Last month, a YouTuber named 马鹿Blyat (roughly meaning Red Deer Blyat) uploaded a video of his "Drift simulator" project to YouTube. The sim project features a moving platform with wheels that careens wildly as the user drives, but it also has somewhat violent mechanisms that simulate crashes with realistic effects, such as an 'ejection seat' that throws the player to the ground during a crash.
The project has since gone viral on Twitter and other platforms, particularly this week, albeit usually without attribution (you can see the video below). Tracking down the source of the unexpected viral content of a racing simulator being played with full steering and crashing capabilities reveals a litany of similar videos and projects, such as adding recoil to mice and controllers, so this is actually just his newest project.
Of these projects so far, though, this one certainly seems the most dangerous. While the laptop and TVs/monitors used to make it work seem to be at least protected, the machine's design includes a tilting seat that ejects the player onto the floor in the event of a crash. Even if you could duplicate this at home, there's really almost no reason you should want to, especially if you have any concerns about your health and safety.
Aside from the dramatic increase in overall bodily risk, this project is really cool. With enough empty space, the drift simulator functions as intended while providing tons of realistic force feedback. Some of the flashing lights are probably overkill and very immersion-breaking, but the overall idea of adding more convincing motion and momentum to the driving sim experience isn't actually that bad. Risky, yes, but it looks quite fun and like it works as intended— design intentions, in this case, just happen to include being ejected from the seat for crashing or swerving too hard.
In any case, I'm just happy to see more creative approaches taken to immersion in video games. At long last, we have an immersive way of play that's even more painful than the Assassin's Creed haptic vest that stabs you. Now, we have a driving simulator setup tested with Need For Speed Unbound that can actually crash or throw you out of your vehicle.
