VR Drums

Oculus Rift DK2 and drums: a midi proof of concept

Our virtual reality (VR) drums project “Adhesive drums” spawned from a desire to make a Midi instrument truly interactive and controlled with midi drums through VR. We explored the three main tools available at the time, Unity, Blueprint and Unreal Engine.

We quickly realised it would be best achieved through Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). UE4 supports stunningly visual immersive and interactive experiences – this is key to creating a memorable VR experience, and important to us as our focus and ethos is  centered on delivering stunning CG animations.

Using our Oculus Rift DK2 and a Yamaha DTX700K to drive the experience, we designed and built an interactive virtual reality drumming game. The drummer controls our 3d head which is constructed of musical instruments. Each drum trigger controls an instrument on our Adhesive head. All this in outer space, naturally.

Once mapped, our Adhesive head can be controlled with any midi instrument with even standard input devices. We’re now looking around for the next instrument we can rig..