Amazing game! I am constantly impressed by the room scale technology that you use to create procedurally generated environments that I can actually fully walk around without worrying about hitting a wall or anything!
The demo is immersive and fun, I recently figured out that you can interact with enemies by punching them, pulling levers or pressing buttons on their robot bodies which was so cool! and definitely is worth expanding on.
One thing id like to give some feedback on is the map system, I found it quite confusing trying to navigate myself through the on screen map, I didn't know which way led me in what direction as it lacks a player direction indicator.
It's actually quite hard to show the player's direction in an impossible spaces environment. There are door directions above each door, they point in four cardinal directions. If you want to go "up" on the map, choose "up" arrow above the door. If "right", choose "right".
There's one more thing, I will be uploading a new build soon which introduces arcade mode. In this mode, you don't have to use a map as the direction towards the objective is indicated with a white dot. Arcade mode also simplifies a few other things (simpler energy management + more energy distributors, no workshop room) plus is a bit shorter (it is both shorter when it comes to size and due to more straight path towards the objective).
This is one of the best VR titles I've ever played. I see the world you've created in my dreams at night and with every update the game becomes more defined and realized. .... also the new intro musical piece perfectly sets the mood for an oddly ethereal journey.
Hi, got a problem with the app downloaded from App Lab on my Q2. After starting the app it shuts down again directly. The only way to get the app running is to install it from Sidequest without doing the available update after it. As soon as I do the update the app crashes again. Is that a known problem ?
Hello, I was just wondering if you have any idea when you want to release the next update. This game really is something special and I can't wait for it to come out. Of course if you don't want to share anything that is perfectly fine, it is your game and creative process. I hope you haven't gotten any angry messages from impatient people. If you have just remember this is your game, you should be the one to make the decisions for it, you are making something truly amazing. :)
they may be no use for you or your project, but I hope you like the newer ones anyway. hope you enjoy your time listening and if you've got any thoughts on any of them I'd be very eager to hear about what you've got on your mind. if you'd be too busy to listen to any, I'd understand that, though please let me know. otherwise I'll still check occasionally if you've listened or not. I don't want to bother you, but I don't know if you care to listen or not and just wanna be sure.
wish you a lovely day/night and alot of luck with your project and other freetime too~!! hope you're taking care ^^
This game look fascinating, I wish I had the tech to play it. I'm not sure quite what you mean by orbifold, how does this differ from a covering space? I've been playing around with covering spaces for a while and it's possible to come up with a solid implementation in the sense that you can write your engine (or just build on top of an existing one) and then use existing tools to author content. Path lifting does everything for you, though lighting is tricky!
Orbifold is like two euclidean spaces connected with each other. Impossible spaces (or if I understand your term "covering space") are an instance.
There are various things to handle, like AI seeing through portals/doors into other rooms/spaces. I use very simple point lighting - it works good enough but having dynamic shadows could be extremely complicated. Although light maps should be fairly easy.
It does. I test it on both Quest and Quest 2. Could you tell me what OS version do you have installed? (although I tested it on v28 and worked fine). The game requires boundary to be set prior to launch. Make sure it is treating the setup not as a stationary (the headset may suggest using stationary for small play areas). The smallest play area supported is 1,2 by 1,8. Theoretically, it should be possible to go with a smaller and scale horizontally but that may end up with motion sickness. This approach is not supported yet. Although horizontal scaling is available in the options.
i am using "v 0.5.5 (#226) - Oculus Quest APK - latest build" i have plenty of space and am running it through windows, should i use "v 0.5.5 (#226) - latest build" instead?
Seems you're running Windows build, using air link or Oculus link, right? Currently it is impossible to read a valid boundary via links (and Virtual Desktop as well). I have a simple solution that is a temporary workaround (as I hope that with some future update it will be possible to read the actual boundary) but I still need to check a few things. And for a while, it might be available only as a preview build (check discord server for that).
i tried using the preview build and ended up with the same results, i could try launching it through steam vr, idk if that will help (any idea if/when oculus link will be supported?)
what it means by play area not found is it’s boundary idk where it at for oculus quest2 but for me it’s in gardian and I set the floor level then set the boundary
It's not in the preview build yet. I should be uploading a new preview build tomorrow - I will let you know about it.
There's little I can do with support for oculus link/air link/virtual desktop besides adding manual setup of a play area. And even that is done a bit different to what headsets/systems provide, mostly because as a developer I have no access to pass-through, so it's more like moving rectangular area around and peeking/or standing at the boundary edge to see the boundary all the time and adjust the area.
And the problem is that ATM there is no way to read the actual boundary info from the headset. What's worse, if you take it off, move around and put it on again, the tracking gets desynchronized. It works for games that do not require the actual play area info. For anything more, it gets a bit messy and requires some weird solutions (like manually adjusting the play area).
Your game is incredible! I'm new to VR and I'm shocked this mechanic isn't a VR genre by now. It's so much better than joystick or teleport movement.
It seems like most VR authors are trying to cram PC/console games into a headset vs this approach where you take a physical space and map it back into the game creatively.
Do you have a Kickstarter or venmo or something? I'd like to contribute to what you are making.
This approach makes game design a bit harder. With a normal approach, you don't have to consider play area limitations this much. And this gets especially considerable with a shooter. Although I plan to add melee weapons, I didn't want melee to be the main way of killing enemies. And the physics system is another issue. That said, if melee is fun, I may consider a fantasy game in the future. Mines and dungeons twisted by a mage.
The only way to contribute right now is to buy the game via itch. I was thinking about early access but most likely I will keep the development more or less open till some point and then just go with the actual release.
Hi, the only situation I am aware of that this happens is if you have a computer with two graphic cards (one being integrated) and the game runs using the integrated one. If that's the case, please make sure, the graphic card to which the headset is plugged into, is being used.
If that's not the case, can you send me the log file (it's in _logs subfolder, the latest one / output.log) to contact@voidroom.com
Thanks for the info :) Glad it was this. Once I added a check for two graphic cards but it is done by checking the exact card model and right now it works just for a few. I need to find a better way to handle this.
not to annoy you or be a bother, however you never responded to my message, so I'm unsure about whether you wanted to or didn't care about listening to the song or if you had forgotten. so if you wanted to but forgot, then I'd like to remind you. otherwis if you're busy or don't feel like listening to it, I'd most definitely be fine with that and apologise for possibly bothering you. just wanted to see if you ever listened to it or wanted to. wish you luck with your lovely game and take care~!
