Hey Forum,
I have been brainstorming again 🙂
But before I share my thoughts and ideas regarding content and gaming experiences for "Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rigs"
Some of you might be asking, "What exactly is a "Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig"?"
Like shown in the image above....
These rigs would not be "driver seat" arcade rigs, but simulation rigs built inside real life sized vehicles. The vehicles don't have to be functional. But they would be modeled to real life scale and look like they are fully functional vehicles.
The goal here is to provide "next level" cockpit VR experiences utilizing a combination of mixed reality, motion simulation, and bass rumble.
"Mixed Reality" is just a fancy term that means the virtual cockpit and the inside of these rigs would be nearly identical to one another. So if hand tracking is implemented this would allow a user to touch a lot of what they see in the game.
Motion Simulation would use actuators, lifts, hydraulics and electric motors to loosely simulate G forces. These simulated G Forces could be subtle tilt profiles done with lifting and lowering corners of the frame to a more intense G Force simulation such as rotation of the entire rig to simulate being spun out or doing donuts. Dialing in these profiles and motion simulation in a standardized fashion is key. I don't want to toss the user around like a rag doll so the G force simulation would not be an exaggeration of said G forces....
Bass rumble would be the primary means of providing haptic feedback in these rigs. Motion Simulation would be a secondary layer. This includes the roar of the engine, the sound and feeling of driving on different terrains and it would simulate the feeling of a collision.
Initially there would be two distinct platforms for Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rigs.
1) Rigs that use Steering Wheel and Pedals.
2) and Rigs that use Flight sticks
This discussion will focus on the Steering wheel and Pedal side of things for now.
Obviously these rigs would be great for first person perspective racing sim games like Forza or Project Cars.
In fact I think the PC version of Project Cars already has some VR support. While VR support is great and all, one must keep in mind that the product wasn't built specifically for VR from the ground up. Perhaps It would be possible to create a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig specifically for Project Cars, but I don't think that content and that kind of gaming experience alone would live up to the potential of this platform.
Instead I would strongly protest against porting and suggest that one develop content specifically for VR and design said gaming experience to take full advantage of the associated Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig.
With that said I have my own thoughts and ideas regarding content and the kinds of gaming experiences I would like to experiment with on these rigs
So far I have four initial projects in mind;
-NASCAR VR
-Need for Speed VR
-Chaos Engine
-Quarter Mile (kind of a hybrid project that technically is and is not a MRMSR)
I will parse these ideas out into their own individual posts because I will probably hit max character capacity if I don't.
I have been brainstorming again 🙂
But before I share my thoughts and ideas regarding content and gaming experiences for "Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rigs"
Some of you might be asking, "What exactly is a "Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig"?"
Like shown in the image above....
These rigs would not be "driver seat" arcade rigs, but simulation rigs built inside real life sized vehicles. The vehicles don't have to be functional. But they would be modeled to real life scale and look like they are fully functional vehicles.
The goal here is to provide "next level" cockpit VR experiences utilizing a combination of mixed reality, motion simulation, and bass rumble.
"Mixed Reality" is just a fancy term that means the virtual cockpit and the inside of these rigs would be nearly identical to one another. So if hand tracking is implemented this would allow a user to touch a lot of what they see in the game.
Motion Simulation would use actuators, lifts, hydraulics and electric motors to loosely simulate G forces. These simulated G Forces could be subtle tilt profiles done with lifting and lowering corners of the frame to a more intense G Force simulation such as rotation of the entire rig to simulate being spun out or doing donuts. Dialing in these profiles and motion simulation in a standardized fashion is key. I don't want to toss the user around like a rag doll so the G force simulation would not be an exaggeration of said G forces....
Bass rumble would be the primary means of providing haptic feedback in these rigs. Motion Simulation would be a secondary layer. This includes the roar of the engine, the sound and feeling of driving on different terrains and it would simulate the feeling of a collision.
Initially there would be two distinct platforms for Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rigs.
1) Rigs that use Steering Wheel and Pedals.
2) and Rigs that use Flight sticks
This discussion will focus on the Steering wheel and Pedal side of things for now.
