Oculus rift in brick background

Knightmare Meets Oculus Rift, Part 2

By David Goldstein

In Part 1, Knightmare fan Jamesuk told us about his quest to bring Knightmare to Oculus Rift. Here, he takes us through the dungeon rooms he's recreated from the first six series.


The Mills of Doom (Series 2-3)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the Mills of Doom
Rift view of the Mills of Doom

Dwarf tunnels (Series 3)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the Series 3 Dwarf Tunnels.
Rift view of the early dwarf tunnels

The Block and Tackle (Series 4)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the Block and Tackle.
Rift view of the Block and Tackle

Complete with original sound effects! I have also recreated the unique death sound that they only seemed to use for this room. You'll know it when you hear it. Like the original, contact with the blocks results in instant death as does falling down into the abyss.

I've coded it so as you're about to walk past one of the blocks on the right, there's a 1 in 4 chance that the block will move across your path. As a result, the somewhat unpredictable nature of this room is nicely preserved.

The Corridor of Blades (Series 4)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the Corridor of Blades
Rift view of the Corridor of Blades

And now the most infamous of Knightmare's areas! Looks darker in the rift.

With the HTC Vive and its room scale tracking, I imagine that it'll eventually be possible to physically move left and right to avoid the blades.

Basic causeway (Series 5)

A preview of the Oculus Rift view of a 'Fire, Earth, Water' causeway from Series 5.
Rift view of a standard causeway

The irregular aspect ratios of the images/video are down to the new implementation that the rift outputs when it's mirrored to the main screen. It looks perfectly fine in the Rift itself.

I split this one into several animations which allowed for easier control of the room. This one will respond appropriately to the player walking on the incorrect hexagons.

Unused number puzzle (Series 5)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the unused number puzzle from Series 5 credits
Rift view of the unused Series 5 puzzle

A recreation of the unused causeway from the credits of the final episode of Series 5 which is fully functional. Of all the rooms I've recreated, this one was easily the hardest yet as I had to create custom scripts that turn various room controlling script objects on and off as the player walks over the appropriate triggers. It was obviously made harder still as no dungeoneer ever set foot in this room which made it much more difficult to understand how it would flow.

It's not entirely clear how this room would've worked although I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you would follow multiples of 7. Even with that in mind, it still doesn't explain why the doors seemingly open and close with no rhyme or reason. With this in mind, I've created a causeway sequence that falls in line with the original progression of the animation like this: 14-21-42-56-42-14-21-63-21.

I'll probably add an extra trigger to close the door if the player tries to exit the room too soon. Standing on one of the wrong blocks for too long results in death.

The Great Causeway (Series 6)

Preview of an Oculus Rift view of the Great Causeway (Series 6)
Rift view of the Great Causeway, Part 1

The second part of the Great Causeway as viewed through the Oculus Rift.
Rift view of the Great Causeway, Part 2

Anyone familiar with the winning quest of Series 6 will recognise this causeway.

Links to all the videos and images so far can be found in James's forum thread, where you can also leave feedback if you like what you see.

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One of the clearings from Wolfglade, a settlement from Level 1 of Series 5 in Knightmare.

Wolfglade was a forest area that teams encountered in the early stages of the quest during Series 5.

Bell and Bridge

The alternative bell/bridge entry room from Series 1 and 2 of Knightmare.

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See Also