Today's update brings the following changes:

• PDFs are now supported when importing sheet music! Place PDFs in a folder called "Sheet Music" inside your user's "Documents" folder, and they will appear in the "Sheet Music" section of the menu the next time you launch.
• The first time you open the app after installing this update, tooltips will appear to guide you through opening and navigating the menu. After following all the prompts, these will not appear again (unless the game is re-installed).

Happy jamming!

[ 2021-01-19 03:24:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, were excited to announce a big new update for Percussive VR! Theres a lot to cover, so lets dive right in!

New Instrument: Vibraphone

Meet the newest instrument in the Percussive VR lineup: The vibraphone! Sure to be your new favorite, the vibraphone is the first of our instruments to support a sustain pedalwhich can be activated either using grip buttons or supported USB pedal devices.

New Environment Layout

To make the experience better with more play spaces and tracking configurations, and to optimize overall performance, weve taken a fresh look at how the environment is arranged and made navigation easier than ever. Instead of teleporting around a large room, youll now stay in one place and let the instrument come to you. You can change instruments using the new and improved menu system!

Metronome Customization

If the experimental metronome from our previous release wasnt quite your tempo, you can now customize it using the menu! Simply switch to the Metronome tab to adjust the volume, tempo, and number of beats and leave the duts to us!

Experimental Four Mallet Mode

Its now possible to play with four mallets! Use triggers to adjust the mallet intervals while you play.

Adjustable Reverb

Use the new Settings tab in the menu to adjust the reverb effect to your liking. It even goes to eleven!

Better Sheet Music Import

Expanding on the beta sheet music importer from before, sheet music can now be organized into sub-folders. The previous convention of keeping images in the top level with numeric suffixes is still supported, too! More improvements here are still to come. Additionally, you can now scroll left and right to switch to the previous/next pages on the music stand.

Improved Hit Detection

Say goodbye to ghost notes! Triggers have been updated for all instruments to make hit detection more consistent and reliable.

SteamVR Input Support

The Steam version of Percussive VR now uses the SteamVR Input system, enabling you to customize your in-game control bindings for Index, Vive, and Touch controllers.

Availability for Oculus Quest

Percussive VR has been re-engineered from the ground up to run on the Oculus Quest! It was no small task, but its now possible to play all of your favorite percussive instruments on-the-go. Quest 1 and 2 are both supported, bringing all of the features from the PC version along with them. The Quest version of Percussive VR is currently available to buy on itch.io, via SideQuest (with additional options coming in 2021).

Whats Next?

Coming up next on the development roadmap, in no particular order:

• PDF sheet music import
• Refined four-mallet mode controls
• Adjustable mallet positioning
• MIDI output
• In-game audio recording
• Desktop third-person camera views*
• Oculus Avatars*
• Windows Mixed Reality*

Which features or improvements do you want to see the most? Let us know in the comments, send us an email, or slide into our DMs on Twitter or RedditWed love to hear from you! Happy holidays and happy jamming! * These features existed in previous versions of the app but have been temporarily removed because of compatibility issues with newer versions of the Unity Engine. Well be re-introducing these as soon as we can!

[ 2020-12-24 16:00:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ho ho ho! This update has been a long time in the making, so let's cut to the chase and talk about all the cool new features!

Sheet Music

At long last, you can now import and read your sheet music in Percussive VR! In this beta version of the feature, only PNG images are supported, and only two pages can be loaded (until a good control scheme for turning pages can be decided). To try it out, add your PNG images to a folder called "Sheet Music" in your "Documents" folder and name them so they end with 01 and 02.

Menu Upgrades

As you may have noticed already, the menu has been moved from a wall-mounted position to an easier-to-use wrist-mounted location. This makes the text easier to see and prevents situations where the menu would have been hard to access. As a bonus, it's also been equipped with satisfying new sound effects!

Visual Metronome

The metronome added in the last update has been extended with a new visual indicator that appears above the active instrument whenever the metronome is turned on! Just as before, the metronome is still limited to 140 BPM in 4/4 time. This will be adjustable via the menu in a future update.

