VR headset integration with RoR?

[fixerdave]

So... it's Friday, one of those entirely non-productive Fridays at work... at a college with a new program to teach game development... and they're starting in on the VR headsets. So, I'm thinking, can I use these VR headsets on something more fun, something like driving a firetruck around Penguinville?

Experiments so far, not so good. But, hey, I'm just the guy that installs the HW and software... I don't know how to use this stuff. CAD, I understand, racing simulators, okay, but VR? Nope. First run today. I was thinking I'd just have to modify the input map to, you know, make the image in the goggles pan with head movement. But, it appears a bit more complicated than that.

Has anyone got this working?

And, if not... can anyone give a quick description of what would have to change in the game to support VR goggles? Because... I do work in a college with a new program to teach game development... and our college programs have final team projects that do some pretty interesting things. I'd have to sell the idea, but I think it would be very cool to be up at the end of that bouncing firetruck ladder looking around with VR googles.

Possible, or just not worth the effort?

David...

 

[Will]

This would be a wonderful feature, but to my knowledge something much more reachable would be TrackIR integration, but I've heard you need a license and the developers are quite hard to reach.

Overall, I think it would be a fun interactive idea, most likely something that would be handled internally rather then at surface level.

 

[fixerdave]

Answering my own question... seems there's an opensource project called Vireio (or paid version VorpX) that are "3D VR drivers" that allow basically what I want.
https://github.com/cybereality/Perception for the Vireio part. Looks a bit rough/lonely though.

So, not really impossible... drivers to allow the goggles to be the monitor of choice. Some kind of mapping to allow head rotation to map to panning views. And, after that, it's a matter of the UI. Pressing keyboard buttons while wearing VR goggles is ... problematic. But, last year, one of the project teams was working on a video camera input to track hand position in a driving simulator. It allowed you to "see" your virtual hand in relation to the virtual steering wheel, and actually be able to press a real button on the real wheel with visual feedback. It' wasn't perfect, but after Friday's experiments, I now understand why they were doing the project. Might be possible to do basically the same thing with a keyboard. Might even be easier considering the keyboard isn't rotating.

Some code out of Vireio, some mods to RoR, maybe incorporate the hand tracking project... and it could be awesome. Beyond my coding ability, but we've some pretty bright instructors and students. Have to sell it though, which means selling RoR to the students. I'm thinking I'll install it on the next image, run up a multiplayer server, and let them have fun. See where it goes.

Meanwhile, if any RoR devs read this, I would appreciate a quick rundown on what you think would be required on the RoR side.

Oh, some more background if you care:

One of the long-standing projects being done here is a racing simulator chair with VR goggles, etc. Each year, it's an option for various teams in the mechanical , electronics, and computing programs to work on.. But, a car racing sim is really a lousy choice for VR. I actually like racing sims and the faster you drive, the less you look around... it gets to be tunnel vision. Eg. in NASCAR, they have spotters to tell you when you're driving beside someone, because a shoulder-check would put you in the wall. The straight-ahead focus is intense. VR is useless. And, I didn't tell the students this, but you don't have time to look at where the buttons on the steering wheel are either. You don't look at your steering wheel when going 250km/h. But, driving around a city, running a crane or ladder truck, flying an airplane, even rock crawling... now that's where you're always looking around. That would be awesome in VR. RoR is a great fit for VR.

And, you know, the more I type here... the more I'm realizing that they must have already solved the 3D VR driver issue with that racing chair. I'll ask the instructors what they did there.

David...

 

[fixerdave]

Well, the last project supervisor says they used the SteamVR driver (free to use), iRacing, and hand motion tracking was via LEAP motion sensor.

Looks like iRacing has VR inbuilt (many seem to be using it anyway, so there's a well-worn path). Added RoR to Steam as a "non Steam game," worked. Added it to the SteamVR menu, worked. But, alas, starting it via the silly VR light saber thingy simply started it on a regular monitor.

Progress of sorts, but not quite there yet. But, right now I have to get some real work done.

David...