While giving demos for MaximumVR I had a few people mention to really feel like a Godzilla monster they wanted to stomp around the city.
So to add feet Kate used some old Vive Dk1 controllers and attached them to rubber boots:
Had to use old Vive Dk1 controllers rather than the pre/consumer versions since those have a bandwidth limit of 2 (they go through the headset, while old ones have a separate connection).
We originally just tried strapping them on the feet directly, but this had the problem of not knowing where the ground was exactly (your feet would be at a different position depending on where you strapped them to your feet, plus the angle you strapped them on would need to be perfect). Giant rubber boots ended up working well also since players just naturally felt ridiculous wearing them.
No way players will actually be able to try this yet – but hopefully full body tracking will eventually be a thing!
One of the main Vive experiments I wanted to try since getting the first dev kit was interacting with fluid and soft bodies. I wasn’t sure of the general game idea, but I knew that just interacting with non rigid bodies would be incredibly satisfying.
To do this I had to grab the Flex branch of Unreal and compile it, then just added standard motion controllers. My plan was to make a pancake simulator game (just since the most satisfying liquid was one with a lot of viscosity, and pouring it then moving it around in a pan was fun). I knew the Flex liquid simulation was pretty limiting game wise (no collision event data, no way to serialize, and can only change properties for the entire group), but just messing with the liquid in anyway would be enough of a game for me.
But, I got tired of dealing with the Unreal engine. I am glad I took a weekend to learn Blueprints and get a C++ refresher, but the time it would take me to go farther with this project wouldnt be worth it.