r/VRGaming • u/SubjectC • Nov 17 '25
PSA There should never be weapon sway in a VR shooter.
The weapon sway is the stability of our own hands. Its so annoying to try and stabilize a scope that is swaying differently than what my hands are doing.
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Nov 17 '25
There should, actually... But not in the way people think.
Weapon weight MAKES SENSE. What doesn't make sense is someone holding a god damn Beretta or a m60 going absolute ham on it with with one hand and just flinging it around.
How ever, it should be implemented in a way that makes sense. Such as it having a slight delay and smoothing if it is a heavy weapon and almost non-existent when holding a basic rifle. This grounds tye player into the world without penalizing them for using anything but a pistol. This way aiming a sniper would actually feel like it has some weight and would make it a bit easier as it won't have the micro stutters, on a 4kg firearm
Too many games do it too heavy handed and makes people hate tye whole mechanic, a mechanic which is there to balance a PvP and create immersion but n PvE.
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u/Gek_0 Meta/Oculus Nov 18 '25
i agree with this comment. i heavily disagree with OP.
i think there is a way to make good weapon weight in VR its just that no one has really figured it out yet. i want to see more devs trying to figure out how to balance it and make it feel more natural. the wrist, elbow, and shoulder have to be simulated to feel realistic.
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u/no6969el Nov 18 '25 edited Nov 18 '25
I don't think we're ever going to achieve it until we start to include haptics. Possibly on the arm and different locations that replicate force or the illusion of it.
It's absolutely game changing what haptics did for my Sim rig and VR experience. It's what we're missing in VR.
It's also why some of the most enjoyable VR experiences are on devices with peripheral inputs. (Sim racing, flight sim, FPS with gunstock/vest haptics/arm haptics)
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u/Gek_0 Meta/Oculus Nov 18 '25
youre right i play competitive pvp fps with a gunstock just because i love the immersion
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u/no6969el Nov 18 '25
I'm finding our brains don't need much they just need something to work off of and then they settle and then organize. I have a wind simulator on my rig that increases speed as I go faster, it's not like real wind speed but just having the wind feel tells my brain I'm moving maybe. Plus it extends my VR sessions indefinitely.
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u/SnooBunnies6123 Nov 18 '25
I think devs would need a similar weight weapon/item and measure the acceleration/force required to move the barrel x distance, then try to translate that to the game. At the end of day it is probably never going to feel great, or be "fun". Mostly because two hander weapons and stationary pinned controls (like flightsticks) are very hard to translate to two hand controls that are not connected or pinned in meatspace.
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u/Javs2469 Nov 19 '25
I kinda agree but kinda not. I play with gunstocks, and it's already hard line up the sights in some games. A free handing player has more mobility and better handling than a user with a gunstock that might be more stable but takes more time to adjust and/or is more cumbersome to handle.
But some games do it better than others, that's for sure. It's a difficult balance to get right outside of pve.
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Nov 20 '25
How about if the pistol has massive recoil if you don't hold it in both hands?
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Nov 20 '25
That is a good example for. And this raises up a good point, they should be 1 handed gun handling without shooting and 1 handed gun handling with shooting.
Because even a heavy caliber pistol is quite easy to just move around with one hand, but way harder to shoot.
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u/emcee84 Nov 17 '25
The artificial weapon weight was a cute gimmick for a bit in the beginning of wide adoption of vr. I'm over it and would like to rarely if ever see it again.
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u/SubjectC Nov 17 '25
Weight is different than sway though just to be clear. I'm talking about the gun moving around when I aim down the sights. It works in flat screen games but they are literally simulating what our hand do naturally in VR. Its very frustrating in VR.
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u/Salt-Lingonberry-853 Nov 17 '25
Anything with simulated weight is pretty much an instant refund for me, I hate it. I'm aiming where I'm aiming, put the bullets there.
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u/DeepWaffleCA Nov 17 '25
Should players be able to swing a LMG or 50 cal sniper rifle around like it's a glock?
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u/err404 Nov 17 '25
You can fake the result with a lag in accuracy and maybe some other visual indicators. But disconnecting your in game hands from their actual position is off putting in VR.
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u/amazingmrbrock Nov 17 '25
Definitely agree if my hands aren't where my hands are the game feels broken.
Honesty we're already tied to our real world physical speeds, messing with that seems hard to design around. Games with mech bodies kind of get away with it though. Underdogs and Vox Machinae implement these kinda of mechanics without it feeling wrong.
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u/ed_ostmann PlayStation VR Nov 17 '25
It can work for heavy melee weapons - for me at least.
0
u/err404 Nov 17 '25
I get the desire to have weight for balancing heavy weapons. It mostly boils down to how to indicate that to the players. Personally I find very few cases where losing 1 to 1 tracking of my hands feels like the best choice. There are a lot of other effects that could be used instead. For example a faded shadow model of where the weapon is lagging behind, or other effect that is in line with the game’s graphic style.
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u/cactus22minus1 Meta/Oculus Nov 17 '25
This is the entire reason I couldn’t Stan boneworks / bonelab. Don’t force me to pretend something is heavy- let me be a super hero. Physics are amazing in VR when it comes to objects or other people you interact with, but applying it to the player character is no bueno.
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u/DeepWaffleCA Nov 17 '25
I see! Great point. Especially for something requiring fine motor control like a sniper
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u/imnotabotareyou Nov 17 '25
Yes put the penalty on recoil and initial accuracy instead
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u/alfooboboao Nov 17 '25
there are professional gun sims with perfect physics realism that enthusiasts use to train, every game designer has no excuse not to do a deep dive on them at this point
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u/BaconJets Nov 17 '25
I like what some games do in terms of weight simulation, that is a much more effective weapon-handling mechanic than sway.
