Oculus Rift and Kinect combine to create virtual reality Paperboy game

Oculus rift

Although the Oculus Rift is a great piece of kit on its own, it is fast becoming apparent the VR headset becomes even better when combined with other bits of tech. The Omni treadmill can be used to make moving around easy, and Atlas will enable holodecks to be a reality. Now creative tech company Globalcore has taken Oculus Rift in another direction by combining it with an bike and a Kinect sensor.

Globalcore’s ultimate goal was to create a virtual reality version of the classic game Paperboy. They have fittingly called it PaperDude VR. The game was made possible by combining four pieces of tech. The Oculus Rift, Kinect, KickR, and a bike.

The KickR sensor is used in conjunction with an iPad to tell how fast the bike is traveling, which is then relayed to the 3D world being viewed through the Oculus Rift. The Kinect is used to track the position and motion of the player’s arms. When they make a throwing action, it throws a paper in the given direction in the game. As for the 3D world of the game itself, it was created using Unity, with Minecraft-style blocky graphics.

I think it’s the addition of Kinect that really makes this work as you can actually see your own hands and arms moving around without actually having to hold a controller. It must be weird at first, but it’s a really natural interface because you are doing the exact same actions as you would on a real bike throwing real papers.

PowerDude VR certainly isn’t cheap to setup, and that’s mainly because of the $1,100 the KickR sensors costs. Add in the Oculus Rift, Kinect, and iPad, and this becomes a pretty expensive game ofPaperboy.