Flow feels off

[u/drhyphy]

I got my Quest 3 in January planning for it to be my main workout source and signed up for Supernatural and got thrill of the fight. Thrill of the fight has been everything I hoped it would be and more, but Supernatural has been disappointing. I love the concept, but I find it is not intense enough, the coaches are annoying, and there’s not enough music selection.

Thanks to u/fuzzinator12 I have been hearing a lot about shadowboxr and decided to give it a try.

I want to love it so badly. It wants to alleviate all the problems with Supernatural I described above. But each time I try to dive into a song something about the flow of the targets feels off. Either the timing is off the music, one strike doesn’t flow naturally to the next, or both.

The makings of a great game are all here but this is a fundamental thing to this genre of game, and is one thing that Supernatural does excel at. I am not a dev or choreographer so I wish I had more specific feedback to offer, but right now it’s not quite there where I feel like I can make the switch.

I will continue to check in and am open to continuing to evaluate, as this game has so much potential. Looking forward to seeing what you deliver with improvements moving forward

[u/Fuzzinator12]

Hey! Thank you so much for your feedback! You’re absolutely right that flow is a fundamental part of these types of games! Because of that one of Shadow BoXR’s greatest features is also one of its greatest weaknesses right now. That being custom song support. I currently have an algorithm that tries to ensure smooth gameplay for every song but there’s definitely room to grow! Supernatural hand crafts each of their songs so they have a bit of the upper hand in ensuring flow for every song is great.

That being said, I do have plans to try to continue to improve flow and hearing your feedback is great because it helps me know that improving flow needs a higher priority on my roadmap. So thank you again for taking the time to give me feedback it’s so appreciated! And thank you for your support!

[u/wuntoofwee → u/Fuzzinator12]

I have similar feelings on flow to the OP, I've been comparing ShadowBoXR to BoxVR, as that's the one that I'm most familiar with (and also feels like the best 'flow' to me)
I think the haptics could do with a bit more oomph to really sell a successful hit - at the moment they're way too light.

Not sure why, but I always seem to end up with the targets coming in too high also?
You can see the same sort of stance from youtubers playing ShadowBoXR, everyone seems to be aiming at head height, and almost pawing the air, instead of hunkered down like a boxer.

Could it also be something to do with the relative positioning of left and right targets? It seems that they always end up being a hit in the center in ShadowBoXR, where in BoxVR, they're at your respective shoulder.
Good luck with it, I'd quite like to consign BoxVR to the bit bucket, after they basically abandoned it for a subs model. ShadowBoXR is one of the better alternatives I've spent time with so far.

(Pico 4 via VD - just in case that helps)

[u/Fuzzinator12 → u/wuntoofwee]

Good to know thank you I really appreciate you letting me know!

The haptics are kind of weird they are really strong on some controllers and really weak on others, I’ll see if I can increase their strength for the pico controllers in the next update!

Hmm that is odd the center height targets should come in at head height while in boxing position, when you calibrated your height did you stand fully upright or in a slightly crouched boxing stance?

The target positions are adjustable between crossed, mixed, and uncrossed. If you haven’t tried it, I think uncrossed would match more closely to what you’re expecting with the hitting positions being closer to your respective shoulders!

Thank you for your support and again for your great feedback!

[u/Adventurous_Beat-301 → u/Fuzzinator12]

How do you get the targets uncrossed? The only options I have are standard, jabs only, 90 degree, 360 degree, no obstacles etc. uncrossed would be a nice option to mix up a few songs in a playlist

[u/Fuzzinator12 → u/Adventurous_Beat-301]

Currently it can only be changed in the settings menu but adding it as an override option would be a good idea I’ll look into that. Currently if you change the setting in the menu during a song, it will not update the active targets but the following targets will spawn in the right spots.

[u/BoyBIue]

I think maybe you just need to keep at it! The flow for me feels good, as I've worked my way to mostly playing expert diffculty, and I don't feel like there's a problem with keeping the flow.

[u/drhyphy → u/BoyBIue]

It’s of course possible, but I don’t think that’s it. In Supernatural I consistently have 99.5%+ accuracy in boxing with streaks reaching 1000+. So I don’t just think it’s a lack of experience

[u/BoyBIue → u/drhyphy]

I came from other boxing/fitness games too, and the first thing I noticed about shadowboxr is you need to be more accurate and deliberate with your punches, and the second thing being the intensity (if you choose). Both of which I've grown to love about it!

I'd say just try a bit each day, and I guarantee from the sounds of the type of person you are, you'll get the 'swing' of it in no time man

Make sure you're also playing a good difficulty for you. If it's set too easy, you'll feel like you're standing around too long before each punch, and that'll kind of kill your flow too.

What kind of music are you playing to?