Hi ECWB, my only excuse would be lack of sleep mixed with other stuff. Most likely I have listed to the track and thought that I already replied. I'm sorry about that.
It indeed suits the game and I like it.
As I may reveal the fact that there is music in the game. Although right now it's only possible to check it out via preview builds but soon should be available in an official build.
well, no excuses needed. sorry to hear your sleeping hasn't been all too well balanced, though I hope you already are or will be doing better with it and that not much is bothering you as of now! ^^ Glad to know though that you did listen, really means a lot and I'm glad I could express the inspiration and the vibe that I get from this game. personally I've grown very attached to a lot of the silence, so I'm curious to see how music would do with this game and if a balance between quietness and music can be achieved, or necessary, depending on what you've got in mind already.
however I'm really happy to hear that you consider it fitting! ^^ was afraid if it was too out of place, boring, loud, structured or amorfed or whatever else could be a possible issue with it.
but yea, recently I haven't played it an awful lot, but once I feel like it I might aswell have a look at the newest release, if there'll be one. thing is though that I'm a quest user and can't afford a VR-friendly PC. -w-''
(oh, and also, by the by, do you update the itch.io page or the sidequest page for the game more frequently than the other, in case there's a specific place where you prefer to be the most active with the game?)
sorry if I've bothered you with many questions, but I wish you a great day and a wonderful life! ^^
True about the silence. For a while, I was not user if to put any music in or just build it with pure ambient sounds. It could have worked if carefully planned but I realised that it may need more time to finish. That's why I decided to give a go to a more traditional approach.
The page (any page TBH, itch, sidequest, www) has been not updated for a while. I am preparing assets for them, for app lab submission and once everything is set, I will be updating all of them.
I think that a balanace between silence and music fits. I imagine like minecraft does it, would be a way that could suit your game too. just the silence itself builds such great tension, but a track every now and then would be very nice to have to listen to at occasions. though however you go about doing it, I'll always and honestly love the game mechanics as they're amazing!
ah alrighty then. I guess I could also check on both the sites in case you have done something different with the other one. just to be sure ^^
Thanks :) Working on a vertical slice/demo right now. The actual alpha should be quite close to the release as I try to keep the game playable and fix the bugs as they appear (although some tend to be in the game for months :( ). I planned to finish by the end of this year but because of a few recent events, 2021Q1 seems more realistic.
Hi, just set up Oculus Quest 2, but get this error every time I launch:
"problem encountered during VR Init: Could not get proper boundary dimension please check device and setup"
I've tried with both oculus link and airlink, and a stationary and set guardian boundary. but can't seem to make it work. Any ideas how to fix this? Also tried multiple previous versions
With oculus link and airlink there might be an issue reading the actual boundary (I have a version that allows to set the play area manually although this is done without the passthrough (I have to check if something about it has changed and it is possible to use it by the game) so it's adjust-peek-repeat.
As for the standalone quest you have to set the boundary (non-stationary, just as you did) and then run the game. Maybe try forcing app to close and reopen it? There should be code that avoids doing so but maybe it doesn't work for some reason. There's not much that can be done by the app as it just asks OS/VR system for playarea size and if it can't get it, there's even no reason why it was impossible to do so :(
Noob here. I have played this twice now (maybe 20 minutes each time). I'm really enjoying this but have no idea what i'm doing. I thought i read there is a tutorial section in the game but i can't find it from the main screen (i have a Quest 2). Where can i learn to interpret the map, what the little spider things are, the black floaty things, and the big red robot with electricity who just blocks my way. And i have no idea if i'm supposed to go to a destination, etc. I also can't figure out what the list of things mean when i press the button on my controller. Oh, and what the yellow box and red box on my hand means, etc. I'm really lost here but enjoying poking around a lot! Thanks. Stevo
The tutorials are gone. I am redesigning a few things and adding a really approachable mode. There is no purpose in the version you have but with the build that is still a few weeks away, the objective will be more apparent. There's also a preview build - that is more or less broken :) More info about it is available at discord server.
I would really like this to try out this game except for some reason when trying to use the pc version through virtual desktop with my quest 2(would like the better graphics) the screen is just black any ideas?
No idea. I've been delaying looking into Virtual Desktop for a long time and it will still have to wait a bit. I am aware that there is a different problem with the play area size that also has to be fixed.
I played this a few months ago on my Quest 2 and absolutely loved it. I felt very scared sneaking through the corridors, waiting for the next robot to pop out from nowhere. It's such an immersive experience. Will this game come to the Oculus Store or App Lab in the future, and if so, will it be free or paid? (I definitely wouldn't mind paying; this game is so awesome)
I've been very well addicted to this game and it also feels inspiring in a sense. I'm limited to quest due to money, so I may not have all the features, since there's a more powerful PC version, right? anyways ignoring that I did notice it said *music* when going to the audio configuration. yet I heard no music, so either I just stupid or perhaps there's no music yet. or you may not want that to be added at all. all I really wanted was to just ask if you'd like any music, since I'd love to. it's such a great game and I wanted to repay you for all the fun and inspiration I've got out of the game so far! ^^
The music is going to be added to the game. It's actually being added. I haven't noticed that the "music" slider went into the public builds but as I plan to make it public soon, I am not going to hide it :)
is the music being composed by you aswell or is someone else? was just wondering if I could submit a fan track or something. though if you've got all planned or don't consider it fitting I apologise for bothering -w-'' but yea, I just noticed that lil' detail. pretty neat I say! ^^
Someone else. Fan tracks are welcomed. Even if I don't use them for this game, I'd rather have a list of people with music they make as some other, future project may require completely different mood.
Alrighty, just wanted to make sure! But yea, I can see your point. I'd assume I wouldn't succeed to pull off the desired and intended vibe the overall game's going for. However, that doesn't mean I still didn't feel inspired to atleast make something ^^ https://soundcloud.com/metamorphosis-298493329/styr-barbord you may have a listen if you'd like!
Thank you :) That dog on the door frame was hilarious :D Haven't seen it before. But that's something I am aware of, that enemies spawn on top of the corridors and doors. The worst and unexpected was two doors in the same place. In this version, there is a problem with enemies not walking. This also is true for spider bots. Proximity mines detect enemies incorrectly. Also physics bugs.
At one time, you didn't know where to install a hand-shield upgrade. You can actually replace any existing upgrade and then reinstall it at the orange room (purple on the map, makes me think about the consistency...).
