Subnautica

Subnautica VR is An Experience, to be sure, but there's two major, major gripes that make it less enjoyable than it could be.

One is that every time you 'load' a screen - such as when boarding a vehicle or activating the Cyclops cameras, it resets the headset orientation. That last case, in particular, illustrates why that's a problem - because you have to look pretty far to the side to activate the camera. Which is now set to the awkward off-to-the-side position as the default. Which means that, if you don't keep looking in that direction, when you switch back, you're now facing somewhere off to the left.
(Luckily, you can reset via F2. It's still annoying.)

Perhaps worse is the interface. The HUD is locked to the edge of the view, so you can only see it in your peripheral vision. The PDA menus, meanwhile, are set to render as if they were genuinely like an inch from your eyes, and are difficult and nauseating to read. (The actual pause menu is fine, meanwhile, so presumably they did this on purpose.)

 

Honestly idk if it was my computer but the worst problem graphically for Subnautica was all of the pop-in. I know they can't have the entire thing rendered all of the time but like, come on. Stuff would appear 10 feet in front of my face sometimes.

 

It’s a bit nervewracking to have to bring your seamoth do a dead halt in the middle of the crash zone or the dunes so you can wait for the scenery to load in

 

Never had that issue, honestly. You usually hear them long before you see them.

And of course, if you can hear them, they can see you.

 

oh hey, I never subjected this thread to my finished base! not actually finished, technically - if I was staying in that world, I would have polished it up a lot more and redone some stuff. but I wanted to beat the game and so here’s what it looked like when I launched my rocket!

Spoiler: many images

first here’s an overall view of my base. the design is very utility-oriented, I was going for efficiency of movement over all.

the moonpool is the central access point. on the left is a two-story room for my bioreactors, food garden, and one water filtration machine. that room on the far left is a single alien containment unit where i bred Reginalds for the reactors.



up in back on the left is my scanner room and overflow storage

very much unfinished, but i never needed enough storage space that i was forced to finish it :P

up in the center is the main hub. primary storage and fabrication on the bottom, living space plus an observatory on the top:






over on the right is my ACU tower, with a smaller unit on the far right where I was breeding Mesmers to keep the Biters away




this room on top of the tower was masquerading as a lab, but i would have redone it as well if i’d stayed. I also would have put potted plants around the lower levels as decoration.

the aquatic garden, also unfinished, but I do have every aquatic plant except for I believe the regress shell which i just kinda forgot about



finally a little surface-level lounge/garden, because why not! it isn’t far from the main base. i would kill for a deck chair mod, but i like how it came out, though i might have rearranged the plants some.


last of all, the rocket I used to leave it all behind, the W.R. PCHOOO

i’m building my current base around the giant tree in the northeastern mushroom forest. i’ve already torn it down once to rebuild completely from scratch because i got a better idea!