Black & White VR 0.3.0

New

• Gravity gloves, as in Half-Life: Alyx: point an open hand at something out of reach (a villager, an animal, a rock, a tree, even something still flying through the air) and warm motes rise around it. Close your grip to lock on, then flick your hand back: it flies to your hand in an arc. Works from high above the village too. Only things in view and in your influence. VR Options: "Gravity gloves".
• Both hands grab: pick up, carry, throw and drop with either hand, and pass things from one hand to the other (with a buzz). Miracles, the laser and gestures stay on your main hand. VR Options: "The other hand grabs too".
• Bird's-eye teleport: teleport lands you high above the ground, like the flat game's view; reach down with the gravity gloves, or scoop from fields and stores below.
• Choosing disciples: carrying a grown villager, soft motes drift down to a pool of light where they'll land, in the colour of the job they'll take (farmer yellow, forester green, fisherman blue, builder orange, breeder pink). Disciples are made from village height; from high in the sky, villagers just fall.
• Drop things from the sky: let go of a villager, an animal, a tree or a scaffold high up and it falls. Near the ground they're still set down, planted or built where you let go.
• Scoop from above: from teleport height, reach down over a field, the store's food or its wood and grip to scoop. A light tick tells you when you're in reach.

Improved

• The sun, clouds and glows stay put when you tilt or turn your head (the sun's glow used to wander and rotate with your head).
• Gesture shapes stay under their icons on your upturned left palm, and their preview dots no longer flicker.
• Throwing feels right: a hand that has stopped doesn't throw, so villagers set down gently stay put.
• Trees planted from the hand sink into the ground where you let go, instead of floating.
• Picking up people by buildings and stores is more reliable: people come before piles and fields, and a grip never sends your creature off on the leash.
• Things held in the left hand are the right way up.
• The leash: if a shake doesn't drop it, the mod drops it for you; a hand-over the creature doesn't take no longer leaves it waiting.

Installer 1.0.12

• The Controls and VR features tabs cover the gravity gloves, both hands grabbing, the bird's-eye teleport, choosing disciples and scooping from above.

Known issues

• Picking things up takes a moment (the game's own hand reaching for it), most noticeable when catching something in the air.
• "trigger - continue" still shows on some lines that go away by themselves. Waiting works too.
• Menu clicks can now and then stop registering for a moment. Pointing away and back, or closing and reopening the menu, brings them back.
• Menu tick sounds may not play when the laser moves over the menu's buttons.
• The hand looks see-through from behind when you look down your wrist.
• The Welcome to VR window has small gaps in its top border.
• Pouring food or wood from high up: the stream doesn't quite reach your hand.
• Small things in the distance (sheep, fences) fade out a little early.
• The gravity gloves' motes can look slightly choppy.
• A frozen creature: rarely, after petting it with the leash on, the creature can stop responding. Shaking now drops the leash; loading your last save resets the creature.

Black & White VR 0.2.4

New

• Teleport movement (VR Options → "Teleport with A"): hold A on your main hand to aim an energy arc at the land, let go to be there. You land at a comfortable height to reach the ground. With it on, A teleports instead of switching to the laser pointer; everything else stays the same.
• Welcome to VR: starting a new game in the headset, a short setup pops up first (turning, teleport, comfort vignette, main hand, move speed, recenter view). Continue takes you on to the game's own choices.
• Comfort vignette (VR Options: off / gentle / strong): the edges of the view darken while you move or turn smoothly. Off by default.
• Recenter view for seated play: on VR Options and the Welcome page, or hold the other hand's stick click for a second.
• Gestures anywhere: miracle gestures now work wherever you look, even at the sky, not only with land behind your hand.
• The pointer laser is now an energy beam, and the influence warning's stream flows from your hand.

Improved

• Autosave: a "Saving..." panel shows in the middle of your view while the game saves, instead of the view just freezing.
• The disciple icon (the yellow figure over a villager you hold above a field, workshop or tree) is now big enough to see, just above the villager's head, and only shows for the villager in your hand or under it.
• VR Options are tidier: on/off settings are checkboxes, Recenter view is a button, the open tab looks selected. The water is always see-through.
• Your hand fades (both hands) outside your influence, where it can't act, as it used to.
• "trigger - continue" shows on fewer lines that go by themselves (the spirits' idle chatter no longer gets it).
• You can't fly about while one of the game's menus is up.
• The spirits now show on the cinema screen in the new game's opening.

Installer 1.0.10

• New Known issues tab, next to Patch notes: what we know is not right yet in the latest version.
• The Controls and VR features tabs cover teleport, recentering, the comfort vignette and the Welcome to VR page.

Installer 1.0.11

• The tabs always fit the window, at any size and text scaling (Controls was cut off on some screens).
• No more jumbled text or stray lines when the window is resized.

Known issues

• Gesture shapes drift: with your palm up toward the left of your view, the pink gesture shapes can drift away from their icons as you turn your head. The icons themselves stay in place.
• "trigger - continue" still shows on some lines that go away by themselves (some of the friendly god's lines). Waiting works too.
• Menu clicks can now and then stop registering for a moment, the cursor off from the laser. Pointing away and back, or closing and reopening the menu, brings it back.
• Menu tick sounds may not play when the laser moves over the menu's buttons.
• The hand looks see-through from behind when you look down your wrist.
• The Welcome to VR window has small gaps in its top border.
• Teleport height: you land low enough to pick things up, so the view is close to the ground. A higher, bird's-eye option with grabbing from afar is planned.
• Autosave still holds the view still for a moment while "Saving..." shows.

