Meet the guy who built a motion simulator to play Mechwarrior 5 in VR so he could feel every little stomp
The problem with YouTube is it is easy to find people who have created insanely cool projects that you want to replicate for yourself, but you have neither the time, the patience, or a partner with the level of understanding as to why putting a huge amount of ugly electronics in the front room is something that is of benefit to the entire family.
This is one such project coming out of Australia and the YouTube channel Limitless VR and Simrigs has made me jealous of what he has going on down under.
Taking 2019’s Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries- which was the first single-player Mechwarrior game since 2002, he had modded the living the daylights out of it to work, not only with his HOTAS controls but to work near flawlessness with VR and, more importantly, his sim racing motion cockpit ring.
Over the course of two videos that go into great detail about how to get the most from the set–up should you want to try something similar yourself, he managed to get it so you can feel pretty much every stomp of the mech working forward as well as every swing of the arms.
“I just can’t get over the feel of this – this feels like it is heavy. I actually feel like I am in something that is genuinely 50 tons. It feels like I am in a 50-ton mech. Oh Wow.”
The levels of excitement from the videos are next level and you can tell they are not being put on. I remember the first time I went sim racing in VR and couldn’t believe the immersion, but wiring up a racing rig to a futuristic sci-fi battle warrior and it just working after all the effort is a step beyond.
Projects such as this are where VR excels. It’s fine in games where you are just slicing through watermelons and the like but taking a game and turning it into a “real” experience is something you can achieve with no other platform.
The VR being used here is “only” a Quest 3 as well, not even a high-end sim VR headset such as the Pimax Crystal, which shows the quality of what Meta has. The real cost is in the motion platform and the sim seat, the likes of which are definitely coming down in price towards the acceptable level of cost, especially when you consider how much a decent graphics card costs these days.
The fun is in the tinkering as you can see by checking out the video. Maybe it will inspire you to do something similar. Once the divorce has gone through!
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