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Seeking Dawn has launched! Post your impressions here!

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

s09erk5cosdd.jpg

Seeking Dawn has just launced - here's the trailer:



The game can now be purchased on Steam and will also be available in the Oculus Store:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/859340/Seeking_Dawn/

Personally I'd much prefer to support Oculus - I'll give them a few hours to catch up with Steam - currently I can't buy Seeking Dawn in the Oculus Store  😞

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1983757598365882/

According to this article Seeking Dawn should be available in the Oculus Store today:

https://www.roadtovr.com/vr-sci-fi-shooter-seeking-dawn-land-rift-vive-july-12th/

Quote: "Multiverse Inc., the studio behind VR sci-fi shooter Seeking Dawntoday announced the single/multiplayer game is soon heading out of closed beta and launching on Oculus RiftHTC Vive and Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets on July 12th.” [...] Promising a ‘full-length’ VR game, Seeking Dawn is said to offer a 20-hour single-player campaign, co-op gameplay with up to three other players in campaign mode, and multiplayer deathmatches in a “sprawling Survival setting.” [...] The full release will be available on the Oculus Store (Rift) and Steam (Rift, Vive, Windows VR) for $40."

 

Note that the price is $33.99 on Steam, not $40.

Update: I made an error, sorry - it was 33.99 - not $ - in the Steam store, thus Seeking Dawn has the same price in the Oculus and Steam stores. 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

185 REPLIES 185

inovator
Consultant
It is overpriced considering the developers admit it Needs a lot of optimizing and polishing and 5 hours more of content will be added. It should be at a price that reflects the above. However it is a game I'll buy when it's ready.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
BTW, if anyone uses Tray Tool I've done a few more tests and I don't plan to do more. It seems that Seeking Dawn super-sampling simply does not work correctly if Tray Tool is active. Using Tray Tool SS 1.5 profile + SS 1.0 in-game (or Tray Tool SS 0 profile + SS 1.5 in-game) results in a much lower frame rate than if Tray Tool is completely deactivated and Seeking Dawn starts up using SS 1.5 (in-game setting). 
Normally Tray Tool starts minimized (scheduled) with Windows on my PC, and once Tray Tool has been active, even if I close Tray Tool, Oculus Home still starts with the Tray Tool global setting (in my case SS 2.0) - which also affects Seeking Dawn. Thus I can't just close Tray Tool, but have to make sure it's not active at startup at all - requiring a reboot and changes to the Tray Tool settings. Quite cumbersome, all my other 70+ games/apps work flawlessly with Tray Tool (actually I've had one other game behaving with similar SS problems, namely End Space, but I got a refund for that game). BTW, quite strange to deactivate Tray Tool and see Oculus Home again with SS 1.0, when you're used to SS 2.0 then SS 1.0 is really hard on the eyes. 
There're a few reports of GTX 1080 Ti Steam users being forced to play Seeking Dawn in low details - which sounds quite strange. That is unless SteamVR in some cases auto-detects and sets a high SS value for systems using fast video cards, which then further gets boosted by the in-game SS value. Like I've seen using Tray Tool. But I'm just guessing, of course there could be many other explanations for low fps using even 1080 Ti.  

I just tried Lone Echo and Robinson The Journey to compare graphics with Seeking Dawn - and seeing the utterly amazing graphics especially in Robinson (CryEngine) - even using SS 2.0 + TXAA - it is hard to understand why Seeking Dawn is so much more demanding, tesselation or not. It would indeed be great if Seeking Dawn developers could gain more performance without reducing visual quality. 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
@RuneSR2

First I just want to say that I really love this thread and all the effort you're putting in to presenting this info. I was really excited about this game and I'm still hoping that things get cleared up soon. I'm using this thread to track their progress, so thanks again.

About this:
I just tried Lone Echo and Robinson The Journey to compare graphics with
Seeking Dawn - and seeing the utterly amazing graphics especially in
Robinson (CryEngine) - even using SS 2.0 + TXAA - it is hard to
understand why Seeking Dawn is so much more demanding, tesselation or
not. It would indeed be great if Seeking Dawn developers could gain more
performance without reducing visual quality. 


I have not played Seeking Dawn obviously, but I've beaten both Lone Echo and Robinsons. Yes, both are virtually stunning however, they use "loading zones."  Does Seeking Dawn have loading zones? Or did they attempt a vast seemless world? Loading zones are used to help minimize stress on the GPU.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Zenbane said:

@RuneSR2

First I just want to say that I really love this thread and all the effort you're putting in to presenting this info. I was really excited about this game and I'm still hoping that things get cleared up soon. I'm using this thread to track their progress, so thanks again.

About this:
I just tried Lone Echo and Robinson The Journey to compare graphics with
Seeking Dawn - and seeing the utterly amazing graphics especially in
Robinson (CryEngine) - even using SS 2.0 + TXAA - it is hard to
understand why Seeking Dawn is so much more demanding, tesselation or
not. It would indeed be great if Seeking Dawn developers could gain more
performance without reducing visual quality. 


