The home-made VR system

During my holidays I was growing quite fat due to inactivity and I was spending to much time playing Minecraft. Here at home I have got a dance mat for DDR and those rhythm games but I don’t really like them, so I decided to create something funny, healthy and a bit geek: a home-made virtual reality system!

I found GlovePIE, an input emulator where you can create scripts to remap almost any controller, from dance mats to wiimotes. And yes, I have got both of them. I created my first script for Minecraft where you can walk using the dance mat (1 step in real world == 1 step in Minecraft) in a quite realistic way (it is not about pressing one single button, but walking in a natural way) and also jump (the character jumps when you release both feet from the ground so it is almost 1:1). For digging and gather wood you have to shake the Wiimote as if you were using a pickaxe and for putting blocks you have to move the Nunchuk.

Then I started to play Skyrim and so I gained weight again, that’s why I remade it! Now it is possible to detect when the user is sprinting, and the script also implements different controls for each weapon: when you are using a sword you need to swing the Wiimote horizontally to perform a light attack and vertically for a strong attack; you can get some cover with your shield raising the Nunchuk and shake it from here to push things with it; you have to raise your hands for controlling spells and, most important, you can use your voice. GlovePIE can easily detect voice commands and in Skyrim this means that it is not only possible to make simple orders like “save the game” or “equip the bow” but you can also shout! So if you want the character to shout the spell “FUS ROH DAH” all you need is to shout it!

Who needs Kinect?