The racing simulator at GameLab has gained a fourth dimension! Drive fast enough and you can feel the wind in your hair, thanks to a smart fan mounted on the steering wheel. Students from Innovative Development installed this upgrade as part of their Manage Knowledge Outreach (MKO) assignment.
The student group configured and connected both the hardware and the software. For enthusiasts: a Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm fan was connected to an Arduino Uno Rev3 and Arduino Motor Shield Rev3. The result can be experienced in Assetto Corsa. Press the accelerator harder and, alongside force feedback, you now feel the sensation of speed through wind from the fan. But that was not all.
I asked Kawish, one of the team members, what made the assignment so challenging: "The extra requirements we set ourselves. Examples included getting the VR headset to work with the game and adding AI traffic on a free-roam map in Japan." He continued: "Making a fan work with the game to simulate wind speed based on driving speed was new to us too."
Racing simulator with upgrades
The project was carried out alongside other study commitments, with the team visiting the lab in short sessions to test on the live simulator. In the MKO module, students are expected to approach and solve a challenge systematically. In this case, the requested upgrade to GameLab's racing simulator. An excellent achievement by this team!
Anyone wanting to try the upgraded simulator at GameLab is very welcome.