I have not played Seeking Dawn obviously, but I've beaten both Lone Echo and Robinsons. Yes, both are virtually stunning however, they use "loading zones."  Does Seeking Dawn have loading zones? Or did they attempt a vast seemless world? Loading zones are used to help minimize stress on the GPU.


Thanks Zenbane, I'm lucky to have 4 weeks of summer vacation and this is the time of the year I've got the most time to enjoy VR - so I can't really wait for them to patch up Seeking Dawn, now is the time 😉 Also I guess it's commendable that the developers aren't turning Seeking Dawn into another Star Citizen project, and - after all - at least the singleplayer part of Seeking Dawn is already quite enjoyable.

But loading zones - there are possibly even more loading zones in Seeking Dawn than in Robinson The Journey. Loading zones may indeed be one of Seeking Dawn's main problems, especially because loading times often are long (think Mage's Tale right after that game was launched), possible due to Ultra textures (note that in the Seeking Dawn settings, you can easily change all other settings than textures - going from Ultra to high will cause a loooong loading pause). I think Seeking Dawn specs recommend just 8GB of system ram, maybe the developers should have used 16GB instead. The developers want to release Seeking Dawn also on the PlayStation4 - it's got to to be a real challenge fitting this mountain of a game into a shoe box - maybe we do need to quote a movie here  B)

https://youtu.be/cS3612EIcF4

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
A nice video of actual Rift gameplay has been made. The video is 10 min and jumps from scene to scene (I investigate everything thoroughly, it took me at least 1 hour to get to the place the video shows after about 2 min), thus more boring aspects of the gameplay aren't shown - and it does contain spoilers, forcing me to stop watching after 3 or 4 minutes 🙂

https://youtu.be/UDdFLSnjroE

And a new review of Seeking Dawn has been published - 78%:

https://www.gamecrate.com/reviews/review-seeking-dawn-gorgeous-vr-game-doesnt-know-what-it-wants-be/...

Quote: "Seeking Dawn is a somewhat flawed but overall incredibly enjoyable VR title. Graphically it’s one of the best sci-fi VR games we’ve ever dived into, and overall the shooting and exploration prove that Seeking Dawn is much more than a pretty face. With around 14 hours of gameplay packed into a $40 package it’s one of the longer VR experiences on the market and worth playing through solo or with friends [...] Seeking Dawn is undoubtedly a gorgeous VR game that uses the platform well to create a quality sense of immersion within the world. Animations still need some work, but the sense of exploring a gorgeous alien world makes this a must play for any VR space tourist."

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Ok, I wrote I wouldn't spend more time investigating super-sampling in Seeking Dawn, but I lied  😉

Actually it's thanks to ApollyonVR, who created Oculus Tray Tool (OTT), he just provided great help by letting me know that if I activate the HUD in OTT and select Pixel Density, then I can constantly see the applied level of super-sampling (SS) in-game.

And here's what happens in Seeking Dawn - it's quite interesting. I've set global SS to 0 and deleted the Seeking Dawn profile in OTT. In Seeking Dawn I've set SS to 1.4. Oculus Home is very blurry, surely I'm now using SS 1.0 - this is the equivalent to persons, who do not use OTT and just start up Seeking Dawn.

Now starting the game and seeing the Nvidia logo SS is 1.4 (according to the HUD), but when I'm loading the game it changes to SS 1.0! Then I can just go into the in-game settings menu and re-apply SS 1.4 - and viola - I get SS 1.4 again (and performance gets a slap in the face). Then I load a new level, and SS is again reset to 1.0! So every time you load a level or die, SS is reset to 1.0 - no matter your in-game SS settings. 

I can't believe the developers are doing this on purpose - but Seeking Dawn is probably the most demanding VR game yet, maybe one kind developer did do something to let 1080 Ti owners think they could run this game at 90 fps using SS 1.5... 😉 Everything is making sense now. Suddenly I understand why - when selecting SS 1.5 - sometimes the game ran much better than other times - even the same scene. Now I can hear a strange Obi-Wan Kenobi-like voice in my head saying: "But Rune, you always use SS 2.0, can't you immediately tell SS 1.0 from 1.5?" - my answer would be that SS 1.0 and 1.5 are just a different kinds of blurriness compared to SS 2.0 - and I was not prepared to be subjected to such evil mind tricks!   

In short - if you think the game is running great on your system using SS 1.5 - try to re-activate that setting in Seeking Dawn's Graphics' menu  😄

My guess is - ok haven't investigated this thoroughly yet - that when using OTT SS 1.5 you actually get SS 1.5 constantly. 

These things aside I just got some severe spanking in Field of Shards 3 (a sub-chapter in Seeking Dawn), especially a large alien predator showed excellent path-finding abilities, every time we meet it quickly finds and eats me 😉 One problem - besides the SS value constantly being reset to 1.0 - is that my character doesn't eat his hamburgers, well, he does chew, but energy/health doesn't increase and the hamburger is still there - which clearly is a bug. Luckily there're other food sources than burgers. 

