight or the wall switch in the same way.

Freezing Objects In Place

You can freeze objects in place by holding the freeze objects button for a second while holding or pointing at them.
(Hint, it's the same button you use to attach cables, but hold it for 1 second.)

Frozen objects are stuck in space, and they can't move or be grabbed in any way until you unfreeze them using the same command again.

While pointing to a frozen object, it will show a pink colored highlight instead of the usual color.

Frozen TVs and consoles will still function as usual.

This feature is useful to avoid accidentally grabbing or knocking objects over, to make them float in space, or even to make cool sculptures.

Inventory Menu: Spawning Objects and Games

When EmuVR starts, it will spawn a few random systems with games from your list. (You can tweak or disable this in the Settings Menu)

To spawn new system, games, or any other object, press the button to show the Inventory Menu.

When the inventory menu is visible, laser pointers will come out of your hands (or your head, in desktop mode), then point and click to interact with it.

There you can select a category to the left, such as TVs, Objects, Systems, or Games for each system.

Only systems with at least one scanned game will be available in the list.

To spawn a new object, just point to it and press the Grab Button/Key. (In VR mode you don't need to reach and grab it with your hands, just point and press Grab, and you'll "force pull" it.)

If you need to delete any object: grab it, hover it over the trash can icon in the inventory menu so that it gets highlighted, then release it there.

When you're done using the menu, press the Menu Button to hide and get it out of the way.

Note: For now, you'll see placeholder 3D models for every console that isn't modeled yet, represented by the fantastic Knock-Off Generic EVR-9000 video game console. This allows you to play your games for every supported system, before we get to model them all or support UGC (custom models). Currently, there are models for PS1, N64, SNES (USA, PAL and Japan), NES, GameCube and PS2 systems, and a VCR. More to come later.

Connecting Cables to Systems and TVs

Now that you got your consoles, games, and TVs, you need to connect them with cables.

Using your Hands

It's just like in real life. Grab the plug from a TV or console the same way you grab other objects, then attach it to other TV or console.

To grab a plug, hover it with your open hand until you see a red icon with a ball, representing the female socket symbol. That means it's highlighted, and you can now hold the Grab Button to detach it. Now you'll be holding the cable by the plug, with a blue arrow icon representing the male plug symbol.

While holding a plug, move it close to where it could be attached to in the other console or TV's socket, and you'll see the red female socket icon there, while your blue arrow icon will turn green. That means you'll attach the cable if you release it there.

You can create new cables by hovering your hand over an empty plug socket until you see the highlighted female socket symbol. Grab that, it will create a new cable from there, and you'll be now holding the other end of the cable: the blue male plug symbol, ready to be attached to another console or TV.

To delete a cable, just grab its plug and release it in the air.

Lazy Hand Cabling

If you're feeling lazy tired, you can use the same commands for gamepad / keyboard cable changing just below, by using the the Pointer and Attach Cable buttons in your hand controllers even from far away. That means you don't need to reach and grab the plugs with your hands. Please read below.

Using your Gamepad / Keyboard

1. Point to a console or TV, and press the Attach Cable button. It will glow.
2. Point to the matching console or TV you want to connect, and it will also be highlighted.
3. While still pointing to your highlighted target, press the Attach Cable button again, and they will be connected.

If you want to disconnect and remove a cable, just try connecting the cable to the same console/TV from step 1. It's like double clicking.

You can also quickly move a plug from one TV to another with this (or from one console to another), while keeping the other end of the cable where it was, without needing turn off the game.

Note: If you disconnect a powered console, the game will still be running in the background, but will shut down by itself after 10 seconds. This happens to prevent you from forgetting about tons of games still running with no TVs, while still giving you enough time to reconnect or switch cables without shutting them off. On the other hand, if you simply turn off the TV, but didn't remove the cable, the game will keep running indefinitely, until you power off the console as well, using your hardware resources.

Starting Games

OK, everything is connected now, so how do you turn them on?

Inserting Games into Consoles

Grab your game, hover it close to your console slot (be it for cartridges or CDs), and it will glow. That means you now just need to release it, and it will be inserted.

If there's a game inserted there already, you need to grab it before inserting a new one.

If the console has a tray, lid or anything like that, don't forget to open it first, to be able to insert or remove games from the slot.

Turn It On

Using Your Fingers

To power on a console or TV with your hands, you just need to use your finger to interact with virtual buttons like in real life.

If it's N64 or an SNES, for example, you need to flick the button forward or back to power it on or off. If it's push button like on PS1 or TVs, you just press it down.

If you have a connected TV, turning on a console will also automatically turn on that TV for you.