Oculus Touch Tooltips Improved

Some enhancements have been made to the controller tooltips introduced in the last update for Oculus Touch users, making them appear more when you want them and less when you don't. Mallet grip positions for Oculus Touch users have also been improved. As always, keep the questions and requests coming! Your feedback will help shape the development of Percussive VR. Happy jamming!

[ 2018-12-10 08:36:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2018-03-25 02:41:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

[ 2018-03-25 02:41:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Year of the Dog, everyone! It’s been a long time coming, but we have a big patch available now!
Changes include:

• Support for Oculus Rift + Touch!
• A redesigned environment!
• Rotation during menu-based instrument teleports
• Improvements to teleportation pointer
• New desktop camera (press Spacebar to change)
• Instrument height adjustment haptics
• Experimental metronome feature (tempo not yet changeable)

Better metronome support is being worked on, as well as an initial version of the file browser for loading sheet music from your hard drive. Let us know your feedback and what you’d like to see in the next update!

[ 2018-02-25 00:00:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Year of the Dog, everyone! Its been a long time coming, but we have a big patch available now!
Changes include:

• Support for Oculus Rift + Touch!
• A redesigned environment!
• Rotation during menu-based instrument teleports
• Improvements to teleportation pointer
• New desktop camera (press Spacebar to change)
• Instrument height adjustment haptics
• Experimental metronome feature (tempo not yet changeable)

Better metronome support is being worked on, as well as an initial version of the file browser for loading sheet music from your hard drive. Let us know your feedback and what youd like to see in the next update!

[ 2018-02-25 00:00:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, and welcome to the first update of the Spring season (or Fall, depending on which half of the globe you're on)! Some big under-the-hood improvements are still underway, but we took a little break from that work to bring you this in the meantime:
That's right! Xylophone is here! The fourth instrument in our collection has just been added to your personal practice studio. As with the others, the height is fully adjustable, note labels can be toggled on or off, and you have your choice of mallet materials (in this case, hard rubber or wood). Let us know what you think! Happy jamming!

[ 2017-04-05 08:15:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, and welcome to the first update of the Spring season (or Fall, depending on which half of the globe you're on)! Some big under-the-hood improvements are still underway, but we took a little break from that work to bring you this in the meantime:
That's right! Xylophone is here! The fourth instrument in our collection has just been added to your personal practice studio. As with the others, the height is fully adjustable, note labels can be toggled on or off, and you have your choice of mallet materials (in this case, hard rubber or wood). Let us know what you think! Happy jamming!

[ 2017-04-05 08:15:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Salutations! Apologies for the long wait since the last update, but several holidays and national political crises later we're back with some fresh new code for you to play with. As promised in the last update, say hello to note labels! An essential resource for learners, these indicators help identify both the name of the note as well as the octave. They appear right on top of all the keys, and can be switched on and off via the controllers.
This addition isn't just for one instrument; the labels will work for all of them!
And that's not all! Today's update also brings:

• Persistent settings: The game will now remember the last type of mallets you used for each instrument, and your note label setting
• Technical preparation for more features/settings accessible via the menu
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements

As always, keep the questions and requests coming! Your feedback will help shape the development of Percussive VR. Happy jamming!

[ 2017-02-03 13:37:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Salutations! Apologies for the long wait since the last update, but several holidays and national political crises later we're back with some fresh new code for you to play with. As promised in the last update, say hello to note labels! An essential resource for learners, these indicators help identify both the name of the note as well as the octave. They appear right on top of all the keys, and can be switched on and off via the controllers.
This addition isn't just for one instrument; the labels will work for all of them!
And that's not all! Today's update also brings:

• Persistent settings: The game will now remember the last type of mallets you used for each instrument, and your note label setting
• Technical preparation for more features/settings accessible via the menu
• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements

As always, keep the questions and requests coming! Your feedback will help shape the development of Percussive VR. Happy jamming!

[ 2017-02-03 13:37:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Season's greetings! Santa's come early this year with a new update that brings some much-needed technical groundwork that will pave the way for many features to come. What does this mean for you? A shiny new in-game menu!
In this release there is only one menu pane available, but as you can see there are some additional panes already in the works. The first pane, Instruments, lets you instantly teleport to an instrument of your choosing. The next planned feature being worked on, by popular demand, is note labels. Stay tuned, and as always please leave your feedback/questions/suggestions here in the Discussions forum. Happy jamming!

