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The AAA game Hitman 3 Year 2 has launched with native Oculus driver support! Reviews and impressions

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Unavngivet1.JPG

It's now official from the makers of Hitman 3 Year 2 - the game is arriving in VR in January 2022 - this is awesome news indeed!

 

 

The game is made by Io Interactive - I guess they saw that Alyx sold more than 2 million copies and got an idea - PCVR enthusiasts may be a tough crowd, but maybe not if you got totally awesome content, we'll see. 

 

And which HMDs did IO Interactive use for this game 🤔 ... let's see... 😎

 

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- and this does look like a Rift-S, I guess Hitman does not wear white 😎

 

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More info here:

 

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-year-2/

 

Quote: 

"HITMAN 3 launched with support for PS VR and we’re happy to bring HITMAN VR to PC in January 2022. Full technical details, including the platforms that we’re supporting will be revealed before Year 2 starts on 20 January 2022."

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"

46 REPLIES 46

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The anger is increasing, lol:

 

"also even though I own hitman 1 and 2 the trilogy still costs 100$. This is a joke right?"

- comment on Steam about the prices

 

No discounts, full prices, might not exactly sell like hotcakes - but still a small amount to pay for adults who have proper rigs for these games. Of course only if the game quality is great, we'll see

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 wrote:

"also even though I own hitman 1 and 2 the trilogy still costs 100$. This is a joke right?"

- comment on Steam about the prices


If that person owns Hitman 1 and 2, then they shouldn't buy the trilogy, they should just buy the cheaper Hitman 3 (which integrates with Hitman 1 and 2 if you already own them).

 

I would have bought Hitman 3 on Epic (I like Hitman games), but I already had Hitman 1 and 2 on Steam so I waited.

 

As for full price, it's the same price as on the Epic store for the last year.

Epic: $89.94au

Steam: $89.95au

 

I paid $99.95au for Psychonauts 2 and MS Flight Sim. Metro Exodus was $91au from Epic Store but $68au for a boxed copy from local store. That's what really annoys me, physical boxed games cheaper than online downloads. Also Epic charging Australians more than the exchange rate.

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2


@RuneSR2 wrote:

The anger is increasing, lol:

 

"also even though I own hitman 1 and 2 the trilogy still costs 100$. This is a joke right?"

- comment on Steam about the prices

 

No discounts, full prices, might not exactly sell like hotcakes - but still a small amount to pay for adults who have proper rigs for these games. Of course only if the game quality is great, we'll see


 

It's not unreasonable for existing owners of a game to show concern about being asked to pay for it again. Besides, didn't you express a similar amount of anger when it came to the Oculus Store not having a sale?

 

"Really sad not seeing any Christmas sales in the Rift Store - feels like you're dumped by the old girlfriend, and now she wants nothing to do with you...

 

Quest Christmas sale was extremely short and shows that Oculus/Meta/Facebook really do not want any sales - probably because they need to maximize software profits to make ends meet when selling Quest 2s below the manufacturing costs..."

https://forums.oculusvr.com/t5/Games-and-Apps/Any-chance-of-some-rift-Xmas-sales/m-p/932218/highligh...

 

I agree with your statement that it is a small amount to pay for adults with proper rigs. So... not sure why you chose to bash Meta for now reducing costs on Oculus PCVR and for having a short Quest sale yet defend the cost of HitmanVR for existing owners. 🤔

 

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

The game does have some issues - but most seem to depend on your choice of hmd. The game supports native Oculus drivers - and that says almost everything. 

 

Using SteamVR the game does not start - you have to enable desktop viewing, because the game starts in 2D. After some seconds the game will detect the hmd and ask if you want to enable VR (of course you do, you're wearing the hmd, sigh). This is cumbersome using Steam - but works much better with the Rift CV1.

In one mission I couldn't get a pistol from my inventory using Index, but using CV1 the pistol was easily available. Does make you ... think... 

 

Furtermore, using Index, controllers and hands aren't perfectly aligned - but to my great surprise Rift CV1 + Touch controllers worked perfectly. Plays great seated - and you can easily recenter with the CV1. So this game is optimized for Rift hmds. It's not that well-optimized for Index and maybe Steam in general. Just shows how difficult it is to support many hmds. 

