Mario Kart in a real vehicle with VR!
Casey Neistat, a famous Youtuber I follow, is launching his creative studio in New York, called 368. And he opened a position for the Head of Gaming. I am living in New York, so I accepted the challenge to apply.
I always like to create things that are not the usual ones, so I thought about combining VR and a real vehicle. And to give some extra points, I wanted to do it in 24 hours, from the idea to the video.
So I set up a few cameras recording videos and timelapses during the process, and, this has been the result!
Maybe this is the first time someone is doing this in a real vehicle without any external tracking and with a standalone VR kit. I have used the Lenovo Mirage headset, that is powered by Daydream, and I have been the first one amazed with the tracking accuracy of the WorldSense technology. It has milimetric repeatability, I can be taking laps and laps, and still I am not crashing with the walls! :-)
Making-of step 1: The vehicle
The hovervoard I used is the Gyroor Warrior 8.5, it is a very good hoverboard for the price, big wheels and a little bit off-road.
For the platform, I went to a Best Buy I have near my house and bought this one, that has two very good springs to soften the suspension.
Step 2: Ensure that the inside-out tracking system repeats its position each lap.
I marked the position in the floor of the three wheels, to see if there is any accumulative drift that can make me crash into the room walls. The good news: it is not! Well done Google!
Then I took the measurements between the reference point and the walls to reconstruct a 3D model of the room in Unity to place the limits of the circuit. Unfortunately my house isn’t huge, so the circuit was small. If anyone is interested in doing this in a huge karting circuit with multiple players, power-ups and weapons, let me know and I will help you.
Step 3: Design the best possible small circuit
I didd’t have a lot of chances to create huge curves, so I added 3 main curves, with different shapes connected with a small curve and a “ large” straight road. I added some Mario ambiented figures, a wink to the 368 studio with a 3D model of its door, ans a quick script to make coins rotate. Enought for a 24h project, next time, lap times! :-)
Step 4: Load the software and add an external camera
I deployed the project to the Lenovo Mirage headset, it is an Android device, so there are not special requirements beyond adding the Daydream SDK.
Cause the device is using its two frontal cameras for the tracking, and I want to record the first person view of the real world, I have added a GoPro Hero 4 in a “ very professional way” :-), trying to not to obstruct the view of the tracking cameras, and it worked very well!
Step 5: Enjoy! A lot!!
I was surprised with the result. VERY surprised. Well done Daydream!
And if for some remote reason this article lands in Oculus or Vive, I will be more than happy to do the same with the Santa Cruz and Focus in another 24h :-)
