‘Forestry’s’ Procedural Mesh System Offers Unique VR Crafting & Destruction

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Procedural mesh destruction and construction underpins Decoder VR’s first title, Forestry, which just launched on Steam. Built for Vive, Rift and PSVR, the game’s fully destructible world presents a vast forest for the player to cut to pieces, which can then be used to create new objects.

As shown in this whimsical trailer, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, embracing the inevitable madness that results from letting players loose in a destructible world with a bunch of axes. Behind the simple geometry of the environment is a procedural mesh system that allows for very fine cuts, opening up endless possibilities for new object construction; it is possible to create a self portrait entirely from wood shavings, for example.

“We built the game from the ground up for virtual reality in an attempt to create an experience that utilizes the unique gameplay, visual and audio functions of room-scale VR systems,” says Mike Ferchek, lead developer at Decoder VR.

forestry vr (2)In addition to this novel crafting system, the game has different chopping tools, hidden items and special powers to discover. As every object in the environment can be destroyed, there is also an adventure element to the game, with “strange obelisks” and “mysterious areas” to find and explore.

forestry vr (1)If you’re interested, head over to Steam where Forestry‘s available now.

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The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.
  • Digital Lair

    If there’s some new & unique meshing system then I guess that’s cool, but in general, this really looks like a huge waste of time. Ya’ll know the word “Forestry” means planting and caring for trees, right? lol. Geez…use your powers for good.

    • CazCore

      just wait ’til you get a load of their game The Nursery

    • Me

      That’s what’s wrong with the games we see right now in VR. One single idea/concept = one game. That works when the idea is so genius it’s self sustainable, like Tetris. Having a large forest in which you can do nothing but mess with it gets old after only a few minutes.

      • Digital Lair

        So true. Hey, wait a minute …. is anyone working on just that? Tetris for VR? You look up and the familiar shapes are falling 360° all around you. You need to catch them and stack them so that they fall away and disappear. As you make mistakes, your platform raises along with the circular wall {which is feeling more and more like a prison} until your head crashes into the veritable “ceiling” after crouching. Anyone?

        • Digital Lair

          Looks like “Kubz” is similar.

        • Foreign Devil

          Yes VR Tetris has been done. . it’s a game inside a game inside a game in “Technolust”. In this case the Tetris game is four walls surrounding you and you have to spin about and solve all 4 Tetris walls at the same time.. . pretty hectic!

          • Digital Lair

            Ah cool! Thx!

  • Raphael

    Steam feedback doesn’t look very promising. These games are always fluffed up to look like they’re special. Then when you see the reviews. Syren springs to mind.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Too much crap. This is one secondary functionality of a full-game made into the whole’s game premise. But then given how shitty headset are, and that game engine haven’t gotten much better…I’m not surprised by limitation of the content and ideas.

  • Matt R

    so they took this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zJM1gKoU14 one feature of unreal engine and made a game from it?