Must be a bug. What version do you have? There was a bug that on a certain set of play areas it couldn't generate the level and was stuck. Could you also send me a log file "output.log" (PC: in _logs, Quest: /Android/data/com.voidroom.TeaForGod/files/_logs/) to contact@voidroom.com ?
(replied to the email, replying here in case someone else gets it).
Try removing folders: library, system, settings and unpacking the zip again. Seems that there was a previous version in the same folder, some older files remained and caused problems.
Ah, I think I know what went amiss. I used the itch desktop client, and it's possible that it's download function just installed it right over top a very old version. Thanks for the help.
Very fun game! i really enjoy playing it, the thing is that for some reason crouching is always dissallowed no matter what, meaning i dont get the full experience, what is the reason for this?
There were a few bugs with storing some of the settings. I was fixing them but I don't remember if they're in the latest public update. I will check that to make sure these are stored.
This game is fantastic, I want this and so much more like it. Have you thought about getting some extra hands to expand on what you already made/plan to add?
This idea is one of the best I've seen and thanks to you I've emptied my front room to get the largest space I can to enjoy what you've created.
Keep up the great work, can't wait for puzzles and keys and even more rooms to explore!
Also, is there any difference between the windows and apk versions? I'm loving the mobile experience on Q2 already but curious.
The problem with getting someone onboard is the lack of tools. This is a custom engine and I have no user-friendly tools. After the release, I might put some time into making proper tools, so the next game (or addons) might be done in a bit larger team than just me. Another reason is that the game is quite experimental in many ways and some of the stuff changes a lot (internally). It's like inventing/discovering things, what can be done and how. If I get more experience with that, it will be easier to build the right tools for the job.
Besides downgrade in graphics (simpler reflections, lightning, a bit less detailed models) there's only one difference - closer view distance on Quest when outside. It doesn't affect gameplay. Well, unless you play with navigator modification turned on and you want to use further objects to place yourself on the map. But even then, the view distance is enough. Quest 2 is between Quest and PC version.
Hi, I’m loving the game so far, the only thing thats missing are main goals, which I saw on another comment you are adding, i have something else I wanna talk about though, in a previous build there were these creatures in the distance, they were very unsettling and I LOVED that feeling, idk if you intended it or not but it gave wonder to the world, the airships that are in the game now give off the same feeling, just wanted to ask why you got rid of those guys, I think mysterious things, or just weird in general really give the world a sense of mystery
I removed them temporarily as I need to make sure they won't walk into buildings and won't fall off edges. Their AI was hacked previously and now with an actual environment, they need something a bit more sophisticated :)
The game is still early in development it seems, the developer has mentioned a lot more mechanics that they want to add, so I assume that they're waiting to submit it until the product is a bit closer to their vision of it
This game is absolutely fantastic! I've found myself running around and around in my living room for hours. It runs well, it's surprisingly smooth and not buggy for an early access indie VR game, and learning how the world works and how to navigate was a fantastic experience, and I feel like there's still more to learn. I'm excited to see where this game goes in the future, cause I know that it's gonna be great. I don't wanna backseat game dev or anything, but I feel like some sort of end goal would really lend to the power trip of getting good at this game and give new players something to work towards. Ofc that asks about the spacial question, but perhaps a big outdoor platform with a massive robot climbing/flying around outside of your playspace would be neat. I'd understand if that isn't a priority tho! Thank you so much for developing such a phenomenal game, I look forward to the next build!
Backtracking is a strategy that you can decide to use but the game does not require you to backtrack. That said, I am thinking about some way to cover larger distances but as it's not a necessity to have it in the game, I will add it only if there will be enough time. The ideas are underground transport, drop capsules (just like the ones that enemies use), special corridors/passages. Currently, the character is a human but if it was a robot, I'd consider dismantling and assembling in a different location. And most likely it would be possible only to travel to places you either have been to or you learn about them by other means.
I plan to add activating via trigger press but this should be only possible for robots that have the button close (not sure if there's going to be an animation for that). But I also plan to turn other robots onto your side via an upgrade.
With sliders (UI) can you specify which part is problematic? BTW, if you have a cursor within a "slidable" part of a window, you may use a joystick to slide left/right, up/down.
I fixed recently a bunch of corridor related bugs (and also a few others, like enemies stuck in a room).
The engine is mine. Right now it is possible to create impossible spaces with Unity. It should be also possible with Unreal. Having own engine solves a few things that might be problematic with other engines - like spaces management, currently other games tend to have various zones on top of each other or next to each other which makes vistas a bit harder to do. But then, you get lots of tools that you don't have when you write your own engine. Unless of course you spend a while on creating those tools or you use Unreal/Unity or something else for that :)
There's plenty to do with roomscale. One of the things I wanted to try is to have platforms floating in the air, connected with power cables and you could travel between them by using these cables.
Own engine indeed opens many possibilities but also requires lots of additional work. I wouldn't recommend it though. Unless there's some really specific thing to be done. But even then, it might be worth considering using an existing engine. Engines today are great because of the pipeline and tools. Making it much easier to get more people involved in a project.
hey! I'm having issues, when I try to launch the game, it stops respoding / freezes after 30 second of loading screens, and the CPU usage always at 98% or higher
Is it PC or Quest? If you could send be output.log file, it would help to find the cause of the issue. For PC, it is placed in _logs subfolder. For Quest, it is in /Android/data/com.voidroom.TeaForGod/files/_logs/
Completely amazing game, definitely one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in VR! The style is cool, the sound design is good, the weapons are fun, just overall a great game, especially for a free demo.
The game is kinda confusing at times (the map and certain interactables), but it really feels intentional, and I like it this way. It really gives this since of progression and exploration, like your really on your own, trying to figure out some weird alien tech. The last update's post says you plan to use the ai companion to explain the games mechanics, but I really think the game doesn't need it, blindly experimenting and discovering how things work on your own is just part of the experience.
But hey, that's just my opinion, I'm sure it'll be great whatever you decide to do. Keep up the great work :)
(Also I keep experiencing a bug where the black bomb things will spawn in without the activation button on the bottom and it makes me very sad, please fix (unless its an intentional dud feature in which case you are evil and I love it))
EDIT: Also I found an exploit. If you get the arm shield perk, you can drain a shield's health at a lever machine and then spawn a new one after, and since you get more energy out of it than what it costs to spawn one, you essentially get infinite energy and health.
Most likely I will add an option so you can play with explanatory tutorials or figure out stuff on your own. For now I plan to add tutorials that explain stuff.