Obviously these rigs would be great for first person perspective racing sim games like Forza or Project Cars.
In fact I think the PC version of Project Cars already has some VR support. While VR support is great and all, one must keep in mind that the product wasn't built specifically for VR from the ground up. Perhaps It would be possible to create a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig specifically for Project Cars, but I don't think that content and that kind of gaming experience alone would live up to the potential of this platform.
Instead I would strongly protest against porting and suggest that one develop content specifically for VR and design said gaming experience to take full advantage of the associated Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig.
With that said I have my own thoughts and ideas regarding content and the kinds of gaming experiences I would like to experiment with on these rigs
So far I have four initial projects in mind;
-NASCAR VR
-Need for Speed VR
-Chaos Engine
-Quarter Mile (kind of a hybrid project that technically is and is not a MRMSR)
I will parse these ideas out into their own individual posts because I will probably hit max character capacity if I don't.
NASCAR VR
I have suggested before in other posts that a good start for a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig experience would be something based on NASCAR, given the nature of the race cars being function over form by design.
It surely would cost a lot less to create a model stock racing car rig then it would cost to do the same for a Bugatti...
Also think of how iconic these race cars are and how iconic NASCAR racing is in general. Who wouldn't want to sit in one of these and feel like a race car driver for a bit?
But other then that I haven't given much thought as to the actual gaming experience until now. One of my initial concerns were it might actually be boring as a gaming experience if all you do in the game is drive around in a circle.
So I dove in and came up with two different modes of play
The modes are: Arcade and Fantasy
Arcade
The arcade mode focuses primarily on just the racing bit and attempts to create a fun and compelling gaming experience out of it.
It would be an exhibit of 6 rigs oriented in a manner very similar to this:
Although those would be NASCAR themed rigs not super mini type rigs.
There would be no AI race cars on the track just the players. There would be no pit stops. No qualifying and no crazy amount of laps. Just a get set, get ready...GO
The first to 6-10 laps wins. Or however many laps equate to each individual gaming session being about 15-30 minutes in duration.
The winner of the race gets to submit their username to a global leader board from within the rig and the winner gets to remain in the rig to race again.
The rest of the players have to go back to the end of the line.
So basically the idea is to shuffle 5 new players in and out of the the rigs every 15-30 minutes to keep the line moving with one player remaining in the rig and racing again as a returning champion.
Aside from shuffling new players in and out and having a returning champ...
One idea to make the arcade racing scenario more compelling as a gaming experience is to have a sort of "boost" mechanic like a nitro boost for NASCAR racing. A user would get a set amount of boosts and earn additional boosts by performing well in the race.
The rigs would be designed to simulate a manual transmission type of driving experience which could allow for some level of skill to be involved in the race. Alternatively to be more casual the players could choose to switch to automatic but then in the middle of the race choose to go back to manual on the fly. One idea is that as a player you would have the set amount of boosts but lose the ability to earn more boosts in automatic mode. This would provide an incentive to learn how to master the manual transmission gaming mechanic in order to be able to earn more boosts in the race. Players who master the manual transmission gaming mechanics have a clear advantage over players who choose to do automatic. But manual is also more risky as a result.
If you wreck you are out of the race no re spawning.
The player is advised to stay in the rig until the race is finished and during this intermission is encouraged to do practice runs in the rig.
Fantasy
Just as the title of the mode implies it is all about creating a fantasy of being a race car driver. To achieve that fantasy in a fun gaming experience fashion the idea is to create more of a survival type game then a racing game which I think would be very neat to experiment with.
The exhibit would have a circular stage with 4 race car rigs oriented at the north, south, east, and west poles of the stage looking like they are racing around a track.
In the center of the stage could be a pole holding up a huge banner or big jumbo-tron like display for the exhibit.
Also on the stage would be 4 computer kiosk each oriented towards a rig.
This experience would have "players" and "hosts".
The hosts could be professional NASCAR drivers and officials or just actors but either way they are on the stage in a full racing uniform, in character using mics and infographic menus provided by the computers to communicate with their players and help them stay in the race.
