BMW Games Reality With A Virtual Driving Game On A Real Track, In A Real Car - Forbes

Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany: BMW’s boffins person turned the M2 mini-muscle car into the champion gaming simulator successful the world, with the M Mixed Reality virtual world system.

BMW has efficaciously created a virtual-reality crippled you tin play portion really driving the M2.

Drivers deterioration the latest-generation Virtual Reality goggles to thrust the M2 astir a virtual racetrack, portion picking up coins and avoiding virtual obstacles, each portion really hammering the BMW M2 astir a track.

Unlike immoderate SIM games, there’s nary nausea due to the fact that the car’s movements are minutely copied successful the M Mixed Reality game, though BMW carries sick bags successful the M2. Just successful case.

Developed with Epic Games and shown arsenic a conception astatine the 2022 Web Summit successful Lisbon this year, the M Mixed Reality efficaciously turns the M2 into the crippled controller, elevating SIMs to a full caller level.

Of course, the strategy needs a strictly controlled area, similar the ex-German subject airfield astatine Fürstenfeldbruck, truthful the M2 doesn’t person thing to hit.

“Anyone who asks what virtual experiences successful the automotive assemblage mightiness look similar successful future: That is the answer,” BMW M CEO Frank van Meel said.

“People indispensable beryllium capable to acquisition this caller feeling and with M Mixed Reality, we connection them a suitable solution for this.

“At BMW M, we person ever been investigating the limits of what is technically feasible and thus, among different things, laying the instauration for caller immersive experiences,” helium said.

The “Driving” Experience

The achromatic BMW M2 looks similar immoderate different track-spec M2 arsenic you attack it. It runs modular brakes and roadworthy tyres and has lairy vinyl stickers each implicit it, and it takes a 2nd look to spot the four-point harnesses and other hardware inside.

The M2 has a forward-facing camera arsenic modular equipment, but M and Epic Games person tapped into this and built connected it, with much cameras everywhere.

The hardware is simply a Art Smarttrack strategy attached by suction cups to the windscreen, with stereo cameras to way the driver’s caput movement, combined with a seven-camera Art Vix R3T3 VR headset.

The hardware is wired into the car, truthful each the driver’s ain inputs go the game’s inputs.

And conscionable similar that, the headset is switched connected and the daytime country astatine a acold German airfield becomes nighttime clip successful what looks similar a Japanese city.

Everywhere you look, determination is the cleanable simulation of a neon-rich metropolis afloat of skyscrapers and bridges, and my co-driver (who has his ain exigency brake pedal, and nary VR headset) tells maine to determination successful to the commencement gate.

And determination is an existent commencement gate, which is geofenced, with the show showing precisely wherever to go, and past it gives a countdown and helium tells maine to onslaught a timed lap.

It’s a leap of religion to expect the lit-up racetrack successful beforehand of you, implicit with red-and-white ripple strips and armco, to beryllium determination erstwhile you get there.

It’s different leap of religion to expect the elongated figure-eight way to support you connected the existent airfield tarmac, but BMW assures maine it has each been mapped accurately.

Turns out, it has.

Given that this is precise overmuch a “damage on” game, we easiness retired connected our archetypal lap, and it’s already amazing.

Every clip you tilt your head, the crippled reacts and the imaginativeness reacts, wrong milliseconds. It’s adjacent capable that the nausea-inducing parts of your encephalon don’t announcement the difference.

It’s besides accurate. The ripple strips are there. You consciousness them done the steering instrumentality and the suspension.

The ripple strips are, actually, truthful overmuch there that cipher dares effort retired the armco barriers.

Then determination are the coins. They determination astir and the much you collect, similar successful truthful galore games earlier it, the much seconds you slash disconnected your thigh time.

BMW combines this with a bid of obstruction gates, and 1 of them flashes reddish astatine the past instant, forcing you to flick the M2 into the different one, adjacent arsenic you hole the car for the bends.

Sighter thigh done, and we onslaught the adjacent thigh from the start, with afloat wheelspin that, actually, feels similar an M2 with afloat wheelspin, and it whips done the quicker bends, dinging the coins into the virtual wallet much rapidly now.

The airfield is truthful slippery that it takes a afloat brake stomp to propulsion it down from 140km/h to marque the choky hairpin astatine the apical of the circuit, and past we’re flicking near to close to marque the “windows” earlier the full-throttle crossover portion of the figure-of-eight.

And past we propulsion up successful the box, cheque the clip and instrumentality disconnected the headset, somewhat successful daze that this full thing, actually, works.

It feels similar the benignant of happening wherever a batch of things could spell wrong, and you can’t assistance imagining the looks connected the faces of the security radical erstwhile BMW suggested it.

It’s brilliant.

Real-world applications

Besides showing disconnected however acold gaming has come, and that the VR nausea problems tin beryllium overcome, BMW plans to usage the M Mixed Reality strategy successful operator training, archetypal and foremost.

The days of mounting retired roadworthy cones and hosing down tracks could beryllium coming to a adjacent astatine BMW’s operator grooming days.

It tin simply get astatine immoderate racetrack oregon airstrip oregon adjacent deserted buying centre car parkland and representation it, past click connected immoderate gaming script fits into the carnal reality.

From there, it tin randomly popular up with hazards to beryllium avoided, oregon it tin support coming up with the close benignant of country to lucifer the lessons being taught to its drivers.

And there’s thing to hit, thing to harm the cars and thing to harm its drivers.

And it tin simulate immoderate situation, truthful it’s besides utile for BMW’s ain developers to fig retired country cases for its driver-assistance systems and looming Level 3 self-driving systems.

The in-car hardware is akin to what it uses successful testing, portion the headset is akin to what BMW’s engineers and designers usage erstwhile they’re processing cars, truthful there’s thing weird for the BMW purchasing radical to motion disconnected on.

Right now, they’re talking astir about “more than US$10,000” a car, but that terms is coming down each the time, particularly due to the fact that it’s prototype gaming software.

But it could beryllium a batch cheaper successful adjacent a tiny accumulation run.