ISO: Mario Kart on a (Real) Bike in VR.

December 12, 2024 1:39 PM

Ok I figured out what my son would like for Christmas. We have a Meta Quest 3 VR headset. He has a bike. I want to put the bike on a trainer. Put the headset on him and have him ride in VR on some super fun adventure or race. Think Mario Kart on a bike. Presumably this would require attaching a cadence sensor to the bike or some such. Please tell me about anything along these lines that exists or could be jury-rigged. Or, please create a start-up and launch your Kickstarter to ship by Christmas.
posted by If only I had a penguin... to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

The term you want to search for is "smart trainer". I did a quick search and there aren't any specifically for kids, but there are some adaptable enough for kid sized bike wheels.
It's a great idea to tie a smart trainer to gaming, VR or not, but it doesn't look like anyone has done it yet. If WiFit had continued to evolve this may have happened.
Zwift is a neat virtual world that exists for cyclists. It's got lot of interesting things to see as you ride, and there are races, but it's not designed for "quests", and the races are "competitive".
If there are cyclists in the family who might also benefit from having it, it might be worth the investment. It would probably be fine in a vr headset, but I don't think the camera pov would move like a gaming world would, so it would be the same as viewing it on a flat screen.
Great idea for a Kickstarter project!
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:03 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

Closest thing I know of is this. This looks like a hardware/software combo; not sure if you can get just the software.
posted by adamrice at 2:03 PM on December 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

How old / big is your son?
posted by synecdoche at 3:29 PM on December 12, 2024

Holofit might work.
posted by music for skeletons at 3:47 PM on December 12, 2024

I agree with Holofit, that's the one I settled on for now. If your kid is old enough, he can try making his own game in Unity. Buy him a low poly asset pack or two to start with. Not sure what's needed to read the cadence gizmo, think it would be a Bluetooth extention.
posted by Sophont at 4:06 PM on December 12, 2024

Dolphin-Emu is an open source Gamecube/Wii/Wii Uand someone has created an edition with support for VR headsets: Dolphin VR. More details on the r/Dolphin_VR subreddit.
posted by k3ninho at 5:09 AM on December 13, 2024