[ 2016-12-24 11:21:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Season's greetings! Santa's come early this year with a new update that brings some much-needed technical groundwork that will pave the way for many features to come. What does this mean for you? A shiny new in-game menu!
In this release there is only one menu pane available, but as you can see there are some additional panes already in the works. The first pane, Instruments, lets you instantly teleport to an instrument of your choosing. The next planned feature being worked on, by popular demand, is note labels. Stay tuned, and as always please leave your feedback/questions/suggestions here in the Discussions forum. Happy jamming!

[ 2016-12-24 11:21:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, virtual percussionists! I know it's been a few weeks since the last release, and I wanted to give you all an update on what's currently being worked on (and what to expect in the next releases).

• Working on a comprehensive menu system that will pave the way for more UI-intensive feature such as settings, a sheet music browser, metronome options, and more. This is taking some time to do properly, since it needs to be easily extendable in order to support all these future additions.
• Coming up with a technical and aesthetic design for displaying note names on the instruments. Again, this requires a little extra work in order to do it in such a way that it can easily extend to different instruments.
• Upgraded to Unity 5.5 for some under-the-hood enhancements.

As usual, if you have any questions or suggestions, make a post in the Discussions section here or send us an email at: support@jamhack.games Happy jamming!

[ 2016-12-11 08:39:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, virtual percussionists! I know it's been a few weeks since the last release, and I wanted to give you all an update on what's currently being worked on (and what to expect in the next releases).

• Working on a comprehensive menu system that will pave the way for more UI-intensive feature such as settings, a sheet music browser, metronome options, and more. This is taking some time to do properly, since it needs to be easily extendable in order to support all these future additions.
• Coming up with a technical and aesthetic design for displaying note names on the instruments. Again, this requires a little extra work in order to do it in such a way that it can easily extend to different instruments.
• Upgraded to Unity 5.5 for some under-the-hood enhancements.

As usual, if you have any questions or suggestions, make a post in the Discussions section here or send us an email at: support@jamhack.games Happy jamming!

[ 2016-12-11 08:39:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! This update reduces a lot of the lag/delay between hitting the keys and hearing the sound. This has been a big source of pain for players trying to perform fast runs, so hopefully this helps a bit! Happy jamming!

[ 2016-11-17 10:15:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! This update reduces a lot of the lag/delay between hitting the keys and hearing the sound. This has been a big source of pain for players trying to perform fast runs, so hopefully this helps a bit! Happy jamming!

[ 2016-11-17 10:15:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, and a huge THANKS to everyone who has joined our Early Access during its very first week! It's been a thrill to see everyone's honest feedback, so please keep it coming - you'll be directly steering the development effort by doing so! This first patch mostly cleans up and improves some of the underlying code that handles how mallet switching works, but also adds a new feature - height adjustment! Simply reach out to the instrument, squeeze the grip button(s) on the sides of your Vive controller, and move your hand up and down to raise or lower the instrument! Some of the animation work still needs to be improved here, but this version at least gets the job done.
The next patch should focus on tweaks to the physics and audio playback aspects of Percussive VR, since we know there are some needed improvements there. We'll be looking for ways to minimize the "lag" between hitting the instrument and hearing the note, and make sure every stroke successfully hits the instrument when it should. Happy jamming!

[ 2016-11-16 11:46:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, and a huge THANKS to everyone who has joined our Early Access during its very first week! It's been a thrill to see everyone's honest feedback, so please keep it coming - you'll be directly steering the development effort by doing so! This first patch mostly cleans up and improves some of the underlying code that handles how mallet switching works, but also adds a new feature - height adjustment! Simply reach out to the instrument, squeeze the grip button(s) on the sides of your Vive controller, and move your hand up and down to raise or lower the instrument! Some of the animation work still needs to be improved here, but this version at least gets the job done.
The next patch should focus on tweaks to the physics and audio playback aspects of Percussive VR, since we know there are some needed improvements there. We'll be looking for ways to minimize the "lag" between hitting the instrument and hearing the note, and make sure every stroke successfully hits the instrument when it should. Happy jamming!

[ 2016-11-16 11:46:44 CET ] [ Original post ]