MR Train

• 

  MRRailways

Inspiration

Childhood memories inspired me; I always loved model trains and the world of model railways. Mixed Reality allows us to bring this experience to life in our own rooms, but with virtual locomotives and railways. I hope that all railway enthusiasts, both children and adults alike, will enjoy this game or experience, as the two have been inseparable from the very beginning.

What it does

With the game, you can control virtual trains on pre-made terrain tables or create a new table in your own room. Although the game is currently sandbox-style, I plan to add several mini-games and missions.

How we built it

I used Unreal Engine 5.5 and the provided toolkits (e.g. MR Utility Kit). For the content, I used the AssetVille packs and the Train Controller. For the performant parts, I used C++ code, but the main code was done using Blueprints.

Challenges we ran into

The main problem is not the lack of ideas, but the limitations of the Quest 3 hardware, so optimisation is a big part of the work to ensure that it runs stably at the expected speed. I really hope that with the help of Unreal 5.5 and the Mixed Reality Utility Toolkit, I will be able to achieve this and realise my ideas.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Acceptable performance (but still needs to make it better), loaded tables (sub-levels) attached to anchor, UIs with stereo layers, optimisation, and a flexible railroad editing system for premade tables.

What we learned

Limit your fantasy to hardware reality (but don't give up the ideas). Development for the MR/passthrough platforms isn't easy, full of challenges, but the experience is worth the work. A complete understanding of measurement options (OVRToolkit, Unreal Insights) is a "must to have".

What's next for MR Train

First, I would like to add a complete rail editing feature for the player. For this, I need to add a fast procedural mesh generator for tracks. Creating more premade tables with multi-track railways, making more space to get an enjoyable strategy game. The player can transfer resources and upgrade locomotives, wagons and buildings from the collected income. For kids, I plan more minigames like repairing trains or cleaning the tracks before the train arrives.

Built With

• c++
• mruk
• openxr
• unreal-engine