POOLS brings the eerie walking simulator to PS VR2 today with native 120Hz support, and a free VR-supported demo is now live.
Developed by Tensori, POOLS is an eerie walking simulator where you wander through these strange swimming pool environments looking for the exit. Originally released as a flatscreen PC game last year, you may recall it received PC VR support in May’s free update. Now, it’s launching on PS5 with optional PlayStation VR2 support and the Chapter 0 expansion.
Speaking to UploadVR before today’s release, Tensori informed us that it’s been “very pleased” with the reception to the PC VR release. Stating it focused heavily on performance to ensure things ran smoothly, this pushed the team to learn more about its tools and then apply these same principles to the PlayStation VR2 release.
“We applied the same principle to the PS VR2 version. We actually went so deep that we had to rebuild most of the visual aspects of the game from the ground up to get our target performance. We wanted the foveated rendering to work as best as it could, and in order to do that, we needed to create a custom solution for our water visuals. To do that, we’ve learned a ton about shader programming. It was a serious amount of work, but we feel it was worth the effort.”
Delving into specifics about the PlayStation VR2 edition, Tensori confirmed this work means POOLS runs at native 120Hz. However, the developer warns there might be a few frame rate drops in larger areas if you’re using a standard PS5 console. Performance will benefit naturally from the PS5 Pro’s improved specs, though dedicated Pro enhancements are planned as a post-launch update.
While today’s release uses eye-tracking for foveated rendering, Tensori informed us that more “advanced” use of the headset’s haptics isn’t available at launch. Though it didn’t elaborate on what they specifically are targeting for improvements, the studio confirmed that “we are planning to include improved haptics soon-ish in a future update.”
Finally, given that POOLS has made its way to iOS, can we expect to see it reach Apple Vision Pro, or other VR platforms like Quest? Tensori didn’t commit to further platforms yet, though it’s not ruling them out either.
“We are always looking to bring POOLS to as many players as we can. If it’s a platform that we feel we can create a great experience on, then we will have a look and see if it’s something we can do. We’re huge fans of Apple Vision Pro and the Quest, so we will definitely have a look and see if POOLS can make its home on these platforms.”
POOLS is out now on PC VR and PlayStation VR2. Free VR-supported demos are available on both platforms.
POOLS VR Review: A Darker Take On The Original
POOLS adds a compelling new dimension to this backrooms-inspired experience with PC VR support.