The idea is that the player and the hosts would function as a team alongside various AI counter parts like pit chief, crew engineers, owners, etc.
The idea behind the game would be to not win the race but to do whatever is possible to just stay in the race like making pit stops or staying back to play it safe or pushing forward to get credits that can be spent during pits stops to stay in the race.
Each lap increases the difficulty of staying in the race. Also the closer you get to the front the more hostile the AI drivers are towards you. And when they are hostile they are literally trying to make you crash. But also the closer you get to the front the more points you have to spend on staying in the race so it is a risk vs reward kind of gaming experience and the host is there to help the player make those kinds of decisions.
The idea is that a fantasy scenario would go through the motions of an entire NASCAR racing event from start to finish. With the exception of qualifying which would be determined by luck like rolling some dice. As the difficulty increases it becomes nearly impossible to stay in the race and eventually there should only be one player left in play forcing a full reset.
When a player drops out by wrecking their car, or running out of credits and thus unable to get their car back in play the host has to wait for the reset to get another player in order to get back in the game.
A reset occurs when there is only one player left in play. If the algorithms are dialed in it should be at about the 45 minute mark where it is neck and neck between two teams who played their cards right and got lucky. Once there is only one team left in play that team "wins". Since this is a survival kind of game, the last man standing is the winner regardless of their position in the actual race.
Since this experience relies on human hosts to go through inforgraphics and communicate with players via wireless mics and attempt to guide players on the best decisions to keep them in the race in real time you would probably have to rotate out staff and have daytime hosts, afternoon hosts and night hosts. You do not want to overwork the hosts. You want them fresh and fully engaged in the experience being competitive and having just as much fun as the players.
I like the idea of using human hosts but I suppose one could accomplish the same thing with AI and pre-recorded dialog. So in that regard you might not need the hosts but I would really like to experiment with including a human element in costume and in character to facilitate that role.
I know EA has an exclusive licensing deal with NASCAR but this is on a whole other level so anything is possible.
I have suggested before in other posts that a good start for a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig experience would be something based on NASCAR, given the nature of the race cars being function over form by design.
It surely would cost a lot less to create a model stock racing car rig then it would cost to do the same for a Bugatti...
Also think of how iconic these race cars are and how iconic NASCAR racing is in general. Who wouldn't want to sit in one of these and feel like a race car driver for a bit?
But other then that I haven't given much thought as to the actual gaming experience until now. One of my initial concerns were it might actually be boring as a gaming experience if all you do in the game is drive around in a circle.
So I dove in and came up with two different modes of play
The modes are: Arcade and Fantasy
Arcade
The arcade mode focuses primarily on just the racing bit and attempts to create a fun and compelling gaming experience out of it.
It would be an exhibit of 6 rigs oriented in a manner very similar to this:
Although those would be NASCAR themed rigs not super mini type rigs.
There would be no AI race cars on the track just the players. There would be no pit stops. No qualifying and no crazy amount of laps. Just a get set, get ready...GO
The first to 6-10 laps wins. Or however many laps equate to each individual gaming session being about 15-30 minutes in duration.
The winner of the race gets to submit their username to a global leader board from within the rig and the winner gets to remain in the rig to race again.
The rest of the players have to go back to the end of the line.
So basically the idea is to shuffle 5 new players in and out of the the rigs every 15-30 minutes to keep the line moving with one player remaining in the rig and racing again as a returning champion.
Aside from shuffling new players in and out and having a returning champ...
One idea to make the arcade racing scenario more compelling as a gaming experience is to have a sort of "boost" mechanic like a nitro boost for NASCAR racing. A user would get a set amount of boosts and earn additional boosts by performing well in the race.
The rigs would be designed to simulate a manual transmission type of driving experience which could allow for some level of skill to be involved in the race. Alternatively to be more casual the players could choose to switch to automatic but then in the middle of the race choose to go back to manual on the fly. One idea is that as a player you would have the set amount of boosts but lose the ability to earn more boosts in automatic mode. This would provide an incentive to learn how to master the manual transmission gaming mechanic in order to be able to earn more boosts in the race. Players who master the manual transmission gaming mechanics have a clear advantage over players who choose to do automatic. But manual is also more risky as a result.
