Echo Combat on Quest

Echo Combat's game logic (guns, bullets, the match flow, terminals, the orb, the HUD) lives in about 100 small scripts. Each script is a graph of steps (nodes), compiled to native code. Combat's scripts only ever shipped for the PC's x86-64 processors.

The Quest version of Echo VR has the same engine, but none of these combat scripts. Until a script is rebuilt, the Quest runs an empty placeholder in its place, so the map loads but nothing in it works.

Each script is rebuilt for the Quest's ARM64 processor from the PC version: its graph is recovered, every step's code is translated, and it is linked against the code the Quest engine already has. Some steps use node types the Quest engine never shipped scripts for; those are wired straight to the engine.

Every rebuilt script passes automatic checks, then a separate review, then a test on the headset before it goes into a play build. In the table, 'real' counts the steps that do their actual job on the Quest; the rest still do nothing.

Missing. 561 steps that a PC player's game runs are still not on the Quest in the current test build: that is the fix list. An earlier check found 135 more steps that had been counted as done but are not. 112 of them do real work on PC that our counting tool mistook for "does nothing". The other 23 run on the Quest but with the wrong data: 14 run with blank settings, 5 play silence, and 4 have their sound switched off although the sound exists on the Quest. 7 more are probably in the same state.

Where it shows. The biggest ones are in the payload match (the match statistics step and one cart-rules step), the score sounds when a team scores, the gun overheat and vent sounds, the gun owner checks (about 60 small steps across the 8 guns), the heal barrier, the spawn sounds, the spectator HUD, name tags, and team select.

What is not wrong. We checked all 5,399 places where the Quest copies a piece of the PC code and confirmed each one copies the right piece. No device log from 9 or 10 October shows the Quest running out of script threads, failing to find a script class, or faulting in copied PC code.

Logs. One crash came from the scripts: the DOT FIELD grenade crash a tester hit on 9 October; a fix is on the way. One flood of errors shows up only on the Quest: the payload cart's screen can't find its display element, about 51,000 times in one match. It is assigned to the payload screen fix.

Added tonight. Three more fixes passed review on 10 October and go into the next test build; each was first read on a headset test. The loadout manager and team select scripts now run the parts a client runs on PC. The heal barrier now has its PC colours and its hit handling (a barrier panel's shield dropped from 180 to 14 on a hit, as intended). The scoreboard headers show the PC's team colours instead of plain white.

Next. Every item on the fix list has an owner. The counting tool fix came first, so the numbers on this page are now the corrected ones.

Working: the PC muzzle flash

The real PC assault-rifle muzzle flash has been drawn on a Quest 3, in the right colour and shape. It is the first effect on the headset that comes from the PC game's own effect data, not a stand-in. The pictures below are from that test.

Not right yet: depth

In that test the flash only showed when it was drawn without the usual hidden-behind-walls check (as in the picture). With the normal check it vanished, so the flash is not final: the depth step is being fixed.

Found and fixed: the lobby crash

A wider set of effects crashed the Quest while the lobby loaded. The map asks for about 3,500 effects at load, and they used up the same memory the game's scripts need. The fix gives the effects their own memory and skips an effect if that memory is full. A new test build with the fix was made tonight; its headset test has not run yet, so the result is still open.

Next

The depth fix, then the glow on the ship models, then the ribbon-style effects (for example the heal beam) and a few mesh effects. After that come seven extra gadget visuals: the red field bubble, the purple-and-gold overcharge look, the drone and its bullets, smoke clouds, the stun field, the teleport effect and new gear icons. Three of those seven reuse effects that already exist.