SuperModel 3 VR Mode (Oculus, Hive, etc) - Is it time?

[Trojan X]

Hi gang,

I just received an Oculus Quest from my client to do some work but you know what? I've been thinking... With supermodel almost nailing down the model 3 games to perfection and the network play coming along well, maybe the true next big thing to do in terms of modding is to get the games VR compatible. For games where it makes sense, can you imagine the following titles with head tracking?

Sega Rally 2 (Cockpit and Bumper mode only)
Sega Get Bass Fishing (general)
Emergency Call Ambulance (general main game)
Daytona USA 2 (Cockpit and Bumper mode only)
Dirt Devils (Cockpit and Bumper mode only)
Le Man 24 (Cockpit and Bumper mode only)
Magical Truck (general main game)
Ocean hunger (general main game)
Ski Champ (First-person mode only)
Scud Race (Cockpit and Bumper mode only)
Star Wars Trilogy (general plus hand controller - hand controller stays at the front for obvious reasons)
Lost World (general plus hand controller - hand controller stays at the front for obvious reasons)
Virtua On 2 (I believe there is no first-person view easter-egg/cheat mode in this game, unlike the first one? If there is no first-person mode then VR doesn't make sense)

Seriously, I'll go insane if I can play all the racing games with a force feedback steering wheel and in VR. Set this to 4K and you'll be playing Sega racing games the right way with insanity.
Pity we can't do this for Sega Model 2 too.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts along with possible ways to make this a reality and even if it's feasible. Of course, it's all modding as no model 3 game features VR or any free movement of that form.

[cglev]

This would require serious work as the information you'd need doesnt exist. i admit it would be amazing to play though.

Id imagine the easiest way to do something like this would be to create the vehicle interior, details and tracking in Unity3D or similar application. Then somehow integrate the emulator and create a window in Unity on a curved gameobject. You'd require a slight curve to display the emulator otherwise you would'nt see anything outside the side windows, also youd have weird distortions if the curve was too great. To get everything to work correctly is probably not something many people would be willing to attemp. Ive seen some emulators running in Unity but ive never tried it myself.

If you can run the emulator in something like Unity then a basic Demo would'nt be a problem ( im pretty sure someone has Mame or Retroarch working to display on virtual reality arcade cabinets. so this could get you started ). Hopefully this helps a bit.

[Bart]

Are you sure your stomach could handle it? Acceleration is a sure fire way to get severe nausea. Few people can tolerate it. By default, many of the games do render enough outside of the immediate view frustum that you could look around a bit (Nik wrote a graphical debugger that allowed the camera to be moved and it was pretty cool) but for maximal effect, the games would have to be hacked to hijack their cameras.

[cglev]

i probably couldnt manage VR, i cant even do first person games these days without feeling like ive been on 100 rollercoasters. id still love to pick one up to see what they are like. The closest i got to VR was the dodgy 90s ones.

[MrThunderwing]

My mileage with VR and nausea is quite variable. I think if you've got a cockpit around you for racing/flying stuff it seems to help, I've been able to play PSVR WipEout Omega Collection and Star Wars Squadrons for a decent amount of time with only a slight bit of 'stomach disquietness'. However, there's a PSVR luge game I gave a try, that you control with the headset itself and within the space of 5 minutes of playing it, I thought I was going to hurl my guts up. It was not pleasant.

[Ian]

You could do it and it probably wouldn't be that hard. But you need to figure out the units the game is using because the head and eye positions must be translated with the same units

[nuexzz..]

I have the "x" "y" views of scud and d2 on all their cameras the problem as we all know memory addresses change on every build maybe using "lua" some scripts could be created (without taking responsibility) I have

[Trojan X]

I think I can definitely take on the VR crazy ride. Maybe I won't be able to do 1-hour worth, but I'll very much welcome the opportunity to jump in time and time again at convenience. In fact, I think we'll all go mad with insane excitement if we can get all the games I listed working fully in VR. Can you imagine the Night-Time race in VR, seeing the aircraft above your head while you drifting the car in your force feedback wheel? Sega Rally 2 will make everyone here lose their mind. Modded VR is truly the right way to go for SuperModel.

Maybe the first step is to nail the free cam and 3D aspect. After that optimise the controls then work on the interior as final? Exciting if can be done.

[Bart]

I have the "x" "y" views of scud and d2 on all their cameras the problem as we all know memory addresses change on every build maybe using "lua" some scripts could be created (without taking responsibility) I have

We need to figure out their memory addresses in the Model 3 memory map. If you can provide this, that would be useful information to have. I assume that right now, you have their positions inside the Supermodel memory space. If you can locate the beginning of the RAM region, this would help us get addresses that are independent of the emulator itself.

[Bart]

Speaking of VR, I'm working on some prototypes. I'd love to be able to play retro games with people casually but that's an almost intractable business problem more so than a tech problem. I whipped up this demo over the past week of a persistent "Clubhouse" style chat centered around a spatial anchor (in this case, a water cooler) in mixed reality: Betterverse Prototype: Lens Studio Chat. Here, the idea is that I'm working on a Lens Studio app and feel like I want to talk shop, so I don my HMD, glance over to the water cooler, and see a couple of people in the Lens Studio channel and join them. An earlier iteration from a few days before shows me observing multiple channels: Betterverse Demo: The Water Cooler. What do you guys think?

I wonder if I should repurpose this demo to show people hanging around and playing classic Sega games on a big screen and then pitch it to Sega? Haha. But ideally, you'd really want Capcom, Konami, and others on board. I can't imagine them wanting to license content at a reasonable rate.