If you wreck you are out of the race no re spawning.
The player is advised to stay in the rig until the race is finished and during this intermission is encouraged to do practice runs in the rig.
Fantasy
Just as the title of the mode implies it is all about creating a fantasy of being a race car driver. To achieve that fantasy in a fun gaming experience fashion the idea is to create more of a survival type game then a racing game which I think would be very neat to experiment with.
The exhibit would have a circular stage with 4 race car rigs oriented at the north, south, east, and west poles of the stage looking like they are racing around a track.
In the center of the stage could be a pole holding up a huge banner or big jumbo-tron like display for the exhibit.
Also on the stage would be 4 computer kiosk each oriented towards a rig.
This experience would have "players" and "hosts".
The hosts could be professional NASCAR drivers and officials or just actors but either way they are on the stage in a full racing uniform, in character using mics and infographic menus provided by the computers to communicate with their players and help them stay in the race.
The idea is that the player and the hosts would function as a team alongside various AI counter parts like pit chief, crew engineers, owners, etc.
The idea behind the game would be to not win the race but to do whatever is possible to just stay in the race like making pit stops or staying back to play it safe or pushing forward to get credits that can be spent during pits stops to stay in the race.
Each lap increases the difficulty of staying in the race. Also the closer you get to the front the more hostile the AI drivers are towards you. And when they are hostile they are literally trying to make you crash. But also the closer you get to the front the more points you have to spend on staying in the race so it is a risk vs reward kind of gaming experience and the host is there to help the player make those kinds of decisions.
The idea is that a fantasy scenario would go through the motions of an entire NASCAR racing event from start to finish. With the exception of qualifying which would be determined by luck like rolling some dice. As the difficulty increases it becomes nearly impossible to stay in the race and eventually there should only be one player left in play forcing a full reset.
When a player drops out by wrecking their car, or running out of credits and thus unable to get their car back in play the host has to wait for the reset to get another player in order to get back in the game.
A reset occurs when there is only one player left in play. If the algorithms are dialed in it should be at about the 45 minute mark where it is neck and neck between two teams who played their cards right and got lucky. Once there is only one team left in play that team "wins". Since this is a survival kind of game, the last man standing is the winner regardless of their position in the actual race.
Since this experience relies on human hosts to go through inforgraphics and communicate with players via wireless mics and attempt to guide players on the best decisions to keep them in the race in real time you would probably have to rotate out staff and have daytime hosts, afternoon hosts and night hosts. You do not want to overwork the hosts. You want them fresh and fully engaged in the experience being competitive and having just as much fun as the players.
I like the idea of using human hosts but I suppose one could accomplish the same thing with AI and pre-recorded dialog. So in that regard you might not need the hosts but I would really like to experiment with including a human element in costume and in character to facilitate that role.
I know EA has an exclusive licensing deal with NASCAR but this is on a whole other level so anything is possible.
Need For Speed VR
I want to use the Need For Speed IP because it is kind of synonymous with high speed police chases which would be the core theme of this gaming experience. In essence the gaming experience would be a lot like bumper cars but on a whole other level.
One of the rigs would be like this:
Or a scale model rig of some visually striking concept car that never made it into actual production and could be acquired simply for its body and interior at a reasonable price.
It is going to be crazy expensive to model a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig for a multi-million dollar car anyways, no matter how you go about doing it, not to mention you are going to have a lot of people getting in and out of it.....with any luck the concept car approach might be the most cost-effective.
Alternatively you could partner with one of these high-end automobile makers or a very rich private owner offer them royalties or put emphasis on brand recognition and marketing and maybe they donate....
Again the rig doesn't have to be fully functional. There is no need to have an engine for instance. It just has to look like a fully functional vehicle.
The other rig would obviously be like this;
I actually kind of want at least two maybe three cop cars....