 

Thus this feels like an Oculus exclusive - based on the game having native Oculus drivers and seeing how perfectly Touch works. This game should not have been only on Steam - it should have been available in the Oculus Store. 

 

The game is not demanding - got nice 90 fps using Index res 400% (36 mill pixels per frame for both eyes) - and also with Rift CV1 ss 2.5 (= 27 mill pixels per image) - using highest in-game graphics settings. Most will be able to play the game just fine, but even with Index res 400% it's still kinda blurry, probably due to temporal antialiasing. I actually prefer Rift CV1 ss 2.5 - and you need ss 2.5 for this game, even Rift ss 2.0 is blurry - but at 2.5 the game looks sharp-ish. 

 

Some in-game shots: 

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You start here

 

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Nice view - check out the view distance

 

You enter here:

 

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Nice polygon levels - wheels are round 🙂

 

Hands:

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Faces:

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Real-time shadows

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I'm not refunding - the game works perfectly with the CV1. Maybe an 8/10 game with the CV1 and 6/10 with the Index. For now... 

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

Note that there's now a free and playable demo for all the tire kickers 😉

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1659040/HITMAN_3/

 

UpLoadVR made a vid showing the gameplay, but beware of generalizing from one hmd to another, a review using a different kind of hmd than your own may not represent your game experience:

 

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

Just saw that Robert Cram (Shadowmask) made a long video about Hitman 3 and found the game "amazing" in VR: 

 

 

At first I wasn't that impressed with the game, but it's been growing on me, and you have to learn the controls. These aren't your standard VR controls, so you have to learn and habituate to play the game as the devs designed the game - and that's not necessarily how you want to play the game 😉 Good thing is that even with some cumbersome non-standard controls, these are much easier to learn than playing Elite Dangerous 😄

Hitman 3 is true AAA - and after some time you'll start to notice graphics and performance maybe only seen in Alyx. But you're basically playing an AAA 2D game 1:1 in VR. This game was never primarily designed for VR. Still extremely impressive to see many 50-100 persons on a stage, all animated, and I still get solid 90 fps using res 400%. 

Then again - my 10900K cpu is a multi-core monster with 10 cores and 20 threads, and I think cpu may matter a great deal here - maybe, and Hitman 3 has been profoundly optimized for multi-core cpus:

 

https://www.thefpsreview.com/2020/11/23/hitman-3-will-be-optimized-for-multi-core-cpus-and-include-r...

 

Quote: "IO Interactive has revealed that it has entered into a partnership with Intel to improve the PC performance of its upcoming stealth-assassin title, Hitman 3. We’re not sure if that means Agent 47’s latest adventure will look and play best on Core processors, but the developer does insinuate that it’ll take full advantage of multi-core CPUs.

These optimizations include enhancing HITMAN 3 for PC players with 8+ core CPUs, for example you’ll be able to spot more crowds in Dubai or experience more complex destructibility in Dartmoor,” IO Interactive wrote."

 

Fun thing, I was playing the Dubai level last night and remember thinking that I've never seen such a big crowd of persons before in a VR game - and never before with such perfect 90+ fps performance. Now I guess I know why, lol. 

 

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Hard to see here, but there are about 100 people in the background. Good thing I could get a drink to calm down my social phobia 😁 I think this is the - by far - highest number of animated 3D npcs ever seen in a VR supported game

 

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Another place with many persons - I needed a booster shot to keep down the social phobia symptoms 😇

 

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The light effect is just awesome - and the polygon count is off the charts - still solid 90 fps with a high-end Intel cpu 

 

Yesterday there was a patch for the game:

_____________________________________________________________________________

PC VR Hotfix: January 21st
Hey everyone!

Today (January 21st) we're rolling out a hotfix to address some of the most severe PC VR performance issues that we've been seeing since launch.

Here's the 'official' patch note: "This patch fixes an issue with our shader cache that was causing performance issues on PC VR."

/Clem
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
And I did remember thinking that the game, even using res 400% with the Index, performed incredibly well last night -but then again, performance was awesome at launch too. 
 

