Hey,

My name is Alastair Grant, I am looking to start a gaming center business called the 3D Zone. I am only in the initial stages but it will be the first business to use the Virtusphere device (www.virtusphere.com) for entertainment purposes. It's a 10 foot hollow sphere, a user enters it from a hatch and wears a HMD and has a gun/controller.

There is currently only one game offered with the system by the manufacturer and I would like to expand by offering the Alien Trap developed FPS games for use within the 3DZone. I would like to find out about how I would go about making them compatible with the Virtusphere.

Here is what I was told by the manufacturer:

VirtuSphere systems are compatible with a number of games, simulation training exercises and literally thousands of 3D worlds available on the Web (via the “Cortona” VRML technology from Parallel Graphics)

In order to use 3D applications with Virtusphere the user interface system of 3D engine needs to be modified. It is recommended to use VRPN (Virtual-Reality Peripheral Network) as an interface for interaction between 3D applications and Virtusphere.

Data from 3DOF sensors on the virtual helmet and on the user manipulator can be received via VRPN libraries discussed in VRPN Manual (http://virtusphere.com/Appl_compatib.html). Received coordinates can be directly used for direction of virtual camera.

Data of player’s movements in space is provided by the sensor located under the sphere, which is treated by an application as an ordinary optical mouse. It is necessary to use data of changes of the mouse coordinates instead of absolute coordinates in order to provide infinite user’s movement. It is recommended to filter data from the sensor to ensure smooth user’s movement in the virtual space.
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I am not a computer programmer or technically inclined in the least. Does anyone know if this game would be compatible with the Virtusphere? Would there need to be adjustments-if so how much would it cost? I need a developer's help with this so if anyone is interested in helping me and maybe even becoming involved with creating/modifing software for use in the 3dZone in the future please either email or post a reply...any assistance would be much appreciated..

Thank you,

Alastair Grant
alastair@vrsimtech.com

I'm not actually offering working on this (don't have the time), but still:

At the first look it sounds like fun, but at a closer look many questions pop into my head...
-) How does jumping work in that sphere?
-) What about jumping in low-gravity maps?
-) Laser-jumps?
-) What about the movement-speed? How fast can you run inside the sphere, and how would you scale the speed? Would it feel awkward when walking slowly makes you run?

The other questions can be answered by the manual I guess/hope...

Darkplaces (the engine) seems to have some support for 3d-glasses or whatever (can render the view twice with different angles (eye-angles), I wonder in how far that's compatible to that helmet thingy)

Judging by my knowledge of both the Darkplaces engine(and gaming engines in general), the sphere itself, and some mental calculation as well as some thought from minor programming experience, getting Nexuiz to interact and work properly with this setup would require a massive amount of work.
The Darkplaces engine is designed to be an FPS engine.
If a player were to look around in the sphere, the whole view would have to change. To sucessfully allow the players view to move independently of the Gun and it's reciticle would require some reprogramming of Darkplaces or some heavy modding.
Nexuiz's gameplay is designed around quick and almost gravity defyining movement. Laser jumping would not be a great option for this setup, and that would be a big problem as the majority of the game is built around laser jumping(laser jump- using the laser to propel oneself 40-60 feet in the air with about a 10hp loss). Another big problem is that Nexuiz's movement speed is considerably fast(i.e. 30~60 mph with laser aided speed reaching 100mph) this is normal speed for most players. The game was not built to be in any way realistic. It's not impossible, it would just require a dedicated programming and modification team to get it working well.
Just thinkin out loud.

You could just alter the physics. Disable laser jumping, slow movement down a bit. Then you just have a typical quake/ut style fps.

i am very interested. join my site, http://kemical.0lx.net , and we can discuss this.

Thanks for the input so far.

I like what Sepelio said with respect to altering the physics. Sounds like the easiest solution, although online multiplayer would not be possible-I think.

Also the sphere can be either 3dof or 6dof depending on the Virtusphere package. So initially the aiming would be controlled by the head set (where you are looking). If I'm able to get his business going and generate some revenue I would upgrade to 6dof because of course that would be much better.

Alastair

Didn't someone already make a VR helmet work with Nexuiz or am I mistaken?

http://joelclemens.colinr.ca/thesis/what.html


Also, about changing the physics, you may want to check out some of the different Physics cfgs in the Nexuiz/data directory. Many of which emulate other games and styles.

you could probably just crank up the FOV, and write a script that changes the input on the controller to mouse movement and key presses. Not too difficult.

The players would be unable to play online, but playing against each other would seem to be the full goal. Hope it works out, I may need to travel out there just to try it