Some of those missing button bugs are fixed but they still happen. Also the big red robots may miss the lever. It's the same bug.
That exploit is an amazing finding. Good spot. Gonna fix it (not for 0.5.5, for the next one). Thank you :)
Question what do those black bot things with the ball that flashes red when u hit thier button do? Ive thrown them at enemies stuck them to the wall stared into them i just cant figure it out
They're proximity mines. When you arm it and place it somewhere, when a hostile robot comes nearby, they explode. At least they should explode and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bug (as the spider bots were bugged :/ ). Although the last time I tried them (a few days ago) they worked as intended.
This game is incredible, and I know people say the map system is confusing, but I like it as it I think it's great. I'm a little more advanced than most people are, using more complex mechanics, but there is a pretty major bug. When throwing little spider things as grenades, it crashes almost 100% of the time. I throw it at an enemy and it just freezes, then crashes. I am on an Oculus Quest 2 with the latest release. If it wasn't for that bug, this would be my favorite game of all time. As it stands, it's certainly top 3! Keep up the good work!
note: I'm glad y'all are still working on it, before I got it I had seen earlier demos and was scared y'all had stopped
That bug with spider grenade is fixed :) I am finishing initial implementation of persistence unlocks today so a new build should happen today or tomorrow .
Okay first of all your game is absolutely incredible! I've never seen anything like this and I'm sure you've been hearing that a lot lately! I am a Creator and musician so anything I could do to help you all along your journey I'd be happy to help! My only criticism would be a better map system that follows the player a little bit more because I tend to get lost in the map.. would love to hear more about what the future of this game entails and hear back from you all!
Imma just interpret this for y'all, he's saying that he would like a player tracker that moves dynamically. However, I don't think they realize that the maps, like the game, are non-linear/non-euclidean
It might be still possible to do a map that has dynamically updated the player's location but it might be more confusing as it won't map 1:1. I might try doing a "zoom in" map that splatters rooms and corridors with impossible spaces on 2d plane. Then there still will be problems with room layouts as the door placements do not map to the directions but they rather keep the order of doors.
I have really enjoyed playing around with your game since I got my quest! I am currently in a VR course at my university and our current project is creating our own form of locomotion (i.e. no joystick or wasd to move). Of the options we had, I picked impossible spaces since I have been playing Tea for God recently. I was curious if you had any resources for developing impossible spaces that helped you when creating the game? I haven't found much in the way of explanations or resources about impossible spaces in VR.
There wasn't really too much information about impossible spaces back then. There were a few papers that described the idea (also it's where the term was coined) but I wasn't even aware of them then.
It's better right now as currently there is more information available about rendering portals (using Unreal or Unity or just as general info). There are also two other devs that work on impossible spaces:
The second dev is Triangular Pixels working on Unseen Diplomacy 2 - Unseen Diplomacy was the first actual game, not a research project, that was published that used the impossible spaces. It's worth checking out. It doesn't use portals but that also means that if you're stuck with portals for any reason, you can still do impossible spaces (you just need doors and unloading/loading parts of the level). For Unseen Diplomacy 2 they'll be using portals. John wrote two posts that show the idea: https://unseendiplomacy2.com/tag/portals/
Impossible Robert shows in details how to deal with the most problematic thing with portals - intersecting near plane. My approach is different as instead of using a box around it, I prefer to create a near plane cap. Which comes with its own set of problems but also gives more freedom and allows to place portals anywhere in the world (box approach may require holes behind portals. It might be easier to implement the box approach. The near plane cap requires a little bit of math and depending on the target platform and used libraries, some, uhm, creative solutions.
I use OpenGLES to render stuff and it misses depth clamping. Without it, I have to render very close to the near plane. But in certain situations, intersection of geometry that's right behind the portal and the near plane will make a narrow line visible. To tackle this, I render the world using 99.9% of the depth buffer, leaving that 0.1% purely for the near plane cap.
Dang, thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I will definitely check out those links when I get a moment today. Thank you again for being so willing to help, it means a lot
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WMR support would be cool if possible as im currently using my HP Reverb G2
Right now it should work via SteamVR, but I will be implementing OpenXR to give more native support for each headset.
What happens if you try to run it?
Amazing game! I am constantly impressed by the room scale technology that you use to create procedurally generated environments that I can actually fully walk around without worrying about hitting a wall or anything!
The demo is immersive and fun, I recently figured out that you can interact with enemies by punching them, pulling levers or pressing buttons on their robot bodies which was so cool! and definitely is worth expanding on.
One thing id like to give some feedback on is the map system, I found it quite confusing trying to navigate myself through the on screen map, I didn't know which way led me in what direction as it lacks a player direction indicator.
Thanks :)
It's actually quite hard to show the player's direction in an impossible spaces environment. There are door directions above each door, they point in four cardinal directions. If you want to go "up" on the map, choose "up" arrow above the door. If "right", choose "right".
There's one more thing, I will be uploading a new build soon which introduces arcade mode. In this mode, you don't have to use a map as the direction towards the objective is indicated with a white dot. Arcade mode also simplifies a few other things (simpler energy management + more energy distributors, no workshop room) plus is a bit shorter (it is both shorter when it comes to size and due to more straight path towards the objective).
Thank you :)
I still don't know what to do with the destruction. The current one is just a placeholder that is there for a few years now ;)
I like the idea of the parts falling out. Also the different effects alone, as you suggested, could help a bit.
This is one of the best VR titles I've ever played. I see the world you've created in my dreams at night and with every update the game becomes more defined and realized. .... also the new intro musical piece perfectly sets the mood for an oddly ethereal journey.
Thank you :) I am still fixing things but I soon will be adding more content. I can't wait to see how people will feel.
Hi, got a problem with the app downloaded from App Lab on my Q2. After starting the app it shuts down again directly. The only way to get the app running is to install it from Sidequest without doing the available update after it. As soon as I do the update the app crashes again.
Is that a known problem ?
The fix is on the way.
While you wait, you may want to try this:
Install version from AppLab, open folder on your Quest /Android/data/com.voidroom.TeaForGod/files/_auto and remove shaderProgramCache file there.
Great to know the fix is also coming soon. Everybody here loves your game. It´s one of the best titles for the Quest.. Thank you very much !
Thank you :) Without you, the players, the game would be just a dead code. But because of you, it's much more.
Congrats on getting to App Lab. Such a great game and concept. Keep it up.
