You’ll Need An Intel i7 To Unlock The Full Experience Of 'Arizona Sunshine'

Vertigo Games released a behind the scenes video that discusses the destructive environments and weather effects in Arizona Sunshine. In the video, the developer revealed that some features demand more processing power than a basic VR-ready PC can provide.

Arizona Sunshine is an upcoming VR zombie apocalypse game that is coming out later this year for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. You’ll encounter hordes of countless zombies from all directions that you must fend off with an arsenal of weapons such as pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons. The game features a variety of desert environments, including an abandoned highway, an underground mine, and an oil refinery.

Vertigo Games could have slapped those three things together--zombies, weapons, and abandoned locales--and called it a day. There is no doubt that a game like that in VR would be entertaining, but Vertigo Games didn’t stop there. The development team went the extra mile to bring the environments to life with destructible elements and advanced weather effects.

The advanced effects in the game are available only if you have an Intel Core i7 CPU. Vertigo Games didn't list specific i7 processors or generations that would work with the game. We suspect the developer is mostly concerned about having extra threads to work with. Vertigo Games said that i7 processors allow the developers to “put more stuff in the game” that lower-end processors can’t handle. When you play Arizona Sunshine on an i7-equipped PC, you can sever the limbs from, and split the skulls of, the zombies that are coming at you.

Explosions are also more effective and impressive on a PC equipped with an i7. For example, when you throw a grenade, it won’t just kill a group of zombies; it will send their dismembered bodies flying, along with nearby objects. The grenade explosions can even break walls apart and leave holes in the ground, which adds to the realism.

If you have an i7 processor, you’ll also enjoy realistic wind simulation, which can manipulate the grass on the ground and the water in the creek. The wind will even affect how far you’re able to throw your grenades; if you throw a grenade against the wind, it won’t go as far as when you throw it with the wind. Likewise, if you throw a grenade across the wind, you’ll have to compensate accordingly.

Vertigo Games hasn’t announced a release date yet for Arizona Sunshine, but the developer said the game is coming this year. Vertigo Games is running a closed beta test for Arizona Sunshine this month. The developer is inviting random members of the game’s newsletter mailing list to join the test.

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

  • Jeff Fx
    Nice. I have an i7, and am willing to upgrade to a faster one if it can improve VR games. I like that we're not winding up with game quality lowered to what the minimum Vive specs can handle.

    Now I want fan interfaces so I can feel in-game wind in the real world.
    Reply
  • mavikt
    "countless zombies from all directions", oh the horror!
    I'm generally to timid for horror games, and haven't got any VR gear, but I'll certainly give them an A+ for going the extra mile and letting the i7 shine!
    More studios should push the envelope that way!
    Reply
  • husker
    So no matter how many cores or threads an AMD processor has, the "full experience" won't be available? If that is the case, then it is not a thread issue but a proprietary one. If, on the other hand, it will give a "full experience" with some high thread AMD processors, then the article should point this out. Either way, important information is missing from this article.
    Reply
  • Jeff Fx
    18825019 said:
    So no matter how many cores or threads an AMD processor has, the "full experience" won't be available? If that is the case, then it is not a thread issue but a proprietary one. If, on the other hand, it will give a "full experience" with some high thread AMD processors, then the article should point this out. Either way, important information is missing from this article.

    You always take a chance when you settle for an AMD processor, but in this case you might be OK.
    Recommended System Requirements:

    OS: Windows 10
    Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K equivalent or greater
    Memory: 16 GB RAM
    Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 980 / AMD equivalent or greater
    DirectX: Version 12
    Storage: T.B.A GB available space
    Additional Notes: VR Headset required, 2x USB 3.0 ports
    Reply
  • VRbender
    In general, there is the "V" and the "R" in VR... The V is enabled with the 3D virtual world of the high quality HMD... This can be done to consume photos, videos, etc. and for that, not that difficult of a challenge for the HW, unless you are creating said VR content, then you can easily bring the most advanced HW to it's knees...

    The R in VR is the harder one to get right for gaming interactivity, etc... Takes an immense amount of CPU & Gfx. computational power to do all of the physics and the triangle rendering to get a truly realistic and interactive experience (Also want a fast memory and drive subsystem, etc. to help feed the CPU/GPU).

    General advice is to make sure you build or buy the absolute best CPU, GPU and SSD that you can afford... This is just now getting "REAL"... Pun intentional... Save your pennies and plan ahead.
    Reply
  • psiboy
    I'm always wary of anything that might be "proprietary" why I don't own crApple stuff and why I'm always avoiding games that seem prorietarily (is that a word?) optimised for anything other than multi core/thread or industry api's aka dx12/vulkan
    Reply
  • VRbender
    As I understand the optimizations in Arizona Sunshine, they are designed to take advantage of the multiple cores and threads of CPU to handle more of the physics loads that great VR requires... Thus, offloading the GPU to process the triangles and move the bottleneck from GPU and better balance the VR platform... This was not Intel driving proprietary solutions, just ensuring the Volkswagon Beatle with the FORD V8 is actually a Shelby GT 500... Maybe my analogy holds, maybe it doesn't, but you can't really turn a Volkswagon Beatle into a Shelby with engine alone... Thus I am saying you cannot have truly great VR with GPU alone... Trust me, we've looked at GTX1080 performance with Core i5 and with Core i7 with these features turned on and it's a major difference... The optimizations should run on some of the multi core AMD products, but please don't be confused, CPU is critical to the VR experience, especially those games where the "R" is being pushed to limits... Buy the best CPU, GPU & SSD you can... More games will optimize this way in future... This stuff is true MIPS sucking apps that have been promised for years from all corners of the tech world...
    Reply
  • blppt
    "Intel Core i7 6700K equivalent or greater"

    The problem here is that there is no consumer-level AMD cpu that is an equivalent of a 6700K, lol.

    I, for one, second the "proprietary Intel" theory here. If this game is all about more than 4 core performance, it would seem that finally AMD's FX series has a game perfectly suited for it. So their explanation doesnt really make a whole lot of sense.
    Reply
  • VRbender
    Anyway.... What's really cool is that the game developers are now using VR as a reason to drive the optimizations for more and better performing cores... The experience is really incredible and everyone wins, especially those of us that love to put together really great, no compromise gaming PCs... Try that on your Samsung GEAR VR... Or not!
    Reply
  • none12345
    If its a feature list you can control in a menu, then no big deal. If there is "if (i7 detected) then {turn on more crap}" in the code then thats a horrible decision.

    I hope they arent dumb enough to make it i7 only. Its not an intel/amd thing, its the fact that that kind of code is very fragile, it wont age well at all(ie your new faster i9 wont be detected and the stuff will be turned off).
    Reply