You can also interact with other buttons, such as Reset and Eject. If they're interactable, they will glow when your finger touches them.

Using your Gamepad / Keyboard / VR Controller

Use the Pointer to highlight a console or a TV, and press the Power On button. If the connected TV or console is off, this will automatically turn them on for you as well. You can open or close your console tray/lid by pressing the Open/Close System Tray button.

If you want to switch just the TV on/off without affecting the connected console, use the Power TV On/Off button.

Note: Turning off a TV will not close or even pause the connected game, it'll keep running in the background, using your hardware resources, until you power off the console as well, so don't forget about them.

Controlling Games

Finally, the game is playing on the TV! But how do you control it? Where is the controller?

You just need to point to the console or TV, and press the Console Input Focus button. Now, instead of controlling your avatar movements and interacting with objects, your real life VR controllers or gamepad are commanding the game on the screen.

To snap out of it and go back to controlling your avatar, press the Unfocus Console Input button combo.

Recap, in EmuVR you'll be switching between two control modes:

• Avatar Focus: you'll control yourself in the room, your avatar.
• Game Focus: you'll control your games playing on the TVs.

You can control your games with your VR controllers, Xbox controller, or keyboard. You can switch between these control methods seamlessly at will.

Please check the button mapping for VR controllers for controlling games. The button layout was designed so that you can press most of the virtual face buttons together comfortably with one hand. You'll find you're able to play most games with them, without needing to reach for your Xbox controller.

If you're playing with no controllers, and using only your keyboard, here are the default keyboard bindings used in Retroarch to control the games: https://docs.libretro.com/guides/input-and-controls/#default-retroarch-keyboard-bindings

Light Guns are a special case and will use a different input method, so head over to their own instructions page. (Attention, light guns from the inventory menu are just objects for decoration, that's not how you use them to play.)

Note: 3D models for virtual controllers are not yet implemented.

TV Volume

While not controlling a game, you can point to a powered-on TV (running games or not) and press the Change TV Volume buttons to make each TV louder or softer. You'll see a little animation on the screen showing its current volume.

You can also physically press the volume buttons or knobs on TVs in VR with your fingers. (If it's a rotating knob, just flick it up or down instead of pressing it.)

If playing with friends through Netplay, everyone will hear the same volume as you for each TV.

Each TV stores it own volume, it's not related to consoles. When changing cables and moving a console from one TV to another, the TVs will maintain their current volumes and the games will sound accordingly.

When saving or loading your room, your TVs will retain their saved volumes.

You can also control the global volume multiplier for all games locally in the settings menu (this is just for you and will not affect other players in your room).

Time of Day and Switching the Light

Time

When playing EmuVR, you can always change the Clock Time, move the sunlight, and make it night time.

Try playing in the dark to appreciate the colorful lighting from your games on the TVs, bouncing around the whole bedroom.

There is a quick shortcut to change the time anywhere. You don't need to be looking at the clock for that, you can just enjoy the sight from the window or follow the sun/moon light shifting around in your room.

You can also change the time while pointing to the wall clock. That also allows you to toggle Real Time Clock mode by using the object action command on the clock, making the ingame clock time follow your PC system clock. This uses a lot more of your CPU resources when enabled.

Lamp

To switch the ceiling lamp, you can point to the lamp or the wall switch, and press the Object Action command.

You can do the same by pressing the quick shortcut button at any time.

Finally, the most fun way to switch the light in VR is to actually use your finger and flick the wall switch by the door up or down.

Seasons, Christmas, Halloween

Besides changing the time of day, you can also change the time of year!

In Settings you can make it be Summer; Fall, with falling leaves on your chilling brownish backyard; Winter, with snow falling everywhere; or simply put it on Automatic, and the seasons will be set according to your computer's calendar.

Adding to that, there's Halloween, with all the lights and spooky decorations in the neighborhood; and Christmas with, of course, blinking colored Christmas lights on your neighbor's and on your own huge Christmas tree!

Just be aware that enabling Fall or Winter will need a little more horse power from your PC, and their decorated flavors will need just a little more on top of that.

Settings Menu

To open the Settings Menu, press Menu button, click the Options tab, then the Settings submenu.

In this menu you'll be able to change settings such as the current time of day, season of the year, many Graphics settings to balance quality and performance, many Control options for comfort and ease of use, Light Gun settings, what type of objects should spawn when you start in the Default Room, and many more.

To know what each option does and how do they work, just hover them your pointer, and a tooltip will show up with quick instructions.

Head over to the Settings page to learn more.

Save and Load Your Bedroom State

After organizing your games collection and setting everything the way you want it, you can save and load your bedroom state through the Room Saving menu.