The idea behind this gaming experience is that it would take place in a sand-box type game-world much like Grand Theft Auto. The player in the sports car is being chased for some unspecified reason. I suppose if Need For Speed was unavailable one could use Grand Theft Auto or Fast and Furious IP instead. Or if you are feeling exceptionally creative feel free to come up with a unique IP for this, but I think an association with a pre-existing IP would be ideal for this.
Anyways....
One player would be in the sports car something so visually striking and high end that anyone would love to sit in it for a bit and pretend to be driving it around in a virtual world. And aside from being chased by police players and police AI vehicles that is basically all this player actually gets to do. Drive a fancy car around in a virtual world keep it fueled via some NPC passenger and get it repaired at a shop similar to GTA...
The other players would be in the cop car rigs. I want at least two players chasing the one so they could work together as a team, setting traps and trying to spin out the player in the sports car.
Since getting "spun out" is such an important part of this gaming experience the sports car rig will actually be able to fully rotate and be spun around as part of its motion simulation profile.
Admittedly....
This is probably beyond the realm of realistic given how expensive it would be to build. Unless of course you choose to abandon the Mixed Reality part and opt to go with just driver seat rigs. Which would make it pointless because why bother if you are not going for a full mixed reality experience?
But I decided to include it here because it would be such a fun experience. One player would be going for a joyride in a very fancy car and eventually end up being chased. The other two players would be pretending to be police officers and work together to catch the sports car and have a lot of fun things they could do in their chase like set traps and interact with NPC police vehicles like helicopters or drones.
Also the idea that if a cop car player manages to get in close and side swipes the sports car at the right angle this will result in getting spun out which will in turn initialize a motion simulation feedback to kick in and rotate the car almost 1:1.
The police players will have GPS maps and be able to track the sports car player. The sports car player just drives as accurately and as fast as they can trying to learn the layout of the virtual world and perhaps with a points system be able to re-fuel and repair their car.
On the flip-side the police cars have like infinite fuel and can take like infinite damage.
The gaming experience should come with a time limit too. So if the police players don't catch the sports car player within X amount of time the sports car player wins.
Neat right?
I want to use the Need For Speed IP because it is kind of synonymous with high speed police chases which would be the core theme of this gaming experience. In essence the gaming experience would be a lot like bumper cars but on a whole other level.
One of the rigs would be like this:
Or a scale model rig of some visually striking concept car that never made it into actual production and could be acquired simply for its body and interior at a reasonable price.
It is going to be crazy expensive to model a Mixed Reality Motion Simulation Rig for a multi-million dollar car anyways, no matter how you go about doing it, not to mention you are going to have a lot of people getting in and out of it.....with any luck the concept car approach might be the most cost-effective.
Alternatively you could partner with one of these high-end automobile makers or a very rich private owner offer them royalties or put emphasis on brand recognition and marketing and maybe they donate....
Again the rig doesn't have to be fully functional. There is no need to have an engine for instance. It just has to look like a fully functional vehicle.
The other rig would obviously be like this;
I actually kind of want at least two maybe three cop cars....
The idea behind this gaming experience is that it would take place in a sand-box type game-world much like Grand Theft Auto. The player in the sports car is being chased for some unspecified reason. I suppose if Need For Speed was unavailable one could use Grand Theft Auto or Fast and Furious IP instead. Or if you are feeling exceptionally creative feel free to come up with a unique IP for this, but I think an association with a pre-existing IP would be ideal for this.
Anyways....
One player would be in the sports car something so visually striking and high end that anyone would love to sit in it for a bit and pretend to be driving it around in a virtual world. And aside from being chased by police players and police AI vehicles that is basically all this player actually gets to do. Drive a fancy car around in a virtual world keep it fueled via some NPC passenger and get it repaired at a shop similar to GTA...
The other players would be in the cop car rigs. I want at least two players chasing the one so they could work together as a team, setting traps and trying to spin out the player in the sports car.
Since getting "spun out" is such an important part of this gaming experience the sports car rig will actually be able to fully rotate and be spun around as part of its motion simulation profile.
