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Duo Sneak an Oculus Rift Onto Roller Coaster For a Wild Ride

Posted by timothy on from the keep-hands-and-arms-inside-the-cart-at-all-times dept.

New submitter bobbrocolli (3647945) writes "Equipped with a hidden laptop and Oculus Rift, O'Driscoll may be the first person to have ever gone on a 'Real VR' roller coaster with perfect motion feedback. The duo's system displayed a virtual version of the exact same roller coaster that O'Driscoll and Forder were on. With some practice they managed to sync the virtual reality roller coaster to the real rollercoaster."

4 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. article link after some googling - you're welcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://kotaku.com/they-took-an-oculus-rift-on-a-real-roller-coaster-for-s-1574145196

  2. And the point is ... by stevez67 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    pointless.

    1. Re:And the point is ... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I thought so too, until I read why they did it. They weren't just doing it for the lulz by riding a virtual coaster at the same time they were on it. The point was that you could use the coaster's tactile feedback with anything at all in VR. They used a virtual coaster because it was the simplest thing to test, but that is by no means where they want to see it end.

      Put differently, people could make tracks in VR that sync up to a roller coaster track, but then change out the scenario entirely. So instead of just riding a virtual coaster while on the coaster, you're suddenly piloting a jet in a dogfight, riding on the back of a dragon, swimming through blood vessels, or chasing a bounty target in space. It'd be the same tactile experience for all of them, but they would all seem wildly different.

      It seems like exactly the sort of thing that might have applications in a theme park. It may also be useful for training purposes or for some weirder applications, such as trying to acclimate people to the nausea that might come from keeping the video out of sync with the tactile sensations.

  3. Re:WHERE THE HELL... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Informative

    The actual link:
    http://www.roadtovr.com/two-indie-devs-snuck-concealed-oculus-rift-laptop-onto-rollercoaster-ride-lifetime/

    No reason to give kotaku clicks for their brief summary of another article.

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