Tower Unite VR gets head and arm tracking as Arcade work resumes

Tower Unite’s VR dev build now tracks your head, hands, arms, and upper shoulders through motion controllers, and that animation is synced to other players. The milestone also clears the two input bugs that previously made VR unusable: unbound controller inputs and VR menu soft locks.

Beyond the input fixes, the update addresses several VR art issues:

• First-person player model LODs no longer sit at very low quality
• Xbox controller glyphs no longer display in VR
• Broken wrists are fixed
• Sprites no longer rotate oddly in VR
• The VR pointer now draws correctly over menus and the world

With those blockers handled, the team moved to IK (inverse kinematics) support. Motion controllers now track your hands while the IK system matches your arms and wrists, and head and upper shoulders are tracked for full upper-body support. Networking for head and arm movement to other players is in place.

Some VR work remains on the VR support Trello card. The initial rollout is focused on Plaza and Condo, with game worlds coming later. Each game, even in Plaza, has unique controls that need adjustment or reworking for VR — bowling is called out specifically.

Tower Unite runs on Unreal 4.22, a 2019 engine version. The team says an engine upgrade would be a massive effort that could break every custom system, and newer Unreal versions could break workshop maps because of major physics changes. With the current staff, that upgrade isn’t viable, so VR has to work on the older engine. The studio also says tracked motion controllers will let players express themselves more than before.

Arcade work is rolling again after roadblocks and design problems. Gameplay programming and artwork are underway for the new baseball arcade cabinet, part of the phase 3 + arcade expansion. Unreleased Arcade ticket items are also a high priority for the next Arcade update.

Cooking is being worked on selectively while the small team creates more ingredient models/items and finishes recipes. No new cooking artwork is ready to show yet.

Existing item changes from the Summer Update changelog include:

• Fixes for Skeletal Mesh Door desync issues
• New variants for Cardboard Box, Soggy Cardboard Box, and Bowling Seats; canvas piles consolidated into one Canvas Pile item, with original versions unlisted from stores
• Color-masking fixes for Mega Exodus
• SFX and hold-distance adjustments for Shipping Crate, Plastic Barrel, and Industrial Barrel physics items
• Hotbar Torch updates: volumetric light removed, improved SFX, repeated-lighting fix, and flame FX rotation fix

New items are also added in DIY, the Snackbar, Rob’s Imports, Central Circuit, and Sweet Suite — frozen treats, old-school tech, a canvas physics item, draping curtains, briefcases, and more.

The new Selector IO tool is a module with a list of Outputs you can cycle through or pick from directly. It works like the Random node, minus the randomness.

Keep up with development on Discord or the Tower Unite Roadmap. Bug reports can go to the Bug Reports forum, and suggestions to the Suggestions forum.