Admittedly....
This is probably beyond the realm of realistic given how expensive it would be to build. Unless of course you choose to abandon the Mixed Reality part and opt to go with just driver seat rigs. Which would make it pointless because why bother if you are not going for a full mixed reality experience?
But I decided to include it here because it would be such a fun experience. One player would be going for a joyride in a very fancy car and eventually end up being chased. The other two players would be pretending to be police officers and work together to catch the sports car and have a lot of fun things they could do in their chase like set traps and interact with NPC police vehicles like helicopters or drones.
Also the idea that if a cop car player manages to get in close and side swipes the sports car at the right angle this will result in getting spun out which will in turn initialize a motion simulation feedback to kick in and rotate the car almost 1:1.
The police players will have GPS maps and be able to track the sports car player. The sports car player just drives as accurately and as fast as they can trying to learn the layout of the virtual world and perhaps with a points system be able to re-fuel and repair their car.
On the flip-side the police cars have like infinite fuel and can take like infinite damage.
The gaming experience should come with a time limit too. So if the police players don't catch the sports car player within X amount of time the sports car player wins.
Neat right?
Chaos Engine
This one is a unique kind of driving simulation game that I want to experiment with. It is intended to take advantage of the unprecedented level of immersion in these Rigs to provide an extremely thrilling experience that has absolutely nothing to do with racing.
Unlike the other ideas this one is entirely solo....
It is part cinematic, part adventure and part open world driving maze.
I am also not sure what the rig should be modeled after as the model of the rig itself is not all that important to the theme nor the experience.
So just picture some generic car for this;
This rig would be like a pandoras box of thrilling experiences.
All of the experiences would be like driving around a sand boxed virtual world like San Andreas from GTA that start off as a nice road trips; like a family vacation, or teenagers driving to a concert, or newlyweds -- but quickly ends up putting the player and all the characters in the vehicle directly in the middle of some natural disaster and you have to drive through all of the chaos that ensues from that.
It should be very cinematic in that the characters have a distinct personality with loads of dialog, bickering and back and forth comments that breath life into the characters and has them behaving in logical ways that either help the situation or make it worse depending on how you choose to navigate through the natural disaster.
The natural disaster could be realistic like driving though a tornado, or driving during an earthquake and the resulting tsunami, or driving through a huge forest fire...
or the natural disaster could be considerably imaginative like driving through the onset of a zombie apocalypse or driving through an ongoing alien invasion.
It is a pretty broad theme.
I find this project to be interesting from an experimental perspective because it is a gaming experience that attempts to leverage a steering wheel and pedals but has absolutely nothing to do with racing....
This one is a unique kind of driving simulation game that I want to experiment with. It is intended to take advantage of the unprecedented level of immersion in these Rigs to provide an extremely thrilling experience that has absolutely nothing to do with racing.
Unlike the other ideas this one is entirely solo....
It is part cinematic, part adventure and part open world driving maze.
I am also not sure what the rig should be modeled after as the model of the rig itself is not all that important to the theme nor the experience.
So just picture some generic car for this;
This rig would be like a pandoras box of thrilling experiences.
All of the experiences would be like driving around a sand boxed virtual world like San Andreas from GTA that start off as a nice road trips; like a family vacation, or teenagers driving to a concert, or newlyweds -- but quickly ends up putting the player and all the characters in the vehicle directly in the middle of some natural disaster and you have to drive through all of the chaos that ensues from that.
It should be very cinematic in that the characters have a distinct personality with loads of dialog, bickering and back and forth comments that breath life into the characters and has them behaving in logical ways that either help the situation or make it worse depending on how you choose to navigate through the natural disaster.
The natural disaster could be realistic like driving though a tornado, or driving during an earthquake and the resulting tsunami, or driving through a huge forest fire...
or the natural disaster could be considerably imaginative like driving through the onset of a zombie apocalypse or driving through an ongoing alien invasion.
It is a pretty broad theme.
I find this project to be interesting from an experimental perspective because it is a gaming experience that attempts to leverage a steering wheel and pedals but has absolutely nothing to do with racing....
