Red Matter 2 offers great graphics and more upgrades
Red Matter is one of the most beautiful games for Meta Quest. With Red Matter 2, the studio takes it up a notch. The game is also coming to SteamVR.
Red Matter was released three years ago for Meta Quest 1 and is set in the age of the conquest of space. The Soviet Union and the Cold War persist and shape the fate of humanity. You take on the role of a US space spy and explore an abandoned Soviet base on one of Saturn's moons, deciphering messages in Cyrillic script, hacking terminals, and investigating sinister goings-on.
The game set new standards for mobile VR graphics. Next month's sequel should be even more beautiful, as it is optimized for the much more powerful Meta Quest 2.
Tech trailer shows impressive graphics
On YouTube, the Spanish studio Vertical Robot shows a technical preview of the game, demonstrating numerous new graphic effects.
These include high-quality fog, elaborate particle effects, volumetric light cones, lifelike NPC faces based on Epic's MetaHuman technology, realistic glass surfaces and light refractions, soft shadows, and cinematic color filters.
The footage represents the effects possible with the Quest 2 version, but is not from it. On Reddit, the studio explains, "The footage was recorded from a PC running Unreal Engine in 'Android Preview' mode. In other words, it's representative of what you'll see on Quest 2."
According to Vertical Robot, the graphical features are all present in the Quest 2 version. The studio might have mainly tricked with textures and resolution for the trailer.
Red Matter runs on a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine and uses the graphics API Vulkan. Meta's new rendering technique Application Spacewarp (info) is not used. So, there is still room for improvement in terms of graphics.
Red Matter 2: Improved in many aspects
On Reddit, the studio promises numerous other improvements. The controls and movement have been modernized and are now on par with current virtual reality games. Overall, Red Matter 2 is much bigger than its predecessor and less linear. Thanks to new streaming technology, you can explore the facilities without loading pauses. In addition, there will be battles for the first time.
Red Matter 2 will be released on August 18, 2022, on the Oculus Store for Meta Quest 2 (native and PC VR) and on Steam. The PC VR version features higher resolution textures and dynamic shadows.
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