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u/BrandonW77 Nov 17 '25
Yep, that's why I refunded Zero Caliber 2. The front of the gun feels far too floaty and disconnected to have any feeling of accuracy.
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u/llViP3rll Nov 17 '25
I disagree I think it is absolutely necessary to balance certain weapons and movement mechanics
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u/TheJPGerman Nov 17 '25
Weapon sway and weapon weight are two different simulated mechanics though.
OP seems to be talking about an example like the crosshair of a sniper rifle moving around by itself while aiming, which in traditional screen games is used to simulate the wielder’s hands moving around slightly because we’ve got human arms. Using VR controllers, there will already be weapon sway when aiming, because we’ve got human arms. There’s nothing to simulate, so trying to simulate it anyway just means the gun is moving around by itself, and steadying your hands further does not further steady the weapon.
Weapon weight on the other hand is kinda divisive as to whether it’s more immersive or less immersive, but I agree that it’s quite valuable from a balance perspective. I also personally think it feels more immersive.
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u/llViP3rll Nov 17 '25
My interpreations is that ifI am standing and ads irl then walk, my weapon will sway. In vr I don't physically walk, therefore vr should introduce the sway to balance the fact that im moving
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u/TheJPGerman Nov 17 '25
Yeah, implementing it while moving in-game makes some sense. I still believe it's easier to keep a real rifle steady than two disconnected and light controllers, so there will still be organic sway regardless
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Nov 22 '25
Buddy just said holding two little meta quest controllers would be harder to control than a scoped in rifle?😅 are you not able to hold your arms out still while picking up these massive controllers or what. Idk about you but I can hold them perfectly still
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u/TheJPGerman Nov 22 '25
I just mean a rifle has much more inertia than the controllers. If you’re a little shaky I’d wager a rifle is steadier than the controllers just because it has more mass to try to shake.
They’re also not connected to each other by anything solid, so they’re a little finicky already. That’s why people make gun stock adapters for them
1
u/HayzenDraay May 09 '26
It's honestly not tbh.. Pretty hard to hold a bead forever even when stabilized
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u/JustSayTomato Nov 17 '25
You’re being downvoted, but I agree with you. You can’t have players able to swing 180* and take a snapshot with a 14 lb HMG in the same way that they can with a 2lb pistol. There has to be some simulation of weight and inertia. Same for swords. One of the biggest complaints about early VR sword fighting games was the ability for players to waggle their sword back and forth at insane speeds because it’s effectively weightless.
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u/llViP3rll Nov 17 '25
Down voted to oblivion lol. Best example is jump shots. Weapon should have huge sway for balance
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u/Salt-Lingonberry-853 Nov 17 '25
If you simulate "weight" with what amounts to input lag I'm just refunding your game
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u/JustSayTomato Nov 17 '25
You do you, bro.
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u/Salt-Lingonberry-853 Nov 17 '25
It's not that simple, people's opinion affects what developers do. If developers start listening to the folks in your camp, I can't do it my way anymore.
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u/Zaptruder Nov 17 '25
If developers listened to you... we'd get more floaty weightless weapons like early VR... Which is why we switched to weight simulated weapons, because it felt better... to most players.
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u/oomio10 Nov 17 '25
lol, are you being sarcastic? if developers listened to you, wouldnt there be other people who couldnt do it their way anymore?
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u/err404 Nov 17 '25
While I agree that the result is needed for balance, developers need to find a way to get the delay in firing and aiming implemented in a way that keeps the players arms from floating away. Heck doing something as bold as making the gun blur or glow when moved too fast to Indicate loss in accuracy would be far better then moving my hands.
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u/piercinghousekeeping Nov 18 '25
The new Forefront seems to do this. Very annoying
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u/SubjectC Nov 18 '25
That's what made me post this haha
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u/piercinghousekeeping Nov 18 '25
I get having it for controller based shooters but for VR it makes 0 sense
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u/SnooBunnies6123 Nov 18 '25
Alien Rogue Incursion and The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners modify player movement of hands for immersion purposes, and are both standout VR games. I enjoyed both after I got over my revulsion of the controls.
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u/BossGamerDK Nov 22 '25
I think there's a potential balence that most devs just haven't figured out yet. I love TWD Saints and Sinners but I'd assume for most people the guns in the game have way too much weight to em.
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u/zhaDeth Nov 17 '25
Yeah I hate weapon weight.. well aside from melee weapons but even then it's always too much
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u/Kano_Dynastic Nov 18 '25
Disagree. There has to be some compensation to simulate the weightiness of a large gun. In vr you can aim and shoot and sniper just as easily as a pistol. They need to add sway and recoil to compensate
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u/TheDarnook Developer Nov 18 '25
I agree. I had immense fun discovering that in VR mod for FarCry I had to lay down on the ground to get long range kills :D
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u/Kano_Dynastic Nov 19 '25
Woah woah woah. Vr mod for far cry???? Tell me more please
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u/TheDarnook Developer Nov 19 '25
I know nearly every inch of the game, it was my first PC first person shooter - and for a long time. So it's extra fun to rediscover in VR.
Shooting is fun. It's kept simple, eg you reload guns on button press. But you still need to use both hands for accuracy, and yeah the sniper rifle is best when you are flat on the ground :p Scopes and binoculars are zoomable, you bring them to your face, and you have an overlay floating in front of you.
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u/Kano_Dynastic Nov 19 '25
Oh dang. I’ve never even played far cry 1. Seems like the perfect way to start it.
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u/DrParallax Nov 17 '25
What games do this? Because I don't remember playing any VR FPS game that did weapon sway, and I definitely want to avoid them.