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

Took some more shots last night - this is indeed a full AAA package, even if there're issues, but graphics like these you just don't see in VR - unless we're talking games like Asgard's Wrath, MoH: A& B, Stormland - and yes, Alyx and Lone Echo 1-2 are still the best VR games ever made. I'm not sure Hitman 3 VR needs to bow much to anyone though: 

 

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A staircase in Dubai - breathtakingly beautiful in VR - this is Index res 400% in solid 90 fps - but you need a very fast gpu for that 

 

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More Dubai - I'm using the highest possible in-game graphics settings for everything, still solid 90+ fps. The light looks awesome

 

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The polygon count is extremely high - and dynamic light and shadows add to the great atmosphere

 

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Textures are great - but not Boneworks ultramersion quality - I guess we get the semi-high-res 2D textures also in VR

 

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Might look like a dull scene, but all these boxes have reflective surfaces, and there're many of them - and check out the dynamic shadow on the woman - all in perfect 90 fps (and SteamVR res 400%) 

 

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Entering a skyscraper in Dubai, you enter from the outside and the view is spectacular

 

If I should try to explain what it's like to play Hitman 3 to someone who hasn't tried it, I'd say it's like playing the unmodded versions Skyrim VR and FallOut4 VR, but even better. Hitman 3 has much better graphics and much better controls than unmodded SkyrimVR and FallOut4 VR - even if Hitman 3 is still a far cry from true VR games like Alyx and Lone Echo 2. Hitman 3 actually uses the trackpad on the Index controllers - very few games do that, and trackpad support is awesome. So it's not all bad. Still using Index hands aren't perfectly aligned, but they are using Rift CV1.  

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

I did read several complaints about bad performance in Hitman 3 VR - and unfortunately it seems that you will need a very fast gpu to really enjoy the game - these are results from the 2D version:

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https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/hitman_3_pc_graphics_perf_benchmark_review,7.html

 

Some VR users complained that the game is extremely blurry, and some wrote that the game like Alyx automatically downscales res to keep the 1:1 fps:Hz - like getting 90 fps in 90 Hz. Not sure about that - when increasing Rift CV1 to ss 2.5 (= 27 mill pixels per frame for both eyes), then 2.5 was confirmed using the OTT Pixel Density HUD, and to me it did look sharper. Also my screenshots using Index correspond to normal sizes for SteamVR res 400% (= 36 mill pixels per frame for both eyes). 

 

Hitman 3 VR looks awesome using the RTX 3090, but I have not tested the game using slower gpus - so do try the demo here, before considering purchasing: 

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1659040/HITMAN_3/

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

The devs recommend at least i7 8700K with 6 cores for Hitman 3 - and these results from a German test site confirms that:

 

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Source: https://www.computerbase.de/2021-01/hitman-3-benchmark-test/3/

 

- and it seems you'll really need those precious cores for Hitman 3:

 

Hitman-3-CPU-benchmarks-1.JPG

https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/hitman-3-pc-performance-analysis/

 

Note how the minimum framerate nearly doubles going from 4-cores/8-threads to 8-cores/16-threads. 

 

Since we get same poly count in the Hitman 3 2D and VR versions, the above numbers may not be taken lightly. 

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

Btw, my previous post may contain somewhat old results - I do not know if visual effects are only increased for Intel 8+ core cpus in the new Hitman 3 VR version - or if that goes for AMD cpus too. 

 

Here's a video showing great differences by Intel cpu optimizations for Hitman 3 - consider jumping to 2:10:

 

 

Here is revealed that Hitman 3 will be able to handle up to 300 fully animated npcs - but you'll probably need 8 cores for that:

 

 

It does seems that that Hitman 3 graphics enhancements for 8 cores cpus are only for Intel cpus:

 

"A partnership has been announced between the game developer and Intel which will see both companies work to optimize the next Hitman game for high-end, multi-core processors. More specifically, the optimizations to IO's proprietary Glacier game engine will target Intel chips with eight or more cores. IO says anyone using one of these processors to run the game will see a number of visual enhancements including more crowds and more complex destructibility in the environments."

Source: https://uk.pcmag.com/pc-games/130161/hitman-3-is-being-enhanced-for-intel-cpus-with-8-cores

 

Thus Hitman 3 is not just another game - it's a massive highest-end experience all the way. And maybe not a bad idea that I upgraded my i7 7700K to i9 10900K last year, even if I at that time considered it a waste of money...  🤓

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"