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Breakfast at Sulani
EnkiSchmidt
Posts: 5,358 Member
Remember the VR goggles sim could wear in Sims 3? They raised fun, but in the end were more fun for the sims than for the player. So today I proudly present the storytelling version of VR goggles!
The general idea here is to let sims experience worlds they couldn’t normally. It works better in semi-realistic saves, where travel times and distance between worlds matter. A sim who owns VR goggles can circumvent those limitations to some degree and here’s how:
Let’s meet the Millers, a young couple with an infant and a household android. They live in a starter apartment in the middle of winter and really want to have breakfast at Sulani, but, alas, they have to work today. Can’t be helped, right? No Sulani for you. WRONG!
For the Millers are proud owners of cheap, but serviceable VR goggles.
I’m using cc here, but really any of the futuristic looking glasses or helmets works. I’m partial towards the ones from the computer engineer career track myself (Susam Miller is working in that career).
With the goggles on, my sims think they are at Sulani, so I let them travel there:
Note how their relative positions to each other didn’t change – I did that specifically for the screenshot.
The bread is the same they had in San Myshuno, I put that into their inventories before traveling. After all, the illusion is visual only, they still touch whatever they touched in the apartment. Soon as they have finished eating, the sims can travel back to the apartment and get ready for work.
From this point on the player needs to be aware of how far a sim can move. Did they don their VR goggles in San Myshuno central park? In this case they can roam a wide range in the illusion, naturally. Are the sitting on the sofa in their apartment? Then they can only sit in the VR world, too.
I played around this idea with cheats and teleported Timothy into the picnic table:
If you look at the first screenshot again, you’ll see that their kitchen table is a two seater only, so in reality Tim stands next to the table. In the VR world it looks as if he stands right inside it.
I took another screenshot that shows the Millers zoom the landscape from here:
To there:
The teleport cheat is actually a very realistic way of moving sims around in the illusion.
Other examples of how to circumvent movement restrictions:
Sim owns a treadmill -> they can jog in the other world
Sims on a cc exercise bike -> they can bike in the other world
Can sims firedance in VR Sulani? Of course!
In the real world Tim is probably holding two table spoons and the fire isn’t hot. But his body really dances, so the dance skill he gains from this interaction is deserved.
Susan and Chris “cloudgazing” is probably quite uncomfortable, because in the real world they’d lie on their apartment floor. Placing down some carpets in the apartment would go a long way towards immersion.
Can they build sandcastles?
Uh… Tim is probably whirling dust around in the apartment. He doesn't feel the sand in his hands, but the VR game picks up his gestures and creates the illusion of a sandcastle. It's all smoke and mirrors.
Can they swim in Sulani ?
NO!
They could, however, relax on the bed while in the VR world they think they are lying on a pool floatie.
Can the sims takes selfies in the VR world and hang them on their wall in the real world?
Sure! Software is advanced, the games totally can do that.
What about meeting other sims?
I headcanon my VR as either single or multiplayer. For singleplayer I just don’t let my sims interact with others and move the camera so that no other sims are in line of sight.
In multiplayer my sims wear costumes and may interact with other sims. Relationships will be retained in the real world, and you never know when that acquaintance you met in VR Oasis Springs might be The One to invite you to Romance Festival.
In fact, my current sims story deals with a similar case of five sims playing a game together in cyberspace, without ever having met in real life: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/DetroitsimsVR/chrono
The general idea here is to let sims experience worlds they couldn’t normally. It works better in semi-realistic saves, where travel times and distance between worlds matter. A sim who owns VR goggles can circumvent those limitations to some degree and here’s how:
Let’s meet the Millers, a young couple with an infant and a household android. They live in a starter apartment in the middle of winter and really want to have breakfast at Sulani, but, alas, they have to work today. Can’t be helped, right? No Sulani for you. WRONG!
For the Millers are proud owners of cheap, but serviceable VR goggles.
I’m using cc here, but really any of the futuristic looking glasses or helmets works. I’m partial towards the ones from the computer engineer career track myself (Susam Miller is working in that career).
With the goggles on, my sims think they are at Sulani, so I let them travel there:
Note how their relative positions to each other didn’t change – I did that specifically for the screenshot.
The bread is the same they had in San Myshuno, I put that into their inventories before traveling. After all, the illusion is visual only, they still touch whatever they touched in the apartment. Soon as they have finished eating, the sims can travel back to the apartment and get ready for work.
From this point on the player needs to be aware of how far a sim can move. Did they don their VR goggles in San Myshuno central park? In this case they can roam a wide range in the illusion, naturally. Are the sitting on the sofa in their apartment? Then they can only sit in the VR world, too.
I played around this idea with cheats and teleported Timothy into the picnic table:
If you look at the first screenshot again, you’ll see that their kitchen table is a two seater only, so in reality Tim stands next to the table. In the VR world it looks as if he stands right inside it.
I took another screenshot that shows the Millers zoom the landscape from here:
To there:
The teleport cheat is actually a very realistic way of moving sims around in the illusion.
Other examples of how to circumvent movement restrictions:
Sim owns a treadmill -> they can jog in the other world
Sims on a cc exercise bike -> they can bike in the other world
Can sims firedance in VR Sulani? Of course!
In the real world Tim is probably holding two table spoons and the fire isn’t hot. But his body really dances, so the dance skill he gains from this interaction is deserved.
Susan and Chris “cloudgazing” is probably quite uncomfortable, because in the real world they’d lie on their apartment floor. Placing down some carpets in the apartment would go a long way towards immersion.
Can they build sandcastles?
Uh… Tim is probably whirling dust around in the apartment. He doesn't feel the sand in his hands, but the VR game picks up his gestures and creates the illusion of a sandcastle. It's all smoke and mirrors.
Can they swim in Sulani ?
NO!
They could, however, relax on the bed while in the VR world they think they are lying on a pool floatie.
Can the sims takes selfies in the VR world and hang them on their wall in the real world?
Sure! Software is advanced, the games totally can do that.
What about meeting other sims?
I headcanon my VR as either single or multiplayer. For singleplayer I just don’t let my sims interact with others and move the camera so that no other sims are in line of sight.
In multiplayer my sims wear costumes and may interact with other sims. Relationships will be retained in the real world, and you never know when that acquaintance you met in VR Oasis Springs might be The One to invite you to Romance Festival.
In fact, my current sims story deals with a similar case of five sims playing a game together in cyberspace, without ever having met in real life: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/DetroitsimsVR/chrono
Currently playing: Castaway Challenge
Post edited by EA_Cade on
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Comments
Good idea, I'll keep that in mind for a public venue. Maybe a cinema upstairs so that visitors have something to do and the VR experience gateway downstairs.
Technically they're doing exactly that, going there and having breakfast, only with added steps