Hello, I was just wondering if you have any idea when you want to release the next update. This game really is something special and I can't wait for it to come out. Of course if you don't want to share anything that is perfectly fine, it is your game and creative process. I hope you haven't gotten any angry messages from impatient people. If you have just remember this is your game, you should be the one to make the decisions for it, you are making something truly amazing. :)
Just curious but have you see "Starfixer"?
Their gravity shifting approach to redirected walking isn't something I've seen done before and thought it might be of interest you.
This game work with HTC vive?
Yes. In fact, it was initially developed with HTC Vive. If you'd run into any trouble, let me know.
Hi! Does this game work with SteamVR? I have a WMR headset and I'd like to know if it will work
It does. It should detect SteamVR by itself but you can also force it by executing run_steamVR.bat.
so I know you told me you didn't need any musical assistance from me, so I made some other tracks and uploaded som older ones for the sake of it ^^
-playlist: https://soundcloud.com/user-405219275/sets/tea-for-god-fanost-by-curious
-new track I finished today, Slaw Mouth: https://soundcloud.com/user-405219275/slaw-mouth?in=user-405219275/sets/tea-for-...
-also a track I finished today, framed: https://soundcloud.com/user-405219275/framed?in=user-405219275/sets/tea-for-god-...
-an older track I'm unsure of if it was intended to be for tea for god, but I also believe it still might've, ptósi pýrgou: https://soundcloud.com/user-405219275/ptosi-pyrgou?in=user-405219275/sets/tea-fo...
-this one was never meant for tea for god I know. but all my music is free to use and if allowed personally by me, can be used for profit. and I just thought this one could fit possibly: https://soundcloud.com/user-405219275/blank?in=user-405219275/sets/tea-for-god-f...
they may be no use for you or your project, but I hope you like the newer ones anyway. hope you enjoy your time listening and if you've got any thoughts on any of them I'd be very eager to hear about what you've got on your mind.
if you'd be too busy to listen to any, I'd understand that, though please let me know. otherwise I'll still check occasionally if you've listened or not. I don't want to bother you, but I don't know if you care to listen or not and just wanna be sure.
wish you a lovely day/night and alot of luck with your project and other freetime too~!! hope you're taking care ^^
This game look fascinating, I wish I had the tech to play it. I'm not sure quite what you mean by orbifold, how does this differ from a covering space? I've been playing around with covering spaces for a while and it's possible to come up with a solid implementation in the sense that you can write your engine (or just build on top of an existing one) and then use existing tools to author content. Path lifting does everything for you, though lighting is tricky!
Orbifold is like two euclidean spaces connected with each other. Impossible spaces (or if I understand your term "covering space") are an instance.
There are various things to handle, like AI seeing through portals/doors into other rooms/spaces. I use very simple point lighting - it works good enough but having dynamic shadows could be extremely complicated. Although light maps should be fairly easy.
you've mentioned a discord server, where would i be able to find that?
Hi, there you go: https://discord.gg/FFwyf4n
does the quest build support the oculus quest 2, cause when i launch it, it says "boundary area not found" and closes
It does. I test it on both Quest and Quest 2. Could you tell me what OS version do you have installed? (although I tested it on v28 and worked fine). The game requires boundary to be set prior to launch. Make sure it is treating the setup not as a stationary (the headset may suggest using stationary for small play areas). The smallest play area supported is 1,2 by 1,8. Theoretically, it should be possible to go with a smaller and scale horizontally but that may end up with motion sickness. This approach is not supported yet. Although horizontal scaling is available in the options.
i am using "v 0.5.5 (#226) - Oculus Quest APK - latest build" i have plenty of space and am running it through windows, should i use "v 0.5.5 (#226) - latest build" instead?
Seems you're running Windows build, using air link or Oculus link, right? Currently it is impossible to read a valid boundary via links (and Virtual Desktop as well). I have a simple solution that is a temporary workaround (as I hope that with some future update it will be possible to read the actual boundary) but I still need to check a few things. And for a while, it might be available only as a preview build (check discord server for that).
i tried using the preview build and ended up with the same results, i could try launching it through steam vr, idk if that will help (any idea if/when oculus link will be supported?)
what it means by play area not found is it’s boundary idk where it at for oculus quest2 but for me it’s in gardian and I set the floor level then set the boundary
It's not in the preview build yet. I should be uploading a new preview build tomorrow - I will let you know about it.
There's little I can do with support for oculus link/air link/virtual desktop besides adding manual setup of a play area. And even that is done a bit different to what headsets/systems provide, mostly because as a developer I have no access to pass-through, so it's more like moving rectangular area around and peeking/or standing at the boundary edge to see the boundary all the time and adjust the area.
And the problem is that ATM there is no way to read the actual boundary info from the headset. What's worse, if you take it off, move around and put it on again, the tracking gets desynchronized. It works for games that do not require the actual play area info. For anything more, it gets a bit messy and requires some weird solutions (like manually adjusting the play area).
Your game is incredible! I'm new to VR and I'm shocked this mechanic isn't a VR genre by now. It's so much better than joystick or teleport movement.
It seems like most VR authors are trying to cram PC/console games into a headset vs this approach where you take a physical space and map it back into the game creatively.
Do you have a Kickstarter or venmo or something? I'd like to contribute to what you are making.
This approach makes game design a bit harder. With a normal approach, you don't have to consider play area limitations this much. And this gets especially considerable with a shooter. Although I plan to add melee weapons, I didn't want melee to be the main way of killing enemies. And the physics system is another issue. That said, if melee is fun, I may consider a fantasy game in the future. Mines and dungeons twisted by a mage.
The only way to contribute right now is to buy the game via itch. I was thinking about early access but most likely I will keep the development more or less open till some point and then just go with the actual release.
Hello i use the rift s and when i boot it up its a black screen i heard how good this game is is there a way to fix it?
Hi, the only situation I am aware of that this happens is if you have a computer with two graphic cards (one being integrated) and the game runs using the integrated one. If that's the case, please make sure, the graphic card to which the headset is plugged into, is being used.
If that's not the case, can you send me the log file (it's in _logs subfolder, the latest one / output.log) to contact@voidroom.com
Hello i found out that i indeed fact do have two gpu's so i was able to swap it out and now the game is working thank you
Thanks for the info :) Glad it was this. Once I added a check for two graphic cards but it is done by checking the exact card model and right now it works just for a few. I need to find a better way to handle this.
not to annoy you or be a bother, however you never responded to my message, so I'm unsure about whether you wanted to or didn't care about listening to the song or if you had forgotten. so if you wanted to but forgot, then I'd like to remind you. otherwis if you're busy or don't feel like listening to it, I'd most definitely be fine with that and apologise for possibly bothering you. just wanted to see if you ever listened to it or wanted to.
wish you luck with your lovely game and take care~!
https://soundcloud.com/metamorphosis-298493329/styr-barbord
Hi ECWB, my only excuse would be lack of sleep mixed with other stuff. Most likely I have listed to the track and thought that I already replied. I'm sorry about that.
