"Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

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Jose
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"Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Jose »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH8xxqijQyA

What's good, guys. I'm making a simple VR driving experience that I'm calling "Road Hypnosis". This is a non-commercial hobby project.

I'm still a beginner in Unity. I estimate that I have about 50 hours experience so far. Not trying to create a full blown driving simulator. I simply want to recreate a certain kind of repetitive driving experience.

Recently, I had a small breakthrough, in a sense that the content of this VR experience has "broken through" into my dreamspace (trippy!). So I'm posting this here on MTBS3D to see if there's any interest in this kind of VR application.

A playable demo isn't ready yet. Right now, things aren't user-friendly. For example, the road is floating above the terrain, so if you drive off the road, you can't get back on without restarting the app.

Head tracking is done with the left sixense hydra controller.

I experienced a new kind of simulator sickness with the mirrors on the car. The images that are shown in the mirrors don't exactly line up with how one would expect in real life. And sometimes when I look directly into them, I get a feeling of sickness in my gut, even though I'm not moving much at all both in VR and Real Life.

The car is a Honda Civic Si Sedan, the model of which I found on Google 3D Warehouse.

Any thoughts or comments are welcome. I just want to see if there is an interest in this kind of VR experience.

-Jose
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Falan »

I have seen a similar game although it didnt do as well as the creator expected, in fact its heralded as the worst game of all time. You drive a bus continuously along a straight road in the desert for 8 hours.

The bus endlessly lists to the right and it is unimaginatievly called 'Desert Bus', there was talk of a sequel which would be an 8 hour return journey. It never made it lol

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 08336.html
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Jose
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Jose »

userwords wrote:[post reserved for the past]
Thank you, time traveler.

Image
Falan wrote:I have seen a similar game although it didnt do as well as the creator expected, in fact its heralded as the worst game of all time. You drive a bus continuously along a straight road in the desert for 8 hours.

The bus endlessly lists to the right and it is unimaginatievly called 'Desert Bus', there was talk of a sequel which would be an 8 hour return journey. It never made it lol
Ah. I remember the desert bus charity event. I actually really like the idea of Desert Bus, except for how the bus drifts off the road, and the retro graphics.

Originally I wanted to create a "road trip simulator" of a long drive. But I'm not sure how to create very long roads in Unity. In the current state of Road Hypnosis, it's just a large looping highway/freeway.
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by PasticheDonkey »

i think something could work like that if there was varying road camber. then the idea is then that instead of corners you design tracks around different cambers. you want those moments where things changing ever so slightly have repercussions for something with large momentum.
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by yoshithedog »

I would say that it's hard to judge the rift experience from the video, so if you think it's good, do it.
But yeah, it looks and sounds trippy. Would play.
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by bobv5 »

Jose, have you tried Euro Truck Simulator? It is the closest thing I have found to a DRIVING sim, as opposed to a RACING sim. Its quite good, but they have scaled down all the roads so journeys are far quicker than they would be IRL. Still possible to do a long 'boring' drive though, if that is what you want. It supposedly will work with Virieo, but my GPU is too slow. I have been using it to help me get a car license, as all the road signs, layout etc are very realistic.

EDIT: If you are going to develop this demo into something more, please make the Hydra optional.
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Fredz »

bobv5 wrote:It supposedly will work with Virieo, but my GPU is too slow.
It's even supposed to get a native Rift implementation : Euro Truck Simulator 2 getting official support.
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Fredrum »

One of my favourite travel experiences was going on a road trip into Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia with this older couple driving and making the food. It is a completely white salt desert sometimes without any features and with bright sunlight it looks like the car is not actually moving. The couple unknowingly looked super cool in their sunglasses in the front sets. Trippy Pink Floyd music was played through the CD->Casette converter.

I also wondered if anyone might do a music visualizer in the style of the Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar music video. Where features outside the train window syncs to the beats of the music.

The music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S43IwBF0uM

Salar de Uyuni
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0NXRtCEOGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rJujJ7WQKk



Throw in a bit of Lawrence of Arabia desert photography and maybe a dash of Fata Morgana by Werner Hertzog. :)
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Jose
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Re: "Road Hypnosis" - A VR driving demo [preview video]

Post by Jose »

PasticheDonkey wrote:i think something could work like that if there was varying road camber. then the idea is then that instead of corners you design tracks around different cambers. you want those moments where things changing ever so slightly have repercussions for something with large momentum.
Interesting idea about varying road camber. I imagine that if done gradually and repetitively, it can have a soothing effect on the driver. Kinda like rocking a baby back and forth.
yoshithedog wrote:I would say that it's hard to judge the rift experience from the video, so if you think it's good, do it.
But yeah, it looks and sounds trippy. Would play.
Yes you are right, the video doesn't show much. And I'm not good at explaining what's in my head. I will release a playable demo soon.
bobv5 wrote:Jose, have you tried Euro Truck Simulator? It is the closest thing I have found to a DRIVING sim, as opposed to a RACING sim. Its quite good, but they have scaled down all the roads so journeys are far quicker than they would be IRL. Still possible to do a long 'boring' drive though, if that is what you want. ... EDIT: If you are going to develop this demo into something more, please make the Hydra optional.
I've heard good things about Euro Truck Simulator, and this other game called City Car Driving. Haven't played them, but I've watched some Let's Play videos on youtube.

Hydra will be optional. But I'm a believer in the Oculus Sixense combo, and positional head tracking adds so much to the VR experience.
Fredz wrote:It's even supposed to get a native Rift implementation : Euro Truck Simulator 2 getting official support.
Very cool!
Fredrum wrote:... It is a completely white salt desert sometimes without any features and with bright sunlight it looks like the car is not actually moving. ...

... I also wondered if anyone might do a music visualizer in the style of the Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar music video. Where features outside the train window syncs to the beats of the music.
Very cool. Driving through the desert like that must be very hypnotic.

Ah thanks for reminding me of Star Guitar. I very much like Michel Gondry's music videos and movies. Maybe I might attempt a simple train-riding simulation similar to that music video (without the music visualization).

-----

Thanks guys for your feedback. I initially teased the video just to see what kinds of reactions I would get. I'm going to continue with Road Hypnosis and update this thread when I have a playable demo to show.
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