But back the great gameplay - I've found two videos that perfectly fit my current in-game situation being surrounded by large alien predators:

https://youtu.be/kyfriipc61A

Maybe this one is better - it's so hard to decide...

https://youtu.be/45QJiADwGhE

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Seeking Dawn has just received it's first patch - I'm downloading it right now, it's 3.49GB so it's a massive patch. There no info about the patch contents in the Oculus Store - but on Steam the developers describe the following changes:

2018/7/18 -Seeking Dawn Update Log

JULY 18 - FRANK XU
--Bug fixes:
Fixed a bug where the backpack would not open after eating food in the tutorial;
Fixed a bug where game state could be ovewritten by joining other players' rooms;
Fixed a bug where the gate of tutorial would not open;
Fixed a bug where food in the quick equipment bar were not consumed while crafting;
Fixed a bug where items that couldn't fit in the backpack were not generated in front of the player;
Fixed a bug where items would disappear;
Fixed a bug where food would not restore any stats;
Fixed a resolution issue with the re-spawn UI;
Fixed a bug where items would freeze in the air;
Fixed a bug where main menu would be inaccessible without connecting to internet;
Fixed a bug where a certain hidden achievement would not unlock;
Fixed a bug where putting the hands behind a wall would let the player blink outside;
Fixed an issue where the crafting tables placement rotation would not work as expected with Oculus controllers;
Fixed a bug where some hardware would have problems with certain memory operations;
Fixed several other errors.

--Improvements and changes:
Optimized rendering and particle effects;
Optimized environments;
Optimized resources management and reduced memory use;
Changed the models of Ceratos and Theridon;
Removed reflection option;
Added a text notification when collecting items if the backpack is already full;
Added a button in the back of crafting tables so that it can be dismantle in case of misplacement;
Added NA and Europe servers;
Added an interface for chosing the server to connect to;
Changed the placement of several resources that were uncollectable;
Added a notification when the player is walking too far away from the playing area;
Changed the Game over (when main base is destroyed);
Balanced enemies and weapons stats;
Updated the localization.

I'll keep you updated. BTW I was right about SS being multiplied when using Oculus tray Tool (OTT) - when using OTT global SS 2.0 and SS 1.4 in-game - then Seeking Dawn starts up by using SS 2.8 (two-point-eight, you read it correctly), I had to set in-game SS to 0.6 to get SS 1.2 (it constantly doubled the SS). So if you have set a global OTT SS value to make Oculus Home look awesome, it may cripple Seeking Dawn quite a lot. When loading a new game, SS constantly got reset to SS 2.0 - and the game ended up crashing, but man did the game look beautiful using SS 2.0  ❤️ I need that GTX 1180, sigh...
Still - this is before the patch, I'll let you know how everything turns out after the patch! We may need some music while waiting for the patch to install, hmmm - I know just the right song!

https://youtu.be/8iwBM_YB1sE

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

inovator
Consultant
this game was not ready for release! 

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Just applied the patch.

The good stuff:
1. I can now eat my hamburgers!
2. My savegames are working. 
3. The notification when the player is walking too far away from the playing area is working nicely.

The bad stuff:
1. Oculus Tray Tool (OTT) global settings still impact in-game SS. Using OTT SS 2.0 (global) and Seeking Dawn SS 1.2 (in-game) will cause Seeking Dawn to use SS 2.4. So I still need to set OTT SS to 0 (global) before starting Seeking Dawn. 
2. In-game SS max setting has been reduced from 1.5 to just 1.2 - quite a sad way to improve performance, but personally I ended up using SS 1.2 yesterday (before the patch). In large areas even SS 1.3 is too much. My oc'ed 1080 is about 10% slower than a non-oc'ed 1080 Ti, and I think developers - for now - did the only thing possible. Until they can provide some real optimizations, forcing low SS may be their only option. SS 1.2 makes the game quite blurry - but you can use Oculus Tray Tool to go beyond SS 1.2 (but be careful and use the OTT HUD pixel density to verify you're getting the SS value you want). 
3. Whenever you're loading a new area or game, SS will constantly default to 1.0. Thus you often need to re-apply SS value higher than 1.0. SS 1.0 makes the game look horrible (=very blurry). 

I guess the most important thing about this patch was to reduce SS from 1.5 to 1.2 - giving the devs time to figure out some real solutions to their problem: getting a GTX 1180 game to run ok on current hardware 
😉

BTW nice to see that Seeking Dawn is getting some love from Oculus 🙂

oelcsqms5fw1.jpg

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

motorsep
Rising Star

RuneSR2 said:

.... getting a GTX 1180 game to run ok on current hardware  😉



So I guess people with i3-6100 and 1060 should not touch this game with a long stick 😞