All Mode
One of the first great experiences that made many users fall in love with virtual reality was Titans of Space by DrashVR. In fact, the very first blog post on vrporn.com, 4 years ago, was inspired by Titans of Space. A lot has changed in VR since then, and a brand new, improved, and remastered version has just been released April 27th. It’s called Titans of Space Plus.
Titans of Space Plus is a must-try premium app available on the Gear VR Oculus Store. If you played Titans of Space in the early days as an Oculus dev or if you’ve never even heard of Titans of Space, you must try this mind-blowing experience.
Content
Titans of Space can best be described as a space tour. It’s an astronomical experience rather than a game or a traditional app. That said, Titans of Space provides an experience that is nothing short of breathtaking. After downloading this app from the Oculus Store, you will be whisked away on a virtual reality planetary journey. On this journey, players will be educated about our solar system while witnessing gorgeously rendered virtual reality representations of planets and more.
This all comes in “tour” that reminds me of the best rides at Disneyland or Disney World. On this tour, you sit in a space chair or space ship that provides information along the way. The ship requires very little direct control. It automatically chooses the best path between planets and moons. This allows players to enjoy the ride without having to struggle with control systems. Here, you can sit back and relax while taking in the glory of the cosmos. Excellent head tracking allows players to look around as they journey from planet to planet.
During the amazing interplanetary ride, a narrator provides key points of information. First, he begins by explaining how the app works. After getting the basics out of the way, the narrator provides interesting and relevant bits of information about each planet, their moons, and other celestial phenomena that players come on across. The narrator is one of the key “plus” features found in this app.
Released in 2015, the free version of Titans of Space [the original Titans of Space dev version came out in 2013] does not have this narrative touch. Instead, it required that players read through lines of text. As I said, the narrator provides a human touch which is much needed given that there are no people on the interplanetary journey found in Titans of Space.
The narrator here has a smooth calming voice that accompanies the atmospheric soundtrack found in Titans of Space. Beyond adding to the experience, the narrator makes it easy for younger audiences or those with reading disabilities to appreciate this app.
Those hoping to learn about the planets will not be disappointed. A huge amount of information about each planet is given on Titans of Space interplanetary tour. If you are taking a planetary geology or an introduction astrophysics class in college, you will do well to buy yourself this app and use it as a study aide. You will also learn about major stars in the galaxy, and major moons in the solar system.
The information provided is spot on and accurate. At many key points during the journey, extra information can be accessed through the ship’s computer system. For example, if you are more interested in learning about Saturn, you can delve into the details.
Alternatively, if some of the information is coming at you a bit too fast, you can slow down the tour. This is another great thing about Titans of Space. It offers players the ability to speed up or slow down their planetary journey. If you are a speed reader and the narrator is a bit too slow for you, you can skim through the narration and read through the large amount of information that is provided for each planet.
That said, if you need a bit more time to digest the amazing information about planets, you can take everything in at a slower pace. All of this is possible because Titans of Space offers a giant “ready” button that sits in your cockpit. The ready button allows you to force your tour along. Providing a UI tool like this works amazingly well and caters to both slow and fast learning audiences.
Controls
Beyond the “ready” button, the controls for Titans of Space work extremely well. Other developers providing overly complex and confusing virtual reality controls should take a page from Titans of Space. Instead of requiring players to use a gamepad or a controller (although this is an option which works very well with the new Gear VR controller), most of the controls in Titans of Space are found within the virtual environment itself. The small space vessel that players will use for their interplanetary journey has all the main controls players will need. These include the “ready” button, which jumps them to the next planet, a button to provide more information, and a button to bring up the game’s settings. This setup works well for the almost buttonless Gear VR headset.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics are amazing. You really feel like you are flying around in space looking at celestial bodies. The plus version has updated visuals that make the planetary explorations jaw dropping in many cases. All of this only works because the Titans of Space developer, Drash, has mastered Gear VR programming. Without understanding the complexities of Galaxy S phones, Titans of Space could not have been the amazing visual tour de force that it is.
Drash tackled Exynos CPUs, Mali GPUs, Snapdragon CPUs and their respective Adreno GPUS to make sure that Titans of Space ran super smooth while providing brilliant lighting effects, animated textures and more. Additionally, older Galaxy owners shouldn’t be worried that these amazing graphics will be too much for their devices. Titans of Space ran at a consistent 60 FPS on an old Galaxy S6 that I had laying around.
Beyond the visuals, Titans of Space has amazingly haunting and classy piano music. The music reminds of the ultra-minimalist scores of Philip Glass. While being highly meditative, it also sets the mood for contemplation and reflection that is necessary when experiencing the glory of the cosmos.
Conclusion
Titans of Space Plus is one of those virtual reality experience that everyone should try. Carl Sagan would have loved it! The new graphics, the narrator, extra “comfort modes,” extra information, improved UI, and the updated imagery all make this a no-brainer to buy. Try it, show your friends, let everyone see just what virtual reality can do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc
those who haven’t tried this haven’t experienced life!
I can’t even think of the right term to describe just how amazing this experience is!
I hope this game does not comes out to be like no man’s sky while playing.
no man, this is pretty impressive and not like that blank boring game.
I went through the the tour earlier and it was indeed mind-blowing! Lots of improvements in there.
I LOVE Titans of Space. It’s really one of the best vr experiences available. Don’t get scared when they show you the massive stars 🙂