On November 25, our game of fever dreams in liminal spaces Pools will be released on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2. To say we’re excited is the understatement of the year; we’re actually crazy about the prospect of our game being released within a few days of publishing this post. In addition to our game coming to the console many of us grew up on, we’re really excited to see how people will respond to the PlayStation 5 and PS VR2-specific features we’ve implemented. We’re really excited about it and I thought it would be fun to tell you more about it in this post. So what makes the PS5 and PS VR2 versions of Pools special? Come with me and I’ll show you.
Immersive features of the DualSense controller
We wanted the Pools experience to be as real and immersive as possible (aside from somehow not having the DualSense controller smell like chlorine). To ensure you feel immersed in the game, we’ve made the most of the DualSense controller’s feedback. First, we wanted to give each surface you walk on its own “feel”. You can feel subtle vibrations with every step you take, and each surface has its own tactile sensation and intensity. In some places your steps will feel airy and normal, and in others you will feel resistance. Walking on water also causes different types of feedback, depending on the depth and speed of movement. It may sound like a compact thing, but it really helps you be “there” almost you can feel the chlorine in the pools.
The controller’s touch elements are also used to highlight unique locations and in-game events. For example, at one point you may come across a seemingly bottomless pit from which a distant, growling sound emerges. You’ll feel the sound echo through the controller’s speaker, and the intensity of the touch effect will naturally scale based on your distance from that bottom. When creating these types of haptic moments, we realized that some of you might want to customize them to your liking. This allows you to adjust the touch intensity or turn it on/off in the settings menu according to your personal preferences.
Get the most out of PS VR2
When we started planning to bring Pools to PS5, we decided early on that PS VR2 mode needed to take full advantage of its features. Once again we have this frosty piece of equipment that can draw you into the world of our game a little more – let’s make the most of it! The PS VR2 version is a recent, custom version of the game, adapted directly to the hardware. It takes full advantage of foveated rendering technology with eye tracking, so we can ensure maximum visual quality and performance. This is a really great feature because it allows us to make Pools look as realistic as possible while still maintaining great performance – at least 90 FPS with no reprojection. The idea is to make the game look good and play well.
While it may seem a bit cliché to say it, we’re extremely proud of the PS VR2 version. Between you and me, we had to rebuild most of the visual aspects of the game from scratch to achieve our performance goals. Basically, we wanted the backlight rendering to work as best as possible, and to achieve this, we had to create a custom solution for our water visualizations. So we shut up, dug into the code, and learned a ton about shader programming. It was strenuous work, but we are really proud of what we achieved. The whole studio hopes that when you dive in, step inside, or just look at the water effects, you’ll think, “hey, that looks nice.” If so, it was worth it for us.
Thank you so much for spending some time with us and learning about our thought process on how we can make Pools as engaging as possible on PlayStation 5 and PS VR2. It is also worth mentioning that you only need to buy the game once and you will have access to both modes.
Pools will be released in just a few days, on November 25, and you can play the demo version now on PlayStation Store. We hope to see you there.