It indeed suits the game and I like it.
As I may reveal the fact that there is music in the game. Although right now it's only possible to check it out via preview builds but soon should be available in an official build.
well, no excuses needed. sorry to hear your sleeping hasn't been all too well balanced, though I hope you already are or will be doing better with it and that not much is bothering you as of now! ^^
Glad to know though that you did listen, really means a lot and I'm glad I could express the inspiration and the vibe that I get from this game. personally I've grown very attached to a lot of the silence, so I'm curious to see how music would do with this game and if a balance between quietness and music can be achieved, or necessary, depending on what you've got in mind already.
however I'm really happy to hear that you consider it fitting! ^^
was afraid if it was too out of place, boring, loud, structured or amorfed or whatever else could be a possible issue with it.
but yea, recently I haven't played it an awful lot, but once I feel like it I might aswell have a look at the newest release, if there'll be one.
thing is though that I'm a quest user and can't afford a VR-friendly PC. -w-''
(oh, and also, by the by, do you update the itch.io page or the sidequest page for the game more frequently than the other, in case there's a specific place where you prefer to be the most active with the game?)
sorry if I've bothered you with many questions, but I wish you a great day and a wonderful life! ^^
True about the silence. For a while, I was not user if to put any music in or just build it with pure ambient sounds. It could have worked if carefully planned but I realised that it may need more time to finish. That's why I decided to give a go to a more traditional approach.
The page (any page TBH, itch, sidequest, www) has been not updated for a while. I am preparing assets for them, for app lab submission and once everything is set, I will be updating all of them.
I think that a balanace between silence and music fits. I imagine like minecraft does it, would be a way that could suit your game too. just the silence itself builds such great tension, but a track every now and then would be very nice to have to listen to at occasions. though however you go about doing it, I'll always and honestly love the game mechanics as they're amazing!
ah alrighty then. I guess I could also check on both the sites in case you have done something different with the other one. just to be sure ^^
loving the game, think the way it uses space is amazing. When will the alpha be ready? Can’t wait to see it fully finished.
Thanks :) Working on a vertical slice/demo right now. The actual alpha should be quite close to the release as I try to keep the game playable and fix the bugs as they appear (although some tend to be in the game for months :( ). I planned to finish by the end of this year but because of a few recent events, 2021Q1 seems more realistic.
Hi, just set up Oculus Quest 2, but get this error every time I launch:
"problem encountered during VR Init: Could not get proper boundary dimension please check device and setup"
I've tried with both oculus link and airlink, and a stationary and set guardian boundary. but can't seem to make it work. Any ideas how to fix this? Also tried multiple previous versions
Thanks,
Phil
With oculus link and airlink there might be an issue reading the actual boundary (I have a version that allows to set the play area manually although this is done without the passthrough (I have to check if something about it has changed and it is possible to use it by the game) so it's adjust-peek-repeat.
As for the standalone quest you have to set the boundary (non-stationary, just as you did) and then run the game. Maybe try forcing app to close and reopen it? There should be code that avoids doing so but maybe it doesn't work for some reason. There's not much that can be done by the app as it just asks OS/VR system for playarea size and if it can't get it, there's even no reason why it was impossible to do so :(
I've played this title from full charge to flat multiple times now. Blown away by that simple mechanic of utilizing the whole guardian space.
Thank you :) There are more things coming :)
This is one of the most mindblowing VR experiences I've seen, I'll be closely following development from now on 0_0
Thank you :) It's a bit quiet here recently but there are some big things coming.
made an account just to say i cannot wait for this to come out
Me too! ;)
Really, I can't wait to add more stuff and make it a proper game.
Noob here. I have played this twice now (maybe 20 minutes each time). I'm really enjoying this but have no idea what i'm doing. I thought i read there is a tutorial section in the game but i can't find it from the main screen (i have a Quest 2). Where can i learn to interpret the map, what the little spider things are, the black floaty things, and the big red robot with electricity who just blocks my way. And i have no idea if i'm supposed to go to a destination, etc. I also can't figure out what the list of things mean when i press the button on my controller. Oh, and what the yellow box and red box on my hand means, etc. I'm really lost here but enjoying poking around a lot! Thanks. Stevo
The tutorials are gone. I am redesigning a few things and adding a really approachable mode. There is no purpose in the version you have but with the build that is still a few weeks away, the objective will be more apparent. There's also a preview build - that is more or less broken :) More info about it is available at discord server.
I would really like this to try out this game except for some reason when trying to use the pc version through virtual desktop with my quest 2(would like the better graphics) the screen is just black any ideas?
No idea. I've been delaying looking into Virtual Desktop for a long time and it will still have to wait a bit. I am aware that there is a different problem with the play area size that also has to be fixed.
I played this a few months ago on my Quest 2 and absolutely loved it. I felt very scared sneaking through the corridors, waiting for the next robot to pop out from nowhere. It's such an immersive experience. Will this game come to the Oculus Store or App Lab in the future, and if so, will it be free or paid? (I definitely wouldn't mind paying; this game is so awesome)
Thanks :) The game is going to be paid. I am planning to first add it to App Lab but it's not ready to get there yet
Awesome!
I've been very well addicted to this game and it also feels inspiring in a sense. I'm limited to quest due to money, so I may not have all the features, since there's a more powerful PC version, right?
anyways ignoring that I did notice it said *music* when going to the audio configuration. yet I heard no music, so either I just stupid or perhaps there's no music yet. or you may not want that to be added at all. all I really wanted was to just ask if you'd like any music, since I'd love to. it's such a great game and I wanted to repay you for all the fun and inspiration I've got out of the game so far! ^^
The music is going to be added to the game. It's actually being added. I haven't noticed that the "music" slider went into the public builds but as I plan to make it public soon, I am not going to hide it :)
is the music being composed by you aswell or is someone else? was just wondering if I could submit a fan track or something. though if you've got all planned or don't consider it fitting I apologise for bothering -w-''
but yea, I just noticed that lil' detail. pretty neat I say! ^^
Someone else. Fan tracks are welcomed. Even if I don't use them for this game, I'd rather have a list of people with music they make as some other, future project may require completely different mood.
