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This VR Game Lets You Have That Dream Where You're Flying Whenever You Want

The virtual reality game Lucid Trips attempts to fuse VR, lucid dreaming, and psychedelic geocaching into a singular experience.
​Image: Lucid Trips

As virtual reality goes commercial, more attention is being directed to motion control, or haptic feedback, which can allow users to ​actually use their hands in a virtual world. Basically, without haptic feedback, VR is never going to feel ​all that real.

One solution that stands out is used by the virtual reality game Lucid Trips, which attempts to fuse VR, lucid dreaming, and psychedelic geocaching into a singular experience by allowing players to move via two-limbed avatars. Odd as it may look—and it should, as it's based on dream worlds—it's a simpler method of translating user motion into movement than trying to replicate your upright, bipedal gait.

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The game's co-designer Nico Uthe, a member of the German VR-Nerds collective, said that instead of waiting for infinite walking technology that virtually replicates walking, the team wanted the two-limbed avatars to be able to walk, crawl, climb, dive, jump, and glide or fly. This alternative approach to virtual locomotion clearly fits the game's lucid dreaming concept, but should also get game designers thinking of other varieties of movement.

"The locomotion concept of Lucid Trips has similarities with the movement of astronauts in outer space where there is no gravitation," Uthe said. "Imagine your body consisting only of hands, arms, chest and head, and your body hovers approximately one foot above the ground."

Lucid Trips creates this "part-body immersion" through inverse kinematics, a procedure which makes it possible to simulate the movement of a real arm with a virtual arm. This is done by using only position and rotation information of a single spot of the player's arm.

As noted on ​its website, Lucid Trips, which runs on Oculus Rift along with PlayStation Move controllers (PC-only for now), will come with a "complete hanger assembly and an Air-feedback device to simulate drag and thrust, which ultimately increases the awareness of an altered reality." In other words, the game, which can be played in a simple standing or sitting position, attempts to offer a method of movement that connects the virtual and real worlds—even if it's a bit unorthodox.

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None of this would be as fascinating if the Lucid Trips experience weren't poised to be dynamic. Uthe said that Lucid Trips is a mash-up of various game genres, from adventure games that feature exploration and puzzle-solving to first person shooters and skill and platform games that involve running, jumping, and flying. Sounds such as simulated wind for experiences like flying and experimental audio will also be used to enhance the game's sense of immersion.

Lucid Trips debuted in September at Play14, a creative gaming festival in Hamburg, Germany, where the designers are all based. Until the platform is ready for official release, VR-Nerds are taking the Lucid Trips show on the road, allowing people to experience its "extremes" in an experimental, non-commercial installation. With a special mounting, players can navigate worlds with motion controllers in a half-standing, slightly forward-leaning position, which the team said helps players feel immersed in a state of flying or gliding.

Exploration in Lucid Trips requires subtle control, and pushes players to challenge themselves in navigating the world. For instance, a player could climb a mountain with her avatar's motion-controlled limbs, then reward herself by using the earned height to skydive down and enjoy the view. On the way up, Uthe said there might be hurdles to master, puzzles to solve, or enemies to defeat.

What's also unique about Lucid Trips is that players will be encouraged to create their own customizable planets via two-handed motion control. As motion controllers hit the market, game players will be able hide artifacts, called Totems in the game, inspired by virtual geocaching, in which small treasures can be found by GPS data.

Players will also be able to confront nightmares and fears in certain areas or levels that are oppressive or scary. There will be no health meter, according to Uthe, and if a player gets hit, falls too hard, or gets harmed in some other way, they will not die but simply awaken from the dream. This might require the user to remove the VR headset, and then wait a bit to re-enter a lucid dream, which will of course be different from the last.

None of these worlds, Uthe noted, will be connected in any way. Lucid Trips is not an experience constructed with interlocking levels in mind. Instead, users will be able to upload and download individual worlds and experiences created via motion control, and share those dreams with others. It's an interesting look at how VR might hit the masses: As one ever-evolving, ever-stumbling trip to experience with the collective masses.