Quarter Mile
This one is a hybrid of sorts. It is not a game but more of a ride. However, the way I want to do it, would kind of blur the lines between the two, hopefully creating a unique kind of experience in the process.
We could call it an "Interactive Ride"?
Essentially I want to create a more compelling motion simulation based cock pit VR experience and aside from strapping HMDs on people and have them watch a 360 VR video while riding a roller coaster.......
The first thing that came to mind was some sort of drag strip racing VR attraction. In drag strip racing the vehicles go in a straight line which would make it easier to simulate the G Forces from that.
The rig would be more like this:
Except with one seat and completely enclosed in a roll-cage vehicle looking way....
The rig itself would not match 1:1 with its virtual counter-part sacrificing some of that mixed reality immersion to gain the thrill of a 3-5g motion simulation ride.
The idea is to develop some sort of web and mobile game that allows players to create and customize drag strip racing vehicles using virtual credits. The players could earn credits by winning "virtual races" against other players, buy them with real money, or create and sell their virtual racing vehicles.
The players would spend the credits to unlock vehicle classes like muscle car, imports, trucks, and funny cars. By unlocking a class you get a free vehicle to work with out of it. If you want to have two vehicles in the same class you would have to buy a vehicle from another player or buy a cheap stock vehicle and work with that.
The player could customize the look of their vehicles by purchasing virtual paint jobs and virtual decals/graffiti with their credits in a similar way to how you can customize vehicles in Grand Theft Auto.
The customization of the performance systems of the vehicles would need to have a little more depth to it then what Grand Theft Auto does or it wouldn't be much of a game.
I think the performance customization system should be asset based and work a lot like equipping weapons and armor to a character in a RPG game.
The players acquire virtual assets either by buying them with virtual credits, winning them, or buying a whole vehicle from a player then taking off the assets from that vehicle.
Each virtual asset would have pros and cons associated with it. In that when installing the asset it increase one aspect of performance but lowers another aspect.
There could be 4 classes of performance (possibly more). The classes would be raw-power, top-speed/weight, and stability.
Like for instance lets say you purchase a virtual asset and install/equip that asset to one of your vehicles. In the description of the asset it would say "30% increase in horsepower, 7% increase in top-speed, 5% decrease in stability and a 3% chance the vehicle will blow up.
The races themselves are all done automatically with no direct player involvement. Basically the algorithms crunch the numbers, roll the dice and a winner is determined.
The game could be a stand-alone product and could operate just fine without the "Interactive Attraction" associated with it and depending on the way it goes you could have a huge hit with the game itself becoming very popular.
If the game does become very popular then building this Interactive Attraction for it would make a lot more sense then just building it from scratch right off the bat. But then having an Interactive Attraction for the game right off the bat would be a rather genius marketing strategy for the product too...
Either way the end goal would be to create this Interactive Attraction and a game associated with it.
So the Interactive Attraction is just a ride for the game.
Basically the player waits in line and when they are up next to race in a certain class they load in one of their vehicles from the game that they have been customizing.
When they strap in and put on the HMD they are inside their vehicle and have to drive their vehicle using the steering wheel pedals up to the starting line. Once they get to the starting line the rest would be just a ride. The players don't have control over the vehicle after that point.
From there the outcome of the race and the winner would be determined by the same algorithms that crunch the numbers in the virtual races that occur in the game.
But this time the player gets to sit in and feel what it would be like to race in their vehicles.
So in one race you might launch off the line getting hit with 3.gs and your vehicle might blow up and you coast to a stop, NPCs come running towards your vehicle with fire hydrants.
Another one you might lose stability the vehicle might veer off track with the rig tilting slightly and you might crash which would be simulated by the brakes engaging and a well timed sub-woofer thump.
I suppose one could just do the Interactive Attraction without the game aspect of it too. Considering that for users who haven't played the game would be just given a random vehicle for the ride anyways. Obviously the game could exist without the ride too. But I think the ideal scenario would be if both could exist and work together in harmony, then the end result of the experience would be that much more compelling and engaging.