Alrighty, just wanted to make sure!
But yea, I can see your point. I'd assume I wouldn't succeed to pull off the desired and intended vibe the overall game's going for.
However, that doesn't mean I still didn't feel inspired to atleast make something ^^
https://soundcloud.com/metamorphosis-298493329/styr-barbord
you may have a listen if you'd like!
I found some rare bugs, but have still been enjoying the heck outta TfG!
Thank you :) That dog on the door frame was hilarious :D Haven't seen it before. But that's something I am aware of, that enemies spawn on top of the corridors and doors. The worst and unexpected was two doors in the same place. In this version, there is a problem with enemies not walking. This also is true for spider bots. Proximity mines detect enemies incorrectly. Also physics bugs.
At one time, you didn't know where to install a hand-shield upgrade. You can actually replace any existing upgrade and then reinstall it at the orange room (purple on the map, makes me think about the consistency...).
Thanks again :)
I may be a doofus, but I can't seem to be able to go north? All the doors leading north are blocked.
Must be a bug. What version do you have? There was a bug that on a certain set of play areas it couldn't generate the level and was stuck. Could you also send me a log file "output.log" (PC: in _logs, Quest: /Android/data/com.voidroom.TeaForGod/files/_logs/) to contact@voidroom.com ?
Just downloaded the latest build, 0.5.5. I've sent the log at the time of this post.
(replied to the email, replying here in case someone else gets it).
Try removing folders: library, system, settings and unpacking the zip again. Seems that there was a previous version in the same folder, some older files remained and caused problems.
Ah, I think I know what went amiss. I used the itch desktop client, and it's possible that it's download function just installed it right over top a very old version. Thanks for the help.
Very fun game! i really enjoy playing it, the thing is that for some reason crouching is always dissallowed no matter what, meaning i dont get the full experience, what is the reason for this?
Have you tried in options/play area change "crouch" setting to "allow"? It should generate the level with crouching sections then.
Yes i did multiple times and it automatically goes back to disallowed, its a bit weird
There were a few bugs with storing some of the settings. I was fixing them but I don't remember if they're in the latest public update. I will check that to make sure these are stored.
This game is fantastic, I want this and so much more like it. Have you thought about getting some extra hands to expand on what you already made/plan to add?
This idea is one of the best I've seen and thanks to you I've emptied my front room to get the largest space I can to enjoy what you've created.
Keep up the great work, can't wait for puzzles and keys and even more rooms to explore!
Also, is there any difference between the windows and apk versions? I'm loving the mobile experience on Q2 already but curious.
The problem with getting someone onboard is the lack of tools. This is a custom engine and I have no user-friendly tools. After the release, I might put some time into making proper tools, so the next game (or addons) might be done in a bit larger team than just me. Another reason is that the game is quite experimental in many ways and some of the stuff changes a lot (internally). It's like inventing/discovering things, what can be done and how. If I get more experience with that, it will be easier to build the right tools for the job.
Besides downgrade in graphics (simpler reflections, lightning, a bit less detailed models) there's only one difference - closer view distance on Quest when outside. It doesn't affect gameplay. Well, unless you play with navigator modification turned on and you want to use further objects to place yourself on the map. But even then, the view distance is enough. Quest 2 is between Quest and PC version.
Hi, I’m loving the game so far, the only thing thats missing are main goals, which I saw on another comment you are adding, i have something else I wanna talk about though, in a previous build there were these creatures in the distance, they were very unsettling and I LOVED that feeling, idk if you intended it or not but it gave wonder to the world, the airships that are in the game now give off the same feeling, just wanted to ask why you got rid of those guys, I think mysterious things, or just weird in general really give the world a sense of mystery
I removed them temporarily as I need to make sure they won't walk into buildings and won't fall off edges. Their AI was hacked previously and now with an actual environment, they need something a bit more sophisticated :)
Just curious if you have submitted (or considering) submitting Tea for God for Oculus App Lab approval?
The game is still early in development it seems, the developer has mentioned a lot more mechanics that they want to add, so I assume that they're waiting to submit it until the product is a bit closer to their vision of it
This.
I want to have a proper vertical slice. A part of the game that is closer to the final product with gameplay, visuals, sound, music, story.
Not yet. Right now there are certain issues that I want to resolve (like lack of objective :) ).
This game is absolutely fantastic! I've found myself running around and around in my living room for hours. It runs well, it's surprisingly smooth and not buggy for an early access indie VR game, and learning how the world works and how to navigate was a fantastic experience, and I feel like there's still more to learn. I'm excited to see where this game goes in the future, cause I know that it's gonna be great. I don't wanna backseat game dev or anything, but I feel like some sort of end goal would really lend to the power trip of getting good at this game and give new players something to work towards. Ofc that asks about the spacial question, but perhaps a big outdoor platform with a massive robot climbing/flying around outside of your playspace would be neat. I'd understand if that isn't a priority tho! Thank you so much for developing such a phenomenal game, I look forward to the next build!
There is going to be a goal :)
I'd love to have three boss fights (well, kind of four). One of them is going to be flying around and landing where you are.
Backtracking is a strategy that you can decide to use but the game does not require you to backtrack. That said, I am thinking about some way to cover larger distances but as it's not a necessity to have it in the game, I will add it only if there will be enough time. The ideas are underground transport, drop capsules (just like the ones that enemies use), special corridors/passages. Currently, the character is a human but if it was a robot, I'd consider dismantling and assembling in a different location. And most likely it would be possible only to travel to places you either have been to or you learn about them by other means.
I plan to add activating via trigger press but this should be only possible for robots that have the button close (not sure if there's going to be an animation for that). But I also plan to turn other robots onto your side via an upgrade.
With sliders (UI) can you specify which part is problematic? BTW, if you have a cursor within a "slidable" part of a window, you may use a joystick to slide left/right, up/down.
I fixed recently a bunch of corridor related bugs (and also a few others, like enemies stuck in a room).
The engine is mine. Right now it is possible to create impossible spaces with Unity. It should be also possible with Unreal. Having own engine solves a few things that might be problematic with other engines - like spaces management, currently other games tend to have various zones on top of each other or next to each other which makes vistas a bit harder to do. But then, you get lots of tools that you don't have when you write your own engine. Unless of course you spend a while on creating those tools or you use Unreal/Unity or something else for that :)
There's plenty to do with roomscale. One of the things I wanted to try is to have platforms floating in the air, connected with power cables and you could travel between them by using these cables.
