In the process of making a homemade Mech battle game that features robot-like piloted tanks capable of turning the cockpit independent of the direction of movement, [Florian] realized that while the idea was intuitive to humans, implementing it in a VR game had challenges. In short, when the body perceives motion however doesn’t feel the expected acceleration as well as momentum, movement sickness can result. A cockpit view that modifications separately of ahead movement exacerbates the issue.
To address this, [Florian] wished to utilize a swivel chair to represent turning the Mech’s “hips”. This would manage direction of travel as well as assist offer essential physical feedback. He was thinking about a hardware encoder for the chair when he realized he already had one in his pocket: his iPhone.
By making an HTML page that accesses the smartphone’s positioning API, no app set up was needed to send the phone’s positioning to his game through a WebSocket in Unity. He physically swivels his chair to steer as well as is totally free to look around utilizing the VR headset, separate from the direction of travel. want to try it for yourself? get it from [Florian]’s GitHub repository.
A video is embedded below, however if you’re thinking about details be sure to likewise inspect out [Florian]’s summary of insights as well as techniques for avoiding movement sickness in a VR Mech cockpit.
This job integrates a physical aspect into the VR environment, however there’s neat work being performed in the other direction as well; how about spicing up your stationary bike with a VR headset as well as Google street view data?