This one is a hybrid of sorts. It is not a game but more of a ride. However, the way I want to do it, would kind of blur the lines between the two, hopefully creating a unique kind of experience in the process.
We could call it an "Interactive Ride"?
Essentially I want to create a more compelling motion simulation based cock pit VR experience and aside from strapping HMDs on people and have them watch a 360 VR video while riding a roller coaster.......
The first thing that came to mind was some sort of drag strip racing VR attraction. In drag strip racing the vehicles go in a straight line which would make it easier to simulate the G Forces from that.
The rig would be more like this:
Except with one seat and completely enclosed in a roll-cage vehicle looking way....
The rig itself would not match 1:1 with its virtual counter-part sacrificing some of that mixed reality immersion to gain the thrill of a 3-5g motion simulation ride.
The idea is to develop some sort of web and mobile game that allows players to create and customize drag strip racing vehicles using virtual credits. The players could earn credits by winning "virtual races" against other players, buy them with real money, or create and sell their virtual racing vehicles.
The players would spend the credits to unlock vehicle classes like muscle car, imports, trucks, and funny cars. By unlocking a class you get a free vehicle to work with out of it. If you want to have two vehicles in the same class you would have to buy a vehicle from another player or buy a cheap stock vehicle and work with that.
The player could customize the look of their vehicles by purchasing virtual paint jobs and virtual decals/graffiti with their credits in a similar way to how you can customize vehicles in Grand Theft Auto.
The customization of the performance systems of the vehicles would need to have a little more depth to it then what Grand Theft Auto does or it wouldn't be much of a game.
I think the performance customization system should be asset based and work a lot like equipping weapons and armor to a character in a RPG game.
The players acquire virtual assets either by buying them with virtual credits, winning them, or buying a whole vehicle from a player then taking off the assets from that vehicle.
Each virtual asset would have pros and cons associated with it. In that when installing the asset it increase one aspect of performance but lowers another aspect.
There could be 4 classes of performance (possibly more). The classes would be raw-power, top-speed/weight, and stability.
Like for instance lets say you purchase a virtual asset and install/equip that asset to one of your vehicles. In the description of the asset it would say "30% increase in horsepower, 7% increase in top-speed, 5% decrease in stability and a 3% chance the vehicle will blow up.
The races themselves are all done automatically with no direct player involvement. Basically the algorithms crunch the numbers, roll the dice and a winner is determined.
The game could be a stand-alone product and could operate just fine without the "Interactive Attraction" associated with it and depending on the way it goes you could have a huge hit with the game itself becoming very popular.
If the game does become very popular then building this Interactive Attraction for it would make a lot more sense then just building it from scratch right off the bat. But then having an Interactive Attraction for the game right off the bat would be a rather genius marketing strategy for the product too...
Either way the end goal would be to create this Interactive Attraction and a game associated with it.
So the Interactive Attraction is just a ride for the game.
Basically the player waits in line and when they are up next to race in a certain class they load in one of their vehicles from the game that they have been customizing.
When they strap in and put on the HMD they are inside their vehicle and have to drive their vehicle using the steering wheel pedals up to the starting line. Once they get to the starting line the rest would be just a ride. The players don't have control over the vehicle after that point.
From there the outcome of the race and the winner would be determined by the same algorithms that crunch the numbers in the virtual races that occur in the game.
But this time the player gets to sit in and feel what it would be like to race in their vehicles.
So in one race you might launch off the line getting hit with 3.gs and your vehicle might blow up and you coast to a stop, NPCs come running towards your vehicle with fire hydrants.
Another one you might lose stability the vehicle might veer off track with the rig tilting slightly and you might crash which would be simulated by the brakes engaging and a well timed sub-woofer thump.
I suppose one could just do the Interactive Attraction without the game aspect of it too. Considering that for users who haven't played the game would be just given a random vehicle for the ride anyways. Obviously the game could exist without the ride too. But I think the ideal scenario would be if both could exist and work together in harmony, then the end result of the experience would be that much more compelling and engaging.
