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[Experience / Simulator] Flying in dreams

bwiklund
Honored Guest



26MB download (PC)
http://flyingindreams.com <- the site

A flight simulator where you steer by turning your head. Take it easy at first, and get a feel for it.

The controls are just like a plane, with the three axes of rotation corresponding to pitch, yaw, and roll. Try to be mindful of where "forward" is, because if you look there, you will stop spinning 🙂

There are shortcuts to reset the game, show the center, and reset orientation. They're listed on the splash screen.

I've only shown a couple people, so I'd love to hear what works, and what doesn't.
62 REPLIES 62

ProfessorEAB
Honored Guest
HUGE fan of this, great job on the audio, it really makes it stand out. Can't wait to see where you take it next. (There are a lot of good suggestions on this thread already, particularly giving us something to do like rings or what have you.)

For those looking for the same experience but flying through a city like Superman, search for "Great Power" which was from the VR Jam. It has free roam and a "save the citizens" game mode; plus features like free look and even a hover.

Anyway, keep up the great work...this is one of my favorite demos these days!

pmarques
Honored Guest
Awesome demo.
With this kind of controls + razer hydra someone could make a Quidditch game!

zwickarr
Honored Guest
interesting and fun. i felt i was able to control it better when i held the Rift with both my hands.

ProfessorEAB
Honored Guest
So after messing around in it myself as well as putting others in it, I have some suggestions for you to address:

1) Make the map's reset boundaries larger so there is room for flying out to the edges. Also, at the same time I would soften the edges of the terrain map so it looks like you're on an island or something. The hard edges are jarring, look bad, and everyone I have put in this have told me this is the biggest problem of the demo. It has to do with the abruptness of the reset.

2) I would also raise the maximum height of the map a bit as well for the same reason. You want to push the boundaries a little as a flyer, not just go up to them. I want to go higher than the highest mountain, even if it's just a few feet.

3) When you fly straight up and you 'stall' out (awesome) - if you turn your head to then dive bomb back to the Earth, you actually continue to go backwards, which - if you are facing down at this point - you fly up backwards momentarily. Totally ruins the stalling/dive bomb feeling. You should look into a solution for that, I feel like it's a big one personally.


Keep up the great work!

gkgraeber
Honored Guest
"fudspong" wrote:
Point a desktop fan at yourself for greater immersion 🙂


This. Tried this while standing, almost lost my balance. Tried it again while chest down on the floor in a superman pose, almost achieved nirvana.

bwiklund
Honored Guest
"gkgraeber" wrote:
"fudspong" wrote:
Point a desktop fan at yourself for greater immersion 🙂


This. Tried this while standing, almost lost my balance. Tried it again while chest down on the floor in a superman pose, almost achieved nirvana.


Really? Lying on my stomach, I can't even look up enough to fly level. Maybe I need some pillows?

Drachenherz
Protege
Try lying on a bed, but with your head/upper shoulders over the edge, so you can still lay down comfortably but with your head free to look around in any direction. Voila. 😄

Natemo
Honored Guest
"bwiklund" wrote:
Thanks!

The sound is something I spent a whole evening on, since I used to be a sound engineer. There's a couple layers of wind that change pitch and volume with speed, which you noticed. There's also another factor, which is that if you turn your head the side, the ear facing the wind (forward) gets a louder rumbling wind. I'm pretty proud of that, even if no one is consciously aware of it.


I find sound very very important to games really can make or break it !

dhamma
Honored Guest
It would be neat to be able to hold a key to unlock look from steering.
Also, this is my favourite demo, hands down.

I think that for the relative simplicity of this demonstration, the effect is so powerful. When you update this with new maps and terrain or whatever you do, it will be even more amazing.

gkgraeber
Honored Guest
"dhamma" wrote:
It would be neat to be able to hold a key to unlock look from steering.
Also, this is my favourite demo, hands down.

I think that for the relative simplicity of this demonstration, the effect is so powerful. When you update this with new maps and terrain or whatever you do, it will be even more amazing.


I'm with dhamma - I go back to this demo fairly often, and use it to introduce friends to the Rift.

I would pay real money to be able to import USGS data as map files. There's at least one script I know of that takes one of their formats and makes terrain models in Unity:
http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=HeightmapFromGridFloat