Black & White VR 0.2.3

Fixed

• Double vision in the headset: 0.2.2 drew both eyes with a generic headset's view. Each eye now matches your headset's lenses again.

Installer 1.0.9

• New VR features tab, between Patch notes and Controls: a short tour of what the mod does in VR.

Black & White VR 0.2.2

Fixed

• Starting a new game ("Start a New Game") and changing player no longer crash the game.
• The coastlines: the sea is now at its real depth.
• Rivers no longer show the reflected world through them.

New

• Choosing your creature with the trigger: tap a creature once to pick it, tap it again to choose it.
• The opening splash, the intro videos and the loading screens now show on a screen in the headset. The trigger skips the splash.
• Water setting in VR Options: see-through (the default) or solid.

Changed

• The tutorial's camera lessons (rotate, tilt, zoom) now complete when you turn, nod and move up and down in VR.
• The trigger continues a caption that stays on screen, and the "trigger - continue" prompt sits on the caption.
• Story scrolls next to trees can now be tapped.
• Small objects can be picked up wherever your hand is on them, including the tutorial's gate stone the first time, beside the field.

Installer 1.0.8

• The Controls tab covers choosing your creature, captions, the splash and the Water setting.

Black & White VR 0.2.1

Fixed

• Changing player (Options > Players > Restart) no longer crashes the game.
• With Main hand: left in VR Options, each hand now shows the right hand model.

New

• VR from the start: the game goes into VR by itself as soon as it starts, from the very first 3D frame. Launching it from the installer or straight from runblack.exe both work.
• Creating a new player opens the SteamVR keyboard to type the name.

Installer 1.0.6

• Launch in VR just starts SteamVR and the game now; it no longer closes the menu or recentres the view for you.
• Updating from 0.1.0 or 0.2.0 switches on VR-from-the-start in your settings (those versions had it off). Nothing else in your settings changes, and the old file is kept in the backups.

Installer 1.0.7

• Download JakeypooBWVRModInstaller.exe below; it keeps itself up to date.
• The window and Task Manager now show it as Jakeypoo's Black & White VR Mod Installer.

Black & White VR 0.2.0

New

• VR Options in the game's pause menu (the other hand's A): snap or smooth turning, the snap angle (30 degrees to start), smooth turning speed, move speed, your main hand (left-handed play), the two-hand grab, and throw strength. Your choices are saved and kept through updates.
• Smooth turning with the main hand's stick, for those who prefer it to snaps.

Changed

• Lightning now strikes from your fingertip.
• Developer tools removed from the player version: the menu's developer page (give yourself any miracle, the raw tuning settings) and the tuning panel on the other hand's stick click. Everyday settings are in VR Options instead.

Installer 1.0.5

• The installer is now just JakeypooBWVRModInstaller.exe: no version in the name, since it updates itself. Download it from the latest release.
• The Controls tab is up to date with VR Options.
• With installer 1.0.4 or older, download JakeypooBWVRModInstaller.exe from the latest release once; from then on it updates itself.

Black & White VR 0.1.0

The first public release of Black & White VR: the whole game, played in SteamVR with the god hand at your controller. An early version: expect rough edges, and please report what you find.

Getting started

• Download JakeypooBWVRModInstaller.exe from the latest release and run it. Windows may say "Windows protected your PC" (it isn't code-signed yet): click More info, then Run anyway.
• The installer finds Black & White, brings it to v1.20 + Fan Patch 1.42 if needed (downloading the patches from bwgame.net with your OK), installs the mod, and has a Launch in VR button.
• Needs the English CD version of Black & White installed, Windows 10 or 11, and SteamVR. Developed and tested on a Valve Index.

What's in it

• Stereo 3D of the whole game world at 90 Hz, with sound heard from your head.
• The god hand is your hand: pick up villagers, trees and rocks by touching them, throw at your hand's speed, catch things in flight, scoop from stores and fields, pet or slap your creature, hand it food.
• The laser (A) for reaching far: pick up, drag the land, double pull to travel.
• Miracles: hold B and draw the gesture in the air; pop miracle bubbles, pour miracles from your hand, circle the land for shields and storms.
• Building: carry a scaffold, see its blueprint below your hand, twist your wrist to turn it.
• The leash: walk your creature, send it to things, tie it up.
• Moving: stick to fly, snap turn, rise and descend, grab the world with both hands.
• Cutscenes and menus on a cinema screen you point at; the temple's rooms on that screen too.
• A tuning panel above your other hand (stick click) for throwing, grip, touch and more, saved to bwvr.ini.

Controls in short

• Trigger or grip: pick up and carry. A quick trigger tap: interact.
• A: laser on/off. B held: draw a miracle gesture.
• Other hand: stick moves you; A opens the game's menu; stick click opens the tuning panel.
• Ctrl+F12 on the keyboard recentres the view.