Many simulator-style games have their own dedicated controllers, from racing sims with pedals, steering wheels, and shifters to flight sims which have their own joysticks and sometimes entire cockpits. But for how prevalent riding horses is in a wide array of video games from Red Dead Redemption to Zelda to The Witcher we’re not sure we’ve ever seen a controller built specifically for riding virtual horses, at least not until [Squalius] built this horse riding controller.
[Squalius] has been working through a few prototypes of his OpenRidingController and has a fairly complete riding setup now, complete with reins and stirrups for controlling one’s in-game companions. The reins are attached to infrared distance sensors which can send analog signals to the game for controlling steering, and are attached to each other through an elastic band to provide a more realistic feeling when both are pulled to ask the horse to stop. The stirrups can be pulled to tell the horse to move at various speeds, and although a horse doesn’t need to be commanded to jump in real life, this controller provides a method for jumping an in-game horse as well.
Although we’ve mentioned a few games famous for using horses already, [Squalius] also added a handheld joystick to enable his controller to be used in less-conventional games like Minecraft where the player can use a mod to add a horse, and has also used his controller to play DOOM as well. As its name suggests it’s also open source and the code for it is all available on the project’s GitHub page. It’s a type of controller we didn’t realize we were missing until now, and perhaps we would have expected to see one before something like a controller meant for a virtual trombone.
Thanks to [Keith] for the tip!
Equestria is where I’m from
It would be nice if the horse maintained or slowly dropped speed. Kicking would speed it up and pulling both reins would slow it down. Stirrups could be used for force feedback /galloping feeling. More like a real horse.
I definitely like the idea of force feedback! For both horse and rider. If the chair rocked a little it might even be calming. The horse in RDR2/Online was both source of joy and pain. Often it would lead to my demise when it panicked and I fell off. If i recall correctly it doesn’t like predators and snakes much, and the game has a nasty biome with gators when you reach the swamps. The inputs really suit VR games. I call it equine therapy, just hug your horse and feed it from hand like ingame.
It would be nice if the horse kept or slowly decreased it’s speed and you kicked it to increase the speed and pulled on both reins to decrease the speed, more like a real horse. The stirrups could be used for force feedback.
this might be better when combined with a modified mechanical bull chassis.
The horse having hall of fame and museum in Saratoga Springs NY has a fully functioning horse racing simulator where you get to be the jockey. When I was way younger and still racing bicycles and quite fit, that thing absolutely dominated me for a simulated normal distance race. In furlongs. Ha. Those jockeys are incredible athletes. And insane too. That sport is crazy.