JKQuest Roadmap and the Developer Mode Disaster

Hello Patrons!

We had been intending on doing a short progress and roadmap post for JKQuest for a little while now, so we put our heads together and came up with a (semi) definitive list of remaining tasks that we feel need to be resolved or at the very least mulled over and some sort of decision made so that we can start to think about making JKQuest public and we move on to the next big thing: Jedi Academy

Developer Mode Disaster

However, before we get on to that, some of you are already aware (through the Team Beef discord, or Twitter) that I (DrBeef) have unfortunately been afflicted by the dreaded "we're having problems loading this. Please try again." error when trying to re-enable developer mode on my Quest 2. 

At the time of writing, I have no developer access at all. This, as you can probably imagine, is a pretty serious issue for me as I am unable to actually deploy and test any code changes I make; I am effectively "benched" until Meta sort it out. They appear to be aware of the issue, and are allegedly working on a fix, but how long that will take to materialise is anybody's guess. So for the time being I am doing some other bits and pieces, but ultimately can't do a great deal. I have started to look into OpenXR; simply for something constructive to do, and I am hopeful I can make some progress on this even without a headset to test. Whilst it wouldn't bring any immediate advantage to Quest 2 users, it should at least open the door to other headsets, and I must admit I am rather keen to see JKQuest running on PCVR one day.

JKQuest Roadmap

Anyway, I digress, without further ado, the following is what we have identified as the roadmap to release:

0) Get developer mode back

1) Companion App - We would like this to be in place prior to a public release, as patrons you will get to test early iterations of this before the public sees the final build. The plan is to have it function much like the companion app for Quake3Quest: download mods and launch different game modes etc

2) Immersive Cutscenes Camera Tweaks - Some of the cutscenes can be a pretty wild ride, so we plan on looking at ways of calming it down. 

3) Team Beef Director's Cut - Exactly how we eventually implement this isn't exactly clear, it might be menu toggles, or a mod or somesuch. Also, what we actually tweak is yet to be considered (though we are open to suggestions)

4) Some functional changes to the lightsaber combat (nothing that would alter the current feel, but some aesthetic changes at least)

5) Various bug fixed and minor improvements we have identified

6) Weapon Model Replacements - We have seen on our discord that we have a very active/talented modder, and member of our patron collective, called CansecoDev who has been looking into making fully modeled weapon replacements for use in VR (and they are looking great from what we've seen). Whilst we've not had a chance to try them out ourselves yet, we are keeping a close eye on progress!

Other stuff..

7) OpenXR as I mentioned above, this doesn't have to be completed for release, but is happening on a separate branch

8) Pico 4, relies on #7 being completed first

9) PCVR, also relies on #7 being completed, this is just pipe dream at the moment, but may one day become a reality

10) Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, there was already some early progress on this (as you know from the early videos) so I expect we'll be looking at this again in the not too distant future, it won't hold-up the public release of JKO

So, that's it for now.. please cross your collective fingers and make a wish that my developer mode can be re-enabled again soon!

-DrBeef