Video: What Dota 2's VR Spectator Mode Looks Like!

Virtual spectation

Feature by Philippa Warr Former Staff Writer

Published on July 28, 2016

Fancy a peek at a video and some screenshots and gifs from Dota 2's [official site] newly arrived VR spectator mode? The video has snippets of what you can expect if you boot up VR Spectator Mode at the moment and you'll find that just after the jump!

For the screenshots use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard or the arrows above (and then below because our gallery likes to be contrary) the image*.

It starts off boring because I think the Dota 2 servers are having issues today so me clicking to join the lobby was just not registering for ages and then I got a replay error. I'm leaving it in because I wanted to show you what the experience I had was actually like and it wasn't all positive.

BUT! Despite some of the clunkiness it is also spectacular to see and there is also weird awkward controller dancing, a close-up of Roshan's undercarriage and a peek at the ace player champion representations:

There's also a hero showcase mode where you can take a look at your heroes and their respective loadouts up close:

I'm not sure how much I'll be using the mode to spectate actual matches - I still find my eyes feeling really strained after a while in VR so a long match might necessitate a lie down and an ice pack. Plus there's also the issue that sometimes the work Vive's wonky base station will suddenly tip the whole virtual room 90 degrees. But as a showcase of what's possible and how it might affect or augment esports viewing it's pretty darn cool.

And now STILL IMAGES! As I say, use the arrows on the page or your left and right arrow keys...

*Seriously, take my advice and use the arrow keys. They don't jump around.

Here's what you see when you go into a specific match. The minimap is just in front of you, there's a big screen view for the game, graphs dotted around with various information and then each team's lineup is on the left and right with their current items shown below.

Here's what you'll see during a game when Arteezy is playing Ursa, for example

Here's another view of the general space

If you press trigger when pointing at the minimap you switch to an in-the-game view and can move about to examine fights up close.

There are arrow buttons in this particular view so you can get even closer to the ground and spectate in a kind of life-size mode

I ended up flinching when Storm Spirit ran past

Then I went to visit Roshan. It's hard to convey the effect of scale in VR through these screenshots but essentially, he looks very different when he's towering above you