Own engine indeed opens many possibilities but also requires lots of additional work. I wouldn't recommend it though. Unless there's some really specific thing to be done. But even then, it might be worth considering using an existing engine. Engines today are great because of the pipeline and tools. Making it much easier to get more people involved in a project.
hey! I'm having issues, when I try to launch the game, it stops respoding / freezes after 30 second of loading screens, and the CPU usage always at 98% or higher
Is it PC or Quest? If you could send be output.log file, it would help to find the cause of the issue. For PC, it is placed in _logs subfolder. For Quest, it is in /Android/data/com.voidroom.TeaForGod/files/_logs/
where can I send it to? can you DM me you Discord numbers?
I forgot :) Send it at contact@voidroom.com (or Discord: voidroom#6287)
Completely amazing game, definitely one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in VR! The style is cool, the sound design is good, the weapons are fun, just overall a great game, especially for a free demo.
The game is kinda confusing at times (the map and certain interactables), but it really feels intentional, and I like it this way. It really gives this since of progression and exploration, like your really on your own, trying to figure out some weird alien tech. The last update's post says you plan to use the ai companion to explain the games mechanics, but I really think the game doesn't need it, blindly experimenting and discovering how things work on your own is just part of the experience.
But hey, that's just my opinion, I'm sure it'll be great whatever you decide to do. Keep up the great work :)
(Also I keep experiencing a bug where the black bomb things will spawn in without the activation button on the bottom and it makes me very sad, please fix (unless its an intentional dud feature in which case you are evil and I love it))
EDIT: Also I found an exploit. If you get the arm shield perk, you can drain a shield's health at a lever machine and then spawn a new one after, and since you get more energy out of it than what it costs to spawn one, you essentially get infinite energy and health.
Thank you :)
Most likely I will add an option so you can play with explanatory tutorials or figure out stuff on your own. For now I plan to add tutorials that explain stuff.
Some of those missing button bugs are fixed but they still happen. Also the big red robots may miss the lever. It's the same bug.
That exploit is an amazing finding. Good spot. Gonna fix it (not for 0.5.5, for the next one). Thank you :)
Question what do those black bot things with the ball that flashes red when u hit thier button do? Ive thrown them at enemies stuck them to the wall stared into them i just cant figure it out
They're proximity mines. When you arm it and place it somewhere, when a hostile robot comes nearby, they explode. At least they should explode and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bug (as the spider bots were bugged :/ ). Although the last time I tried them (a few days ago) they worked as intended.
This game is incredible, and I know people say the map system is confusing, but I like it as it I think it's great. I'm a little more advanced than most people are, using more complex mechanics, but there is a pretty major bug. When throwing little spider things as grenades, it crashes almost 100% of the time. I throw it at an enemy and it just freezes, then crashes. I am on an Oculus Quest 2 with the latest release. If it wasn't for that bug, this would be my favorite game of all time. As it stands, it's certainly top 3! Keep up the good work!
note: I'm glad y'all are still working on it, before I got it I had seen earlier demos and was scared y'all had stopped
That bug with spider grenade is fixed :) I am finishing initial implementation of persistence unlocks today so a new build should happen today or tomorrow .
great, thanks! Y'all's game is amazing, keep it up!
Okay first of all your game is absolutely incredible! I've never seen anything like this and I'm sure you've been hearing that a lot lately! I am a Creator and musician so anything I could do to help you all along your journey I'd be happy to help! My only criticism would be a better map system that follows the player a little bit more because I tend to get lost in the map.. would love to hear more about what the future of this game entails and hear back from you all!
Thank you :) Can you tell me how you get lost in the map? Is it hard to read, find directions or you have no idea where to go?
Imma just interpret this for y'all, he's saying that he would like a player tracker that moves dynamically. However, I don't think they realize that the maps, like the game, are non-linear/non-euclidean
It might be still possible to do a map that has dynamically updated the player's location but it might be more confusing as it won't map 1:1. I might try doing a "zoom in" map that splatters rooms and corridors with impossible spaces on 2d plane. Then there still will be problems with room layouts as the door placements do not map to the directions but they rather keep the order of doors.
hi void room!
I have really enjoyed playing around with your game since I got my quest! I am currently in a VR course at my university and our current project is creating our own form of locomotion (i.e. no joystick or wasd to move). Of the options we had, I picked impossible spaces since I have been playing Tea for God recently. I was curious if you had any resources for developing impossible spaces that helped you when creating the game? I haven't found much in the way of explanations or resources about impossible spaces in VR.
Thanks!
Hi hunterbooth,
There wasn't really too much information about impossible spaces back then. There were a few papers that described the idea (also it's where the term was coined) but I wasn't even aware of them then.
It's better right now as currently there is more information available about rendering portals (using Unreal or Unity or just as general info). There are also two other devs that work on impossible spaces:
One is Impossible Robert working on TraVRsal (). He wrote a post about portals: https://blog.wetzold.com/2020/01/04/non-euclidean-stencil-portals-in-virtual-rea...
The second dev is Triangular Pixels working on Unseen Diplomacy 2 - Unseen Diplomacy was the first actual game, not a research project, that was published that used the impossible spaces. It's worth checking out. It doesn't use portals but that also means that if you're stuck with portals for any reason, you can still do impossible spaces (you just need doors and unloading/loading parts of the level). For Unseen Diplomacy 2 they'll be using portals. John wrote two posts that show the idea: https://unseendiplomacy2.com/tag/portals/
Impossible Robert shows in details how to deal with the most problematic thing with portals - intersecting near plane. My approach is different as instead of using a box around it, I prefer to create a near plane cap. Which comes with its own set of problems but also gives more freedom and allows to place portals anywhere in the world (box approach may require holes behind portals. It might be easier to implement the box approach. The near plane cap requires a little bit of math and depending on the target platform and used libraries, some, uhm, creative solutions.
I use OpenGLES to render stuff and it misses depth clamping. Without it, I have to render very close to the near plane. But in certain situations, intersection of geometry that's right behind the portal and the near plane will make a narrow line visible. To tackle this, I render the world using 99.9% of the depth buffer, leaving that 0.1% purely for the near plane cap.
Dang, thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I will definitely check out those links when I get a moment today. Thank you again for being so willing to help, it means a lot
If you'd have any questions, feel free to ask :)
thank you so much, I'll let you know!
by the way, the resources you linked have been very helpful so far. I really appreciate it :)